On the local Tamagawa number conjecture for Tate motives over tamely ramified fields

The local Tamagawa number conjecure, first formulated by Fontaine and Perrin-Riou, expresses the compatibility of the (global) Tamagawa number conjecture on motivic $L$-functions with the functional equation. The local conjecture was proven for Tate motives over finite unramified extensions $K/\mathbb{Q}_p$ by Bloch and Kato. We use the theory of $(\phi, \Gamma_K)$-modules and a reciprocity law due to Cherbonnier and Colmez to provide a new proof in the case of unramified extensions, and to prove the conjecture for the motive $\mathbb{Q}_p(2)$ over certain tamely ramified extensions.Comment: 45 pages, LaTeX; extensive revisions and clarifications based on feedback; to appear in Algebra & Number Theor

Air-ground interface: Surface waves, surface impedance and acoustic-to-seismic coupling coefficient

In atmospheric acoustics, the subject of surface waves has been an area of discussion for many years. The existence of an acoustic surface wave is now well established theoretically. The mathematical solution for spherical wave propagation above an impedance boundary includes the possibility of a contribution that possesses all the standard properties for a surface wave. Surface waves exist when the surface is sufficiently porous, relative to its acoustical resistance, that it can influence the airborne particle velocity near the surface and reduce the phase velocity of sound waves in air at the surface. This traps some of the sound energy in the air to remain near the surface as it propagates. Above porous grounds, the existence of surface waves has eluded direct experimental confirmation (pulse experiments have failed to show a separate arrival expected from the reduced phase speed) and indirect evidence for its existence has appeared contradictory. The experimental evidence for the existence of an acoustical surface wave above porous boundaries is reviewed. Recent measurements including pulse experiments are also described. A few years ago the acoustic impedance of a grass-covered surface was measured in the frequency range 30 to 300 Hz. Here, further measurements on the same site are discussed. These measurements include core samples, a shallow refractive survey to determine the seismic velocities, and measurements of the acoustic-to-seismic coupling coefficient

Linear systems of rational curves on rational surfaces

Given a curve C on a projective nonsingular rational surface S, over an algebraically closed field of characteristic zero, we are interested in the set Omega_C of linear systems Lambda on S satisfying C is in Lambda, dim Lambda > 0, and the general member of Lambda is a rational curve. The main result of the paper gives a complete description of Omega_C and, in particular, characterizes the curves C for which Omega_C is non empty