Critical velocity ionisation in substellar atmospheres

The observation of radio, X-ray and Hα emission from substellar objects indicates the presence of plasma regions and associated high-energy processes in their surrounding envelopes. This paper numerically simulates and characterises Critical Velocity Ionisation, a potential ionisation process, that can efficiently generate plasma as a result of neutral gas flows interacting with seed magnetized plasmas. By coupling a Gas-MHD interactions code (to simulate the ionisation mechanism) with a substellar global circulation model (to provide the required gas flows) we quantify the spatial extent of the resulting plasma regions, their degree of ionisation and their lifetime for a typical substellar atmosphere. It is found that the typical average ionisation fraction reached at equilibrium (where the ionisation and recombination rates are equal and opposite) ranges from 10-5 to 10-8, at pressures between 10-1 and 10-3 bar, with a trend of increasing ionisation fraction with decreasing atmospheric pressure. The ionisation fractions reached as a result of Critical Velocity Ionisation are sufficient to allow magnetic fields to couple to gas flows in the atmosphere

Vacuum Energy: Myths and Reality

We discuss the main myths related to the vacuum energy and cosmological constant, such as: ``unbearable lightness of space-time''; the dominating contribution of zero point energy of quantum fields to the vacuum energy; non-zero vacuum energy of the false vacuum; dependence of the vacuum energy on the overall shift of energy; the absolute value of energy only has significance for gravity; the vacuum energy depends on the vacuum content; cosmological constant changes after the phase transition; zero-point energy of the vacuum between the plates in Casimir effect must gravitate, that is why the zero-point energy in the vacuum outside the plates must also gravitate; etc. All these and some other conjectures appear to be wrong when one considers the thermodynamics of the ground state of the quantum many-body system, which mimics macroscopic thermodynamics of quantum vacuum. In particular, in spite of the ultraviolet divergence of the zero-point energy, the natural value of the vacuum energy is comparable with the observed dark energy. That is why the vacuum energy is the plausible candidate for the dark energy.Comment: 24 pages, 2 figures, submitted to the special issue of Int. J. Mod. Phys. devoted to dark energy and dark matter, IJMP styl

Dynamics of Metal Centers Monitored by Nuclear Inelastic Scattering

Nuclear inelastic scattering of synchrotron radiation has been used now since 10 years as a tool for vibrational spectroscopy. This method has turned out especially useful in case of large molecules that contain a M\"ossbauer active metal center. Recent applications to iron-sulfur proteins, to iron(II) spin crossover complexes and to tin-DNA complexes are discussed. Special emphasis is given to the combination of nuclear inelastic scattering and density functional calculations

The establishment of a future NESP dredging research investment framework: NESP TWQ Hub Project 1.9

The purpose of this project was to conduct a facilitated workshop with key researchers and stakeholders to establish priorities for future research investment of the NESP Tropical Water Quality Hub (NESP TWQ) into dredging and disposal of dredged sediments in the GBR. A recent independent review of potential impacts of dredging on the biological values of the Great Barrier Reef (GBR) identified a number of key knowledge gaps that need to be addressed to improve management of dredging1 activities. That review, together with the findings of the currently underway dredging science node of the Western Australian Marine Institution (WAMSI), informed the subsequent prioritisation of research topics to address the most important knowledge gaps

Magneto-Acoustic Spectroscopy in Superfluid 3He-B

We have used the recently discovered acoustic Faraday effect in superfluid 3He to perform high resolution spectroscopy of an excited state of the superfluid condensate. With acoustic cavity interferometry we measure the rotation of the plane of polarization of a transverse sound wave propagating in the direction of magnetic field from which we determine the Zeeman energy of the excited state. We interpret the Lande g-factor, combined with the zero-field energies of the state, using the theory of Sauls and Serene to calculate the strength of f -wave interactions in 3He.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figures, submitted to PRL, Aug 30th, 200

Three-dimensional atmospheric circulation of hot Jupiters on highly eccentric orbits

Of the over 800 exoplanets detected to date, over half are on non-circular orbits, with eccentricities as high as 0.93. Such orbits lead to time-variable stellar heating, which has implications for the planet's atmospheric dynamical regime. However, little is known about this dynamical regime, and how it may influence observations. Therefore, we present a systematic study of hot Jupiters on highly eccentric orbits using the SPARC/MITgcm, a model which couples a three-dimensional general circulation model with a plane-parallel, two-stream, non-grey radiative transfer model. In our study, we vary the eccentricity and orbit-average stellar flux over a wide range. We demonstrate that the eccentric hot Jupiter regime is qualitatively similar to that of planets on circular orbits; the planets possess a superrotating equatorial jet and exhibit large day-night temperature variations. We show that these day-night heating variations induce momentum fluxes equatorward to maintain the superrotating jet throughout its orbit. As the eccentricity and/or stellar flux is increased, the superrotating jet strengthens and narrows, due to a smaller Rossby deformation radius. For a select number of model integrations, we generate full-orbit lightcurves and find that the timing of transit and secondary eclipse viewed from Earth with respect to periapse and apoapse can greatly affect what we see in infrared (IR) lightcurves; the peak in IR flux can lead or lag secondary eclipse depending on the geometry. For those planets that have large day-night temperature variations and rapid rotation rates, we find that the lightcurves exhibit "ringing" as the planet's hottest region rotates in and out of view from Earth. These results can be used to explain future observations of eccentric transiting exoplanets.Comment: 20 pages, 18 figures, 2 tables; Accepted to Ap

Incorporating next-to-leading order matrix elements for hadronic diboson production in showering event generators

A method for incorporating information from next-to-leading order QCD matrix elements for hadronic diboson production into showering event generators is presented. In the hard central region (high jet transverse momentum) where perturbative QCD is reliable, events are sampled according to the first order tree level matrix element. In the soft and collinear regions next-to-leading order corrections are approximated by calculating the differential cross section across the phase space accessible to the parton shower using the first order (virtual graphs included) matrix element. The parton shower then provides an all-orders exclusive description of parton emissions. Events generated in this way provide a physical result across the entire jet transverse momentum spectrum, have next-to-leading order normalization everywhere, and have positive definite event weights. The method is generalizable without modification to any color singlet production process.Comment: 13 pages, 9 figure

The efficiency of star formation in clustered and distributed regions

We investigate the formation of both clustered and distributed populations of young stars in a single molecular cloud. We present a numerical simulation of a 10,000 solar mass elongated, turbulent, molecular cloud and the formation of over 2500 stars. The stars form both in stellar clusters and in a distributed mode which is determined by the local gravitational binding of the cloud. A density gradient along the major axis of the cloud produces bound regions that form stellar clusters and unbound regions that form a more distributed population. The initial mass function also depends on the local gravitational binding of the cloud with bound regions forming full IMFs whereas in the unbound, distributed regions the stellar masses cluster around the local Jeans mass and lack both the high-mass and the low-mass stars. The overall efficiency of star formation is ~ 15 % in the cloud when the calculation is terminated, but varies from less than 1 % in the the regions of distributed star formation to ~ 40 % in regions containing large stellar clusters. Considering that large scale surveys are likely to catch clouds at all evolutionary stages, estimates of the (time-averaged) star formation efficiency for the giant molecular cloud reported here is only ~ 4 %. This would lead to the erroneous conclusion of 'slow' star formation when in fact it is occurring on a dynamical timescale.Comment: 9 pages, 8 figures, MNRAS in pres

Magnetic phase transitions in Gd64Sc36 studied using non-contact ultrasonics

The speed and attenuation of ultrasound propagation can be used to determine material properties and identify phase transitions. Standard ultrasonic contact techniques are not always convenient due to the necessity of using couplant; however, recently reliable non-contact ultrasonic techniques involving electromagnetic generation and detection of ultrasound with electromagnetic acoustic transducers (EMATs) have been developed for use on electrically conducting and/or magnetic materials. We present a detailed study of magnetic phase transitions in a single crystal sample of Gd64Sc36 magnetic alloy using contact and non-contact ultrasonic techniques for two orientations of external magnetic field. Phase diagrams are constructed based on measurements of elastic constant C33, the attenuation and the efficiency of generation when using an EMAT. The EMATs are shown to provide additional information related to the magnetic phase transitions in the studied sample, and results identify a conical helix phase in Gd64Sc36 in the magnetic field orientation