Thermal structure of hot non-flaring corona from Hinode/EIS

In previous studies a very hot plasma component has been diagnosed in solar active regions through the images in three different narrow-band channels of SDO/AIA. This diagnostic from EUV imaging data has also been supported by the matching morphology of the emission in the hot Ca XVII line, as observed with Hinode/EIS. This evidence is debated because of unknown distribution of the emission measure along the line of sight. Here we investigate in detail the thermal distribution of one of such regions using EUV spectroscopic data. In an active region observed with SDO/AIA, Hinode/EIS and XRT, we select a subregion with a very hot plasma component and another cooler one for comparison. The average spectrum is extracted for both, and 14 intense lines are selected for analysis, that probe the 5.5 < log T < 7 temperature range uniformly. From these lines the emission measure distributions are reconstructed with the MCMC method. Results are cross-checked with comparison of the two subregions, with a different inversion method, with the morphology of the images, and with the addition of fluxes measured with from narrow and broad-band imagers. We find that, whereas the cool region has a flat and featureless distribution that drops at temperature log T >= 6.3, the distribution of the hot region shows a well-defined peak at log T = 6.6 and gradually decreasing trends on both sides, thus supporting the very hot nature of the hot component diagnosed with imagers. The other cross-checks are consistent with this result. This study provides a completion of the analysis of active region components, and the resulting scenario supports the presence of a minor very hot plasma component in the core, with temperatures log T > 6.6.Comment: 12 pages, 8 figures, accepted for publicatio

Activation of MHD reconnection on ideal timescales

Magnetic reconnection in laboratory, space and astrophysical plasmas is often invoked to explain explosive energy release and particle acceleration. However, the timescales involved in classical models within the macroscopic MHD regime are far too slow to match the observations. Here we revisit the tearing instability by performing visco-resistive two-dimensional numerical simulations of the evolution of thin current sheets, for a variety of initial configurations and of values of the Lunquist number $S$, up to $10^7$. Results confirm that when the critical aspect ratio of $S^{1/3}$ is reached in the reconnecting current sheets, the instability proceeds on ideal (Alfv\'enic) macroscopic timescales, as required to explain observations. Moreover, the same scaling is seen to apply also to the local, secondary reconnection events triggered during the nonlinear phase of the tearing instability, thus accelerating the cascading process to increasingly smaller spatial and temporal scales. The process appears to be robust, as the predicted scaling is measured both in inviscid simulations and when using a Prandtl number $P=1$ in the viscous regime.Comment: Accepted for publication in Plasma Physics and Controlled Fusio

Oceanic stochastic parametrizations in a seasonal forecast system

We study the impact of three stochastic parametrizations in the ocean component of a coupled model, on forecast reliability over seasonal timescales. The relative impacts of these schemes upon the ocean mean state and ensemble spread are analyzed. The oceanic variability induced by the atmospheric forcing of the coupled system is, in most regions, the major source of ensemble spread. The largest impact on spread and bias came from the Stochastically Perturbed Parametrization Tendency (SPPT) scheme - which has proven particularly effective in the atmosphere. The key regions affected are eddy-active regions, namely the western boundary currents and the Southern Ocean. However, unlike its impact in the atmosphere, SPPT in the ocean did not result in a significant decrease in forecast error. Whilst there are good grounds for implementing stochastic schemes in ocean models, our results suggest that they will have to be more sophisticated. Some suggestions for next-generation stochastic schemes are made.Comment: 24 pages, 3 figure

Oceanic stochastic parametrizations in a seasonal forecast system

We study the impact of three stochastic parametrizations in the ocean component of a coupled model, on forecast reliability over seasonal timescales. The relative impacts of these schemes upon the ocean mean state and ensemble spread are analyzed. The oceanic variability induced by the atmospheric forcing of the coupled system is, in most regions, the major source of ensemble spread. The largest impact on spread and bias came from the Stochastically Perturbed Parametrization Tendency (SPPT) scheme - which has proven particularly effective in the atmosphere. The key regions affected are eddy-active regions, namely the western boundary currents and the Southern Ocean. However, unlike its impact in the atmosphere, SPPT in the ocean did not result in a significant decrease in forecast error. Whilst there are good grounds for implementing stochastic schemes in ocean models, our results suggest that they will have to be more sophisticated. Some suggestions for next-generation stochastic schemes are made.Comment: 24 pages, 3 figure

On the importance of background subtraction in the analysis of coronal loops observed with TRACE

In the framework of TRACE coronal observations, we compare the analysis and diagnostics of a loop after subtracting the background with two different and independent methods. The dataset includes sequences of images in the 171 A, 195 A filter bands of TRACE. One background subtraction method consists in taking as background values those obtained from interpolation between concentric strips around the analyzed loop. The other method is a pixel-to-pixel subtraction of the final image when the loop had completely faded out, already used by Reale & Ciaravella 2006. We compare the emission distributions along the loop obtained with the two methods and find that they are considerably different. We find differences as well in the related derive filter ratio and temperature profiles. In particular, the pixel-to-pixel subtraction leads to coherent diagnostics of a cooling loop. With the other subtraction the diagnostics are much less clear. The background subtraction is a delicate issue in the analysis of a loop. The pixel-to-pixel subtraction appears to be more reliable, but its application is not always possible. Subtraction from interpolation between surrounding regions can produce higher systematic errors, because of intersecting structures and of the large amount of subtracted emission in TRACE observations.Comment: 9 pages, 9 figure

Implications of Food Subsistence for Monetary Policy and Inflation

The chapter introduces subsistence requirements in food consumption into a simple New Keynesian model with flexible food and sticky non-food prices. It shows how the endogenous structural transformation that results from subsistence affects the dynamics of the economy, the design of monetary policy, and the properties of inflation at different levels of development. A calibrated version of the model encompasses both rich and poor countries and broadly replicates the properties of inflation across the development spectrum, including the dominant role played by changes in the relative price of food in poor countries. The authors derive a welfare-based loss function for the monetary authority and show that optimal policy calls for complete (in some cases near-complete) stabilization of sticky-price non-food inflation, despite the presence of a food-subsistence threshold. Subsistence amplifies the welfare losses of policy mistakes, however, raising the stakes for monetary policy at earlier stages of development.</p

Primitive Variable Solvers for Conservative General Relativistic Magnetohydrodynamics

Conservative numerical schemes for general relativistic magnetohydrodynamics (GRMHD) require a method for transforming between ``conserved'' variables such as momentum and energy density and ``primitive'' variables such as rest-mass density, internal energy, and components of the four-velocity. The forward transformation (primitive to conserved) has a closed-form solution, but the inverse transformation (conserved to primitive) requires the solution of a set of five nonlinear equations. Here we discuss the mathematical properties of the inverse transformation and present six numerical methods for performing the inversion. The first method solves the full set of five nonlinear equations directly using a Newton-Raphson scheme and a guess from the previous timestep. The other methods reduce the five nonlinear equations to either one or two nonlinear equations that are solved numerically. Comparisons between the methods are made using a survey over phase space, a two-dimensional explosion problem, and a general relativistic MHD accretion disk simulation. The run-time of the methods is also examined. Code implementing the schemes is available for download on the web.Comment: Accepted to ApJ, 33 pages, 8 figures (color and greyscale), 1 machine-readable table (tab2.txt), code available at http://rainman.astro.uiuc.edu/codelib, a high-resolution and full-color PDF version is located at http://rainman.astro.uiuc.edu/codelib/codes/pvs_grmhd/ms.pd

Quantum control theory for coupled 2-electron dynamics in quantum dots

We investigate optimal control strategies for state to state transitions in a model of a quantum dot molecule containing two active strongly interacting electrons. The Schrodinger equation is solved nonperturbatively in conjunction with several quantum control strategies. This results in optimized electric pulses in the THz regime which can populate combinations of states with very short transition times. The speedup compared to intuitively constructed pulses is an order of magnitude. We furthermore make use of optimized pulse control in the simulation of an experimental preparation of the molecular quantum dot system. It is shown that exclusive population of certain excited states leads to a complete suppression of spin dephasing, as was indicated in Nepstad et al. [Phys. Rev. B 77, 125315 (2008)].Comment: 24 pages, 9 figure

Relativistic MHD Simulations of Jets with Toroidal Magnetic Fields

This paper presents an application of the recent relativistic HLLC approximate Riemann solver by Mignone & Bodo to magnetized flows with vanishing normal component of the magnetic field. The numerical scheme is validated in two dimensions by investigating the propagation of axisymmetric jets with toroidal magnetic fields. The selected jet models show that the HLLC solver yields sharper resolution of contact and shear waves and better convergence properties over the traditional HLL approach.Comment: 12 pages, 5 figure