Holocene fluctuations of neodymium isotope ratios in eastern Fram Strait sediments - An indication for deepwater variability?

EGU2012-11739 The Fram Strait as the only deep water connection of the world’s oceans to the Arctic plays a substantial role for the heat influx to the Arctic Ocean and controls freshening of the Nordic Seas through Arctic sea ice export. Large amounts of warm and saline Atlantic Water derived from the North Atlantic Drift transport most of the heat through eastern Fram Strait to the Arctic basin, resulting in year-round ice-free conditions. Arctic sea ice and cold and fresh waters exit the western part of the strait southward along the Greenland shelf. However, little is still known about the water mass transport at intermediate and bottom water depths in the Fram Strait. High-resolution Holocene sediment sequences from the Western Svalbard margin have been investigated for its neodymium isotope ratios stored in ferromanganese oxyhydroxide coatings of the sediment to derive information on the source of bottom seawater passing the site. The radiogenic isotope data are compared to a multitude of proxy indicators for the climatic and oceanographic variability in the eastern Fram Strait during the past 8,500 years. In order to obtain a calibration of the Nd isotope compositions extracted from sediments to modern bottom water mass signatures in the area, a set of core top and water samples from different water depths in the Fram Strait was additionally investigated for its present-day Nd isotope signatures. A significantly higher inflow of deepwater produced in the Nordic Seas to the core site is inferred for the earlier periods of the Holocene. Cooler surface water conditions and increased sea ice abundances during the late Holocene coincide with more radiogenic Nd isotope ratios likely resembling the neoglacial trend of the northern North Atlantic

Quasars, pulsars, black holes and HEAO's

Astronomical surveys are discussed by large X-ray, gamma ray, and cosmic ray instruments carried onboard high-energy astronomy observatories. Quasars, pulsars, black holes, and the ultimate benefits of the new astronomy are briefly discussed

Consistency of WIMP Dark Matter as radiative neutrino mass messenger

The scotogenic scenario provides an attractive approach to both Dark Matter and neutrino mass generation, in which the same symmetry that stabilises Dark Matter also ensures the radiative seesaw origin of neutrino mass. However the simplest scenario may suffer from inconsistencies arising from the spontaneous breaking of the underlying $\mathbb{Z}_2$ symmetry. Here we show that the singlet-triplet extension of the simplest model naturally avoids this problem due to the presence of scalar triplets neutral under the $\mathbb{Z}_2$ which affect the evolution of the couplings in the scalar sector. The scenario offers good prospects for direct WIMP Dark Matter detection through the nuclear recoil method.Comment: 16 pages, 7 figure

Detecting multi-atomic composite states in optical lattices

We propose and discuss methods for detecting quasi-molecular complexes which are expected to form in strongly interacting optical lattice systems. Particular emphasis is placed on the detection of composite fermions forming in Bose-Fermi mixtures. We argue that, as an indirect indication of the composite fermions and a generic consequence of strong interactions, periodic correlations must appear in the atom shot noise of bosonic absorption images, similar to the bosonic Mott insulator [S. F\"olling, et al., Nature {\bf 434}, 481 (2005)]. The composites can also be detected directly and their quasi-momentum distribution measured. This method -- an extension of the technique of noise correlation interferometry [E. Altman et al., Phys. Rev. A {\bf 79}, 013603 (2004)] -- relies on measuring higher order correlations between the bosonic and fermionic shot noise in the absorption images. However, it fails for complexes consisting of more than three atoms.Comment: 9 revtex page

Solar Hydrogen Generation from Lignocellulose.

Photocatalytic reforming of lignocellulosic biomass is an emerging approach to produce renewable H2 . This process combines photo-oxidation of aqueous biomass with photocatalytic hydrogen evolution at ambient temperature and pressure. Biomass conversion is less energy demanding than water splitting and generates high-purity H2 without O2 production. Direct photoreforming of raw, unprocessed biomass has the potential to provide affordable and clean energy from locally sourced materials and waste