31,791 research outputs found
Summertime ozone at Mount Washington: Meteorological controls at the highest peak in the northeast
This study examined the synoptic and regional-scale meteorological controls on summertime O3 at Mount Washington, the highest peak (1910 m) in the northeastern United States. Analysis of air mass transport to Mount Washington was conducted for the summers of 1998â2003 using backward trajectories. Distinct patterns in air mass history were revealed using this approach that helped explain extreme variations in O3 mixing ratios. Most enhanced (â„90th percentile) and depleted (â€10th percentile) O3 events were short-lived and spread out over the summer months. Enhanced O3 events at Mount Washington were generally associated with westerly transport, while depleted events corresponded to northwesterly transport. Periods of O3 greater than 80 ppbv during nighttime periods coincided with westerly (71%) and southwesterly (29%) transport. Periods of elevated O3 commonly occurred during regional warm sector flow or on the western edge of a surface anticyclone. Our analysis also identified a stratospheric contribution to a small percentage (âŒ5%) of extreme O3 events at the site, but more evidence is required to establish the significance of the contribution to background O3levels in this region
Perturbations of Spatially Closed Bianchi III Spacetimes
Motivated by the recent interest in dynamical properties of topologically
nontrivial spacetimes, we study linear perturbations of spatially closed
Bianchi III vacuum spacetimes, whose spatial topology is the direct product of
a higher genus surface and the circle. We first develop necessary mode
functions, vectors, and tensors, and then perform separations of (perturbation)
variables. The perturbation equations decouple in a way that is similar to but
a generalization of those of the Regge--Wheeler spherically symmetric case. We
further achieve a decoupling of each set of perturbation equations into
gauge-dependent and independent parts, by which we obtain wave equations for
the gauge-invariant variables. We then discuss choices of gauge and stability
properties. Details of the compactification of Bianchi III manifolds and
spacetimes are presented in an appendix. In the other appendices we study
scalar field and electromagnetic equations on the same background to compare
asymptotic properties.Comment: 61 pages, 1 figure, final version with minor corrections, to appear
in Class. Quant. Gravi
Femtosecond energy transfer between chromophores in allophycocyanin trimers
Ultrafast energy-transfer processes in allophycocyanin (APC) trimers from Mastigocladus laminosus have been examined by a femtosecond absorption technique. Isotropic absorption recovery kinetics with Ï=440±30 fs were observed in APC trimers at 615 nm. In APC monomers such a fast process was not observed. The anisotropy in both samples was constant and close to 0.4 during the first few picoseconds. The results are consistent with a model of the APC trimer in which the two APC chromophores have different absorption spectra with maxima about 600 and 650 nm. The transfer of energy from the 600 nm chromophore to the 650 nm chromophore occurs in 440 fs and is dominated by the Förster dipoleâdipole energy-transfer mechanism
On the -- lifetime difference and decays
In this paper we discuss some aspects of inclusive decays of charmed mesons
and also decays of the lepton into . We find that phase
space effects are likely to explain the observed lifetime ratio = 1.17. In particular one need not appeal to a large annihilation
contribution in the inclusive decay which, being absent in decays
could also contribute to the enhanced decay rate relative to that of the
. Examining a separate problem, we find that the rate for is almost completely dominated by the tiny phase space for the
final eight particle state. Using an effective chiral Lagrangian to estimate
the matrix element yields a branching ratio into the channel of interest far
smaller than the present upper bound.Comment: No figure
Hierarchical solutions of the Sherrington-Kirkpatrick model: Exact asymptotic behavior near the critical temperature
We analyze the replica-symmetry-breaking construction in the
Sherrington-Kirkpatrick model of a spin glass. We present a general scheme for
deriving an exact asymptotic behavior near the critical temperature of the
solution with an arbitrary number of discrete hierarchies of the broken replica
symmetry. We show that all solutions with finite-many hierarchies are unstable
and only the scheme with infinite-many hierarchies becomes marginally stable.
We show how the solutions from the discrete replica-symmetry-breaking scheme go
over to the continuous one with increasing the number of hierarchies.Comment: REVTeX4, 11 pages, no figure
A major regional air pollution event in the northeastern United States caused by extensive forest fires in Quebec, Canada
During early July 2002, wildfires burned âŒ1 Ă 106 ha of forest in Quebec, Canada. The resultant smoke plume was seen in satellite images blanketing the U.S. east coast. Concurrently, extremely high CO mixing ratios were observed at the Atmospheric Investigation, Regional Modeling, Analysis and Prediction (AIRMAP) network sites in New Hampshire and at the Harvard Forest Environmental Measurement Site (HFEMS) in Massachusetts. The CO enhancements were on the order of 525â1025 ppbv above low mixing ratio conditions on surrounding days. A biomass burning source for the event was confirmed by concomitant enhancements in aerosol K+, NH4+, NO3â, and C2O42â mixing ratios at the AIRMAP sites. Additional data for aerosol K, organic carbon, and elemental carbon from the Interagency Monitoring of Protected Visual Environments network and CO data from Environmental Protection Agency sites indicated that the smoke plume impacted much of the U.S. east coast, from Maine to Virginia. CO mixing ratios and K concentrations at stations with 10-year or longer records suggested that this was the largest biomass burning plume to impact the U.S. east coast in over a decade. Furthermore, CO mixing ratios and aerosol particles with diameters 2.5) mass and scattering coefficients from the AIRMAP network and HFEMS indicated that this event was comparable to the large anthropogenic combustion and haze events which intermittently impact rural New England. The degree of enhancement of O3, NOy, NO3â, NH4+, and SO42â in the biomass plume showed significant variation with elevation and latitude that is attributed to variations in transport and surface depositional processes
Aerosol major ion record at Mount Washington
This study examined the seasonal cycles and regional-scale meteorological controls on the chemical properties of bulk aerosols collected from 1999 to 2004 at Mount Washington, the highest peak in the northeastern United States. The concentrations of NH4+ and SO42â peaked during summer months. The pattern for aerosol NO3â was more complicated with relatively high median concentrations characterizing spring and summer months, but with major elevated events occurring during fall, winter, and spring. The seasonal relationship between NH4+ and SO42â indicated that during warmer months a mixture of (NH4)2SO4 and NH4HSO4 was present, while it was mainly the latter in winter. More acidity and higher concentrations of the major species were generally associated with winds from the southwest and west sectors. The highest (â„95th percentile) concentrations of SO42â and NH4+ were associated with air mass transport from major upwind source regions in the Midwest and along the eastern seaboard. The ionic composition and seasonal cycle observed at Mount Washington were similar to those measured at other northeastern sites, but the range and average concentrations were much lower. These differences were exaggerated during wintertime. Included in this paper are several Eulerian case studies of SO2 conversion to SO42â during transit from Whiteface Mountain, New York, to Mount Washington. The calculations suggest a gas-phase SO2 oxidation rate of âŒ1â2% per hour and demonstrate the possibility of using these two sites to investigate the chemical evolution of air masses as they move from Midwestern source regions to northern New England
An Introduction to Conformal Ricci Flow
We introduce a variation of the classical Ricci flow equation that modifies
the unit volume constraint of that equation to a scalar curvature constraint.
The resulting equations are named the Conformal Ricci Flow Equations because of
the role that conformal geometry plays in constraining the scalar curvature.
These equations are analogous to the incompressible Navier-Stokes equations of
fluid mechanics inasmuch as a conformal pressure arises as a Lagrange
multiplier to conformally deform the metric flow so as to maintain the scalar
curvature constraint. The equilibrium points are Einstein metrics with a
negative Einstein constant and the conformal pressue is shown to be zero at an
equilibrium point and strictly positive otherwise. The geometry of the
conformal Ricci flow is discussed as well as the remarkable analytic fact that
the constraint force does not lose derivatives and thus analytically the
conformal Ricci equation is a bounded perturbation of the classical
unnormalized Ricci equation. That the constraint force does not lose
derivatives is exactly analogous to the fact that the real physical pressure
force that occurs in the Navier-Stokes equations is a bounded function of the
velocity. Using a nonlinear Trotter product formula, existence and uniqueness
of solutions to the conformal Ricci flow equations is proven. Lastly, we
discuss potential applications to Perelman's proposed implementation of
Hamilton's program to prove Thurston's 3-manifold geometrization conjectures.Comment: 52 pages, 1 figur
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