Correction: Ocean acidification at a coastal CO2 vent induces expression of stress-related transcripts and transposable elements in the sea anemone Anemonia viridis.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0210358.]

Charged inclusion in nematic liquid crystals

We present a general theory of liquid crystals under inhomogeneous electric field in a Ginzburg-Landau scheme. The molecular orientation can be deformed by electric field when the dielectric tensor is orientation-dependent. We then investigate the influence of a charged particle on the orientation order in a nematic state. The director is aligned either along or perpendicular to the local electric field around the charge, depending on the sign of the dielectric anisotropy. The deformation becomes stronger with increasing the ratio $Ze/R$, where $Ze$ is the charge and $R$ is the radius of the particle. Numerical analysis shows the presence of defects around the particle for large $Ze/R$. They are nanometer-scale defects for microscopic ions. If the dielectric anisotropy is positive, a Saturn ring defect appears. If it is negative, a pair of point defects appear apart from the particle surface, each being connected to the surface by a disclination line segment.Comment: 12 figure

Anharmonic vs. relaxational sound damping in glasses: II. Vitreous silica

The temperature dependence of the frequency dispersion in the sound velocity and damping of vitreous silica is reanalyzed. Thermally activated relaxation accounts for the sound attenuation observed above 10 K at sonic and ultrasonic frequencies. Its extrapolation to the hypersonic regime reveals that the anharmonic coupling to the thermal bath becomes important in Brillouin-scattering measurements. At 35 GHz and room temperature, the damping due to this anharmonicity is found to be nearly twice that produced by thermally activated relaxation. The analysis also reveals a sizeable velocity increase with temperature which is not related with sound dispersion. This suggests that silica experiences a gradual structural change that already starts well below room temperature.Comment: 13 pages with 8 figure

Unconventional ferromagnetic and spin-glass states of the reentrant spin glass Fe0.7Al0.3

Spin excitations of single crystal Fe0.7Al0.3 were investigated over a wide range in energy and reciprocal space with inelastic neutron scattering. In the ferromagnetic phase, propagating spin wave modes become paramagnon-like diffusive modes beyond a critical wave vector q0, indicating substantial disorder in the long-range ordered state. In the spin glass phase, spin dynamics is strongly q-dependent, suggesting remnant short-range spin correlations. Quantitative model for S(energy,q) in the ``ferromagnetic'' phase is determined.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figure

Numerical study of anharmonic vibrational decay in amorphous and paracrystalline silicon

The anharmonic decay rates of atomic vibrations in amorphous silicon (a-Si) and paracrystalline silicon (p-Si), containing small crystalline grains embedded in a disordered matrix, are calculated using realistic structural models. The models are 1000-atom four-coordinated networks relaxed to a local minimum of the Stillinger-Weber interatomic potential. The vibrational decay rates are calculated numerically by perturbation theory, taking into account cubic anharmonicity as the perturbation. The vibrational lifetimes for a-Si are found to be on picosecond time scales, in agreement with the previous perturbative and classical molecular dynamics calculations on a 216-atom model. The calculated decay rates for p-Si are similar to those of a-Si. No modes in p-Si reside entirely on the crystalline cluster, decoupled from the amorphous matrix. The localized modes with the largest (up to 59%) weight on the cluster decay primarily to two diffusons. The numerical results are discussed in relation to a recent suggestion by van der Voort et al. [Phys. Rev. B {\bf 62}, 8072 (2000)] that long vibrational relaxation inferred experimentally may be due to possible crystalline nanostructures in some types of a-Si.Comment: 9 two-column pages, 13 figure

The crossover from propagating to strongly scattered acoustic modes of glasses observed in densified silica

Spectroscopic results on low frequency excitations of densified silica are presented and related to characteristic thermal properties of glasses. The end of the longitudinal acoustic branch is marked by a rapid increase of the Brillouin linewidth with the scattering vector. This rapid growth saturates at a crossover frequency Omega_co which nearly coincides with the center of the boson peak. The latter is clearly due to additional optic-like excitations related to nearly rigid SiO_4 librations as indicated by hyper-Raman scattering. Whether the onset of strong scattering is best described by hybridization of acoustic modes with these librations, by their elastic scattering (Rayleigh scattering) on the local excitations, or by soft potentials remains to be settled.Comment: 14 pages, 6 figures, to be published in a special issue of J. Phys. Condens. Matte

Assimilation of IASI partial tropospheric columns with an Ensemble Kalman Filter over Europe

Partial lower tropospheric ozone columns provided by the IASI (Infrared Atmospheric Sounding Interferometer) instrument have been assimilated into a chemistry-transport model at continental scale (CHIMERE) using an Ensemble Square Root Kalman Filter (EnSRF). Analyses are made for the month of July 2007 over the European domain. Launched in 2006, aboard the MetOp-A satellite, IASI shows high sensitivity for ozone in the free troposphere and low sensitivity at the ground; therefore it is important to evaluate if assimilation of these observations can improve free tropospheric ozone, and possibly surface ozone. The analyses are validated against independent ozone observations from sondes, MOZAIC<sup>1</sup> aircraft and ground based stations (AIRBASE – the European Air quality dataBase) and compared with respect to the free run of CHIMERE. These comparisons show a decrease in error of 6 parts-per-billion (ppb) in the free troposphere over the Frankfurt area, and also a reduction of the root mean square error (respectively bias) at the surface of 19% (33%) for more than 90% of existing ground stations. This provides evidence of the potential of data assimilation of tropospheric IASI columns to better describe the tropospheric ozone distribution, including surface ozone, despite the lower sensitivity. <br><br> The changes in concentration resulting from the observational constraints were quantified and several geophysical explanations for the findings of this study were drawn. The corrections were most pronounced over Italy and the Mediterranean region, we noted an average reduction of 8–9 ppb in the free troposphere with respect to the free run, and still a reduction of 5.5 ppb at ground, likely due to a longer residence time of air masses in this part associated to the general circulation pattern (i.e. dominant western circulation) and to persistent anticyclonic conditions over the Mediterranean basin. This is an important geophysical result, since the ozone burden is large over this area, with impact on the radiative balance and air quality. <br><br><br> <sup>1</sup> Measurements of OZone, water vapour, carbon monoxide and nitrogen oxides by in-service AIrbus airCraft (<a href="http://mozaic.aero.obs-mip.fr/web/"target="_blank">http://mozaic.aero.obs-mip.fr/web/</a>)

Anharmonic vs. relaxational sound damping in glasses: I. Brillouin scattering from densified silica

This series discusses the origin of sound damping and dispersion in glasses. In particular, we address the relative importance of anharmonicity versus thermally activated relaxation. In this first article, Brillouin-scattering measurements of permanently densified silica glass are presented. It is found that in this case the results are compatible with a model in which damping and dispersion are only produced by the anharmonic coupling of the sound waves with thermally excited modes. The thermal relaxation time and the unrelaxed velocity are estimated.Comment: 9 pages with 7 figures, added reference

Effective interactions of colloids on nematic films

The elastic and capillary interactions between a pair of colloidal particles trapped on top of a nematic film are studied theoretically for large separations $d$. The elastic interaction is repulsive and of quadrupolar type, varying as $d^{-5}$. For macroscopically thick films, the capillary interaction is likewise repulsive and proportional to $d^{-5}$ as a consequence of mechanical isolation of the system comprised of the colloids and the interface. A finite film thickness introduces a nonvanishing force on the system (exerted by the substrate supporting the film) leading to logarithmically varying capillary attractions. However, their strength turns out to be too small to be of importance for the recently observed pattern formation of colloidal droplets on nematic films.Comment: 13 pages, accepted by EPJ

Quartic scaling of sound attenuation with frequency in vitreous silica

Several theoretical approaches to disordered media predict that acoustic waves should undergo a quartic increase in their attenuation coefficient with increasing frequency in the sub-terahertz region. Such Rayleigh-type scattering would be related to the anomalous low-temperature plateau in the thermal conductivity and to the so-called boson peak, i.e. an excess of vibrational modes above the Debye density of states at around 1 THz. Brillouin scattering of light allows the measurement of sound absorption and velocity dispersion up to about 0.1 THz while inelastic x-ray scattering is limited to frequencies larger than about 1 THz. We take advantage of the advent of ultrafast optical techniques to explore the acoustical properties of amorphous SiO2 layers in the difficult but crucial frequency region within this gap. A quartic scaling law with frequency is clearly revealed between 0.2 and 0.9 THz, which is further shown to be independent of temperature. This strongly damped regime is accompanied by a decrease in the sound velocity already starting from about 0.5 THz, in line with theories. Our study assists to clarify the anomalous acoustical properties in glasses at frequencies entering the boson peak region.Comment: 4 figures, 11 page