Is the Sun Embedded in a Typical Interstellar Cloud?

The physical properties and kinematics of the partially ionized interstellar material near the Sun are typical of warm diffuse clouds in the solar vicinity. The interstellar magnetic field at the heliosphere and the kinematics of nearby clouds are naturally explained in terms of the S1 superbubble shell. The interstellar radiation field at the Sun appears to be harder than the field ionizing ambient diffuse gas, which may be a consequence of the low opacity of the tiny cloud surrounding the heliosphere. The spatial context of the Local Bubble is consistent with our location in the Orion spur.Comment: "From the Outer Heliosphere to the Local Bubble", held at International Space Sciences Institute, October 200

A test of trophic cascade theory: fish and benthic assemblages across a predator density gradient on coral reefs

Removal of predators is often hypothesized to alter community structure through trophic cascades. However, despite recent advances in our understanding of trophic cascades, evidence is often circumstantial on coral reefs because fishing pressure frequently co-varies with other anthropogenic effects, such as fishing for herbivorous fishes and changes in water quality due to pollution. Australia’s outer Great Barrier Reef (GBR) has experienced fishing-induced declines of apex predators and mesopredators, but pollution and targeting of herbivorous fishes are minimal. Here, we quantify fish and benthic assemblages across a fishing-induced predator density gradient on the outer GBR, including apex predators and mesopredators to herbivores and benthic assemblages, to test for evidence of trophic cascades and alternative hypotheses to trophic cascade theory. Using structural equation models, we found no cascading effects from apex predators to lower trophic levels: a loss of apex predators did not lead to higher levels of mesopredators, and this did not suppress mobile herbivores and drive algal proliferation. Likewise, we found no effects of mesopredators on lower trophic levels: a decline of mesopredators was not associated with higher abundances of algae-farming damselfishes and algae-dominated reefs. These findings indicate that top-down forces on coral reefs are weak, at least on the outer GBR. We conclude that predator-mediated trophic cascades are probably the exception rather than the rule in complex ecosystems such as the outer GBR

Plasma Turbulence in the Local Bubble

Turbulence in the Local Bubble could play an important role in the thermodynamics of the gas that is there. The best astronomical technique for measuring turbulence in astrophysical plasmas is radio scintillation. Measurements of the level of scattering to the nearby pulsar B0950+08 by Philips and Clegg in 1992 showed a markedly lower value for the line-of-sight averaged turbulent intensity parameter $$than is observed for other pulsars, consistent with radio wave propagation through a highly rarefied plasma. In this paper, we discuss the observational progress that has been made since that time. At present, there are four pulsars (B0950+08, B1133+16, J0437-4715, and B0809+74) whose lines of sight seem to lie mainly within the local bubble. The mean densities and line of sight components of the interstellar magnetic field along these lines of sight are smaller than nominal values for pulsars, but not by as much expected. Three of the four pulsars also have measurements of interstellar scintillation. The value of the parameter$$ is smaller than normal for two of them, but is completely nominal for the third. This inconclusive status of affairs could be improved by measurements and analysis of ``arcs'' in ``secondary spectra'' of pulsars.Comment: Submitted to Space Science Reviews as contribution to Proceedings of ISSI (International Space Science Institute) workshop "From the Heliosphere to the Local Bubble". Refereed version accepted for publicatio

Cosmological Magnetic Fields from Primordial Helicity

Primordial magnetic fields may account for all or part of the fields observed in galaxies. We consider the evolution of the magnetic fields created by pseudoscalar effects in the early universe. Such processes can create force-free fields of maximal helicity; we show that for such a field magnetic energy inverse cascades to larger scales than it would have solely by flux freezing and cosmic expansion. For fields generated at the electroweak phase transition, we find that the predicted wavelength today can in principle be as large as 10 kpc, and the field strength can be as large as 10^{-10} G.Comment: 13 page

Statistical properties of the Burgers equation with Brownian initial velocity

We study the one-dimensional Burgers equation in the inviscid limit for Brownian initial velocity (i.e. the initial velocity is a two-sided Brownian motion that starts from the origin x=0). We obtain the one-point distribution of the velocity field in closed analytical form. In the limit where we are far from the origin, we also obtain the two-point and higher-order distributions. We show how they factorize and recover the statistical invariance through translations for the distributions of velocity increments and Lagrangian increments. We also derive the velocity structure functions and we recover the bifractality of the inverse Lagrangian map. Then, for the case where the initial density is uniform, we obtain the distribution of the density field and its $n$-point correlations. In the same limit, we derive the $n-$point distributions of the Lagrangian displacement field and the properties of shocks. We note that both the stable-clustering ansatz and the Press-Schechter mass function, that are widely used in the cosmological context, happen to be exact for this one-dimensional version of the adhesion model.Comment: 42 pages, published in J. Stat. Phy

Gourmetización y gentrificación: paisajes alimentarios desde la ciudad hasta el campo

El presente artículo busca contribuir al desarrollo y consolidación de los estudios sobre la gourmetización y la gentrificación alimentaria, enfatizando los efectos que estos procesos tienen en ámbitos que exceden a la vida urbana. En ese marco, se propone recuperar los engranajes de la cadena de valor y sus localizaciones –desde los barrios gentrificados hasta las comunidades rurales agrícolas–, indicando los procesos de valorización y desvalorización y cómo estos afectan de forma desigual a los actores involucrados. Se enfatiza sobre este punto, estableciendo un diálogo interdisciplinar. A partir de una revisión bibliográfica, el artículo se basa en cuatro casos que se recuperan de fuentes secundarias y que ilustran la forma en la que operan estos procesos en distintos niveles, territorios y escalas: el café de autor en cuanto símbolo de distinción en los barrios gentrificados; la palta o aguacate a partir de su manifestación gastronómica en el avocado toast; el vino, desde la turistificación de su producción hasta las estrategias de valorización en su consumo urbano; y la quinoa desde el patentamiento de nuevas variedades hasta el desarrollo de mercados expulsivos de amplios sectores de población. Se concluye que el auge de estos alimentos tiene efectos de acumulación del capital por desposesión en los ámbitos rural y urbano al igual que en los procesos de producción y de consumo. This article contributes to developing and consolidating research on the connections between food and gentrification while highlighting the effects of these processes in areas beyond urban life. To achieve this, we draw on the concept of value chains connecting gentrified neighborhoods to rural agricultural communities. In this chain, processes of valorization and devaluation are generated, which unevenly affect the actors involved in the production and consumption of food. The paper focuses on the conflicts and contestations along the value chain of gentrification, putting interdisciplinary contributions into dialogue while presenting four cases from secondary sources. These cases are illustrative of how these processes operate at different levels, territories, and scales: signature coffee, as a symbol of distinction in gentrified neighborhoods; the avocado from its gastronomic manifestation as avocado toast; wine, from the touristification of its production to valorization strategies in urban consumption; and quinoa, from the patenting of new varieties to the development of markets that exclude large sectors of the population. The boom in the circulation of these foods has the effect of capital accumulation by dispossession in both rural and urban areas and in both production and consumption processes

The spread of epidemic disease on networks

The study of social networks, and in particular the spread of disease on networks, has attracted considerable recent attention in the physics community. In this paper, we show that a large class of standard epidemiological models, the so-called susceptible/infective/removed (SIR) models can be solved exactly on a wide variety of networks. In addition to the standard but unrealistic case of fixed infectiveness time and fixed and uncorrelated probability of transmission between all pairs of individuals, we solve cases in which times and probabilities are non-uniform and correlated. We also consider one simple case of an epidemic in a structured population, that of a sexually transmitted disease in a population divided into men and women. We confirm the correctness of our exact solutions with numerical simulations of SIR epidemics on networks.Comment: 12 pages, 3 figure

Surface critical exponents at a uniaxial Lifshitz point

Using Monte Carlo techniques, the surface critical behaviour of three-dimensional semi-infinite ANNNI models with different surface orientations with respect to the axis of competing interactions is investigated. Special attention is thereby paid to the surface criticality at the bulk uniaxial Lifshitz point encountered in this model. The presented Monte Carlo results show that the mean-field description of semi-infinite ANNNI models is qualitatively correct. Lifshitz point surface critical exponents at the ordinary transition are found to depend on the surface orientation. At the special transition point, however, no clear dependency of the critical exponents on the surface orientation is revealed. The values of the surface critical exponents presented in this study are the first estimates available beyond mean-field theory.Comment: 10 pages, 7 figures include

Ab initio Quantum and ab initio Molecular Dynamics of the Dissociative Adsorption of Hydrogen on Pd(100)

The dissociative adsorption of hydrogen on Pd(100) has been studied by ab initio quantum dynamics and ab initio molecular dynamics calculations. Treating all hydrogen degrees of freedom as dynamical coordinates implies a high dimensionality and requires statistical averages over thousands of trajectories. An efficient and accurate treatment of such extensive statistics is achieved in two steps: In a first step we evaluate the ab initio potential energy surface (PES) and determine an analytical representation. Then, in an independent second step dynamical calculations are performed on the analytical representation of the PES. Thus the dissociation dynamics is investigated without any crucial assumption except for the Born-Oppenheimer approximation which is anyhow employed when density-functional theory calculations are performed. The ab initio molecular dynamics is compared to detailed quantum dynamical calculations on exactly the same ab initio PES. The occurence of quantum oscillations in the sticking probability as a function of kinetic energy is addressed. They turn out to be very sensitive to the symmetry of the initial conditions. At low kinetic energies sticking is dominated by the steering effect which is illustrated using classical trajectories. The steering effects depends on the kinetic energy, but not on the mass of the molecules. Zero-point effects lead to strong differences between quantum and classical calculations of the sticking probability. The dependence of the sticking probability on the angle of incidence is analysed; it is found to be in good agreement with experimental data. The results show that the determination of the potential energy surface combined with high-dimensional dynamical calculations, in which all relevant degrees of freedon are taken into account, leads to a detailed understanding of the dissociation dynamics of hydrogen at a transition metal surface.Comment: 15 pages, 9 figures, subm. to Phys. Rev.