729 research outputs found
Solar activity during the Holocene: the Hallstatt cycle and its consequence for grand minima and maxim
Cosmogenic isotopes provide the only quantitative proxy for analyzing the
long-term solar variability over a centennial timescale. While essential
progress has been achieved in both measurements and modeling of the cosmogenic
proxy, uncertainties still remain in the determination of the geomagnetic
dipole moment evolution. Here we improve the reconstruction of solar activity
over the past nine millennia using a multi-proxy approach. We used records of
the 14C and 10Be cosmogenic isotopes, current numerical models of the isotope
production and transport in Earth's atmosphere, and available geomagnetic field
reconstructions, including a new reconstruction relying on an updated
archeo-/paleointensity database. The obtained series were analyzed using the
singular spectrum analysis (SSA) method to study the millennial-scale trends. A
new reconstruction of the geomagnetic dipole field moment, GMAG.9k, is built
for the last nine millennia. New reconstructions of solar activity covering the
last nine millennia, quantified in sunspot numbers, are presented and analyzed.
A conservative list of grand minima and maxima is provided. The primary
components of the reconstructed solar activity, as determined using the SSA
method, are different for the series based on 14C and 10Be. These primary
components can only be ascribed to long-term changes in the terrestrial system
and not to the Sun. They have been removed from the reconstructed series. In
contrast, the secondary SSA components of the reconstructed solar activity are
found to be dominated by a common ~2400-yr quasi-periodicity, the so-called
Hallstatt cycle, in both the 14C and 10Be based series. This Hallstatt cycle
thus appears to be related to solar activity. Finally, we show that the grand
minima and maxima occurred intermittently over the studied period, with
clustering near highs and lows of the Hallstatt cycle, respectively.Comment: In press in Astronomy & Astrophysics, doi:
10.1051/0004-6361/20152729
Counting Realizations of Laman Graphs on the Sphere
We present an algorithm that computes the number of realizations of a Laman graph on a sphere for a general choice of the angles between the vertices. The algorithm is based on the interpretation of such a realization as a point in the moduli space of stable curves of genus zero with marked points, and on the explicit description, due to Keel, of the Chow ring of this space
Combinatorics of Bricard's octahedra
We re-prove the classification of motions of an octahedron â obtained by Bricard at the beginning of the XX century â by means of combinatorial objects satisfying some elementary rules. The explanations of these rules rely on the use of a well-known creation of modern algebraic geometry, the moduli space of stable rational curves with marked points, for the description of configurations of graphs on the sphere. Once one accepts the objects and the rules, the classification becomes elementary (though not trivial) and can be enjoyed without the need of a very deep background on the topic
Zero-Sum Cycles in Flexible Non-triangular Polyhedra
Finding necessary conditions for the geometry of flexible polyhedra is a classical problem that has received attention also in recent times. For flexible polyhedra with triangular faces, we showed in a previous work the existence of cycles with a sign assignment for their edges, such that the signed sum of the edge lengths along the cycle is zero. In this work, we extend this result to flexible non-triangular polyhedra
Destabilizing Taylor-Couette flow with suction
We consider the effect of radial fluid injection and suction on
Taylor-Couette flow. Injection at the outer cylinder and suction at the inner
cylinder generally results in a linearly unstable steady spiralling flow, even
for cylindrical shears that are linearly stable in the absence of a radial
flux. We study nonlinear aspects of the unstable motions with the energy
stability method. Our results, though specialized, may have implications for
drag reduction by suction, accretion in astrophysical disks, and perhaps even
in the flow in the earth's polar vortex.Comment: 34 pages, 9 figure
The SPICE carbon isotope excursion in Siberia: a combined study of the upper Middle Cambrian-lowermost Ordovician Kulyumbe River section, northwestern Siberian Platform
An integrated, high-resolution chemostratigraphic (C, O and Sr isotopes) and
magnetostratigraphic study through the upper Middle Cambrianâlowermost Ordovician shallowmarine
carbonates of the northwestern margin of the Siberian Platform is reported. The interval was
analysed at the Kulyumbe section, which is exposed along the Kulyumbe River, an eastern tributary
of the Enisej River. It comprises the upper Ustâ-Brus, Labaz, Orakta, Kulyumbe, Ujgur and lower
Iltyk formations and includes the Steptoean positive carbon isotopic excursion (SPICE) studied here
in detail from upper Cambrian carbonates of the Siberian Platform for the first time. The peak of the
excursion, showing ÎŽ13C positive values as high as+4.6â°and least-altered 87Sr/86Sr ratios of 0.70909,
is reported herein from the Yurakhian Horizon of the Kulyumbe Formation. The stratigraphic position
of the SPICE excursion does not support traditional correlation of the boundary between theOrakta and
Labaz formations at the Kulyumbe River with its supposedly equivalent level in Australia, Laurentia,
South China and Kazakhstan, where the Glyptagnostus stolidotus and G. reticulatus biozones are
known to immediately precede the SPICE excursion and span the MiddleâUpper Cambrian boundary.
The CambrianâOrdovician boundary is probably situated in the middle Nyajan Horizon of the Iltyk
Formation, in which carbon isotope values show a local maximum below a decrease in the upper
part of the Nyajan Horizon, attributed herein to the Tremadocian Stage. A refined magnetic polarity
sequence confirms that the geomagnetic reversal frequency was very high during Middle Cambrian
times at 7â10 reversals per Ma, assuming a total duration of about 10 Ma and up to 100 magnetic
intervals in the Middle Cambrian. By contrast, the sequence attributed herein to the Upper Cambrian
on chemostratigraphic grounds contains only 10â11 magnetic intervals
Probing active forces via a fluctuation-dissipation relation: Application to living cells
We derive a new fluctuation-dissipation relation for non-equilibrium systems
with long-term memory. We show how this relation allows one to access new
experimental information regarding active forces in living cells that cannot
otherwise be accessed. For a silica bead attached to the wall of a living cell,
we identify a crossover time between thermally controlled fluctuations and
those produced by the active forces. We show that the probe position is
eventually slaved to the underlying random drive produced by the so-called
active forces.Comment: 5 page
Mobile Icosapods
Pods are mechanical devices constituted of two rigid bodies, the base and the platform, connected by a number of other rigid bodies, called legs, that are anchored via spherical joints. It is possible to prove that the maximal number of legs of a mobile pod, when finite, is 20. In 1904, Borel designed a technique to construct examples of such 20-pods, but could not constrain the legs to have base and platform points with real coordinates. We show that Borelâs construction yields all mobile 20-pods, and that it is possible to construct examples where all coordinates are real
Charge distribution in two-dimensional electrostatics
We examine the stability of ringlike configurations of N charges on a plane
interacting through the potential . We interpret the equilibrium distributions in terms of a shell
model and compare predictions of the model with the results of numerical
simulations for systems with up to 100 particles.Comment: LaTe
Classification in sparse, high dimensional environments applied to distributed systems failure prediction
Network failures are still one of the main causes of distributed systemsâ lack of reliability. To overcome this problem we present an improvement over a failure prediction system, based on Elastic Net Logistic Regression and the application of rare events prediction techniques, able to work with sparse, high dimensional datasets. Specifically, we prove its stability, fine tune its hyperparameter and improve its industrial utility by showing that, with a slight change in dataset creation, it can also predict the location of a failure, a key asset when trying to take a proactive approach to failure management
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