1,633 research outputs found
Constraining Radiatively Inefficient Accretion Flows with Polarization
The low-luminosity black hole Sgr A* provides a testbed for models of
Radiatively Inefficient Accretion Flows (RIAFs). Recent sub-millimeter linear
polarization measurements of Sgr A* have provided evidence that the electrons
in the accretion flow are relativistic over a large range of radii. Here, we
show that these high temperatures result in elliptical plasma normal modes.
Thus, polarized millimeter and sub-millimeter radiation emitted within RIAFs
will undergo generalized Faraday rotation, a cyclic conversion between linear
and circular polarization. This effect will not depolarize the radiation even
if the rotation measure is extremely high. Rather, the beam will take on the
linear and circular polarization properties of the plasma normal modes. As a
result, polarization measurements of Sgr A* in this frequency regime will
constrain the temperature, density and magnetic profiles of RIAF models.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, accepted by ApJ Letter
Bose Hubbard model in the presence of Ohmic dissipation
We study the zero temperature mean-field phase diagram of the Bose-Hubbard
model in the presence of local coupling between the bosons and an external
bath. We consider a coupling that conserves the on-site occupation number,
preserving the robustness of the Mott and superfluid phases. We show that the
coupling to the bath renormalizes the chemical potential and the interaction
between the bosons and reduces the size of the superfluid regions between the
insulating lobes. For strong enough coupling, a finite value of hopping is
required to obtain superfluidity around the degeneracy points where Mott phases
with different occupation numbers coexist. We discuss the role that such a bath
coupling may play in experiments that probe the formation of the
insulator-superfluid shell structure in systems of trapped atoms.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures. Error found in v1, now corrected, leads to
qualitative changes in result
History of oceanic front development in the New Zealand sector of the Southern Ocean during the Cenozoic--a synthesis
The New Zealand sector of the Southern Ocean (NZSSO) has opened about the Indian-Pacific spreading ridge throughout the Cenozoic. Today the NZSSO is characterised by broad zonal belts of antarctic (cold), subantarctic (cool), and subtropical (warm) surface-water masses separated by prominent oceanic fronts: the Subtropical Front (STF) c. 43deg.S, Subantarctic Front (SAF) c. 50deg.S, and Antarctic Polar Front (AAPF) c. 60deg.S. Despite a meagre database, the broad pattern of Cenozoic evolution of these fronts is reviewed from the results of Deep Sea Drilling Project-based studies of sediment facies, microfossil assemblages and diversity, and stable isotope records, as well as from evidence in onland New Zealand Cenozoic sequences. Results are depicted schematically on seven paleogeographic maps covering the NZSSO at 10 m.y. intervals through the Cenozoic.
During the Paleocene and most of the Eocene (65-35 Ma), the entire NZSSO was under the influence of warm to cool subtropical waters, with no detectable oceanic fronts. In the latest Eocene (c. 35 Ma), a proto-STF is shown separating subantarctic and subtropical waters offshore from Antarctica, near 65deg.S paleolatitude. During the earliest Oligocene, this front was displaced northwards by development of an AAPF following major global cooling and biotic turnover associated with ice sheet expansion to sea level on East Antarctica. Early Oligocene full opening (c. 31 Ma) of the Tasmanian gateway initiated vigorous proto-circum-Antarctic flow of cold/cool waters, possibly through a West Antarctic seaway linking the southern Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, including detached northwards "jetting" onto the New Zealand plateau where condensation and unconformity development was widespread in cool-water carbonate facies. Since this time, a broad tripartite division of antarctic, subantarctic, and subtropical waters has existed in the NZSSO, including possible development of a proto-SAF within the subantarctic belt. In the Early-early Middle Miocene (25-15 Ma), warm subtropical waters expanded southwards into the northern NZSSO, possibly associated with reduced ice volume on East Antarctica but particularly with restriction of the Indonesian gateway and redirection of intensified warm surface flows southwards into the Tasman Sea, as well as complete opening of the Drake gateway by 23 Ma allowing more complete decoupling of cool circum-Antarctic flow from the subtropical waters. During the late Middle-Late Miocene (15-5 Ma), both the STF and SAF proper were established in their present relative positions across and about the Campbell Plateau, respectively, accompanying renewed ice buildup on East Antarctica and formation of a permanent ice sheet on West Antarctica, as well as generally more expansive and intensified circum-Antarctic flow.
The ultimate control on the history of oceanic front development in the NZSSO has been plate tectonics through its influence on the paleogeographic changes of the Australian-New Zealand-Antarctic continents and their intervening oceanic basins, the timing of opening and closing of critical seaways, the potential for submarine ridges and plateaus to exert some bathymetric control on the location of fronts, and the evolving ice budget on the Antarctic continent. The broad trends of the Cenozoic climate curve for New Zealand deduced from fossil evidence in the uplifted marine sedimentary record correspond well to the principal paleoceanographic events controlling the evolution and migration of the oceanic fronts in the NZSSO
The uneven impact of recession on the voluntary and community sectors:Bristol and Liverpool
There has been much debate about the impact of recession and austerity on the voluntary and community sector over recent years. Using secondary data from the 2008 National Survey of Third Sector Organisations, Clifford et al. (2013), writing in this journal, have argued that voluntary sector organisations located in more deprived local authorities are likely to suffer most due to the combined effect of cuts in government funding in these areas and their greater dependency on statutory funding. This paper develops this argument by exploring the sector’s changing relationship with the state through an empirical analysis of the differential impact of recession and austerity on voluntary and community organisations involved in public service delivery in the two English core cities of Bristol and Liverpool. This paper highlights how the scale and unevenness of public spending cuts, the levels of voluntary sector dependency on statutory funding and the rising demands for the sector’s services in a period of recession and austerity are being experienced locally. It portrays a sector whose resilience is being severely tested and one that is being forced rapidly to restructure and reposition itself in an increasingly challenging funding environment. </jats:p
Generation of circular polarization of the CMB
According to the standard cosmology, near the last scattering surface, the
photons scattered via Compton scattering are just linearly polarized and then
the primordial circular polarization of the CMB photons is zero. In this work
we show that CMB polarization acquires a small degree of circular polarization
when a background magnetic field is considered or the quantum electrodynamic
sector of standard model is extended by Lorentz-noninvariant operators as well
as noncommutativity. The existence of circular polarization for the CMB
radiation may be verified during future observation programs and it represents
a possible new channel for investigating new physics effects.Comment: 28 pages, v3, Phys. Rev. D 81, 084035 (2010
Following microscopic motion in a two dimensional glass-forming binary fluid
The dynamics of a binary mixture of large and small discs are studied at
temperatures approaching the glass transition using an analysis based on the
topology of the Voronoi polygon surrounding each atom. At higher temperatures
we find that dynamics is dominated by fluid-like motion that involves particles
entering and exiting the nearest-neighbour shells of nearby particles. As the
temperature is lowered, the rate of topological moves decreases and motion
becomes localised to regions of mixed pentagons and heptagons. In addition we
find that in the low temperature state particles may translate significant
distances without undergoing changes in their nearest neig hbour shell. These
results have implications for dynamical heterogeneities in glass forming
liquids.Comment: 12 pages, 7 figure
Discovery of circularly polarised radio emission from SS 433
We report the discovery of circularly polarised radio emission from the
radio-jet X-ray binary SS 433 with the Australia Telescope Compact Array. The
flux density spectrum of the circular polarization, clearly detected at four
frequencies between 1 - 9 GHz, has a spectral index of (-0.9 +/- 0.1). Multiple
components in the source and a lack of very high spatial resolution do not
allow a unique determination of the origin of the circular polarization, nor of
the spectrum of fractional polarization. However, we argue that the emission is
likely to arise in the inner regions of the binary, possibly via
propagation-induced conversion of linear to circular polarization, and the
fractional circular polarization of these regions may be as high as 10%.
Observations such as these have the potential to investigate the composition,
whether pairs or baryonic, of the ejecta from X-ray binaries.Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJ Letter
Sensitivity of the interlayer magnetoresistance of layered metals to intralayer anisotropies
Many of the most interesting and technologically important electronic
materials discovered in the past two decades have two common features: a
layered crystal structure and strong interactions between electrons. Two of the
most fundamental questions about such layered metals concern the origin of
intralayer anisotropies and the coherence of interlayer charge transport. We
show that angle dependent magnetoresistance oscillations (AMRO) are sensitive
to anisotropies around an intralayer Fermi surface. Hence, AMRO can be a probe
of intralayer anisotropies that is complementary to angle-resolved
photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES) and scanning tunneling microscopy (STM).
However, AMRO are not very sensitive to the coherence of the interlayer
transport. We illustrate this with comparisons to recent AMRO experiments on an
overdoped cuprate.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figure
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