Transmission electron microscopy study of vertical quantum dots molecules grown by droplet epitaxy

3 páginas, 3 figuras.-- Progress in Applied Surface, Interface and Thin Film Science - SURFINT SREN II.-- PACS codes: 68.37.Lp; 81.05.Ea; 81.15.HiThe compositional distribution of InAs quantum dots grown by molecular beam epitaxy on GaAs capped InAs quantum dots has been studied in this work. Upper quantum dots are nucleated preferentially on top of the quantum dots underneath, which have been nucleated by droplet epitaxy. The growth process of these nanostructures, which are usually called as quantum dots molecules, has been explained. In order to understand this growth process, the analysis of the strain has been carried out from a 3D model of the nanostructure built from transmission electron microscopy images sensitive to the composition.This work was supported by the Spanish MCI (TEC2008-06756-C03-02/TEC), CONSOLIDER CSD2009-00013, and the Junta de Andalucia (PAI research groups TEP-120 and TIC-145, project P08-TEP-03516).Peer reviewe

The new Mars climate database

Not available

U-Pb SHRIMP zircon dating of Grenvillian metamorphism in Western Sierras Pampeanas (Argentina) : correlation with the Arequipa-Antofalla craton and constraints on the extent of the Precordillera Terrane

The Sierras Pampeanas of Argentina, the largest outcrop of pre-Andean crystalline basement in southern South America, resulted from plate interactions along the proto-Andean margin of Gondwana, from as early as Mesoproterozoic to Late Paleozoic times (e.g., Ramos, 2004, and references therein). Two discrete Paleozoic orogenic belts have been recognized: the Early Cambrian Pampean belt in the eastern sierras, and the Ordovician Famatinian belt, which partially overprints it to the west (e.g., Rapela et al., 1998). In the Western Sierras Pampeanas, Mesoproterozoic igneous rocks (ca. 1.0–1.2 Ga) have been recognized in the Sierra de Pie de Palo (Fig. 1) (McDonough et al., 1993 M.R. McDonough, V.A. Ramos, C.E. Isachsen, S.A. Bowring and G.I. Vujovich, Edades preliminares de circones del basamento de la Sierra de Pie de Palo, Sierras Pampeanas occidentales de San Juán: sus implicancias para el supercontinente proterozoico de Rodinia, 12° Cong. Geol. Argentino, Actas vol. 3 (1993), pp. 340–342.McDonough et al., 1993, Pankhurst and Rapela, 1998 and Vujovich et al., 2004) that are time-coincident with the Grenvillian orogeny of eastern and northeastern North America (e.g., Rivers, 1997 and Corrievau and van Breemen, 2000). These Grenvillian-age rocks have been considered to be the easternmost exposure of basement to the Precordillera Terrane, a supposed Laurentian continental block accreted to Gondwana during the Famatinian orogeny (Thomas and Astini, 2003, and references therein). However, the boundaries of this Grenvillian belt are still poorly defined, and its alleged allochthoneity has been challenged (Galindo et al., 2004). Moreover, most of the Grenvillian ages so far determined relate to igneous protoliths, and there is no conclusive evidence for a Grenvillian orogenic belt, other than inferred from petrographic evidence alone (Casquet et al., 2001). We provide here the first evidence, based on U–Pb SHRIMP zircon dating at Sierra de Maz, for a Grenville-age granulite facies metamorphism, leading to the conclusion that a continuous mobile belt existed throughout the proto-Andean margin of Gondwana in Grenvillian times

Evolución tectónica y morfoestructural reciente de la Península Byers (Antártida): evidencias sobre el desarrollo de las Islas Shetland del Sur y la Cuenca de Bransfield

[EN] Byers Peninsula forms the western extremity of the Livingston Island (Antarctica) in the continental South Shetland Block. This tectonic block is bounded by the South Shetland Trench to the north, the Bransfield back-arc basin to the south, and extends to the South Scotia Ridge on the east. Westwards it is connected to the Antarctic Plate by a broad deformation zone located at the southern end of the Hero Fracture Zone. In Byers Peninsula we analyzed more than 1,200 lineaments, and 359 fault planes from 16 sites, both in sedimentary and intrusive igneous rocks. Statistical analysis of lineaments and mesoscopic fractures, with a length varying between 31 and 1,555 m, shows a NW-SE maximum trend, with two NE-SW and ENE-WSW secondary maximums. Fault orientation analysis shows similar trends suggesting that most of the lineaments correspond to fractures. Due to the absence of striated faults and the lack of kinematic evidence on the regime in most of the analyzed faults we have used the Search Grid paleostress determination method. The results obtained allow us to improve and complete the data on the recent evolution of the South Shetland Block. In this complex geodynamic setting, Byers Peninsula has been subjected to NNW-SSE to NNE-SSW extension related to Bransfield Basine Antarcopening and NE-SW and NW-SE local compressions respectively associated to Scotia-Antarctic plate convergence and the South Shetland Trench subduction.[ES] La Península Byers se localiza en el extremo occidental de la Isla Livingston (Antártida) que pertenece al bloque continental de las Shetland del Sur. Este bloque tectónico está limitado al norte por la Fosa de las Shetland del Sur, al sur por la cuenca de trasarco de Bransfield, y hacia el este se extiende por la Dorsal Sur de Scotia. Hacia el oeste conecta con la placa Antártica a través de una amplia zona de deformación localizada en la prolongación meridional de la Zona de Fractura Hero. En este trabajo se han analizado conjuntamente más de 1.200 lineamientos, así como 359 planos de fallas en 16 estaciones en rocas sedimentarias e ígneas de la Península Byers. El análisis estadístico de los lineamientos y las fracturas a escala mesoscópica, con una longitud que oscila entre 31 y 1.555 m, muestran una orientación máxima NO-SE, con dos máximos secundarios de dirección NE-SO y ENE-OSO. El análisis de las fracturas muestra orientaciones similares que sugieren que gran parte de estos lineamientos están relacionados con fracturas. La ausencia de indicadores cinemáticos de calidad en la mayor parte de las fracturas sólo nos ha permitido aplicar el método de Redes de Búsqueda para el cálculo de paleoesfuerzos. Los resultados obtenidos son compatibles con los obtenidos en otros sectores del Bloque de las Shetland del Sur. En este complejo contexto geodinámico, la Península Byers ha estado sometida a extensión NNW-SSE/ NNE-SSW ligada a la apertura de la cuenca de Bransfield, así como a compresión local NE-SO y NO-SE asociada respectivamente a la convergencia entre las placas Scotia y Antártica, y a la subducción en la Fosa de las Shetland del Sur.Financial support for this work was provided by the research projects REN2001-0643, CGL2005-03256 and CGL2007-28812-E/ANT of the Spanish R & D National Plan.Peer reviewe

Hilbert space of wormholes

Wormhole boundary conditions for the Wheeler--DeWitt equation can be derived from the path integral formulation. It is proposed that the wormhole wave function must be square integrable in the maximal analytic extension of minisuperspace. Quantum wormholes can be invested with a Hilbert space structure, the inner product being naturally induced by the minisuperspace metric, in which the Wheeler--DeWitt operator is essentially self--adjoint. This provides us with a kind of probabilistic interpretation. In particular, giant wormholes will give extremely small contributions to any wormhole state. We also study the whole spectrum of the Wheeler--DeWitt operator and its role in the calculation of Green's functions and effective low energy interactions.Comment: 23 pages, 2 figures available upon request, REVTE

Tsunami generation potential of a strike slip fault tip in the westernmost Mediterranean

Tsunamis are triggered by sudden seafloor displacements, and usually originate from seismic activity at faults. Nevertheless, strike-slip faults are usually disregarded as major triggers, as they are thought to be capable of generating only moderate seafloor deformation; accordingly, the tsunamigenic potential of the vertical throw at the tips of strike-slip faults is not thought to be significant. We found the active dextral NW–SE Averroes Fault in the central Alboran Sea (westernmost Mediterranean) has a historical vertical throw of up to 5.4 m at its northwestern tip corresponding to an earthquake of Mw 7.0. We modelled the tsunamigenic potential of this seafloor deformation by Tsunami-HySEA software using the Coulomb 3.3 code. Waves propagating on two main branches reach highly populated sectors of the Iberian coast with maximum arrival heights of 6 m within 21 and 35 min, which is too quick for current early-warning systems to operate successfully. These findings suggest that the tsunamigenic potential of strike-slip faults is more important than previously thought, and should be taken into account for the re-evaluation of tsunami early-warning systems.Versión del edito

The latest (version 4.3) Mars Climate Database

Introduction: The Mars Climate Database (MCD) is a database of meteorological fields derived from General Circulation Model (GCM) numerical simulations of the Martian atmosphere and validated using available observational data. The MCD includes complementary post-processing schemes such as high spatial resolution interpolation of environmental data and means of reconstructing the variability thereof. The GCM is developed at Laboratoire de Météorologie Dynamique du CNRS (Paris, France) [1,2] in collaboration with the Open University (UK), the Oxford University (UK) and the Instituto de Astrofisica de Andalucia (Spain) with support from the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales (CNES)