607 research outputs found
On the definition of temperature in FPU systems
It is usually assumed, in classical statistical mechanics, that the
temperature should coincide, apart from a suitable constant factor, with the
mean kinetic energy of the particles. We show that this is not the case for
\FPU systems, in conditions in which energy equipartition between the modes is
not attained. We find that the temperature should be rather identified with the
mean value of the energy of the low frequency modes.Comment: 12 pages, 4 Figure
FPU phenomenon for generic initial data
The well known FPU phenomenon (lack of attainment of equipartition of the
mode--energies at low energies, for some exceptional initial data) suggests
that the FPU model does not have the mixing property at low energies. We give
numerical indications that this is actually the case. This we show by computing
orbits for sets of initial data of full measure, sampled out from the
microcanonical ensemble by standard Montecarlo techniques. Mixing is tested by
looking at the decay of the autocorrelations of the mode--energies, and it is
found that the high--frequency modes have autocorrelations that tend instead to
positive values. Indications are given that such a nonmixing property survives
in the thermodynamic limit. It is left as an open problem whether mixing
obtains within time--scales much longer than the presently available ones
Biogenic halocarbons from the Peruvian upwelling region as tropospheric halogen source
Halocarbons are produced naturally in the oceans by biological and chemical processes. They are emitted from surface seawater into the atmosphere, where they take part in numerous chemical processes such as ozone destruction and the oxidation of mercury and dimethyl sulfide. Here we present oceanic and atmospheric halocarbon data for the Peruvian upwelling zone obtained during the M91 cruise onboard the research vessel METEOR in December 2012. Surface waters during the cruise were characterized by moderate concentrations of bromoform (CHBr3) and dibromomethane (CH2Br2) correlating with diatom biomass derived from marker pigment concentrations, which suggests this phytoplankton group is a likely source. Concentrations measured for the iodinated compounds methyl iodide (CH3I) of up to 35.4 pmol L−1, chloroiodomethane (CH2ClI) of up to 58.1 pmol L−1 and diiodomethane (CH2I2) of up to 32.4 pmol L−1 in water samples were much higher than previously reported for the tropical Atlantic upwelling systems. Iodocarbons also correlated with the diatom biomass and even more significantly with dissolved organic matter (DOM) components measured in the surface water. Our results suggest a biological source of these compounds as a significant driving factor for the observed large iodocarbon concentrations. Elevated atmospheric mixing ratios of CH3I (up to 3.2 ppt), CH2ClI (up to 2.5 ppt) and CH2I2 (3.3 ppt) above the upwelling were correlated with seawater concentrations and high sea-to-air fluxes. During the first part of the cruise, the enhanced iodocarbon production in the Peruvian upwelling contributed significantly to tropospheric iodine levels, while this contribution was considerably smaller during the second part
Discrete Matter, Far Fields, and Dark Matter
We show that in cosmology the gravitational action of the far away matter has
quite relevant effects, if retardation of the forces and discreteness of matter
(with its spatial correlation) are taken into account. The expansion rate is
found to be determined by the density of the far away matter, i.e., by the
density of matter at remote times. This leads to the introduction of an
effective density, which has to be five times larger than the present one, if
the present expansion rate is to be accounted for. The force per unit mass on a
test particle is found to be of the order of 0.2cH_0. The corresponding
contribution to the virial of the forces for a cluster of galaxies is also
discussed, and it is shown that it fits the observations if a decorrelation
property of the forces at two separated points is assumed. So it appears that
the gravitational effects of the far away matter may have the same order of
magnitude as the corresponding local effects of dark matter.Comment: 16 pages, 1 figure. LaTex documen
- …