Effect of negative ions on the diffusion of charged particles in the lower ionosphere

Effect of negative ions on diffusion of charged particles in lower ionospher

Super-Earth Atmospheres: Self-Consistent Gas Accretion and Retention

Some recently discovered short-period Earth to Neptune sized exoplanets (super Earths) have low observed mean densities which can only be explained by voluminous gaseous atmospheres. Here, we study the conditions allowing the accretion and retention of such atmospheres. We self-consistently couple the nebular gas accretion onto rocky cores and the subsequent evolution of gas envelopes following the dispersal of the protoplanetary disk. Specifically, we address mass-loss due to both photo-evaporation and cooling of the planet. We find that planets shed their outer layers (dozens of percents in mass) following the disk's dispersal (even without photo-evaporation), and their atmospheres shrink in a few Myr to a thickness comparable to the radius of the underlying rocky core. At this stage, atmospheres containing less particles than the core (equivalently, lighter than a few % of the planet's mass) can be blown away by heat coming from the cooling core, while heavier atmospheres cool and contract on a timescale of Gyr at most. By relating the mass-loss timescale to the accretion time, we analytically identify a Goldilocks region in the mass-temperature plane in which low-density super Earths can be found: planets have to be massive and cold enough to accrete and retain their atmospheres, while not too massive or cold, such that they do not enter runaway accretion and become gas giants (Jupiters). We compare our results to the observed super-Earth population and find that low-density planets are indeed concentrated in the theoretically allowed region. Our analytical and intuitive model can be used to investigate possible super-Earth formation scenarios.Comment: Updated (refereed) versio

Determination of the Higgs-boson couplings and H-A mixing in the generalized SM-like Two Higgs Doublet Model

The feasibility of measuring the Higgs-boson properties at the Photon Collider at TESLA has been studied in detail for masses between 200 and 350 GeV, using realistic luminosity spectra and detector simulation. We consider the Two Higgs Doublet Model (II) with SM-like Yukawa couplings for h, parametrized by only one parameter (tan(beta)). The combined measurement of the invariant-mass distributions in the ZZ and W+W- decay-channels is sensitive to both the two-photon width Gamma_{gamma gamma} and phase Phi_{gamma gamma}. From the analysis including systematic uncertainties we found out that after one year of Photon Collider running with nominal luminosity the expected precision in the measurement of tan(beta) is of the order of 10%, for both light (h) and heavy (H) scalar Higgs bosons. The H-A mixing angle Phi_{HA}, characterizing a weak CP violation in the model with two Higgs doublets, can be determined to about 100 mrad, for low tan(beta).Comment: 17 pages, 9 figures; published versio

The role of energy-momentum conservation in emission of Cherenkov gluons

The famous formula for the emission angle of Cherenkov radiation should be modified when applied to hadronic reactions because of recoil effects. They impose the upper limit on the energy of the gluon emitted at a given angle. Also, it leads to essential corrections to the nuclear refractive index value as determined from the angular position of Cherenkov rings.Comment: 6

Detecting photon-photon scattering in vacuum at exawatt lasers

In a recent paper, we have shown that the QED nonlinear corrections imply a phase correction to the linear evolution of crossing electromagnetic waves in vacuum. Here, we provide a more complete analysis, including a full numerical solution of the QED nonlinear wave equations for short-distance propagation in a symmetric configuration. The excellent agreement of such a solution with the result that we obtain using our perturbatively-motivated Variational Approach is then used to justify an analytical approximation that can be applied in a more general case. This allows us to find the most promising configuration for the search of photon-photon scattering in optics experiments. In particular, we show that our previous requirement of phase coherence between the two crossing beams can be released. We then propose a very simple experiment that can be performed at future exawatt laser facilities, such as ELI, by bombarding a low power laser beam with the exawatt bump.Comment: 8 pages, 6 figure

Thinning of superfluid films below the critical point

Experiments on $^4$He films reveal an attractive Casimir-like force at the bulk $\lambda$-point, and in the superfluid regime. Previous work has explained the magnitude of this force at the $\lambda$ transition and deep in the superfluid region but not the substantial attractive force immediately below the $\lambda$-point. Utilizing a simple mean-field calculation renormalized by critical fluctuations we obtain an effective Casimir force that is qualitatively consistent with the scaling function $\vartheta$ obtained by collapse of experimental data.Comment: 4 page

Combinatorics and formal geometry of the master equation

We give a general treatment of the master equation in homotopy algebras and describe the operads and formal differential geometric objects governing the corresponding algebraic structures. We show that the notion of Maurer-Cartan twisting is encoded in certain automorphisms of these universal objects

Economic impact of large public programs: The NASA experience

The economic impact of NASA programs on weather forecasting and the computer and semiconductor industries is discussed. Contributions to the advancement of the science of astronomy are also considered