1,595 research outputs found
Bark beetle population dynamics in the Anthropocene: Challenges and solutions
Tree-killing bark beetles are the most economically important insects in conifer forests worldwide. However, despite N200 years of research, the drivers of population eruptions and crashes are still not fully understood and the existing knowledge is thus insufficient to face the challenges posed by the Anthropocene. We critically analyze potential biotic and abiotic drivers of population dynamics of an exemplary species, the European spruce bark beetle (ESBB) (Ips typographus) and present a multivariate approach that integrates the many drivers governing this bark beetle system. We call for hypothesis-driven, large-scale collaborative research efforts to improve our understanding of the population dynamics of this and other bark beetle pests. Our approach can serve as a blueprint for tackling other eruptive forest insects
Elastic turbulence in shear banding wormlike micelles
We study the dynamics of the Taylor-Couette flow of shear banding wormlike
micelles. We focus on the high shear rate branch of the flow curve and show
that for sufficiently high Weissenberg numbers, this branch becomes unstable.
This instability is strongly sub-critical and is associated with a shear stress
jump. We find that this increase of the flow resistance is related to the
nucleation of turbulence. The flow pattern shows similarities with the elastic
turbulence, so far only observed for polymer solutions. The unstable character
of this branch led us to propose a scenario that could account for the recent
observations of Taylor-like vortices during the shear banding flow of wormlike
micelles
A homological interpretation of the transverse quiver Grassmannians
In recent articles, the investigation of atomic bases in cluster algebras
associated to affine quivers led the second-named author to introduce a variety
called transverse quiver Grassmannian and the first-named and third-named
authors to consider the smooth loci of quiver Grassmannians. In this paper, we
prove that, for any affine quiver Q, the transverse quiver Grassmannian of an
indecomposable representation M is the set of points N in the quiver
Grassmannian of M such that Ext^1(N,M/N)=0. As a corollary we prove that the
transverse quiver Grassmannian coincides with the smooth locus of the
irreducible components of minimal dimension in the quiver Grassmannian.Comment: final version, 7 pages, corollary 1.2 has been modifie
Jet Bundles in Quantum Field Theory: The BRST-BV method
The geometric interpretation of the Batalin-Vilkovisky antibracket as the
Schouten bracket of functional multivectors is examined in detail. The
identification is achieved by the process of repeated contraction of even
functional multivectors with fermionic functional 1-forms. The classical master
equation may then be considered as a generalisation of the Jacobi identity for
Poisson brackets, and the cohomology of a nilpotent even functional multivector
is identified with the BRST cohomology. As an example, the BRST-BV formulation
of gauge fixing in theories with gauge symmetries is reformulated in the jet
bundle formalism. (Hopefully this version will be TeXable)Comment: 26 page
Thermodynamics of the incommensurate state in Rb_2WO_4: on the Lifshitz point in A`A``BX_4 compounds
We consider the evolution of the phase transition from the parent hexagonal
phase to the orthorhombic phase that occurs in several
compounds of family as a function of the hcp lattice parameter
. For compounds of type with larger than the threshold
value 1.26 the direct first-order transition is characterized
by the large entropy jump . For compounds , ,
with this transition occurs via an intermediate
incommensurate phase. DSC measurements were performed in
to characterize the thermodynamics of the transitions. It
was found that both transitions are again of the first order with entropy jumps
0.3Rln2c/a ~ 1.26A'A''BX_{4}BX_{4}$ tetrahedra
orientation as a possible source of the transitions discontinuity.Comment: 13 pages,1 Postscript figure. Submitted as Brief Report to Phys. Rev.
B, this paper reports a new work in Theory and Experiment, directed to
Structural Phase Transition
Comparison of global inventories of CO emissions from biomass burning derived from remotely sensed data
We compare five global inventories of monthly CO emissions named VGT, ATSR, MODIS, GFED3 and MOPITT based on remotely sensed active fires and/or burned area products for the year 2003. The objective is to highlight similarities and differences by focusing on the geographical and temporal distribution and on the emissions for three broad land cover classes (forest, savanna/grassland and agriculture). Globally, CO emissions for the year 2003 range between 365 Tg CO (GFED3) and 1422 Tg CO (VGT). Despite the large uncertainty in the total amounts, some common spatial patterns typical of biomass burning can be identified in the boreal forests of Siberia, in agricultural areas of Eastern Europe and Russia and in savanna ecosystems of South America, Africa and Australia. Regionally, the largest difference in terms of total amounts (CV > 100%) and seasonality is observed at the northernmost latitudes, especially in North America and Siberia where VGT appears to overestimate the area affected by fires. On the contrary, Africa shows the best agreement both in terms of total annual amounts (CV = 31%) and of seasonality despite some overestimation of emissions from forest and agriculture observed in the MODIS inventory. In Africa VGT provides the most reliable seasonality. Looking at the broad land cover types, the range of contribution to the global emissions of CO is 64–74%, 23–32% and 3–4% for forest, savanna/grassland and agriculture, respectively. These results suggest that there is still large uncertainty in global estimates of emissions and it increases if the comparison is carried by out taking into account the temporal (month) and spatial (0.5° × 0.5° cell) dimensions. Besides the area affected by fires, also vegetation characteristics and conditions at the time of burning should also be accurately parameterized since they can greatly influence the global estimates of CO emissions
Consequences of a covariant Description of Heavy Ion Reactions at intermediate Energies
Heavy ion collisions at intermediate energies are studied by using a new RQMD
code, which is a covariant generalization of the QMD approach. We show that
this new implementation is able to produce the same results in the
nonrelativistic limit (i.e. 50MeV/nucl.) as the non-covariant QMD. Such a
comparison is not available in the literature. At higher energies (i.e. 1.5
GeV/nucl. and 2 GeV/nucl.) RQMD and QMD give different results in respect to
the time evolution of the phase space, for example for the directed transverse
flow. These differences show that consequences of a covariant description of
heavy ion reactions within the framework of RQMD are existing even at
intermediate energies.Comment: LaTex-file, 28 pages, 8 figures (available upon request), accepted
for publication in Physical Review
The rise of fully turbulent flow
Over a century of research into the origin of turbulence in wallbounded shear
flows has resulted in a puzzling picture in which turbulence appears in a
variety of different states competing with laminar background flow. At slightly
higher speeds the situation changes distinctly and the entire flow is
turbulent. Neither the origin of the different states encountered during
transition, nor their front dynamics, let alone the transformation to full
turbulence could be explained to date. Combining experiments, theory and
computer simulations here we uncover the bifurcation scenario organising the
route to fully turbulent pipe flow and explain the front dynamics of the
different states encountered in the process. Key to resolving this problem is
the interpretation of the flow as a bistable system with nonlinear propagation
(advection) of turbulent fronts. These findings bridge the gap between our
understanding of the onset of turbulence and fully turbulent flows.Comment: 31 pages, 9 figure
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