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Searching for the missing mantles of disrupted asteroids: Evidence from an olivine-rich clast in the Vaca Muerta Mesosiderite
2P/Encke, the Taurid complex NEOs and the Maribo and Sutterâs Mill meteorites
Aims. 2P/Encke is a short period comet that was discovered in 1786 and has been extensively observed and studied for more than 200 years. The Taurid meteoroid stream has long been linked with 2P/Encke owing to a good match of their orbital elements, even though the cometâs activity is not strong enough to explain the number of observed meteors. Various small near-Earth objects (NEOs) have been discovered with orbits that can be linked to 2P/Encke and the Taurid meteoroid stream. Maribo and Sutterâs Mill are CM type carbonaceous chondrite that fell in Denmark on January 17, 2009 and April 22, 2012, respectively. Their pre-atmospheric orbits place them in the middle of the Taurid meteoroid stream, which raises the intriguing possibility that comet 2P/Encke could be the parent body of CM chondrites.
Methods. To investigate whether a relationship between comet 2P/Encke, the Taurid complex associated NEOs, and CM chondrites exists, we performed photometric and spectroscopic studies of these objects in the visible wavelength range. We observed 2P/Encke and 10 NEOs on August 2, 2011 with the FORS instrument at the 8.2 m Very Large Telescope on Cerro Paranal (Chile).
Results. Images in the R filter, used to investigate the possible presence of cometary activity around the nucleus of 2P/Encke and the NEOs, show that no resolved coma is present. None of the FORS spectra show the 700 nm absorption feature due to hydrated minerals that is seen in the CM chondrite meteorites. All objects show featureless spectra with moderate reddening slopes at λ10 and 1999 VT25, which show a flatter spectrum, the spectral slope of the observed NEOs is compatible with that of 2P/Encke. However, most of the NEOs show evidence of a silicate absorption in lower S/N data at λ> 800 nm, which is not seen in 2P/Encke, which suggests that they are not related.
Conclusions. Despite similar orbits, we find no spectroscopic evidence for a link between 2P/Encke, the Taurid complex NEOs and the Maribo and Sutterâs Mill meteorites. However, we cannot rule out a connection to the meteorites either, as the spectral differences may be caused by secondary alteration of the surfaces of the NEOs
Patterns of richness across forest beetle communitiesâA methodological comparison of observed and estimated species numbers
Abstract Species richness is a frequently used measure of biodiversity. The compilation of a complete species list is an often unattainable goal. Estimators of species richness have been developed to overcome this problem. While the use of these estimators is becoming increasingly popular, working with the observed number of species is still common practice. To assess whether patterns of beetle communities based on observed numbers may be compared among each other, we compared patterns from observed and estimated numbers of species for beetle communities in the canopy of the Leipzig floodplain forest. These patterns were species richness and the number of shared species among three tree species and two canopy strata. We tested the applicability of the asymptotic Chao1 estimator and the estimate provided by the nonasymptotic rarefactionâextrapolation method for all tree species and both upper canopy and lower canopy. In the majority of cases, the ranking patterns of species richness for host tree species and strata were the same for the observed and estimated number of species. The ranking patterns of the number of species shared among host tree species and strata, however, were significantly different between observed and estimated values. Our results indicate that the observed number of species underârepresents species richness and the number of shared species. However, ranking comparisons of published patterns based on the number of observed species may be acceptable for species richness but likely not reliable for the number of shared species. Further studies are needed to corroborate this conclusion. We encourage to use estimators and to provide open access to data to allow comparative assessments
Calabi-Yau Fourfolds with Flux and Supersymmetry Breaking
In Calabi-Yau fourfold compactifications of M-theory with flux, we
investigate the possibility of partial supersymmetry breaking in the
three-dimensional effective theory. To this end, we place the effective theory
in the framework of general N=2 gauged supergravities, in the special case
where only translational symmetries are gauged. This allows us to extract
supersymmetry-breaking conditions, and interpret them as conditions on the
4-form flux and Calabi-Yau geometry. For N=2 unbroken supersymmetry in three
dimensions we recover previously known results, and we find a new condition for
breaking supersymmetry from N=2 to N=1, i.e. from four to two supercharges. An
example of a Calabi-Yau hypersurface in a toric variety that satisfies this
condition is provided.Comment: 26 page
Whatâs so bad about scientism?
In their attempt to defend philosophy from accusations of uselessness made by prominent scientists, such as Stephen Hawking, some philosophers respond with the charge of âscientism.â This charge makes endorsing a scientistic stance, a mistake by definition. For this reason, it begs the question against these critics of philosophy, or anyone who is inclined to endorse a scientistic stance, and turns the scientism debate into a verbal dispute. In this paper, I propose a different definition of scientism, and thus a new way of looking at the scientism debate. Those philosophers who seek to defend philosophy against accusations of uselessness would do philosophy a much better service, I submit, if they were to engage with the definition of scientism put forth in this paper, rather than simply make it analytic that scientism is a mistake
Loop Groups, Kaluza-Klein Reduction and M-Theory
We show that the data of a principal G-bundle over a principal circle bundle
is equivalent to that of a \hat{LG} = U(1) |x LG bundle over the base of the
circle bundle. We apply this to the Kaluza-Klein reduction of M-theory to IIA
and show that certain generalized characteristic classes of the loop group
bundle encode the Bianchi identities of the antisymmetric tensor fields of IIA
supergravity. We further show that the low dimensional characteristic classes
of the central extension of the loop group encode the Bianchi identities of
massive IIA, thereby adding support to the conjectures of hep-th/0203218.Comment: 26 pages, LaTeX, utarticle.cls, v2:clarifications and refs adde
Moduli stabilization and uplifting with dynamically generated F-terms
We use the F-term dynamical supersymmetry breaking models with metastable
vacua in order to uplift the vacuum energy in the KKLT moduli stabilization
scenario. The main advantage compared to earlier proposals is the manifest
supersymmetric treatment and the natural coexistence of a TeV gravitino mass
with a zero cosmological constant. We argue that it is generically difficult to
avoid anti de-Sitter supersymmetric minima, however the tunneling rate from the
metastable vacuum with zero vacuum energy towards them can be very suppressed.
We briefly comment on the properties of the induced soft terms in the
observable sector.Comment: 18 pages, no figures Comments and one reference adde
Observing Brane Inflation
Linking the slow-roll scenario and the Dirac-Born-Infeld scenario of
ultra-relativistic roll (where, thanks to the warp factor, the inflaton moves
slowly even with an ultra-relativistic Lorentz factor), we find that the KKLMMT
D3/anti-D3 brane inflation is robust, that is, enough e-folds of inflation is
quite generic in the parameter space of the model. We show that the
intermediate regime of relativistic roll can be quite interesting
observationally. Introducing appropriate inflationary parameters, we explore
the parameter space and give the constraints and predictions for the
cosmological observables in this scenario. Among other properties, this
scenario allows the saturation of the present observational bound of either the
tensor/scalar ratio r (in the intermediate regime) or the non-Gaussianity f_NL
(in the ultra-relativistic regime), but not both.Comment: 31 pages, 12 figures; typo correcte
Supersymmetric codimension-two branes and U(1)_R mediation in 6D gauged supergravity
We construct a consistent supersymmetric action for brane chiral and vector
multiplets in a six-dimensional chiral gauged supergravity. A nonzero brane
tension can be accommodated by allowing for a brane-localized Fayet-Iliopoulos
term proportional to the brane tension. When the brane chiral multiplet is
charged under the bulk U(1)_R, we obtain a nontrivial coupling to the extra
component of the U(1)_R gauge field strength as well as a singular scalar
self-interaction term. Dimensionally reducing to 4D on a football
supersymmetric solution, we discuss the implication of such interactions for
obtaining the U(1)_R D-term in the 4D effective supergravity. By assuming the
bulk gaugino condensates and nonzero brane F- and/or D-term for the uplifting
potential, we have all the moduli stabilized with a vanishing cosmological
constant. The brane scalar with nonzero R charge then gets a soft mass of order
the gravitino mass. The overall sign of the soft mass squared depends on the
sign of the R charge as well as whether the brane F- or D-term dominates.Comment: 28 pages, no figures, version to appear in JHE
de Sitter String Vacua from Kahler Uplifting
We present a new way to construct de Sitter vacua in type IIB flux
compactifications, in which the interplay of the leading perturbative and
non-perturbative effects stabilize all moduli in dS vacua at parametrically
large volume. Here, the closed string fluxes fix the dilaton and the complex
structure moduli while the universal leading perturbative quantum correction to
the Kahler potential together with non-perturbative effects stabilize the
volume Kahler modulus in a dS_4-vacuum. Since the quantum correction is known
exactly and can be kept parametrically small, this construction leads to
calculable and explicitly realized de Sitter vacua of string theory with
spontaneously broken supersymmetry.Comment: 1+21 pages, 5 figures, LaTeX, uses JHEP3 class, v3: conforms with
published versio
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