Ephemeral active regions and coronal bright points: A solar maximum Mission 2 guest investigator study

A dominate association of coronal bright points (as seen in He wavelength 10830) was confirmed with the approach and subsequent disappearance of opposite polarity magnetic network. While coronal bright points do occur with ephemeral regions, this association is a factor of 2 to 4 less than with sites of disappearing magnetic flux. The intensity variations seen in He I wavelength 10830 are intermittent and often rapid, varying over the 3 minute time resolution of the data; their bright point counterparts in the C IV wavelength 1548 and 20 cm wavelength show similar, though not always coincident time variations. Ejecta are associated with about 1/3 of the dark points and are evident in the C IV and H alpha data. These results support the idea that the anti-correlation of X-ray bright points with the solar cycle can be explained by the correlation of these coronal emission structures with sites of cancelling flux, indicating that, in some cases, the process of magnetic flux removal results in the release of energy. That the intensity variations are rapid and variable suggests that this process works intermittently

Widening participation and success in STEM: Embedding research-engaged practice to measure impact

There is a systemic shortage in the number of graduates entering the STEM workforce. To address the current graduate shortage (HM Govt, 2017), the widening gap between industry demand, the available skilled workforce (ASE, 2020), and the underrepresentation of key groups within STEM industries and academia requires overhauling the STEM education ‘pipeline’. However, there is a lack of consensus on how to increase the diversity of students pursuing STEM post-16 and how to tackle the dual challenges of engagement and science capital for the most underrepresented groups. This paper discusses the development of a research-engaged sustained STEM outreach programme working with students from rural and coastal schools in South-East England. Whilst there are numerous STEM programmes that aim to provide academic support, build science capital or improve diversity in post-16 STEM studies, this paper describes how two areas of innovative practice came together in a university-led pre-entry STEM widening participation programme: Inspiring Minds. The first relates to its foundation in a research-engaged pedagogy (the epistemic insight curriculum) that underpinned the programme content and design, and the second to the embedded approach to rigorous evaluation and impact monitoring tracking shifts in both aspirational and attainment measures of participating students

The intensity dependent mass shift: existence, universality and detection

The electron mass shift in a laser field has long remained an elusive concept. We show that the mass shift can exist in pulses but that it is neither unique nor universal: it can be reduced by pulse shaping. We show also that the detection of mass shift effects in laser-particle scattering experiments is feasible with current technology, even allowing for the transverse structure of realistic beams.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures. V2: references added, introduction expande

Entropy of Thermally Excited Black Rings

A string theory description of near extremal black rings is proposed. The entropy is computed and the thermodynamic properties are derived for a large family of black rings that have not yet been constructed in supergravity. It is also argued that the most general black ring in N=8 supergravity has 21 parameters up to duality.Comment: 17 pages; v2: minor edits and refs adde

Peculiar properties of the cluster-cluster interaction induced by the Pauli exclusion principle

Role of the Pauli principle in the formation of both the discrete spectrum and multi-channel states of the binary nuclear systems composed of clusters is studied in the Algebraic Version of the resonating-group method. Solutions of the Hill-Wheeler equations in the discrete representation of a complete basis of the Pauli-allowed states are discussed for 4He+n, 3H+3H, and 4He+4He binary systems. An exact treatment of the antisymmetrization effects are shown to result in either an effective repulsion of the clusters, or their effective attraction. It also yields a change in the intensity of the centrifugal potential. Both factors significantly affect the scattering phase behavior. Special attention is paid to the multi-channel cluster structure 6He+6He as well as to the difficulties arising in the case when the two clustering configurations, 6He+6He and 4He+8He, are taken into account simultaneously. In the latter case the Pauli principle, even in the absence of a potential energy of the cluster-cluster interaction, leads to the inelastic processes and secures an existence of both the bound state and resonance in the 12Be compound nucleus.Comment: 17 pages, 14 figures, 1 table; submitted to Phys.Rev.C Keywords: light neutron-rich nuclei, cluster model

Potential of legume-based grassland-livestock systems in Europe

European grassland-based livestock production systems face the challenge of producing more meat and milk to meet increasing world demands and to achieve this using fewer resources. Legumes offer great potential for achieving these objectives. They have numerous features that can act together at different stages in the soil–plant–animal–atmosphere system, and these are most effective in mixed swards with a legume proportion of 30–50%. The resulting benefits include reduced dependence on fossil energy and industrial N-fertilizer, lower quantities of harmful emissions to the environment (greenhouse gases and nitrate), lower production costs, higher productivity and increased protein self-sufficiency. Some legume species offer opportunities for improving animal health with less medication, due to the presence of bioactive secondary metabolites. In addition, legumes may offer an adaptation option to rising atmospheric CO2 concentrations and climate change. Legumes generate these benefits at the level of the managed land-area unit and also at the level of the final product unit. However, legumes suffer from some limitations, and suggestions are made for future research to exploit more fully the opportunities that legumes can offer. In conclusion, the development of legume-based grassland–livestock systems undoubtedly constitutes one of the pillars for more sustainable and competitive ruminant production systems, and it can be expected that forage legumes will become more important in the future

Revisiting Clifford algebras and spinors III: conformal structures and twistors in the paravector model of spacetime

This paper is the third of a series of three, and it is the continuation of math-ph/0412074 and math-ph/0412075. After reviewing the conformal spacetime structure, conformal maps are described in Minkowski spacetime as the twisted adjoint representation of the group Spin_+(2,4), acting on paravectors. Twistors are then presented via the paravector model of Clifford algebras and related to conformal maps in the Clifford algebra over the lorentzian R{4,1}$ spacetime. We construct twistors in Minkowski spacetime as algebraic spinors associated with the Dirac-Clifford algebra Cl(1,3)(C) using one lower spacetime dimension than standard Clifford algebra formulations, since for this purpose the Clifford algebra over R{4,1} is also used to describe conformal maps, instead of R{2,4}. Although some papers have already described twistors using the algebra Cl(1,3)(C), isomorphic to Cl(4,1), the present formulation sheds some new light on the use of the paravector model and generalizations.Comment: 17 page

String Junctions and Bound States of Intersecting Branes

We study four-dimensional black hole configurations which result from wrapping M5-branes on a Calabi-Yau manifold, as well as U-dual realizations. Our aim is to understand the microscopic degrees of freedom responsible for the existence of bound states of multiple branes. The details depend on the chosen U-frame; in some cases, they are massless string junctions. We also identify a perturbative description in which these states correspond to twisted strings of intersecting D3-branes at an orbifold singularity. In each case, these are the preponderant states of the spacetime infrared conformal field theory and account for the entropy of the blackhole.Comment: 14 pages; 2 figures; uses latex with epsf and hyperref package