Examining Drivers Of Phenotypic Variation In The Perennial Herb Showy Milkweed (Asclepias Speciosa).

Many plant species show variation in phenotypic traits, such as traits related to growth and defense against herbivores, across environmental gradients. Differences in phenotypic traits can be due to selection, leading to local adaptation, or due to the random process of genetic drift. To examine the driver of phenotypic variation, I conducted a Qst (a measure of phenotypic variation among populations) vs. Fst (a measure of genetic variation among populations) analysis for 13 populations of A. speciosa grown in a common garden, using five growth and defense traits and seven microsatellite markers. I found relatively low differentiation at the neutral markers (mean Fst = 0.005), and population differentiation of plant height, leaf shape, and latex production traits (but not trichome density or specific leaf area). These results suggest that the three highly differentiated growth and defense traits are responding to population-specific selection pressures, indicating local adaptation of A. speciosa distributed across an environmental gradient

Gravitational collapse of a magnetized fermion gas with finite temperature

We examine the dynamics of a self--gravitating magnetized electron gas at finite temperature near the collapsing singularity of a Bianchi-I spacetime. Considering a general and appropriate and physically motivated initial conditions, we transform Einstein--Maxwell field equations into a complete and self--consistent dynamical system amenable for numerical work. The resulting numerical solutions reveal the gas collapsing into both, isotropic ("point-like") and anisotropic ("cigar-like") singularities, depending on the initial intensity of the magnetic field. We provide a thorough study of the near collapse behavior and interplay of all relevant state and kinematic variables: temperature, expansion scalar, shear scalar, magnetic field, magnetization and energy density. A significant qualitative difference in the behavior of the gas emerges in the temperature range $\hbox{T} sim10^{4}\hbox{K}$ and $\hbox{T}\sim 10^{7}\hbox{K}$.Comment: 9 pages, 7 figures. arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:1211.598

Towards a physical interpretation for the Stephani Universes

A physicaly reasonable interpretation is provided for the perfect fluid, sphericaly symmetric, conformally flat ``Stephani Universes''. The free parameters of this class of exact solutions are determined so that the ideal gas relation $p=n k T$ is identicaly fulfiled, while the full equation of state of a classical monatomic ideal gas and a matter-radiation mixture holds up to a good approximation in a near dust, matter dominated regime. Only the models having spacelike slices with positive curvature admit a regular evolution domain that avoids an unphysical singularity. In the matter dominated regime these models are dynamicaly and observationaly indistinguishable from ``standard'' FLRW cosmology with a dust source.Comment: 17 pages, 2 figures, LaTeX with revtex style, submitted to General Relativity and Gravitatio

Evolution of radial profiles in regular Lemaitre-Tolman-Bondi dust models

We undertake a comprehensive and rigorous analytic study of the evolution of radial profiles of covariant scalars in regular Lemaitre-Tolman-Bondi dust models. We consider specifically the phenomenon of "profile inversions" in which an initial clump profile of density, spatial curvature or the expansion scalar, might evolve into a void profile (and vice versa). Previous work in the literature on models with density void profiles and/or allowing for density profile inversions is given full generalization, with some erroneous results corrected. We prove rigorously that if an evolution without shell crossings is assumed, then only the 'clump to void' inversion can occur in density profiles, and only in hyperbolic models or regions with negative spatial curvature. The profiles of spatial curvature follow similar patterns as those of the density, with 'clump to void' inversions only possible for hyperbolic models or regions. However, profiles of the expansion scalar are less restrictive, with profile inversions necessarily taking place in elliptic models. We also examine radial profiles in special LTB configurations: closed elliptic models, models with a simultaneous big bang singularity, as well as a locally collapsing elliptic region surrounded by an expanding hyperbolic background. The general analytic statements that we obtain allow for setting up the right initial conditions to construct fully regular LTB models with any specific qualitative requirements for the profiles of all scalars and their time evolution. The results presented can be very useful in guiding future numerical work on these models and in revising previous analytic work on all their applications.Comment: Final version to appear in Classical and Quantum Gravity. Readers eager to know the results and implications without having to go through the technical detail are recommended to go directly to the summary and discussion in the final section (section 11). Typos have been corrected and an important reference has been adde

Ideal gas sources for the Lemaitre-Tolman-Bondi metrics

New exact solutions emerge by replacing the dust source of the Lem\^aitre-Tolman-Bondi metrics with a viscous fluid satisfying the monatomic gas equation of state. The solutions have a consistent thermodynamical interpretation. The most general transport equation of Extended Irreversible Thermodynamics is satisfied, with phenomenological coefficients bearing a close resemblance to those characterizing a non relativistic Maxwell-Bolzmann gas.Comment: 7 pages, Plain TeX with IOP macros, important corrections to previous version, 3 figures (to appear in Classical and Quantum Gravity, June 1998

Multimode Memories in Atomic Ensembles

The ability to store multiple optical modes in a quantum memory allows for increased efficiency of quantum communication and computation. Here we compute the multimode capacity of a variety of quantum memory protocols based on light storage in ensembles of atoms. We find that adding a controlled inhomogeneous broadening improves this capacity significantly.Comment: Published version. Many thanks are due to Christoph Simon for his help and suggestions. (This acknowledgement is missing from the final draft: apologies!

Efficient spatially-resolved multimode quantum memory

We propose a method that enables efficient storage and retrieval of a photonic excitation stored in an ensemble quantum memory consisting of Lambda-type absorbers with non-zero Stokes shift. We show that this can be used to implement a multimode quantum memory storing multiple frequency-encoded qubits in a single ensemble, and allowing their selective retrieval. The read-out scheme applies to memory setups based on both electromagnetically-induced transparency and stimulated Raman scattering, and spatially separates the output signal field from the control fields