Constructing 3D crystal templates for photonic band gap materials using holographic optical tweezers

A simple and robust method is presented for the construction of 3-dimensional crystals from silica and polystyrene microspheres. The crystals are suitable for use as templates in the production of three-dimensional photonic band gap (PBG) materials. Manipulation of the microspheres was achieved using a dynamic holographic assembler (DHA) consisting of computer controlled holographic optical tweezers. Attachment of the microspheres was achieved by adjusting their colloidal interactions during assembly. The method is demonstrated by constructing a variety of 3-dimensional crystals using spheres ranging in size from 3 µm down to 800 nm. A major advantage of the technique is that it may be used to build structures that cannot be made using self-assembly. This is illustrated through the construction of crystals in which line defects have been deliberately included, and by building simple cubic structures

Integrating risks of climate change into water management

[No abstract available

Assessing the influence of isotopic composition of water on that of clay minerals during chemical treatments.

The isotopic composition of hydrogen in authigenic minerals is a useful tool to reconstruct past paleo-environments. Clay minerals are an important component of authigenic minerals in soils and sediments but they usually occur with other compounds that must be eliminated before the analysis, such as organic matter and carbonates. Thus, various “pre-treatments” are used, generally involving dilute HCl and H2O2 solutions in water. In this work, the influence of the isotopic composition of the water used in these pre-treatment solutions is assessed, using ten different samples of clay minerals. The isotopic composition of hydrogen was measured in each sample after HCl pre-treatment alone, H2O2 pre-treatment alone and both HCl and H2O2 pre-treatments in sequence, using two types of water in the pre-treatment solutions: one 2H-enriched and one 2H-depleted. The results indicate some influence of the isotopic composition of the water on the clay minerals after pre-treatment. In general, the samples showed significant alteration by HCl pre-treatment and negligible alteration by H2O2 pre-treatment. A pure kaolinite reference material did not show any change by chemical pre-treatment while a smectite reference material did show significant effects. Other samples (Ethiopian lacustrine sediment samples and Spanish cave sediments) showed important differences, which also depend on clay mineralogy. Thus, mineralogy seems to be the main cause of the variability in the alteration, especially the quantity of smectite. In addition, this result challenges the utility of clay minerals for isotope studies in acid conditions, such as in acidic soils, to reconstruct past environments and, therefore, climate changes.This study was developed during a stay supported by predoctoral mobility grant from the Spanish MINECO. Financial support for this work was obtained from MINECO Grant CGL2015-65387-C3-3-P. I. Campaña was the beneficiary of a predoctoral FPI Grant from the Spanish MINECO. We thank Jessica Wilson at the University of South Florida School of Geosciences who supported the isotopic analysis. J.G. Wynn was supported by an NSF IR/D program. Special thanks to the local resident of Burgos that help us remove the car from a mud puddle. // Funding for open access charge: Universidad de Málaga / CBU

Integrating risks of climate change into water management

The Working Group II contribution to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change critically reviewed and assessed tens of thousands of recent publications to inform about the assess current scientific knowledge on climate change impacts, vulnerability and adaptation. Chapter 3 of the report focuses on freshwater resources, but water issues are also prominent in other sectoral chapters and in the regional chapters of the Working Group II report as well as in various chapters of Working Group I. With this paper, the lead authors, a review editor and the chapter scientist of the freshwater chapter of the WGII AR5 wish to summarize their assessment of the most relevant risks of climate change related to freshwater systems and to show how assessment and reduction of those risks can be integrated into water management

First -decay spectroscopy of and new -decay branches of

19 pags., 14 figs., 3 tabs.The  decay of the neutron-rich and was investigated experimentally in order to provide new insights into the nuclear structure of the tin isotopes with magic proton number above the shell. The -delayed -ray spectroscopy measurement was performed at the ISOLDE facility at CERN, where indium isotopes were selectively laser-ionized and on-line mass separated. Three -decay branches of were established, two of which were observed for the first time. Population of neutron-unbound states decaying via rays was identified in the two daughter nuclei of and , at excitation energies exceeding the neutron separation energy by 1 MeV. The -delayed one- and two-neutron emission branching ratios of were determined and compared with theoretical calculations. The -delayed one-neutron decay was observed to be dominant -decay branch of even though the Gamow-Teller resonance is located substantially above the two-neutron separation energy of . Transitions following the  decay of are reported for the first time, including rays tentatively attributed to . In total, six new levels were identified in on the basis of the coincidences observed in the and decays. A transition that might be a candidate for deexciting the missing neutron single-particle state in was observed in both  decays and its assignment is discussed. Experimental level schemes of and are compared with shell-model predictions. Using the fast timing technique, half-lives of the , and levels in were determined. From the lifetime of the state measured for the first time, an unexpectedly large transition strength was deduced, which is not reproduced by the shell-model calculations.M.P.-S. acknowledges the funding support from the Polish National Science Center under Grants No. 2019/33/N/ST2/03023 and No. 2020/36/T/ST2/00547 (Doctoral scholarship ETIUDA). J.B. acknowledges support from the Universidad Complutense de Madrid under the Predoctoral Grant No. CT27/16- CT28/16. This work was partially funded by the Polish National Science Center under Grants No. 2020/39/B/ST2/02346, No. 2015/18/E/ST2/00217, and No. 2015/18/M/ST2/00523, by the Spanish government via Projects No. FPA2017-87568-P, No. RTI2018-098868-B-I00, No. PID2019-104390GB-I00, and No. PID2019-104714GB-C21, by the U.K. Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC), the German BMBF under Contract No. 05P18PKCIA, by the Portuguese FCT under the Projects No. CERN/FIS-PAR/0005/2017, and No. CERN/FIS-TEC/0003/2019, and by the Romanian IFA Grant CERN/ISOLDE. The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under Grant Agreement No. 654002. M.Str. acknowledges the funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under Grant Agreement No. 771036 (ERC CoG MAIDEN). J.P. acknowledges support from the Academy of Finland (Finland) with Grant No. 307685. Work at the University of York was supported under STFC Grants No. ST/L005727/1 and No. ST/P003885/1

Global maps of soil temperature.

Research in global change ecology relies heavily on global climatic grids derived from estimates of air temperature in open areas at around 2 m above the ground. These climatic grids do not reflect conditions below vegetation canopies and near the ground surface, where critical ecosystem functions occur and most terrestrial species reside. Here, we provide global maps of soil temperature and bioclimatic variables at a 1-km <sup>2</sup> resolution for 0-5 and 5-15 cm soil depth. These maps were created by calculating the difference (i.e. offset) between in situ soil temperature measurements, based on time series from over 1200 1-km <sup>2</sup> pixels (summarized from 8519 unique temperature sensors) across all the world's major terrestrial biomes, and coarse-grained air temperature estimates from ERA5-Land (an atmospheric reanalysis by the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts). We show that mean annual soil temperature differs markedly from the corresponding gridded air temperature, by up to 10°C (mean = 3.0 ± 2.1°C), with substantial variation across biomes and seasons. Over the year, soils in cold and/or dry biomes are substantially warmer (+3.6 ± 2.3°C) than gridded air temperature, whereas soils in warm and humid environments are on average slightly cooler (-0.7 ± 2.3°C). The observed substantial and biome-specific offsets emphasize that the projected impacts of climate and climate change on near-surface biodiversity and ecosystem functioning are inaccurately assessed when air rather than soil temperature is used, especially in cold environments. The global soil-related bioclimatic variables provided here are an important step forward for any application in ecology and related disciplines. Nevertheless, we highlight the need to fill remaining geographic gaps by collecting more in situ measurements of microclimate conditions to further enhance the spatiotemporal resolution of global soil temperature products for ecological applications

Search for the doubly heavy baryon Ξbc+\it{\Xi}_{bc}^{+} decaying to J/ψΞc+J/\it{\psi} \it{\Xi}_{c}^{+}

A first search for the $\it{\Xi}_{bc}^{+}\to J/\it{\psi}\it{\Xi}_{c}^{+}$ decay is performed by the LHCb experiment with a data sample of proton-proton collisions, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of $9\,\mathrm{fb}^{-1}$ recorded at centre-of-mass energies of 7, 8, and $13\mathrm{\,Te\kern -0.1em V}$. Two peaking structures are seen with a local (global) significance of $4.3\,(2.8)$ and $4.1\,(2.4)$ standard deviations at masses of $6571\,\mathrm{Me\kern -0.1em V\!/}c^2$ and $6694\,\mathrm{Me\kern -0.1em V\!/}c^2$, respectively. Upper limits are set on the $\it{\Xi}_{bc}^{+}$ baryon production cross-section times the branching fraction relative to that of the $B_{c}^{+}\to J/\it{\psi} D_{s}^{+}$ decay at centre-of-mass energies of 8 and $13\mathrm{\,Te\kern -0.1em V}$, in the $\it{\Xi}_{bc}^{+}$ and in the $B_{c}^{+}$ rapidity and transverse-momentum ranges from 2.0 to 4.5 and 0 to $20\,\mathrm{Ge\kern -0.1em V\!/}c$, respectively. Upper limits are presented as a function of the $\it{\Xi}_{bc}^{+}$ mass and lifetime.Comment: All figures and tables, along with machine-readable versions and any supplementary material and additional information, are available at https://cern.ch/lhcbproject/Publications/p/LHCb-PAPER-2022-005.html (LHCb public pages

Measurement of CP asymmetries and branching fraction ratios of B− decays to two charm mesons

The $CP$ asymmetries of seven $B^-$ decays to two charm mesons are measured using data corresponding to an integrated luminosity of $9\text{fb}^{-1}$ of proton-proton collisions collected by the LHCb experiment. Decays involving a $D^{*0}$ or $D^{*-}_s$ meson are analysed by reconstructing only the $D^0$ or $D^-_s$ decay products. This paper presents the first measurement of $\mathcal{A}^{CP}(B^- \rightarrow D^{*-}_s D^0)$ and $\mathcal{A}^{CP}(B^- \rightarrow D^{-}_s D^{*0})$, and the most precise measurement of the other five $CP$ asymmetries. There is no evidence of $CP$ violation in any of the analysed decays. Additionally, two ratios between branching fractions of selected decays are measured.The CP asymmetries of seven B$^{−}$ decays to two charm mesons are measured using data corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 9 fb$^{−1}$ of proton-proton collisions collected by the LHCb experiment. Decays involving a D$^{*0}$ or ${D}_s^{\ast -}$ meson are analysed by reconstructing only the D$^{0}$ or ${D}_s^{-}$ decay products. This paper presents the first measurement of $\mathcal{A} ^{CP}$(B$^{−}$→${D}_s^{\ast -}$D$^{0}$) and $\mathcal{A} ^{CP}$(B$^{−}$→${D}_s^{-}$D$^{∗0}$), and the most precise measurement of the other five CP asymmetries. There is no evidence of CP violation in any of the analysed decays. Additionally, two ratios between branching fractions of selected decays are measured.[graphic not available: see fulltext]The $CP$ asymmetries of seven $B^-$ decays to two charm mesons are measured using data corresponding to an integrated luminosity of $9\text{ fb}^{-1}$ of proton-proton collisions collected by the LHCb experiment. Decays involving a $D^{*0}$ or $D^{*-}_s$ meson are analysed by reconstructing only the $D^0$ or $D^-_s$ decay products. This paper presents the first measurement of $\mathcal{A}^{CP}(B^- \rightarrow D^{*-}_s D^0)$ and $\mathcal{A}^{CP}(B^- \rightarrow D^{-}_s D^{*0})$, and the most precise measurement of the other five $CP$ asymmetries. There is no evidence of $CP$ violation in any of the analysed decays. Additionally, two ratios between branching fractions of selected decays are measured

Study of the lineshape of the chi(c1) (3872) state

A study of the lineshape of the chi(c1) (3872) state is made using a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 3 fb(-1) collected in pp collisions at center-of-mass energies of 7 and 8 TeV with the LHCb detector. Candidate chi(c1)(3872) and psi(2S) mesons from b-hadron decays are selected in the J/psi pi(+)pi(-) decay mode. Describing the lineshape with a Breit-Wigner function, the mass splitting between the chi(c1 )(3872) and psi(2S) states, Delta m, and the width of the chi(c1 )(3872) state, Gamma(Bw), are determined to be (Delta m=185.598 +/- 0.067 +/- 0.068 Mev,)(Gamma BW=1.39 +/- 0.24 +/- 0.10 Mev,) where the first uncertainty is statistical and the second systematic. Using a Flatte-inspired model, the mode and full width at half maximum of the lineshape are determined to be (mode=3871.69+0.00+0.05 MeV.)(FWHM=0.22-0.04+0.13+0.07+0.11-0.06-0.13 MeV, ) An investigation of the analytic structure of the Flatte amplitude reveals a pole structure, which is compatible with a quasibound D-0(D) over bar*(0) state but a quasivirtual state is still allowed at the level of 2 standard deviations