Stochastic Acceleration in Relativistic Parallel Shocks

(abridged) We present results of test-particle simulations on both the first and the second order Fermi acceleration at relativistic parallel shock waves. We consider two scenarios for particle injection: (i) particles injected at the shock front, then accelerated at the shock by the first order mechanism and subsequently by the stochastic process in the downstream region; and (ii) particles injected uniformly throughout the downstream region to the stochastic process. We show that regardless of the injection scenario, depending on the magnetic field strength, plasma composition, and the employed turbulence model, the stochastic mechanism can have considerable effects on the particle spectrum on temporal and spatial scales too short to be resolved in extragalactic jets. Stochastic acceleration is shown to be able to produce spectra that are significantly flatter than the limiting case of particle energy spectral index -1 of the first order mechanism. Our study also reveals a possibility of re-acceleration of the stochastically accelerated spectrum at the shock, as particles at high energies become more and more mobile as their mean free path increases with energy. Our findings suggest that the role of the second order mechanism in the turbulent downstream of a relativistic shock with respect to the first order mechanism at the shock front has been underestimated in the past, and that the second order mechanism may have significant effects on the form of the particle spectra and its evolution.Comment: 14 pages, 11 figures (9 black/white and 2 color postscripts). To be published in the ApJ (accepted 6 Nov 2004

Determination of starch by iodine colorimetry

In the iodine colorimetric method of Paloheimo gently dextrinized solutions are prepared of pure starch and of the analysis sample. One of the optical cells (A) of the comparator is provided with a solution made of pure starch and the other (B) with the solution to be analysed. Both solutions have the same iodine concentration. The solution in B must have a intensive colour than that in A. Solution B is then diluted with an iodinewater solution of the same iodine concentration as in the solutions A and B. When these solutions have attained the same colour it is concluded that also the starch concentration is the same and the starch content of the sample can be calculated. The results obtained by this method are compared with those obtained with the amyloglucosidase method of Salo. Table 1 shows that the two methods give very similar results. Different circumstances which might possibly interfere with the colorimetric starch determinations are studied. It was observed that attention must be paid to the intensity of boiling when the 0.05-N H2SO4 dextrinizing solutions are boiled. If the intensity is very different in the comparison solution and the solution to be analysed, considerable errors may occur. If the sample contains added chalk the neutralizing power of the sample should be determined beforehand and the normality of the solution adjusted to 0.05. If the sample contains acid it should be extracted beforehand with 80-% ethanol. —Cellulose and sugars have no influence on the results, nor have plant proteins or proteins of milk. However, if greater amounts of protein were added, a casein preparation intended for laboratory animals showed an obvious disturbing effect, as did gelatin and meat protein. – Faeces did not appear to have an interfering influence in colorimetric starch determination. The iodine colorimetric sensitiveness of starch solutions was also studied. It appeared that 0.18 mg of dextrinized potato starch already deepened the colour of 100 ml dilute iodine solution in room temperature. For wheat starch the corresponding minimum concentration was 0.27 mg/100 ml. In 3° the concentration limit was even lower, 0.05—0.09 mg/100 ml. In all the above mentioned studies the author has used as comparator essential parts of a Pulfrich photometer. A proper comparator (Fig. 1) can also be made by any skilled optician

Surface expression, peptide repertoire, and thermostability of chicken class I molecules correlate with peptide transporter specificity.

The chicken major histocompatibility complex (MHC) has strong genetic associations with resistance and susceptibility to certain infectious pathogens. The cell surface expression level of MHC class I molecules varies as much as 10-fold between chicken haplotypes and is inversely correlated with diversity of peptide repertoire and with resistance to Marek's disease caused by an oncogenic herpesvirus. Here we show that the average thermostability of class I molecules isolated from cells also varies, being higher for high-expressing MHC haplotypes. However, we find roughly the same amount of class I protein synthesized by high- and low-expressing MHC haplotypes, with movement to the cell surface responsible for the difference in expression. Previous data show that chicken TAP genes have high allelic polymorphism, with peptide translocation specific for each MHC haplotype. Here we use assembly assays with peptide libraries to show that high-expressing B15 class I molecules can bind a much wider variety of peptides than are found on the cell surface, with the B15 TAPs restricting the peptides available. In contrast, the translocation specificity of TAPs from the low-expressing B21 haplotype is even more permissive than the promiscuous binding shown by the dominantly expressed class I molecule. B15/B21 heterozygote cells show much greater expression of B15 class I molecules than B15/B15 homozygote cells, presumably as a result of receiving additional peptides from the B21 TAPs. Thus, chicken MHC haplotypes vary in several correlated attributes, with the most obvious candidate linking all these properties being molecular interactions within the peptide-loading complex (PLC).This work was originally supported by core funding to the Basel Institute for Immunology (which was founded and supported by F. Hoffmann-La Roche & Co. Ltd., CH-4005 Basel, Switzerland), then by core funding to the Institute for Animal Health [now re-branded the Pirbright Institute, sponsored by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) of the UK] and finally by programme grant 089305 from the Wellcome Trust to JK.This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from PNAS via http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.151185911

Determination of the complex of cell wall substances in plant products

The authors present a new method for the determination of the complex of vegetable cell wall substances. The sample is extracted with boiling 80 % ethanol, boiling absolute ethanol and cold water. The residue corrected for ash, protein, and, if necessary, for starch, gives the amount of cell wall substances. Determinations were made of the same samples of which Salo in this department, using quite a different principle, has determined the cell wall complex. She determined separately cellulose, neutral sugar hemicellulose, uronic acid hemicellulose, and lignin. Adding up these items Salo obtained the total of the cell wall substances. The results obtained with the new method are in most cases in agreement with the results of Salo (Table 1). The 80 % ethanol seems to be a very efficient solvent. In most cases more than 35 % of the dry matter of the sample was dissolved by it, while only about 0.3 % was dissolved in the succeeding extraction with absolute ethanol (Table 2). 1—12 % was dissolved by water. The new method is compared also with the earlier method of Paloheimo in which the sample is boiled in 0.05 N hydrochloric acid. It appeared that the results obtained with the latter procedure are considerably lower than those obtained with the new method. Evidently most plant materials contain cell wall substances which are extractable with a very weak acid treatment

Solar interacting protons versus interplanetary protons in the core plus halo model of diffusive shock acceleration and stochastic re-acceleration

With the first observations of solar γ-rays from the decay of pions, the relationship of protons producing ground level enhancements (GLEs) on the Earth to those of similar energies producing the γ-rays on the Sun has been debated. These two populations may be either independent and simply coincident in large flares, or they may be, in fact, the same population stemming from a single accelerating agent and jointly distributed at the Sun and also in space. Assuming the latter, we model a scenario in which particles are accelerated near the Sun in a shock wave with a fraction transported back to the solar surface to radiate, while the remainder is detected at Earth in the form of a GLE. Interplanetary ions versus ions interacting at the Sun are studied for a spherical shock wave propagating in a radial magnetic field through a highly turbulent radial ray (the acceleration core) and surrounding weakly turbulent sector in which the accelerated particles can propagate toward or away from the Sun. The model presented here accounts for both the first-order Fermi acceleration at the shock front and the second-order, stochastic re-acceleration by the turbulence enhanced behind the shock. We find that the re-acceleration is important in generating the γ-radiation and we also find that up to 10% of the particle population can find its way to the Sun as compared to particles escaping to the interplanetary space

Supermagnetosonic jets behind a collisionless quasi-parallel shock

The downstream region of a collisionless quasi-parallel shock is structured containing bulk flows with high kinetic energy density from a previously unidentified source. We present Cluster multi-spacecraft measurements of this type of supermagnetosonic jet as well as of a weak secondary shock front within the sheath, that allow us to propose the following generation mechanism for the jets: The local curvature variations inherent to quasi-parallel shocks can create fast, deflected jets accompanied by density variations in the downstream region. If the speed of the jet is super(magneto)sonic in the reference frame of the obstacle, a second shock front forms in the sheath closer to the obstacle. Our results can be applied to collisionless quasi-parallel shocks in many plasma environments.Comment: accepted to Phys. Rev. Lett. (Nov 5, 2009

A type II solar radio burst without a coronal mass ejection

The Sun produces the most powerful explosions in the solar system, solar flares, that can also be accompanied by large eruptions of magnetised plasma, coronal mass ejections (CMEs). These processes can accelerate electron beams up to relativistic energies through magnetic reconnection processes during solar flares and CME-driven shocks. Energetic electron beams can in turn generate radio bursts through the plasma emission mechanism. CME shocks, in particular, are usually associated with type II solar radio bursts. However, on a few occasions, type II bursts have been reported to occur either in the absence of CMEs or shown to be more likely related with the flaring process. It is currently an open question how a shock generating type II bursts forms without the occurrence of a CME eruption. Here, we aim to determine the physical mechanism responsible for a type II burst which occurs in the absence a CME. By using radio imaging from the Nan{\c c}ay Radioheliograph, combined with observations from the Solar Dynamics Observatory and the Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory spacecraft, we investigate the origin of a type II radio burst that appears to have no temporal association with a white-light CME. We identify a typical type II radio burst with band-split structure that is associated with a C-class solar flare. The type II burst source is located above the flaring active region and ahead of disturbed coronal loops observed in extreme ultraviolet images. The type II is also preceded by type III radio bursts, some of which are in fact J-bursts indicating that accelerated electron beams do not all escape along open field lines. The type II sources show single-frequency movement towards the flaring active region. The type II is located ahead of a faint extreme-ultraviolet (EUV) front propagating through the corona.Comment: 10 pages, 8 figure