28,790 research outputs found
Tectonics, volcanism, landscape structure and human evolution in the African Rift
Tectonic movements and volcanism in the African Rift have usually been considered of relevance to human evolution only at very large geographical and chronological scales, principally in relation to longterm topographic and climatic variation at the continental scale. At the more loca1 scale of catchment basins and individual sites, tectonic features are generally considered to be at worst disruptive and at best incidental features enhancing the preservation and exposure of early sites. We demonstrate that recent lava flows and fault scarps in a tectonically active region create a distinctive landscape structure with a complex and highly differentiated topography of enclosures, barriers and fertile basins. This landscape structure has an important potential impact on the co-evolution of prey-predator interactions and on interspecific relationships more generally. In particular, we suggest that it would have offered unique opportunities for the development of a hominid niche characterised by bipedalism, meat-eating and stone tool use. These landscape features are best appreciated by looking at areas which today have rapid rates of tectonic movement and frequent volcanic activity, as in eastern Afar and Djibouti. These provide a better analogy for the Plio-Pleistocene environments occupied by early hominids than the present-day landscapes where their fossil remains and artefacts have been discovered. The latter areas are now less active than was the case when the sites were formed. They have also been radically transfomed by ongoing geomorphological processes in the intervening millennia. Thus, previous attempts to reconstruct the local landscape setting adjacent to these early hominid sites necessarily rely on limited geological windows into the ancient land surface and thus tend to filter out small-scale topographic detail because it cannot be reliably identified. It is precisely this local detail that we consider to be of importance in understanding the environmental contribution to co-evolutionary developments
The Behavior of Money, Credit, and Prices in a Real Business Cycle
This paper analyzes the interaction of money and the price level with a business cycle that is fully real in origin, adopting a view which differs sharply from traditional theories that assign a significant causal influence to monetary movements. The theoretical analysis focuses on a banking system that produces transaction. services on demand and thus reflects market activity. Under one regime of bank regulation and fiat money supply by the monetary authority, the real business cycle theory predicts that (i)movements in external monetary measures should be uncorrelated with real activity and(ii) movements in internal monetary measures should be positively correlated with real activity. Preliminary empirical analysis provides general support for this focus on the banking sector since much of the correlation between monetary measures and real activity is apparently with inside money.
An experimental study of fluidization processes under lunar conditions
Fluidized ash flow in simulated lunar soil
The bottom of the white dwarf cooling sequence in the old open cluster NGC 2158
We use 10 orbits of Advanced Camera for Surveys observations to reach the end
of the white dwarf cooling sequence in the solar-metallicity open cluster NGC
2158. Our photometry and completeness tests show that the end falls at
magnitude m_F606W = 27.5 +/- 0.15, which implies an age between ~1.8 and ~2.0
Gyr, consistent with the age of 1.9 +/- 0.2 Gyr obtained from fits to the
main-sequence turn-off. The faintest white dwarfs show a clear turn toward
bluer colors, as predicted by theoretical isochrones.Comment: 12 pages, 4 figures (2 in low resolution, and 1 bonus for
astro-ph-only). ApJ Letter accepted on December 1, 200
Absolute motions of globular clusters. II. [HST astrometry and VLT radial velocities in NGC6397]
In this paper we present a new, accurate determination of the three
components of the absolute space velocity of the Galactic globular cluster
NGC6397 (l 338d, b -12d). We used three HST/WFPC2 fields with multi-epoch
observations to obtain astrometric measurements of objects in three different
fields in this cluster. The identification of 33 background galaxies with sharp
nuclei allowed us to determine an absolute reference point and measure the
absolute proper motion of the cluster. The third component has been obtained
from radial velocities measured on spectra from the multi-fiber spectrograph
FLAMES at UT2-VLT. We find [mu_alpha cos(delta), mu_delta](J2000.0) = [+3.39
+/- 0.15, -17.55 +/- 0.15] mas/yr, and V_rad = +18.36 +/- 0.09 (+/-0.10) km/s.
Assuming a Galactic potential, we calculate the cluster orbit for various
assumed distances, and briefly discuss the implications.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figures, 4 tables. Accepted for publication in A&A, on
April 27 200
LRG-BEASTS III: Ground-based transmission spectrum of the gas giant orbiting the cool dwarf WASP-80
We have performed ground-based transmission spectroscopy of the hot Jupiter
orbiting the cool dwarf WASP-80 using the ACAM instrument on the William
Herschel Telescope (WHT) as part of the LRG-BEASTS programme. This is the third
paper of a ground-based transmission spectroscopy survey of hot Jupiters using
low-resolution grism spectrographs. We observed two transits of the planet and
have constructed transmission spectra spanning a wavelength range of
4640-8840A. Our transmission spectrum is inconsistent with a previously claimed
detection of potassium in WASP-80b's atmosphere, and is instead most consistent
with a haze. We also do not see evidence for sodium absorption at a resolution
of 100A.Comment: 11 pages, 9 figures. Accepted for publication in MNRA
Hopf algebras and characters of classical groups
Schur functions provide an integral basis of the ring of symmetric functions.
It is shown that this ring has a natural Hopf algebra structure by identifying
the appropriate product, coproduct, unit, counit and antipode, and their
properties. Characters of covariant tensor irreducible representations of the
classical groups GL(n), O(n) and Sp(n) are then expressed in terms of Schur
functions, and the Hopf algebra is exploited in the determination of
group-subgroup branching rules and the decomposition of tensor products. The
analysis is carried out in terms of n-independent universal characters. The
corresponding rings, CharGL, CharO and CharSp, of universal characters each
have their own natural Hopf algebra structure. The appropriate product,
coproduct, unit, counit and antipode are identified in each case.Comment: 9 pages. Uses jpconf.cls and jpconf11.clo. Presented by RCK at
SSPCM'07, Myczkowce, Poland, Sept 200
Stochastic Trends and Economic Fluctuations
Recent developments in macroeconomic theory emphasize that transient economic fluctuations can arise as responses to changes in long run factors -- in particular, technological improvements -- rather than short run factors. This contrasts with the view that short run fluctuations and shifts in long run trends are largely unrelated. We examine empirically the effect of shifts in stochastic trends that are common to several macroeconomic series. Using a linear time series model related to a VAR, we consider first a system with GNP, consumption and investment with a single common stochastic trend; we then examine this system augmented by money and prices and an additional stochastic trend. Our results suggest that movements in the "real" stochastic trend account for one-half to two-thirds of the variation in postwar U.S. GNP.
RR Lyrae Variables in the Globular Cluster M55. The First Evidence for Non Radial Pulsations in RR Lyr Stars
We present the results of a photometric study of RR Lyrae variables in the
field of the globular cluster M55. We have discovered nine new RR Lyrae stars,
increasing the number of known variables in this cluster to 15 objects. Five of
the newly discovered variables belong to Bailey type RRc and two to type RRab.
Two background RRab stars are probable members of the Sagittarius dwarf galaxy.
Fourier decomposition of the light curves was used to derive basic properties
of the present sample of RR Lyrae variables. From an analysis of the RRc
variables we obtain a mean mass of , luminosity , effective temperature K, and helium
abundance . Based on the colors, periods and metallicities
of the RRab stars we estimate the value of the color excess for M55 to be equal
to . Using this value we derive the colors of the blue and
red edges of the instability strip in M55. The blue edge lies at
mag and the red edge lies at mag. We estimate the values of the
visual apparent and dereddened distance moduli to be and
, respectively. The light curves of three of the RRc variables
exhibit changes in amplitude of over 0.1 mag on the time scale of less than a
week, rather short for the Blazhko effect, but with no evidence for another
radial pulsational frequency. However we do detect other periodicities which
are clearly visible in the light curve after removing variations with the first
overtone radial frequency. This is strong evidence for the presence of
non-radial pulsations, a behavior common for Scuti stars but not yet
observed among RR Lyr variables.Comment: submitted to Astronomical Journal, 33 pages with 11 figure
The ferroelectric transition in YMnO from first principles
We have studied the structural phase transition of multiferroic YMnO from
first principles. Using group-theoretical analysis and first-principles density
functional calculations of the total energy and phonons, we perform a
systematic study of the energy surface around the prototypic phase. We find a
single instability at the zone-boundary which couples strongly to the
polarization. This coupling is the mechanism that allows multiferroicity in
this class of materials. Our results imply that YMnO is an improper
ferroelectric. We suggest further experiments to clarify this point.Comment: published version, PRB (rapid comm), slight change in presentatio
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