18,110 research outputs found
The cosomological evolution of the environments of powerful radio galaxies
We present the results from the analysis of 26 extragalactic radio sources of
type FRII which were observed with the VLA at 5 GHz and around the 1.4 GHz
band. The sources were selected to have redshifts in the range ,
radio powers between and angular size . We found
that the depolarisation and the rms variations in the rotation measure
increased with redshift. The flux values obtained from the observations were
used to derive by means of analytical modelling the jet--power, density of the
central environment, age of the source and its lobe pressure and the results
were then compared with the observations. We find no significant correlations
with the density parameter suggesting that the depolarisation and the rms
variations in the rotation measure are indicative of the environment becoming
more disordered rather than denser. The age and size of a source are correlated
and both were found to be independent of redshift and radio--power. Jet--power
strongly correlated with the radio--power. The lobe pressure was found to be
anti--correlated with size which could explain why there are no sources beyond
a few Mpc in size. We found no significant correlation between size and density
which demonstrates that the sample is a fair representation of the population.Comment: 2 pages, Cozumel AGN 2003 conference proceeding
From Point Defects in Graphene to Two-Dimensional Amorphous Carbon
While crystalline two-dimensional materials have become an experimental
reality during the past few years, an amorphous 2-D material has not been
reported before. Here, using electron irradiation we create an sp2-hybridized
one-atom-thick flat carbon membrane with a random arrangement of polygons,
including four-membered carbon rings. We show how the transformation occurs
step-by-step by nucleation and growth of low-energy multi-vacancy structures
constructed of rotated hexagons and other polygons. Our observations, along
with first-principles calculations, provide new insights to the bonding
behavior of carbon and dynamics of defects in graphene. The created domains
possess a band gap, which may open new possibilities for engineering
graphene-based electronic devices.Comment: 10 pages, 10 figures including supplementary informatio
Chiral 3-exchange NN-potentials: Results for dominant next-to-leading order contributions
We calculate in (two-loop) chiral perturbation theory the local NN-potentials
generated by the three-pion exchange diagrams with one insertion from the
second order chiral effective pion-nucleon Lagrangian proportional to the
low-energy constants . The resulting isoscalar central potential
vanishes identically. In most cases these -exchange potentials are larger
than the ones generated by the diagrams involving only leading order vertices
due to the large values of (which mainly represent virtual
-excitation). A similar feature has been observed for the chiral
-exchange. We also give suitable (double-integral) representations for
the spin-spin and tensor potentials generated by the leading-order diagrams
proportional to involving four nucleon propagators. In these cases the
Cutkosky rule cannot be used to calculate the spectral-functions in the
infinite nucleon mass limit since the corresponding mass-spectra start with a
non-vanishing value at the -threshold. Altogether, one finds that chiral
-exchange leads to small corrections in the region fm where
- and chiral -exchange alone provide a very good strong NN-force as
shown in a recent analysis of the low-energy pp-scattering data-base.Comment: 11 pages, 7 figures, to be published in The Physical Review
Technical Note: Could benzalkonium chloride be a suitable alternative to mercuric chloride for preservation of seawater samples?
Instrumental equipment unsuitable or unavailable for fieldwork as well as lack of ship space can necessitate the preservation of seawater samples prior to analysis in a shore-based laboratory. Mercuric chloride (HgCl2) is routinely used for such preservation, but its handling and subsequent disposal incur environmental risks and significant expense. There is therefore a strong motivation to find less hazardous alternatives. Benzalkonium chloride (BAC) has been used previously as microbial inhibitor for freshwater samples. Here, we assess the use of BAC for marine samples prior to the measurement of oxygen-to-argon (O2 / Ar) ratios, as used for the determination of biological net community production. BAC at a concentration of 50 mg dmâ3 inhibited microbial activity for at least 3 days in samples tested with chlorophyll a (Chl a) concentrations up to 1 mg mâ3. BAC concentrations of 100 and 200 mg dmâ3 were no more effective than 50 mg dmâ3 . With fewer risks to human health and the environment, and no requirement for expensive waste disposal, BAC could be a viable alternative to HgCl2 for short-term preservation of seawater samples, but is not a replacement for HgCl2 in the case of oxygen triple isotope analysis, which requires storage over weeks to months. In any event, further tests on a case-by-case basis should be undertaken if use of BAC was considered, since its inhibitory activity may depend on concentration and composition of the microbial community
Scanning tunneling microscopy investigation of 2H-MoS_2: A layered semiconducting transitionâmetal dichalcogenide
Scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) has been enormously
successful in solving several important problems in the geometric and electronic structure of homogeneous metallic and semiconducting surfaces. A central question which remains to be answered with respect to the study of
compound surfaces, however, is the extent to which the
chemical identity of constituent atoms may be established.
Recently, progress in this area was made by Feenstra et al.
who succeeded in selectively imaging either Ga or As atoms
on the GaAs (110) surface. So far this is the only case where such selectivity has been achieved. In an effort to add to our understanding of compound surface imaging we have undertaken a vacuum STM study of 2H-MoS_2, a material which has two structurally and electronically different atomic species at its surface
The partially averaged field approach to cosmic ray diffusion
The kinetic equation for particles interacting with turbulent fluctuations is derived by a new nonlinear technique which successfully corrects the difficulties associated with quasilinear theory. In this new method the effects of the fluctuations are evaluated along particle orbits which themselves include the effects of a statistically averaged subset of the possible configurations of the turbulence. The new method is illustrated by calculating the pitch angle diffusion coefficient D sub Mu Mu for particles interacting with slab model magnetic turbulence, i.e., magnetic fluctuations linearly polarized transverse to a mean magnetic field. Results are compared with those of quasilinear theory and also with those of Monte Carlo calculations. The major effect of the nonlinear treatment in this illustration is the determination of D sub Mu Mu in the vicinity of 90 deg pitch angles where quasilinear theory breaks down. The spatial diffusion coefficient parallel to a mean magnetic field is evaluated using D sub Mu Mu as calculated by this technique. It is argued that the partially averaged field method is not limited to small amplitude fluctuating fields and is hence not a perturbation theory
A new approach to cosmic ray diffusion theory
An approach is presented for deriving a diffusion equation for charged particles in a static, random magnetic field. The approach differs from the usual, quasi-linear one, in that particle orbits in the average field are replaced by particle orbits in a partially averaged field. In this way the fluctuating component of the field significantly modifies the particle orbits in those cases where the orbits in the average field are unrealistic. The method permits the calculation of a finite value for the pitch angle diffusion coefficient for particles with a pitch angle of 90 rather than the divergent or ambiguous results obtained by quasi-linear theories. Results of the approach are compared with results of computer simulations using Monte Carlo techniques
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