470 research outputs found
The evolution of the global aerosol system in a transient climate simulation from 1860 to 2100
The evolution of the global aerosol system from 1860 to 2100 is investigated through a transient atmosphere-ocean General Circulation Model climate simulation with interactively coupled atmospheric aerosol and oceanic biogeochemistry modules. The microphysical aerosol module HAM incorporates the major global aerosol cycles with prognostic treatment of their composition, size distribution, and mixing state. Based on an SRES A1B emission scenario, the global mean sulfate burden is projected to peak in 2020 while black carbon and particulate organic matter show a lagged peak around 2070. From present day to future conditions the anthropogenic aerosol burden shifts generally from the northern high-latitudes to the developing low-latitude source regions with impacts on regional climate. Atmospheric residence- and aging-times show significant alterations under varying climatic and pollution conditions. Concurrently, the aerosol mixing state changes with an increasing aerosol mass fraction residing in the internally mixed accumulation mode. The associated increase in black carbon causes a more than threefold increase of its co-single scattering albedo from 1860 to 2100. Mid-visible aerosol optical depth increases from pre-industrial times, predominantly from the aerosol fine fraction, peaks at 0.26 around the sulfate peak in 2020 and maintains a high level thereafter, due to the continuing increase in carbonaceous aerosols. The global mean anthropogenic top of the atmosphere clear-sky short-wave direct aerosol radiative perturbation intensifies to −1.1 W m^−2 around 2020 and weakens after 2050 to −0.6 W m^−2, owing to an increase in atmospheric absorption. The demonstrated modifications in the aerosol residence- and aging-times, the microphysical state, and radiative properties challenge simplistic approaches to estimate the aerosol radiative effects from emission projections
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Mechanistic Study Of Plasma Damage Of Low k Dielectric Surfaces
Plasma damage to low k dielectric materials was investigated from a mechanistic point of view. Low k dielectric films were treated by plasma Ar, O-2, N-2/H-2, N-2 and H-2 in a standard RIE chamber and the damage was characterized by Angle Resolved X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (ARXPS), X-Ray Reflectivity (XRR), Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) and Contact Angle measurements. Both carbon depletion and surface densification were observed on the top surface of damaged low k materials while the bulk remained largely unaffected. Plasma damage was found to be a complicated phenomenon involving both chemical and physical effects, depending on chemical reactivity and the energy and mass of the plasma species. A downstream hybrid plasma source with separate ions and atomic radicals was employed to study their respective roles in the plasma damage process. Ions were found to play a more important role in the plasma damage process. The dielectric constant of low k materials can increase up to 20% due to plasma damage and we attributed this to the removal of the methyl group making the low k surface hydrophilic. Annealing was generally effective in mitigating moisture uptake to restore the k value but the recovery was less complete for higher energy plasmas. Quantum chemistry calculation confirmed that physisorbed water in low k materials induces the largest increase of dipole moments in comparison with changes of surface bonding configurations, and is primarily responsible for the dielectric constant increase.Microelectronics Research Cente
The Evolution of Black Holes in the Mini-Superspace Approximation of Loop Quantum Gravity
Using the improved quantization technique to the mini-superspace
approximation of loop quantum gravity, we study the evolution of black holes
supported by a cosmological constant. The addition of a cosmological constant
allows for classical solutions with planar, cylindrical, toroidal and higher
genus black holes. Here we study the quantum analog of these space-times. In
all scenarios studied, the singularity present in the classical counter-part is
avoided in the quantized version and is replaced by a bounce, and in the late
evolution, a series of less severe bounces. Interestingly, although there are
differences during the evolution between the various symmetries and topologies,
the evolution on the other side of the bounce asymptotes to space-times of
Nariai-type, with the exception of the planar black hole analyzed here, whose
-=constant subspaces seem to continue expanding in the long term
evolution. For the other cases, Nariai-type universes are attractors in the
quantum evolution, albeit with different parameters. We study here the quantum
evolution of each symmetry in detail.Comment: 26 pages, 7 figures.V2 has typos corrected, references added, and a
more careful analysis of the planar case. Accepted for publication in
Physical Review
Simulation and analysis of in vitro DNA evolution
We study theoretically the in vitro evolution of a DNA sequence by binding to
a transcription factor. Using a simple model of protein-DNA binding and
available binding constants for the Mnt protein, we perform large-scale,
realistic simulations of evolution starting from a single DNA sequence. We
identify different parameter regimes characterized by distinct evolutionary
behaviors. For each regime we find analytical estimates which agree well with
simulation results. For small population sizes, the DNA evolutional path is a
random walk on a smooth landscape. While for large population sizes, the
evolution dynamics can be well described by a mean-field theory. We also study
how the details of the DNA-protein interaction affect the evolution.Comment: 11 pages, 11 figures. Submitted to PNA
Towards a spin foam model description of black hole entropy
We propose a way to describe the origin of black hole entropy in the spin
foam models of quantum gravity. This stimulates a new way to study the relation
of spin foam models and loop quantum gravity.Comment: 5 pages, 1 figur
Black hole entropy for the general area spectrum
We consider the possibility that the horizon area is expressed by the general
area spectrum in loop quantum gravity and calculate the black hole entropy by
counting the degrees of freedom in spin-network states related to its area.
Although the general area spectrum has a complex expression, we succeeded in
obtaining the result that the black hole entropy is proportional to its area as
in previous works where the simplified area formula has been used. This gives
new values for the Barbero-Immirzi parameter () which are larger than that of previous works.Comment: 5 page
Large Scale Structures, Symmetry, and Universality in Sandpiles
We introduce a sandpile model where, at each unstable site, all grains are
transferred randomly to downstream neighbors. The model is local and
conservative, but not Abelian. This does not appear to change the universality
class for the avalanches in the self-organized critical state. It does,
however, introduce long-range spatial correlations within the metastable
states. We find large scale networks of occupied sites whose density vanishes
in the thermodynamic limit, for d>1.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev. Let
The aerosol-climate model ECHAM5-HAM
The aerosol-climate modelling system ECHAM5-HAM is introduced. It is based on a flexible microphysical approach and, as the number of externally imposed parameters is minimised, allows the application in a wide range of climate regimes. ECHAM5-HAM predicts the evolution of an ensemble of microphysically interacting internally- and externally-mixed aerosol populations as well as their size-distribution and composition. The size-distribution is represented by a superposition of log-normal modes. In the current setup, the major global aerosol compounds sulfate (SU), black carbon (BC), particulate organic matter (POM), sea salt (SS), and mineral dust (DU) are included. The simulated global annual mean aerosol burdens (lifetimes) for the year 2000 are for SU: 0.80 Tg(S) (3.9 days), for BC: 0.11 Tg (5.4 days), for POM: 0.99 Tg (5.4 days), for SS: 10.5 Tg (0.8 days), and for DU: 8.28 Tg (4.6 days). An extensive evaluation with in-situ and remote sensing measurements underscores that the model results are generally in good agreement with observations of the global aerosol system. The simulated global annual mean aerosol optical depth (AOD) is with 0.14 in excellent agreement with an estimate derived from AERONET measurements (0.14) and a composite derived from MODIS-MISR satellite retrievals (0.16). Regionally, the deviations are not negligible. However, the main patterns of AOD attributable to anthropogenic activity are reproduced
Comparing modelled fire dynamics with charcoal records for the Holocene
An earth system model of intermediate complexity (CLIMate and BiosphERe – CLIMBER-2) and a land surface model (JSBACH), which dynamically represent vegetation, are used to simulate natural fire dynamics through the last 8000 yr. Output variables of the fire model (burned area and fire carbon emissions) are used to compare model results with sediment-based charcoal reconstructions. Several approaches for processing model output are also tested. Charcoal data are reported in Z-scores with a base period of 8000–200 BP in order to exclude the strong anthropogenic forcing of fire during the last two centuries. The model–data comparison reveals a robust correspondence in fire activity for most regions considered, while for a few regions, such as Europe, simulated and observed fire histories show different trends. The difference between modelled and observed fire activity may be due to the absence of anthropogenic forcing (e.g. human ignitions and suppression) in the model simulations, and also due to limitations inherent to modelling fire dynamics. The use of spatial averaging (or Z-score processing) of model output did not change the directions of the trends. However, Z-score-transformed model output resulted in higher rank correlations with the charcoal Z-scores in most regions. Therefore, while both metrics are useful, processing model output as Z-scores is preferable to areal averaging when comparing model results to transformed charcoal records
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