6,462 research outputs found
The Gale Crater Mound in a Regional Geologic Setting
The Mars Science Laboratory Rover Curiosity is commencing a two-year investigation of Gale crater and Mt. Sharp, the crater s prominent central mound. Gale is a 155 km, late Noachian / early Hesperian impact crater located near the dichotomy boundary separating the southern highlands from the northern plains. The central mound is composed of layered sedimentary rock, with upper and lower mound units separated by a prominent erosional unconformity (Milliken et al., 2010). The lower mound is of particular interest, as it contains secondary minerals indicative of a striking shift from water-rich to water-poor conditions on early Mars. A key unknown in the history of Gale is the relationship between the sedimentary units in the mound and sedimentary sequences in the surrounding region. We employed orbital remote sensing data to determine if areas within a 1,000 km radius of Gale match the characteristics of sedimentary units in Mt. Sharp. Regions of interest were defined based on: the mound s inferred age (late Noachian to early Hesperian), altitude range (-4,600 m to +400 m), and THEMIS nighttime brightness (a proxy for thermal inertia). This combination of characteristics is matched by two extensive units, the late Noachian subdued cratered unit Npl2 and Noachian / Hesperian undivided material HNu (Greeley and Guest, 1987), located along the dichotomy. Geomorphic units have been mapped within the Gale mound by Thomson et al. (2011) based on albedo, layering and erosional characteristics. Using orbital CTX, MOC and HiRISE images we examined all areas within our regions of interest for analogous geomorphic units in the same altitude ranges as the corresponding units in Mt. Sharp. The most convincing geomorphic analogs to lower mound units, dominated by fine-scale layering and prominent yardangs, were located approximately 200 km northeast and southeast of Gale in late Noachian unit Npl2. The most convincing geomorphic analogs to upper mound layered units are located 250 900 km northwest of Gale in unit HNu, estimated to span the Noachian / Hesperian boundary
Anitmicrobial Effects of Chemically Modified Essential Oils
Undergraduate
Basi
Coherent states for the q-deformed quantum mechanics on a circle
The q-deformed coherent states for a quantum particle on a circle are
introduced and their properties investigated.Comment: 11 pages, 2 PostScript figure
Global tide simulations with ICON-O: testing the model performance on highly irregular meshes
The global tide is simulated with the global ocean general circulation model ICON-O using a newly developed tidal module, which computes the full tidal potential. The simulated coastal M2 amplitudes, derived by a discrete Fourier transformation of the output sea level time series, are compared with the according values derived from satellite altimetry (TPXO-8 atlas). The experiments are repeated with four uniform and sixteen irregular triangular grids. The results show that the quality of the coastal tide simulation depends primarily on the coastal resolution and that the ocean interior can be resolved up to twenty times lower without causing considerable reductions in quality. The mesh transition zones between areas of different resolutions are formed by cell bisection and subsequent local spring optimisation tolerating a triangular cell’s maximum angle up to 84°. Numerical problems with these high-grade non-equiangular cells were not encountered. The results emphasise the numerical feasibility and potential efficiency of highly irregular computational meshes used by ICON-O. © 2020, The Author(s)
Static deformation of heavy spring due to gravity and centrifugal force
The static equilibrium deformation of a heavy spring due to its own weight is
calculated for two cases. First for a spring hanging in a constant
gravitational field, then for a spring which is at rest in a rotating system
where it is stretched by the centrifugal force. Two different models are
considered. First a discrete model assuming a finite number of point masses
connected by springs of negligible weight. Then the continuum limit of this
model. In the second case the differential equation for the deformation is
obtained by demanding that the potential energy is minimized. In this way a
simple application of the variational calculus is obtained.Comment: 11 pages, 2 figure
The Hamburg/ESO R-process Enhanced Star survey (HERES) IV. Detailed abundance analysis and age dating of the strongly r-process enhanced stars CS 29491-069 and HE 1219-0312
We report on a detailed abundance analysis of two strongly r-process
enhanced, very metal-poor stars newly discovered in the HERES project, CS
29491-069 ([Fe/H]=-2.51, [r/Fe]=+1.1) and HE 1219-0312 ([Fe/H]=-2.96,
[r/Fe]=+1.5). The analysis is based on high-quality VLT/UVES spectra and MARCS
model atmospheres. We detect lines of 15 heavy elements in the spectrum of CS
29491-069, and 18 in HE 1219-0312; in both cases including the Th II 4019 {\AA}
line. The heavy-element abundance patterns of these two stars are mostly
well-matched to scaled solar residual abundances not formed by the s-process.
We also compare the observed pattern with recent high-entropy wind (HEW)
calculations, which assume core-collapse supernovae of massive stars as the
astrophysical environment for the r-process, and find good agreement for most
lanthanides. The abundance ratios of the lighter elements strontium, yttrium,
and zirconium, which are presumably not formed by the main r-process, are
reproduced well by the model. Radioactive dating for CS 29491-069 with the
observed thorium and rare-earth element abundance pairs results in an average
age of 9.5 Gyr, when based on solar r-process residuals, and 17.6 Gyr, when
using HEW model predictions. Chronometry seems to fail in the case of HE
1219-0312, resulting in a negative age due to its high thorium abundance. HE
1219-0312 could therefore exhibit an overabundance of the heaviest elements,
which is sometimes called an "actinide boost"
Spin dynamics in p-doped semiconductor nanostructures subject to a magnetic field tilted from the Voigt geometry
We develop a theoretical description of the spin dynamics of resident holes
in a p-doped semiconductor quantum well (QW) subject to a magnetic field tilted
from the Voigt geometry. We find the expressions for the signals measured in
time-resolved Faraday rotation (TRFR) and resonant spin amplification (RSA)
experiments and study their behavior for a range of system parameters. We find
that an inversion of the RSA peaks can occur for long hole spin dephasing times
and tilted magnetic fields. We verify the validity of our theoretical findings
by performing a series of TRFR and RSA experiments on a p-modulation doped
GaAs/Al_{0.3}Ga_{0.7}As single QW and showing that our model can reproduce
experimentally observed signals.Comment: 9 pages, 3 figures; corrected typo
Cultural influences on social feedback processing of character traits
Cultural differences are generally explained by how people see themselves in
relation to social interaction partners. While Western culture emphasizes
independence, East Asian culture emphasizes interdependence. Despite this
focus on social interactions, it remains elusive how people from different
cultures process feedback on their own (and on others') character traits.
Here, participants of either German or Chinese origin engaged in a face-to-
face interaction. Consequently, they updated their self- and other-ratings of
80 character traits (e.g., polite, pedantic) after receiving feedback from
their interaction partners. To exclude potential confounds, we obtained data
from German and Chinese participants in Berlin [functional magnetic resonance
imaging (fMRI)] and in Beijing (behavior). We tested cultural influences on
social conformity, positivity biases, and self-related neural activity. First,
Chinese conformed more to social feedback than Germans (i.e., Chinese updated
their trait ratings more). Second, regardless of culture, participants
processed self- and other-related feedback in a positively biased way (i.e.,
they updated more toward desirable than toward undesirable feedback). Third,
changes in self-related medial prefrontal cortex activity were greater in
Germans than in Chinese during feedback processing. By investigating
conformity, positivity biases, and self-related activity in relation to
feedback obtained in a real-life interaction, we provide an essential step
toward a unifying framework for understanding the diversity of human culture
Magnetic properties of nanosized diluted magnetic semiconductors with band splitting
The continual model of the nonuniform magnetism in thin films and wires of a
diluted magnetic semiconductor is considered with taking into account the
finite spin polarization of carriers responsible for the indirect interaction
of magnetic impurities (e.g. via RKKY mechanism). Spatial distributions (across
the film thickness or the wire radius) of the magnetizaton and carrier
concentrations of different spin orientations, as well as the temperature
dependence of the average magnetization are determined as the solution of the
nonlinear integral equation
Stellar science from a blue wavelength range - A possible design for the blue arm of 4MOST
From stellar spectra, a variety of physical properties of stars can be
derived. In particular, the chemical composition of stellar atmospheres can be
inferred from absorption line analyses. These provide key information on large
scales, such as the formation of our Galaxy, down to the small-scale
nucleosynthesis processes that take place in stars and supernovae. By extending
the observed wavelength range toward bluer wavelengths, we optimize such
studies to also include critical absorption lines in metal-poor stars, and
allow for studies of heavy elements (Z>38) whose formation processes remain
poorly constrained. In this context, spectrographs optimized for observing blue
wavelength ranges are essential, since many absorption lines at redder
wavelengths are too weak to be detected in metal-poor stars. This means that
some elements cannot be studied in the visual-redder regions, and important
scientific tracers and science cases are lost. The present era of large public
surveys will target millions of stars. Here we describe the requirements
driving the design of the forthcoming survey instrument 4MOST, a multi-object
spectrograph commissioned for the ESO VISTA 4m-telescope. We focus here on
high-density, wide-area survey of stars and the science that can be achieved
with high-resolution stellar spectroscopy. Scientific and technical
requirements that governed the design are described along with a thorough line
blending analysis. For the high-resolution spectrograph, we find that a
sampling of >2.5 (pixels per resolving element), spectral resolution of 18000
or higher, and a wavelength range covering 393-436 nm, is the most
well-balanced solution for the instrument. A spectrograph with these
characteristics will enable accurate abundance analysis (+/-0.1 dex) in the
blue and allow us to confront the outlined scientific questions. (abridged)Comment: 14 pages, 8 figures, accepted for publication in A
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