A Turbulent Origin for Flocculent Spiral Structure in Galaxies: II. Observations and Models of M33

Fourier transform power spectra of azimuthal scans of the optical structure of M33 are evaluated for B, V, and R passbands and fit to fractal models of continuum emission with superposed star formation. Power spectra are also determined for Halpha. The best models have intrinsic power spectra with 1D slopes of around -0.7pm0.7, significantly shallower than the Kolmogorov spectrum (slope =-1.7) but steeper than pure noise (slope=0). A fit to the power spectrum of the flocculent galaxy NGC 5055 gives a steeper slope of around -1.5pm0.2, which could be from turbulence. Both cases model the optical light as a superposition of continuous and point-like stellar sources that follow an underlying fractal pattern. Foreground bright stars are clipped in the images, but they are so prominent in M33 that even their residual affects the power spectrum, making it shallower than what is intrinsic to the galaxy. A model consisting of random foreground stars added to the best model of NGC 5055 fits the observed power spectrum of M33 as well as the shallower intrinsic power spectrum that was made without foreground stars. Thus the optical structure in M33 could result from turbulence too.Comment: accepted by ApJ, 13 pages, 10 figure

Tracing Galaxy Formation with Stellar Halos II: Relating Substructure in Phase- and Abundance-Space to Accretion Histories

This paper explores the mapping between the observable properties of a stellar halo in phase- and abundance-space and the parent galaxy's accretion history in terms of the characteristic epoch of accretion and mass and orbits of progenitor objects. The study utilizes a suite of eleven stellar halo models constructed within the context of a standard LCDM cosmology. The results demonstrate that coordinate-space studies are sensitive to the recent (0-8 Gyears ago) merger histories of galaxies (this timescale corresponds to the last few to tens of percent of mass accretion for a Milky-Way-type galaxy). Specifically, the {\it frequency, sky coverage} and {\it fraction of stars} in substructures in the stellar halo as a function of surface brightness are indicators of the importance of recent merging and of the luminosity function of infalling dwarfs. The {\it morphology} of features serves as a guide to the orbital distribution of those dwarfs. Constraints on the earlier merger history (> 8 Gyears ago) can be gleaned from the abundance patterns in halo stars: within our models, dramatic differences in the dominant epoch of accretion or luminosity function of progenitor objects leave clear signatures in the [alpha/Fe] and [Fe/H] distributions of the stellar halo - halos dominated by very early accretion have higher average [alpha/Fe], while those dominated by high luminosity satellites have higher [Fe/H]. This intuition can be applied to reconstruct much about the merger histories of nearby galaxies from current and future data sets.Comment: 21 pages, 20 figures. To appear in the Astrophysical Journa

On the low-temperature lattice thermal transport in nanowires

We propose a theory of low temperature thermal transport in nano-wires in the regime where a competition between phonon and flexural modes governs the relaxation processes. Starting with the standard kinetic equations for two different types of quasiparticles we derive a general expression for the coefficient of thermal conductivity. The underlying physics of thermal conductance is completely determined by the corresponding relaxation times, which can be calculated directly for any dispersion of quasiparticles depending on the size of a system. We show that if the considered relaxation mechanism is dominant, then at small wire diameters the temperature dependence of thermal conductivity experiences a crossover from $T^{1/2}$ to $T^3$-dependence. Quantitative analysis shows reasonable agreement with resent experimental results.Comment: 12 pages, 3 eps figure

Numerical study of anharmonic vibrational decay in amorphous and paracrystalline silicon

The anharmonic decay rates of atomic vibrations in amorphous silicon (a-Si) and paracrystalline silicon (p-Si), containing small crystalline grains embedded in a disordered matrix, are calculated using realistic structural models. The models are 1000-atom four-coordinated networks relaxed to a local minimum of the Stillinger-Weber interatomic potential. The vibrational decay rates are calculated numerically by perturbation theory, taking into account cubic anharmonicity as the perturbation. The vibrational lifetimes for a-Si are found to be on picosecond time scales, in agreement with the previous perturbative and classical molecular dynamics calculations on a 216-atom model. The calculated decay rates for p-Si are similar to those of a-Si. No modes in p-Si reside entirely on the crystalline cluster, decoupled from the amorphous matrix. The localized modes with the largest (up to 59%) weight on the cluster decay primarily to two diffusons. The numerical results are discussed in relation to a recent suggestion by van der Voort et al. [Phys. Rev. B {\bf 62}, 8072 (2000)] that long vibrational relaxation inferred experimentally may be due to possible crystalline nanostructures in some types of a-Si.Comment: 9 two-column pages, 13 figure

Design of the low energy astrophysics research facility CLAIRE

Abstract A novel nuclear astrophysics facility, CLAIRE (Center for Low Energy Astrophysics and Interdisciplinary REsearch), is being designed at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory to address the need for precise fusion cross section measurements at near-solar energies ($20 keV). At these low energies, fusion cross sections decrease exponentially with energy and are expected to approach femtobarn levels or less. In order to measure such small cross sections, the CLAIRE facility will incorporate a versatile accelerator capable of transporting high current (>100 mA), low energy (50-300 keV) ion beams with a tight focus (<1 cm) to a cooled, dense gas-jet target. The conceptual design for this accelerator is discussed, and simulations of both beam extraction and transport are presented

Long-Time Asymptotics of Perturbed Finite-Gap Korteweg-de Vries Solutions

We apply the method of nonlinear steepest descent to compute the long-time asymptotics of solutions of the Korteweg--de Vries equation which are decaying perturbations of a quasi-periodic finite-gap background solution. We compute a nonlinear dispersion relation and show that the $x/t$ plane splits into $g+1$ soliton regions which are interlaced by $g+1$ oscillatory regions, where $g+1$ is the number of spectral gaps. In the soliton regions the solution is asymptotically given by a number of solitons travelling on top of finite-gap solutions which are in the same isospectral class as the background solution. In the oscillatory region the solution can be described by a modulated finite-gap solution plus a decaying dispersive tail. The modulation is given by phase transition on the isospectral torus and is, together with the dispersive tail, explicitly characterized in terms of Abelian integrals on the underlying hyperelliptic curve.Comment: 45 pages. arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:0705.034

Responsibility & Risk: Operationalizing comprehensive climate risk layering in Austria among multiple actors (RESPECT)

Damages caused by climate and weather extremes, such as floods and droughts, have increased over the last few decades and will likely broaden with the progression of climate change and socioeconomic development. Such climate-related risks are already being governed within the framework of natural disaster risk management, as well as climate change adaptation. However, to manage these climate risks more effectively it is necessary to link these two domains under the umbrella of Climate Risk Management (CRM)

A Turbulent Origin for Flocculent Spiral Structure in Galaxies

The flocculent structure of star formation in 7 galaxies has a Fourier transform power spectrum for azimuthal intensity scans with a power law slope that increases systematically from -1 at large scales to -1.7 at small scales. This is the same pattern as in the power spectra for azimuthal scans of HI emission in the Large Magellanic Clouds and for flocculent dust clouds in galactic nuclei. The steep part also corresponds to the slope of -3 for two-dimensional power spectra that have been observed in atomic and molecular gas surveys of the Milky Way and the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds. The same power law structure for star formation arises in both flocculent and grand design galaxies, which implies that the star formation process is the same in each. Fractal Brownian motion models that include discrete stars and an underlying continuum of starlight match the observations if all of the emission is organized into a global fractal pattern with an intrinsic 1D power spectrum having a slope between 1.3 and 1.8. We suggest that the power spectrum of optical light in galaxies is the result of turbulence, and that large-scale turbulent motions are generated by sheared gravitational instabilities which make flocculent spiral arms first and then cascade to form clouds and clusters on smaller scales.Comment: accepted for ApJ, 31 pg, 9 figure

Rollen und Verantwortlichkeiten im lokalen Klimarisikomanagement. Handbuch zum Rollenspiel-Workshop Klimarisikomanagement

Dieses Handbuch richtet sich an lokale Akteur*innen, die in ihrer Gemeinde oder Region die Entwicklung eines pro-aktiven Klimarisikomanagements an der Schnittstelle von Klimawandelanpassung und Naturgefahrenmanagement vorantreiben möchten. Durch einen gemeinsamen partizipativen Workshop von Vertreter*innen privater und öffentlicher Interessensgruppen unter Begleitung eines*r Expert*in werden Rollen und Verantwortlichkeiten erarbeitet, um vom Reden ins Handeln zu kommen

Analyzing symmetry breaking within a chaotic quantum system via Bayesian inference

Bayesian inference is applied to the level fluctuations of two coupled microwave billiards in order to extract the coupling strength. The coupled resonators provide a model of a chaotic quantum system containing two coupled symmetry classes of levels. The number variance is used to quantify the level fluctuations as a function of the coupling and to construct the conditional probability distribution of the data. The prior distribution of the coupling parameter is obtained from an invariance argument on the entropy of the posterior distribution.Comment: Example from chaotic dynamics. 8 pages, 7 figures. Submitted to PR