1,485 research outputs found
Gas Emissions From the Western Aleutians Volcanic Arc
The Aleutian Arc is remote and highly active volcanically. Its 4,000 km extent from mainland Alaska to Russia\u2019s Kamchatka peninsula hosts over 140 volcanic centers of which about 50 have erupted in historic times. We present data of volcanic gas samples and gas emission measurements obtained during an expedition to the western-most segment of the arc in September 2015 in order to extend the sparse knowledge on volatile emissions from this remote but volcanically active region. Some of the volcanoes investigated here have not been sampled for gases before this writing. Our data show that all volcanoes host high-temperature magmatic-hydrothermal systems and have gas discharges typical of volcanoes in oceanic arcs. Based on helium isotopes, the western Aleutian Arc segment has minimal volatile contributions from the overriding crust. Volcanic CO2 fluxes from this arc segment are small, compared to the emissions from volcanoes on the Alaska Peninsula and mainland Alaska. The comparatively low CO2 emissions may be related to the lower sediment flux delivered to the trench in this part of the arc
Modelling non-dust fluids in cosmology
Currently, most of the numerical simulations of structure formation use
Newtonian gravity. When modelling pressureless dark matter, or `dust', this
approach gives the correct results for scales much smaller than the
cosmological horizon, but for scenarios in which the fluid has pressure this is
no longer the case. In this article, we present the correspondence of
perturbations in Newtonian and cosmological perturbation theory, showing exact
mathematical equivalence for pressureless matter, and giving the relativistic
corrections for matter with pressure. As an example, we study the case of
scalar field dark matter which features non-zero pressure perturbations. We
discuss some problems which may arise when evolving the perturbations in this
model with Newtonian numerical simulations and with CMB Boltzmann codes.Comment: 5 pages; v2: typos corrected and refs added, submitted version; v3:
version to appear in JCA
A cohort study of post-weaning multisystemic wasting syndrome and PCV2 in 178 pigs from birth to 14 weeks on a single farm in England
Our hypothesis was that pigs that develop post-weaning multisystemic wasting syndrome (PMWS) are detectable from an early age with signs of weight loss and other clinical and serological abnormalities. Therefore, the objective of this study was to investigate the temporally varying and fixed events linked with the clinical incidence of PMWS by comparing affected and unaffected pigs in a cohort of 178 male piglets. Piglets were enrolled at birth and examined each week. Samples of blood were collected at regular intervals. The exposures measured were porcine circovirus type 2 (PCV2) antibody titres in all 178 and PCV2 antigen in a subset of 75 piglets. We also observed piglet health and measured their weight, and a post-mortem examination was performed by an external laboratory on all pigs between 6 and 14 weeks of age that died. From the cohort, 14 (8%) pigs died from PMWS and 4% from other causes. A further 37 pigs between 6 and 14 weeks of age died from PMWS (30) and ileitis and other causes (7). PMWS was only apparent in pigs from 1 to 2 weeks before death when they wasted rapidly. There were no other characteristic clinical signs and no obvious gross clinical lesions post-mortem. There was no strong link with PCV2 antibody throughout life but PCV2 antigen level was higher from 4 to 6 weeks of age in pigs that died from PMWS compared with pigs that died from other causes
The Uncertainty in Newton's Constant and Precision Predictions of the Primordial Helium Abundance
The current uncertainty in Newton's constant, G_N, is of the order of 0.15%.
For values of the baryon to photon ratio consistent with both cosmic microwave
background observations and the primordial deuterium abundance, this
uncertainty in G_N corresponds to an uncertainty in the primordial 4He mass
fraction, Y_P, of +-1.3 x 10^{-4}. This uncertainty in Y_P is comparable to the
effect from the current uncertainty in the neutron lifetime, which is often
treated as the dominant uncertainty in calculations of Y_P. Recent measurements
of G_N seem to be converging within a smaller range; a reduction in the
estimated error on G_N by a factor of 10 would essentially eliminate it as a
source of uncertainty in the calculation of the primordial 4He abundance.Comment: 3 pages, no figures, fixed typos, to appear in Phys. Rev.
Detailed study of BBN implications of neutrino oscillation generated neutrino asymmetries in some four neutrino models
We re-examine the evolution of neutrino asymmetries in several four neutrino
models. The first case involves the direct creation of by oscillations. In the second case, we consider the mass
hierarchy where oscillations generate a large and some of
this asymmetry is converted into by oscillations. We estimate the implications for BBN for a range of
cosmologically interesting values. The present paper improves on
previous published work by taking into account the finite repopulation rate and
the time dependence of the distortions to the neutrino momentum distributions.
The treatment of chemical decoupling is also improved.Comment: Expanded discussion on the sign of the neutrino asymmetr
Primordial nucleosynthesis with a varying fine structure constant: An improved estimate
We compute primordial light-element abundances for cases with fine structure
constant alpha different from the present value, including many sources of
alpha dependence neglected in previous calculations. Specifically, we consider
contributions arising from Coulomb barrier penetration, photon coupling to
nuclear currents, and the electromagnetic components of nuclear masses. We find
the primordial abundances to depend more weakly on alpha than previously
estimated, by up to a factor of 2 in the case of ^7Li. We discuss the
constraints on variations in alpha from the individual abundance measurements
and the uncertainties affecting these constraints. While the present best
measurements of primordial D/H, ^4He/H, and ^7Li/H may be reconciled pairwise
by adjusting alpha and the universal baryon density, no value of alpha allows
all three to be accommodated simultaneously without consideration of systematic
error. The combination of measured abundances with observations of acoustic
peaks in the cosmic microwave background favors no change in alpha within the
uncertainties.Comment: Phys. Rev. D accepted version; minor changes in response to refere
Epidemiology and molecular characterization of Carnivore protoparvovirus-1 infection in the wild felid Leopardus guigna in Chile
Landscape anthropization has been identified as one of the main drivers of pathogen emergence worldwide, facilitating pathogen spillover between domestic species and wildlife. The present study investigated Carnivore protoparvovirus-1 infection using molecular methods in 98 free-ranging wild guignas (Leopardus guigna) and 262 co-occurring owned, free-roaming rural domestic cats. We also assessed landscape anthropization variables as potential drivers of infection. Protoparvovirus DNA was detected in guignas across their entire distribution range, with observed prevalence of 13.3% (real-time PCR) and 9% (conventional PCR) in guignas, and 6.1% (conventional PCR) in cats. Prevalence in guigna did not vary depending on age, sex, study area or landscape variables. Prevalence was higher in juvenile cats (16.7%) than in adults (4.4%). Molecular characterization of the virus by amplification and sequencing of almost the entire vp2 gene (1, 746 bp) from one guigna and five domestic cats was achieved, showing genetic similarities to canine parvovirus 2c (CPV-2c) (one guigna and one cat), feline panleukopenia virus (FPV) (one cat), CPV-2 (no subtype identified) (two cats), CPV-2a (one cat). The CVP-2c-like sequence found in a guigna clustered together with domestic cat and dog CPV-2c sequences from South America, suggesting possible spillover from a domestic to a wild species as the origin of infection in guigna. No clinical signs of disease were found in PCR-positive animals except for a CPV-2c-infected guigna, which had haemorrhagic diarrhoea and died a few days after arrival at a wildlife rescue centre. Our findings reveal widespread presence of Carnivore protoparvovirus-1 across the guigna distribution in Chile and suggest that virus transmission potentially occurs from domestic to wild carnivores, causing severe disease and death in susceptible wild guignas
Signatures of Relativistic Neutrinos in CMB Anisotropy and Matter Clustering
We present a detailed analytical study of ultra-relativistic neutrinos in
cosmological perturbation theory and of the observable signatures of
inhomogeneities in the cosmic neutrino background. We note that a modification
of perturbation variables that removes all the time derivatives of scalar
gravitational potentials from the dynamical equations simplifies their solution
notably. The used perturbations of particle number per coordinate, not proper,
volume are generally constant on superhorizon scales. In real space an
analytical analysis can be extended beyond fluids to neutrinos.
The faster cosmological expansion due to the neutrino background changes the
acoustic and damping angular scales of the cosmic microwave background (CMB).
But we find that equivalent changes can be produced by varying other standard
parameters, including the primordial helium abundance. The low-l integrated
Sachs-Wolfe effect is also not sensitive to neutrinos. However, the gravity of
neutrino perturbations suppresses the CMB acoustic peaks for the multipoles
with l>~200 while it enhances the amplitude of matter fluctuations on these
scales. In addition, the perturbations of relativistic neutrinos generate a
*unique phase shift* of the CMB acoustic oscillations that for adiabatic
initial conditions cannot be caused by any other standard physics. The origin
of the shift is traced to neutrino free-streaming velocity exceeding the sound
speed of the photon-baryon plasma. We find that from a high resolution, low
noise instrument such as CMBPOL the effective number of light neutrino species
can be determined with an accuracy of sigma(N_nu) = 0.05 to 0.09, depending on
the constraints on the helium abundance.Comment: 38 pages, 7 figures. Version accepted for publication in PR
Slepton and Neutralino/Chargino Coannihilations in MSSM
Within the low-energy effective Minimal Supersymmetric extension of Standard
Model (effMSSM) we calculated the neutralino relic density taking into account
slepton-neutralino and neutralino-chargino/neutralino coannihilation channels.
We performed comparative study of these channels and obtained that both of them
give sizable contributions to the reduction of the relic density. Due to these
coannihilation processes some models (mostly with large neutralino masses)
enter into the cosmologically interesting region for relic density, but other
models leave this region. Nevertheless, in general, the predictions for direct
and indirect dark matter detection rates are not strongly affected by these
coannihilation channels in the effMSSM.Comment: 12 pages, 9 figures, revte
Primordial Nucleosynthesis Constraints on Z' Properties
In models involving new TeV-scale Z' gauge bosons, the new U(1)' symmetry
often prevents the generation of Majorana masses needed for a conventional
neutrino seesaw, leading to three superweakly interacting ``right-handed''
neutrinos nu_R, the Dirac partners of the ordinary neutrinos. These can be
produced prior to big bang nucleosynthesis by the Z' interactions, leading to a
faster expansion rate and too much ^4He. We quantify the constraints on the Z'
properties from nucleosynthesis for Z' couplings motivated by a class of E_6
models parametrized by an angle theta_E6. The rate for the annihilation of
three approximately massless right-handed neutrinos into other particle pairs
through the Z' channel is calculated. The decoupling temperature, which is
higher than that of ordinary left-handed neutrinos due to the large Z' mass, is
evaluated, and the equivalent number of new doublet neutrinos Delta N_nu is
obtained numerically as a function of the Z' mass and couplings for a variety
of assumptions concerning the Z-Z' mixing angle and the quark-hadron transition
temperature T_c. Except near the values of theta_E6 for which the Z' decouples
from the right-handed neutrinos, the Z' mass and mixing constraints from
nucleosynthesis are much more stringent than the existing laboratory limits
from searches for direct production or from precision electroweak data, and are
comparable to the ranges that may ultimately be probed at proposed colliders.
For the case T_c = 150 MeV with the theoretically favored range of Z-Z'
mixings, Delta N_nu 4.3 TeV for any value of theta_E6. Larger
mixing or larger T_c often lead to unacceptably large Delta N_nu except near
the nu_R decoupling limit.Comment: 22 pages, 5 figures; two additional references adde
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