86 research outputs found
Last interglacial sea-level proxies in the glaciated Northern Hemisphere
Because global sea level during the last interglacial (LIG; 130â115âka) was higher than today, the LIG is a useful approximate analogue for improving predictions of future sea-level rise. Here, we synthesize sea-level proxies for the LIG in the glaciated Northern Hemisphere for inclusion in the World Atlas of Last Interglacial Shorelines (WALIS) database. We describe 82 sites from Russia, northern Europe, Greenland and North America from a variety of settings, including boreholes, riverbank exposures and along coastal cliffs. Marine sediments at these sites were constrained to the LIG using a variety of radiometric methods (radiocarbon, uraniumâthorium, potassiumâargon), non-radiometric methods (amino acid dating, luminescence methods, electron spin resonance, tephrochronology) as well as various stratigraphic and palaeo-environmental approaches. In general, the sites reported in this paper do not offer constraint on the global LIG highstand, but rather evidence of glacial isostatic adjustment (GIA)-influenced sea-level positions following the Marine Isotope Stage 6 glaciation (MIS 6; 191â130âka). Most of the proxies suggest that sea level was much higher during the LIG than at the present time. Moreover, many of the sites show evidence of regression due to sea-level fall (owing to glacial isostatic uplift), and some also show fluctuations that may reflect regrowth of continental ice or increased influence of the global sea-level signal. In addition to documenting LIG sea-level sites in a large swath of the Northern Hemisphere, this compilation is highly relevant for reconstructing the size of MIS 6 ice sheets through GIA modelling. The database is available at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5602212 (Dalton et al., 2021).publishedVersio
Thermopower of a single electron transistor in the regime of strong inelastic cotunneling
We study Coulomb blockade oscillations of thermoelectric coefficients of a
single electron transistor based on a quantum dot strongly coupled to one of
the leads by a quantum point contact. At temperatures below the charging energy
E_C the transport of electrons is dominated by strong inelastic cotunneling. In
this regime we find analytic expressions for the thermopower as a function of
temperature T and the reflection amplitude in the contact. In the case when
the electron spins are polarized by a strong external magnetic field, the
thermopower shows sinusoidal oscillations as a function of the gate voltage
with the amplitude of the order of . We obtain
qualitatively different results in the absence of the magnetic field. At
temperatures between and the thermopower oscillations are
sinusoidal with the amplitude of order . On the
other hand, at we find non-sinusoidal oscillations of the
thermopower with the amplitude .Comment: 14 pages, 3 figure
Augmented Lagrangian Method for Constrained Nuclear Density Functional Theory
The augmented Lagrangiam method (ALM), widely used in quantum chemistry
constrained optimization problems, is applied in the context of the nuclear
Density Functional Theory (DFT) in the self-consistent constrained Skyrme
Hartree-Fock-Bogoliubov (CHFB) variant. The ALM allows precise calculations of
multidimensional energy surfaces in the space of collective coordinates that
are needed to, e.g., determine fission pathways and saddle points; it improves
accuracy of computed derivatives with respect to collective variables that are
used to determine collective inertia; and is well adapted to supercomputer
applications.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures; to appear in Eur. Phys. J.
Semiempirical Shell Model Masses with Magic Number Z=126 for Translead Elements with N smaller or equal to 126
A semiempirical shell model mass equation based on magic number Z=126 and
applicable to translead elements with N smaller or equal to 126 is presented.
For alpha decay energies the equation is shown to have a high predictive power
and an rms deviation from the data of about 100 keV. The rms deviations for
masses and other mass differences are between about 200 and 300 keV.Comment: 8 pages including 3 figures and 3 table
High-field high-repetition-rate sources for the coherent THz control of matter
Ultrashort flashes of THz light with low photon energies of a few meV, but strong electric or magnetic field transients have recently been employed to prepare various fascinating nonequilibrium states in matter. Here we present a new class of sources based on superradiant enhancement of radiation from relativistic electron bunches in a compact electron accelerator that we believe will revolutionize experiments in this field. Our prototype source generates high-field THz pulses at unprecedented quasicontinuous-wave repetition rates up to the MHz regime. We demonstrate parameters that exceed state-of-the-art laser-based sources by more than 2 orders of magnitude. The peak fields and the repetition rates are highly scalable and once fully operational this type of sources will routinely provide 1 MV/cm electric fields and 0.3 T magnetic fields at repetition rates of few 100 kHz. We benchmark the unique properties by performing a resonant coherent THz control experiment with few 10 fs resolution
The nuclear energy density functional formalism
The present document focuses on the theoretical foundations of the nuclear
energy density functional (EDF) method. As such, it does not aim at reviewing
the status of the field, at covering all possible ramifications of the approach
or at presenting recent achievements and applications. The objective is to
provide a modern account of the nuclear EDF formalism that is at variance with
traditional presentations that rely, at one point or another, on a {\it
Hamiltonian-based} picture. The latter is not general enough to encompass what
the nuclear EDF method represents as of today. Specifically, the traditional
Hamiltonian-based picture does not allow one to grasp the difficulties
associated with the fact that currently available parametrizations of the
energy kernel at play in the method do not derive from a genuine
Hamilton operator, would the latter be effective. The method is formulated from
the outset through the most general multi-reference, i.e. beyond mean-field,
implementation such that the single-reference, i.e. "mean-field", derives as a
particular case. As such, a key point of the presentation provided here is to
demonstrate that the multi-reference EDF method can indeed be formulated in a
{\it mathematically} meaningful fashion even if does {\it not} derive
from a genuine Hamilton operator. In particular, the restoration of symmetries
can be entirely formulated without making {\it any} reference to a projected
state, i.e. within a genuine EDF framework. However, and as is illustrated in
the present document, a mathematically meaningful formulation does not
guarantee that the formalism is sound from a {\it physical} standpoint. The
price at which the latter can be enforced as well in the future is eventually
alluded to.Comment: 64 pages, 8 figures, submitted to Euroschool Lecture Notes in Physics
Vol.IV, Christoph Scheidenberger and Marek Pfutzner editor
Nuclear Level Density and the Determination of Thermonuclear Rates for Astrophysics
The prediction of cross sections for nuclei far off stability is crucial in
the field of nuclear astrophysics. We discuss the model mostly employed for
such calculations: the statistical model (Hauser-Feshbach). Special emphasis is
put on the uncertainties arising from nuclear level density descriptions and an
improved global description is presented. Furthermore, criteria for the
applicability of the statistical model are investigated and a "map" for the
applicability of the model to reactions of stable and unstable nuclei with
neutral and charged particles is given.Comment: REVTeX paper + 7 B/W figures + 2 color figures; PRC, in press. Also
available at http://quasar.physik.unibas.ch/preps.htm
Primordial Nucleosynthesis for the New Cosmology: Determining Uncertainties and Examining Concordance
Big bang nucleosynthesis (BBN) and the cosmic microwave background (CMB) have
a long history together in the standard cosmology. The general concordance
between the predicted and observed light element abundances provides a direct
probe of the universal baryon density. Recent CMB anisotropy measurements,
particularly the observations performed by the WMAP satellite, examine this
concordance by independently measuring the cosmic baryon density. Key to this
test of concordance is a quantitative understanding of the uncertainties in the
BBN light element abundance predictions. These uncertainties are dominated by
systematic errors in nuclear cross sections. We critically analyze the cross
section data, producing representations that describe this data and its
uncertainties, taking into account the correlations among data, and explicitly
treating the systematic errors between data sets. Using these updated nuclear
inputs, we compute the new BBN abundance predictions, and quantitatively
examine their concordance with observations. Depending on what deuterium
observations are adopted, one gets the following constraints on the baryon
density: OmegaBh^2=0.0229\pm0.0013 or OmegaBh^2 = 0.0216^{+0.0020}_{-0.0021} at
68% confidence, fixing N_{\nu,eff}=3.0. Concerns over systematics in helium and
lithium observations limit the confidence constraints based on this data
provide. With new nuclear cross section data, light element abundance
observations and the ever increasing resolution of the CMB anisotropy, tighter
constraints can be placed on nuclear and particle astrophysics. ABRIDGEDComment: 54 pages, 20 figures, 5 tables v2: reflects PRD version minor changes
to text and reference
Dating minerals by ID-TIMS geochronology at times of in situ analysis: selected case studies from the CPGeo-IGc-USP laboratory
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