A Search for Biomolecules in Sagittarius B2 (LMH) with the ATCA

We have used the Australia Telescope Compact Array to conduct a search for the simplest amino acid, glycine (conformers I and II), and the simple chiral molecule propylene oxide at 3-mm in the Sgr B2 LMH. We searched 15 portions of spectrum between 85 and 91 GHz, each of 64 MHz bandwidth, and detected 58 emission features and 21 absorption features, giving a line density of 75 emission lines and 25 absorption lines per GHz stronger than the 5 sigma level of 110 mJy. Of these, 19 are transitions previously detected in the interstellar medium, and we have made tentative assignments of a further 23 features to molecular transitions. However, as many of these involve molecules not previously detected in the ISM, these assignments cannot be regarded with confidence. Given the median line width of 6.5 km/s in Sgr B2 LMH, we find that the spectra have reached a level where there is line confusion, with about 1/5 of the band being covered with lines. Although we did not confidently detect either glycine or propylene oxide, we can set 3 sigma upper limits for most transitions searched. We also show that if glycine is present in the Sgr B2 LMH at the level of N = 4 x 10^{14} cm^{-2} found by Kuan et al. (2003) in their reported detection of glycine, it should have been easily detected with the ATCA synthesized beam size of 17.0 x 3.4 arcsec^{2}, if it were confined to the scale of the LMH continuum source (< 5 arcsec). This thus puts a strong upper limit on any small-scale glycine emission in Sgr B2, for both of conformers I and II.Comment: 12 pages, 2 figures, 5 tables, accepted by MNRA

Is It Possible to Use a Quantum Eraser to Send Binary Data to a Remote Location?

There are two steps in establishing a quantum entanglement. These two steps often are not considered as independent from one another. Step 1 involves the interaction through which the particles are to be entangled. Step 2 involves making the result of the interaction through which the development of the entanglement begins available to the environment. Step 1 can occur in isolation from the environment. Step 2 then occurs with making the result of the interaction available to the environment through no longer isolating the particles. The entanglement that begins to develop in step 1 can originate in a form where there is which-way information. With step 2, the entanglement is complete and which-way information is established (option 1). Instead of completing the entanglement with step 2, the developing entanglement can be eliminated with the result that which-way information is lost. The result is a distribution for each of the paired particles that exhibits interference (option 2). The elimination of the developing entanglement results in haunted quantum entanglement. It is not quantum erasure. Through the use of options 1 and 2, one need not associate measurements on each of two entangled particles after measurements on each of the particles in order to decipher information. Associating measurements can be done automatically as measurements are made through the ability to control whether a developing entanglement is allowed to be fully established or instead eliminated. Options 1 and 2 can be used in a communications device

Contemporary Seismicity in and Around the Yakima Fold-and-Thrust Belt in Eastern Washington

We examined characteristics of routinely cataloged seismicity from 1970 to the present in and around the Yakima fold-and-thrust belt (YFTB) in eastern Washington to determine if the characteristics of contemporary seismicity provide clues about regional-scale active tectonics or about more localized, near-surface processes. We employed new structural and hydrologic models of the Columbia River basalts (CRB) and found that one-third to one-half of the cataloged earthquakes occur within the CRB and that these CRB earthquakes exhibit significantly more clustered, and swarmlike, behavior than those outside. These results and inferences from published studies led us to hypothesize that clustered seismicity is likely associated with hydrologic changes in the CRB, which hosts the regional aquifer system. While some general features of the regional groundwater system support this hypothesis, seismicity patterns and mapped long-term changes in groundwater levels and present-day irrigation neither support nor refute it. Regional tectonic processes and crustal-scale structures likely influence the distribution of earthquakes both outside and within the CRB as well. We based this inference on qualitatively assessed alignments between the dominant northwest trends in the geologic structure and the seismicity generally and between specific faults and characteristics of the 2009 Wooded Island swarm and aseismic slip, which is the only cluster studied in detail and the most vigorous since regional monitoring began.USGS-NAGTGeological Science