Picoheterotroph (Bacteria and Archaea) biomass distribution in the global ocean

We compiled a database of 39 766 data points consisting of flow cytometric and microscopical measurements of picoheterotroph abundance, including both Bacteria and Archaea. After gridding with 1° spacing, the database covers 1.3% of the ocean surface. There are data covering all ocean basins and depths except the Southern Hemisphere below 350m or from April until June. The average picoheterotroph biomass is 3.9 ± 3.6 µg Cl-1 with a 20-fold decrease between the surface and the deep sea. We estimate a total ocean inventory of about 1.3 × 1029 picoheterotroph cells. Surprisingly, the abundance in the coastal regions is the same as at the same depths in the open ocean. Using an average of published open ocean measurements for the conversion from abundance to carbon biomass of 9.1 fg cell-1, we calculate a picoheterotroph carbon inventory of about 1.2 Pg C. The main source of uncertainty in this inventory is the conversion factor from abundance to biomass. Picoheterotroph biomass is ? 2 times higher in the tropics than in the polar oceans

Statistical determination of the length dependence of high-order polarization mode dispersion

We describe a method of characterizing high-order polarization mode dispersion (PMD).Using a new expansion to approximate the Jones matrix of a polarization-dispersive medium, we study the length dependence of high-order PMD to the fourth order. A simple rule for the asymptotic behavior of PMD for short and long fibers is found. It is also shown that, in long fibers (~1000 km), at 40 Gbits/s the third- and fourth-order PMD may become comparable to the second-order PMD

PP-wave Black holes and The Matrix Model

We discuss the sizes of a black hole in the M theory pp-wave background, and how the transverse size can be reproduced in the matrix model.Comment: 12 pages, harvmac. v2: final version to be published in JHEP, refs. adde

Surface Polar Phonon Dominated Electron Transport in Graphene

The effects of surface polar phonons on electronic transport properties of monolayer graphene are studied by using a Monte Carlo simulation. Specifically, the low-field electron mobility and saturation velocity are examined for different substrates (SiC, SiO2, and HfO2) in comparison to the intrinsic case. While the results show that the low-field mobility can be substantially reduced by the introduction of surface polar phonon scattering, corresponding degradation of the saturation velocity is not observed for all three substrates at room temperature. It is also found that surface polar phonons can influence graphene electrical resistivity even at low temperature, leading potentially to inaccurate estimation of the acoustic phonon deformation potential constant

Evolution equation of entanglement for general bipartite systems

We explore how entanglement of a general bipartite system evolves when one subsystem undergoes the action of an arbitrary noisy channel. It is found that the dynamics of entanglement for general bipartite systems under the influence of such channel is determined by the channel's action on the maximally entangled state, which includes as a special case the results for two-qubit systems [Nature Physics 4, 99 (2008)]. In particular, for multi-qubit or qubit-qudit systems, we get a general factorization law for evolution equation of entanglement with one qubit being subject to a noisy channel. Our results can help the experimental characterization of entanglement dynamics.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figur