Magnetic Field Effects on the Structure and Evolution of Overdense Radiatively Cooling Jets

We investigate the effect of magnetic fields on the propagation dynamics and morphology of overdense, radiatively cooling, supermagnetosonic jets, with the help of fully three-dimensional SPMHD simulations. Evaluated for a set of parameters which are mainly suitable for protostellar jets (with density ratios between the jet and the ambient medium 3-10, and ambient Mach number ~ 24), these simulations are also compared with baseline non-magnetic and adiabatic calculations. We find that, after amplification by compression and re-orientation in nonparallel shocks at the working surface, the magnetic field that is carried backward with the shocked gas into the cocoon improves the jet collimation relative to the purely hydrodynamic (HD) systems. Low-amplitude, approximately equally spaced internal shocks (which are absent in the HD systems) are produced by MHD K-H reflection pinch modes. The longitudinal field geometry also excites non-axisymmetric helical modes which cause some beam wiggling. The strength and amount of these modes are, however, reduced (by ~ twice) in the presence of radiative cooling relative to the adiabatic cases. Besides, a large density ratio between the jet and the ambient medium also reduces, in general, the number of the internal shocks. As a consequence, the weakness of the induced internal shocks makes it doubtful that the magnetic pinches could produce by themselves the bright knots observed in the overdense, radiatively cooling protostellar jets.Comment: To appear in ApJ; 36 pages + 16 (gif) figures. PostScript files of figures are available at http://www.iagusp.usp.br/preprints/preprint.htm

Limitations of model fitting methods for lensing shear estimation

Gravitational lensing shear has the potential to be the most powerful tool for constraining the nature of dark energy. However, accurate measurement of galaxy shear is crucial and has been shown to be non-trivial by the Shear TEsting Programme. Here we demonstrate a fundamental limit to the accuracy achievable by model-fitting techniques, if oversimplistic models are used. We show that even if galaxies have elliptical isophotes, model-fitting methods which assume elliptical isophotes can have significant biases if they use the wrong profile. We use noise-free simulations to show that on allowing sufficient flexibility in the profile the biases can be made negligible. This is no longer the case if elliptical isophote models are used to fit galaxies made up of a bulge plus a disk, if these two components have different ellipticities. The limiting accuracy is dependent on the galaxy shape but we find the most significant biases for simple spiral-like galaxies. The implications for a given cosmic shear survey will depend on the actual distribution of galaxy morphologies in the universe, taking into account the survey selection function and the point spread function. However our results suggest that the impact on cosmic shear results from current and near future surveys may be negligible. Meanwhile, these results should encourage the development of existing approaches which are less sensitive to morphology, as well as methods which use priors on galaxy shapes learnt from deep surveys.Comment: 10 pages, 8 figure

Yang-Lee zeros for a nonequilibrium phase transition

Equilibrium systems which exhibit a phase transition can be studied by investigating the complex zeros of the partition function. This method, pioneered by Yang and Lee, has been widely used in equilibrium statistical physics. We show that an analogous treatment is possible for a nonequilibrium phase transition into an absorbing state. By investigating the complex zeros of the survival probability of directed percolation processes we demonstrate that the zeros provide information about universal properties. Moreover we identify certain non-trivial points where the survival probability for bond percolation can be computed exactly.Comment: LaTeX, IOP-style, 13 pages, 10 eps figure

Optical echo in photonic crystals

The dynamics of photonic wavepacket in the effective oscillator potential is studied. The oscillator potential is constructed on a base of one dimensional photonic crystal with a period of unit cell adiabatically varied in space. The structure has a locally equidistant discrete spectrum. This leads to an echo effect, i.e. the periodical reconstruction of the packet shape. The effect can be observed in a nonlinear response of the system. Numerical estimations for porous-silicon based structures are presented for femtosecond Ti:Sapphire laser pump.Comment: 4 page

Discovery of Novel Backusella (Backusellaceae, Mucorales) Isolated from Invertebrates and Toads in Cheongyang, Korea

Three novel fungal species, Backusella chlamydospora sp. nov., B. koreana sp. nov., and B. thermophila sp. nov., as well as two new records, B. oblongielliptica and B. oblongispora, were found in Cheongyang, Korea, during an investigation of fungal species from invertebrates and toads. All species are described here using morphological characters and sequence data from internal transcribed spacer sequences of ribosomal DNA and large subunit of the ribosomal DNA. Backusella chlamydospora is different from other Backusella species by producing chlamydospores. Backusella koreana can be distinguished from other Backusella species by producing abundant yeast-like cells. Backusella thermophila is characterized by a variable (subglobose to oblong, applanate to oval, conical and ellipsoidal to pyriform) columellae and grows well at 37 ◦C. Multigene phylogenetic analyses of the combined ITS and LSU rDNA sequences data generated from maximum likelihood and MrBayes analyses indicate that B. chlamydospora, B. koreana, and B. thermophila form distinct lineages in the family Backusellaceae. Detailed descriptions, illustrations, phylogenetic tree, and taxonomic key to the Backusella species present in Korea are provided

H3K36 methylation and DNA-binding both promote Ioc4 recruitment and Isw1b remodeler function

The Isw1b chromatin-remodeling complex is specifically recruited to gene bodies to help retain pre-existing histones during transcription by RNA polymerase II. Recruitment is dependent on H3K36 methylation and the Isw1b subunit Ioc4, which contains an N-terminal PWWP domain. Here, we present the crystal structure of the Ioc4-PWWP domain, including a detailed functional characterization of the domain on its own as well as in the context of full-length Ioc4 and the Isw1b remodeler. The Ioc4-PWWP domain preferentially binds H3K36me3-containing nucleosomes. Its ability to bind DNA is required for nucleosome binding. It is also furthered by the unique insertion motif present in Ioc4-PWWP. The ability to bind H3K36me3 and DNA promotes the interaction of full-length Ioc4 with nucleosomes in vitro and they are necessary for its recruitment to gene bodies in vivo. Furthermore, a fully functional Ioc4-PWWP domain promotes efficient remodeling by Isw1b and the maintenance of ordered chromatin in vivo, thereby preventing the production of non-coding RNAs

Influence of a partially oxidized calcium cathode on the performance of polymeric light emitting diodes

We investigated the influence of the presence of oxygen during the deposition of the calcium cathode on the structure and on the performance of polymeric light emitting diodes (pLEDs). The oxygen background pressure during deposition of the calcium cathode of polymeric LEDs was varied. Subsequently, the oxygen depth distribution was measured and correlated with the performance of the pLEDs. The devices have been fabricated in a recently built ultraclean setup. The polymer layers of the pLEDs have been spincoated in a dry nitrogen atmosphere and transported directly into an ultrahigh vacuum chamber where the metal electrodes have been deposited by evaporation. We used indium–tin–oxide as anode, OC1C10 PPV as electroluminescent polymer, calcium as cathode, and aluminum as protecting layer. We achieved reproducibility of about 15% in current and brightness for devices fabricated in an oxygen atmosphere of less than or equal to 10 -9 mbar. For further investigations the calcium deposition was carried out in an oxygen atmosphere from 10 -8 to 10 -5 mbar. We determined the amount of oxygen in the different layers of the current–voltage-light characterized pLEDs with elastic recoil detection analysis and correlated it with the characteristics of the devices. The external efficiency of the pLEDs decreases continuously with increasing oxygen pressure, the current shows a pronounced minimum. The brightness mostly decreases with increasing oxygen with an indication of a slight minimum. PLEDs with completely oxidized calcium are not operational. The first contact of the pLEDs with the dry glove box environment leads to an immediate reduction of current and brightness which is caused by the cooling of the devices by several degrees. Determining reproducible characteristics of pLEDs in the vacuum requires the measurement of their temperature

Nuclear structure of 178Hf related to the spin-16, 31-year isomer

The projected shell model is used to study the multi-quasiparticle and collective excitations of 178Hf. With an axially symmetric basis, the spin-16 isomer at 2.4 MeV appears to be well separated in energy/spin space from other configurations. However, projected energy surface calculations suggest that 178Hf has significant softness to axially asymmetric shapes, which can strongly modify the level distribution. The implications for photodeexitation of the isomer are discussed.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figure

Evaluation and refinement of thermodynamic databases for mineral carbonation

Thermodynamic models are often used to quantify fluid-rock interactions. The validity of such models critically depends on the accuracy of the thermodynamic database used. This study evaluated the quality of existing PHREEQC databases (phreeqc.dat, llnl.dat, and core10.dat) through the analysis of mineral saturation states for various carbonates, sulfur-containing minerals, silicates, and hydroxides. The comparison between data from available equilibrated dissolution-precipitation experiments and predicted saturation states reveals: i) systematic deviations when using phreeqc.dat at temperatures higher than ~ 90 °C; ii) a lack of direct solubility measurements of numerous sulfide and silicate minerals; iii) systematic solubility underestimates for kaolinite and brucite. To address these issues the carbfix.dat database was created based on the core10.dat database, revising several mineral solubilities and aqueous species stabilities to improve our ability to model fluid-rock interactions during basalt-hosted mineral carbonation efforts

Triangle-Free Penny Graphs: Degeneracy, Choosability, and Edge Count

We show that triangle-free penny graphs have degeneracy at most two, list coloring number (choosability) at most three, diameter $D=\Omega(\sqrt n)$, and at most $\min\bigl(2n-\Omega(\sqrt n),2n-D-2\bigr)$ edges.Comment: 10 pages, 2 figures. To appear at the 25th International Symposium on Graph Drawing and Network Visualization (GD 2017