475 research outputs found
Subglacial lakes and hydrology across the Ellsworth Subglacial Highlands, West Antarctica
Subglacial water plays an important role in ice sheet dynamics and stability. Subglacial lakes are often located at the onset of ice streams and have been hypothesised to enhance ice flow downstream by lubricating the ice– bed interface. The most recent subglacial-lake inventory of Antarctica mapped nearly 400 lakes, of which ∼ 14 % are found in West Antarctica. Despite the potential importance of subglacial water for ice dynamics, there is a lack of detailed subglacial-water characterisation in West Antarctica. Using radio-echo sounding data, we analyse the ice–bed interface to detect subglacial lakes. We report 33 previously uncharted subglacial lakes and present a systematic analysis of their physical properties. This represents a ∼ 40 % increase in subglacial lakes in West Antarctica. Additionally, a new digital elevation model of basal topography of the Ellsworth Subglacial Highlands was built and used to create a hydropotential model to simulate the subglacial hydrological network. This allows us to characterise basal hydrology, determine subglacial water catchments and assess their connectivity. We show that the simulated subglacial hydrological catchments of the Rutford Ice Stream, Pine Island Glacier and Thwaites Glacier do not correspond to their ice surface catchments
Ancient pre-glacial erosion surfaces preserved beneath the West Antarctic Ice Sheet
Open access journalpresent ice-penetrating radar evidence for ancient (pre-glacial) and extensive erosion surfaces preserved beneath the upstream Institute and Möller ice streams, West Antarctica. Radar data reveal a smooth, laterally continuous, gently sloping topographic block, comprising two surfaces separated by a distinct break in slope. The erosion surfaces are preserved in this location due to the collective action of the Pirrit and Martin–Nash hills on ice sheet flow, resulting in a region of slow flowing, cold-based ice downstream of these major topographic barriers. Our analysis reveals that smooth, flat subglacial topography does not always correspond to regions of either present or former fast ice flow, as has previously been assumed. We discuss the potential origins of the erosion surfaces. Erosion rates across the surfaces are currently low, precluding formation via present-day glacial erosion. We suggest that fluvial or marine processes are most likely to have resulted in the formation of these surfaces, but we acknowledge that distinguishing between these processes with certainty requires further data.Natural Environment Research Council (NERC
Poincar\'{e} cycle of a multibox Ehrenfest urn model with directed transport
We propose a generalized Ehrenfest urn model of many urns arranged
periodically along a circle. The evolution of the urn model system is governed
by a directed stochastic operation. Method for solving an -ball, -urn
problem of this model is presented. The evolution of the system is studied in
detail. We find that the average number of balls in a certain urn oscillates
several times before it reaches a stationary value. This behavior seems to be a
peculiar feature of this directed urn model. We also calculate the Poincar\'{e}
cycle, i.e., the average time interval required for the system to return to its
initial configuration. The result can be easily understood by counting the
total number of all possible microstates of the system.Comment: 10 pages revtex file with 7 eps figure
Hadronic Parity Violation and Inelastic Electron-Deuteron Scattering
We compute contributions to the parity-violating (PV) inelastic
electron-deuteron scattering asymmetry arising from hadronic PV. While hadronic
PV effects can be relatively important in PV threshold electro- disintegration,
we find that they are highly suppressed at quasielastic kinematics. The
interpretation of the PV quasielastic asymmetry is, thus, largely unaffected by
hadronic PV.Comment: 27 pages, 13 figures, uses REVTeX and BibTe
Boundary conditions of an active West Antarctic subglacial lake: Implications for storage of water beneath the ice sheet
Open access journalRepeat-pass ICESat altimetry has revealed 124 discrete surface height changes across the Antarctic Ice Sheet, interpreted to be caused by subglacial lake discharges (surface lowering) and inputs (surface uplift). Few of these active lakes have been confirmed by radio-echo sounding (RES) despite several attempts (notable exceptions are Lake Whillans and three in the Adventure Subglacial Trench). Here we present targeted RES and radar altimeter data from an "active lake" location within the upstream Institute Ice Stream, into which at least 0.12 km3 of water was previously calculated to have flowed between October 2003 and February 2008. We use a series of transects to establish an accurate depiction of the influences of bed topography and ice surface elevation on water storage potential. The location of surface height change is downstream of a subglacial hill on the flank of a distinct topographic hollow, where RES reveals no obvious evidence for deep (> 10 m) water. The regional hydropotential reveals a sink coincident with the surface change, however. Governed by the location of the hydrological sink, basal water will likely "drape" over topography in a manner dissimilar to subglacial lakes where flat strong specular RES reflections are measured. The inability of RES to detect the active lake means that more of the Antarctic ice sheet bed may contain stored water than is currently appreciated. Variation in ice surface elevation data sets leads to significant alteration in calculations of the local flow of basal water indicating the value of, and need for, high-resolution altimetry data in both space and time to establish and characterise subglacial hydrological processesNatural Environment Research Council (NERC
Ice-flow structure and ice dynamic changes in the Weddell Sea sector of West Antarctica from radar-imaged internal layering
Recent studies have aroused concerns over the potential for ice draining the Weddell Sea sector of West Antarctica to figure more prominently in sea level contributions should buttressing from the Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf diminish. To improve understanding of how ice stream dynamics there evolved through the Holocene, we interrogate radio echo sounding (RES) data from across the catchments of Institute and Möller Ice Streams (IIS and MIS), focusing especially on the use of internal layering to investigate ice-flow change. As an important component of this work, we investigate the influence that the orientation of the RES acquisition track with respect to ice flow exerts on internal layering and find that this influence is minimal unless a RES flight track parallels ice flow. We also investigate potential changes to internal layering characteristics with depth to search for important temporal transitions in ice-flow regime. Our findings suggest that ice in northern IIS, draining the Ellsworth Subglacial Highlands, has retained its present ice-flow configuration throughout the Holocene. This contrasts with less topographically constrained ice in southern IIS and much of MIS, whose internal layering evinces spatial changes to the configuration of ice flow over the past ∼10,000 years. Our findings confirm Siegert et al.'s (2013) inference that fast flow was diverted from Bungenstock Ice Rise during the Late Holocene and suggest that this may have represented just one component of wider regional changes to ice flow occurring across the IIS and MIS catchments as the West Antarctic Ice Sheet has thinned since the Last Glacial Maximum.NERC Antarctic Funding Initiativ
Parity nonconservation in deuteron photoreactions
We calculate the asymmetries in parity nonconserving deuteron
photodisintegration due to circularly polarized photons gamma+d to n+p with the
photon laboratory energy ranging from the threshold up to 10 MeV and the
radiative capture of thermal polarized neutrons by protons n+p to gamma+d. We
use the leading order electromagnetic Hamiltonian neglecting the smaller
nuclear exchange currents. Comparative calculations are done by using the
Reid93 and Argonne v18 potentials for the strong interaction and the DDH and
FCDH "best" values for the weak couplings in a weak one-meson exchange
potential. A weak NDelta transition potential is used to incorporate also the
Delta(1232)-isobar excitation in the coupled-channels formalism.Comment: 14 pages, 13 figures (18 eps files), LaTeX2
Electroweak Radiative Corrections to Parity-Violating Electroexcitation of the
We analyze the degree to which parity-violating (PV) electroexcitation of the
resonance may be used to extract the weak neutral axial vector
transition form factors. We find that the axial vector electroweak radiative
corrections are large and theoretically uncertain, thereby modifying the
nominal interpretation of the PV asymmetry in terms of the weak neutral form
factors. We also show that, in contrast to the situation for elastic electron
scattering, the axial PV asymmetry does not vanish at the photon
point as a consequence of a new term entering the radiative corrections. We
argue that an experimental determination of these radiative corrections would
be of interest for hadron structure theory, possibly shedding light on the
violation of Hara's theorem in weak, radiative hyperon decays.Comment: RevTex, 76 page
Strong evidences of hadron acceleration in Tycho's Supernova Remnant
Very recent gamma-ray observations of G120.1+1.4 (Tycho's) supernova remnant
(SNR) by Fermi-LAT and VERITAS provided new fundamental pieces of information
for understanding particle acceleration and non-thermal emission in SNRs. We
want to outline a coherent description of Tycho's properties in terms of SNR
evolution, shock hydrodynamics and multi-wavelength emission by accounting for
particle acceleration at the forward shock via first order Fermi mechanism. We
adopt here a quick and reliable semi-analytical approach to non-linear
diffusive shock acceleration which includes magnetic field amplification due to
resonant streaming instability and the dynamical backreaction on the shock of
both cosmic rays (CRs) and self-generated magnetic turbulence. We find that
Tycho's forward shock is accelerating protons up to at least 500 TeV,
channelling into CRs about the 10 per cent of its kinetic energy. Moreover, the
CR-induced streaming instability is consistent with all the observational
evidences indicating a very efficient magnetic field amplification (up to ~300
micro Gauss). In such a strong magnetic field the velocity of the Alfv\'en
waves scattering CRs in the upstream is expected to be enhanced and to make
accelerated particles feel an effective compression factor lower than 4, in
turn leading to an energy spectrum steeper than the standard prediction
{\propto} E^-2. This latter effect is crucial to explain the GeV-to-TeV
gamma-ray spectrum as due to the decay of neutral pions produced in nuclear
collisions between accelerated nuclei and the background gas. The
self-consistency of such an hadronic scenario, along with the fact that the
concurrent leptonic mechanism cannot reproduce both the shape and the
normalization of the detected the gamma-ray emission, represents the first
clear and direct radiative evidence that hadron acceleration occurs efficiently
in young Galactic SNRs.Comment: Minor changes. Accepted for publication in Astronomy & Astrophysic
Evidence of Novel Quasiparticles in a Strongly Interacting Two-Dimensional Electron System: Giant Thermopower and Metallic Behaviour
We report thermopower () and electrical resistivity ()
measurements in low-density (10 m), mesoscopic two-dimensional
electron systems (2DESs) in GaAs/AlGaAs heterostructures at sub-Kelvin
temperatures. We observe at temperatures 0.7 K a linearly growing
as a function of temperature indicating metal-like behaviour. Interestingly
this metallicity is not Drude-like, showing several unusual characteristics: i)
the magnitude of exceeds the Mott prediction valid for non-interacting
metallic 2DESs at similar carrier densities by over two orders of magnitude;
and ii) in this regime is two orders of magnitude greater than
the quantum of resistance and shows very little temperature-dependence.
We provide evidence suggesting that these observations arise due to the
formation of novel quasiparticles in the 2DES that are not electron-like.
Finally, and show an intriguing decoupling in their
density-dependence, the latter showing striking oscillations and even sign
changes that are completely absent in the resistivity.Comment: QFS2012 Conference proceedings, Journal of Low Temperature Physics,
accepted (figure and discussion added upon referee suggestions
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