2,157 research outputs found
Plant communities of travertine outcrops of the Saturnia area in southern Tuscany (central Italy).
Abstract
A phytosociological survey was carried out in a poorly known travertine area of southern Tuscany harbouring a rich vegetation mosaic with chamaephytic garrigues, species-rich xerophytic grasslands, chasmophytic coenoses, annual species-dominated communities, shrublands and thermophilous deciduous forests. Field sampling and data analysis allowed to identify and characterize several community types, some of which of significant interest due to their ecological specificity and rarity in peninsular Italy. In particular, our data confirm the associations Pistacio terebinthi-Paliuretum spinosae and Pistacio terebinthi-Quercetum pubescentis, respectively a shrub and forest community type previously unknown for Tuscany. In addition, a new therophytic association of travertine debris named Sedetum hispanico-caespitosi and placed in the Hypochoerion achyrophori alliance (Brachypodietalia distachyi order, Tuberarietea class) is also described. Finally, dynamic relationships between the vegetation types are highlighted and the presence of conservation priority habitats in the area are pointed out
Probing neutrino masses with CMB lensing extraction
We evaluate the ability of future cosmic microwave background (CMB)
experiments to measure the power spectrum of large scale structure using
quadratic estimators of the weak lensing deflection field. We calculate the
sensitivity of upcoming CMB experiments such as BICEP, QUaD, BRAIN, ClOVER and
PLANCK to the non-zero total neutrino mass M_nu indicated by current neutrino
oscillation data. We find that these experiments greatly benefit from lensing
extraction techniques, improving their one-sigma sensitivity to M_nu by a
factor of order four. The combination of data from PLANCK and the SAMPAN
mini-satellite project would lead to sigma(M_nu) = 0.1 eV, while a value as
small as sigma(M_nu) = 0.035 eV is within the reach of a space mission based on
bolometers with a passively cooled 3-4 m aperture telescope, representative of
the most ambitious projects currently under investigation. We show that our
results are robust not only considering possible difficulties in subtracting
astrophysical foregrounds from the primary CMB signal but also when the minimal
cosmological model (Lambda Mixed Dark Matter) is generalized in order to
include a possible scalar tilt running, a constant equation of state parameter
for the dark energy and/or extra relativistic degrees of freedom.Comment: 13 pages, 4 figures. One new figure and references added. Version
accepted for publicatio
Semi-analytic modelling of galaxy evolution in the IR/submm range
This paper proposes a new semi-analytic modelling of galaxy properties in the
IR/submm wavelength range, which is explicitly set in a cosmological framework.
This type of approach has had some success in reproducing the optical
properties of galaxies. We hereafter propose a simple extension to the IR/submm
range. We estimate the IR/submm luminosities of ``luminous UV/IR galaxies'',
and we explore how much star formation could be hidden in
heavily--extinguished, ``ultraluminous IR galaxies'' by designing a family of
evolutionary scenarios which are consistent with the current status of the
``cosmic constraints'', as well as with the IRAS luminosity function and faint
counts, but with different high-z IR luminosity densities. However, these
scenarios generate a Cosmic Infrared Background whose spectrum falls within the
range of the isotropic IR component detected by Puget et al. (1996) and
revisited by Guiderdoni et al. (1997). We give predictions for the faint galaxy
counts and redshift distributions at IR and submm wavelengths. The submm range
is very sensitive to the details of the evolutionary scenarios. As a result,
the on-going and forthcoming observations with ISO and SCUBA (and later with
SIRTF, SOFIA, FIRST and PLANCK) will put strong constraints on the evolution of
galaxies at z=1 and beyond.Comment: 21 pages, Latex, 20 postscript figures, accepted for publication in
Month. Not. Roy. Astron. So
Impact of reionization on CMB polarization tests of slow-roll inflation
Estimates of inflationary parameters from the CMB B-mode polarization
spectrum on the largest scales depend on knowledge of the reionization history,
especially at low tensor-to-scalar ratio. Assuming an incorrect reionization
history in the analysis of such polarization data can strongly bias the
inflationary parameters. One consequence is that the single-field slow-roll
consistency relation between the tensor-to-scalar ratio and tensor tilt might
be excluded with high significance even if this relation holds in reality. We
explain the origin of the bias and present case studies with various tensor
amplitudes and noise characteristics. A more model-independent approach can
account for uncertainties about reionization, and we show that parametrizing
the reionization history by a set of its principal components with respect to
E-mode polarization removes the bias in inflationary parameter measurement with
little degradation in precision.Comment: 9 pages, 6 figures; submitted to Phys. Rev.
Simulations of the Microwave Sky and of its ``Observations''
Here follows a preliminary report on the construction of fake millimeter and
sub-millimeter skies, as observed by virtual instruments, e.g. the COBRA/SAMBA
mission, using theoretical modeling and data extrapolations. Our goal is to
create maps as realistic as possible of the relevant physical contributions
which may contribute to the detected signals. This astrophysical modeling is
followed by simulations of the measurement process itself by a given
instrumental configuration. This will enable a precise determination of what
can and cannot be achieved with a particular experimental configuration, and
provide a feedback on how to improve the overall design. It is a key step on
the way to define procedures for the separation of the different physical
processes in the future observed maps. Note that this tool will also prove
useful in preparing and analyzing current (\eg\ balloon borne) Microwave
Background experiments. Keywords: Cosmology -- Microwave Background
Anisotropies.Comment: 6 pages of uuencoded compressed postscript (1.2 Mb uncompressed), to
appear in the proceedings of the meeting "Far Infrared and Sub-millimeter
Space Missions in the Next Decade'', Paris, France, Eds. M. Sauvage, Space
Science Revie
Development of large radii half-wave plates for CMB satellite missions
The successful European Space Agency (ESA) Planck mission has mapped the
Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) temperature anisotropy with unprecedented
accuracy. However, Planck was not designed to detect the polarised components
of the CMB with comparable precision. The BICEP2 collaboration has recently
reported the first detection of the B-mode polarisation. ESA is funding the
development of critical enabling technologies associated with B-mode
polarisation detection, one of these being large diameter half-wave plates. We
compare different polarisation modulators and discuss their respective
trade-offs in terms of manufacturing, RF performance and thermo-mechanical
properties. We then select the most appropriate solution for future satellite
missions, optimized for the detection of B-modes.Comment: 16 page
Simulations for single-dish intensity mapping experiments
HI intensity mapping is an emerging tool to probe dark energy. Observations
of the redshifted HI signal will be contaminated by instrumental noise,
atmospheric and Galactic foregrounds. The latter is expected to be four orders
of magnitude brighter than the HI emission we wish to detect. We present a
simulation of single-dish observations including an instrumental noise model
with 1/f and white noise, and sky emission with a diffuse Galactic foreground
and HI emission. We consider two foreground cleaning methods: spectral
parametric fitting and principal component analysis. For a smooth frequency
spectrum of the foreground and instrumental effects, we find that the
parametric fitting method provides residuals that are still contaminated by
foreground and 1/f noise, but the principal component analysis can remove this
contamination down to the thermal noise level. This method is robust for a
range of different models of foreground and noise, and so constitutes a
promising way to recover the HI signal from the data. However, it induces a
leakage of the cosmological signal into the subtracted foreground of around 5%.
The efficiency of the component separation methods depends heavily on the
smoothness of the frequency spectrum of the foreground and the 1/f noise. We
find that as, long as the spectral variations over the band are slow compared
to the channel width, the foreground cleaning method still works.Comment: 14 pages, 12 figures. Submitted to MNRA
Alström Syndrome: Genetics and Clinical Overview
Alström syndrome is a rare autosomal recessive genetic disorder characterized by cone-rod dystrophy, hearing loss, childhood truncal obesity, insulin resistance and hyperinsulinemia, type 2 diabetes, hypertriglyceridemia, short stature in adulthood, cardiomyopathy, and progressive pulmonary, hepatic, and renal dysfunction. Symptoms first appear in infancy and progressive development of multi-organ pathology leads to a reduced life expectancy. Variability in age of onset and severity of clinical symptoms, even within families, is likely due to genetic background
Detection of Zak phases and topological invariants in a chiral quantum walk of twisted photons
Topological insulators are fascinating states of matter exhibiting protected
edge states and robust quantized features in their bulk. Here, we propose and
validate experimentally a method to detect topological properties in the bulk
of one-dimensional chiral systems. We first introduce the mean chiral
displacement, and we show that it rapidly approaches a multiple of the Zak
phase in the long time limit. Then we measure the Zak phase in a photonic
quantum walk, by direct observation of the mean chiral displacement in its
bulk. Next, we measure the Zak phase in an alternative, inequivalent timeframe,
and combine the two windings to characterize the full phase diagram of this
Floquet system. Finally, we prove the robustness of the measure by introducing
dynamical disorder in the system. This detection method is extremely general,
as it can be applied to all one-dimensional platforms simulating static or
Floquet chiral systems.Comment: 10 pages, 7 color figures (incl. appendices) Close to the published
versio
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