23,676 research outputs found
Suprathermal electron distributions in the solar transition region
Suprathermal tails are a common feature of solar wind electron velocity
distributions, and are expected in the solar corona. From the corona,
suprathermal electrons can propagate through the steep temperature gradient of
the transition region towards the chromosphere, and lead to non-Maxwellian
electron velocity distribution functions (VDFs) with pronounced suprathermal
tails. We calculate the evolution of a coronal electron distribution through
the transition region in order to quantify the suprathermal electron population
there. A kinetic model for electrons is used which is based on solving the
Boltzmann-Vlasov equation for electrons including Coulomb collisions with both
ions and electrons. Initial and chromospheric boundary conditions are
Maxwellian VDFs with densities and temperatures based on a background fluid
model. The coronal boundary condition has been adopted from earlier studies of
suprathermal electron formation in coronal loops. The model results show the
presence of strong suprathermal tails in transition region electron VDFs,
starting at energies of a few 10 eV. Above electron energies of 600 eV,
electrons can traverse the transition region essentially collision-free. The
presence of strong suprathermal tails in transition region electron VDFs shows
that the assumption of local thermodynamic equilibrium is not justified there.
This has a significant impact on ionization dynamics, as is shown in a
companion paper
Conservation Laws and 2D Black Holes in Dilaton Gravity
A very general class of Lagrangians which couple scalar fields to gravitation
and matter in two spacetime dimensions is investigated. It is shown that a
vector field exists along whose flow lines the stress-energy tensor is
conserved, regardless of whether or not the equations of motion are satisfied
or if any Killing vectors exist. Conditions necessary for the existence of
Killing vectors are derived. A new set of 2D black hole solutions is obtained
for one particular member within this class of Lagrangians. One such solution
bears an interesting resemblance to the 2D string-theoretic black hole, yet
contains markedly different thermodynamic properties.Comment: 11 pgs. WATPHYS-TH92/0
The Symmetries of Nature
The study of the symmetries of nature has fascinated scientists for eons. The application of the formal mathematical description of
symmetries during the last century has produced many breakthroughs in
our understanding of the substructure of matter. In this talk, a number
of these advances are discussed, and the important role that George
Sudarshan played in their development is emphasize
On the extent and role of the small proteome in the parasitic eukaryote Trypanosoma brucei
Background: Although technical advances in genomics and proteomics research have yielded a better understanding of the coding capacity of a genome, one major challenge remaining is the identification of all expressed proteins, especially those less than 100 amino acids in length. Such information can be particularly relevant to human pathogens, such as Trypanosoma brucei, the causative agent of African trypanosomiasis, since it will provide further insight into the parasite biology and life cycle. Results: Starting with 993 T. brucei transcripts, previously shown by RNA-Sequencing not to coincide with annotated coding sequences (CDS), homology searches revealed that 173 predicted short open reading frames in these transcripts are conserved across kinetoplastids with 13 also conserved in representative eukaryotes. Mining mass spectrometry data sets revealed 42 transcripts encoding at least one matching peptide. RNAi-induced down-regulation of these 42 transcripts revealed seven to be essential in insect-form trypanosomes with two also required for the bloodstream life cycle stage. To validate the specificity of the RNAi results, each lethal phenotype was rescued by co-expressing an RNAi-resistant construct of each corresponding CDS. These previously non-annotated essential small proteins localized to a variety of cell compartments, including the cell surface, mitochondria, nucleus and cytoplasm, inferring the diverse biological roles they are likely to play in T. brucei. We also provide evidence that one of these small proteins is required for replicating the kinetoplast (mitochondrial) DNA. Conclusions: Our studies highlight the presence and significance of small proteins in a protist and expose potential new targets to block the survival of trypanosomes in the insect vector and/or the mammalian host
Exact Solution for the Metric and the Motion of Two Bodies in (1+1) Dimensional Gravity
We present the exact solution of two-body motion in (1+1) dimensional dilaton
gravity by solving the constraint equations in the canonical formalism. The
determining equation of the Hamiltonian is derived in a transcendental form and
the Hamiltonian is expressed for the system of two identical particles in terms
of the Lambert function. The function has two real branches which join
smoothly onto each other and the Hamiltonian on the principal branch reduces to
the Newtonian limit for small coupling constant. On the other branch the
Hamiltonian yields a new set of motions which can not be understood as
relativistically correcting the Newtonian motion. The explicit trajectory in
the phase space is illustrated for various values of the energy. The
analysis is extended to the case of unequal masses. The full expression of
metric tensor is given and the consistency between the solution of the metric
and the equations of motion is rigorously proved.Comment: 34 pages, LaTeX, 16 figure
Nonextensive aspects of self-organized scale-free gas-like networks
We explore the possibility to interpret as a 'gas' the dynamical
self-organized scale-free network recently introduced by Kim et al (2005). The
role of 'momentum' of individual nodes is played by the degree of the node, the
'configuration space' (metric defining distance between nodes) being determined
by the dynamically evolving adjacency matrix. In a constant-size network
process, 'inelastic' interactions occur between pairs of nodes, which are
realized by the merger of a pair of two nodes into one. The resulting node
possesses the union of all links of the previously separate nodes. We consider
chemostat conditions, i.e., for each merger there will be a newly created node
which is then linked to the existing network randomly. We also introduce an
interaction 'potential' (node-merging probability) which decays with distance
d_ij as 1/d_ij^alpha; alpha >= 0). We numerically exhibit that this system
exhibits nonextensive statistics in the degree distribution, and calculate how
the entropic index q depends on alpha. The particular cases alpha=0 and alpha
to infinity recover the two models introduced by Kim et al.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figure
Tunnelling, Temperature and Taub-NUT Black Holes
We investigate quantum tunnelling methods for calculating black hole
temperature, specifically the null geodesic method of Parikh and Wilczek and
the Hamilton-Jacobi Ansatz method of Angheben et al. We consider application of
these methods to a broad class of spacetimes with event horizons, inlcuding
Rindler and non-static spacetimes such as Kerr-Newman and Taub-NUT. We obtain a
general form for the temperature of Taub-NUT-Ads black holes that is
commensurate with other methods. We examine the limitations of these methods
for extremal black holes, taking the extremal Reissner-Nordstrom spacetime as a
case in point.Comment: 22 pages, 3 figures; added references, fixed figures, added comments
to extremal section, added footnot
Quasiclassical Coarse Graining and Thermodynamic Entropy
Our everyday descriptions of the universe are highly coarse-grained,
following only a tiny fraction of the variables necessary for a perfectly
fine-grained description. Coarse graining in classical physics is made natural
by our limited powers of observation and computation. But in the modern quantum
mechanics of closed systems, some measure of coarse graining is inescapable
because there are no non-trivial, probabilistic, fine-grained descriptions.
This essay explores the consequences of that fact. Quantum theory allows for
various coarse-grained descriptions some of which are mutually incompatible.
For most purposes, however, we are interested in the small subset of
``quasiclassical descriptions'' defined by ranges of values of averages over
small volumes of densities of conserved quantities such as energy and momentum
and approximately conserved quantities such as baryon number. The
near-conservation of these quasiclassical quantities results in approximate
decoherence, predictability, and local equilibrium, leading to closed sets of
equations of motion. In any description, information is sacrificed through the
coarse graining that yields decoherence and gives rise to probabilities for
histories. In quasiclassical descriptions, further information is sacrificed in
exhibiting the emergent regularities summarized by classical equations of
motion. An appropriate entropy measures the loss of information. For a
``quasiclassical realm'' this is connected with the usual thermodynamic entropy
as obtained from statistical mechanics. It was low for the initial state of our
universe and has been increasing since.Comment: 17 pages, 0 figures, revtex4, Dedicated to Rafael Sorkin on his 60th
birthday, minor correction
D6 Family Symmetry and Cold Dark Matter at LHC
We consider a non-supersymmetric extension of the standard model with a
family symmetry based on D6 Z2 Z2, where one of Z2's is exactly conserved. This
Z2 forbids the tree-level neutrino masses and simultaneously ensures the
stability of cold dark matter candidates. From the assumption that cold dark
matter is fermionic we can single out the D6 singlet right-handed neutrino as
the best cold dark mater candidate. We find that an inert charged Higgs with a
mass between 300 and 750 GeV decays mostly into an electron (or a positron)
with a large missing energy, where the missing energy is carried away by the
cold dark matter candidate. This will be a clean signal at LHC.Comment: 20 pages, 7 figure
Warming of the Antarctic ice-sheet surface since the 1957 International Geophysical Year
Assessments of Antarctic temperature change have emphasized the contrast between strong warming of the Antarctic Peninsula and slight cooling of the Antarctic continental interior in recent decades. This pattern of temperature change has been attributed to the increased strength of the circumpolar westerlies, largely in response to changes in stratospheric ozone. This picture, however, is substantially incomplete owing to the sparseness and short duration of the observations. Here we show that significant warming extends well beyond the Antarctic Peninsula to cover most of West Antarctica, an area of warming much larger than previously reported. West Antarctic warming exceeds 0.1â°C per decade over the past 50 years, and is strongest in winter and spring. Although this is partly offset by autumn cooling in East Antarctica, the continent-wide average near-surface temperature trend is positive. Simulations using a general circulation model reproduce the essential features of the spatial pattern and the long-term trend, and we suggest that neither can be attributed directly to increases in the strength of the westerlies. Instead, regional changes in atmospheric circulation and associated changes in sea surface temperature and sea ice are required to explain the enhanced warming in West Antarctica
- âŠ