55,826 research outputs found
Historical biogeography of Melastomataceae
Melastomataceae and Memecylaceae are pantropically distributed sister groups for which an ndhF gene phylogeny for 91 species in 59 genera is here linked with Eurasian and North American fossils in a molecular clock approach to biogeographical reconstruction. Nine species from the eight next-closest families are used to root phylogenetic trees obtained under maximum likelihood criteria. Melastomataceae comprise ∼3000 species in the neotropics, ∼1000 in tropical Asia, 240 in Africa, and 225 in Madagascar in 150-166 genera, and the taxa sampled come from throughout this geographic range. Based on fossils, ranges of closest relatives, tree topology, and calibrated molecular divergences, Melastomataceae initially diversified in Paloecene/Eocene times in tropical forest north of the Tethys. Their earliest (Eocene) fossils are from northeastern North America, and during the Oligocene and Miocene melastomes occurred in North America as well as throughout Eurasia. They also entered South America, with earliest (Oligocene) South American fossils representing Merianieae. One clade (Melastomeae) reached Africa from the neotropics 14-12 million years ago and from there spread to Madagascar, India, and Indochina. Basalmost Melastomataceae (Kibessieae, Astronieae) are species-poor lineages restricted to Southeast Asia. However, a more derived Asian clade (Sonerileae/Dissochaeteae) repeatedly reached Madagascar and Africa during the Miocene and Pliocene. Contradicting earlier hypotheses, the current distribution of Melastomataceae is thus best explained by Neogene long-distance dispersal, not Gondwana fragmentation
Extension of the spin-1/2 frustrated square lattice model: the case of layered vanadium phosphates
We study the influence of the spin lattice distortion on the properties of
frustrated magnetic systems and consider the applicability of the spin-1/2
frustrated square lattice model to materials lacking tetragonal symmetry. We
focus on the case of layered vanadium phosphates AA'VO(PO4)2 (AA' = Pb2, SrZn,
BaZn, and BaCd). To provide a proper microscopic description of these
compounds, we use extensive band structure calculations for real materials and
model structures and supplement this analysis with simulations of thermodynamic
properties, thus facilitating a direct comparison with the experimental data.
Due to the reduced symmetry, the realistic spin model of layered vanadium
phosphates AA'VO(PO4)2 includes four inequivalent exchange couplings: J1 and
J1' between nearest-neighbors and J2 and J2' between next-nearest-neighbors.
The estimates of individual exchange couplings suggest different regimes, from
J1'/J1 and J2'/J2 close to 1 in BaCdVO(PO4)2, a nearly regular frustrated
square lattice, to J1'/J1 ~ 0.7 and J2'/J2 ~ 0.4 in SrZnVO(PO4)2, a frustrated
square lattice with sizable distortion. The underlying structural differences
are analyzed, and the key factors causing the distortion of the spin lattice in
layered vanadium compounds are discussed. We propose possible routes for
finding new frustrated square lattice materials among complex vanadium oxides.
Full diagonalization simulations of thermodynamic properties indicate the
similarity of the extended model to the regular one with averaged couplings. In
case of moderate frustration and moderate distortion, valid for all the
AA'VO(PO4)2 compounds reported so far, the distorted spin lattice can be
considered as a regular square lattice with the couplings (J1+J1')/2 between
nearest-neighbors and (J2+J2')/2 between next-nearest-neighbors.Comment: 14 pages, 9 figures, 4 table
Two-temperature coronal flow above a thin disk
We extended the disk corona model (Meyer & Meyer-Hofmeister 1994; Meyer, Liu,
& Meyer-Hofmeister 2000a) to the inner region of galactic nuclei by including
different temperatures in ions and electrons as well as Compton cooling. We
found that the mass evaporation rate and hence the fraction of accretion energy
released in the corona depend strongly on the rate of incoming mass flow from
outer edge of the disk, a larger rate leading to more Compton cooling, less
efficient evaporation and a weaker corona. We also found a strong dependence on
the viscosity, higher viscosity leading to an enhanced mass flow in the corona
and therefore more evaporation of gas from the disk below. If we take accretion
rates in units of the Eddington rate our results become independent on the mass
of the central black hole. The model predicts weaker contributions to the hard
X-rays for objects with higher accretion rate like narrow-line Seyfert 1
galaxies (NLS1s), in agreement with observations. For luminous active galactic
nuclei (AGN) strong Compton cooling in the innermost corona is so efficient
that a large amount of additional heating is required to maintain the corona
above the thin disk.Comment: 17 pages, 6 figures. ApJ accepte
The Bulk Channel in Thermal Gauge Theories
We investigate the thermal correlator of the trace of the energy-momentum
tensor in the SU(3) Yang-Mills theory. Our goal is to constrain the spectral
function in that channel, whose low-frequency part determines the bulk
viscosity. We focus on the thermal modification of the spectral function,
. Using the operator-product expansion we give
the high-frequency behavior of this difference in terms of thermodynamic
potentials. We take into account the presence of an exact delta function
located at the origin, which had been missed in previous analyses. We then
combine the bulk sum rule and a Monte-Carlo evaluation of the Euclidean
correlator to determine the intervals of frequency where the spectral density
is enhanced or depleted by thermal effects. We find evidence that the thermal
spectral density is non-zero for frequencies below the scalar glueball mass
and is significantly depleted for .Comment: (1+25) pages, 6 figure
Coupling of non-crossing wave modes in a two-dimensional plasma crystal
We report an experimental observation of coupling of the transverse vertical
and longitudinal in-plane dust-lattice wave modes in a two-dimensional complex
plasma crystal in the absence of mode crossing. A new large diameter rf plasma
chamber was used to suspend the plasma crystal. The observations are confirmed
with molecular-dynamics simulations. The coupling manifests itself in traces of
the transverse vertical mode appearing in the measured longitudinal spectra and
vice versa. We calculate the expected ratio of the trace to the principal mode
with a theoretical analysis of the modes in a crystal with finite temperature
and find good agreement with the experiment and simulations.Comment: 4 figures, 5 pages, accepted for publication in PRL Nov 201
Heavy Meson Production in NN Collisions with Polarized Beam and Target -- A new facility for COSY
The study of near--threshold meson production in pp and pd collisions
involving polarized beams and polarized targets offers the rare opportunity to
gain insight into short--range features of the nucleon--nucleon interaction.
The Cooler Synchrotron COSY at FZ--J\"ulich is a unique environment to perform
such studies. Measurements of polarization observables require a cylindrically
symmetrical detector, capable to measure the momenta and the directions of
outgoing charged hadrons. The wide energy range of COSY leads to momenta of
outgoing protons to be detected in a single meson production reaction between
300 and 2500 MeV/c. Scattering angles of protons to be covered extend to about
in the laboratory system. An azimuthal angular coverage of the
device around 98% seems technically achievable. The required magnetic
spectrometer could consist of a superconducting toroid, providing fields around
3 T.Comment: 6 pages, 1 figure, submitted to Czechoslovak Journal of Physic
Depletion of molecular gas by an accretion outburst in a protoplanetary disk
We investigate new and archival 3-5 m high resolution ( km
s) spectroscopy of molecular gas in the inner disk of the young
solar-mass star EX Lupi, taken during and after the strong accretion outburst
of 2008. The data were obtained using the CRIRES spectrometer at the ESO Very
Large Telescope in 2008 and 2014. In 2008, emission lines from CO, HO,
and OH were detected with broad profiles tracing gas near and within the
corotation radius (0.02-0.3 AU). In 2014, the spectra display marked
differences. The CO lines, while still detected, are much weaker, and the
HO and OH lines have disappeared altogether. At 3 m a veiled stellar
photospheric spectrum is observed. Our analysis finds that the molecular gas
mass in the inner disk has decreased by an order of magnitude since the
outburst, matching a similar decrease in the accretion rate onto the star. We
discuss these findings in the context of a rapid depletion of material
accumulated beyond the disk corotation radius during quiescent periods, as
proposed by models of episodic accretion in EXor type young stars.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures, 1 table, accepted for publication in the
Astrophysical Journal Letter
A Local One-Zone Model of MHD Turbulence in Dwarf Nova Disks
The evolution of the magnetorotational instability (MRI) during the
transition from outburst to quiescence in a dwarf nova disk is investigated
using three-dimensional MHD simulations. The shearing box approximation is
adopted for the analysis, so that the efficiency of angular momentum transport
is studied in a small local patch of the disk: this is usually referred as to a
one-zone model. To take account of the low ionization fraction of the disk, the
induction equation includes both ohmic dissipation and the Hall effect. We
induce a transition from outburst to quiescence by an instantaneous decrease of
the temperature. The evolution of the MRI during the transition is found to be
very sensitive to the temperature of the quiescent disk. As long as the
temperature is higher than a critical value of about 2000 K, MHD turbulence and
angular momentum transport is sustained by the MRI. However, MHD turbulence
dies away within an orbital time if the temperature falls below this critical
value. In this case, the stress drops off by more than 2 orders of magnitude,
and is dominated by the Reynolds stress associated with the remnant motions
from the outburst. The critical temperature depends slightly on the distance
from the central star and the local density of the disk.Comment: 20 pages, 2 tables, 6 figures, accepted for publication in Ap
- …