180 research outputs found
The Dirichlet Casimir effect for theory in (3+1) dimensions: A new renormalization approach
We calculate the next to the leading order Casimir effect for a real scalar
field, within theory, confined between two parallel plates in three
spatial dimensions with the Dirichlet boundary condition. In this paper we
introduce a systematic perturbation expansion in which the counterterms
automatically turn out to be consistent with the boundary conditions. This will
inevitably lead to nontrivial position dependence for physical quantities, as a
manifestation of the breaking of the translational invariance. This is in
contrast to the usual usage of the counterterms in problems with nontrivial
boundary conditions, which are either completely derived from the free cases or
at most supplemented with the addition of counterterms only at the boundaries.
Our results for the massive and massless cases are different from those
reported elsewhere. Secondly, and probably less importantly, we use a
supplementary renormalization procedure, which makes the usage of any analytic
continuation techniques unnecessary.Comment: JHEP3 format,20 pages, 2 figures, to appear in JHE
Mapping coral calcification strategies from in situ boron isotope and trace element measurements of the tropical coral Siderastrea siderea
Boron isotopic and elemental analysis of coral aragonite can give important insights into the calcification strategies employed in coral skeletal construction. Traditional methods of analysis have limited spatial (and thus temporal) resolution, hindering attempts to unravel skeletal heterogeneity. Laser ablation mass spectrometry allows a much more refined view, and here we employ these techniques to explore boron isotope and co-varying elemental ratios in the tropical coral Siderastrea siderea. We generate two-dimensional maps of the carbonate parameters within the calcification medium that deposited the skeleton, which reveal large heterogeneities in carbonate chemistry across the macro-structure of a coral polyp. These differences have the potential to bias proxy interpretations, and indicate that different processes facilitated precipitation of different parts of the coral skeleton: the low-density columella being precipitated from a fluid with a carbonate composition closer to seawater, compared to the high-density inter-polyp walls where aragonite saturation was ~ 5 times that of external seawater. Therefore, the skeleton does not precipitate from a spatially homogeneous fluid and its different parts may thus have varying sensitivity to environmental stress. This offers new insights into the mechanisms behind the response of the S. siderea skeletal phenotype to ocean acidification
Trophic relationships in an intertidal rockpool fish assemblage in the gulf of CĂĄdiz (NE Atlantic)
Many species of littoral fish that live in rocky substrates are syntopic, sharing the same coastal habitat. They
have similar feeding behaviours and use small hollows as places to hide and spawn. In the present study, we
identified a total of 16 resident fish species in a rockpool assemblage in the Gulf of CĂĄdiz and studied their
patterns of co-occurrence. The dietary analysis performed showed the occurrence of 2 mainly herbivorous
species (Lipophrys canevae and Parablennius sanguinolentus), 8 mainly carnivorous species with a percentage
occurrence of algae in the diet below 10% (Gobius paganellus, Gobius cobitis, Gobius bucchichi, Clinitrachus
argentatus, Tripterygion delaisi, Lepadogaster lepadogaster, Lepadogaster purpurea and Lepadogaster candolii),
and 6 species that are carnivorous in the earlier phases of their lives and gradually increase the proportion of
algae in their diet (Lipophrys pholis, Paralipophrys trigloides, Parablennius incognitus, Salaria pavo, Coryphoblennius
galerita and Symphodus roissali). The dietary overlap among the different species does not explain
the different patterns of abundance found among co-occurring species. In the present study, the common use
of abundant resources coupled with specialized use of other types of resources was observed, and this allows
the different species to minimise the effects of possible trophic competition
To wet or not to wet: that is the question
Wetting transitions have been predicted and observed to occur for various
combinations of fluids and surfaces. This paper describes the origin of such
transitions, for liquid films on solid surfaces, in terms of the gas-surface
interaction potentials V(r), which depend on the specific adsorption system.
The transitions of light inert gases and H2 molecules on alkali metal surfaces
have been explored extensively and are relatively well understood in terms of
the least attractive adsorption interactions in nature. Much less thoroughly
investigated are wetting transitions of Hg, water, heavy inert gases and other
molecular films. The basic idea is that nonwetting occurs, for energetic
reasons, if the adsorption potential's well-depth D is smaller than, or
comparable to, the well-depth of the adsorbate-adsorbate mutual interaction. At
the wetting temperature, Tw, the transition to wetting occurs, for entropic
reasons, when the liquid's surface tension is sufficiently small that the free
energy cost in forming a thick film is sufficiently compensated by the fluid-
surface interaction energy. Guidelines useful for exploring wetting transitions
of other systems are analyzed, in terms of generic criteria involving the
"simple model", which yields results in terms of gas-surface interaction
parameters and thermodynamic properties of the bulk adsorbate.Comment: Article accepted for publication in J. Low Temp. Phy
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