646 research outputs found
Coastal subsidence in Oregon, USA, during the Giant Cascadia earthquake of AD 1700
Quantitative estimates of land-level change during the giant AD 1700 Cascadia earthquake along the Oregon coast are inferred from relative sea-level changes reconstructed from fossil foraminiferal assemblages preserved within the stratigraphic record. A transfer function, based upon a regional training set of modern sediment samples from Oregon estuaries, is calibrated to fossil assemblages in sequences of samples across buried peat-mud and peat-sand contacts marking the AD 1700 earthquake. Reconstructions of sample elevations with sample-specific errors estimate the amount of coastal subsidence during the earthquake at six sites along 400 km of coast. The elevation estimates are supported by lithological, carbon isotope, and faunal tidal zonation data. Coseismic subsidence at Nehalem River, Nestucca River, Salmon River, Alsea Bay, Siuslaw River and South Slough varies between 0.18 m and 0.85 m with errors between 0.18 m and 0.32 m. These subsidence estimates are more precise, consistent, and generally lower than previous semi-quantitative estimates. Following earlier comparisons of semi-quantitative subsidence estimates with elastic dislocation models of megathrust rupture during great earthquakes, our lower estimates for central and northern Oregon are consistent with modeled rates of strain accumulation and amounts of slip on the subduction megathrust, and thus, with a magnitude of 9 for the AD 1700 earthquake
Two-Dimensional Diffusion in the Presence of Topological Disorder
How topological defects affect the dynamics of particles hopping between
lattice sites of a distorted, two-dimensional crystal is addressed.
Perturbation theory and numerical simulations show that weak, short-ranged
topological disorder leads to a finite reduction of the diffusion coefficient.
Renormalization group theory and numerical simulations suggest that
longer-ranged disorder, such as that from randomly placed dislocations or
random disclinations with no net disclinicity, leads to subdiffusion at long
times.Comment: 10 pages, 6 figure
3D-HST+CANDELS : the evolution of the galaxy size-mass distribution since z=3
Spectroscopic+photometric redshifts, stellar mass estimates, and rest-frame colors from the 3D-HST survey are combined with structural parameter measurements from CANDELS imaging to determine the galaxy size-mass distribution over the redshift range 0 < z < 3. Separating early- and late-type galaxies on the basis of star-formation activity, we confirm that early-type galaxies are on average smaller than late-type galaxies at all redshifts, and we find a significantly different rate of average size evolution at fixed galaxy mass, with fast evolution for the early-type population, R eff∝(1 + z)–1.48, and moderate evolution for the late-type population, R eff∝(1 + z)-0.75Peer reviewedFinal Accepted Versio
Digital Quantum Simulation with Rydberg Atoms
We discuss in detail the implementation of an open-system quantum simulator
with Rydberg states of neutral atoms held in an optical lattice. Our scheme
allows one to realize both coherent as well as dissipative dynamics of complex
spin models involving many-body interactions and constraints. The central
building block of the simulation scheme is constituted by a mesoscopic Rydberg
gate that permits the entanglement of several atoms in an efficient, robust and
quick protocol. In addition, optical pumping on ancillary atoms provides the
dissipative ingredient for engineering the coupling between the system and a
tailored environment. As an illustration, we discuss how the simulator enables
the simulation of coherent evolution of quantum spin models such as the
two-dimensional Heisenberg model and Kitaev's toric code, which involves
four-body spin interactions. We moreover show that in principle also the
simulation of lattice fermions can be achieved. As an example for controlled
dissipative dynamics, we discuss ground state cooling of frustration-free spin
Hamiltonians.Comment: submitted to special issue "Quantum Information with Neutral
Particles" of "Quantum Information Processing
First Observation of Coherent Production in Neutrino Nucleus Interactions with 2 GeV
The MiniBooNE experiment at Fermilab has amassed the largest sample to date
of s produced in neutral current (NC) neutrino-nucleus interactions at
low energy. This paper reports a measurement of the momentum distribution of
s produced in mineral oil (CH) and the first observation of coherent
production below 2 GeV. In the forward direction, the yield of events
observed above the expectation for resonant production is attributed primarily
to coherent production off carbon, but may also include a small contribution
from diffractive production on hydrogen. Integrated over the MiniBooNE neutrino
flux, the sum of the NC coherent and diffractive modes is found to be (19.5
1.1 (stat) 2.5 (sys))% of all exclusive NC production at
MiniBooNE. These measurements are of immediate utility because they quantify an
important background to MiniBooNE's search for
oscillations.Comment: Submitted to Phys. Lett.
Tomato: a crop species amenable to improvement by cellular and molecular methods
Tomato is a crop plant with a relatively small DNA content per haploid genome and a well developed genetics. Plant regeneration from explants and protoplasts is feasable which led to the development of efficient transformation procedures.
In view of the current data, the isolation of useful mutants at the cellular level probably will be of limited value in the genetic improvement of tomato. Protoplast fusion may lead to novel combinations of organelle and nuclear DNA (cybrids), whereas this technique also provides a means of introducing genetic information from alien species into tomato. Important developments have come from molecular approaches. Following the construction of an RFLP map, these RFLP markers can be used in tomato to tag quantitative traits bred in from related species. Both RFLP's and transposons are in the process of being used to clone desired genes for which no gene products are known. Cloned genes can be introduced and potentially improve specific properties of tomato especially those controlled by single genes. Recent results suggest that, in principle, phenotypic mutants can be created for cloned and characterized genes and will prove their value in further improving the cultivated tomato.
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