316 research outputs found
Terrestrial laser scanning to quantify above-ground biomass of structurally complex coastal wetland vegetation
Above-ground biomass represents a small yet significant contributor to carbon storage in coastal wetlands. Despite this, above-ground biomass is often poorly quantified, particularly in areas where vegetation structure is complex. Traditional methods for providing accurate estimates involve harvesting vegetation to develop mangrove allometric equations and quantify saltmarsh biomass in quadrats. However broad scale application of these methods may not capture structural variability in vegetation resulting in a loss of detail and estimates with considerable uncertainty. Terrestrial laser scanning (TLS) collects high resolution three-dimensional point clouds capable of providing detailed structural morphology of vegetation. This study demonstrates that TLS is a suitable non-destructive method for estimating biomass of structurally complex coastal wetland vegetation. We compare volumetric models, 3-D surface reconstruction and rasterised volume, and point cloud elevation histogram modelling techniques to estimate biomass. Our results show that current volumetric modelling approaches for estimating TLS-derived biomass are comparable to traditional mangrove allometrics and saltmarsh harvesting. However, volumetric modelling approaches oversimplify vegetation structure by under-utilising the large amount of structural information provided by the point cloud. The point cloud elevation histogram model presented in this study, as an alternative to volumetric modelling, utilises all of the information within the point cloud, as opposed to sub-sampling based on specific criteria. This method is simple but highly effective for both mangrove (r 2 = 0.95) and saltmarsh (r 2 \u3e 0.92) vegetation. Our results provide evidence that application of TLS in coastal wetlands is an effective non-destructive method to accurately quantify biomass for structurally complex vegetation
Dissipation due to tunneling two-level systems in gold nanomechanical resonators
We present measurements of the dissipation and frequency shift in
nanomechanical gold resonators at temperatures down to 10 mK. The resonators
were fabricated as doubly-clamped beams above a GaAs substrate and actuated
magnetomotively. Measurements on beams with frequencies 7.95 MHz and 3.87 MHz
revealed that from 30 mK to 500 mK the dissipation increases with temperature
as , with saturation occurring at higher temperatures. The relative
frequency shift of the resonators increases logarithmically with temperature up
to at least 400 mK. Similarities with the behavior of bulk amorphous solids
suggest that the dissipation in our resonators is dominated by two-level
systems
The two-component giant radio halo in the galaxy cluster Abell 2142
We report on a spectral study at radio frequencies of the giant radio halo in
A2142 (z=0.0909), which we performed to explore its nature and origin. A2142 is
not a major merger and the presence of a giant radio halo is somewhat
surprising. We performed deep radio observations with the GMRT at 608 MHz, 322
MHz, and 234 MHz and with the VLA in the 1-2 GHz band. We obtained high-quality
images at all frequencies in a wide range of resolutions. The radio halo is
well detected at all frequencies and extends out to the most distant cold front
in A2142. We studied the spectral index in two regions: the central part of the
halo and a second region in the direction of the most distant south-eastern
cold front, selected to follow the bright part of the halo and X-ray emission.
We complemented our observations with a preliminary LOFAR image at 118 MHz and
with the re-analysis of archival VLA data at 1.4 GHz. The two components of the
radio halo show different observational properties. The central brightest part
has higher surface brightess and a spectrum whose steepness is similar to those
of the known radio halos, i.e. . The ridge, which fades into the larger scale emission, is broader in
size and has considerably lower surface brightess and a moderately steeper
spectrum, i.e. . We propose that
the brightest part of the radio halo is powered by the central sloshing in
A2142, similar to what has been suggested for mini-halos, or by secondary
electrons generated by hadronic collisions in the ICM. On the other hand, the
steeper ridge may probe particle re-acceleration by turbulence generated either
by stirring the gas and magnetic fields on a larger scale or by less energetic
mechanisms, such as continuous infall of galaxy groups or an off-axis merger.Comment: 18 pages, 10 figures, 4 tables - A&A, accepte
The stripping of a galaxy group diving into the massive cluster A2142
Structure formation in the current Universe operates through the accretion of
group-scale systems onto massive clusters. The detection and study of such
accreting systems is crucial to understand the build-up of the most massive
virialized structures we see today. We report the discovery with XMM-Newton of
an irregular X-ray substructure in the outskirts of the massive galaxy cluster
Abell 2142. The tip of the X-ray emission coincides with a concentration of
galaxies. The bulk of the X-ray emission of this substructure appears to be
lagging behind the galaxies and extends over a projected scale of at least 800
kpc. The temperature of the gas in this region is 1.4 keV, which is a factor of
~4 lower than the surrounding medium and is typical of the virialized plasma of
a galaxy group with a mass of a few 10^13M_sun. For this reason, we interpret
this structure as a galaxy group in the process of being accreted onto the main
dark-matter halo. The X-ray structure trailing behind the group is due to gas
stripped from its original dark-matter halo as it moves through the
intracluster medium (ICM). This is the longest X-ray trail reported to date.
For an infall velocity of ~1,200 km s-1 we estimate that the stripped gas has
been surviving in the presence of the hot ICM for at least 600 Myr, which
exceeds the Spitzer conduction timescale in the medium by a factor of >~400.
Such a strong suppression of conductivity is likely related to a tangled
magnetic field with small coherence length and to plasma microinstabilities.
The long survival time of the low-entropy intragroup medium suggests that the
infalling material can eventually settle within the core of the main cluster.Comment: 11 pages, 7 figures, accepted for publication in A&
Nonlinear modal coupling in a high-stress doubly-clamped nanomechanical resonator
We present results from a study of the nonlinear intermodal coupling between
different flexural vibrational modes of a single high-stress, doubly-clamped
silicon nitride nanomechanical beam. The measurements were carried out at 100
mK and the beam was actuated using the magnetomotive technique. We observed the
nonlinear behavior of the modes individually and also measured the coupling
between them by driving the beam at multiple frequencies. We demonstrate that
the different modes of the resonator are coupled to each other by the
displacement induced tension in the beam, which also leads to the well known
Duffing nonlinearity in doubly-clamped beams.Comment: 15 pages, 7 figure
Deep Chandra observations of the stripped galaxy group falling into Abell 2142
In the local Universe, the growth of massive galaxy clusters mainly operates
through the continuous accretion of group-scale systems. The infalling group in
Abell 2142 is the poster child of such an accreting group, and as such, it is
an ideal target to study the astrophysical processes induced by structure
formation. We present the results of a deep (200 ks) observation of this
structure with Chandra, which highlights the complexity of this system in
exquisite detail. In the core of the group, the spatial resolution of Chandra
reveals the presence of a leading edge and a complex AGN-induced activity. The
morphology of the stripped gas tail appears straight in the innermost 250 kpc,
suggesting that magnetic draping efficiently shields the gas from its
surroundings. However, beyond kpc from the core, the tail flares and
the morphology becomes strongly irregular, which could be explained by a
breaking of the drape, e.g. because of turbulent motions. The power spectrum of
surface-brightness fluctuations is relatively flat (),
which indicates that thermal conduction is strongly inhibited even beyond the
region where magnetic draping is effective. The amplitude of density
fluctuations in the tail is consistent with a mild level of turbulence with a
Mach number . Overall, our results show that the processes
leading to the thermalization and mixing of the infalling gas are slow and
relatively inefficient.Comment: Accepted for publication in A&
Deep Chandra observations of the stripped galaxy group falling into Abell 2142
In the local Universe, the growth of massive galaxy clusters mainly operates through the continuous accretion of group-scale systems. The infalling group in Abell 2142 is the poster child of such an accreting group, and as such, it is an ideal target to study the astrophysical processes induced by structure formation. We present the results of a deep (200 ks) observation of this structure with Chandra that highlights the complexity of this system in exquisite detail. In the core of the group, the spatial resolution of Chandra reveals a leading edge and complex AGN-induced activity. The morphology of the stripped gas tail appears straight in the innermost 250 kpc, suggesting that magnetic draping efficiently shields the gas from its surroundings. However, beyond ~ 300 kpc from the core, the tail flares and the morphology becomes strongly irregular, which could be explained by a breaking of the drape, for example, caused by turbulent motions. The power spectrum of surface-brightness fluctuations is relatively flat (P2D ∝ k⁻²∙³ which indicates that thermal conduction is strongly inhibited even beyond the region where magnetic draping is effective. The amplitude of density fluctuations in the tail is consistent with a mild level of turbulence with a Mach number M3D ~ 0:1 -0:25. Overall, our results show that the processes leading to the thermalization and mixing of the infalling gas are slow and relatively inefficient
Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA): trends in galaxy colours, morphology, and stellar populations with large-scale structure, group, and pair environments
We explore trends in galaxy properties with Mpc-scale structures using catalogues of environment and large scale structure from the Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA) survey. Existing GAMA catalogues of large scale structure, group and pair membership allow us to construct galaxy stellar mass functions for different environmental types. To avoid simply extracting the known underlying correlations between galaxy properties and stellar mass, we create a mass matched sample of galaxies with stellar masses between 9.5≤logM∗/h−2M⊙≤11 for each environmental population. Using these samples, we show that mass normalised galaxies in different large scale environments have similar energy outputs, u−r colours, luminosities, and morphologies. Extending our analysis to group and pair environments, we show galaxies that are not in groups or pairs exhibit similar characteristics to each other regardless of broader environment. For our mass controlled sample, we fail to see a strong dependence of S\'{e}rsic index or galaxy luminosity on halo mass, but do find that it correlates very strongly with colour. Repeating our analysis for galaxies that have not been mass controlled introduces and amplifies trends in the properties of galaxies in pairs, groups, and large scale structure, indicating that stellar mass is the most important predictor of the galaxy properties we examine, as opposed to environmental classifications
Intracluster medium of the merging cluster Abell 3395
We present a detailed imaging and spectral analysis of the merging
environment of the bimodal cluster A3395 using X-ray and radio observations.
X-ray images of the cluster show five main constituents of diffuse emission :
A3395 NE, A3395 SW, A3395 NW, A3395 W, and a filament connecting NE to W. X-ray
surface-brightness profiles of the cluster did not show any shock fronts in the
cluster. Temperature and entropy maps show high temperature and high entropy
regions in the W, the NW, the filament and between the NE and SW subclusters.
The NE, SW and W components have X-ray bolometric luminosities similar to those
of rich clusters of galaxies but have relatively higher temperatures.
Similarly, the NW component has X-ray bolometric luminosity similar to that of
isolated groups but with much higher temperature. It is, therefore, possible
that all the components of the cluster have been heated by the ongoing mergers.
The NE subcluster is the most massive and luminous constituent and other
subclusters are found to be gravitationally bound to it. The W component is
most probably either a clump of gas stripped off the SW due to ram pressure or
a separate subcluster that has merged or is merging with the SW. No X-ray
cavities are seen associated with the Wide Angle Tailed (WAT) radio source near
the centre of the SW subcluster. Minimum energy pressure in the radio
emission-peaks of the WAT galaxy is comparable with the external thermal
pressure. The radio spectrum of the WAT suggests a spectral age of ~10Myr
Osmotic pressure of matter and vacuum energy
The walls of the box which contains matter represent a membrane that allows
the relativistic quantum vacuum to pass but not matter. That is why the
pressure of matter in the box may be considered as the analog of the osmotic
pressure. However, we demonstrate that the osmotic pressure of matter is
modified due to interaction of matter with vacuum. This interaction induces the
nonzero negative vacuum pressure inside the box, as a result the measured
osmotic pressure becomes smaller than the matter pressure. As distinct from the
Casimir effect, this induced vacuum pressure is the bulk effect and does not
depend on the size of the box. This effect dominates in the thermodynamic limit
of the infinite volume of the box. Analog of this effect has been observed in
the dilute solution of 3He in liquid 4He, where the superfluid 4He plays the
role of the non-relativistic quantum vacuum, and 3He atoms play the role of
matter.Comment: 5 pages, 1 figure, JETP Lett. style, version accepted in JETP Letter
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