1,172 research outputs found
Radiometric dates of uplifted marine fauna in Greece:Implications for the interpretation of recent earthquake and tectonic histories using lithophagid dates
n AD 365 a great (Mw N 8) earthquake lifted up western Crete, exposing a shoreline encrusted by marine
organisms, and up to 10 m of marine substrate beneath it. Radiocarbon ages determined for corals and
bryozoans exposed between the paleo-shoreline and present sea level are consistent, within measurement
error, with each other and with the date of the earthquake. But radiocarbon ages determined for the boring
bivalve Lithophaga lithophaga found on the same substrate are at least 350 years, and up to 2000 years, older
than the date of the earthquake that lifted them above sea level. These observations reveal two important
effects that limit the use of radiocarbon lithophagid ages in tectonic and paleoseismological studies. The first
is that the exceptional preservation potential of lithophagids allows them to remain intact and in situ long
after natural death, while the substrate continues to be colonised until eventual uplift. The second, which we
confirm with radiocarbon analysis of museum specimens of known age, is the incorporation of old (14C-free)
carbon into lithophagid shells from the limestone host rock into which the lithophagids bored. The two
effects are both significant in Crete and central Greece, and can cause the radiocarbon lithophagid ages to be
up to 2000 years older than the uplift event which exposed them. Understanding these effects is important
because lithophagids are far more abundantly preserved, and used to date uplift, than most other marine
organisms. This study shows that they can rarely be used to distinguish uplift events, or date them to better
than 1000 years, or even to distinguish whether observed uplift occurred in a single or in multiple events.
After taking account of these uncertainties, the ages of the lithophagids are, however, consistent with the
hypothesis that the highest prominent marine notches and exposed lithophagid holes within a few metres of
sea level in Greece formed when sea level became relatively stable ~ 6000 years ago, following rapid rise after
the last glacial maximum
Taphonomies of landscape: investigating the immediate environs of Çatalhöyük from prehistory to the present
The landscape immediately surrounding the site of Çatalhöyük preserves topographic and ceramic evidence dating from prehistoric times to the present day. This article presents the results of a programme of investigation of the landscape conducted through analysis of remote-sensing, map and field-survey data, with particular emphasis on the first and second millennia AD. The concept of taphonomy, usually defined in archaeology as the process of change after deposition, is applied to the transformation of the settled landscape from its Neolithic origins to its present status as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Taphonomy serves as a linking concept as we explore how past landscapes are mobilised and translated into the ever-changing present
Relativistic D-brane Scattering is Extremely Inelastic
We study the effects of quantum production of open strings on the
relativistic scattering of D-branes. We find strong corrections to the brane
trajectory from copious production of highly-excited open strings, whose
typical oscillator level is proportional to the square of the rapidity. In the
corrected trajectory, the branes rapidly coincide and remain trapped in a
configuration with enhanced symmetry. This is a purely stringy effect which
makes relativistic brane collisions exceptionally inelastic. We trace this
effect to velocity-dependent corrections to the open-string mass, which render
open strings between relativistic D-branes surprisingly light. We observe that
pair-creation of open strings could play an important role in cosmological
scenarios in which branes approach each other at very high speeds.Comment: 30 pages; added references and a comment about velocity-dependent
masse
Vortex nucleation in Bose-Einstein condensates in time-dependent traps
Vortex nucleation in a Bose-Einstein condensate subject to a stirring
potential is studied numerically using the zero-temperature, two-dimensional
Gross-Pitaevskii equation. It is found that this theory is able to describe the
creation of vortices, but not the crystallization of a vortex lattice. In the
case of a rotating, slightly anisotropic harmonic potential, the numerical
results reproduce experimental findings, thereby showing that finite
temperatures are not necessary for vortex excitation below the quadrupole
frequency. In the case of a condensate subject to stirring by a narrow rotating
potential, the process of vortex excitation is described by a classical model
that treats the multitude of vortices created by the stirrer as a continuously
distributed vorticity at the center of the cloud, but retains a potential flow
pattern at large distances from the center.Comment: 22 pages, 7 figures. Changes after referee report: one new figure,
new refs. No conclusions altere
Precise measurements of radio-frequency magnetic susceptibility in (anti)ferromagnetic materials
Dynamic magnetic susceptibility, , was studied in several intermetallic
materials exhibiting ferromagnetic, antiferromagnetic and metamagnetic
transitions. Precise measurements by using a 14 MHz tunnel diode oscillator
(TDO) allow detailed insight into the field and temperature dependence of
. In particular, local moment ferromagnets show a sharp peak in
near the Curie temperature, . The peak amplitude decreases and shifts to
higher temperatures with very small applied dc fields. Anisotropic measurements
of CeVSb show that this peak is present provided the magnetic easy axis is
aligned with the excitation field. In a striking contrast, small moment,
itinerant ferromagnets (i.e., ZrZn) show a broad maximum in that
responds differently to applied field. We believe that TDO measurements provide
a very sensitive way to distinguish between local and itinerant moment magnetic
orders. Local moment antiferromagnets do not show a peak at the N\'eel
temperature, , but only a sharp decrease of below due to the
loss of spin-disorder scattering changing the penetration depth of the ac
excitation field. Furthermore, we show that the TDO is capable of detecting
changes in spin order as well as metamagnetic transitions. Finally, critical
scaling of in the vicinity of is discussed in CeVSb and
CeAgSb
Persistent currents in a Bose-Einstein condensate in the presence of disorder
We examine bosonic atoms that are confined in a toroidal,
quasi-one-dimensional trap, subjected to a random potential. The resulting
inhomogeneous atomic density is smoothened for sufficiently strong, repulsive
interatomic interactions. Statistical analysis of our simulations show that the
gas supports persistent currents, which become more fragile due to the
disorder.Comment: 5 pages, RevTex, 3 figures, revised version, to appear in JLT
Minimal model for aeolian sand dunes
We present a minimal model for the formation and migration of aeolian sand
dunes. It combines a perturbative description of the turbulent wind velocity
field above the dune with a continuum saltation model that allows for
saturation transients in the sand flux. The latter are shown to provide the
characteristic length scale. The model can explain the origin of important
features of dunes, such as the formation of a slip face, the broken scale
invariance, and the existence of a minimum dune size. It also predicts the
longitudinal shape and aspect ratio of dunes and heaps, their migration
velocity and shape relaxation dynamics. Although the minimal model employs
non-local expressions for the wind shear stress as well as for the sand flux,
it is simple enough to serve as a very efficient tool for analytical and
numerical investigations and to open up the way to simulations of large scale
desert topographies.Comment: 19 pages, 22 figure
Nonlinear dynamics for vortex lattice formation in a rotating Bose-Einstein condensate
We study the response of a trapped Bose-Einstein condensate to a sudden
turn-on of a rotating drive by solving the two-dimensional Gross-Pitaevskii
equation. A weakly anisotropic rotating potential excites a quadrupole shape
oscillation and its time evolution is analyzed by the quasiparticle projection
method. A simple recurrence oscillation of surface mode populations is broken
in the quadrupole resonance region that depends on the trap anisotropy, causing
stochastization of the dynamics. In the presence of the phenomenological
dissipation, an initially irrotational condensate is found to undergo damped
elliptic deformation followed by unstable surface ripple excitations, some of
which develop into quantized vortices that eventually form a lattice. Recent
experimental results on the vortex nucleation should be explained not only by
the dynamical instability but also by the Landau instability; the latter is
necessary for the vortices to penetrate into the condensate.Comment: RevTex4, This preprint includes no figures. You can download the
complete article and figures at
http://matter.sci.osaka-cu.ac.jp/bsr/cond-mat.htm
Survival extrapolation incorporating general population mortality using excess hazard and cure models: a tutorial
Background
Different parametric survival models can lead to widely discordant extrapolations and decision uncertainty in cost-effectiveness analyses. The use of excess hazard (EH) methods, which incorporate general population mortality data, has the potential to reduce model uncertainty. This review highlights key practical considerations of EH methods for estimating long-term survival.
Methods
Demonstration of methods used a case study of 686 patients from the German Breast Cancer Study Group, followed for a maximum of 7.3 y and divided into low (1/2) and high (3) grade cancers. Seven standard parametric survival models were fit to each group separately. The same 7 distributions were then used in an EH framework, which incorporated general population mortality rates, and fitted both with and without a cure parameter. Survival extrapolations, restricted mean survival time (RMST), and difference in RMST between high and low grades were compared up to 30 years along with Akaike information criterion goodness-of-fit and cure fraction estimates. The sensitivity of the EH models to lifetable misspecification was investigated.
Results
In our case study, variability in survival extrapolations was extensive across the standard models, with 30-y RMST ranging from 7.5 to 14.3 y. Incorporation of general population mortality rates using EH cure methods substantially reduced model uncertainty, whereas EH models without cure had less of an effect. Long-term treatment effects approached the null for most models but at varying rates. Lifetable misspecification had minimal effect on RMST differences.
Conclusions
EH methods may be useful for survival extrapolation, and in cancer, EHs may decrease over time and be easier to extrapolate than all-cause hazards. EH cure models may be helpful when cure is plausible and likely to result in less extrapolation variability
The Casimir Problem of Spherical Dielectrics: Quantum Statistical and Field Theoretical Approaches
The Casimir free energy for a system of two dielectric concentric nonmagnetic
spherical bodies is calculated with use of a quantum statistical mechanical
method, at arbitrary temperature. By means of this rather novel method, which
turns out to be quite powerful (we have shown this to be true in other
situations also), we consider first an explicit evaluation of the free energy
for the static case, corresponding to zero Matsubara frequency ().
Thereafter, the time-dependent case is examined. For comparison we consider the
calculation of the free energy with use of the more commonly known field
theoretical method, assuming for simplicity metallic boundary surfaces.Comment: 31 pages, LaTeX, one new reference; version to appear in Phys. Rev.
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