Carbon incorporation in ZnSe grown by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition

Carbon incorporation in ZnSe films grown by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition is reported. Secondary‐ion mass spectrometry measurements in ZnSe films grown from methylallylselenide and dimethylzinc show an enhanced carbon accumulation at the interface between ZnSe and GaAs. The carbon incorporation in the bulk ZnSe increases with the VI/II ratio and for a value of VI/II=3–4, the amount of incorporated carbon abruptly jumps to concentrations of 10^(21) cm^(−3), whereupon the films become polycrystalline. A new shallow peak I^C at 2.7920 eV dominates the near‐band‐edge low‐temperature photoluminescence spectra of all carbon‐contaminated ZnSe films. The intensity and linewidth of I^C increase with the VI/II ratio in a similar manner to the carbon concentration. This peak is proposed to be due to the radiative decay of excitons bound to a complex defect, which is associated with the presence of carbon in the films

New critical frontiers for the Potts and percolation models

We obtain the critical threshold for a host of Potts and percolation models on lattices having a structure which permits a duality consideration. The consideration generalizes the recently obtained thresholds of Scullard and Ziff for bond and site percolation on the martini and related lattices to the Potts model and to other lattices.Comment: 9 pages, 5 figure

Critical Percolation in Finite Geometries

The methods of conformal field theory are used to compute the crossing probabilities between segments of the boundary of a compact two-dimensional region at the percolation threshold. These probabilities are shown to be invariant not only under changes of scale, but also under mappings of the region which are conformal in the interior and continuous on the boundary. This is a larger invariance than that expected for generic critical systems. Specific predictions are presented for the crossing probability between opposite sides of a rectangle, and are compared with recent numerical work. The agreement is excellent.Comment: 10 page

Why is timing of bird migration advancing when individuals are not?

Recent advances in spring arrival dates have been reported in many migratory species but the mechanism driving these advances is unknown. As population declines are most widely reported in species that are not advancing migration, there is an urgent need to identify the mechanisms facilitating and constraining these advances. Individual plasticity in timing of migration in response to changing climatic conditions is commonly proposed to drive these advances but plasticity in individual migratory timings is rarely observed. For a shorebird population that has significantly advanced migration in recent decades, we show that individual arrival dates are highly consistent between years, but that the arrival dates of new recruits to the population are significantly earlier now than in previous years. Several mechanisms could drive advances in recruit arrival, none of which require individual plasticity or rapid evolution of migration timings. In particular, advances in nest-laying dates could result in advanced recruit arrival, if benefits of early hatching facilitate early subsequent spring migration. This mechanism could also explain why arrival dates of short-distance migrants, which generally return to breeding sites earlier and have greater scope for advance laying, are advancing more rapidly than long-distance migrants

Animal movements in the Kenya Rift and evidence for the earliest ambush hunting by hominins

Animal movements in the Kenya Rift Valley today are influenced by a combination of topography and trace nutrient distribution. These patterns would have been the same in the past when hominins inhabited the area. We use this approach to create a landscape reconstruction of Olorgesailie, a key site in the East African Rift with abundant evidence of large-mammal butchery between ~1.2 and ~0.5 Ma BP. The site location in relation to limited animal routes through the area show that hominins were aware of animal movements and used the location for ambush hunting during the Lower to Middle Pleistocene. These features explain the importance of Olorgesailie as a preferred location of repeated hominin activity through multiple changes in climate and local environmental conditions, and provide insights into the cognitive and hunting abilities of Homo erectus while indicating that their activities at the site were aimed at hunting, rather than scavenging

An assessment of the economic impact of Canada goose grazing on Grasmere Station using a farm management modelling technique

Estimates are made of the quantities of various pasture and crop types consumed by Canada geese (Branta canadensis maxima) at Grasmere Station over two years. The costs incurred by the farmer as a result of such feeding are then calculated on the basis of displaced stock units using a computer-based farm management modelling technique

Small scale energy release driven by supergranular flows on the quiet Sun

In this article we present data and modelling for the quiet Sun that strongly suggest a ubiquitous small-scale atmospheric heating mechanism that is driven solely by converging supergranular flows. A possible energy source for such events is the power transfer to the plasma via the work done on the magnetic field by photospheric convective flows, which exert drag of the footpoints of magnetic structures. In this paper we present evidence of small scale energy release events driven directly by the hydrodynamic forces that act on the magnetic elements in the photosphere, as a result of supergranular scale flows. We show strong spatial and temporal correlation between quiet Sun soft X-ray emission (from <i>Yohkoh</i> and <i>SOHO</i> MDI-derived flux removal events driven by deduced photospheric flows. We also present a simple model of heating generated by flux submergence, based on particle acceleration by converging magnetic mirrors. In the near future, high resolution soft X-ray images from XRT on the <i>Hinode</i> satellite will allow definitive, quantitative verification of our results