575 research outputs found
Investigation of stratiform sulphide mineralisation at Meall Mor, South Knapdale, Argyll
A co-ordinated geochemical-geophysical-geological investigation of copper
mineralisation in the Meal1 ?46r area, South Knapdale, Argyll was carried 0th
in 1976 and followed by a drilling programme of 3 shallow holes in early 1977.
The mineralisation occursin a zone of weak stratiform sulphide mineralisation
(the pyrite zone) with a strike length of 1Okm in the Upper &ins Quartz&e
of the Middle Dalradian.
The geochemical drainage survey showed the existence of a strongly anomalous
distribution of Cu and Sb in the Abhainn Srathain draining south from .
Meal1 M&- and detailed soil sampling over the pyrite zone outlined a broad
area enriched in copper. Deeper soil sampling confirmed the anomalously
high copper values and a coincident IP anomaly was found stretching from
Meal1 M& south to the old mine workings on Abhainn Srathain, and is probably
caused by a local enrichment of pyrite and chalcopyrite within the pyrite
zone.
Three boreholes were drilled; two on coincident geochemical and geophysical
anomalies, and the third beneath the old mines at Abhainn Srathain. Copper
values in the first two holes range up to 0.24% Cu over 4.27m, but up to
1.06% Cu over 2.67m in the third and this enrichment may be related to a
later remobilisation of the disseminated chalcopyrite. The results of subsequent
drilling at two other sites are given in Appendix III
Relation between Tunneling and Particle Production in Vacuum Decay
The field-theoretical description of quantum fluctuations on the background
of a tunneling field is revisited in the case of a functional
Schrodinger approach. We apply this method in the case when quantum
fluctuations are coupled to the field through a mass-squared term,
which is 'time-dependent' since we include the dynamics of . The
resulting mode functions of the fluctuation field, which determine the quantum
state after tunneling, display a previously unseen resonance effect when their
mode number is comparable to the curvature scale of the bubble. A detailed
analysis of the relation between the excitations of the field about the true
vacuum (interpreted as particle creation) and the phase shift coming from
tunneling is presented.Comment: 20 pages, 4 figures, submitted to PR
Stochastic Theory of Accelerated Detectors in a Quantum Field
We analyze the statistical mechanical properties of n-detectors in arbitrary
states of motion interacting with each other via a quantum field. We use the
open system concept and the influence functional method to calculate the
influence of quantum fields on detectors in motion, and the mutual influence of
detectors via fields. We discuss the difference between self and mutual
impedance and advanced and retarded noise. The mutual effects of detectors on
each other can be studied from the Langevin equations derived from the
influence functional, as it contains the backreaction of the field on the
system self-consistently. We show the existence of general fluctuation-
dissipation relations, and for trajectories without event horizons,
correlation-propagation relations, which succinctly encapsulate these quantum
statistical phenomena. These findings serve to clarify some existing confusions
in the accelerated detector problem. The general methodology presented here
could also serve as a platform to explore the quantum statistical properties of
particles and fields, with practical applications in atomic and optical physics
problems.Comment: 32 pages, Late
Complete genome sequences of Campylobacter jejuni strains RM3196 (233.94) and RM3197 (308.95) isolated from patients with Guillain-Barré syndrome
Infections with Campylobacter jejuni subsp. jejuni are a leading cause of foodborne gastroenteritis and the most prevalent infection preceding Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS). This study describes the genomes of C. jejuni subsp. jejuni HS:41 strains RM3196 (233.94) and RM3197 (308.95) that were isolated from patients with GBS in Cape Town, South Africa
Oceanic cooling recorded in shells spanning the Medieval Climate Anomaly in the subtropical eastern North Atlantic Ocean
The Medieval Climate Anomaly (MCA; 900–1300 AD) was the most recent period of pre-industrial climatic warming in the northern hemisphere, and thus estimations of MCA signals can illuminate possible impacts of anthropogenic climate change. Current high-resolution MCA climate signals are restricted to mid- and high-latitude regions, which confounds inferences of how the MCA impacted some global/hemispheric climate mechanisms (e.g. North Atlantic Oscillation; NAO). To address this knowledge gap, we estimate seasonally-resolved sea surface temperatures (SSTs) from the oxygen isotope composition (δ18O) of serially sampled Phorcus atratus shells from archaeological sites spanning the MCA in the Canary Islands. Twelve archaeological and six modern P. atratus shells were analyzed, and archaeological shells were dated using carbonate-target radiocarbon dating. SSTs were estimated using the published aragonite-water equilibrium fractionation equation. Modern shells showed a mean SST of 20.0 ± 1.5 °C, with a seasonal amplitude of 5.3 ± 0.9 °C. Archaeological shells exhibited a mean SST of 18.2 ± 0.7 °C, with a mean seasonal amplitude of 5.5 ± 1.0 °C. Thus, shells that span the MCA in the Canary Islands recorded SSTs that were significantly cooler than the modern (P <.05), contrasting with warming estimates and model predictions elsewhere in the Northern Hemisphere. We propose that the observed cooling resulted from increased upwelling in NW Africa due to a strengthening of the prevailing westerlies and coastal winds along the African shoreline. The intensified upwelling scenario during the MCA is partially supported by in-situ carbon isotope data (δ13C) retrieved from the archaeological shells, which was compared to the δ13C values of modern shells and dissolved inorganic carbon in the ambient seawater. These results are consistent with other low-latitude temperature/precipitation anomalies associated with a positive NAO mode, suggesting a transition to a positive NAO index during the middle and late MCA that possibly extended later into the 13th century AD
Calibration of the oxygen isotope ratios of the gastropods Patella candei crenata and Phorcus atratus as high-resolution paleothermometers from the subtropical eastern Atlantic Ocean
The oxygen isotope composition (δ18O) recorded in shells of the gastropods Patella candei crenata and Phorcus atratus from the Canary Islands (27–29°N) potentially provide invaluable high-resolution paleoclimatic data. However, because these two species have never been studied isotopically, it is necessary to calibrate and validate this approach by using live-collected specimens that can be compared to present-day climate data. For P. candei crenata, live organisms were collected at 15-day intervals for nearly one year (between 2011 and 2012) from the rocky-intertidal coast of SE Tenerife along with sea surface temperatures (SST) and seawater δ18O values. The δ18O values of the last growth episode along the shell growth margin, representing the conditions when organisms were collected, illustrate that P. candei crenata δ18O values were 1.3 ± 0.2‰ higher than expected values from isotopic equilibrium. This finding resulted in estimated SST 5.7 ± 0.6 °C lower than observed values. This offset or “vital effect” is uniform and predictable, and therefore can be corrected by subtracting 1.3‰ from the measured shell δ18O value. Adjusted temperatures from the shell coincided with observed SST in the study area. Therefore, Patella candei crenata shells are reliable repositories of SST data, in agreement with other species of Patella from higher latitudes. For Phorcus atratus, a live specimen was analyzed isotopically along shell-growth direction. The intrashell δ18O values showed the entire range of measured SST in the region without an apparent “vital effect”, in correspondence with other Phorcus species from the Mediterranean. Both Patella candei crenata and Phorcus atratus are common components of archaeological and Pleistocene-Holocene paleontological sites across the Canary Archipelago. This study suggests that well-preserved shells of these two taxa retrieved from ancient settings have the capacity to serve as excellent high-resolution paleotemperature archives for the tropical/subtropical eastern Atlantic region
Probing semiclassical analogue gravity in Bose--Einstein condensates with widely tunable interactions
Bose-Einstein condensates (BEC) have recently been the subject of
considerable study as possible analogue models of general relativity. In
particular it was shown that the propagation of phase perturbations in a BEC
can, under certain conditions, closely mimic the dynamics of scalar quantum
fields in curved spacetimes. In two previous articles [gr-qc/0110036,
gr-qc/0305061] we noted that a varying scattering length in the BEC corresponds
to a varying speed of light in the ``effective metric''. Recent experiments
have indeed achieved a controlled tuning of the scattering length in Rubidium
85. In this article we shall discuss the prospects for the use of this
particular experimental effect to test some of the predictions of semiclassical
quantum gravity, for instance, particle production in an expanding universe. We
stress that these effects are generally much larger than the Hawking radiation
expected from causal horizons, and so there are much better chances for their
detection in the near future.Comment: 18 pages; uses revtex4. V2: Added brief discussion of "Bose-Nova"
phenomenon, and appropriate reference
Quantum Communication in Rindler Spacetime
A state that an inertial observer in Minkowski space perceives to be the
vacuum will appear to an accelerating observer to be a thermal bath of
radiation. We study the impact of this Davies-Fulling-Unruh noise on
communication, particularly quantum communication from an inertial sender to an
accelerating observer and private communication between two inertial observers
in the presence of an accelerating eavesdropper. In both cases, we establish
compact, tractable formulas for the associated communication capacities
assuming encodings that allow a single excitation in one of a fixed number of
modes per use of the communications channel. Our contributions include a
rigorous presentation of the general theory of the private quantum capacity as
well as a detailed analysis of the structure of these channels, including their
group-theoretic properties and a proof that they are conjugate degradable.
Connections between the Unruh channel and optical amplifiers are also
discussed.Comment: v3: 44 pages, accepted in Communications in Mathematical Physic
SN1A data and the CMB of Modified Curvature at short and long distances
The SN1a data, although inconclusive, when combined with other observations
makes a strong case that our universe is presently dominated by dark energy. We
investigate the possibility that large distance modifications of the curvature
of the universe would perhaps offer an alternative explanation of the
observation. Our calculations indicate that a universe made up of no dark
energy but instead, with a modified curvature at large scales, is not
scale-invariant, therefore quite likely it is ruled out by the CMB
observations. The sensitivity of the CMB spectrum is checked for the whole
range of mode modifications of large or short distance physics. The spectrum is
robust against modifications of short-distance physics and the UV cutoff when:
the initial state is the adiabatic vacuum, and the inflationary background
space is de Sitter.Comment: 13 pages, 2 eps figures, typos corrected, references added; to appear
in Phys. Rev.
Hawking Radiation from AdS Black Holes
We investigate Hawking radiation from black holes in (d+1)-dimensional
anti-de Sitter space. We focus on s-waves, make use of the geometrical optics
approximation, and follow three approaches to analyze the radiation. First, we
compute a Bogoliubov transformation between Kruskal and asymptotic coordinates
and compare the different vacua. Second, following a method due to Kraus,
Parikh, and Wilczek, we view Hawking radiation as a tunneling process across
the horizon and compute the tunneling probablility. This approach uses an
anti-de Sitter version of a metric originally introduced by Painleve for
Schwarzschild black holes. From the tunneling probability one also finds a
leading correction to the semi-classical emission rate arising from the
backreaction to the background geometry. Finally, we consider a spherically
symmetric collapse geometry and the Bogoliubov transformation between the
initial vacuum state and the vacuum of an asymptotic observer.Comment: 13 pages, latex2e, v2: some clarifications and references adde
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