Momentum and scalar transport within a vegetation canopy following atmospheric stability and seasonal canopy changes: the CHATS experiment

Momentum and scalar (heat and water vapor) transfer between a walnut canopy and the overlying atmosphere are investigated for two seasonal periods (before and after leaf-out), and for five thermal stability regimes (free and forced convection, near-neutral condition, transition to stable, and stable). Quadrant and octant analyses of momentum and scalar fluxes followed by space-time autocorrelations of observations from the Canopy Horizontal Array Turbulence Study's (CHATS) thirty meter tower help characterize the motions exchanging momentum, heat, and moisture between the canopy layers and aloft. <br><br> During sufficiently windy conditions, i.e. in forced convection, near-neutral and transition to stable regimes, momentum and scalars are generally transported by sweep and ejection motions associated with the well-known canopy-top "shear-driven" coherent eddy structures. During extreme stability conditions (both unstable and stable), the role of these "shear-driven" structures in transporting scalars decreases, inducing notable dissimilarity between momentum and scalar transport. <br><br> In unstable conditions, "shear-driven" coherent structures are progressively replaced by "buo-yantly-driven" structures, known as thermal plumes; which appear very efficient at transporting scalars, especially upward thermal plumes above the canopy. Within the canopy, downward thermal plumes become more efficient at transporting scalars than upward thermal plumes if scalar sources are located in the upper canopy. We explain these features by suggesting that: (i) downward plumes within the canopy correspond to large downward plumes coming from above, and (ii) upward plumes within the canopy are local small plumes induced by canopy heat sources where passive scalars are first injected if there sources are at the same location as heat sources. Above the canopy, these small upward thermal plumes aggregate to form larger scale upward thermal plumes. Furthermore, scalar quantities carried by downward plumes are not modified when penetrating the canopy and crossing upper scalar sources. Consequently, scalars appear to be preferentially injected into upward thermal plumes as opposed to in downward thermal plumes. <br><br> In stable conditions, intermittent downward and upward motions probably related to elevated shear layers are responsible for canopy-top heat and water vapor transport through the initiation of turbulent instabilities, but this transport remains small. During the foliated period, lower-canopy heat and water vapor transport occurs through thermal plumes associated with a subcanopy unstable layer

Induced superfluidity of imbalanced Fermi gases near unitarity

The induced intraspecies interactions among the majority species, mediated by the minority species, is computed for a population-imbalanced two-component Fermi gas. Although the Feshbach-resonance mediated interspecies interaction is dominant for equal populations, leading to singlet s-wave pairing, we find that in the strongly imbalanced regime the induced intraspecies interaction leads to p-wave pairing and superfluidity of the majority species. Thus, we predict that the observed spin-polaron Fermi liquid state in this regime is unstable to p-wave superfluidity, in accordance with the results of Kohn and Luttinger, below a temperature that, near unitarity, we find to be within current experimental capabilities. Possible experimental signatures of the p-wave state using radio-frequency spectroscopy as well as density-density correlations after free expansion are presented.Comment: 15 pages, 13 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev.

Swimming is never without risk: opening up on learning through activism and research

This article examines my own becoming as Elisabeth and as a researcher. It is about working as a support worker, coaching teams that are trying to realize inclusive education for a child, and my PhD process, which relies on these practices. My intention here is to unfold several aspects, blockages, possibilities, and tensions that can make sense of my messy struggle. The never-ending learning through working with people, listening to their stories, and taking responsibility are important ingredients of my engagement. It is necessary to provide insights and justify my multiple positions to avoid falling into a narcissistic trap. In doing so, I will seek help from Levinas and in concepts of Deleuze and Guattari to (re-)construct my own understanding

A Widespread, Clumpy Starburst in the Isolated Ongoing Dwarf Galaxy Merger dm1647+21

Interactions between pairs of isolated dwarf galaxies provide a critical window into low-mass hierarchical, gas-dominated galaxy assembly and the buildup of stellar mass in low-metallicity systems. We present the first VLT/MUSE optical IFU observations of the interacting dwarf pair dm1647+21, selected from the TiNy Titans survey. The H$\alpha$ emission is widespread and corresponds to a total unobscured star formation rate (SFR) of 0.44 M$_{\odot}$ yr$^{-1}$, 2.7 times higher than the SFR inferred from SDSS data. The implied specific SFR (sSFR) for the system is elevated by more than an order of magnitude above non-interacting dwarfs in the same mass range. This increase is dominated by the lower-mass galaxy, which has a sSFR enhancement of $>$ 50. Examining the spatially-resolved maps of classic optical line diagnostics, we find the ISM excitation can be fully explained by star formation. The velocity field of the ionized gas is not consistent with simple rotation. Dynamical simulations indicate that the irregular velocity field and the stellar structure is consistent with the identification of this system as an ongoing interaction between two dwarf galaxies. The widespread, clumpy enhancements in star formation in this system point to important differences in the effect of mergers on dwarf galaxies, compared to massive galaxies: rather than the funneling of gas to the nucleus and giving rise to a nuclear starburst, starbursts in low-mass galaxy mergers may be triggered by large-scale ISM compression, and thus be more distributed.Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJ. 11 pages, 5 figures, 1 table. Figures slightly degraded to meet arXiv size restrictions. For more information about TiNy Titans see https://lavinia.as.arizona.edu/~tinytitans

Ozone exchange within and above an irrigated Californian orchard

In this study, the canopy effects on the vertical ozone exchange within and above Californian orchard are investigated. We examined the comprehensive dataset obtained from the Canopy Horizontal Array Turbulence Study (CHATS). CHATS typifies a rural central Californian site, with O3 mixing ratios of less than 60 ppb and moderate NOx mixing ratios. The CHATS campaign covered a complete irrigation cycle, with our analysis including periods before and after irrigation. Lower O3 mixing ratios were found following irrigation, together with increased wind speeds, decreased air temperatures and increased specific humidity. Friction velocity, sensible heat and gas fluxes above the canopy were estimated using variations on the flux-gradient method, including a method which accounts for the roughness sublayer (RSL). These methods were compared to fluxes derived from observed eddy diffusivities of heat and friction velocity. We found that the use of the RSL parameterization, which accounts for the canopy-induced turbulent mixing above the canopy, resulted in a stronger momentum, heat, and ozone exchange fluxes above this orchard, compared to the method which omits the RSL. This was quantified by the increased friction velocity, heat flux and ozone deposition flux of up to 12, 29, and 35% at 2.5 m above the canopy, respectively. Within the canopy, vertical fluxes, as derived from local gradients and eddy diffusivity of heat, were compared to fluxes calculated using the Lagrangian inverse theory. Both methods showed a presence of vertical flux divergence of friction velocity, heat and ozone, suggesting that turbulent mixing was inefficient in homogenizing the effects driven by local sources and sinks on vertical exchange of those quantities. This weak mixing within the canopy was also corroborated in the eddy diffusivities of friction velocity and heat, which were calculated directly from the observations. Finally, the influence of water stress on the O3 budget was examined by comparing the results prior and after the irrigation. Although the analysis is limited to the local conditions, our in situ measurements indicated differences in the O3 mixing ratio prior and after irrigation during CHATS. We attribute these O3 mixing ratio changes to enhanced biological emission of volatile organic compounds (VOCs), driven by water stress

Fundamental Magnetic Properties and Structural Implications for Nanocrystalline Fe-Ti-N Thin Films

The magnetization (M) as a function of temperature (T) from 2 to 300 K and in-plane field (H) up to 1 kOe, room temperature easy and hard direction in-plane field hysteresis loops for fields between -100 and +100 Oe, and 10 GHz ferromagnetic resonance (FMR) profiles have been measured for a series of soft-magnetic nano-crystalline 50 nm thick Fe-Ti-N films made by magnetron sputtering in an in-plane field. The nominal titanium concentration was 3 at. % and the nitrogen concentrations (xN) ranged from zero to 12.7 at. %. The saturation magnetization (Ms) vs. T data and the extracted exchange parameters as a function of xN are consistent with a lattice expansion due to the addition of interstitial nitrogen in the body-centered-cubic (bcc) lattice and a structural transition to body-centered-tetragonal (bct) in the 6-8 at. % nitrogen range. The hysteresis loop and FMR data show a consistent picture of the changes in both the uniaxial and cubic anisotropy as a function of xN. Films with xN > 1.9 at. % show an overall uniaxial anisotropy, with an anisotropy field parameter Hu that increases with xN. The corresponding dispersion averaged uniaxial anisotropy energy density parameter = HuMs/2 is a linear function of xN, with a rate of increase of 950 erg/cm3 per at. % nitrogen. The estimated uniaxial anisotropy energy per nitrogen atom is 30 J/mol, a value consistent with other systems. For xN below 6 at. %, the scaling of coercive force Hc data with the sixth power of the grain size D indicate a grain averaged effective cubic anisotropy energy density parameter that is about an order of magnitude smaller that the nominal K1 values for iron, and give a quantitative vs. D response that matches predictions for exchange coupled random grains with cubic anisotropy.Comment: 13 pages, 7 figure

A Hubble Space Telescope Snapshot Survey of Dynamically Close Galaxy Pairs in the CNOC2 Redshift Survey

We compare the structural properties of two classes of galaxies at intermediate redshift: those in dynamically close galaxy pairs, and those which are isolated. Both samples are selected from the CNOC2 Redshift Survey, and have redshifts in the range 0.1 < z <0.6. Hubble Space Telescope WFPC2 images were acquired as part of a snapshot survey, and were used to measure bulge fraction and asymmetry for these galaxies. We find that paired and isolated galaxies have identical distributions of bulge fractions. Conversely, we find that paired galaxies are much more likely to be asymmetric (R_T+R_A >= 0.13) than isolated galaxies. Assuming that half of these pairs are unlikely to be close enough to merge, we estimate that 40% +/- 11% of merging galaxies are asymmetric, compared with 9% +/- 3% of isolated galaxies. The difference is even more striking for strongly asymmetric (R_T+R_A >= 0.16) galaxies: 25% +/- 8% for merging galaxies versus 1% +/- 1% for isolated galaxies. We find that strongly asymmetric paired galaxies are very blue, with rest-frame B-R colors close to 0.80, compared with a mean (B-R)_0 of 1.24 for all paired galaxies. In addition, asymmetric galaxies in pairs have strong [OII]3727 emission lines. We conclude that close to half of the galaxy pairs in our sample are in the process of merging, and that most of these mergers are accompanied by triggered star formation.Comment: Accepted for publication in the Astronomical Journal. 40 pages, including 15 figures. For full resolution version, please see http://www.trentu.ca/physics/dpatton/hstpairs

Single-Particle Density of States of a Superconductor with a Spatially Varying Gap and Phase Fluctuations

Recent experiments have shown that the superconducting energy gap in some cuprates is spatially inhomogeneous. Motivated by these experiments, and using exact diagonalization of a model d-wave Hamiltonian, combined with Monte Carlo simulations of a Ginzburg-Landau free energy functional, we have calculated the single-particle density of states LDOS$(\omega,r)$ of a model high-T$_c$ superconductor as a function of temperature. Our calculations include both quenched disorder in the pairing potential and thermal fluctuations in both phase and amplitude of the superconducting gap. Most of our calculations assume two types of superconducting regions: $\alpha$, with a small gap and large superfluid density, and $\beta$, with the opposite. If the $\beta$ regions are randomly embedded in an $\alpha$ host, the LDOS on the $\alpha$ sites still has a sharp coherence peak at $T = 0$, but the $\beta$ component does not, in agreement with experiment. An ordered arrangement of $\beta$ regions leads to oscillations in the LDOS as a function of energy. The model leads to a superconducting transition temperature $T_c$ well below the pseudogap temperature $T_{c0}$, and has a spatially varying gap at very low $T$, both consistent with experiments in underdoped Bi2212. Our calculated LDOS$(\omega,r)$ shows coherence peaks for $T T_c$, in agreement with previous work considering phase but not amplitude fluctuations in a homogeneous superconductor. Well above $T_c$, the gap in the LDOS disappears.Comment: 37 pages, 12 figures. Accepted by Phys. Rev. B. Scheduled Issue: 01 Nov 200

Stimulated Neutrino Transformation with Sinusoidal Density Profiles

Large amplitude oscillations between the states of a quantum system can be stimulated by sinusoidal external potentials with frequencies that are similar to the energy level splitting of the states or a fraction thereof. Situations when the applied frequency is equal to an integer fraction of the energy level splittings are known as parametric resonances. We investigate this effect for neutrinos both analytically and numerically for the case of arbitrary numbers of neutrino flavors. We look for environments where the effect may be observed and find that supernova are the one realistic possibility due to the necessity of both large densities and large amplitude fluctuations. The comparison of numerical and analytic results of neutrino propagation through a model supernova reveals it is possible to predict the locations and strengths of the stimulated transitions that occur.Comment: 14 pages, 6 figure

Eyes wide shut? UK consumer perceptions on aviation climate impacts and travel decisions to New Zealand

The purview of climate change concern has implicated air travel, as evidenced in a growing body of academic literature concerned with aviation CO2 emissions. This article assesses the relevance of climate change to long haul air travel decisions to New Zealand for United Kingdom consumers. Based on 15 semi-structured open-ended interviews conducted in Bournemouth, UK during June 2009, it was found that participants were unlikely to forgo potential travel decisions to New Zealand because of concern over air travel emissions. Underpinning the interviewees’ understandings and responses to air travel’s climate impact was a spectrum of awareness and attitudes to air travel and climate change. This spectrum ranged from individuals who were unaware of air travel’s climate impact to those who were beginning to consume air travel with a ‘carbon conscience’. Within this spectrum were some who were aware of the impact but not willing to change their travel behaviours at all. Rather than implicating long haul air travel, the empirical evidence instead exemplifies changing perceptions towards frequent short haul air travel and voices calls for both government and media in the UK to deliver more concrete messages on air travel’s climate impact