86 research outputs found
Optical Light Curves of Supernovae
Photometry is the most easily acquired information about supernovae. The
light curves constructed from regular imaging provide signatures not only for
the energy input, the radiation escape, the local environment and the
progenitor stars, but also for the intervening dust. They are the main tool for
the use of supernovae as distance indicators through the determination of the
luminosity. The light curve of SN 1987A still is the richest and longest
observed example for a core-collapse supernova. Despite the peculiar nature of
this object, as explosion of a blue supergiant, it displayed all the
characteristics of Type II supernovae. The light curves of Type Ib/c supernovae
are more homogeneous, but still display the signatures of explosions in massive
stars, among them early interaction with their circumstellar material. Wrinkles
in the near-uniform appearance of thermonuclear (Type Ia) supernovae have
emerged during the past decade. Subtle differences have been observed
especially at near-infrared wavelengths. Interestingly, the light curve shapes
appear to correlate with a variety of other characteristics of these
supernovae. The construction of bolometric light curves provides the most
direct link to theoretical predictions and can yield sorely needed constraints
for the models. First steps in this direction have been already made.Comment: To be published in:"Supernovae and Gamma Ray Bursters", Lecture Notes
in Physics (http://link.springer.de/series/lnpp
The global atmospheric electrical circuit and climate
Evidence is emerging for physical links among clouds, global temperatures, the global atmospheric electrical circuit and cosmic ray ionisation. The global circuit extends throughout the atmosphere from the planetary surface to the lower layers of the ionosphere. Cosmic rays are the principal source of atmospheric ions away from the continental boundary layer: the ions formed permit a vertical conduction current to flow in the fair weather part of the global circuit. Through the (inverse) solar modulation of cosmic rays, the resulting columnar ionisation changes may allow the global circuit to convey a solar influence to meteorological phenomena of the lower atmosphere. Electrical effects on non-thunderstorm clouds have been proposed to occur via the ion-assisted formation of ultra-fine aerosol, which can grow to sizes able to act as cloud condensation nuclei, or through the increased ice nucleation capability of charged aerosols. Even small atmospheric electrical modulations on the aerosol size distribution can affect cloud properties and modify the radiative balance of the atmosphere, through changes communicated globally by the atmospheric electrical circuit. Despite a long history of work in related areas of geophysics, the direct and inverse relationships between the global circuit and global climate remain largely quantitatively unexplored. From reviewing atmospheric electrical measurements made over two centuries and possible paleoclimate proxies, global atmospheric electrical circuit variability should be expected on many timescale
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Energetic particle influence on the Earth's atmosphere
This manuscript gives an up-to-date and comprehensive overview of the effects of energetic particle precipitation (EPP) onto the whole atmosphere, from the lower thermosphere/mesosphere through the stratosphere and troposphere, to the surface. The paper summarizes the different sources and energies of particles, principally
galactic cosmic rays (GCRs), solar energetic particles (SEPs) and energetic electron precipitation (EEP). All the proposed mechanisms by which EPP can affect the atmosphere
are discussed, including chemical changes in the upper atmosphere and lower thermosphere, chemistry-dynamics feedbacks, the global electric circuit and cloud formation. The role of energetic particles in Earthâs atmosphere is a multi-disciplinary problem that requires expertise from a range of scientific backgrounds. To assist with this synergy, summary tables are provided, which are intended to evaluate the level of current knowledge of the effects of energetic particles on processes in the entire atmosphere
Collider aspects of flavour physics at high Q
This review presents flavour related issues in the production and decays of
heavy states at LHC, both from the experimental side and from the theoretical
side. We review top quark physics and discuss flavour aspects of several
extensions of the Standard Model, such as supersymmetry, little Higgs model or
models with extra dimensions. This includes discovery aspects as well as
measurement of several properties of these heavy states. We also present public
available computational tools related to this topic.Comment: Report of Working Group 1 of the CERN Workshop ``Flavour in the era
of the LHC'', Geneva, Switzerland, November 2005 -- March 200
TRY plant trait database â enhanced coverage and open access
Plant traitsâthe morphological, anatomical, physiological, biochemical and phenological characteristics of plantsâdetermine how plants respond to environmental factors, affect other trophic levels, and influence ecosystem properties and their benefits and detriments to people. Plant trait data thus represent the basis for a vast area of research spanning from evolutionary biology, community and functional ecology, to biodiversity conservation, ecosystem and landscape management, restoration, biogeography and earth system modelling. Since its foundation in 2007, the TRY database of plant traits has grown continuously. It now provides unprecedented data coverage under an open access data policy and is the main plant trait database used by the research community worldwide. Increasingly, the TRY database also supports new frontiers of traitâbased plant research, including the identification of data gaps and the subsequent mobilization or measurement of new data. To support this development, in this article we evaluate the extent of the trait data compiled in TRY and analyse emerging patterns of data coverage and representativeness. Best species coverage is achieved for categorical traitsâalmost complete coverage for âplant growth formâ. However, most traits relevant for ecology and vegetation modelling are characterized by continuous intraspecific variation and traitâenvironmental relationships. These traits have to be measured on individual plants in their respective environment. Despite unprecedented data coverage, we observe a humbling lack of completeness and representativeness of these continuous traits in many aspects. We, therefore, conclude that reducing data gaps and biases in the TRY database remains a key challenge and requires a coordinated approach to data mobilization and trait measurements. This can only be achieved in collaboration with other initiatives
Strepsiptera brasileiros: IV. Contribuição ao conhecimento dos Halictophagidae
SĂŁo redescritas as espĂ©cies brasileiras Halictophagus lappidae Oliveira & Kogan, 1960 e H. lopesi Oliveira & Kogan, 1959 (Strepsiptera, Halictophagidae); descreve-se H. ararensis, sp. n. (localidade-tipo: Brasil, SĂŁo Paulo, Araras) e assinala-se uma nova ocorrĂȘncia para H. insularum (Pierce, 1908).<br>The Brazilian species Halictophagus lappidae Oliveira & Kogan, 1960 and H. lopesi Oliveira & Kogan, 1959 are redescribed (Strepsiptera, Halictophagidae); H. ararensis, sp. n. (type-locality: Brazil, SĂŁo Paulo, Araras) is described, and a new record for H. insularum (Pierre, 1908) is furnished
Whistling to Machines
The classical approach to improve human-machine interaction is to make machines seem more like us. One very common way of doing this is to try to make them able to use Human Natural Languages. The trouble is that current speech understanding techniques do not work well in uncontrolled and noisy environments, such as the ones we live and work in. Nor do these attempts mean that the machines use our languages in the way we do: they typically don't speak much like we do, and we mostly have to speak to them in special unnatural ways for them to be able to understand. Rather than require people to adapt how they speak to machines, so that the machines can understand them, we present a simple artificial language, based upon musical notes, that can be learned and whistled easily by most people, and so used for simple communication with robots and other kinds of machines that we use in our everyday environments.Peer reviewe
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