Reconstruction of the palaeo‐sea level of Britain and Ireland arising from empirical constraints of ice extent: implications for regional sea level forecasts and North American ice sheet volume

Reconstructions of palaeo-sea level are vital for predicting future sea level change and constraining palaeo-ice sheet reconstructions, as well as being useful for a wide array of applications across Quaternary Science. Previous reconstructions of the palaeo-sea level of Britain and Ireland relied on a circular tuning of glacio-isostatic models: input ice sheet thicknesses and extents were iteratively altered to fit relative sea level data. Here we break that circularity by utilizing new data from the BRITICE-CHRONO project, which constrains the position of the British–Irish ice sheet margin through time, and we compare derived glacio-isostatic modelling to the rich relative sea level record. We test a combination of plausible ice thickness scenarios which account for the uncertainty of ice margin position over the North Sea, demonstrating the region where regional sea level data could distinguish between different glaciation scenarios. Our optimal reconstruction is then combined with several global-scale reconstructions. As the signal of the British–Irish Ice Sheet is constrained, we demonstrate how the relative sea level record of Britain and Ireland can be used to test reconstructions of far-field ice sheets (e.g. Antarctica, Eurasia and the Laurentide). The derived palaeo-topography data are likely to be useful for multiple disciplines. Finally, our improved method of sea level reconstruction impacts predictions of contemporary vertical land motion

"Author! Author!" : Shakespeare and biography

Original article can be found at: http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/title~content=t714579626~db=all Copyright Informa / Taylor & Francis Group. DOI: 10.1080/17450910902764454Since 1996, not a year has passed without the publication of at least one Shakespeare biography. Yet for many years the place of the author in the practice of understanding literary works has been problematized, and even on occasions eliminated. Criticism reads the “works”, and may or may not refer to an author whose “life” contributed to their meaning. Biography seeks the author in the works, the personality that precedes the works and gives them their characteristic shape and meaning. But the form of literary biography addresses the unusual kind of “life” that puts itself into “works”, and this is particularly challenging where the “works” predominate massively over the salient facts of the “life”. This essay surveys the current terrain of Shakespeare biography, and considers the key questions raised by the medium: can we know anything of Shakespeare's “personality” from the facts of his life and the survival of his works? What is the status of the kind of speculation that inevitably plays a part in biographical reconstruction? Are biographers in the end telling us as much about themselves as they tell us about Shakespeare?Peer reviewe

Astroparticle Physics with a Customized Low-Background Broad Energy Germanium Detector

The MAJORANA Collaboration is building the MAJORANA DEMONSTRATOR, a 60 kg array of high purity germanium detectors housed in an ultra-low background shield at the Sanford Underground Laboratory in Lead, SD. The MAJORANA DEMONSTRATOR will search for neutrinoless double-beta decay of 76Ge while demonstrating the feasibility of a tonne-scale experiment. It may also carry out a dark matter search in the 1-10 GeV/c^2 mass range. We have found that customized Broad Energy Germanium (BEGe) detectors produced by Canberra have several desirable features for a neutrinoless double-beta decay experiment, including low electronic noise, excellent pulse shape analysis capabilities, and simple fabrication. We have deployed a customized BEGe, the MAJORANA Low-Background BEGe at Kimballton (MALBEK), in a low-background cryostat and shield at the Kimballton Underground Research Facility in Virginia. This paper will focus on the detector characteristics and measurements that can be performed with such a radiation detector in a low-background environment.Comment: Submitted to NIMA Proceedings, SORMA XII. 9 pages, 4 figure

Measurement of the Proton Spin Structure Function g1p with a Pure Hydrogen Target

A measurement of the proton spin structure function g1p(x,Q^2) in deep-inelastic scattering is presented. The data were taken with the 27.6 GeV longitudinally polarised positron beam at HERA incident on a longitudinally polarised pure hydrogen gas target internal to the storage ring. The kinematic range is 0.021<x<0.85 and 0.8 GeV^2<Q^2<20 GeV^2. The integral Int_{0.021}^{0.85} g1p(x)dx evaluated at Q0^2 of 2.5 GeV^2 is 0.122+/-0.003(stat.)+/-0.010(syst.).Comment: 7 pages, 3 figures, 1 table, RevTeX late

Observation of a Coherence Length Effect in Exclusive Rho^0 Electroproduction

Exclusive incoherent electroproduction of the rho^0(770) meson from 1H, 2H, 3He, and 14N targets has been studied by the HERMES experiment at squared four-momentum transfer Q**2>0.4 GeV**2 and positron energy loss nu from 9 to 20 GeV. The ratio of the 14N to 1H cross sections per nucleon, known as the nuclear transparency, was found to decrease with increasing coherence length of quark-antiquark fluctuations of the virtual photon. The data provide clear evidence of the interaction of the quark- antiquark fluctuations with the nuclear medium.Comment: RevTeX, 5 pages, 3 figure

Double-Spin Asymmetry in the Cross Section for Exclusive rho^0 Production in Lepton-Proton Scattering

Evidence for a positive longitudinal double-spin asymmetry = 0.24 +-0.11 (stat) +-0.02 (syst) in the cross section for exclusive diffractive rho^0(770) vector meson production in polarised lepton-proton scattering was observed by the HERMES experiment. The longitudinally polarised 27.56 GeV HERA positron beam was scattered off a longitudinally polarised pure hydrogen gas target. The average invariant mass of the photon-proton system has a value of = 4.9 GeV, while the average negative squared four-momentum of the virtual photon is = 1.7 GeV^2. The ratio of the present result to the corresponding spin asymmetry in inclusive deep-inelastic scattering is in agreement with an early theoretical prediction based on the generalised vector meson dominance model.Comment: 10 pages, 4 embedded figures, LaTe

Determination of the Deep Inelastic Contribution to the Generalised Gerasimov-Drell-Hearn Integral for the Proton and Neutron

The virtual photon absorption cross section differences [sigma_1/2-sigma_3/2] for the proton and neutron have been determined from measurements of polarised cross section asymmetries in deep inelastic scattering of 27.5 GeV longitudinally polarised positrons from polarised 1H and 3He internal gas targets. The data were collected in the region above the nucleon resonances in the kinematic range nu < 23.5 GeV and 0.8 GeV**2 < Q**2 < 12 GeV**2. For the proton the contribution to the generalised Gerasimov-Drell-Hearn integral was found to be substantial and must be included for an accurate determination of the full integral. Furthermore the data are consistent with a QCD next-to-leading order fit based on previous deep inelastic scattering data. Therefore higher twist effects do not appear significant.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures, 1 table, revte

Flavor Decomposition of the Polarized Quark Distributions in the Nucleon from Inclusive and Semi-inclusive Deep-inelastic Scattering

Spin asymmetries of semi-inclusive cross sections for the production of positively and negatively charged hadrons have been measured in deep-inelastic scattering of polarized positrons on polarized hydrogen and 3He targets, in the kinematic range 0.023<x<0.6 and 1 GeV^2<Q^2<10 GeV^2. Polarized quark distributions are extracted as a function of x for up $(u+u_bar) and down (d+d_bar) flavors. The up quark polarization is positive and the down quark polarization is negative in the measured range. The polarization of the sea is compatible with zero. The first moments of the polarized quark distributions are presented. The isospin non-singlet combination Delta_q_3 is consistent with the prediction based on the Bjorken sum rule. The moments of the polarized quark distributions are compared to predictions based on SU(3)_f flavor symmetry and to a prediction from lattice QCD.Comment: 14 pages, 6 figures (eps format), 10 tables in Latex New version contains tables of asymmetries and correlation matri

Measurements of long-range near-side angular correlations in sNN=5\sqrt{s_{\text{NN}}}=5TeV proton-lead collisions in the forward region

Two-particle angular correlations are studied in proton-lead collisions at a nucleon-nucleon centre-of-mass energy of $\sqrt{s_{\text{NN}}}=5$TeV, collected with the LHCb detector at the LHC. The analysis is based on data recorded in two beam configurations, in which either the direction of the proton or that of the lead ion is analysed. The correlations are measured in the laboratory system as a function of relative pseudorapidity, $\Delta\eta$, and relative azimuthal angle, $\Delta\phi$, for events in different classes of event activity and for different bins of particle transverse momentum. In high-activity events a long-range correlation on the near side, $\Delta\phi \approx 0$, is observed in the pseudorapidity range $2.0<\eta<4.9$. This measurement of long-range correlations on the near side in proton-lead collisions extends previous observations into the forward region up to $\eta=4.9$. The correlation increases with growing event activity and is found to be more pronounced in the direction of the lead beam. However, the correlation in the direction of the lead and proton beams are found to be compatible when comparing events with similar absolute activity in the direction analysed.Comment: All figures and tables, along with any supplementary material and additional information, are available at https://lhcbproject.web.cern.ch/lhcbproject/Publications/LHCbProjectPublic/LHCb-PAPER-2015-040.htm

Study of the production of Λb0\Lambda_b^0 and B‾0\overline{B}^0 hadrons in pppp collisions and first measurement of the Λb0→J/ψpK−\Lambda_b^0\rightarrow J/\psi pK^- branching fraction

The product of the $\Lambda_b^0$ ($\overline{B}^0$) differential production cross-section and the branching fraction of the decay $\Lambda_b^0\rightarrow J/\psi pK^-$ ($\overline{B}^0\rightarrow J/\psi\overline{K}^*(892)^0$) is measured as a function of the beauty hadron transverse momentum, $p_{\rm T}$, and rapidity, $y$. The kinematic region of the measurements is $p_{\rm T}<20~{\rm GeV}/c$ and $2.0<y<4.5$. The measurements use a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of $3~{\rm fb}^{-1}$ collected by the LHCb detector in $pp$ collisions at centre-of-mass energies $\sqrt{s}=7~{\rm TeV}$ in 2011 and $\sqrt{s}=8~{\rm TeV}$ in 2012. Based on previous LHCb results of the fragmentation fraction ratio, $f_{\Lambda_B^0}/f_d$, the branching fraction of the decay $\Lambda_b^0\rightarrow J/\psi pK^-$ is measured to be \begin{equation*} \mathcal{B}(\Lambda_b^0\rightarrow J/\psi pK^-)= (3.17\pm0.04\pm0.07\pm0.34^{+0.45}_{-0.28})\times10^{-4}, \end{equation*} where the first uncertainty is statistical, the second is systematic, the third is due to the uncertainty on the branching fraction of the decay $\overline{B}^0\rightarrow J/\psi\overline{K}^*(892)^0$, and the fourth is due to the knowledge of $f_{\Lambda_b^0}/f_d$. The sum of the asymmetries in the production and decay between $\Lambda_b^0$ and $\overline{\Lambda}_b^0$ is also measured as a function of $p_{\rm T}$ and $y$. The previously published branching fraction of $\Lambda_b^0\rightarrow J/\psi p\pi^-$, relative to that of $\Lambda_b^0\rightarrow J/\psi pK^-$, is updated. The branching fractions of $\Lambda_b^0\rightarrow P_c^+(\rightarrow J/\psi p)K^-$ are determined.Comment: 29 pages, 19figures. All figures and tables, along with any supplementary material and additional information, are available at https://lhcbproject.web.cern.ch/lhcbproject/Publications/LHCbProjectPublic/LHCb-PAPER-2015-032.htm