Mechanistic Links Between the Sedimentary Redox Cycle and Marine Acid-Base Chemistry

The redox state of Earth's surface is controlled on geological timescales by the flow of electrons through the sedimentary rock cycle, mediated largely by the weathering and burial of C‐S‐Fe phases. These processes buffer atmospheric pO₂. At the same time, CO₂ influxes and carbonate burial control seawater acid‐base chemistry and climate over long timescales via the carbonate‐silicate cycle. However, these two systems are mechanistically linked and impact each other via charge balance in the hydrosphere. Here, we use a low‐order Earth system model to interrogate a subset of these connections, with a focus on changes that occur during perturbations to electron flow through the sedimentary rock cycle. We show that the net oxidation or reduction of the Earth's surface can play an important role in controlling acid‐base processes in the oceans and thus climate, and suggest that these links should be more fully integrated into interpretive frameworks aimed at understanding Earth system evolution throughout Precambrian and Phanerozoic time

Dynamically induced scalar quark confinement

We employ a functional approach to investigate the confinement problem in quenched Landau gauge QCD. We demonstrate analytically that a linear rising potential between massive quarks is generated by infrared singularities in the dressed quark-gluon vertex. The selfconsistent mechanism that generates these singularities is driven by the scalar Dirac amplitudes of the full vertex and the quark propagator. These can only be present when chiral symmetry is broken. We have thus uncovered a novel mechanism that directly links chiral symmetry breaking with confinement.Comment: 12 pages, 2 figures; v2: clarifications added and typos corrected, version to be published by MPL

Lower dimensional Yang-Mills theory as a laboratory to study the infrared regime

Lattice studies of the infrared regime of gauge theories are complicated by the required extensive limits, the performed gauge fixing and the demand for high statistics. Using a general power counting scheme for the infrared limit of Landau gauge SU(N) Yang-Mills theory in arbitrary dimensions we show that the infrared behavior of Greens functions is both qualitatively and quantitatively similar in two, three and four spacetime dimensions. Therefore, lower dimensional lattice simulations can serve as a simplified laboratory to analyze the presently applied approximations and to obtain first results for higher correlation functions.Comment: 7 pages, 6 figures; talk presented at Lattice 200

Establishment of Arthrobotrys flagrans as biocontrol agent against the root pathogenic nematode Xiphinema index

Plant-parasitic nematodes cause devastating agricultural damage worldwide. Only a few synthetic nematicides can be used and their application is limited in fields. Therefore, there is a need for sustainable and environment-friendly alternatives. Nematode-trapping fungi (NTF) are natural predators of nematodes. They capture and digest them with their hyphae and are starting to being used as bio-control agents. In this study, we applied the NTF Arthrobotrys flagrans (Duddingtonia flagrans) against the wine pathogenic nematode Xiphinema index. A. flagrans reduced the number of X. index juveniles in pot cultures of Ficus carica, an alternative host plant for X. index, significantly. Sodium-alginate pellets with A. flagrans spores were produced for vineyard soil inoculation under laboratory conditions. The NTF A. conoides, A. musiformis and A. superba were enriched from several soil samples, showing their natural presence. Trap formation is an energy-consuming process and depends upon various biotic and abiotic stimuli. Here, we show that bacteria of the genus Delftia, Bacillus, Pseudomonas, Enterobacter and Serratia induced trap formation in NTF like A. conoides and A. oligospora but not in A. flagrans in the absence of nematodes. The application of NTF along with such bacteria could be a combinatorial way of efficient biocontrol in nematode-infested soil

Kugo–Ojimaov kriterij ograničenja i infracrvena svojstva Landauove baždarne QCD

Recent investigations of the Dyson-Schwinger equations and Monte-Carlo lattice calculations resulted in a coherent description of the fully dressed gluon, ghost and quark propagators in Landau gauge QCD. In the Dyson-Schwinger approach, the infrared behaviour of these propagators is determined analytically. For finite spacelike momenta the gluon, ghost and quark propagators are compared to available corresponding results of lattice Monte-Carlo calculations. For all three propagators, an almost quantitative agreement is found. These results for the non-perturbative propagators allow an analytical verification of the Kugo-Ojima confinement criterion. Our numerical analysis clearly reveals positivity violation for the gluon propagator generated by a cut in the complex momentum plane. The non-perturbative strong running coupling resulting from these propagators possesses an infrared fixed point. The quark propagator obtained from quenched and unquenched calculations displays dynamical chiral symmetry breaking with quark masses close to "phenomenological" and lattice values. We confirm that linear extrapolations of the quark propagator for different bare masses to the chiral limit are inaccurate.Nedavna istraživanja Dyson–Schwingerovih jednadžbi i Monte–Carlo računa na rešetki dali su usklađen opis potpuno obućenih propagatora gluona, duhova i kvarkova u Landauovoj baždarnoj QCD. U Dyson–Schwingerovom pristupu, infracrvena svojstva tih propagatora određena su analitički. Za konačne vremenske impulse, propagatori gluona, duhova i kvarkova uspoređuju se dostupnim odgovarajućim ishodima Monte–Carlo računa na rešetki. Gotovo kvantitativno slaganje nalazi se za sva tri propagatora. Ti ishodi za neperturbativne propagatore dopuštaju analitičku provjeru Kugo–Ojimaovog kriterija ograničenja. Naša numerička analiza jasno pokazuje kršenje pozitivnosti za gluonski propagator uzrokovan rezom u ravnini kompleksnog impulsa. Neperturbativno jako vezanje, koje je posljedica tih propagatora, ima infracrvenu čvrstu točku. Kvarkovski propagator koji se dobije gašenim i negašenim računima pokazuje lomljenje dinamičke kiralne simetrije s kvarkovskim masama koje su blizu “fenomenološkim” i rešetkinskim vrijednostima. Utvrdili smo da su linearne ekstrapolacije kvarkovskih propagatora za razne gole mase vrlo netočne u kiralnoj granici