Comment on Zwally and others (2015)-mass gains of the Antarctic ice sheet exceed losses

In their article ‘Mass gains of the Antarctic ice sheet exceed losses’ Zwally and others (2015) choose Vostok Subglacial Lake as an exemplary region to demonstrate their inference of surface height change rates from a portion of the ICESat mission’s laser altimetry data (2003–08). In their appendix, they discuss some of the remarkable differences between their results and those reported by Richter and others (2008, 2013, 2014). However, the selective consideration of our works and the misleading or incorrect interpretation of our results call for clarificationFil: Richter, Andreas Jorg. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Technische Universitaet Dresden; AlemaniaFil: Horwath, M.. Technische Universitaet Dresden; AlemaniaFil: Dietrich, R.. Technische Universitaet Dresden; Alemani

Observed crustal uplift near the Southern Patagonian Icefield constrains improved viscoelastic Earth model

Thirty‒one GPS geodetic measurements of crustal uplift in southernmost South America determined extraordinarily high trend rates (> 35 mm/yr) in the north‒central part of the Southern Patagonian Icefield. These trends have a coherent pattern, motivating a refined viscoelastic glacial isostatic adjustment model to explain the observations. Two end‒member models provide good fits: both require a lithospheric thickness of 36.5 ± 5.3 km. However, one end‒member has a mantle viscosity near η =1.6 ×1018 Pa s and an ice collapse rate from the Little Ice Age (LIA) maximum comparable to a lowest recent estimate of 1995–2012 ice loss at about −11 Gt/yr. In contrast, the other end‒member has much larger viscosity: η = 8.0 ×1018 Pa s, half the post–LIA collapse rate, and a steadily rising loss rate in the twentieth century after AD 1943, reaching −25.9 Gt/yr during 1995–2012.Fil: Lange, H.. Technische Universitaet Dresden; AlemaniaFil: Casassa, G.. Centro de Estudios Cientificos; Chile. Universidad de Magallanes; ChileFil: Ivins, E. R.. Institute of Technology. Jet propulsion Laboratory; Estados UnidosFil: Schroeder, L.. Technische Universitaet Dresden; AlemaniaFil: Fritsche, M.. Technische Universitaet Dresden; AlemaniaFil: Richter, Andreas Jorg. Technische Universitaet Dresden; Alemania. Universidad Nacional de la Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Astronómicas y Geofísicas. Departamento de Astrometría; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - La Plata; ArgentinaFil: Groh, A.. Technische Universitaet Dresden; AlemaniaFil: Dietrich, R.. Technische Universitaet Dresden; Alemani

Magnetic-field dependence of transport in normal and Andreev billiards: a classical interpretation to the averaged quantum behavior

We perform a comparative study of the quantum and classical transport probabilities of low-energy quasiparticles ballistically traversing normal and Andreev two-dimensional open cavities with a Sinai-billiard shape. We focus on the dependence of the transport on the strength of an applied magnetic field $B$. With increasing field strength the classical dynamics changes from mixed to regular phase space. Averaging out the quantum fluctuations, we find an excellent agreement between the quantum and classical transport coefficients in the complete range of field strengths. This allows an overall description of the non-monotonic behavior of the average magnetoconductance in terms of the corresponding classical trajectories, thus, establishing a basic tool useful in the design and analysis of experiments.Comment: 11 pages, 12 figures; minor revisions including updated inset of Fig. 4(b) and references; version as accepted for publication to Phys. Rev.

Decay dynamics of excitonic polarons in InAs/GaAs quantum dots

This article may be downloaded for personal use only. Any other use requires prior permission of the author and AIP Publishing. This article appeared in Journal of Applied Physics 110, 074303 (2011) and may be found at https://doi.org/10.1063/1.3639310.We present time-resolved studies of the exciton-phonon interaction in self-assembled InAs/GaAs quantum dots. Different scattering and luminescence processes were investigated by time-resolved spectroscopy exciting resonantly into the quantum dot’s electronic structure. By studying the characteristic decay times of the ground state and of several phonon-assisted recombinations we were able to distinguish a resonant Raman process from a phonon-assisted photoluminescence process which are always simultaneously present and can interfere with each other. While lifetimes under 30 ps were observed for the coherent Raman process, the incoherent phonon-assisted recombination exhibited typical lifetimes of around 1 ns independently of the excitation energy. We conclude that under resonant excitation the dominant radiative recombination process in this system always involves an electronic state of the ground state of the quantum dot’s electronic structure. Combining temperature-dependent and time-resolved measurements we show that a weak phonon-bottleneck is present in the low temperature regime (< 130 K), while it disappears for higher temperatures.DFG, 43659573, SFB 787: Halbleiter - Nanophotonik: Materialien, Modelle, BauelementeDFG, 53182490, EXC 314: Unifying Concepts in Catalysi

Signatures of spin-preserving symmetries in two-dimensional hole gases

We investigate ramifications of the persistent spin helix symmetry in two-dimensional hole gases in the conductance of disordered mesoscopic systems. To this end we extend previous models by going beyond the axial approximation for III-V semiconductors. For heavy-hole subbands we identify an exact spin-preserving symmetry analogous to the electronic case by analyzing the crossover from weak antilocalization to weak localization and spin transmission as a function of extrinsic spin-orbit interaction strength.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figures; reference adde

Steady azimuthal flow field induced by a rotating sphere near a rigid disk or inside a gap between two coaxially positioned rigid disks

Geometric confinements play an important role in many physical and biological processes and significantly affect the rheology and behavior of colloidal suspensions at low Reynolds numbers. On the basis of the linear Stokes equations, we investigate theoretically and computationally the viscous azimuthal flow induced by the slow rotation of a small spherical particle located in the vicinity of a rigid no-slip disk or inside a gap between two coaxially positioned rigid no-slip disks of the same radius. We formulate the solution of the hydrodynamic problem as a mixed-boundary-value problem in the whole fluid domain, which we subsequently transform into a system of dual integral equations. Near a stationary disk, we show that the resulting integral equation can be reduced into an elementary Abel integral equation that admits a unique analytical solution. Between two coaxially positioned stationary disks, we demonstrate that the flow problem can be transformed into a system of two Fredholm integral equations of the first kind. The latter are solved by means of numerical approaches. Using our solution, we further investigate the effect of the disks on the slow rotational motion of a colloidal particle and provide expressions of the hydrodynamic mobility as a function of the system geometry. We compare our results with corresponding finite-element simulations and observe very good agreement.Comment: 13 pages, 7 figure

Observed crustal uplift near the Southern Patagonian Icefield constrains improved viscoelastic Earth model

Thirty‒one GPS geodetic measurements of crustal uplift in southernmost South America determined extraordinarily high trend rates (> 35 mm/yr) in the north‒central part of the Southern Patagonian Icefield. These trends have a coherent pattern, motivating a refined viscoelastic glacial isostatic adjustment model to explain the observations. Two end‒member models provide good fits: both require a lithospheric thickness of 36.5 ± 5.3 km. However, one end‒member has a mantle viscosity near η =1.6 ×1018 Pa s and an ice collapse rate from the Little Ice Age (LIA) maximum comparable to a lowest recent estimate of 1995–2012 ice loss at about −11 Gt/yr. In contrast, the other end‒member has much larger viscosity: η = 8.0 ×1018 Pa s, half the post–LIA collapse rate, and a steadily rising loss rate in the twentieth century after AD 1943, reaching −25.9 Gt/yr during 1995–2012.Facultad de Ciencias Astronómicas y Geofísica

Differential Interactions of the Catalytic Subunits of Adenylyl Cyclase with Forskolin Analogs

The diterpene forskolin (FS) binds to, and activates, mammalian membranous adenylyl cyclase (AC) isoforms I–VIII. Diterpenes without C1-OH group do not activate ACs. The C1-OH group forms a hydrogen bond with the backbone oxygen of Val506 of the C1 catalytic subunit of AC (isoform V numbering). To better understand the mechanism of AC activation we examined the interactions of FS and eight FS analogs with purified catalytic AC subunits C1 (AC V) and C2 (AC II) by fluorescence spectroscopy, using 2′,3′-O-(N-methylanthraniloyl)-guanosine 5′-triphosphate (MANT-GTP) as fluorescent reporter probe, and by enzymatic activity. FS analogs induced C1/C2 assembly as assessed by fluorescence resonance energy transfer from Trp1020 of C2 to MANT-GTP and by increased direct MANT-GTP fluorescence in the order of efficacy FS ~ 7-deacetyl-FS ~ 6-acetyl-7-deacetyl-FS ~ 9-deoxy-FS > 7-deacetyl-7-(N-methylpiperazino-γ-butyryloxy)-FS > 1-deoxy-FS ~ 1,9-dideoxy-FS ~ 7-deacetyl-1-deoxy-FS ~ 7-deacetyl-1,9-dideoxy-FS. In contrast, FS analogs activated catalysis in the order of efficacy FS > 7-deacety-FS ~ 6-acetyl-7-deacetyl-FS ~ 9-deoxy-FS > 7-deacetyl-7-(N-methylpiperazino-γ-butyryloxy)-FS ≫ 1-deoxy-FS, 1,9-dideoxy-FS, 7-deacetyl-1-deoxy-FS and 7-deacetyl-1,9-dideoxy-FS (all ineffective). 1-Deoxy-FS analogs inhibited FS-stimulated catalysis by an apparently non-competitive mechanism. Our data suggest a two-step mechanism of AC activation by diterpenes. In the first step, diterpenes, regardless of their substitution pattern, promote C1/C2 assembly. In the second and yet poorly understood step, diterpenes that form a hydrogen bond between C1-OH and Val506 promote a conformational switch that results in activation of catalysis. The apparent non-competitive interaction of FS with 1-deoxy-FS analogs is explained by impaired ligand exchange due to strong hydrophobic interactions with C1/C2