Towards Gravitational Wave Signals from Realistic Core Collapse Supernova Models

We have computed the gravitational wave signal from supernova core collapse using the presently most realistic input physics available. We start from state-of-the-art progenitor models of rotating and non-rotating massive stars, and simulate the dynamics of their core collapse by integrating the equations of axisymmetric hydrodynamics together with the Boltzmann equation for the neutrino transport including an elaborate description of neutrino interactions, and a realistic equation of state. We compute the quadrupole wave amplitudes, the Fourier wave spectra, the amount of energy radiated in form of gravitational waves, and the S/N ratios for the LIGO and the tuned Advanced LIGO interferometers resulting both from non-radial mass motion and anisotropic neutrino emission. The simulations demonstrate that the dominant contribution to the gravitational wave signal is produced by neutrino-driven convection behind the supernova shock. For stellar cores rotating at the extreme of current stellar evolution predictions, the core-bounce signal is detectable with advanced LIGO up to a distance of 5kpc, whereas the signal from post-shock convection is observable up to a distance of about 100kpc. If the core is non-rotating its gravitational wave emission can be measured up to a distance of 15kpc, while the signal from the Ledoux convection in the deleptonizing, nascent neutron star can be detected up to a distance of 10kpc. Both kinds of signals are generically produced by convection in any core collapse supernova.Comment: 9 pages, 13 figures, Latex, submitted to ApJ, error in ps-file fixed; figures in full resolution are available upon reques

I.C.E.: a Transportable Atomic Inertial Sensor for Test in Microgravity

We present our the construction of an atom interferometer for inertial sensing in microgravity, as part of the I.C.E. (\textit{Interf\'{e}rom\'{e}trie Coh\'{e}rente pour l'Espace}) collaboration. On-board laser systems have been developed based on fibre-optic components, which are insensitive to mechanical vibrations and acoustic noise, have sub-MHz linewidth, and remain frequency stabilised for weeks at a time. A compact, transportable vacuum system has been built, and used for laser cooling and magneto-optical trapping. We will use a mixture of quantum degenerate gases, bosonic $^{87}$Rb and fermionic $^{40}$K, in order to find the optimal conditions for precision and sensitivity of inertial measurements. Microgravity will be realised in parabolic flights lasting up to 20s in an Airbus. We show that the factors limiting the sensitivity of a long-interrogation-time atomic inertial sensor are the phase noise in reference frequency generation for Raman-pulse atomic beam-splitters and acceleration fluctuations during free fall

Conduction of Ultracold Fermions Through a Mesoscopic Channel

In a mesoscopic conductor electric resistance is detected even if the device is defect-free. We engineer and study a cold-atom analog of a mesoscopic conductor. It consists of a narrow channel connecting two macroscopic reservoirs of fermions that can be switched from ballistic to diffusive. We induce a current through the channel and find ohmic conduction, even for a ballistic channel. An analysis of in-situ density distributions shows that in the ballistic case the chemical potential drop occurs at the entrance and exit of the channel, revealing the presence of contact resistance. In contrast, a diffusive channel with disorder displays a chemical potential drop spread over the whole channel. Our approach opens the way towards quantum simulation of mesoscopic devices with quantum gases

Regional vesicular acetylcholine transporter distribution in human brain: A [18F]fluoroethoxybenzovesamicol positron emission tomography study

Prior efforts to image cholinergic projections in human brain in vivo had significant technical limitations. We used the vesicular acetylcholine transporter (VAChT) ligand [18F]fluoroethoxybenzovesamicol ([18F]FEOBV) and positron emission tomography to determine the regional distribution of VAChT binding sites in normal human brain. We studied 29 subjects (mean age 47 [range 20–81] years; 18 men; 11 women). [18F]FEOBV binding was highest in striatum, intermediate in the amygdala, hippocampal formation, thalamus, rostral brainstem, some cerebellar regions, and lower in other regions. Neocortical [18F]FEOBV binding was inhomogeneous with relatively high binding in insula, BA24, BA25, BA27, BA28, BA34, BA35, pericentral cortex, and lowest in BA17–19. Thalamic [18F]FEOBV binding was inhomogeneous with greatest binding in the lateral geniculate nuclei and relatively high binding in medial and posterior thalamus. Cerebellar cortical [18F]FEOBV binding was high in vermis and flocculus, and lower in the lateral cortices. Brainstem [18F]FEOBV binding was most prominent at the mesopontine junction, likely associated with the pedunculopontine–laterodorsal tegmental complex. Significant [18F]FEOBV binding was present throughout the brainstem. Some regions, including the striatum, primary sensorimotor cortex, and anterior cingulate cortex exhibited age‐related decreases in [18F]FEOBV binding. These results are consistent with prior studies of cholinergic projections in other species and prior postmortem human studies. There is a distinctive pattern of human neocortical VChAT expression. The patterns of thalamic and cerebellar cortical cholinergic terminal distribution are likely unique to humans. Normal aging is associated with regionally specific reductions in [18F]FEOBV binding in some cortical regions and the striatum.Using [18F]FEOBV PET, we describe the distribution of cholinergic terminals in human brain. The distribution of cholinergic terminals is similar to that found in other mammals with some distinctive features in cortex, thalamus, and cerebellum. There are regionally specific age‐related changes in cholinergic terminal density.Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/146604/1/cne24541.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/146604/2/cne24541_am.pd

Interannual and Subdecadal Variability in the Nutrient Geochemistry of the Cariaco Basin

The CARIACO Ocean Time Series program has made monthly measurements of oxygen, nutrients, and carbon system parameters (∑CO2, alkalinity, pH) in the Cariaco Basin since 1996. At the same time, sediment traps have collected settling particles at four to five depths ranging from 150 to 1,200 m. The depth of the transition from oxic to anoxic conditions has fluctuated dramatically over the time series due to changes in the occurrence of Caribbean water intrusions into the deep basin. Nutrient concentrations in the deep basin have increased steadily with time in a proportion reflective of the elemental ratios in the settling organic matter, although N:P ratios in the water column (approximately 16:1) differ from ratios in the accumulating nutrients (11:1) and the settling flux (ranging between 5:1 and 12.5:1). This difference is likely due to changes in the source material for remineralization, either because of sizeable ecosystem changes or changes in the relative importance of the terrestrial input of inorganic P or scavenging of P by mineral precipitation near the oxic/anoxic interface. Alternatively, there may have been changes in the degree of preferential remineralization of P

Optimizing substitution matrix choice and gap parameters for sequence alignment

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>While substitution matrices can readily be computed from reference alignments, it is challenging to compute optimal or approximately optimal gap penalties. It is also not well understood which substitution matrices are the most effective when alignment accuracy is the goal rather than homolog recognition. Here a new parameter optimization procedure, POP, is described and applied to the problems of optimizing gap penalties and selecting substitution matrices for pair-wise global protein alignments.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>POP is compared to a recent method due to Kim and Kececioglu and found to achieve from 0.2% to 1.3% higher accuracies on pair-wise benchmarks extracted from BALIBASE. The VTML matrix series is shown to be the most accurate on several global pair-wise alignment benchmarks, with VTML200 giving best or close to the best performance in all tests. BLOSUM matrices are found to be slightly inferior, even with the marginal improvements in the bug-fixed RBLOSUM series. The PAM series is significantly worse, giving accuracies typically 2% less than VTML. Integer rounding is found to cause slight degradations in accuracy. No evidence is found that selecting a matrix based on sequence divergence improves accuracy, suggesting that the use of this heuristic in CLUSTALW may be ineffective. Using VTML200 is found to improve the accuracy of CLUSTALW by 8% on BALIBASE and 5% on PREFAB.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The hypothesis that more accurate alignments of distantly related sequences may be achieved using low-identity matrices is shown to be false for commonly used matrix types. Source code and test data is freely available from the author's web site at <url>http://www.drive5.com/pop</url>.</p

In situ measurements and modeling of reactive trace gases in a small biomass burning plume

An instrumented NASA P-3B aircraft was used for airborne sampling of trace gases in a plume that had emanated from a small forest understory fire in Georgia, USA. The plume was sampled at its origin for deriving emission factors and followed ~ 13.6 km downwind for observing chemical changes during the first hour of atmospheric aging. The P-3B payload included a proton-transfer-reaction time-of-flight mass spectrometer (PTR-ToF-MS), which measured non-methane organic gases (NMOGs) at unprecidented spatio-temporal resolution (10m/0.1 s). Quantitative emission data are reported for CO2, CO, NO, NO2, HONO, NH3 and 16 NMOGs (formaldehyde, methanol, acetonitrile, propene, acetaldehyde, formic acid, acetone plus its isomer propanal, acetic acid plus its isomer glycolaldehyde, furan, isoprene plus isomeric pentadienes and cyclopentene, methyl vinyl ketone plus its isomers crotonaldehyde and methacrolein, methylglyoxal, hydroxy acetone plus its isomers methyl acetate and propionic acid, nenzene, 2,3-butandione and 2-furfural) with molar emission ratios relative to CO larger than 1 ppbV ppmV-1. Formaldehyde, acetaldehyde, 2-furfural and methanol dominated NMOG emissions. No NMOGs with more than 10 carbon atoms were observed at mixing ratios larger than 50 pptV ppmV-1 CO emitted. Downwind plume chemistry was investigated using the observations and a 0-D photochemical box model simulation. The model was run on a near-explicit chemical mechanism (MCM v3.3) and initialized with measured emission data. Ozone formation during the first hour of atmospheric aging was well captured by the model, with carbonyls (formaldehyde, acetaldehyde, 2,3-butanedione, methylglyoxal, 2-furfural) in addition to CO and CH4 being the main drivers of peroxy radical chemistry. The model also accurately reproduced the sequestration of NOx into PAN and the OH-initiated degradation of furan and 2-furfural at an average OH concentration of 7.45 + 1.07 x 106cm-3 in the plume. Formaldehyde, acetone/propanal, acetic acid/glycolaldehyde and maleic acid/maleic anhydride (tentatively identified) were found to be the main NMOGs to increase during one hour of atmospheric plume processing, with the model being unable to capture the observed increase. A mass balance analysis suggests that about 50% of the aerosol mass formed in the downwind plume is organic in nature

The first determination of Generalized Polarizabilities of the proton by a Virtual Compton Scattering experiment

Absolute differential cross sections for the reaction (e+p -> e+p+gamma) have been measured at a four-momentum transfer with virtuality Q^2=0.33 GeV^2 and polarization \epsilon = 0.62 in the range 33.6 to 111.5 MeV/c for the momentum of the outgoing photon in the photon-proton center of mass frame. The experiment has been performed with the high resolution spectrometers at the Mainz Microtron MAMI. From the photon angular distributions, two structure functions which are a linear combination of the generalized polarizabilities have been determined for the first time.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure