Earthshine observation of vegetation and implication for life detection on other planets - A review of 2001 - 2006 works

The detection of exolife is one of the goals of very ambitious future space missions that aim to take direct images of Earth-like planets. While associations of simple molecules present in the planet's atmosphere ($O_2$, $O_3$, $CO_2$ etc.) have been identified as possible global biomarkers, we review here the detectability of a signature of life from the planet's surface, i.e. the green vegetation. The vegetation reflectance has indeed a specific spectrum, with a sharp edge around 700 nm, known as the "Vegetation Red Edge" (VRE). Moreover vegetation covers a large surface of emerged lands, from tropical evergreen forest to shrub tundra. Thus considering it as a potential global biomarker is relevant. Earthshine allows to observe the Earth as a distant planet, i.e. without spatial resolution. Since 2001, Earthshine observations have been used by several authors to test and quantify the detectability of the VRE in the Earth spectrum. The egetation spectral signature is detected as a small 'positive shift' of a few percents above the continuum, starting at 700 nm. This signature appears in most spectra, and its strength is correlated with the Earth's phase (visible land versus visible ocean). The observations show that detecting the VRE on Earth requires a photometric relative accuracy of 1% or better. Detecting something equivalent on an Earth-like planet will therefore remain challenging, moreover considering the possibility of mineral artifacts and the question of 'red edge' universality in the Universe.Comment: Invited talk in "Strategies for Life Detection" (ISSI Bern, 24-28 April 2006) to appear in a hardcopy volume of the ISSI Space Science Series, Eds, J. Bada et al., and also in an issue of Space Science Reviews. 13 pages, 8 figures, 1 tabl

Existence of Ricci flows of incomplete surfaces

We prove a general existence result for instantaneously complete Ricci flows starting at an arbitrary Riemannian surface which may be incomplete and may have unbounded curvature. We give an explicit formula for the maximal existence time, and describe the asymptotic behaviour in most cases.Comment: 20 pages; updated to reflect galley proof correction

Laser-induced collective excitations in a two-component Fermi gas

We consider the linear density response of a two-component (superfluid) Fermi gas of atoms when the perturbation is caused by laser light. We show that various types of laser excitation schemes can be transformed into linear density perturbations, however, a Bragg spectroscopy scheme is needed for transferring energy and momentum into a collective mode. This makes other types of laser probing schemes insensitive for collective excitations and therefore well suited for the detection of the superfluid order parameter. We show that for the special case when laser light is coupled between the two components of the Fermi gas, density response is always absent in a homogeneous system.Comment: 6 pages, no figure

Unbound exotic nuclei studied by projectile fragmentation

We call "projectile fragmentation" of neutron halo nuclei the elastic breakup (diffraction) reaction, when the observable studied is the neutron-core relative energy spectrum. This observable has been measured in relation to the Coulomb breakup on heavy target and recently also on light targets. Such data enlighten the effect of the neutron final state interaction with the core of origin. Projectile fragmentation is studied here by a time dependent model for the excitation of a nucleon from a bound state to a continuum resonant state in a neutron-core complex potential which acts as a final state interaction. The final state is described by an optical model S-matrix so that both resonant and non resonant states of any continuum energy can be studied as well as deeply bound initial states. It turns out that due to the coupling between the initial and final states, the neutron-core free particle phase shifts are modified, in the exit channel, by an additional phase. Some typical numerical calculations for the relevant observables are presented and compared to experimental data. It is suggest that the excitation energy spectra of an unbound nucleus might reflect the structure of the parent nucleus from whose fragmentation they are obtained.Comment: Proceedings of the 11th Conference on Problems in Theoretican Nuclear Physics, Cortona, Italy, 2006. World Scientifi

Radiative decays of light vector mesons in a quark level linear sigma model

We calculate the P0 to gamma gamma, V0 to P0 gamma and V0to V'0 gamma gamma decays in the framework of a U(3)xU(3) linear sigma model which includes constituent quarks. For the first two decays this approach improves results based on the anomalous Wess-Zumino term, with contributions due to SU(3) symmetry breaking and vector mixing. The phi to (omega,rho) gamma gamma decays are dominated by resonant eta' exchange . Our calculation for the later decays improves and update similar calculations in the -closely related- framework of vector meson dominance. We obtain BR(phi to rho gamma gamma)=2.5x10^{-5} and BR(phi to omega gamma gamma)=2.8x10^{-6} within the scope of the high-luminosity phi factories.Comment: 8 pages, submitted to Phys. Rev.

Fermi Surface Measurements on the Low Carrier Density Ferromagnet Ca1-xLaxB6 and SrB6

Recently it has been discovered that weak ferromagnetism of a dilute 3D electron gas develops on the energy scale of the Fermi temperature in some of the hexaborides; that is, the Curie temperature approximately equals the Fermi temperature. We report the results of de Haas-van Alphen experiments on two concentrations of La-doped CaB6 as well as Ca-deficient Ca1-dB6 and Sr-deficient Sr1-dB6. The results show that a Fermi surface exists in each case and that there are significant electron-electron interactions in the low density electron gas.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figures, submitted to PR

Geometry and material effects in Casimir physics - Scattering theory

We give a comprehensive presentation of methods for calculating the Casimir force to arbitrary accuracy, for any number of objects, arbitrary shapes, susceptibility functions, and separations. The technique is applicable to objects immersed in media other than vacuum, to nonzero temperatures, and to spatial arrangements in which one object is enclosed in another. Our method combines each object's classical electromagnetic scattering amplitude with universal translation matrices, which convert between the bases used to calculate scattering for each object, but are otherwise independent of the details of the individual objects. This approach, which combines methods of statistical physics and scattering theory, is well suited to analyze many diverse phenomena. We illustrate its power and versatility by a number of examples, which show how the interplay of geometry and material properties helps to understand and control Casimir forces. We also examine whether electrodynamic Casimir forces can lead to stable levitation. Neglecting permeabilities, we prove that any equilibrium position of objects subject to such forces is unstable if the permittivities of all objects are higher or lower than that of the enveloping medium; the former being the generic case for ordinary materials in vacuum.Comment: 44 pages, 11 figures, to appear in upcoming Lecture Notes in Physics volume in Casimir physic

Physical origin of the buckling in CuO2_2: Electron-phonon coupling and Raman spectra

It is shown theoretically that the buckling of the CuO$_{2}$ planes in certain cuprate systems can be explained in terms of an electric field across the planes which originates from different valences of atoms above and below the plane. This field results also in a strong coupling of the Raman-active out-of-phase vibration of the oxygen atoms ($B_{1g}$ mode) to the electronic charge transfer between the two oxygens in the CuO$_{2}$ plane. Consequently, the electric field can be deduced from the Fano-type line shape of the $B_{1g}$ phonon. Using the electric field estimated from the electron-phonon coupling the amplitude of the buckling is calculated and found to be in good agreement with the structural data. Direct experimental support for the idea proposed is obtained in studies of YBa$_{2}$Cu$_{3}$O$_{6+x}$ and Bi$_{2}$Sr$_{2}$(Ca$_{1-x}$Y$_{x}$)Cu$_{2}$O$_{8}$ with different oxygen and yttrium doping, respectively, including antiferromagnetic samples. In the latter compound, symmetry breaking by replacing Ca partially by Y leads to an enhancement of the electron-phonon coupling by an order of magnitude.Comment: 12 pages, 4 figures, and 1 tabl

Evaluation of Hungarian Wines for Resveratrol by Overpressured Layer Chromatography

A method, including solid phase extraction sample preparation, overpressured layer chromatographic separation and subsequent densitometric evaluation, was developed for measurement of total resveratrol (cis- and trans-isomers) content of wine. The amount of resveratrol was determined in wine samples from different winemaking regions of Hungary. The total resveratrol was high in Hungarian red wines (3.6–11 mg/L), and much lower in white ones (0.04–1.5 mg/L)

Vortices in superfluid trapped Fermi gases at zero temperature

We discuss various aspects of the vortex state of a dilute superfluid atomic Fermi gas at T=0. The energy of the vortex in a trapped gas is calculated and we provide an expression for the thermodynamic critical rotation frequency of the trap for its formation. Furthermore, we propose a method to detect the presence of a vortex by calculating the effect of its associated velocity field on the collective mode spectrum of the gas