935 research outputs found
High speed sCMOS-based oblique plane microscopy applied to the study of calcium dynamics in cardiac myocytes
blique plane microscopy (OPM) is a form of light sheet microscopy that uses a single high numerical aperture microscope objective for both fluorescence excitation and collection. In this paper, measurements of the relative collection efficiency of OPM are presented. An OPM system incorporating two sCMOS cameras is then introduced that enables single isolated cardiac myocytes to be studied continuously for 22 seconds in two dimensions at 667 frames per second with 960 × 200 pixels and for 30 seconds with 960 × 200 × 20 voxels at 25 volumes per second. In both cases OPM is able to record in two spectral channels, enabling intracellular calcium to be studied via the probe Fluo-4 AM simultaneously with the sarcolemma and transverse tubule network via the membrane dye Cellmask Orange. The OPM system was then applied to determine the spatial origin of spontaneous calcium waves for the first time and to measure the cell transverse tubule structure at their point of origin. Further results are presented to demonstrate that the OPM system can also be used to study calcium spark parameters depending on their relationship to the transverse tubule structure
Electric field generation by the electron beam filamentation instability: Filament size effects
The filamentation instability (FI) of counter-propagating beams of electrons
is modelled with a particle-in-cell simulation in one spatial dimension and
with a high statistical plasma representation. The simulation direction is
orthogonal to the beam velocity vector. Both electron beams have initially
equal densities, temperatures and moduli of their nonrelativistic mean
velocities. The FI is electromagnetic in this case. A previous study of a small
filament demonstrated, that the magnetic pressure gradient force (MPGF) results
in a nonlinearly driven electrostatic field. The probably small contribution of
the thermal pressure gradient to the force balance implied, that the
electrostatic field performed undamped oscillations around a background
electric field. Here we consider larger filaments, which reach a stronger
electrostatic potential when they saturate. The electron heating is enhanced
and electrostatic electron phase space holes form. The competition of several
smaller filaments, which grow simultaneously with the large filament, also
perturbs the balance between the electrostatic and magnetic fields. The
oscillations are damped but the final electric field amplitude is still
determined by the MPGF.Comment: 14 pages, 10 plots, accepted for publication in Physica Script
PIC Simulations of the Temperature Anisotropy-Driven Weibel Instability: Analyzing the perpendicular mode
An instability driven by the thermal anisotropy of a single electron species
is investigated in a 2D particle-in-cell (PIC) simulation. This instability is
the one considered by Weibel and it differs from the beam driven filamentation
instability. A comparison of the simulation results with analytic theory
provides similar exponential growth rates of the magnetic field during the
linear growth phase of the instability. We observe in accordance with previous
works the growth of electric fields during the saturation phase of the
instability. Some components of this electric field are not accounted for by
the linearized theory. A single-fluid-based theory is used to determine the
source of this nonlinear electric field. It is demonstrated that the magnetic
stress tensor, which vanishes in a 1D geometry, is more important in this
2-dimensional model used here. The electric field grows to an amplitude, which
yields a force on the electrons that is comparable to the magnetic one. The
peak energy density of each magnetic field component in the simulation plane
agrees with previous estimates. Eddy currents develop, which let the amplitude
of the third magnetic field component grow, which is not observed in a 1D
simulation.Comment: accepted by Plasma Physics and Controlled Fusio
The filamentation instability driven by warm electron beams: Statistics and electric field generation
The filamentation instability of counterpropagating symmetric beams of
electrons is examined with 1D and 2D particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations, which
are oriented orthogonally to the beam velocity vector. The beams are uniform,
warm and their relative speed is mildly relativistic. The dynamics of the
filaments is examined in 2D and it is confirmed that their characteristic size
increases linearly in time. Currents orthogonal to the beam velocity vector are
driven through the magnetic and electric fields in the simulation plane. The
fields are tied to the filament boundaries and the scale size of the
flow-aligned and the perpendicular currents are thus equal. It is confirmed
that the electrostatic and the magnetic forces are equally important, when the
filamentation instability saturates in 1D. Their balance is apparently the
saturation mechanism of the filamentation instability for our initial
conditions. The electric force is relatively weaker but not negligible in the
2D simulation, where the electron temperature is set higher to reduce the
computational cost. The magnetic pressure gradient is the principal source of
the electrostatic field, when and after the instability saturates in the 1D
simulation and in the 2D simulation.Comment: 10 pages, 6 figures, accepted by the Plasma Physics and Controlled
Fusion (Special Issue EPS 2009
PIC simulations of the Thermal Anisotropy-Driven Weibel Instability: Field growth and phase space evolution upon saturation
The Weibel instability is investigated with PIC simulations of an initially
unmagnetized and spatially uniform electron plasma. This instability, which is
driven by the thermally anisotropic electron distribution, generates
electromagnetic waves with wave vectors perpendicular to the direction of the
higher temperature. Two simulations are performed: A 2D simulation, with a
simulation plane that includes the direction of higher temperature,
demonstrates that the wave spectrum is initially confined to one dimension. The
electric field components in the simulation plane generated by the instability
equalize at the end of the simulation through a secondary instability. A 1D PIC
simulation with a high resolution, where the simulation box is aligned with the
wave vectors of the growing waves, reveals details of the electron phase space
distribution and permits a comparison of the magnetic and electric fields when
the instability saturates. It is shown that the electrostatic field is driven
by the magnetic pressure gradient and that it and the magnetic field
redistribute the electrons in space.Comment: Plasma Phys Controll Fusion, in press (to appear in june 2009
Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA) : The mechanisms for quiescent galaxy formation at z<1
© 2016 The Authors. One key problem in astrophysics is understanding how and why galaxies switch off their star formation, building the quiescent population that we observe in the local Universe. From the Galaxy And Mass Assembly and VIsible MultiObject Spectrograph Public Extragalactic Redshift surveys, we use spectroscopic indices to select quiescent and candidate transition galaxies.We identify potentially rapidly transitioning post-starburst (PSB) galaxies and slower transitioning green-valley galaxies. Over the last 8Gyr, the quiescent population has grown more slowly in number density at high masses (M * > 10 11 M ⊙ ) than at intermediate masses (M * > 10 10.6 M ⊙ ). There is evolution in both the PSB and green-valley stellar mass functions, consistent with higher mass galaxies quenching at earlier cosmic times.At intermediatemasses (M * > 10 10.6 M ⊙ ), we find a green-valley transition time-scale of 2.6 Gyr. Alternatively, at z ~ 0.7, the entire growth rate could be explained by fast-quenching PSB galaxies, with a visibility time-scale of 0.5 Gyr. At lower redshift, the number density of PSBs is so low that an unphysically short visibility window would be required for them to contribute significantly to the quiescent population growth. The importance of the fast-quenching route may rapidly diminish at z 10 11 M ⊙ ), there is tension between the large number of candidate transition galaxies compared to the slow growth of the quiescent population. This could be resolved if not all high-mass PSB and green-valley galaxies are transitioning from star forming to quiescent, for example if they rejuvenate out of the quiescent population following the accretion of gas and triggering of star formation, or if they fail to completely quench their star formation
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