51,124 research outputs found
The Peculiar Behavior of Halo Coronal Mass Ejections in Solar Cycle 24
We report on a remarkable finding that the halo coronal mass ejections (CMEs)
in cycle 24 are more abundant than in cycle 23, although the sunspot number in
cycle 24 has dropped by about 40%. We also find that the distribution of
halo-CME source locations is different in cycle 24: the longitude distribution
of halos is much flatter with the number of halos originating at central
meridian distance >/=60 degrees twice as large as that in cycle 23. On the
other hand, the average speed and the associated soft X-ray flare size are the
same in the two cycles, suggesting that the ambient medium into which the CMEs
are ejected is significantly different. We suggest that both the higher
abundance and larger central meridian longitudes of halo CMEs can be explained
as a consequence of the diminished total pressure in the heliosphere in cycle
24 (Gopalswamy et al. 2014). The reduced total pressure allows CMEs expand more
than usual making them appear as halos.Comment: 12 pages, 5 figures, accepted for publication in the Astrophysical
Journal Letters, April 7, 201
The First Ground Level Enhancement Event of Solar Cycle 24: Direct Observation of Shock Formation and Particle Release Heights
We report on the 2012 May 17 Ground Level Enhancement (GLE) event, which is
the first of its kind in Solar Cycle 24. This is the first GLE event to be
fully observed close to the surface by the Solar Terrestrial Relations
Observatory (STEREO) mission. We determine the coronal mass ejection (CME)
height at the start of the associated metric type II radio burst (i.e., shock
formation height) as 1.38 Rs (from the Sun center). The CME height at the time
of GLE particle release was directly measured from a STEREO image as 2.32 Rs,
which agrees well with the estimation from CME kinematics. These heights are
consistent with those obtained for cycle-23 GLEs using back-extrapolation. By
contrasting the 2012 May 17 GLE with six other non-GLE eruptions from
well-connected regions with similar or larger flare size and CME speed, we find
that the latitudinal distance from the ecliptic is rather large for the non-GLE
events due to a combination of non-radial CME motion and unfavorable solar B0
angle, making the connectivity to Earth poorer. We also find that the coronal
environment may play a role in deciding the shock strength.Comment: 16 pages, 4 figures, 1 tabl
Mechanically-Induced Transport Switching Effect in Graphene-based Nanojunctions
We report a theoretical study suggesting a novel type of electronic switching
effect, driven by the geometrical reconstruction of nanoscale graphene-based
junctions. We considered junction struc- tures which have alternative
metastable configurations transformed by rotations of local carbon dimers. The
use of external mechanical strain allows a control of the energy barrier
heights of the potential profiles and also changes the reaction character from
endothermic to exothermic or vice-versa. The reshaping of the atomic details of
the junction encode binary electronic ON or OFF states, with ON/OFF
transmission ratio that can reach up to 10^4-10^5. Our results suggest the
possibility to design modern logical switching devices or mechanophore sensors,
monitored by mechanical strain and structural rearrangements.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figure
Magnetic ordering and structural phase transitions in strained ultrathin SrRuO/SrTiO superlattice
Ruthenium-based perovskite systems are attractive because their Structural,
electronic and magnetic properties can be systematically engineered.
SrRuO/SrTiO superlattice, with its period consisting of one unit cell
each, is very sensitive to strain change. Our first-principles simulations
reveal that in the high tensile strain region, it transits from a ferromagnetic
(FM) metal to an antiferromagnetic (AFM) insulator with clear tilted octahedra,
while in the low strain region, it is a ferromagnetic metal without octahedra
tilting. Detailed analyses of three spin-down Ru-t orbitals just below
the Fermi level reveal that the splitting of these orbitals underlies these
dramatic phase transitions, with the rotational force constant of RuO
octahedron high up to 16 meV/Deg, 4 times larger than that of TiO.
Differently from nearly all the previous studies, these transitions can be
probed optically through the diagonal and off-diagonal dielectric tensor
elements. For one percent change in strain, our experimental spin moment change
is -0.140.06 , quantitatively consistent with our theoretical value
of -0.1 .Comment: 3 figures, 1 supplementary material, accepted by Phys. Rev. Let
The role of the resonance in the reaction
We investigate the photo-production in the reaction within the effective Lagrangian method near
threshold. In addition to the "background" contributions from the contact,
channel exchange, and channel nucleon pole terms, which were
already considered in previous works, the contribution from the nucleon
resonance (spin-parity ) is also considered. We show
that the inclusion of the nucleon resonance leads to a fairly good
description of the new LEPS differential cross section data, and that these
measurements can be used to determine some of the properties of this latter
resonance. However, serious discrepancies appear when the predictions of the
model are compared to the photon-beam asymmetry also measured by the LEPS
Collaboration.Comment: 9 pages,6 figures, 1 tabl
Covert Ephemeral Communication in Named Data Networking
In the last decade, there has been a growing realization that the current
Internet Protocol is reaching the limits of its senescence. This has prompted
several research efforts that aim to design potential next-generation Internet
architectures. Named Data Networking (NDN), an instantiation of the
content-centric approach to networking, is one such effort. In contrast with
IP, NDN routers maintain a significant amount of user-driven state. In this
paper we investigate how to use this state for covert ephemeral communication
(CEC). CEC allows two or more parties to covertly exchange ephemeral messages,
i.e., messages that become unavailable after a certain amount of time. Our
techniques rely only on network-layer, rather than application-layer, services.
This makes our protocols robust, and communication difficult to uncover. We
show that users can build high-bandwidth CECs exploiting features unique to
NDN: in-network caches, routers' forwarding state and name matching rules. We
assess feasibility and performance of proposed cover channels using a local
setup and the official NDN testbed
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