12,927 research outputs found
Persistence in fluctuating environments
Understanding under what conditions interacting populations, whether they be
plants, animals, or viral particles, coexist is a question of theoretical and
practical importance in population biology. Both biotic interactions and
environmental fluctuations are key factors that can facilitate or disrupt
coexistence. To better understand this interplay between these deterministic
and stochastic forces, we develop a mathematical theory extending the nonlinear
theory of permanence for deterministic systems to stochastic difference and
differential equations. Our condition for coexistence requires that there is a
fixed set of weights associated with the interacting populations and this
weighted combination of populations' invasion rates is positive for any
(ergodic) stationary distribution associated with a subcollection of
populations. Here, an invasion rate corresponds to an average per-capita growth
rate along a stationary distribution. When this condition holds and there is
sufficient noise in the system, we show that the populations approach a unique
positive stationary distribution. Moreover, we show that our coexistence
criterion is robust to small perturbations of the model functions. Using this
theory, we illustrate that (i) environmental noise enhances or inhibits
coexistence in communities with rock-paper-scissor dynamics depending on
correlations between interspecific demographic rates, (ii) stochastic variation
in mortality rates has no effect on the coexistence criteria for discrete-time
Lotka-Volterra communities, and (iii) random forcing can promote genetic
diversity in the presence of exploitative interactions.Comment: 25 page
The Dwarf Nova Outbursts of Nova Her 1960 (=V446 Her)
V446 Her is the best example of an old nova which has developed dwarf nova
eruptions in the post-nova state. We report on observed properties of the
long-term light curve of V446 Her, using photometry over 19 years. Yearly
averages of the outburst magnitudes shows a decline of ~0.013 mag/yr,
consistent with the decline of other post-novae that do not have dwarf nova
outbursts. Previous suggestions of bimodal distributions of the amplitudes and
widths of the outbursts are confirmed. The outbursts occur at a mean spacing of
18 days but the range of spacings is large (13-30 days). From simulations of
dwarf nova outbursts it has been predicted that the outburst spacing in V446
Her will increase as M-dot from the red dwarf companion slowly falls following
the nova; however the large intrinsic scatter in the spacings serves to hide
any evidence of this effect. We do find a systematic change in the outburst
pattern in which the brighter, wider type of outbursts disappeared after late
2003, and this phenomenon is suggested to be due to falling M-dot following the
nova.Comment: To appear at the Astronomical Journal; 7 pages, 1 table, 11 figure
Measures of galaxy dust and gas mass with Herschel photometry and prospects for ALMA
(Abridged) Combining the deepest Herschel extragalactic surveys (PEP,
GOODS-H, HerMES), and Monte Carlo mock catalogs, we explore the robustness of
dust mass estimates based on modeling of broad band spectral energy
distributions (SEDs) with two popular approaches: Draine & Li (2007, DL07) and
a modified black body (MBB). As long as the observed SED extends to at least
160-200 micron in the rest frame, M(dust) can be recovered with a >3 sigma
significance and without the occurrence of systematics. An average offset of a
factor ~1.5 exists between DL07- and MBB-based dust masses, based on consistent
dust properties. At the depth of the deepest Herschel surveys (in the GOODS-S
field) it is possible to retrieve dust masses with a S/N>=3 for galaxies on the
main sequence of star formation (MS) down to M(stars)~1e10 [M(sun)] up to z~1.
At higher redshift (z<=2) the same result is achieved only for objects at the
tip of the MS or lying above it. Molecular gas masses, obtained converting
M(dust) through the metallicity-dependent gas-to-dust ratio delta(GDR), are
consistent with those based on the scaling of depletion time, and on CO
spectroscopy. Focusing on CO-detected galaxies at z>1, the delta(GDR)
dependence on metallicity is consistent with the local relation. We combine
far-IR Herschel data and sub-mm ALMA expected fluxes to study the advantages of
a full SED coverage.Comment: Accepted for publication in Astronomy and Astrophysics. Some figures
have degraded quality for filesize reason
The influence of self-citation corrections on Egghe's g index
The g index was introduced by Leo Egghe as an improvement of Hirsch's index h
for measuring the overall citation record of a set of articles. It better takes
into account the highly skewed frequency distribution of citations than the h
index. I propose to sharpen this g index by excluding the self-citations. I
have worked out nine practical cases in physics and compare the h and g values
with and without self-citations. As expected, the g index characterizes the
data set better than the h index. The influence of the self-citations appears
to be more significant for the g index than for the h index.Comment: 9 pages, 2 figures, submitted to Scientometric
A new era of spectroscopy: SINFONI, NIR integral field spectroscopy at the diffraction limit of an 8m telescope
SINFONI, the SINgle Faint Object Near-infrared Investigation, is an
instrument for the Very Large Telescope (VLT), which will start its operation
mid 2002 and allow for the first time near infrared (NIR) integral field
spectroscopy at the diffraction limit of an 8-m telescope. SINFONI is the
combination of two state-of-the art instruments, the integral field
spectrometer SPIFFI, built by the Max-Planck-Institut fuer extraterrestrische
Physik (MPE), and the adaptive optics (AO) system MACAO, built by the European
Southern Observatory (ESO). It will allow a unique type of observations by
delivering simultaneously high spatial resolution (pixel sizes 0.025arcsec to
0.25arcsec) and a moderate spectral resolution (R~2000 to R~4500), where the
higher spectral resolution mode will allow for software OH suppression. This
opens new prospects for astronomy.Comment: 9 pages, 4 figures, to appear in SPIE proceedings "Astronomical
Telescopes and Instrumentation 2000". More recent sensitivity estimates are
available at http://www.mpe.mpg.de/www_ir/ir_instruments/sinfoni/spiffi.ht
A Wake Detector for Wind Farm Control
The paper describes an observer capable of detecting the impingement on a wind turbine rotor of the wake of an upstream machine. The observer estimates the local wind speed and turbulence intensity on the left and right parts of the rotor disk. The estimation is performed based on blade loads measured by strain gages or optical fibers, sensors which are becoming standard equipment on many modern machines. A lower wind speed and higher turbulence intensity on one part of the rotor, possibly in conjunction with other information, can then be used to infer the presence of a wake impinging on the disk. The wake state information is useful for wind plant control strategies, as for example wake deflection by active yawing. In addition, the local wind speed estimates may be used for a rough evaluation of the vertical wind shear
Dynamical Quasicondensation of Hard-Core Bosons at Finite Momenta
Long-range order in quantum many-body systems is usually associated with
equilibrium situations. Here, we experimentally investigate the
quasicondensation of strongly-interacting bosons at finite momenta in a
far-from-equilibrium case. We prepare an inhomogeneous initial state consisting
of one-dimensional Mott insulators in the center of otherwise empty
one-dimensional chains in an optical lattice with a lattice constant . After
suddenly quenching the trapping potential to zero, we observe the onset of
coherence in spontaneously forming quasicondensates in the lattice. Remarkably,
the emerging phase order differs from the ground-state order and is
characterized by peaks at finite momenta in the
momentum distribution function.Comment: See also Viewpoint: Emerging Quantum Order in an Expanding Gas,
Physics 8, 99 (2015
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