A critical test of empirical mass loss formulae applied to individual giants and supergiants

To test our new, improved Reimers-type mass-loss relation, given by Schroder & Cuntz in 2005 (ApJL 630, L73), we take a look at the best studied galactic giants and supergiants - particularly those with spatially resolved circumstellar shells and winds, obtained directly or by means of a companion acting as a probing light source. Together with well-known physical parameters, the selected stars provide the most powerful and critical observational venues for assessing the validity of parameterized mass-loss relations for cool winds not driven by molecules or dust. In this study, star by star, we compare our previously published relation with the original Reimers relation (1975), the Lamers relation (1981), and the two relations by de Jager and his group (1988, 1990). The input data, especially the stellar masses, have been constrained using detailed stellar evolution models. We find that only the relationship by Schroder & Cuntz agrees, within the error bars, with the observed mass-loss rates for all giants and supergiants.Comment: 11 pages, 5 Figs. accepted by Astronomy & Astrophysic

Remedy or disease? : Romantic perspectives on music

Around 1800, aesthetic debate suddenly places music at the very top in the hierarchy of the arts, even superseding poetry: This has become a commonplace not only in scholarly discourse. The protagonists of this re-arrangement of the artistic disciplines are Wilhelm Heinrich Wackenroder, E.T.A. Hoffmann and Ludwig Tieck. In their programmatic texts, they state that music is to be free and absolute and stress its metaphysical quality and its close relation to the supernatural. Furthermore, music is supposed to be no longer dependent on the other arts, and music releases the listener or the musician from prosaic everyday life. As Wackenroder writes in Die Wunder der Tonkunst, […] [a]ll sickening thoughts which, according to Wackenroder, are the illness of mankind vanish with a piece of music, making our mind sane again. Literary romanticism here recurs to a long tradition that reaches back to the classical ages in Greece and Arabia: Music is used as a remedy for curing illnesses of various kinds. In classical antiquity, Apollo is the god of music, poetry and dancing as well as the god of healing. He was also named “Iatros” (physician) or Apollo Medicus. […] Orpheus as a bard and demigod was also said to be capable of curing diseases by means of his music. […] Thus, music in history is part of treating physical illness on the one hand, but on the other hand is more and more considered to provide a remedy especially for mental deficiencies. Music is meant to improve nervous disorders and sometimes it is even prescribed as a regular medicine. As we will see in Hoffmann’s text Die Genesung, there is a connection between the ritual healing processes in the temples of Aesculapius and the setting of the forest in which the old man regains his health

Populationsgenetische Differenzierung beim Eichenwickler (Tortrix viridana L.) und seiner Wirtspflanze (Quercus robur L.) anhand nukleärer Genmarker

In Western Europe pedunculate oak (Quercus robur L.) is the forest tree with the highest number of phytophagous insect species (Yela & Lawton 1997). One of these, the green oak leaf roller Tortrix viridana L. is an oligophagous herbivorous moth with a host range limited to the genus Quercus (Hunter 1990, Du Merle 1999). During outbreaks, T. viridana often leads to defoliation of oaks in spring. The abundance of T. viridana is subject to the population size fluctuations typical for herbivorous insects, where periods of small population sizes (latent periods) alternate with periods of high population sizes (outbreak) (e.g. Schütte 1957, Horstmann 1984). Apart from many experimental studies on population dynamics of the moth (e.g. Hunter 1990, Du Merle 1999, Ivashov & al. 2002) so far little attention has been paid to the genetic variation within the species as an important aspect of the genetics of this host-parasite interaction. Simchuk & al. (1999) found changes in the heterozygosity level of different isozyme loci during outbreaks in T. viridana and molecular markers for T. viridana have been developed for analyses of genetic variation within and among populations (Schroeder & Scholz 2005). But, investigations of genetic variation within and among populations of forest pest species are important to predict future pest outbreaks. So far the processes outbreaks based on are not entirely clarified, however it is known that migration plays a major role. Using molecular markers investigations of the genetic variation are possible and offer the opportunity to analyse distribution events. In this paper first results are presented concerning the genetic variation of the green oak leaf roller at three geographic scales: (1) among trees within a population, (2) among populations at a small spatial scale of about 150 km and (3) among populations at a broader geographic scale up to 3000 km. Furthermore results of the genetic variation of oaks at the small spatial scale are represented.Populationen des grünen Eichenwicklers (Tortrix viridana L., Lepidoptera: Tortricidae) und der Stieleiche (Quercus robur L., Fagaceae) wurden auf genetische Differenzierungen mit Hilfe von Kern-DNA-Markern untersucht. Insgesamt wurden 14 Eichenbestände in Nordrhein-Westfalen (NRW) und 7 weitere in verschiedenen Regionen Europas in die Untersuchung einbezogen. Weder für die Eiche noch für den Eichenwickler sind genetische Differenzierungen der Populationen auf einer kleinen geographischen Skala (etwa 150 km) nachweisbar, jedoch zeigen die Eichenpopulationen eine zunehmende genetische Distanz mit zunehmender geographischer Distanz. Für den Eichenwickler konnten innerhalb von Populationen in einem Radius von etwa 40 m Familienstrukturen ermittelt werden und auf einer kontinentalen Skala lassen sich die Ergebnisse für den Eichenwickler mit einer „isolation by distance“ erklären

The Constitution of the Holy Roman Empire after 1648: Samuel Pufendorf's Assessment in his 'Monzambano'

The examination of Pufendorf's Monzambano shows that he was strongly interested in the question of sovereignty, and that the complex reality of the Holy Roman Empire demanded a completely new approach to the question of where sovereignty within the Empire lay. Pufendorf developed his account of the Empire as an irregular political system by using essential aspects of Hobbes's theory and thus departed from all previous writers on the forma imperii. But Pufendorf's writing on the Empire has not only to be linked with political and philosophical discussion about sovereignty within the Empire but also with his own main writings where he developed a more detailed theory regarding the issue of sovereignty in general. The peace of Westphalia was not only an international settlement but it also shaped the constitution of the Empire to a considerable degree, and this is of crucial significance for the history of political thought during the seventeenth century

On the valuation of Paris options: foundational results

This paper adresses the valuation of the Paris barrier options proposed by Yor, Jeanblanc-Picque, and Chesnay (Advances in Applied Probability, 29(1997), 165-184) using the Laplace transform approach. Based on suggestions by Pliska the notion of Paris options is extended such that their valuation is possible at any point during their lifespan. The Laplace transforms derived by Yor et al. are modified when necessary, and their basic analytic properties are discussed.Comment: 16 Pages, 2 Figure

Physics Potential of a Radio Surface Array at the South Pole (ARENA 2018)

A surface array of radio antennas will enhance the performance of the IceTop array and enable new, complementary science goals. First, the accuracy for cosmic-ray air showers will be increased since the radio array provides a calorimetric measurement of the electromagnetic component and is sensitive to the position of the shower maximum. This enhanced accuracy can be used to better measure the mass composition, to search for possible mass-dependent anisotropies in the arrival directions of cosmic rays, and for more thorough tests of hadronic interaction models. Second, the sensitivity of the radio array to inclined showers will increase the sky coverage for cosmic-ray measurements. Third, the radio array can be used to search for PeV photons from the Galactic Center. Since IceTop is planned to be enhanced by a scintillator array in the near future, a radio extension sharing the same infrastructure can be installed with minimal additional effort and excellent scientific prospects. The combination of ice-Cherenkov, scintillation, and radio detectors at IceCube will provide unprecedented accuracy for the study of highenergy Galactic cosmic rays.Comment: Proceedings of 8th ARENA 2018, to appear in EPJ Wo

Experimental results on ttˉ+W/Z/γt\bar{t}+W/Z/\gamma and SM top couplings from the Tevatron and the LHC

Experimental results from the CDF and D0 Collaborations at the Tevatron and the ATLAS and CMS Collaborations at the LHC on the processes related to probing top quark couplings are presented. Evidence of both $t\bar{t}Z$ and $t\bar{t}W$ processes is reported. All measurements are in agreement with the SM expectations.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures, to appear in the proceedings of Top2014, Cannes, France (28th Sept - 3rd Oct 2014