Drilling into a deep buried valley (ICDP DOVE): a 252 m long sediment succession from a glacial overdeepening in northwestern Switzerland

The modern Alpine landscape and its foreland were strongly impacted by the numerous glacier ad- vance and retreat cycles during the Middle-to-Late Pleistocene. Due to the overall erosive character of each glaciation cycle, however, direct traces of older glaciations tend to be poorly preserved within the formerly glaciated domains of the pan-Alpine area. Nevertheless, sediments of older glaciations may occur hidden un- der the modern surface in buried glacially overdeepened troughs that reach below the normal level of fluvial erosion (fluvial base level). These sedimentary archives, partly dating back to the Middle Pleistocene period, are of great scientific value for reconstructing the timing and extent of extensive Alpine glaciation, paleocli- mate, and paleoenvironmental changes in the past and help to better understand ongoing and future changes in the pan-Alpine area. Therefore, the International Continental Scientific Drilling Program (ICDP) project DOVE (Drilling Overdeepened Alpine Valleys) targets several of these glacial overdeepened sedimentary basins to re- cover their sedimentary infills. In the frame of the DOVE project, a 252 m long drill core of unconsolidated Quaternary sediments was recovered in northern Switzerland from an over 300 m deep glacially overdeepened structure (“Basadingen Trough”) formed by the former Rhine Glacier lobe system. The recovered sedimentary succession was divided into three stratigraphic units on the basis of lithological and petrophysical characteristics. The lowest unit, deposited below the fluvial base level, consists of an over 200 m thick succession of glacial to (glacio)lacustrine sediments and contains remains of possibly two glaciation cycles. Overlying this lowermost succession, an ∼ 37 m thick fluvial-to-glaciofluvial gravel deposit occurs, which correlates to a locally outcrop- ping Middle Pleistocene formation (“Buechberg Gravel Complex”). The sediment succession is capped by an ∼ 11 m thick diamictic succession interpreted as the subglacial till from the later extensive glaciation, including the regional glaciation during the Last Glacial Maximum. The recovered sediment succession thus supports the proposed multi-phase origin of trough formation and its infill

Origin of Intense Magnetic Fields Near Black Holes Due to Non-Minimal Gravitational-Electromagnetic Coupling

The origin of magnetic fields in astrophysical objects is a challenging problem in astrophysics. Throughout the years, many scientists have suggested that non-minimal gravitational-electromagnetic coupling (NMGEC) could be the origin of the ubiquitous astrophysical magnetic fields. We investigate the possible origin of intense magnetic fields $\sim 10^{15}-10^{16}$ by NMGEC near rotating neutron stars and black holes, connected with magnetars, quasars, and gamma-ray bursts. Whereas these intense magnetic fields are difficult to explain astrophysically, we find that they are easily explained by NMGEC.Comment: 7 pages, accepted for publication in Phys. Lett.

Universality of the Lyapunov regime for the Loschmidt echo

The Loschmidt echo (LE) is a magnitude that measures the sensitivity of quantum dynamics to perturbations in the Hamiltonian. For a certain regime of the parameters, the LE decays exponentially with a rate given by the Lyapunov exponent of the underlying classically chaotic system. We develop a semiclassical theory, supported by numerical results in a Lorentz gas model, which allows us to establish and characterize the universality of this Lyapunov regime. In particular, the universality is evidenced by the semiclassical limit of the Fermi wavelength going to zero, the behavior for times longer than Ehrenfest time, the insensitivity with respect to the form of the perturbation and the behavior of individual (non-averaged) initial conditions. Finally, by elaborating a semiclassical approximation to the Wigner function, we are able to distinguish between classical and quantum origin for the different terms of the LE. This approach renders an understanding for the persistence of the Lyapunov regime after the Ehrenfest time, as well as a reinterpretation of our results in terms of the quantum--classical transition.Comment: 33 pages, 17 figures, uses Revtex

The profile of an intercultural competence educator for healthcare and other professions

Peer Reviewed ArticleOnce upon a time, an international student started a 3-day work shadowing in a community setting. At the end of the first day, the community supervisor refused to work with the student stating that the student was uninterested, because she didn´t ask any questions! The student was shocked and said that she was really interested. She thought it was impolite to ask the expert any questions. Once they were guided to reflect on their different expectations, they both agreed to continue and learned a lot. This situation reflects the need for trainers and students to be interculturally competent