Free Quantum Fields on the Poincare' Group

A class of free quantum fields defined on the Poincare' group, is described by means of their two-point vacuum expectation values. They are not equivalent to fields defined on the Minkowski spacetime and they are "elementary" in the sense that they describe particles that transform according to irreducible unitary representations of the symmetry group, given by the product of the Poincare' group and of the group SL(2, C) considered as an internal symmetry group. Some of these fields describe particles with positive mass and arbitrary spin and particles with zero mass and arbitrary helicity or with an infinite helicity spectrum. In each case the allowed SL(2, C) internal quantum numbers are specified. The properties of local commutativity and the limit in which one recovers the usual field theories in Minkowski spacetime are discussed. By means of a superposition of elementary fields, one obtains an example of a field that present a broken symmetry with respect to the group Sp(4, R), that survives in the short-distance limit. Finally, the interaction with an accelerated external source is studied and and it is shown that, in some theories, the average number of particles emitted per unit of proper time diverges when the acceleration exceeds a finite critical value.Comment: 49 pages, plain tex with vanilla.st

Single particle analysis of the accumulation mode aerosol over the northeast Amazonian tropical rain forest, Surinam, South America

International audienceSingle particle analysis of aerosols particles larger than 0.2 ?m diameter was performed on 24 samples collected over Surinam tropical rain forest and in the adjacent marine boundary layer (MBL) during the LBA-CLAIRE 98 campaign in March 1998. Elemental composition and morphology of 2308 particles was determined using SEM-EDX. The aerosol particles were divided into seven groups according to their chemical composition: organic particles, mineral dust, aged mineral dust, sea salt, aged sea salt, Ca-rich, and biogenic aerosol. However the organic material in aerosol particles cannot be identified directly by SEM-EDX, we present indirect method of detection of organic material using this technique. Samples were further divided with respect to the distinct atmospheric layers present in the tropical troposphere including MBL, continental mixed layer, cloud convective layer, free troposphere and region of deep convection outflow. The organic and mineral dust particles are two major groups observed over the rainforest. In the MBL also sea salt particles represented a large fraction between 15 and 27%. The organic particles control much of the chemical characteristic of the aerosol in the continental tropical troposphere. Their abundance ranged from less than 20% in the MBL to more than 90% in the free troposphere between 4.5- and 12.6-km altitude. During the transport of the air masses from the MBL over the rain forest, fraction of organic aerosol particles more than doubled, reaching 40?60% in the continental boundary layer. This increase was attributed to direct emissions of biogenic aerosols from the tropical vegetation. The high fraction of the organic accumulation mode particles in the upper tropical troposphere could be a good indicator for the air masses originated over the tropical rain forest

Seasonal variation of aerosol water uptake and its impact on the direct radiative effect at Ny-Ålesund, Svalbard

© Author(s) 2014. This work is distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 LicenseIn this study we investigated the impact of water uptake by aerosol particles in ambient atmosphere on their optical properties and their direct radiative effect (ADRE, W m-2) in the Arctic at Ny-Ålesund, Svalbard, during 2008. To achieve this, we combined three models, a hygroscopic growth model, a Mie model and a radiative transfer model, with an extensive set of observational data. We found that the seasonal variation of dry aerosol scattering coefficients showed minimum values during the summer season and the beginning of fall (July-August-September), when small particles (< 100 nm in diameter) dominate the aerosol number size distribution. The maximum scattering by dry particles was observed during the Arctic haze period (March-April-May) when the average size of the particles was larger. Considering the hygroscopic growth of aerosol particles in the ambient atmosphere had a significant impact on the aerosol scattering coefficients: the aerosol scattering coefficients were enhanced by on average a factor of 4.30 ± 2.26 (mean ± standard deviation), with lower values during the haze period (March-April-May) as compared to summer and fall. Hygroscopic growth of aerosol particles was found to cause 1.6 to 3.7 times more negative ADRE at the surface, with the smallest effect during the haze period (March-April-May) and the highest during late summer and beginning of fall (July-August-September).Peer reviewe

Explicit simulation of aerosol physics in a cloud-resolving model

International audienceThe role of convection in introducing aerosols and promoting the formation of new particles to the upper troposphere has been examined using a cloud-resolving model coupled with an interactive explicit aerosol module. A baseline simulation suggests good agreement in the upper troposphere between modeled and observed results including concentrations of aerosols in different size ranges, mole fractions of key chemical species, and concentrations of ice particles. In addition, a set of 34 sensitivity simulations has been carried out to investigate the sensitivity of modeled results to the treatment of various aerosol physical and chemical processes in the model. The size distribution of aerosols is proved to be an important factor in determining the aerosols' fate within the convective cloud. Nucleation mode aerosols (02SO4. Accumulation mode aerosols (d>?31.0 nm) are almost completely removed by nucleation (activation of cloud droplets) and impact scavenging. However, a substantial part (up to 10% of the boundary layer concentration) of the Aitken mode aerosol population (5.84 nm<?d<?31.0 nm) reaches the top of the cloud and the free troposphere. These particles may continually survive in the upper troposphere, or over time form ice crystals, both that could impact the atmospheric radiative budget. The sensitivity simulations performed indicate that critical processes in the model causing a substantial change in the upper tropospheric Aitken mode number concentration are coagulation, condensation, nucleation scavenging, nucleation of aerosols and the transfer of aerosol mass and number between different aerosol bins. In particular, for aerosols in the Aitken mode to grow to CCN size, coagulation appears to be more important than condensation. Less important processes are dry deposition, impact scavenging and the initial vertical distribution and concentration of aerosols. It is interesting to note that in order to sustain a vigorous storm cloud, the supply of CCN must be continuous over a considerably long time period of the simulation. Hence, the treatment of the growth of particles is in general much more important than the initial aerosol concentration itself

Oxidation states and magnetism of Fe nanoparticles prepared by a laser evaporation technique

Nanoparticles of iron and iron oxide have been prepared in a thermal diffusion cloud chamber using pulsed laser evaporation. SEM/TEM studies of these particles reveal a size distribution with a mean diameter of about 60 Å. This is consistent with the mean particle size estimated from the magnetic data. The oxidation levels of these nanoparticles prepared at different partial oxygen pressures were investigated using FTIR. All the samples are found to exhibit superparamagnetism with blocking temperatures ranging from 50 K to above room temperature. Magnetic anisotropy constants are calculated from the frequency dependence of the blocking temperatures are found to be one quarter of magnitude higher than is known for the bulk

Spherical functions on the de Sitter group

Matrix elements and spherical functions of irreducible representations of the de Sitter group are studied on the various homogeneous spaces of this group. It is shown that a universal covering of the de Sitter group gives rise to quaternion Euler angles. An explicit form of Casimir and Laplace-Beltrami operators on the homogeneous spaces is given. Different expressions of the matrix elements and spherical functions are given in terms of multiple hypergeometric functions both for finite-dimensional and unitary representations of the principal series of the de Sitter group.Comment: 40 page

Electromagnetic properties of non-Dirac particles with rest spin 1/2

We resolve a number of questions related to an analytic description of electromagnetic form factors of non-Dirac particles with the rest spin 1/2. We find the general structure of a matrix antisymmetric tensor operator. We obtain two recurrence relations for matrix elements of finite transformations of the proper Lorentz group and explicit formulas for a certain set of such elements. Within the theory of fields with double symmetry, we discuss writing the components of wave vectors of particles in the form of infinite continued fractions. We show that for $Q^{2} \leq 0.5$ (GeV/c)$^{2}$, where $Q^{2}$ is the transferred momentum squared, electromagnetic form factors that decrease as $Q^{2}$ increases and are close to those experimentally observed in the proton can be obtained without explicitly introducing an internal particle structure.Comment: 18 pages, 2 figure

A pseudo-Lagrangian model study of the size distribution properties over Scandinavia: transport from Aspvreten to Värriö

International audienceThe evolution of the aerosol size distribution during transport between Aspvreten (58.8° N, 17.4° E) and Värriö (67.46° N, 29.35° E) was studied using a pseudo-Lagrangian approach. Aerosol dynamic processes were studied and interpreted utilizing a state-of-the-art aerosol dynamic box model UHMA (University of Helsinki Multicomponent Aerosol model) complemented with OH, NO3, O3 and terpene chemistry. In the model simulations, the growth and formation of aerosol particles was controlled by sulphuric acid, ammonia, water and an unidentified low volatile organic compound. This organic compound was assumed to be a product of terpene oxidation with a yield of 13% in the base case conditions. Changes of aerosol size distribution properties during transport between the stations were examined in twelve clear sky cases. On average, the modelled number agreed fairly well with observations. Mass concentration was overestimated by 10%. Apart from dilution, the only removal mechanism for aerosol mass is dry deposition. A series of sensitivity tests performed revealed that the absolute magnitude of dry deposition effects on the aerosol size distribution is slow overall. Furthermore, nucleation does not leave a significant contribution to aerosol number in the selected cases. The sensitivity of the modelled size distribution to concentration of precursor gases and oxidants is, however, obvious. In order to explain observed mass increase during transport we conclude that a yield of low volatile products from oxidation of terpenes of 10?15% is required to explain observed growth rates. Coagulation is acknowledged to be highly important in modelled cases