Zeeman-Tomography of the Solar Photosphere -- 3-Dimensional Surface Structures Retrieved from Hinode Observations

AIMS :The thermodynamic and magnetic field structure of the solar photosphere is analyzed by means of a novel 3-dimensional spectropolarimetric inversion and reconstruction technique. METHODS : On the basis of high-resolution, mixed-polarity magnetoconvection simulations, we used an artificial neural network (ANN) model to approximate the nonlinear inverse mapping between synthesized Stokes spectra and the underlying stratification of atmospheric parameters like temperature, line-of-sight (LOS) velocity and LOS magnetic field. This approach not only allows us to incorporate more reliable physics into the inversion process, it also enables the inversion on an absolute geometrical height scale, which allows the subsequent combination of individual line-of-sight stratifications to obtain a complete 3-dimensional reconstruction (tomography) of the observed area. RESULTS : The magnetoconvection simulation data, as well as the ANN inversion, have been properly processed to be applicable to spectropolarimetric observations from the Hinode satellite. For the first time, we show 3-dimensional tomographic reconstructions (temperature, LOS velocity, and LOS magnetic field) of a quiet sun region observed by Hinode. The reconstructed area covers a field of approximately 12000 by 12000 km and a height range of 510 km in the photosphere. An enormous variety of small and large scale structures can be identified in the 3-D reconstructions. The low-flux region (B_{mag} = 20G) we analyzed exhibits a number of "tube-like" magnetic structures with field strengths of several hundred Gauss. Most of these structures rapidly loose their strength with height and only a few larger structures can retain a higher field strength to the upper layers of the photosphere.Comment: accepted for A&A Letter

Writing in your own voice: An intervention that reduces plagiarism and common writing problems in students' scientific writing.

In many of our courses, particularly laboratory courses, students are expected to engage in scientific writing. Despite various efforts by other courses and library resources, as instructors we are often faced with the frustration of student plagiarism and related writing problems. Here, we describe a simple Writing in Your Own Voice intervention designed to help students become more aware of different types of plagiarism and writing problems, avoid those problems, and practice writing in their own voice. In this article, we will introduce the types of plagiarism and writing problems commonly encountered in our molecular biology laboratory course, the intervention, and the results of our study. From the evaluation of 365 student reports, we found the intervention resulted in nearly 50% fewer instances of plagiarism and common writing problems. We also observed significantly fewer instances of severe plagiarism (e.g. several sentences copied from an external source). In addition, we find that the effects last for several weeks after the students complete the intervention assignment. This assignment is particularly easy to implement and can be a very useful tool for teaching students how to write in their own voices. © 2019 International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, 47(5):589-598, 2019

A fast method for Stokes profile synthesis -- Radiative transfer modeling for ZDI and Stokes profile inversion

The major challenges for a fully polarized radiative transfer driven approach to Zeeman-Doppler imaging are still the enormous computational requirements. In every cycle of the iterative interplay between the forward process (spectral synthesis) and the inverse process (derivative based optimization) the Stokes profile synthesis requires several thousand evaluations of the polarized radiative transfer equation for a given stellar surface model. To cope with these computational demands and to allow for the incorporation of a full Stokes profile synthesis into Doppler- and Zeeman-Doppler imaging applications as well as into large scale solar Stokes profile inversions, we present a novel fast and accurate synthesis method for calculating local Stokes profiles. Our approach is based on artificial neural network models, which we use to approximate the complex non-linear mapping between the most important atmospheric parameters and the corresponding Stokes profiles. A number of specialized artificial neural networks, are used to model the functional relation between the model atmosphere, magnetic field strength, field inclination, and field azimuth, on one hand and the individual components (I,Q,U,V) of the Stokes profiles, on the other hand. We performed an extensive statistical evaluation and show that our new approach yields accurate local as well as disk-integrated Stokes profiles over a wide range of atmospheric conditions. The mean rms errors for the Stokes I and V profiles are well below 0.2% compared to the exact numerical solution. Errors for Stokes Q and U are in the range of 1%. Our approach does not only offer an accurate approximation to the LTE polarized radiative transfer it, moreover, accelerates the synthesis by a factor of more than 1000.Comment: A&A, in pres

Rippled Cosmological Dark Matter from Damped Oscillating Newton Constant

Let the reciprocal Newton 'constant' be an apparently non-dynamical Brans-Dicke scalar field damped oscillating towards its General Relativistic VEV. We show, without introducing additional matter fields or dust, that the corresponding cosmological evolution averagely resembles, in the Jordan frame, the familiar dark radiation -> dark matter -> dark energy domination sequence. The fingerprints of our theory are fine ripples, hopefully testable, in the FRW scale factor; they die away at the General Relativity limit. The possibility that the Brans-Dicke scalar also serves as the inflaton is favorably examined.Comment: RevTex4, 12 pages, 5 figures; Minor revision, References adde

Gott time machines in the Anti-de Sitter space

In 1991 Gott presented a solution of Einstein's field equations in 2+1 dimensions with $\Lambda = 0$ that contained closed timelike curves (CTC's). This solution was remarkable because at first it did not seem to be unphysical in any other respect. Later, however, it was shown that Gott's solution is tachyonic in a certain sense. Here the case $\Lambda < 0$ is discussed. We show that it is possible to construct CTC's also in this case, in a way analogous to that used by Gott. We also show that this construction still is tachyonic. $\Lambda < 0$ means that we are dealing with Anti-de Sitter space, and since the CTC-construction necessitates some understanding of its structure, a few pages are devoted to this subject.Comment: 11 page

Anti-solar differential rotation on the active sub-giant HU Virginis

Measuring surface differential rotation (DR) on different types of stars is important when characterizing the underlying stellar dynamo. It has been suggested that anti-solar DR laws can occur when strong meridional flows exist. We aim to investigate the differential surface rotation on the primary star of the RS CVn binary HU Vir by tracking its starspot distribution as a function of time. We also aim to recompute and update the values for several system parameters of the triple system HU Vir (close and wide orbits). Time-series high-resolution spectroscopy for four continuous months was obtained with the 1.2-m robotic STELLA telescope. Nine consecutive Doppler images were reconstructed from these data, using our line-profile inversion code iMap. An image cross-correlation method was applied to derive the surface differential-rotation law for HU Vir. New orbital elements for the close and the wide orbits were computed using our new STELLA radial velocities (RVs) combined with the RV data available in the literature. Photometric observations were performed with the Amadeus Automatic Photoelectric Telescope (APT), providing contemporaneous Johnson-Cousins $V$ and $I$ data for approximately 20 years. This data was used to determine the stellar rotation period and the active longitudes. We confirm anti-solar DR with a surface shear parameter $\alpha$ of -0.029 $\pm$ 0.005 and -0.026 $\pm$ 0.009, using single-term and double-term differential rotation laws, respectively. The best fit is achieved assuming a solar-like double-term law with a lap time of $\approx$ 400 d. Our orbital solutions result in a period of 10.387678 $\pm$ 0.000003 days for the close orbit and 2726 $\pm$ 7 d ($\approx$ 7.5 yr) for the wide orbit. A Lomb-Scarge (L-S) periodogram of the pre-whitened $V$-band data reveals a strong single peak providing a rotation period of 10.391 $\pm$ 0.008 d.Comment: Accepted for publication in A&