Yearly variations in Be-7 concentrations in surface air at Iceland and Japan for 15 years from 2003: Solar modulation of cosmogenic nuclide

The Tenth Symposium on Polar Science/Ordinary sessions: [OS] Space and upper atmospheric sciences, Wed. 4 Dec. / Institute of Statistics and Mathematics (ISM) Seminar room 2 (D304) (3rd floor

Fine-pitch and thick-foil gas electron multipliers for cosmic x-ray polarimeters

We have produced various gas electron multiplier foils (GEMs) by using laser etching technique for cosmic X-ray polarimeters. The finest structure GEM we have fabricated has 30 μm-diameter holes on a 50 μm-pitch. The effective gain of the GEM reaches around 5000 at the voltage of 570 V between electrodes. The gain is slightly higher than that of the CERN standard GEM with 70 μm-diameter holes on a 140 μm-pitch. We have fabricated GEMs with thickness of 100 μm which has two times thicker than the standard GEM. The effective gain of the thick-foil GEM is 104 at the applied voltage of 350 V per 50 μm of thickness. The gain is about two orders higher than that of the standard GEM. The remarkable characteristic of the thick-foil GEM is that the effective gain at the beginning of micro-discharge is quite improved. For fabricating the thick-foil GEMs, we have employed new material, liquid crystal polymer (LCP) which has little moisture absorption rate, as an insulator layer instead of polyimide. One of the thick-foil GEM we have fabricated has 8 μm copper layer in the middle of the 100 μm-thick insulator layer. The metal layer in the middle of the foil works as a field-shaper in the multiplication channels, though it slightly decreases the effective gain

Ancient DNA reveals multiple origins and migration waves of extinct Japanese brown bear lineages.

Little is known about how mammalian biogeography on islands was affected by sea-level fluctuations. In the Japanese Archipelago, brown bears (Ursus arctos) currently inhabit only Hokkaido, the northern island, but Pleistocene fossils indicate a past distribution throughout Honshu, Japan's largest island. However, the difficulty of recovering ancient DNA from fossils in temperate East Asia has limited our understanding of their evolutionary history. Here, we analysed mitochondrial DNA from a 32 500-year-old brown bear fossil from Honshu. Our results show that this individual belonged to a previously unknown lineage that split approximately 160 Ka from its sister lineage, the southern Hokkaido clade. This divergence time and fossil record suggest that brown bears migrated from the Eurasian continent to Honshu at least twice; the first population was an early-diverging lineage (greater than 340 Ka), and the second migrated via Hokkaido after approximately 160 Ka, during the ice age. Thus, glacial-age sea-level falls might have facilitated migrations of large mammals more frequently than previously thought, which may have had a substantial impact on ecosystem dynamics in these isolated islands

Development of cosmic x-ray polarimeter

We present a performance study of a cosmic X-ray polarimeter which is based on the photoelectric effect in gas, and sensitive to a few to 30 keV range. In our polarimeter, the key device would be the 50 μm pitch Gas Electron Multiplier (GEM). We have evaluated the modulation factor using highly polarized X-ray, provided by a synchrotron accelerator. In the analysis, we selected events by the eccentricity of the charge cloud of the photoelectron track. As a result, we obtained the relationship between the selection criteria for the eccentricity and the modulation factors; for example, when we selected the events which have their eccentricity of > 0.95, the polarimeter exhibited with the modulation factor of 0.32. In addition, we estimated the Minimum Detectable Polarization degree (MDP) of Crab Nebula with our polarimeter and found 10 ksec observation is enough to detect the polarization, if we adopt suitable X-ray mirrors

Fine-pitch and thick-foil gas electron multipliers for cosmic x-ray polarimeters

We have produced various gas electron multiplier foils (GEMs) by using laser etching technique for cosmic X-ray polarimeters. The finest structure GEM we have fabricated has 30 μm-diameter holes on a 50 μm-pitch. The effective gain of the GEM reaches around 5000 at the voltage of 570 V between electrodes. The gain is slightly higher than that of the CERN standard GEM with 70 μm-diameter holes on a 140 μm-pitch. We have fabricated GEMs with thickness of 100 μm which has two times thicker than the standard GEM. The effective gain of the thick-foil GEM is 104 at the applied voltage of 350 V per 50 μm of thickness. The gain is about two orders higher than that of the standard GEM. The remarkable characteristic of the thick-foil GEM is that the effective gain at the beginning of micro-discharge is quite improved. For fabricating the thick-foil GEMs, we have employed new material, liquid crystal polymer (LCP) which has little moisture absorption rate, as an insulator layer instead of polyimide. One of the thick-foil GEM we have fabricated has 8 μm copper layer in the middle of the 100 μm-thick insulator layer. The metal layer in the middle of the foil works as a field-shaper in the multiplication channels, though it slightly decreases the effective gain

Development of cosmic x-ray polarimeter

We present a performance study of a cosmic X-ray polarimeter which is based on the photoelectric effect in gas, and sensitive to a few to 30 keV range. In our polarimeter, the key device would be the 50 μm pitch Gas Electron Multiplier (GEM). We have evaluated the modulation factor using highly polarized X-ray, provided by a synchrotron accelerator. In the analysis, we selected events by the eccentricity of the charge cloud of the photoelectron track. As a result, we obtained the relationship between the selection criteria for the eccentricity and the modulation factors; for example, when we selected the events which have their eccentricity of > 0.95, the polarimeter exhibited with the modulation factor of 0.32. In addition, we estimated the Minimum Detectable Polarization degree (MDP) of Crab Nebula with our polarimeter and found 10 ksec observation is enough to detect the polarization, if we adopt suitable X-ray mirrors

14

From the 19th International Radiocarbon Conference held in Keble College, Oxford, England, April 3-7, 2006.We have measured the radiocarbon ages of 43 consecutive single-year tree rings using accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) with a statistical accuracy of -2.3 AMS 14C ages of the 36 viable samples are between 2708 and 2666 cal BP, a period in which the 14C of the IntCal04 curve (Reimer et al. 2004) shows an enhancement. The 14C ages of the samples are scattered with a Gaussian distribution around the interpolated IntCal04 calibration curve. The time profile of the deviations of the 36 14C ages from the interpolated IntCal04 calibration curve indicates a linear trend and a characteristic variability rather than a random fluctuation around the curve. The trend indicates a higher gradient than that of the interpolated IntCal04 calibration curve. The profile implies a periodic variation of approximately 11 yr and an amplitude of roughly 18 14C yr.The Radiocarbon archives are made available by Radiocarbon and the University of Arizona Libraries. Contact [email protected] for further information.Migrated from OJS platform February 202