875 research outputs found
Sunspot areas and tilt angles for solar cycles 7-10
Extending the knowledge about the properties of solar cycles into the past is
essential for understanding the solar dynamo. This paper aims at estimating
areas of sunspots observed by Schwabe in 1825-1867 and at calculating the tilt
angles of sunspot groups. The sunspot sizes in Schwabe's drawings are not to
scale and need to be converted into physical sunspot areas. We employed a
statistical approach assuming that the area distribution of sunspots was the
same in the 19th century as it was in the 20th century. Umbral areas for about
130,000 sunspots observed by Schwabe were obtained, as well as the tilt angles
of sunspot groups assuming them to be bipolar. There is, of course, no polarity
information in the observations. The annually averaged sunspot areas correlate
reasonably with sunspot number. We derived an average tilt angle by attempting
to exclude unipolar groups with a minimum separation of the two alleged
polarities and an outlier rejection method which follows the evolution of each
group and detects the moment it turns unipolar at its decay. As a result, the
tilt angles, although displaying considerable scatter, place the leading
polarity on average 5.85+-0.25 closer to the equator, in good agreement with
tilt angles obtained from 20th-century data sets. Sources of uncertainties in
the tilt angle determination are discussed and need to be addressed whenever
different data sets are combined. The sunspot area and tilt angle data are
provided online.Comment: accepted for publication in Astron. & Astrophy
Soliton spiraling in optically-induced rotating Bessel lattices
We address soliton spiraling in optical lattices induced by multiple coherent
Bessel beams and show that the dynamical nature of such lattices make them able
to drag different soliton structures, setting them into rotation. The rotation
rate can be controlled by varying the topological charges of lattice-inducing
Bessel beams.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figures, to appear in Optics Letter
Ellipticine and benzo(a)pyrene increase their own metabolic activation via modulation of expression and enzymatic activity of cytochromes P450 1A1 and 1A2
Two compounds known to covalently bind to DNA after their activation with cytochromes P450 (CYPs), carcinogenic benzo(a)pyrene (BaP) and an antineoplastic agent ellipticine, were investigated for their potential to induce CYP and NADPH:CYP reductase (POR) enzymes in rodent livers, the main target organ for DNA adduct formation. Two animal models were used in the study: (i) rats as animals mimicking the fate of ellipticine in humans and (ii) mice, especially wild-type (WT) and hepatic POR null (HRN™) mouse lines. Ellipticine and BaP induce expression of CYP1A enzymes in livers of experimental models, which leads to increase in their enzymatic activity. In addition, both compounds are capable of generating DNA adducts, predominantly in livers of studied organisms. As determined by 32P postlabelling analysis, levels of ellipticine-derived DNA adducts formed in vivo in the livers of HRN™ mice were reduced (by up to 65%) relative to levels in WT mice, indicating that POR mediated CYP enzyme activity is important for the activation of ellipticine. In contrast to these results, 6.4 fold higher DNA binding of BaP was observed in the livers of HRN™ mice than in WT mice. This finding suggests a detoxication role of CYP1A in BaP metabolism in vivo. In in vitro experiments, DNA adduct formation in calf thymus DNA was up to 25 fold higher in incubations of ellipticine or BaP with microsomes from pretreated animals than with controls. This stimulation effect was attributed to induction of CYP1A1/2 enzymes, which are responsible for oxidative activation of both compounds to the metabolites generating major DNA adducts in vitro. Taken together, these results demonstrate that by inducing CYP1A1/2, ellipticine and BaP modulate their own enzymatic metabolic activation and detoxication, thereby modulating their either pharmacological (ellipticine) and/or genotoxic potential (both compounds)
Doppler images and the underlying dynamo. The case of AF Leporis
The (Zeeman-)Doppler imaging studies of solar-type stars very often reveal
large high-latitude spots. This also includes F stars that possess relatively
shallow convection zones, indicating that the dynamo operating in these stars
differs from the solar dynamo. We aim to determine whether mean-field dynamo
models of late-F type dwarf stars can reproduce the surface features recovered
in Doppler maps. In particular, we wish to test whether the models can
reproduce the high-latitude spots observed on some F dwarfs. The photometric
inversions and the surface temperature maps of AF Lep were obtained using the
Occamian-approach inversion technique. Low signal-to-noise spectroscopic data
were improved by applying the least-squares deconvolution method. The locations
of strong magnetic flux in the stellar tachocline as well as the surface fields
obtained from mean-field dynamo solutions were compared with the observed
surface temperature maps. The photometric record of AF Lep reveals both long-
and short-term variability. However, the current data set is too short for
cycle-length estimates. From the photometry, we have determined the rotation
period of the star to be 0.9660+-0.0023 days. The surface temperature maps show
a dominant, but evolving, high-latitude (around +65 degrees) spot. Detailed
study of the photometry reveals that sometimes the spot coverage varies only
marginally over a long time, and at other times it varies rapidly. Of a suite
of dynamo models, the model with a radiative interior rotating as fast as the
convection zone at the equator delivered the highest compatibility with the
obtained Doppler images.Comment: accepted for publication in Astronomy & Astrophysic
Width of Sunspot Generating Zone and Reconstruction of Butterfly Diagram
Based on the extended Greenwich-NOAA/USAF catalogue of sunspot groups it is
demonstrated that the parameters describing the latitudinal width of the
sunspot generating zone (SGZ) are closely related to the current level of solar
activity, and the growth of the activity leads to the expansion of SGZ. The
ratio of the sunspot number to the width of SGZ shows saturation at a certain
level of the sunspot number, and above this level the increase of the activity
takes place mostly due to the expansion of SGZ. It is shown that the mean
latitudes of sunspots can be reconstructed from the amplitudes of solar
activity. Using the obtained relations and the group sunspot numbers by Hoyt
and Schatten (1998), the latitude distribution of sunspot groups ("the Maunder
butterfly diagram") for the 18th and the first half of the 19th centuries is
reconstructed and compared with historical sunspot observations.Comment: 16 pages, 11 figures; accepted by Solar Physics; the final
publication will be available at www.springerlink.co
Wings of the butterfly: Sunspot groups for 1826–2015
The spatio-temporal evolution of sunspot activity, the so-called Maunder butterfly diagram, has been continously available since 1874 using data from the Royal Greenwich Observatory, extended by SOON network data after 1976. Here we present a new extended butterfly diagram of sunspot group occurrence since 1826, using the recently digitized data from Schwabe (1826–1867) and Spörer (1866–1880). The wings of the diagram are separated using a recently developed method based on an analysis of long gaps in sunspot group occurrence in different latitude bands. We define characteristic latitudes, corresponding to the start, end, and the largest extent of the wings (the F, L, and H latitudes). The H latitudes (30°–45°) are highly significantly correlated with the strength of the wings (quantified by the total sum of the monthly numbers of sunspot groups). The F latitudes (20°–30°) depict a weak tendency, especially in the southern hemisphere, to follow the wing strength. The L latitudes (2°–10°) show no clear relation to the wing strength. Overall, stronger cycle wings tend to start at higher latitudes and have a greater wing extent. A strong (5–6)-cycle periodic oscillation is found in the start and end times of the wings and in the overlap and gaps between successive wings of one hemisphere. While the average wing overlap is zero in the southern hemisphere, it is two to three months in the north. A marginally significant oscillation of about ten solar cycles is found in the asymmetry of the L latitudes. The new long database of butterfly wings provides new observational constraints to solar dynamo models that discuss the spatio-temporal distribution of sunspot occurrence over the solar cycle and longer
Phase Fluctuations in Bose-Einstein Condensates
We demonstrate the existence of phase fluctuations in elongated Bose-Einstein
Condensates (BECs) and study the dependence of those fluctuations on the system
parameters. A strong dependence on temperature, atom number, and trapping
geometry is observed. Phase fluctuations directly affect the coherence
properties of BECs. In particular, we observe instances where the phase
coherence length is significantly smaller than the condensate size. Our method
of detecting phase fluctuations is based on their transformation into density
modulations after ballistic expansion. An analytic theory describing this
transformation is developed.Comment: 11 pages, 7 figure
- …