Venera-11 and Venera 12: Preliminary estimates for the wind speed and turbulence in the atmosphere of Venus

The methods and results of measurements for wind speed and atmospheric turbulence in the clouds of Venus are described, and compared with earlier results. The distribution of wind speed obtained from the data of Venera 12 is in good conformity with the data of the preceding Venera and Pioneer probes, indicating the existence of a constant and powerful zonal movement of the troposphere

The degenerate gravitino scenario

In this work, we explore the "degenerate gravitino" scenario where the mass difference between the gravitino and the lightest MSSM particle is much smaller than the gravitino mass itself. In this case, the energy released in the decay of the next to lightest sypersymmetric particle (NLSP) is reduced. Consequently the cosmological and astrophysical constraints on the gravitino abundance, and hence on the reheating temperature, become softer than in the usual case. On the other hand, such small mass splittings generically imply a much longer lifetime for the NLSP. We find that, in the constrained MSSM (CMSSM), for neutralino LSP or NLSP, reheating temperatures compatible with thermal leptogenesis are reached for small splittings of order 10^{-2} GeV. While for stau NLSP, temperatures of 4x10^9 GeV can be obtained even for splittings of order of tens of GeVs. This "degenerate gravitino" scenario offers a possible way out to the gravitino problem for thermal leptogenesis in supersymmetric theories.Comment: 27 pages, 10 figures and 1 table. Minor typos and references fixed. Matches published version in JCAP

A perturbation of DC electric field caused by light ion adhesion to aerosols during the growth in seismic-related atmospheric radioactivity

International audienceThe influence of variations in conductivity and external electric current variations in the lower atmosphere on DC electric field over a seismic region is investigated. The external current is formed with the occurrence of convective upward transport of charged aerosols and their gravitational sedimentation in the atmosphere. This effect is related with the occurrence of ionization source due to seismic-related emanation of radon and other radioactive elements into the lower atmosphere. An increase in atmosphere radioactivity level results in the appearance of additional sources of ionization, and altitude dependence of the ion formation rate is calculated. Ionization source varies the atmospheric conductivity and the external current through appearance of ions with equilibrium number density and their adhesion to aerosols. We have calculated the perturbation of conductivity and external electric current as a function of altitude. Variation of conductivity and external current in the lower atmosphere leads to a perturbation of electric current which flows in the global atmosphere-ionosphere circuit. Finally, perturbations of DC electric field both on the Earth's surface and in the ionosphere are estimated

Resonant spin-dependent electron coupling in a III-V/II-VI heterovalent double quantum well

We report on design, fabrication, and magnetooptical studies of a III-V/II-VI hybrid structure containing a GaAs/AlGaAs/ZnSe/ZnCdMnSe double quantum well (QW). The structure design allows one to tune the QW levels into the resonance, thus facilitating penetration of the electron wave function from the diluted magnetic semiconductor ZnCdMnSe QW into the nonmagnetic GaAs QW and vice versa. Magneto-photoluminescence studies demonstrate level anticrossing and strong intermixing resulting in a drastic renormalization of the electron effective g factor, in perfect agreement with the energy level calculations.Comment: 4 pages, 5 Postscript figures, uses revtex