Resonant Interactions Between Protons and Oblique Alfv\'en/Ion-Cyclotron Waves

Resonant interactions between ions and Alfv\'en/ion-cyclotron (A/IC) waves may play an important role in the heating and acceleration of the fast solar wind. Although such interactions have been studied extensively for "parallel" waves, whose wave vectors ${\bf k}$ are aligned with the background magnetic field ${\bf B}_0$, much less is known about interactions between ions and oblique A/IC waves, for which the angle $\theta$ between ${\bf k}$ and ${\bf B}_0$ is nonzero. In this paper, we present new numerical results on resonant cyclotron interactions between protons and oblique A/IC waves in collisionless low-beta plasmas such as the solar corona. We find that if some mechanism generates oblique high-frequency A/IC waves, then these waves initially modify the proton distribution function in such a way that it becomes unstable to parallel waves. Parallel waves are then amplified to the point that they dominate the wave energy at the large parallel wave numbers at which the waves resonate with the particles. Pitch-angle scattering by these waves then causes the plasma to evolve towards a state in which the proton distribution is constant along a particular set of nested "scattering surfaces" in velocity space, whose shapes have been calculated previously. As the distribution function approaches this state, the imaginary part of the frequency of parallel A/IC waves drops continuously towards zero, but oblique waves continue to undergo cyclotron damping while simultaneously causing protons to diffuse across these kinetic shells to higher energies. We conclude that oblique A/IC waves can be more effective at heating protons than parallel A/IC waves, because for oblique waves the plasma does not relax towards a state in which proton damping of oblique A/IC waves ceases

Molecular gas associated with IRAS 10361-5830

We analyze the distribution of the molecular gas and the dust in the molecular clump linked to IRAS 10361-5830, located in the environs of the bubble-shaped HII region Gum 31 in the Carina region, with the aim of determining the main parameters of the associated material and investigating the evolutionary state of the young stellar objects identified there. Using the APEX telescope, we mapped the molecular emission in the J=3-2 transition of three CO isotopologues, 12CO, 13CO and C18O, over a 1.5' x 1.5' region around the IRAS position. We also observed the high density tracers CS and HCO+ toward the source. The cold dust distribution was analyzed using submillimeter continuum data at 870 \mu\ obtained with the APEX telescope. Complementary IR and radio data at different wavelengths were used to complete the study of the ISM. The molecular gas distribution reveals a cavity and a shell-like structure of ~ 0.32 pc in radius centered at the position of the IRAS source, with some young stellar objects (YSOs) projected onto the cavity. The total molecular mass in the shell and the mean H$_2$ volume density are ~ 40 solar masses and ~(1-2) x 10$^3$ cm$^{-3}$, respectively. The cold dust counterpart of the molecular shell has been detected in the far-IR at 870 \mu\ and in Herschel data at 350 \mu. Weak extended emission at 24 \mu\ from warm dust is projected onto the cavity, as well as weak radio continuum emission. A comparison of the distribution of cold and warm dust, and molecular and ionized gas allows us to conclude that a compact HII region has developed in the molecular clump, indicating that this is an area of recent massive star formation. Probable exciting sources capable of creating the compact HII region are investigated. The 2MASS source 10380461-5846233 (MSX G286.3773-00.2563) seems to be responsible for the formation of the HII region.Comment: Accepted in A&A. 11 pages, 10 Postscript figure

Source amplitudes for active exterior cloaking

The active cloak comprises a discrete set of multipole sources that destructively interfere with an incident time harmonic scalar wave to produce zero total field over a finite spatial region. For a given number of sources and their positions in two dimensions it is shown that the multipole amplitudes can be expressed as infinite sums of the coefficients of the incident wave decomposed into regular Bessel functions. The field generated by the active sources vanishes in the infinite region exterior to a set of circles defined by the relative positions of the sources. The results provide a direct solution to the inverse problem of determining the source amplitudes. They also define a broad class of non-radiating discrete sources.Comment: 21 pages, 17 figure

The Calcium Triplet metallicity calibration for galactic bulge stars

We present a new calibration of the Calcium II Triplet equivalent widths versus [Fe/H], constructed upon K giant stars in the Galactic bulge. This calibration will be used to derive iron abundances for the targets of the GIBS survey, and in general it is especially suited for solar and supersolar metallicity giants, typical of external massive galaxies. About 150 bulge K giants were observed with the GIRAFFE spectrograph at VLT, both at resolution R~20,000 and at R~6,000. In the first case, the spectra allowed us to perform direct determination of Fe abundances from several unblended Fe lines, deriving what we call here high resolution [Fe/H] measurements. The low resolution spectra allowed us to measure equivalent widths of the two strongest lines of the near infrared Calcium II triplet at 8542 and 8662 A. By comparing the two measurements we derived a relation between Calcium equivalent widths and [Fe/H] that is linear over the metallicity range probed here, -1<[Fe/H]<+0.7. By adding a small second order correction, based on literature globular cluster data, we derived the unique calibration equation [Fe/H]$_{CaT} = -3.150 + 0.432W' + 0.006W'^2$, with a rms dispersion of 0.197 dex, valid across the whole metallicity range -2.3<[Fe/H]<+0.7.Comment: Accepted for publication in A&

Effects of lattice distortion and Jahn–Teller coupling on the magnetoresistance of La0.7Ca0.3MnO3 and La0.5Ca0.5CoO3 epitaxial films

Studies of La0.7Ca0.3MnO3 epitaxial films on substrates with a range of lattice constants reveal two dominant contributions to the occurrence of colossal negative magnetoresistance (CMR) in these manganites: at high temperatures (T → TC, TC being the Curie temperature), the magnetotransport properties are predominantly determined by the conduction of lattice polarons, while at low temperatures (T ≪ TC/, the residual negative magnetoresistance is correlated with the substrate-induced lattice distortion which incurs excess magnetic domain wall scattering. The importance of lattice polaron conduction associated with the presence of Jahn–Teller coupling in the manganites is further verified by comparing the manganites with epitaxial films of another ferromagnetic perovskite, La0.5Ca0.5CoO3. Regardless of the differences in the substrate-induced lattice distortion, the cobaltite films exhibit much smaller negative magnetoresistance, which may be attributed to the absence of Jahn–Teller coupling and the high electron mobility that prevents the formation of lattice polarons. We therefore suggest that lattice polaron conduction associated with the Jahn–Teller coupling is essential for the occurrence of CMR, and that lattice distortion further enhances the CMR effects in the manganites

Hyperelastic cloaking theory: Transformation elasticity with pre-stressed solids

Transformation elasticity, by analogy with transformation acoustics and optics, converts material domains without altering wave properties, thereby enabling cloaking and related effects. By noting the similarity between transformation elasticity and the theory of incremental motion superimposed on finite pre-strain it is shown that the constitutive parameters of transformation elasticity correspond to the density and moduli of small-on-large theory. The formal equivalence indicates that transformation elasticity can be achieved by selecting a particular finite (hyperelastic) strain energy function, which for isotropic elasticity is semilinear strain energy. The associated elastic transformation is restricted by the requirement of statically equilibrated pre-stress. This constraint can be cast as \tr {\mathbf F} = constant, where $\mathbf{F}$ is the deformation gradient, subject to symmetry constraints, and its consequences are explored both analytically and through numerical examples of cloaking of anti-plane and in-plane wave motion.Comment: 20 pages, 5 figure

How light can the lightest neutralino be?

In this talk we summarize previous work on mass bounds of a light neutralino in the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model. We show that without the GUT relation between the gaugino mass parameters M_1 and M_2, the mass of the lightest neutralino is essentially unconstrained by collider bounds and precision observables. We conclude by considering also the astrophysics and cosmology of a light neutralino.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures, to appear in the proceedings of the 16th International Symposium on Particles, Strings and Cosmology (PASCOS2010), Valencia (Spain), July 19th - 23rd, 201

Toward Understanding Personalities Working on Computer: A Preliminary Study Focusing on Collusion/Plagiarism

Ample research has been carried out in the area of collusion, plagiarism and e-learning. Collusion is a form of active cheating where two or more parties secretly or illegally corporate. Collusion is at the root of common knowledge plagiarism. While plagiarism requires two or more entities to compare, collusion can be determined in isolation. It is also possible that collusion do not lead to positive plagiarism checks. It is therefore the aims of this preliminary study to: (i) identify the factors responsible for collusion in e-learning (ii) determine the prominent factor that is representative of collusion and (iii) through user behaviour including, but not limited to, application switching time, determine collusion. We claim that user computer activities and application processes can help understand user behaviour during assessment task. It is on this premise that we develop a machine learning model to predict collusion through user behaviour during assessment tas

Enhancement of near-cloaking. Part II: the Helmholtz equation

The aim of this paper is to extend the method of improving cloaking structures in the conductivity to scattering problems. We construct very effective near-cloaking structures for the scattering problem at a fixed frequency. These new structures are, before using the transformation optics, layered structures and are designed so that their first scattering coefficients vanish. Inside the cloaking region, any target has near-zero scattering cross section for a band of frequencies. We analytically show that our new construction significantly enhances the cloaking effect for the Helmholtz equation.Comment: 16pages, 12 fugure

Effective gravity from a quantum gauge theory in Euclidean space-time

We consider a $SO(d)$ gauge theory in an Euclidean $d$-dimensional space-time, which is known to be renormalizable to all orders in perturbation theory for $2\le{d}\le4$. Then, with the help of a space-time representation of the gauge group, the gauge theory is mapped into a curved space-time with linear connection. Further, in that mapping the gauge field plays the role of the linear connection of the curved space-time and an effective metric tensor arises naturally from the mapping. The obtained action, being quadratic in the Riemann-Christoffel tensor, at a first sight, spoils a gravity interpretation of the model. Thus, we provide a sketch of a mechanism that breaks the $SO(d)$ color invariance and generates the Einstein-Hilbert term, as well as a cosmological constant term, allowing an interpretation of the model as a modified gravity in the Palatini formalism. In that sense, gravity can be visualized as an effective classical theory, originated from a well defined quantum gauge theory. We also show that, in the four dimensional case, two possibilities for particular solutions of the field equations are the de Sitter and Anti de Sitter space-times.Comment: 20 pages; Final version accepted for publication in Class.Quant.Gra