Laboratory guide to early life history stages of northeast Pacific fishes

This laboratory guide presents taxonomic information on eggs and larvae of fishes of the Northeast Pacific Ocean (north of California) and the eastern Bering Sea. Included are early-life-history series, illustrations, and comparative descriptions of 232 species expected to spawn here, out of a total 627 species known to occur in marine waters of this area. Meristic and general life-history data are included, as well as diagnostic characters to help identify eggs and larvae. Most of this information has been gleaned from literature, with the addition of 200 previously unpublished illustrations. (PDF file contains 654 pages.

Conjugate times and regularity of the minimum time function with differential inclusions

This paper studies the regularity of the minimum time function, $T(\cdot)$, for a control system with a general closed target, taking the state equation in the form of a differential inclusion. Our first result is a sensitivity relation which guarantees the propagation of the proximal subdifferential of $T$ along any optimal trajectory. Then, we obtain the local $C^2$ regularity of the minimum time function along optimal trajectories by using such a relation to exclude the presence of conjugate times

Towards two-dimensional metallic behavior at LaAlO3/SrTiO3 interfaces

Using a low-temperature conductive-tip atomic force microscope in cross-section geometry we have characterized the local transport properties of the metallic electron gas that forms at the interface between LaAlO3 and SrTiO3. At low temperature, we find that the carriers do not spread away from the interface but are confined within ~10 nm, just like at room temperature. Simulations taking into account both the large temperature and electric-field dependence of the permittivity of SrTiO3 predict a confinement over a few nm for sheet carrier densities larger than ~6 10^13 cm-2. We discuss the experimental and simulations results in terms of a multi-band carrier system. Remarkably, the Fermi wavelength estimated from Hall measurements is ~16 nm, indicating that the electron gas in on the verge of two-dimensionality.Comment: Accepted for publication in Physical Review Letter

Inelastic Coulomb scattering rates due to acoustic and optical plasmon modes in coupled quantum wires

We report a theoretical study on the inelastic Coulomb scattering rate of an injected electron in two coupled quantum wires in quasi-one-dimensional doped semiconductors. Two peaks appear in the scattering spectrum due to the optical and the acoustic plasmon scattering in the system. We find that the scattering rate due to the optical plasmon mode is similar to that in a single wire but the acoustic plasmon scattering depends crucially on its dispersion relation at small $q$. Furthermore, the effects of tunneling between the two wires are studied on the inelastic Coulomb scattering rate. We show that a weak tunneling can strongly affect the acoustic plasmon scattering.Comment: 6 Postscript figure

Probing the atmosphere of the bulge G5III star OGLE-2002-BUL-069 by analysis of microlense H alpha line

We discuss high-resolution, time-resolved spectra of the caustic exit of the binary microlensing event OGLE 2002-BUL-69 obtained with UVES on the VLT. The source star is a G5III giant in the Galactic Bulge. During such events, the source star is highly magnified, and a strong differential magnification around the caustic resolves its surface. Using an appropriate model stellar atmosphere generated by the NextGEN code we obtained a model light curve for the caustic exit and compared it with a dense set of photometric observations obtained by the PLANET microlensing follow up network. We further compared predicted variations in the H alpha equivalent width with those measured from our spectra. While the model and observations agree in the gross features, there are discrepancies suggesting shortcomings in the model, particularly for the H alpha line core, where we have detected amplified emission from the stellar chromosphere as the source star's trailing limb exited the caustic. This achievement became possible by the provision of the OGLE-III Early Warning System, a network of small telescopes capable of nearly-continuous round-the-clock photometric monitoring, on-line data reduction, daily near-real-time modelling in order to predict caustic crossing parameters, and a fast and efficient response of a 8m-class telescope to a ``Target-Of-Opportunity'' observation request.Comment: 4 pages Latex, 3 figures, accepted for publication to astronomy and astrophysics letter

Towards A Census of Earth-mass Exo-planets with Gravitational Microlensing

Thirteen exo-planets have been discovered using the gravitational microlensing technique (out of which 7 have been published). These planets already demonstrate that super-Earths (with mass up to ~10 Earth masses) beyond the snow line are common and multiple planet systems are not rare. In this White Paper we introduce the basic concepts of the gravitational microlensing technique, summarise the current mode of discovery and outline future steps towards a complete census of planets including Earth-mass planets. In the near-term (over the next 5 years) we advocate a strategy of automated follow-up with existing and upgraded telescopes which will significantly increase the current planet detection efficiency. In the medium 5-10 year term, we envision an international network of wide-field 2m class telescopes to discover Earth-mass and free-floating exo-planets. In the long (10-15 year) term, we strongly advocate a space microlensing telescope which, when combined with Kepler, will provide a complete census of planets down to Earth mass at almost all separations. Such a survey could be undertaken as a science programme on Euclid, a dark energy probe with a wide-field imager which has been proposed to ESA's Cosmic Vision Programme.Comment: 10 pages. White Paper submission to the ESA Exo-Planet Roadmap Advisory Team. See also "Inferring statistics of planet populations by means of automated microlensing searches" by M. Dominik et al. (arXiv:0808.0004

On the Afterglow of the X-ray Flash of 2003 July 23: Photometric evdence for an Off-Axis Gamma-Ray burst with an Associated Supernova

Peer reviewe

An effective mass theorem for the bidimensional electron gas in a strong magnetic field

We study the limiting behavior of a singularly perturbed Schr\"odinger-Poisson system describing a 3-dimensional electron gas strongly confined in the vicinity of a plane $(x,y)$ and subject to a strong uniform magnetic field in the plane of the gas. The coupled effects of the confinement and of the magnetic field induce fast oscillations in time that need to be averaged out. We obtain at the limit a system of 2-dimensional Schr\"odinger equations in the plane $(x,y)$, coupled through an effective selfconsistent electrical potential. In the direction perpendicular to the magnetic field, the electron mass is modified by the field, as the result of an averaging of the cyclotron motion. The main tools of the analysis are the adaptation of the second order long-time averaging theory of ODEs to our PDEs context, and the use of a Sobolev scale adapted to the confinement operator