787 research outputs found
Shell utilization and morphometries of the hermit crab Diogenes brevirostris Stimpson
Fecundity, shell utilization, and crab and associated shell morphometries were investigated for the hermit crab Diogenes brevirostris collected from three intertidal sites in the eastern Cape. The relationship between crab fresh mass and egg number was linear. D. brevirostris was found to occupy 33 gastropod shell species of which Bumupena predominated on the rocky shore (B. lagenaria, 35,9%; B. cincta, 17,5%; B. pubescens, 16,5%) while Bullia was more commonly used near sandy shores (S. armulata, 4%; B. digitalis, 2,7%; B. rhodostoma, 2,5%). Although Oxystele is common, it was hardly used by D. brevirostris (O. sinensis, 2,7%). Whereas shell type (Bumupena lagenaria, B. cincta, B. pubescens and Bullia rhodostoma) was found to have no significant influence on the crab length/mass relationships, significant differences were found between elevations but not slopes of the fresh mass/volume relationships (p < 0,05). B. rhodostoma was significantly different from all three species of Bumupena suggesting that small D. brevirostris occupy Bullia shells of a larger volume than a similar-sized crab occupying a Bumupena shell to compensate for the increased âdead spaceâ incurred with a high spire. Overall, there did not appear to be any selection towards low-spired (17 species, n = 264) or high-spired (15 species, n = 262) shell species, but there was when compared for each site (p < 0,01), indicating shell availability to be important. A good size correlation was found between 0. brevirostris and its associated shell suggesting that selection of available material and/or mutualism may occur
Automatic structures, rational growth and geometrically finite hyperbolic groups
We show that the set of equivalence classes of synchronously
automatic structures on a geometrically finite hyperbolic group is dense in
the product of the sets over all maximal parabolic subgroups . The
set of equivalence classes of biautomatic structures on is
isomorphic to the product of the sets over the cusps (conjugacy
classes of maximal parabolic subgroups) of . Each maximal parabolic is a
virtually abelian group, so and were computed in ``Equivalent
automatic structures and their boundaries'' by M.Shapiro and W.Neumann, Intern.
J. of Alg. Comp. 2 (1992) We show that any geometrically finite hyperbolic
group has a generating set for which the full language of geodesics for is
regular. Moreover, the growth function of with respect to this generating
set is rational. We also determine which automatic structures on such a group
are equivalent to geodesic ones. Not all are, though all biautomatic structures
are.Comment: Plain Tex, 26 pages, no figure
A stable FSI algorithm for light rigid bodies in compressible flow
In this article we describe a stable partitioned algorithm that overcomes the
added mass instability arising in fluid-structure interactions of light rigid
bodies and inviscid compressible flow. The new algorithm is stable even for
bodies with zero mass and zero moments of inertia. The approach is based on a
local characteristic projection of the force on the rigid body and is a natural
extension of the recently developed algorithm for coupling compressible flow
and deformable bodies. Normal mode analysis is used to prove the stability of
the approximation for a one-dimensional model problem and numerical
computations confirm these results. In multiple space dimensions the approach
naturally reveals the form of the added mass tensors in the equations governing
the motion of the rigid body. These tensors, which depend on certain surface
integrals of the fluid impedance, couple the translational and angular
velocities of the body. Numerical results in two space dimensions, based on the
use of moving overlapping grids and adaptive mesh refinement, demonstrate the
behavior and efficacy of the new scheme. These results include the simulation
of the difficult problem of a shock impacting an ellipse of zero mass.Comment: 32 pages, 20 figure
Variable-Speed-of-Light Cosmology from Brane World Scenario
We argue that the four-dimensional universe on the TeV brane of the
Randall-Sundrum scenario takes the bimetric structure of Clayton and Moffat,
with gravitons traveling faster than photons instead, while the radion varies
with time. We show that such brane world bimetric model can thereby solve the
flatness and the cosmological constant problems, provided the speed of a
graviton decreases to the present day value rapidly enough. The resolution of
other cosmological problems such as the horizon problem and the monopole
problem requires supplementation by inflation, which may be achieved by the
radion field provided the radion potential satisfies the slow-roll
approximation.Comment: 18 pages, LaTeX, revised version to appear in Phys. Rev.
Torsion Constraints in the Randall--Sundrum Scenario
Torsion appears due to fermions coupled to gravity and leads to the strongest
particle physics bounds on flat extra dimensions. In this work, we consider
torsion constraints in the case of a warped extra dimension with brane and bulk
fermions. From current data we obtain a 3-sigma bound on the TeV--brane mass
scale scale \Lambda_\pi > 2.2 (10) TeV for the AdS curvature k=1 (0.01) in
(reduced) Planck units. If Dirac or light sterile neutrinos reside on the
brane, the bound increases to 17 (78) TeV.Comment: typos corrected, matches the Phys. Rev. D versio
The ecology of sex explains patterns of helping in arthropod societies
Authors thank the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NGD), the Clarendon Fund (NGD) and the Natural Environment Research Council (LR, NE/K009516/1; AG, NE/K009524/1) for funding.Across arthropod societies, sib-rearing (e.g. nursing or nest defence) may be provided by females, by males or by both sexes. According to Hamilton's âhaplodiploidy hypothesisâ, this diversity reflects the relatedness consequences of diploid vs. haplodiploid inheritance. However, an alternative âpreadaptation hypothesisâ instead emphasises an interplay of ecology and the co-option of ancestral, sexually dimorphic traits for sib-rearing. The preadaptation hypothesis has recently received empirical support, but remains to be formalised. Here, we mathematically model the coevolution of sex-specific helping and sex allocation, contrasting these hypotheses. We find that ploidy per se has little effect. Rather, the ecology of sex shapes patterns of helping: sex-specific preadaptation strongly influences who helps; a freely adjustable sex ratio magnifies sex biases and promotes helping; and sib-mating, promiscuity, and reproductive autonomy also modulate the sex and abundance of helpers. An empirical survey reveals that patterns of sex-specific helping in arthropod taxa are consistent with the preadaptation hypothesis.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe
Tidal friction in close-in satellites and exoplanets. The Darwin theory re-visited
This report is a review of Darwin's classical theory of bodily tides in which
we present the analytical expressions for the orbital and rotational evolution
of the bodies and for the energy dissipation rates due to their tidal
interaction. General formulas are given which do not depend on any assumption
linking the tidal lags to the frequencies of the corresponding tidal waves
(except that equal frequency harmonics are assumed to span equal lags).
Emphasis is given to the cases of companions having reached one of the two
possible final states: (1) the super-synchronous stationary rotation resulting
from the vanishing of the average tidal torque; (2) the capture into a 1:1
spin-orbit resonance (true synchronization). In these cases, the energy
dissipation is controlled by the tidal harmonic with period equal to the
orbital period (instead of the semi-diurnal tide) and the singularity due to
the vanishing of the geometric phase lag does not exist. It is also shown that
the true synchronization with non-zero eccentricity is only possible if an
extra torque exists opposite to the tidal torque. The theory is developed
assuming that this additional torque is produced by an equatorial permanent
asymmetry in the companion. The results are model-dependent and the theory is
developed only to the second degree in eccentricity and inclination
(obliquity). It can easily be extended to higher orders, but formal accuracy
will not be a real improvement as long as the physics of the processes leading
to tidal lags is not better known.Comment: 30 pages, 7 figures, corrected typo
A systematic study of the radion in the compact Randall-Sundrum model
We systematically study the question of identification and consistent
inclusion of the radion, within the Lagrangian approach, in a two brane
Randall-Sundrum model. Exploiting the symmetry properties of the theory, we
show how the radion can be identified unambiguously and give the action to all
orders in the radion field and the metric. Using the background field method,
we expand the theory to quadratic orders in the fields. We show that the most
general classical solutions, for the induced metric on the branes in the case
of a constant radion and a factorizable 4D metric, correspond to Einstein
spaces. We discuss extensively the diagonalization of the quadratic action.
Furthermore, we obtain the 4-dimensional effective theory from this and study
the question of the spectrum as well as the couplings in these theories.Comment: revtex, 17 page
Domain wall generation by fermion self-interaction and light particles
A possible explanation for the appearance of light fermions and Higgs bosons
on the four-dimensional domain wall is proposed. The mechanism of light
particle trapping is accounted for by a strong self-interaction of
five-dimensional pre-quarks. We obtain the low-energy effective action which
exhibits the invariance under the so called \tau-symmetry. Then we find a set
of vacuum solutions which break that symmetry and the five-dimensional
translational invariance. One type of those vacuum solutions gives rise to the
domain wall formation with consequent trapping of light massive fermions and
Higgs-like bosons as well as massless sterile scalars, the so-called branons.
The induced relations between low-energy couplings for Yukawa and scalar field
interactions allow to make certain predictions for light particle masses and
couplings themselves, which might provide a signature of the higher dimensional
origin of particle physics at future experiments. The manifest translational
symmetry breaking, eventually due to some gravitational and/or matter fields in
five dimensions, is effectively realized with the help of background scalar
defects. As a result the branons acquire masses, whereas the ratio of Higgs and
fermion (presumably top-quark) masses can be reduced towards the values
compatible with the present-day phenomenology. Since the branons do not couple
to fermions and the Higgs bosons do not decay into branons, the latter ones are
essentially sterile and stable, what makes them the natural candidates for the
dark matter in the Universe.Comment: 34 pages, 2 figures, JHEP style,few important refs. adde
The composition of the protosolar disk and the formation conditions for comets
Conditions in the protosolar nebula have left their mark in the composition
of cometary volatiles, thought to be some of the most pristine material in the
solar system. Cometary compositions represent the end point of processing that
began in the parent molecular cloud core and continued through the collapse of
that core to form the protosun and the solar nebula, and finally during the
evolution of the solar nebula itself as the cometary bodies were accreting.
Disentangling the effects of the various epochs on the final composition of a
comet is complicated. But comets are not the only source of information about
the solar nebula. Protostellar disks around young stars similar to the protosun
provide a way of investigating the evolution of disks similar to the solar
nebula while they are in the process of evolving to form their own solar
systems. In this way we can learn about the physical and chemical conditions
under which comets formed, and about the types of dynamical processing that
shaped the solar system we see today.
This paper summarizes some recent contributions to our understanding of both
cometary volatiles and the composition, structure and evolution of protostellar
disks.Comment: To appear in Space Science Reviews. The final publication is
available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11214-015-0167-
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