EMSO: A Distributed Infrastructure for Addressing Geohazards and Global Ocean Change

Special issue On Undersea Natural Hazards.-- Best, Mairi ... et. al.-- 3 pages, 2 figuresThe European Multidisciplinary Seafloor and water-column Observatory (EMSO; http://www.emso-eu.org) is addressing the next challenge in Earth-ocean science: how to coordinate data acquisition, analysis, archiving, access, and response to geohazards across provincial, national, regional, and international boundaries. Such coordination is needed to optimize the use of current and planned ocean observatory systems to (1) address national and regional public safety concerns about geohazards (e.g., earthquakes, submarine landslides, tsunamis) and (2) permit broadening of their scope toward monitoring environmental change on global ocean scalesEMSO is built on the progress made through over 23 European marine observation projects through many decades. In particular, its foundation is based on the work of hundreds of people in ESONET Concerted Action (FP5) from 2002 to 2004, ESONIM (European Seafoor Observatories Implementation Model) (FP6) from 2004 to 2007, ESONET-NoE (FP6) from 2007 to 2011, and EMSO-Preparatory Phase (FP7) from 2008–2012Peer Reviewe

Algebraic approach to quantum field theory on a class of noncommutative curved spacetimes

In this article we study the quantization of a free real scalar field on a class of noncommutative manifolds, obtained via formal deformation quantization using triangular Drinfel'd twists. We construct deformed quadratic action functionals and compute the corresponding equation of motion operators. The Green's operators and the fundamental solution of the deformed equation of motion are obtained in terms of formal power series. It is shown that, using the deformed fundamental solution, we can define deformed *-algebras of field observables, which in general depend on the spacetime deformation parameter. This dependence is absent in the special case of Killing deformations, which include in particular the Moyal-Weyl deformation of the Minkowski spacetime.Comment: LaTeX 14 pages, no figures, svjour3.cls style; v2: clarifications and references added, compatible with published versio

Fermi liquid interactions and the superfluid density in d-wave superconductors

We construct a phenomenological superfluid Fermi liquid theory for a two-dimensional d-wave superconductor on a square lattice, and study the effect of quasiparticle interactions on the superfluid density. Using simple models for the dispersion and the Landau interaction function, we illustrate the deviation of these results from those for the isotropic superfluid. This allows us to reconcile the value and doping dependence of the superfluid density slope at low temperature obtained from penetration depth measurements, with photoemission data on nodal quasiparticles.Comment: 5 latex pages, 1 eps-figure. submitted to PR

Effective Actions and Phase Fluctuations in d-wave Superconductors

We study effective actions for order parameter fluctuations at low temperature in layered d-wave superconductors such as the cuprates. The order parameter lives on the bonds of a square lattice and has two amplitude and two phase modes associated with it. The low frequency spectral weights for amplitude and relative phase fluctuations is determined and found to be subdominant to quasiparticle contributions. The Goldstone phase mode and its coupling to density fluctuations in charged systems is treated in a gauge-invariant manner. The Gaussian phase action is used to study both the $c$-axis Josephson plasmon and the more conventional in-plane plasmon in the cuprates. We go beyond the Gaussian theory by deriving a coarse-grained quantum XY model, which incorporates important cutoff effects overlooked in previous studies. A variational analysis of this effective model shows that in the cuprates, quantum effects of phase fluctuations are important in reducing the zero temperature superfluid stiffness, but thermal effects are small for $T << T_c$.Comment: Some numerical estimates corrected and figures changed. to appear in PRB, Sept.1 (2000

On the selection of AGN neutrino source candidates for a source stacking analysis with neutrino telescopes

The sensitivity of a search for sources of TeV neutrinos can be improved by grouping potential sources together into generic classes in a procedure that is known as source stacking. In this paper, we define catalogs of Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) and use them to perform a source stacking analysis. The grouping of AGN into classes is done in two steps: first, AGN classes are defined, then, sources to be stacked are selected assuming that a potential neutrino flux is linearly correlated with the photon luminosity in a certain energy band (radio, IR, optical, keV, GeV, TeV). Lacking any secure detailed knowledge on neutrino production in AGN, this correlation is motivated by hadronic AGN models, as briefly reviewed in this paper. The source stacking search for neutrinos from generic AGN classes is illustrated using the data collected by the AMANDA-II high energy neutrino detector during the year 2000. No significant excess for any of the suggested groups was found.Comment: 43 pages, 12 figures, accepted by Astroparticle Physic

European multidisciplinary seafloor and water-column observatory (EMSO): Power and Internet to European waters

Best, M.M.R. et. al.-- Oceans 2014, 14-19 Sept. 2014, St. John's, NL, Canada.-- 7 pagesEMSO (The European Multidisciplinary Seafloor and water-column Observatory, www.emso-eu.org) is forging ahead through the next challenge in Earth-Ocean Science: How to co-ordinate ocean data acquisition, analysis and response across provincial, national, regional, and global scales. The coordination, analysis, and dissemination of ocean data continue to be a challenge across international boundaries. EMSO is a large-scale European Research Distributed Infrastructure (RI) of the ESFRI (European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures) roadmap, and is composed of fixed-point, seafloor and water-column observatories with the basic scientific objective of (near)-real-time, long-term monitoring of environmental processes across the geosphere, biosphere, and hydrosphere. It is geographically distributed in key sites of European waters, from the Arctic through the Atlantic and Mediterranean, to the Black Sea. EMSO ended its Preparatory Phase, EU Framework Programme 7 (FP7) funded project in 2012, and is now in the Interim phase transitioning to the formation of the legal entity for managing the distributed infrastructure: the EMSO European Research Infrastructure Consortium (hereinafter EMSO-ERIC). A phased implementation will characterize EMSO site extension, construction and operation. Countries currently participating in EMSO are: Italy, France, Ireland, Spain, Greece, United Kingdom, Portugal, Romania, Norway, Sweden, Turkey, Germany, and the Netherlands. The user community is open to all, and will be coordinated through an association called ESONET-Vi (European Seafloor Observatory NETwork ¿ The Vision), following on the extensive scientific community planning contributions of the ESONET-NoE FP6 project. The most striking characteristic of observatory design is its ability to address interdisciplinary objectives simultaneously across temporal and spatial scales. Data are collected from the surface ocean through the water column, the benthos, and the sub-se- floor. Depending on the application, in situ infrastructures can either be attached to a cable, which provides power and enables data transfer, or operate as independent stand-alone benthic and moored instruments. Data, in both cases, can be transmitted realtime through either fibre optic cables, or through cable and acoustic networks that are connected to satellite-linked buoys. EMSO provides power, communications, sensors, and data infrastructure for continuous, high resolution, (near)-real-time, interactive ocean observations across a truly multi- and interdisciplinary range of research areas including biology, geology, chemistry, physics, engineering, and computer science; from polar to tropical environments, down to the abyss. Such coordinated data allow us to pose multivariate questions in space and time, rather than focusing on single data streams. Continuous data are required to document episodic events, such as earthquakes, submarine slides, tsunamis, benthic storms, biodiversity changes, pollution, and gas hydrate release. Longer term time series are relevant for monitoring global change. EMSO not only brings together countries and disciplines, but allows the pooling of resources and coordination to assemble harmonised data into a comprehensive regional ocean picture which it will then make available to researchers and stakeholders worldwide on an open and interoperable access basisPeer Reviewe

The Inferential Reasoning Theory of Causal Learning: Toward a multi-process propositional account

Chapter 4 describes the inferential reasoning theory of causal learning and discusses how thinking about this theory has evolved in at least two important ways. First, the authors argue that it is useful to decouple the debate about different possible types of mental representations involved in causal learning (e.g., propositional or associative) from the debate about processes involved therein (e.g., inferential reasoning or attention). Second, at the process level inferential reasoning is embedded within a broad array of mental processes that are all required to provide a full mechanistic account of causal learning. Based on those insights, the authors evaluate five arguments that are often raised against inferential reasoning theory. They conclude that causal learning is best understood as involving the formation and retrieval of propositional representations, both of which depend on multiple cognitive processes (i.e., the multi-process propositional account)