Estimate solar contribution to the global surface warming using the ACRIM TSI satellite composite

We study, by using a wavelet decomposition methodology, the solar signature on global surface temperature data using the ACRIM total solar irradiance satellite composite by Willson and Mordvinov. These data present a +0.047%/decade trend between minima during solar cycles 21-23 (1980-2002). We estimate that the ACRIM upward trend might have minimally contributed $\sim$10-30% of the global surface temperature warming over the period 1980-2002

Nutritional values of wild fruits and consumption by migrant frugivorous birds.

Used 18 fruit species and 11 migrant frugivorous bird species in Illinois. The only seasonal trends in fruit traits were interspecific increases in absolute quantity of K and protein per fruit. Fruit energy content did not differ among species having bicolored vs. monochrome or small vs. large fruit displays. The fruit mass consumed was correlated best with dry pulp mass per fruit, providing significant positive correlations in 6 of 11 frugivorous species. Large fruit size relative to bill size did not appear to affect fruit consumption over the range of fruit sizes and bird species used. Because retained energy was correlated with mass consumed, the fruit pulp mass consumed was in most cases a good index of the energy obtained. Some significant differences occurred in digestive efficiency of a bird species eating different fruit species, and among different bird species eating a single fruit species, but no trends were apparent. Regurgitated seed generally spent less time in a bird than did defecated seeds, facilitating more rapid disposal of seed ballast. Smaller birds defecated only small seeds and regurgitated some small seeds as well as all large ones, whereas larger birds defecated all smaller seeds and many larger ones. Resultant seed shadows thus may depend upon both bird and seed size. -from Author

Polymer Bound Photobase Generators And Photoacid Generators For Pitch Division Lithography

The semiconductor industry is pursuing several process options that provide pathways to printing images smaller than the theoretical resolution limit of 193 nm projection scanners. These processes include double patterning, side wall deposition and pitch division. Pitch doubling lithography (PDL), the achievement of pitch division by addition of a photobase generator (PBG) to typical 193 nm resist formulations was recently presented. 1 Controlling the net acid concentration as a function of dose by incorporating both a photoacid generator (PAG) and a PBG in the resist formulation imparts a resist dissolution rate response modulation at twice the frequency of the aerial image. Simulation and patterning of 45 nm half pitch L/S patterns produced using a 90 nm half pitch mask were reported. 2 Pitch division was achieved, but the line edge roughness of the resulting images did not meet the current standard. To reduce line edge roughness, polymer bound PBGs and polymer bound PAGs were investigated in the PDL resist formulations. The synthesis, purification, analysis, and functional performance of various polymers containing PBG or PAG monomers are described herein. Both polymer bound PBG with monomeric PAG and polymer bound PAG with monomeric PBG showed a PDL response. The performance of the polymer bound formulations is compared to the same formulations with small molecule analogs of PAG and PBG.Chemical Engineerin

Photobase Generator Enabled Pitch Division: A Progress Report

Pitch division lithography (PDL) with a photobase generator (PBG) allows printing of grating images with twice the pitch of a mask. The proof-of-concept has been published in the previous paper[1, 2] and demonstrated by others[1]. Forty five nm half-pitch (HP) patterns were produced using a 90nm HP mask, but the image had line edge roughness (LER) that does not meet requirements. Efforts have been made to understand and improve the LER in this process. Challenges were summarized toward low LER and good performing pitch division. Simulations and analysis showed the necessity for an optical image that is uniform in the z direction in order for pitch division to be successful. Two-stage PBGs were designed for enhancement of resist chemical contrast. New pitch division resists with polymer-bound PAGs and PBGs, and various PBGs were tested. This paper focuses on analysis of the LER problems and efforts to improve patterning performance in pitch division lithography.Chemical Engineerin

Sparse aperture masking interferometry survey of transitional discs: Search for substellar-mass companions and asymmetries in their parent discs

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from EDP Sciences via the DOI in this record.Context. Transitional discs are a class of circumstellar discs around young stars with extensive clearing of dusty material within their inner regions on 10s of au scales. One of the primary candidates for this kind of clearing is the formation of planet(s) within the disc that then accrete or clear their immediate area as they migrate through the disc. Aims. The goal of this survey was to search for asymmetries in the brightness distribution around a selection of transitional disc targets. We then aimed to determine whether these asymmetries trace dynamically-induced structures in the disc or the gap-opening planets themselves. Methods. Our sample included eight transitional discs. Using the Keck/NIRC2 instrument we utilised the Sparse Aperture Masking (SAM) interferometry technique to search for asymmetries indicative of ongoing planet formation. We searched for close-in companions using both model fitting and interferometric image reconstruction techniques. Using simulated data, we derived diagnostics that helped us to distinguish between point sources and extended asymmetric disc emission. In addition, we investigated the degeneracy between the contrast and separation that appear for marginally resolved companions. Results. We found FP Tau to contain a previously unseen disc wall, and DM Tau, LkHα330, and TW Hya to contain an asymmetric signal indicative of point source-like emission. We placed upper limits on the contrast of a companion in RXJ1842.9-3532 and V2246 Oph. We ruled the asymmetry signal in RXJ1615.3-3255 and V2062 Oph to be false positives. In the cases where our data indicated a potential companion we computed estimates for the value of McM˙ c and found values in the range of 10−5 − 10−3M2 J yr−1 . Conclusions. We found significant asymmetries in four targets. Of these, three were consistent with companions. We resolved a previously unseen gap in the disc of FP Tau extending inwards from approximately 10 au.We acknowledge support from a STFC Rutherford Fellowship and Grant (ST/J004030/1, ST/K003445/1), Marie Sklodowska-Curie CIG grant (Ref. 618910), and Philip Leverhulme Prize (PLP-2013-110). We additionally acknowledge support from NASA KPDA grants (JPL-1452321, 1474717, 1485953, 1496788). The authors wish to recognise and acknowledge the very significant cultural role and reverence that the summit of Mauna Kea has always had within the indigenous Hawaiian community. We are most fortunate to have the opportunity to conduct observations from this mountain. Some of the data presented herein were obtained at the W.M. Keck Observatory, which is operated as a scientific partnership among the California Institute of Technology, the University of California and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. The Observatory was made possible by the generous financial support of the W.M. Keck Foundatio

Power Spectrum Analysis of Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt Decay-Rate Data: Evidence for Solar Rotational Modulation

Evidence for an anomalous annual periodicity in certain nuclear decay data has led to speculation concerning a possible solar influence on nuclear processes. We have recently analyzed data concerning the decay rates of Cl-36 and Si-32, acquired at the Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), to search for evidence that might be indicative of a process involving solar rotation. Smoothing of the power spectrum by weighted-running-mean analysis leads to a significant peak at frequency 11.18/yr, which is lower than the equatorial synodic rotation rates of the convection and radiative zones. This article concerns measurements of the decay rates of Ra-226 acquired at the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB) in Germany. We find that a similar (but not identical) analysis yields a significant peak in the PTB dataset at frequency 11.21/yr, and a peak in the BNL dataset at 11.25/yr. The change in the BNL result is not significant since the uncertainties in the BNL and PTB analyses are estimated to be 0.13/yr and 0.07/yr, respectively. Combining the two running means by forming the joint power statistic leads to a highly significant peak at frequency 11.23/yr. We comment briefly on the possible implications of these results for solar physics and for particle physics.Comment: 15 pages, 13 figure

Sparse aperture masking interferometry survey of transitional discs. Search for substellar-mass companions and asymmetries in their parent discs

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from EDP Sciences via the DOI in this record.Context. Transitional discs are a class of circumstellar discs around young stars with extensive clearing of dusty material within their inner regions on 10s of au scales. One of the primary candidates for this kind of clearing is the formation of planet(s) within the disc that then accrete or clear their immediate area as they migrate through the disc. Aims. The goal of this survey was to search for asymmetries in the brightness distribution around a selection of transitional disc targets. We then aimed to determine whether these asymmetries trace dynamically-induced structures in the disc or the gap-opening planets themselves. Methods. Our sample included eight transitional discs. Using the Keck/NIRC2 instrument we utilised the Sparse Aperture Masking (SAM) interferometry technique to search for asymmetries indicative of ongoing planet formation. We searched for close-in companions using both model fitting and interferometric image reconstruction techniques. Using simulated data, we derived diagnostics that helped us to distinguish between point sources and extended asymmetric disc emission. In addition, we investigated the degeneracy between the contrast and separation that appear for marginally resolved companions. Results. We found FP Tau to contain a previously unseen disc wall, and DM Tau, LkHα330, and TW Hya to contain an asymmetric signal indicative of point source-like emission. We placed upper limits on the contrast of a companion in RXJ 1842.9-3532 and V2246 Oph. We ruled the asymmetry signal in RXJ 1615.3-3255 and V2062 Oph to be false positives. In the cases where our data indicated a potential companion we computed estimates for the value of McṀc and found values in the range of 10−5−10−3 M2J yr−1. Conclusions. We found significant asymmetries in four targets. Of these, three were consistent with companions. We resolved a previously unseen gap in the disc of FP Tau extending inwards from approximately 10 au.We acknowledge support from a STFC Rutherford Fellowship and Grant (ST/J004030/1, ST/K003445/1), Marie Sklodowska-Curie CIG grant (Ref. 618910), and Philip Leverhulme Prize (PLP-2013-110). We additionally acknowledge support from NASA KPDA grants (JPL-1452321, 1474717, 1485953, 1496788). The authors wish to recognise and acknowledge the very significant cultural role and reverence that the summit of Mauna Kea has always had within the indigenous Hawaiian community. We are most fortunate to have the opportunity to conduct observations from this mountain. Some of the data presented herein were obtained at the W.M. Keck Observatory, which is operated as a scientific partnership among the California Institute of Technology, the University of California and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. The Observatory was made possible by the generous financial support of the W.M. Keck Foundation

Further Evidence Suggestive of a Solar Influence on Nuclear Decay Rates

Recent analyses of nuclear decay data show evidence of variations suggestive of a solar influence. Analyses of datasets acquired at the Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) and at the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB) both show evidence of an annual periodicity and of periodicities with sidereal frequencies in the neighborhood of 12.25 year^{-1} (at a significance level that we have estimated to be 10^{-17}). It is notable that this implied rotation rate is lower than that attributed to the solar radiative zone, suggestive of a slowly rotating solar core. This leads us to hypothesize that there may be an "inner tachocline" separating the core from the radiative zone, analogous to the "outer tachocline" that separates the radiative zone from the convection zone. The Rieger periodicity (which has a period of about 154 days, corresponding to a frequency of 2.37 year^{-1}) may be attributed to an r-mode oscillation with spherical-harmonic indices l=3, m=1, located in the outer tachocline. This suggests that we may test the hypothesis of a solar influence on nuclear decay rates by searching BNL and PTB data for evidence of a "Rieger-like" r-mode oscillation, with l=3, m=1, in the inner tachocline. The appropriate search band for such an oscillation is estimated to be 2.00-2.28 year^{-1}. We find, in both datasets, strong evidence of a periodicity at 2.11 year^{-1}. We estimate that the probability of obtaining these results by chance is 10^{-12}.Comment: 12 pages, 6 figures, v2 has a color corrected Fig 6, a corrected reference, and a corrected typ

Combined analysis of solar neutrino and solar irradiance data: further evidence for variability of the solar neutrino flux and its implications concerning the solar core

A search for any particular feature in any single solar neutrino dataset is unlikely to establish variability of the solar neutrino flux since the count rates are very low. It helps to combine datasets, and in this article we examine data from both the Homestake and GALLEX experiments. These show evidence of modulation with a frequency of 11.85 yr-1, which could be indicative of rotational modulation originating in the solar core. We find that precisely the same frequency is prominent in power spectrum analyses of the ACRIM irradiance data for both the Homestake and GALLEX time intervals. These results suggest that the solar core is inhomogeneous and rotates with sidereal frequency 12.85 yr-1. We find, by Monte Carlo calculations, that the probability that the neutrino data would by chance match the irradiance data in this way is only 2 parts in 10,000. This rotation rate is significantly lower than that of the inner radiative zone (13.97 yr-1) as recently inferred from analysis of Super-Kamiokande data, suggesting that there may be a second, inner tachocline separating the core from the radiative zone. This opens up the possibility that there may be an inner dynamo that could produce a strong internal magnetic field and a second solar cycle.Comment: 22 pages, 9 tables, 10 figure

Noise storm continua: power estimates for electron acceleration

We use a generic stochastic acceleration formalism to examine the power $L_{\rm in}$ (${\rm erg s^{-1}}$) input to nonthermal electrons that cause noise storm continuum emission. The analytical approach includes the derivation of the Green's function for a general second-order Fermi process, and its application to obtain the particular solution for the nonthermal electron distribution resulting from the acceleration of a Maxwellian source in the corona. We compare $L_{\rm in}$ with the power $L_{\rm out}$ observed in noise storm radiation. Using typical values for the various parameters, we find that $L_{\rm in} \sim 10^{23-26}$ ${\rm erg s^{-1}}$, yielding an efficiency estimate $\eta \equiv L_{\rm out}/L_{\rm in}$ in the range 10^{-10} \lsim \eta \lsim 10^{-6} for this nonthermal acceleration/radiation process. These results reflect the efficiency of the overall process, starting from electron acceleration and culminating in the observed noise storm emission.Comment: Accepted for publication in Solar Physic