2,053 research outputs found
New Insights into Cosmic Ray induced Biosignature Chemistry in Earth-like Atmospheres
With the recent discoveries of terrestrial planets around active M-dwarfs,
destruction processes masking the possible presence of life are receiving
increased attention in the exoplanet community. We investigate potential
biosignatures of planets having Earth-like (N-O) atmospheres orbiting
in the habitable zone of the M-dwarf star AD Leo. These are bombarded by high
energetic particles which can create showers of secondary particles at the
surface. We apply our cloud-free 1D climate-chemistry model to study the
influence of key particle shower parameters and chemical efficiencies of NOx
and HOx production from cosmic rays. We determine the effect of stellar
radiation and cosmic rays upon atmospheric composition, temperature, and
spectral appearance. Despite strong stratospheric O destruction by cosmic
rays, smog O can significantly build up in the lower atmosphere of our
modeled planet around AD Leo related to low stellar UVB. NO abundances
decrease with increasing flaring energies but a sink reaction for NO with
excited oxygen becomes weaker, stabilizing its abundance. CH is removed
mainly by Cl in the upper atmosphere for strong flaring cases and not via
hydroxyl as is otherwise usually the case. Cosmic rays weaken the role of
CH in heating the middle atmosphere so that HO absorption becomes more
important. We additionally underline the importance of HNO as a possible
marker for strong stellar particle showers. In a nutshell, uncertainty in NOx
and HOx production from cosmic rays significantly influences biosignature
abundances and spectral appearance.Comment: Manuscript version after addressing all referee comments. Published
in Ap
Consistently Simulating a Wide Range of Atmospheric Scenarios for K2-18b with a Flexible Radiative Transfer Module
The atmospheres of small, potentially rocky exoplanets are expected to cover
a diverse range in composition and mass. Studying such objects therefore
requires flexible and wide-ranging modeling capabilities. We present in this
work the essential development steps that lead to our flexible radiative
transfer module, REDFOX, and validate REDFOX for the Solar system planets
Earth, Venus and Mars, as well as for steam atmospheres. REDFOX is a
k-distribution model using the correlated-k approach with random overlap method
for the calculation of opacities used in the -two-stream approximation
for radiative transfer. Opacity contributions from Rayleigh scattering, UV /
visible cross sections and continua can be added selectively. With the improved
capabilities of our new model, we calculate various atmospheric scenarios for
K2-18b, a super-Earth / sub-Neptune with 8 M orbiting in the
temperate zone around an M-star, with recently observed HO spectral
features in the infrared. We model Earth-like, Venus-like, as well as H-He
primary atmospheres of different Solar metallicity and show resulting climates
and spectral characteristics, compared to observed data. Our results suggest
that K2-18b has an H-He atmosphere with limited amounts of HO and
CH. Results do not support the possibility of K2-18b having a water
reservoir directly exposed to the atmosphere, which would reduce atmospheric
scale heights, hence too the amplitudes of spectral features inconsistent with
the observations. We also performed tests for H-He atmospheres up to 50
times Solar metallicity, all compatible with the observations.Comment: 28 pages, 13 figures, accepted for publication in Ap
Spin and Orbital Splitting in Ferromagnetic Contacted Single Wall Carbon Nanotube Devices
We observed the coulomb blockade phenomena in ferromagnetic contacting single
wall semiconducting carbon nanotube devices. No obvious Coulomb peaks shift was
observed with existing only the Zeeman splitting at 4K. Combining with other
effects, the ferromagnetic leads prevent the orbital spin states splitting with
magnetic field up to 2 Tesla at 4K. With increasing magnetic field further,
both positive or negative coulomb peaks shift slopes are observed associating
with clockwise and anticlockwise orbital state splitting. The strongly
suppressed/enhanced of the conductance has been observed associating with the
magnetic field induced orbital states splitting/converging
Franck-Condon Physics in A Single Trapped Ion
We propose how to explore the Franck-Condon (FC) physics via a single ion
confined in a spin-dependent potential, formed by the combination of a Paul
trap and a magnetic field gradient. The correlation between electronic and
vibrational degrees of freedom, called as electron-vibron coupling, is induced
by a nonzero gradient. For a sufficiently strong electron-vibron coupling, the
FC blockade of low-lying vibronic transitions takes place. We analyze the
feasibility of observing the FC physics in a single trapped ion, and
demonstrate various potential applications of the ionic FC physics in quantum
state engineering and quantum information processing.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figure
Detectability of atmospheric features of Earth-like planets in the habitable zone around M dwarfs
We investigate the detectability of atmospheric spectral features of
Earth-like planets in the habitable zone (HZ) around M dwarfs with the future
James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). We use a coupled 1D climate-chemistry-model
to simulate the influence of a range of observed and modelled M-dwarf spectra
on Earth-like planets. The simulated atmospheres served as input for the
calculation of the transmission spectra of the hypothetical planets, using a
line-by-line spectral radiative transfer model. To investigate the
spectroscopic detectability of absorption bands with JWST we further developed
a signal-to-noise ratio (S/N) model and applied it to our transmission spectra.
High abundances of CH and HO in the atmosphere of Earth-like planets
around mid to late M dwarfs increase the detectability of the corresponding
spectral features compared to early M-dwarf planets. Increased temperatures in
the middle atmosphere of mid- to late-type M-dwarf planets expand the
atmosphere and further increase the detectability of absorption bands. To
detect CH, HO, and CO in the atmosphere of an Earth-like planet
around a mid to late M dwarf observing only one transit with JWST could be
enough up to a distance of 4 pc and less than ten transits up to a distance of
10 pc. As a consequence of saturation limits of JWST and less pronounced
absorption bands, the detection of spectral features of hypothetical Earth-like
planets around most early M dwarfs would require more than ten transits. We
identify 276 existing M dwarfs (including GJ 1132, TRAPPIST-1, GJ 1214, and LHS
1140) around which atmospheric absorption features of hypothetical Earth-like
planets could be detected by co-adding just a few transits. We show that using
transmission spectroscopy, JWST could provide enough precision to be able to
partly characterise the atmosphere of Earth-like TESS planets around mid to
late M dwarfs.Comment: 18 pages, 10 figure
Fast optical control of spin in semiconductor interfacial structures
We report on a picosecond-fast optical removal of spin polarization from a
self-confined photo-carrier system at an undoped GaAs/AlGaAs interface
possessing superior long-range and high-speed spin transport properties. We
employed a modified resonant spin amplification technique with unequal
intensities of subsequent pump pulses to experimentally distinguish the
evolution of spin populations originating from different excitation laser
pulses. We demonstrate that the density of spins, which is injected into the
system by means of the optical orientation, can be controlled by reducing the
electrostatic confinement of the system using an additional generation of
photocarriers. It is also shown that the disturbed confinement recovers within
hundreds of picoseconds after which spins can be again photo-injected into the
system
Phase Transition Induced Fission in Lipid Vesicles
In this work we demonstrate how the first order phase transition in giant
unilamellar vesicles (GUVs) can function as a trigger for membrane fission.
When driven through their gel-fluid phase transition GUVs exhibit budding or
pearl formation. These buds remain connected to the mother vesicle presumably
by a small neck. Cooling these vesicles from the fluid phase (T>Tm) through the
phase transition into the gel state (T<Tm), leads to complete rupture and
fission of the neck, while the mother vesicle remains intact. Pearling tubes
which formed upon heating break-up and decay into multiple individual vesicles
which then diffuse freely. Finally we demonstrate that mimicking the
intracellular bulk viscosity by increasing the bulk viscosity to 40cP does not
affect the overall fission process, but leads to a significant decrease in size
of the released vesicles
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