1,739 research outputs found
Application of mineralogical, petrological and geochemical tools for evaluating the palaeohdrogeological evolution of the PADAMOT study sites
The role of Work Package (WP) 2 of the PADAMOT project â âPalaeohydrogeological Data
Measurementsâ - has been to study late-stage fracture mineral and water samples from
groundwater systems in Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom and the Czech Republic, with the aim
of understanding the recent palaeohydrogeological evolution of these groundwater systems. In
particular, the project sought to develop and evaluate methods for obtaining information about
past groundwater evolution during the Quaternary (about the last 2 million years) by examining
how the late-stage mineralization might record mineralogical, petrographical and geochemical
evidence of how the groundwater system may have responded to past geological and
climatological changes.
Fracture-flow groundwater systems at six European sites were studied:
âą Melechov Hill, in the Bohemian Massif of the Czech Republic: a shallow (0-100 m)
dilute groundwater flow system within the near-surface weathering zone in fractured
granitic rocks;
âą Cloud Hill, in the English Midlands: a (~100 m) shallow dilute groundwater flow system
in fractured and dolomitized Carboniferous limestone;
âą Los Ratones, in southwest Spain: an intermediate depth (0-500 m) dilute groundwater
flow system in fractured granitic rocks;
âą Laxemar, in southeast Sweden: a deep (0-1000 m) groundwater flow system in fractured
granitic rocks. This is a complex groundwater system with potential recharge and
flushing by glacial, marine, lacustrine and freshwater during the Quaternary;
âą Sellafield, northwest England: a deep (0-2000 m) groundwater flow system in fractured
Ordovician low-grade metamorphosed volcaniclastic rocks and discontinuous
Carboniferous Limestone, overlain by a Permo-Triassic sedimentary sequence with
fracture and matrix porosity. This is a complex coastal groundwater system with deep
hypersaline sedimentary basinal brines, and deep saline groundwaters in crystalline
basement rocks, overlain by a shallow freshwater aquifer system. The site was glaciated
several times during the Quaternary and may have been affected by recharge from glacial
meltwater;
âą Dounreay, northeast Scotland: a deep (0-1400 m) groundwater flow system in fractured
Precambrian crystalline basement overlain by fractured Devonian sedimentary rocks.
This is within the coastal discharge area of a complex groundwater system, comprising
deep saline groundwater hosted in crystalline basement, overlain by a fracture-controlled
freshwater sedimentary aquifer system. Like Sellafield, this area experienced glaciation
and may potentially record the impact of glacial meltwater recharge.
In addition, a study has been made of two Quaternary sedimentary sequences in Andalusia in
southeastern Spain to provide a basis of estimating the palaeoclimatic history of the region that
could be used in any reconstruction of the palaeoclimatic history at the Los Ratones site:
âą The CĂșllar-Baza lacustrine sequence records information about precipitation and
palaeotemperature regimes, derived largely from the analysis of the stable isotope (ÎŽ18O
and ÎŽ13C) signatures from biogenic calcite (ostracod shells).
âą The Padul Peat Bog sequence provided information on past vegetation cover and
palaeogroundwater inputs based on the study of fossil pollen and biomarkers as proxies
for past climate change.
Following on from the earlier EC 4th Framework EQUIP project, the focus of the PADAMOT
studies has been on calcite mineralization. Calcite has been identified as a late stage mineral, closely associated with hydraulically-conductive fractures in the present-day groundwater
systems at the Ăspö-Laxemar, Sellafield, Dounreay and Cloud Hill sites. At Los Ratones and
Melechov sites late-stage mineralization is either absent or extremely scarce, and both the
quantity and fine crystal size of any late-stage fracture mineralization relevant to Quaternary
palaeohydrogeological investigations is difficult to work with. The results from the material
investigated during the PADAMOT studies indicate that the fracture fillings at these sites are
related to hydrothermal activity, and so do not have direct relevance as Quaternary indicators.
Neoformed calcite has not been found at these two sites at the present depth of the investigations.
Furthermore, the HCO3
- concentration in all the Los Ratones groundwaters is mainly controlled
by complex carbonate dissolution. The carbonate mineral saturation indices do not indicate
precipitation conditions, and this is consistent with the fact that neoformed calcite, ankerite or
dolomite have not been observed petrographically
Inhomogeneous tachyon dynamics and the zipper
We study the process of inhomogeneous tachyon condensation in an intersecting
D1- and anti-D1-brane system using an effective tachyon DBI action. By
switching to the Hamiltonian formalism, we numerically solve for the dynamical
evolution of the system at a small intersection angle. We find that the decay
proceeds indefinitely and resembles the action of two zippers moving away from
the intersection point at the speed of light, zipping the branes together and
leaving inhomogeneous tachyon matter behind. We also discuss the range of
validity of our analysis and discuss the relation of the D1-anti-D1 description
of the system to one in terms of an intersecting D1-D1-brane pair.Comment: 23 pages, 12 figures. v2: added references; v3: more references,
published versio
Instantons on Quivers and Orientifolds
We compute the prepotential for gauge theories descending from
SYM via quiver projections and mass deformations.
This accounts for gauge theories with product gauge groups and bifundamental
matter. The case of massive orientifold gauge theories with gauge group SO/Sp
is also described. In the case with no gravitational corrections the results
are shown to be in agreement with Seiberg-Witten analysis and previous results
in the literature.Comment: 28 pages, revised version, references added, some typos correcte
The incorporation of matter into characteristic numerical relativity
A code that implements Einstein equations in the characteristic formulation
in 3D has been developed and thoroughly tested for the vacuum case. Here, we
describe how to incorporate matter, in the form of a perfect fluid, into the
code. The extended code has been written and validated in a number of cases. It
is stable and capable of contributing towards an understanding of a number of
problems in black hole astrophysics.Comment: 15 pages + 4 (eps) figure
Determination of nuclear parton distributions
Parametrization of nuclear parton distributions is investigated in the
leading order of alpha_s. The parton distributions are provided at Q^2=1 GeV^2
with a number of parameters, which are determined by a chi^2 analysis of the
data on nuclear structure functions. Quadratic or cubic functional form is
assumed for the initial distributions. Although valence quark distributions in
the medium x region are relatively well determined, the small x distributions
depend slightly on the assumed functional form. It is difficult to determine
the antiquark distributions at medium x and gluon distributions. From the
analysis, we propose parton distributions at Q^2=1 GeV^2 for nuclei from
deuteron to heavy ones with the mass number A~208. They are provided either
analytical expressions or computer subroutines for practical usage. Our studies
should be important for understanding the physics mechanism of the nuclear
modification and also for applications to heavy-ion reactions. This kind of
nuclear parametrization should also affect existing parametrization studies in
the nucleon because "nuclear" data are partially used for obtaining the optimum
distributions in the "nucleon".Comment: 16 pages, REVTeX4b5, revtex4.cls, url.sty, natbib.sty, 10pt.rtx,
aps.rtx, revsymb.sty, 21 eps figures. Submitted for publication. Computer
codes for the nuclear parton distributions could be obtained from
http://www-hs.phys.saga-u.ac.jp Email: [email protected]
Metastable supergravity vacua with F and D supersymmetry breaking
We study the conditions under which a generic supergravity model involving
chiral and vector multiplets can admit viable metastable vacua with
spontaneously broken supersymmetry and realistic cosmological constant. To do
so, we impose that on the vacuum the scalar potential and all its first
derivatives vanish, and derive a necessary condition for the matrix of its
second derivatives to be positive definite. We study then the constraints set
by the combination of the flatness condition needed for the tuning of the
cosmological constant and the stability condition that is necessary to avoid
unstable modes. We find that the existence of such a viable vacuum implies a
condition involving the curvature tensor for the scalar geometry and the charge
and mass matrices for the vector fields. Moreover, for given curvature, charges
and masses satisfying this constraint, the vector of F and D auxiliary fields
defining the Goldstino direction is constrained to lie within a certain domain.
The effect of vector multiplets relative to chiral multiplets is maximal when
the masses of the vector fields are comparable to the gravitino mass. When the
masses are instead much larger or much smaller than the gravitino mass, the
effect becomes small and translates into a correction to the effective
curvature. We finally apply our results to some simple classes of examples, to
illustrate their relevance.Comment: 40 pages; v2 some clarifications added in the introduction; v3 some
typos correcte
Linear Sigma Models for Open Strings
We formulate and study a class of massive N=2 supersymmetric gauge field
theories coupled to boundary degrees of freedom on the strip. For some values
of the parameters, the infrared limits of these theories can be interpreted as
open string sigma models describing D-branes in large-radius Calabi-Yau
compactifications. For other values of the parameters, these theories flow to
CFTs describing branes in more exotic, non-geometric phases of the Calabi-Yau
moduli space such as the Landau-Ginzburg orbifold phase. Some simple properties
of the branes (like large radius monodromies and spectra of worldvolume
excitations) can be computed in our model. We also provide simple worldsheet
models of the transitions which occur at loci of marginal stability, and of
Higgs-Coulomb transitions.Comment: 51 pages, 2 figures; very minor corrections, refs adde
Surface Casimir densities on a spherical brane in Rindler-like spacetimes
The vacuum expectation value of the surface energy-momentum tensor is
evaluated for a scalar field obeying Robin boundary condition on a spherical
brane in (D+1)-dimensional spacetime , where is a
two-dimensional Rindler spacetime. The generalized zeta function technique is
used in combination with the contour integral representation. The surface
energies on separate sides of the brane contain pole and finite contributions.
Analytic expressions for both these contributions are derived. For an
infinitely thin brane in odd spatial dimensions, the pole parts cancel and the
total surface energy, evaluated as the sum of the energies on separate sides,
is finite. For a minimally coupled scalar field the surface energy-momentum
tensor corresponds to the source of the cosmological constant type.Comment: 12 pages, discussion and references adde
Hydration characteristics and mechanical performances of LC3 binders with spanish kaolinitic calcined clays
Limestone Calcined Clay Cements (LC3) are binders with complex phase development and
microstructures. Although the hydration chemistry of these cements are being widely researched [1],
due to the clay mineralogy variability, more studies are needed to build full knowledge. The use of
calcined kaolinitic clays as SCMs in Portland cement is one of the best approaches, as metakaolin
shows exceptional pozzolanic properties. Here, we report a summary of our ongoing research dealing
with LC3 binders based on Spanish calcined clays with different kaolinite content. The kaolinite
contents [2], jointly with the particle size of the calcined clays [3] will determine the reactivity, and
consequently, the mechanical performances. Initially, a selection of three commercially available
Spanish kaolinitic clays was carried out. Mineralogical and elemental analyses were obtained by Xray
powder diffraction (XRPD) and X-ray fluorescence (XRF), respectively, are elsewhere [3]. The clay
provenance and estimated average kaolinite contents are given in Table 1; the latter was obtained
through the combination of three methodologies (LXRPD, thermal analysis and XRF) [3].Universidad de MĂĄlaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional AndalucĂa Tech
de Sitter String Vacua from Kahler Uplifting
We present a new way to construct de Sitter vacua in type IIB flux
compactifications, in which the interplay of the leading perturbative and
non-perturbative effects stabilize all moduli in dS vacua at parametrically
large volume. Here, the closed string fluxes fix the dilaton and the complex
structure moduli while the universal leading perturbative quantum correction to
the Kahler potential together with non-perturbative effects stabilize the
volume Kahler modulus in a dS_4-vacuum. Since the quantum correction is known
exactly and can be kept parametrically small, this construction leads to
calculable and explicitly realized de Sitter vacua of string theory with
spontaneously broken supersymmetry.Comment: 1+21 pages, 5 figures, LaTeX, uses JHEP3 class, v3: conforms with
published versio
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