2,450 research outputs found
An observation of LHR noise with banded structure by the sounding rocket S29 Barium-GEOS
The measurement of electrostatic and obviously locally produced noise near the lower hybrid frequency made by the sounding rocket S29 Barium-GEOS is reported. The noise is strongly related to the spin of the rocket and reaches well below the local lower hybrid resonance frequency. Above the altitude of 300 km the noise shows banded structure roughly organized by the hydrogen cyclotron frequency. Simultaneously with the banded structure, a signal near the hydrogen cyclotron frequency is detected. This signal is also spin related. The characteristics of the noise suggest that it is locally generated by the rocket payload disturbing the plasma. If this interpretation is correct we expect plasma wave experiments on other spacecrafts, e.g., the space shuttle to observe similar phenomena
Cluster observations of sudden impulses in the magnetotail caused by interplanetary shocks and pressure increases
Sudden impulses (SI) in the tail lobe magnetic field associated with solar wind pressure enhancements are investigated using measurements from Cluster. The magnetic field components during the SIs change in a manner consistent with the assumption that an antisunward moving lateral pressure enhancement compresses the magnetotail axisymmetrically. We found that the maximum variance SI unit vectors were nearly aligned with the associated interplanetary shock normals. For two of the tail lobe SI events during which Cluster was located close to the tail boundary, Cluster observed the inward moving magnetopause. During both events, the spacecraft location changed from the lobe to the magnetospheric boundary layer. During the event on 6 November 2001 the magnetopause was compressed past Cluster. We applied the 2-D Cartesian model developed by collier98 in which a vacuum uniform tail lobe magnetic field is compressed by a step-like pressure increase. The model underestimates the compression of the magnetic field, but it fits the magnetic field maximum variance component well. For events for which we could determine the shock normal orientation, the differences between the observed and calculated shock propagation times from the location of WIND/Geotail to the location of Cluster were small. The propagation speeds of the SIs between the Cluster spacecraft were comparable to the solar wind speed. Our results suggest that the observed tail lobe SIs are due to lateral increases in solar wind dynamic pressure outside the magnetotail boundary
Universal vortex formation in rotating traps with bosons and fermions
When a system consisting of many interacting particles is set rotating, it
may form vortices. This is familiar to us from every-day life: you can observe
vortices while stirring your coffee or watching a hurricane. In the world of
quantum mechanics, famous examples of vortices are superconducting films and
rotating bosonic He or fermionic He liquids. Vortices are also observed
in rotating Bose-Einstein condensates in atomic traps and are predicted to
exist for paired fermionic atoms. Here we show that the rotation of trapped
particles with a repulsive interaction leads to a similar vortex formation,
regardless of whether the particles are bosons or (unpaired) fermions. The
exact, quantum mechanical many-particle wave function provides evidence that in
fact, the mechanism of this vortex formation is the same for boson and fermion
systems.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure
Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Blood Oxygenation Level-Dependent Signal and Magnetoencephalography Evoked Responses Yield Different Neural Functionality in Reading
It is often implicitly assumed that the neural activation patterns revealed by hemodynamic methods, such as functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), and electrophysiological methods, such as magnetoencephalography (MEG) and electroencephalography (EEG), are comparable. In early sensory processing that seems to be the case, but the assumption may not be correct in high-level cognitive tasks. For example, MEG and fMRI literature of single-word reading suggests differences in cortical activation, but direct comparisons are lacking. Here, while the same human participants performed the same reading task, analysis of MEG evoked responses and fMRI blood oxygenation level-dependent (BOLD) signals revealed marked functional and spatial differences in several cortical areas outside the visual cortex. Divergent patterns of activation were observed in the frontal and temporal cortex, in accordance with previous separate MEG and fMRI studies of reading. Furthermore, opposite stimulus effects in the MEG and fMRI measures were detected in the left occipitotemporal cortex: MEG evoked responses were stronger to letter than symbol strings, whereas the fMRI BOLD signal was stronger to symbol than letter strings. The EEG recorded simultaneously during MEG and fMRI did not indicate neurophysiological differences that could explain the observed functional discrepancies between the MEG and fMRI results. Acknowledgment of the complementary nature of hemodynamic and electrophysiological measures, as reported here in a cognitive task using evoked response analysis in MEG and BOLD signal analysis in fMRI, represents an essential step toward an informed use of multimodal imaging that reaches beyond mere combination of location and timing of neural activationPeer reviewe
Supermagnetosonic jets behind a collisionless quasi-parallel shock
The downstream region of a collisionless quasi-parallel shock is structured
containing bulk flows with high kinetic energy density from a previously
unidentified source. We present Cluster multi-spacecraft measurements of this
type of supermagnetosonic jet as well as of a weak secondary shock front within
the sheath, that allow us to propose the following generation mechanism for the
jets: The local curvature variations inherent to quasi-parallel shocks can
create fast, deflected jets accompanied by density variations in the downstream
region. If the speed of the jet is super(magneto)sonic in the reference frame
of the obstacle, a second shock front forms in the sheath closer to the
obstacle. Our results can be applied to collisionless quasi-parallel shocks in
many plasma environments.Comment: accepted to Phys. Rev. Lett. (Nov 5, 2009
Vortex localization in rotating clouds of bosons and fermions
Finite quantal systems at high angular momenta may exhibit vortex formation
and localization. These phenomena occur independent of the statistics of the
repulsively interacting particles, which may be of bosonic or fermionic nature.
We analyze the relation between vortex localization and formation of stable
Wigner molecules at high angular momenta in the view of particle-hole
duality.Trial wave functions for the vortex states and the corresponding
fermion-boson relations are discussed.Comment: 12 pages, 12 figure
Analysis of double-step response to an interplanetary shock in the dayside magnetosphere
Peer reviewe
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