Spectral analysis of the Elatina varve series

The Elatina formation in South America, which provides a rich fossil record of presumptive solar activity in the late Precambrian, is of great potential significance for the physics of the sun because it contains luminae grouped in cycles of about 12, an appearance suggestive of the solar cycle. Here, the laminae are treated as varves laid down yearly and modulated in thickness in accordance with the late Precambrian sunspot activity for the year of deposition. The purpose is to present a simple structure, or intrinsic spectrum, that will be uncovered by appropriate data analysis

Harmonic analysis of irradiation asymmetry for cylindrical implosions driven by high-frequency rotating ion beams

Cylindrical implosions driven by intense heavy ions beams should be instrumental in a near future to study High Energy Density Matter. By rotating the beam by means of a high frequency wobbler, it should be possible to deposit energy in the outer layers of a cylinder, compressing the material deposited in its core. The beam temporal profile should however generate an inevitable irradiation asymmetry likely to feed the Rayleigh-Taylor instability (RTI) during the implosion phase. In this paper, we compute the Fourier components of the target irradiation in order to make the junction with previous works on RTI performed in this setting. Implementing a 1D and 2D beam models, we find these components can be expressed exactly in terms of the Fourier transform of the temporal beam profile. If $T$ is the beam duration and $\Omega$ its rotation frequency, "magic products" $\Omega T$ can be identified which cancel the first harmonic of the deposited density, resulting in an improved irradiation symmetry.Comment: 19 pages, 8 figures, to appear in PR

Solutions of coupled BPS equations for two-family Calogero and matrix models

We consider a large N, two-family Calogero and matrix model in the Hamiltonian, collective-field approach. The Bogomol'nyi limit appears and the solutions to the coupled Bogomol'nyi-Prasad-Sommerfeld equations are given by the static soliton configurations. We find all solutions close to constant and construct exact one-parameter solutions in the strong-weak dual case. Full classification of these solutions is presented.Comment: latex, 15 pages, no figure

Trapped Resonant Fermions above Superfluid Transition Temperature

We investigate trapped resonant fermions with unequal populations within the local density approximation above the superfluid transition temperature. By tuning the attractive interaction between fermions via Feshbach resonance, the system evolves from weakly interacting fermi gas to strongly interacting fermi gas, and finally becomes bose-fermi mixture. The density profiles of fermions are examined and compared with experiments. We also point out the simple relationships between the local density, the axial density, and the gas pressure within the local density approximation.Comment: 9 pages, 4 figure

Tomographic RF Spectroscopy of a Trapped Fermi Gas at Unitarity

We present spatially resolved radio-frequency spectroscopy of a trapped Fermi gas with resonant interactions and observe a spectral gap at low temperatures. The spatial distribution of the spectral response of the trapped gas is obtained using in situ phase-contrast imaging and 3D image reconstruction. At the lowest temperature, the homogeneous rf spectrum shows an asymmetric excitation line shape with a peak at 0.48(4)$\epsilon_F$ with respect to the free atomic line, where $\epsilon_F$ is the local Fermi energy

Experimental evidence of bark beetle adaptation to a fungal symbiont

The importance of symbiotic microbes to insects cannot be overstated; however, we have a poor understanding of the evolutionary processes that shape most insect–microbe interactions. Many bark beetle (Coleoptera: Curculionidae, Scolytinae) species are involved in what have been described as obligate mutualisms with symbiotic fungi. Beetles benefit through supplementing their nutrient- poor diet with fungi and the fungi benefit through gaining transportation to resources. However, only a few beetle–fungal symbioses have been experimentally manipulated to test whether the relationship is obligate. Furthermore, none have tested for adaptation of beetles to their specific symbionts, one of the requirements for coevolution. We experimentally manipulated the western pine beetle–fungus symbiosis to determine whether the beetle is obligately dependent upon fungi and to test for fine-scale adaptation of the beetle to one of its symbiotic fungi, Entomocorticium sp. B. We reared beetles from a single population with either a natal isolate of E. sp. B (isolated from the same population from which the beetles originated), a non-natal isolate (a genetically divergent isolate from a geographically distant beetle population), or with no fungi. We found that fungi were crucial for the successful development of western pine beetles. We also found no significant difference in the effects of the natal and non-natal isolate on beetle fitness parameters. However, brood adult beetles failed to incorporate the non-natal fungus into their fungal transport structure (mycangium) indicating adaption by the beetle to particular genotypes of symbiotic fungi. Our results suggest that beetle–fungus mutualisms and symbiont fidelity may be maintained via an undescribed recognition mechanism of the beetles for particular symbionts that may promote particular associations through time

Measurements of Surface Diffusivity and Coarsening During Pulsed Laser Deposition

Pulsed Laser Deposition (PLD) of homoepitaxial SrTiO3 was studied with in-situ x-ray specular reflectivity and surface diffuse x-ray scattering. Unlike prior reflectivity-based studies, these measurements access both the time- and the length-scales of the evolution of the surface morphology during growth. In particular, we show that this technique allows direct measurements of the diffusivity for both inter- and intra-layer transport. Our results explicitly limit the possible role of island break-up, demonstrate the key roles played by nucleation and coarsening in PLD, and place an upper bound on the Ehrlich-Schwoebel (ES) barrier for downhill diffusion

A Data Cube Extraction Pipeline for a Coronagraphic Integral Field Spectrograph

Project 1640 is a high contrast near-infrared instrument probing the vicinities of nearby stars through the unique combination of an integral field spectrograph with a Lyot coronagraph and a high-order adaptive optics system. The extraordinary data reduction demands, similar those which several new exoplanet imaging instruments will face in the near future, have been met by the novel software algorithms described herein. The Project 1640 Data Cube Extraction Pipeline (PCXP) automates the translation of 3.8*10^4 closely packed, coarsely sampled spectra to a data cube. We implement a robust empirical model of the spectrograph focal plane geometry to register the detector image at sub-pixel precision, and map the cube extraction. We demonstrate our ability to accurately retrieve source spectra based on an observation of Saturn's moon Titan.Comment: 35 pages, 15 figures; accepted for publication in PAS

An Interneuron Circuit Reproducing Essential Spectral Features of Field Potentials

This document is the Accepted Manuscript version of the following article: Reinoud Maex, ‘An Interneuron Circuit Reproducing Essential Spectral Features of Field Potentials’, Neural Computation, March 2018. Under embargo until 22 June 2018. The final, definitive version of this paper is available online at doi: https://doi.org/10.1162/NECO_a_01068. © 2018 Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Content in the UH Research Archive is made available for personal research, educational, and non-commercial purposes only. Unless otherwise stated, all content is protected by copyright, and in the absence of an open license, permissions for further re-use should be sought from the publisher, the author, or other copyright holder.Recent advances in engineering and signal processing have renewed the interest in invasive and surface brain recordings, yet many features of cortical field potentials remain incompletely understood. In the present computational study, we show that a model circuit of interneurons, coupled via both GABA(A) receptor synapses and electrical synapses, reproduces many essential features of the power spectrum of local field potential (LFP) recordings, such as 1/f power scaling at low frequency (< 10 Hz) , power accumulation in the γ-frequency band (30–100 Hz), and a robust α rhythm in the absence of stimulation. The low-frequency 1/f power scaling depends on strong reciprocal inhibition, whereas the α rhythm is generated by electrical coupling of intrinsically active neurons. As in previous studies, the γ power arises through the amplifica- tion of single-neuron spectral properties, owing to the refractory period, by parameters that favour neuronal synchrony, such as delayed inhibition. The present study also confirms that both synaptic and voltage-gated membrane currents substantially contribute to the LFP, and that high-frequency signals such as action potentials quickly taper off with distance. Given the ubiquity of electrically coupled interneuron circuits in the mammalian brain, they may be major determinants of the recorded potentials.Peer reviewe