Eg versus x relation from photoluminescence and electron microprobe investigations in p-type Hg1−xCdxTe (0.35 =< x =< 0.7)

Combined photoluminescence (at 10 T 300 K) and electron microprobe investigations have been carried out with HgCdTe samples grown from the melt or from solution. By exciting the samples through metallic masks with 200 μm diameter holes fixed with respect to the sample care was taken to pick-up both characteristic X-ray radiation as well as the photoluminescence from the same sample area. The Eg versus x relation determined in this way at T = 30 K has been compared with data from the interband absorption edge by other authors

Aeolian transport layer

We investigate the airborne transport of particles on a granular surface by the saltation mechanism through numerical simulation of particle motion coupled with turbulent flow. We determine the saturated flux $q_{s}$ and show that its behavior is consistent with a classical empirical relation obtained from wind tunnel measurements. Our results also allow to propose a new relation valid for small fluxes, namely, $q_{s}=a(u_{*}-u_{t})^{\alpha}$, where $u_{*}$ and $u_{t}$ are the shear and threshold velocities of the wind, respectively, and the scaling exponent is $\alpha \approx 2$. We obtain an expression for the velocity profile of the wind distorted by the particle motion and present a dynamical scaling relation. We also find a novel expression for the dependence of the height of the saltation layer as function of the wind velocity.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

Functionally aberrant electrophysiological cortical connectivities in first episode medication-naive schizophrenics from three psychiatry centers

Functional dissociation between brain processes is widely hypothesized to account for aberrations of thought and emotions in schizophrenic patients. The typically small groups of analyzed schizophrenic patients yielded different neurophysiological findings, probably because small patient groups are likely to comprise different schizophrenia subtypes. We analyzed multichannel eyes- closed resting EEG from three small groups of acutely ill, first episode productive schizophrenic patients before start of medication (from three centers: Bern N = 9; Osaka N = 9; Berlin N = 12) and their controls. Low resolution brain electromagnetic tomography (LORETA) was used to compute intracortical source model-based lagged functional connectivity not biased by volume conduction effects between 19 cortical regions of interest (ROIs). The connectivities were compared between controls and patients of each group. Conjunction analysis determined six aberrant cortical functional connectivities that were the same in the three patient groups. Four of these six concerned the facilitating EEG alpha-1 frequency activity; they were decreased in the patients. Another two of these six connectivities concerned the inhibiting EEG delta frequency activity; they were increased in the patients. The principal orientation of the six aberrant cortical functional connectivities was sagittal; five of them involved both hemispheres. In sum, activity in the posterior brain areas of preprocessing functions and the anterior brain areas of evaluation and behavior control functions were compromised by either decreased coupled activation or increased coupled inhibition, common across schizophrenia subtypes in the three patient groups. These results of the analyzed three independent groups of schizophrenics support the concept of functional dissociation

Temporal evolution of stable water isotopologues in cloud droplets in a hill cap cloud in central Europe (HCCT-2010)

In this work, we present the first study resolving the temporal evolution of δ2H and δ18O values in cloud droplets during 13 different cloud events. The cloud events were probed on a 937 m high mountain chain in Germany in the framework of the Hill Cap Cloud Thuringia 2010 campaign (HCCT-2010) in September and October 2010. The δ values of cloud droplets ranged from −77‰ to −15‰ (δ2H) and from −12.1‰ to −3.9‰ (δ18O) over the whole campaign. The cloud water line of the measured δ values was δ2H=7.8×δ18O+13×10−3, which is of similar slope, but with higher deuterium excess than other Central European Meteoric Water Lines. Decreasing δ values in the course of the campaign agree with seasonal trends observed in rain in central Europe. The deuterium excess was higher in clouds developing after recent precipitation revealing episodes of regional moisture recycling. The variations in δ values during one cloud event could either result from changes in meteorological conditions during condensation or from variations in the δ values of the water vapor feeding the cloud. To test which of both aspects dominated during the investigated cloud events, we modeled the variation in δ values in cloud water using a closed box model. We could show that the variation in δ values of two cloud events was mainly due to changes in local temperature conditions. For the other eleven cloud events, the variation was most likely caused by changes in the isotopic composition of the advected and entrained vapor. Frontal passages during two of the latter cloud events led to the strongest temporal changes in both δ2H (≈ 6‰ per hour) and δ18O (≈ 0.6‰ per hour). Moreover, a detailed trajectory analysis for the two longest cloud events revealed that variations in the entrained vapor were most likely related to rain out or changes in relative humidity and temperature at the moisture source region or both. This study illustrates the sensitivity of stable isotope composition of cloud water to changes in large scale air mass properties and regional recycling of moisture

Source Dimensions in Ultrarelativistic Heavy Ion Collisions

Recent experiments on pion correlations, interpreted as interferometric measurements of the collision zone, are compared with models that distinguish a prehadronic phase and a hadronic phase. The models include prehadronic longitudinal expansion, conversion to hadrons in local kinetic equilibrium, and rescattering of the produced hadrons. We find that the longitudinal and outward radii are surprisingly sensitive to the algorithm used for two-body collisions. The longitudinal radius measured in collisions of 200 GeV/u sulfur nuclei on a heavy target requires the existence of a prehadronic phase which converts to the hadronic phase at densities around 0.8-1.0 GeV/fm$^3$. The transverse radii cannot be reproduced without introducing more complex dynamics into the transverse expansion.Comment: RevTeX 3.0, 28 pages, 6 figures, not included, revised version, major change is an additional discussion of the classical two-body collision algorithm, a (compressed) postscript file of the complete paper including figures can be obtained from Authors or via anonymous ftp at ftp://ftp_int.phys.washington.edu/pub/herrmann/pisource.ps.

Accurate ab initio spin densities

We present an approach for the calculation of spin density distributions for molecules that require very large active spaces for a qualitatively correct description of their electronic structure. Our approach is based on the density-matrix renormalization group (DMRG) algorithm to calculate the spin density matrix elements as basic quantity for the spatially resolved spin density distribution. The spin density matrix elements are directly determined from the second-quantized elementary operators optimized by the DMRG algorithm. As an analytic convergence criterion for the spin density distribution, we employ our recently developed sampling-reconstruction scheme [J. Chem. Phys. 2011, 134, 224101] to build an accurate complete-active-space configuration-interaction (CASCI) wave function from the optimized matrix product states. The spin density matrix elements can then also be determined as an expectation value employing the reconstructed wave function expansion. Furthermore, the explicit reconstruction of a CASCI-type wave function provides insights into chemically interesting features of the molecule under study such as the distribution of $\alpha$- and $\beta$-electrons in terms of Slater determinants, CI coefficients, and natural orbitals. The methodology is applied to an iron nitrosyl complex which we have identified as a challenging system for standard approaches [J. Chem. Theory Comput. 2011, 7, 2740].Comment: 37 pages, 13 figure

A Continuum Saltation Model for Sand Dunes

We derive a phenomenological continuum saltation model for aeolian sand transport that can serve as an efficient tool for geomorphological applications. The coupled differential equations for the average density and velocity of sand in the saltation layer reproduce both known equilibrium relations for the sand flux and the time evolution of the sand flux as predicted by microscopic saltation models. The three phenomenological parameters of the model are a reference height for the grain-air interaction, an effective restitution coefficient for the grain-bed interaction, and a multiplication factor characterizing the chain reaction caused by the impacts leading to a typical time or length scale of the saturation transients. We determine the values of these parameters by comparing our model with wind tunnel measurements. Our main interest are out of equilibrium situations where saturation transients are important, for instance at phase boundaries (ground/sand) or under unsteady wind conditions. We point out that saturation transients are indispensable for a proper description of sand flux over structured terrain, by applying the model to the windward side of an isolated dune, thereby resolving recently reported discrepancies between field measurements and theoretical predictions.Comment: 11 pages, 7 figure

Stable water isotopologue ratios in fog and cloud droplets of liquid clouds are not size-dependent

In this work, we present the first observations of stable water isotopologue ratios in cloud droplets of different sizes collected simultaneously. We address the question whether the isotope ratio of droplets in a liquid cloud varies as a function of droplet size. Samples were collected from a ground intercepted cloud (= fog) during the Hill Cap Cloud Thuringia 2010 campaign (HCCT-2010) using a three-stage Caltech Active Strand Cloud water Collector (CASCC). An instrument test revealed that no artificial isotopic fractionation occurs during sample collection with the CASCC. Furthermore, we could experimentally confirm the hypothesis that the δ values of cloud droplets of the relevant droplet sizes (μm-range) were not significantly different and thus can be assumed to be in isotopic equilibrium immediately with the surrounding water vapor. However, during the dissolution period of the cloud, when the supersaturation inside the cloud decreased and the cloud began to clear, differences in isotope ratios of the different droplet sizes tended to be larger. This is likely to result from the cloud's heterogeneity, implying that larger and smaller cloud droplets have been collected at different moments in time, delivering isotope ratios from different collection times

Discovery of Interstellar CF+

We discuss the first astronomical detection of the CF+ (fluoromethylidynium) ion, obtained by observations of the J=1-0 (102.6 GHz), J=2-1 (205.2 GHz) and J=3-2 (307.7 GHz) rotational transitions toward the Orion Bar region. Our search for CF+, carried out using the IRAM 30m and APEX 12m telescopes, was motivated by recent theoretical models that predict CF+ abundances of a few times 1.E-10 in UV-irradiated molecular regions where C+ is present. The CF+ ion is produced by exothermic reactions of C+ with HF. Because fluorine atoms can react exothermically with H2, HF is predicted to be the dominant reservoir of fluorine, not only in well-shielded regions but also in the surface layers of molecular clouds where the C+ abundance is large. The observed CF+ line intensities imply the presence of CF+ column densities of at least 1.E+12 cm-2 over a region of size at least ~ 1 arcmin, in good agreement with theoretical predictions. They provide support for our current theories of interstellar fluorine chemistry, which suggest that hydrogen fluoride should be ubiquitous in interstellar gas clouds and widely detectable in absorption by future satellite and airborne observatories.Comment: 4 pages, including 4 figures. To appear in a special A&A issue on "First Science with APEX

Transverse momentum dependence of directed particle flow at 160 AGeV

The transverse momentum ($p_t$) dependence of hadron flow at SPS energies is studied. In particular, the nucleon and pion flow in S+S and Pb+Pb collisions at 160 AGeV is investigated. For simulations the microscopic quark-gluon string model (QGSM) is applied. It is found that the directed flow of pions $v_1(y, \Delta p_t)$ changes sign from a negative slope in the low-$p_t$ region to a positive slope at $p_t \geq 0.6$ GeV/c as recently also observed experimentally. The change of the flow behaviour can be explained by early emission times for high-$p_t$ pions. We further found that a substantial amount of high-$p_t$ pions are produced in the very first primary NN collisions at the surface region of the touching nuclei. Thus, at SPS energies high-$p_t$ nucleons seem to be a better probe for the hot and dense early phase of nuclear collisions than high-$p_t$ pions. Both, in the light and in the heavy system the pion directed flow $v_1(p_t, \Delta y)$ exhibits large negative values when the transverse momentum approaches zero, as also seen experimentally in Pb+Pb collisions. It is found that this effect is caused by nuclear shadowing. The proton flow, in contrary, shows the typical linear increase with rising $p_t$.Comment: REVTEX, 20 pages incl. 6 figures, revised and extended versio