Background Flux Research Articles

An innovative approach to bioremediation of mercury contaminated soils from industrial mining operations

Soils contaminated with mercury (Hg) have proved expensive and logistically difficult to remediate. Research continues into finding suitable environmentally-friendly and efficient ways of achieving this end. Bioremediation is an option, which employs the strategies microorganisms have evolved to deal with Hg. One microbial strategy involves uptake and intracellular volatilisation of mercuric ions, which passively diffuse from the cell and back into the atmosphere. In this work, Pseudomonas veronii cells grown to stationary phase were immobilised in a xanthan gum-based biopolymer via encapsulation. The P. veronii-biopolymer mix was then coated onto natural zeolite granules. Zeolite immobilised cells remained viable for at least 16 weeks stored under ambient room temperature. Furthermore, the immobilised cells were shown to retain both viability and Hg volatilisation functionality after transportation from Australia to the USA, where they were applied to Hg contaminated soil. Maximum flux rates exceeded 10 μg Hg m2 h−1 from mine tailings (≈7 mg kg−1 Hg with 50% v/v water). This was 4 orders of magnitude above background flux levels. It is envisioned that emitted gaseous elemental mercury (GEM) can be readily captured, and transformed back into metallic Hg, which can then be stored appropriately or recycled. This breaks the Hg cycle, as GEM is no longer translocated back to the atmospheric compartment. The immobilising excipients used in this research overcome many logistical issues with delivery of suitable microbial loads to locations of mercury contamination and presents a facile and inexpensive method of augmenting contaminated sites with selected microbial consortia for bioremediation.

Flux flattening in axion monodromy inflation

String theory models of axion monodromy inflation exhibit scalar potentials which are quadratic for small values of the inflaton field and evolve to a more complicated function for large field values. Oftentimes the large field behaviour is gentler than quadratic, lowering the tensor-to-scalar ratio. This effect, known as flattening, has been observed in the string theory context through the properties of the DBI+CS D-brane action. We revisit such flattening effects in type IIB flux compactifications with mobile D7-branes, with the inflaton identified with the D7-brane position. We observe that, with a generic choice of background fluxes, flattening effects are larger than previously observed, allowing to fit these models within current experimental bounds. In particular, we compute the cosmological observables in scenarios compatible with closed-string moduli stabilisation, finding tensor-to-scalar ratios as low as r ∼ 0.04. These are models of single field inflation in which the inflaton is much lighter than the other scalars through a mild tuning of the compactification data.

Greenhouse-gas budgets for irrigated dairy pasture and a winter-forage kale crop

Managed grasslands can be net sources or sinks for three major greenhouse gases (CO2, CH4 and N2O). We measured the exchange of these gases for three years over an irrigated, intensively-managed dairy pasture in New Zealand that was grazed ten times per year. We also measured the greenhouse gas (GHG) exchanges over a neighbouring dryland pasture for two years, including its conversion to a winter-forage kale crop in the second year and the grazing of that crop. From the gas exchanges, measurements of the grazed biomass, and estimates of other imports and exports we obtained annual net carbon (C) budgets and GHG budgets for these ecosystems. The irrigated pasture system (excluding cows) removed CO2 from the atmosphere, 423 (±23)gC m−2yr−1 on average, and when considering the other C inputs and outputs it was also a net C sink in each year, gaining 81 (±27)gCm−2yr−1 on average. The net CO2 uptake of the dryland in the conversion year was about half that of the irrigated pasture, and its net C budget was neutral. The irrigated pasture, without grazing cows, emitted CH4 throughout all seasons. These emissions were about 15 times greater than emissions expected just from cow dung; we cannot discern what fractions originated from the soil and the pasture plants, respectively. At the dryland/kale site, CH4 emissions of the same magnitude occurred. The emissions of N2O from the irrigated pasture were 0.68 (±0.026)gNm−2yr−1 on average (± standard error), and about half that from the kale crop. These results agree reasonably well with expected emissions based on the N inputs from fertiliser and excreta, using emission factors from New Zealand’s national GHG inventory; however, it is unclear what fraction of the observed emissions can be considered as non-anthropogenic background fluxes. For the irrigated pasture, the global-warming potential of the N2O emissions (expressed as CO2-equivalent mass) was approximately equal to the net C uptake. Hence, the pasture was offsetting its own N2O emissions. However, CH4 emissions directly from cows (calculated from the cows’ feed intake) were two to three times greater than the N2O emissions, and about six times greater than the pasture’s CH4 emissions. Therefore, the dairy system including pasture and cows was a net GHG source.

Double field theory at SL(2) angles

An extended field theory is presented that captures the full SL(2) × O(6, 6 + n) duality group of four-dimensional half-maximal supergravities. The theory has section constraints whose two inequivalent solutions correspond to minimal D = 10 supergravity and chiral half-maximal D = 6 supergravity, respectively coupled to vector and tensor multiplets. The relation with O(6, 6 + n) (heterotic) double field theory is thoroughly discussed. Non-Abelian interactions as well as background fluxes are captured by a deformation of the generalised diffeomorphisms. Finally, making use of the SL(2) duality structure, it is shown how to generate gaugings with non-trivial de Roo-Wagemans angles via generalised Scherk-Schwarz ansätze. Such gaugings allow for moduli stabilisation including the SL(2) dilaton.

An increased abundance of micrometeorites on Earth owing to vesicular parachutes

AbstractMicrometeorites (MMs) are extraterrestrial dust particles that survive atmospheric entry and can be recovered from sedimentary rocks. Fossil MMs allow events beyond the Earth, such as the collisional breakup of asteroids, to be identified. Here the effects of vesicle formation during melting of dust are investigated through numerical modeling and observations of Antarctic MMs. Vesicle formation is shown to cause a parachute effect that causes rapid deceleration, decreasing peak temperature. Vesicular parachuting enhances the abundance of melted MMs formed from phyllosilicate‐bearing C‐type asteroid dust on the Earth surface by a factor of 2. Micrometeorites recovered from the geological record, therefore, are biased toward breakup events involving hydrated C‐type asteroids, whilst those involving phyllosilicate‐poor particles are diluted by the enhanced background flux of hydrous dust. The parachute effect is also likely to increase the delivery of 3He to ocean sediments by C‐type asteroid dust.

Classification of maximally supersymmetric backgrounds in supergravity theories

We study maximally supersymmetric solutions of all gauged or deformed supergravity theories in D ≥ 3 space-time dimensions. For vanishing background fluxes the space-time background has to be either Minkowski or anti-de Sitter. We derive a simple criterion for the existence of solutions with non-trivial fluxes and determine all supergravities that satisfy it. We show that their solutions coincide with those of the corresponding ungauged theories and conclude that the known list of maximally supersymmetric solutions is exhaustive.

Fermions on the antibrane: Higher order interactions and spontaneously broken supersymmetry

It has been recently argued that inserting a probe anti-D3-brane in a flux background breaks supersymmetry spontaneously instead of explicitly, as previously thought. In this paper we argue that such spontaneous breaking of supersymmetry persists even when the probe anti-D3-brane is kept in a curved background with an internal space that doesn't have to be a Calabi-Yau manifold. To show this we take a specific curved background generated by fractional three-branes and fluxes on a non-Kahler resolved conifold where supersymmetry breaking appears directly from certain world-volume fermions becoming massive. In fact this turns out to be a generic property even if we change the dimensionality of the anti-brane, or allow higher order fermionic interactions on the anti-brane. We argue for the former by taking a probe anti-D7-brane in a flux background and demonstrate the spontaneous breaking of supersymmetry using world-volume fermions. We argue for the latter by constructing an all order fermionic action for the anti-D3-brane from which the spontaneous nature of supersymmetry breaking can be demonstrated by bringing it to a kappa-symmetric form.

Background-Source Cosmic-Photon Elevation Scaling and Cosmic-Neutron/Photon Date Scaling in MCNP6

Cosmic neutron and photon fluxes are known to scale exponentially with elevation. Consequently, cosmic neutron elevation scaling was implemented for use with the background-source option shortly after its introduction into MCNP6, whereby the neutron flux weight factor was adjusted by the elevation scaling factor when the user-specified elevation differed from the selected background.dat grid-point elevation. At the same time, an elevation scaling factor was suggested for the cosmic photon flux, however, cosmic photon elevation scaling is complicated by the fact that the photon background consists of two components: cosmic and terrestrial. Previous versions of the background.dat file did not provide any way to separate these components. With Rel. 4 of this file in 2015, two new columns were added that provide the energy grid and differential cosmic photon flux separately from the total photon flux. Here we show that the cosmic photon flux component can now be scaled independently and combined with the terrestrial component to form the total photon flux at a user-specified elevation in MCNP6.Cosmic background fluxes also scale with the solar cycle due to solar modulation. This modulation has been shown to be nearly sinusoidal over time, with an inverse effect – increased modulation leads to a decrease in cosmic fluxes. This effect was initially included with the cosmic source option in MCNP6 and has now been extended for use with the background source option when: (1) the date is specified in the background.dat file, and (2) when the user specifies a date on the source definition card. A description of the cosmic-neutron/photon date scaling feature will be presented along with scaling results for past and future date extrapolations.

GRAINE balloon experiment in 2015

Observations of cosmic gamma rays are important for studying high energy phenomena in the universe. Since 2008, the Large Area Telescope on the Fermi satellite has surveyed the whole gamma-ray sky in the sub-GeV/GeV energy region, and accumurated a large amount of data. However, observations at the low galactic latitude remains difficult because of a lack of angular resolution, increase of background flux originating from galactic diffuse gamma rays, etc. The Gamma-Ray Astro-Imager with Nuclear Emulsion (GRAINE) is a gamma-ray observation project with a new balloon-borne emulsion gamma-ray telescope. Nuclear emulsion is a high-resolution 3D tracking device. It determines the incident angle with 0.1 ∘ resolution for 1 GeV gamma rays (1.0 ∘ for 100 MeV), and has linear polarization sensitivity. GRAINE aims at precise observation of gamma-ray sources, especially in the galactic plane, by repeating long-duration balloon flights with large-aperture-area (10 m 2 ) high-resolution emulsion telescopes. In May 2015, we performed a balloon-borne experiment in Alice Springs, Australia, in order to demonstrate the imaging performance of our telescope. The emulsion telescope that has an aperture area of 0.4 m 2 was employed in this experiment. It observed the Vela pulsar (the brightest gamma-ray source in the GeV sky) at an altitude of 37 km for 6 hours out of the flight duration of 14 hours. In this presentation, we will report the latest results and the status of the GRAINE project.

Exactly marginal deformations from exceptional generalised geometry

We apply exceptional generalised geometry to the study of exactly marginal deformations of mathcal{N} = 1 SCFTs that are dual to generic AdS5 flux backgrounds in type IIB or eleven-dimensional supergravity. In the gauge theory, marginal deformations are parametrised by the space of chiral primary operators of conformal dimension three, while exactly marginal deformations correspond to quotienting this space by the complexified global symmetry group. We show how the supergravity analysis gives a geometric interpretation of the gauge theory results. The marginal deformations arise from deformations of generalised structures that solve moment maps for the generalised diffeomorphism group and have the correct charge under the generalised Reeb vector, generating the R-symmetry. If this is the only symmetry of the background, all marginal deformations are exactly marginal. If the background possesses extra isometries, there are obstructions that come from fixed points of the moment maps. The exactly marginal deformations are then given by a further quotient by these extra isometries.Our analysis holds for any mathcal{N} = 2 AdS5 flux background. Focussing on the particular case of type IIB Sasaki-Einstein backgrounds we recover the result that marginal deformations correspond to perturbing the solution by three-form flux at first order. In various explicit examples, we show that our expression for the three-form flux matches those in the literature and the obstruction conditions match the one-loop beta functions of the dual SCFT.

Stationary through-flows in a Bose-Einstein condensate with aPT-symmetric impurity

Superfluid currents in the boson condensate with a source and sink of particles are modelled by the PT-symmetric Gross-Pitaevskii equation with a complex potential. We demonstrate the existence of through-flows of the condensate --- stationary states with the asymptotically nonvanishing flux. The through-flows come in two broad varieties determined by the form of their number density distribution. One variety is described by dip-like solutions featuring a localised density depression; the other one comprises hump-like structures with a density spike in their core. We exemplify each class by exact closed-form solutions. For a fixed set of parameters of the PT-symmetric potential, stationary through-flows form continuous families parametrized by the strength of the background flux. All hump-like and some dip-like members of the family are found to be stable. We show that the through-flows can be controlled by varying the gain-and-loss amplitude of the complex potential and that these amplitude variations may produce an anomalous response of the flux across the gain-loss interface.

Impact of tillage on greenhouse gas emissions by an agricultural crop and dynamics of N2O fluxes: Insights from automated closed chamber measurements

Our experiment aimed at studying the impact of long term tillage treatments – reduced tillage (RT) and conventional tillage (CT), on CO2 and N2O emissions by soil and at describing the dynamics of N2O fluxes. Gas measurements were performed from June to October 2015 in a Belgian maize crop, with homemade automated closed chambers, allowing continuous measurement at a high temporal resolution. After 7 years of treatment, CO2 and N2O average emissions were significantly larger in the RT parcel than in the CT parcel. This observation was attributed to the effect of tillage on the distribution of crop residues within the soil profile, leading to higher soil organic C and total N contents and a greater microbial biomass in the upper layer in RT. A single N2O emission peak triggered by a sudden increase of water-filled pore space (WFPS) was observed in the beginning of the measuring campaign. The absence of large emission afterwards was most likely due to a decreasing availability of N as crop grew. N2O background fluxes showed to be significantly correlated to CO2 fluxes but not to WFPS, while the influence of soil temperature remained unclear. Our results question the suitability of reduced tillage as a “climate-smart” practice and suggest that more experiments be conducted on conservation practices and their potent negative effect on environment.

ASTROSAT/LAXPC REVEALS THE HIGH-ENERGY VARIABILITY OF GRS 1915+105 IN THE χ CLASS

ABSTRACT We present the first quick look analysis of data from nine AstroSat's Large Area X-ray Proportional Counter (LAXPC) observations of GRS 1915+105 during 2016 March when the source had the characteristics of being in the Radio-quiet χ class. We find that a simple empirical model of a disk blackbody emission, with Comptonization and a broad Gaussian Iron line can fit the time-averaged 3–80 keV spectrum with a systematic uncertainty of 1.5% and a background flux uncertainty of 4%. A simple dead time corrected Poisson noise level spectrum matches well with the observed high-frequency power spectra till 50 kHz and as expected the data show no significant high-frequency ( ) features. Energy dependent power spectra reveal a strong low-frequency (2–8 Hz) quasi-periodic oscillation and its harmonic along with broadband noise. The QPO frequency changes rapidly with flux (nearly 4 Hz in ∼5 hr). With increasing QPO frequency, an excess noise component appears significantly in the high-energy regime ( keV). At the QPO frequencies, the time-lag as a function of energy has a non-monotonic behavior such that the lags decrease with energy till about 15–20 keV and then increase for higher energies. These first-look results benchmark the performance of LAXPC at high energies and confirms that its data can be used for more sophisticated analysis such as flux or frequency-resolved spectro-timing studies.

The exceptional generalised geometry of supersymmetric AdS flux backgrounds

We analyse generic AdS flux backgrounds preserving eight supercharges in $D=4$ and $D=5$ dimensions using exceptional generalised geometry. We show that they are described by a pair of globally defined, generalised structures, identical to those that appear for flat flux backgrounds but with different integrability conditions. We give a number of explicit examples of such "exceptional Sasaki-Einstein" backgrounds in type IIB supergravity and M-theory. In particular, we give the complete analysis of the generic AdS$_5$ M-theory backgrounds. We also briefly discuss the structure of the moduli space of solutions. In all cases, one structure defines a "generalised Reeb vector" that generates a Killing symmetry of the background corresponding to the R-symmetry of the dual field theory, and in addition encodes the generic contact structures that appear in the $D=4$ M-theory and $D=5$ type IIB cases. Finally, we investigate the relation between generalised structures and quantities in the dual field theory, showing that the central charge and R-charge of BPS wrapped-brane states are both encoded by the generalised Reeb vector, as well as discussing how volume minimisation (the dual of $a$- and $\mathcal{F}$-maximisation) is encoded.

Determining the fluxes of ions (Pb2+, Cu2+ and Cd2+) at the root surface of wetland plants using the scanning ion-selective electrode technique

Background and aims Measuring specific ion fluxes from different regions of the root under practical physiological conditions is crucial for understanding metal uptake mechanisms by plants.

Modeling orbital gamma-ray spectroscopy experiments at carbonaceous asteroids.

To evaluate the feasibility of measuring differences in bulk composition among carbonaceous meteorite parent bodies from an asteroid or comet orbiter, we present the results of a performance simulation of an orbital gamma-ray spectroscopy (GRS) experiment in a Dawn-like orbit around spherical model asteroids with a range of carbonaceous compositions. The orbital altitude was held equal to the asteroid radius for 4.5 months. Both the asteroid gamma-ray spectrum and the spacecraft background flux were calculated using the MCNPX Monte-Carlo code. GRS is sensitive to depths below the optical surface (to ≈20-50 cm depth depending on material density). This technique can therefore measure underlying compositions beneath a sulfur-depleted (e.g., Nittler et al. 2001) or desiccated surface layer. We find that 3σ uncertainties of under 1 wt% are achievable for H, C, O, Si, S, Fe, and Cl for five carbonaceous meteorite compositions using the heritage Mars Odyssey GRS design in a spacecraft-deck-mounted configuration at the Odyssey end-of-mission energy resolution, FWHM = 5.7 keV at 1332 keV. The calculated compositional uncertainties are smaller than the compositional differences between carbonaceous chondrite subclasses.

T-branes and α ′ -corrections

We study α’-corrections in multiple D7-brane configurations with non-commuting profiles for their transverse position fields. We focus on T-brane systems, crucial in F-theory GUT model building. There α ′ -corrections modify the D-term piece of the BPS equations which, already at leading order, require a non-primitive Abelian worldvolume flux background. We find that α ′ -corrections may either i) leave this flux background invariant, ii) modify the Abelian non-primitive flux profile, or iii) deform it to a non-Abelian profile. The last case typically occurs when primitive fluxes, a necessary ingredient to build 4d chiral models, are added to the system. We illustrate these three cases by solving the α ′ -corrected D-term equations in explicit examples, and describe their appearance in more general T-brane backgrounds. Finally, we discuss implications of our findings for F-theory GUT local models.

A study of cosmic ray flux based on the noise in raw CCD data from solar images

AbstractRaw solar images from CCDs are often contaminated with single‐pixel noise which is thought to be made by cosmic ray hits. The cosmic ray‐affected pixels are usually outstanding when compared with the perimeter zone. In this work, we use a method based on the median filtering algorithm to identify and count the cosmic ray traces from SOHO/EIT solar images to estimate the cosmic ray (CR) flux. With such cosmic ray flux, we study the transient variations associated with the violent solar activities, such as the solar proton events (SPEs), which show good similarity with the observations of GOES 11 P6 channel with an energy interval 80–165 MeV. Further, using SPE list observed by SOHO/ERNE proton channels with more narrow energy intervals, it is found that CRs in the energy range 118–140 MeV affect the SOHO/EIT images the most. In addition, by using a robust automatic despiking method, we get the background of the cosmic ray flux from solar images, which is considered to be the galactic cosmic ray (GCR) flux. The GCR flux from solar images shows an 11 year period due to the solar modulation, similar to the SOHO/ERNE GCR flux and Newark neutron monitor count rates. Furthermore, GCRs from solar images have a 27 day period and show good anticorrelation with the changes of solar wind velocity.

Supersymmetric backgrounds, the Killing superalgebra, and generalised special holonomy

We prove that, for M theory or type II, generic Minkowski flux backgrounds preserving $\mathcal{N}$ supersymmetries in dimensions $D\geq4$ correspond precisely to integrable generalised $G_{\mathcal{N}}$ structures, where $G_{\mathcal{N}}$ is the generalised structure group defined by the Killing spinors. In other words, they are the analogues of special holonomy manifolds in $E_{d(d)} \times\mathbb{R}^+$ generalised geometry. In establishing this result, we introduce the Kosmann-Dorfman bracket, a generalisation of Kosmann's Lie derivative of spinors. This allows us to write down the internal sector of the Killing superalgebra, which takes a rather simple form and whose closure is the key step in proving the main result. In addition, we find that the eleven-dimensional Killing superalgebra of these backgrounds is necessarily the supertranslational part of the $\mathcal{N}$-extended super-Poincar\'e algebra.

Estimating fine-root production by tree species and understorey functional groups in two contrasting peatland forests

Background and aimsEstimation of root-mediated carbon fluxes in forested peatlands is needed for understanding ecosystem functioning and supporting greenhouse gas inventories. Here, we aim to determine the optimal methodology for utilizing ingrowth cores in estimating annual fine-root production (FRP) and its vertical distribution in trees, shrubs and herbs.MethodsWe used 3-year data obtained with modified ingrowth core method and tested two calculation methods: ‘ingrowth-dividing’ and ‘ingrowth-subtracting’.ResultsThe ingrowth-dividing method combined with a 2-year incubation of ingrowth cores can be used for the ‘best estimate’ of FRP. The FRP in the nutrient-rich fen forest (561 g m−2) was more than twice that in the nutrient-poor bog forest (244 g m−2). Most FRP occurred in the top 20-cm layer (76–82 %). Tree FRP accounted for 71 % of total FRP in the bog and 94 % in the fen forests, respectively, following the above-ground vegetation patterns; however, in fen forest the proportions of spruce and birch in FRP were higher than their proportions in stand basal area.ConclusionsOur methodology may be used to study peatland FRP patterns more widely and will reduce the volume of labour-intensive work, but will benefit from verification with other methods, as is the case in all in situ FRP studies.