Producing more rice with less water from irrigated systems

Irrigation management / Water use efficiency / Crop production / Water requirements / Water balance / Rice / Water distribution / Irrigated farming / Productivity / On-farm research / Irrigation scheduling / Groundwater / Conjunctive use / Rehabilitation / Modernization / Farmer participation / Farming systems / Irrigation systems / Crop-based irrigation / Asia / Philippines / Sri Lanka / Bangladesh / China / Malaysia / USA

Robust superfluid phases of 3He in aerogel

Within a phenomenological approach possible forms of the order parameter of the superfluid phases of 3He in a vicinity of the transition temperature are discussed. Effect of aerogel is described by a random tensor field interacting with the orbital part of the order parameter. With respect to their interaction with the random tensor field a group of "robust" order parameters which can maintain long-range order in a presence of the random field is specified. Robust order parameters, corresponding to Equal Spin Pairing (ESP) states are found and proposed as candidates for the observed A-like superfluid phase of liquid 3He in aerogel.Comment: 5 pages, prepared for QFS 200

Astrophysical SS factor for the 15N(p,γ)16O{}^{15}{\rm N}(p,\gamma){}^{16}{\rm O} reaction from RR-matrix analysis and asymptotic normalization coefficient for 16O→15N+p{}^{16}{\rm O} \to {}^{15}{\rm N} + p. Is any fit acceptable?

The $^{15}{\rm N}(p,\gamma)^{16}{\rm O}$ reaction provides a path from the CN cycle to the CNO bi-cycle and CNO tri-cycle. The measured astrophysical factor for this reaction is dominated by resonant capture through two strong $J^{\pi}=1^{-}$ resonances at $E_{R}= 312$ and 962 keV and direct capture to the ground state. Recently, a new measurement of the astrophysical factor for the $^{15}{\rm N}(p,\gamma)^{16}{\rm O}$ reaction has been published [P. J. LeBlanc {\it et al.}, Phys. Rev. {\bf C 82}, 055804 (2010)]. The analysis has been done using the $R$-matrix approach with unconstrained variation of all parameters including the asymptotic normalization coefficient (ANC). The best fit has been obtained for the square of the ANC $C^{2}= 539.2$ fm${}^{-1}$, which exceeds the previously measured value by a factor of $\approx 3$. Here we present a new $R$-matrix analysis of the Notre Dame-LUNA data with the fixed within the experimental uncertainties square of the ANC $C^{2}=200.34$ fm${}^{-1}$. Rather than varying the ANC we add the contribution from a background resonance that effectively takes into account contributions from higher levels. Altogether we present 8 fits, five unconstrained and three constrained. In all the fits the ANC is fixed at the previously determined experimental value $C^{2}=200.34$ fm${}^{-1}$. For the unconstrained fit with the boundary condition $B_{c}=S_{c}(E_{2})$, where $E_{2}$ is the energy of the second level, we get $S(0)=39.0 \pm 1.1$ keVb and normalized ${\tilde \chi}^{2}=1.84$, i.e. the result which is similar to [P. J. LeBlanc {\it et al.}, Phys. Rev. {\bf C 82}, 055804 (2010)]. From all our fits we get the range $33.1 \leq S(0) \leq 40.1$ keVb which overlaps with the result of [P. J. LeBlanc {\it et al.}, Phys. Rev. {\bf C 82}, 055804 (2010)]. We address also physical interpretation of the fitting parameters.Comment: Submitted to PR

Effects of Magnetic Braking and Tidal Friction on Hot Jupiters

Tidal friction is thought to be important in determining the long-term spin-orbit evolution of short-period extrasolar planetary systems. Using a simple model of the orbit-averaged effects of tidal friction Eggleton, Kiseleva & Hut (1998), we analyse the effects of the inclusion of stellar magnetic braking on the evolution of such systems. A phase-plane analysis of a simplified system of equations, including only the stellar tide together with a model of the braking torque proposed by Verbunt & Zwaan (1981), is presented. The inclusion of stellar magnetic braking is found to be extremely important in determining the secular evolution of such systems, and its neglect results in a very different orbital history. We then show the results of numerical integrations of the full tidal evolution equations, using the misaligned spin and orbit of the XO-3 system as an example, to study the accuracy of simple timescale estimates of tidal evolution. We find that it is essential to consider coupled evolution of the orbit and the stellar spin in order to model the behaviour accurately. In addition, we find that for typical Hot Jupiters the stellar spin-orbit alignment timescale is of the same order as the inspiral time, which tells us that if a planet is observed to be aligned, then it probably formed coplanar. This reinforces the importance of Rossiter-McLaughlin effect observations in determining the degree of spin-orbit alignment in transiting systems.Comment: 6 pages, 2 figures, to appear in IAU 259 Conference Proceeding

Nature of the Darwin term and (Zα)4m3/M2{(Z\alpha)^4 m^3/M^2} contribution to the Lamb shift for an arbitrary spin of the nucleus

The contact Darwin term is demonstrated to be of the same origin as the spin-orbit interaction. The $(Z\alpha)^4 m^3/M^2$ correction to the Lamb shift, generated by the Darwin term, is found for an arbitrary nonvanishing spin of the nucleus, both half-integer and integer. There is also a contribution of the same nature to the nuclear quadrupole moment.Comment: 9 pages, latex, no figure

An approach to NLO QCD analysis of the semi-inclusive DIS data with modified Jacobi polynomial expansion method

It is proposed the modification of the Jacobi polynomial expansion method (MJEM) which is based on the application of the truncated moments instead of the full ones. This allows to reconstruct with a high precision the local quark helicity distributions even for the narrow accessible for measurement Bjorken $x$ region using as an input only four first moments extracted from the data in NLO QCD. It is also proposed the variational (extrapolation) procedure allowing to reconstruct the distributions outside the accessible Bjorken $x$ region using the distributions obtained with MJEM in the accessible region. The numerical calculations encourage one that the proposed variational (extrapolation) procedure could be applied to estimate the full first (especially important) quark moments

The Lennard-Jones-Devonshire cell model revisited

We reanalyse the cell theory of Lennard-Jones and Devonshire and find that in addition to the critical point originally reported for the 12-6 potential (and widely quoted in standard textbooks), the model exhibits a further critical point. We show that the latter is actually a more appropriate candidate for liquid-gas criticality than the original critical point.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, submitted to Mol. Phy

Resonance Contributions to η\eta Photoproduction on Protons Found Using Dispersion Relations and an Isobar Model

The contributions of the resonances $D_{13}(1520)$, $S_{11}(1535)$, $S_{11}(1650)$, $D_{15}(1675)$, $F_{15}(1680)$, $D_{13}(1700)$, $P_{11}(1710)$, $P_{13}(1720)$ to $\gamma p\to \eta p$ are found from the data on cross sections, beam and target asymmetries using two approaches: fixed-t dispersion relations and an isobar model. Utilization of the two approaches and comparison of the results obtained with different parametrizations of the resonance contributions allowed us to make conclusions about the model-dependence of these contributions. We conclude that the results for the contributions of the resonances $D_{13}(1520)$, $S_{11}(1535)$, $F_{15}(1680)$ to corresponding multipole amplitudes are stable. With this the results for $D_{13}(1520)$ and $F_{15}(1680)$, combined with their PDG photoexcitation helicity amplitudes, allowed us to find the branching ratios $Br (D_{13}(1520)\to \eta N)=0.05\pm 0.02$, $Br (F_{15}(1680)\to \eta N)=0.16\pm0.04$ which have significantly better accuracy than the PDG data. The total Breit-Wigner width of the $S_{11}(1535)$ is model-dependent, we have obtained $\Gamma (S_{11}(1520))=142 MeV$ and $195 MeV$ using dispersion relations and the isobar model, respectively. The results for the $S_{11}(1650)$, $D_{15}(1675)$, $P_{11}(1710)$, $P_{13}(1720)$ are model dependent, only the signs and orders of magnitude of their contributions to multipole amplitudes are determined. The results for the $D_{13}(1700)$ are strongly model-dependent.Comment: 26 pages, 6 figure

Mutual Event Observations of Io's Sodium Corona

We have measured the column density profile of Io's sodium corona using 10 mutual eclipses between the Galilean satellites. This approach circumvents the problem of spatially resolving Io's corona directly from Io's bright continuum in the presence of atmospheric seeing and telescopic scattering. The primary goal is to investigate the spatial and temporal variations of Io's corona. Spectra from the Keck Observatory and McDonald Observatory from 1997 reveal a corona that is only approximately spherically symmetric around Io. Comparing the globally averaged radial sodium column density profile in the corona with profiles measured in 1991 and 1985, we find that there has been no significant variation. However, there appears to be a previously undetected asymmetry: the corona above Io's sub-Jupiter hemisphere is consistently more dense than above the anti-Jupiter hemisphere