Quantifying the Effect of Non-Larmor Motion of Electrons on the Pressure Tensor

In space plasma, various effects of magnetic reconnection and turbulence cause the electron motion to significantly deviate from their Larmor orbits. Collectively these orbits affect the electron velocity distribution function and lead to the appearance of the "non-gyrotropic" elements in the pressure tensor. Quantification of this effect has important applications in space and laboratory plasma, one of which is tracing the electron diffusion region (EDR) of magnetic reconnection in space observations. Three different measures of agyrotropy of pressure tensor have previously been proposed, namely, $A\varnothing_e$, $D_{ng}$ and $Q$. The multitude of contradictory measures has caused confusion within the community. We revisit the problem by considering the basic properties an agyrotropy measure should have. We show that $A\varnothing_e$, $D_{ng}$ and $Q$ are all defined based on the sum of the principle minors (i.e. the rotation invariant $I_2$) of the pressure tensor. We discuss in detail the problems of $I_2$-based measures and explain why they may produce ambiguous and biased results. We introduce a new measure $AG$ constructed based on the determinant of the pressure tensor (i.e. the rotation invariant $I_3$) which does not suffer from the problems of $I_2$-based measures. We compare $AG$ with other measures in 2 and 3-dimension particle-in-cell magnetic reconnection simulations, and show that $AG$ can effectively trace the EDR of reconnection in both Harris and force-free current sheets. On the other hand, $A\varnothing_e$ does not show prominent peaks in the EDR and part of the separatrix in the force-free reconnection simulations, demonstrating that $A\varnothing_e$ does not measure all the non-gyrotropic effects in this case, and is not suitable for studying magnetic reconnection in more general situations other than Harris sheet reconnection.Comment: accepted by Phys. of Plasm

Non-radial motion and the NFW profile

The self-similar infall model (SSIM) is normally discussed in the context of radial orbits in spherical symmetry. However it is possible to retain the spherical symmetry while permitting the particles to move in Keplerian ellipses, each having the squared angular momentum peculiar to their 'shell'. The spherical 'shell', defined for example by the particles turning at a given radius, then moves according to the radial equation of motion of a 'shell' particle. The 'shell' itself has no physical existence except as an ensemble of particles, but it is convenient to sometimes refer to the shells since it is they that are followed by a shell code. In this note we find the distribution of squared angular momentum as a function of radius that yields the NFW density profile for the final dark matter halo. It transpires that this distribution is amply motivated dimensionally. An effective 'lambda' spin parameter is roughly constant over the shells. We also study the effects of angular momentum on the relaxation of a dark matter system using a three dimensional representation of the relaxed phase space.Comment: accepted for publication in Astronomy and Astrophysics. date received: 31-03-03 date accepted: 10-06-0

A systematic numerical study of the tidal instability in a rotating triaxial ellipsoid

The full non-linear evolution of the tidal instability is studied numerically in an ellipsoidal fluid domain relevant for planetary cores applications. Our numerical model, based on a finite element method, is first validated by reproducing some known analytical results. This model is then used to address open questions that were up to now inaccessible using theoretical and experimental approaches. Growth rates and mode selection of the instability are systematically studied as a function of the aspect ratio of the ellipsoid and as a function of the inclination of the rotation axis compared to the deformation plane. We also quantify the saturation amplitude of the flow driven by the instability and calculate the viscous dissipation that it causes. This tidal dissipation can be of major importance for some geophysical situations and we thus derive general scaling laws which are applied to typical planetary cores

Tidal instability in a rotating and differentially heated ellipsoidal shell

The stability of a rotating flow in a triaxial ellipsoidal shell with an imposed temperature difference between inner and outer boundaries is studied numerically. We demonstrate that (i) a stable temperature field encourages the tidal instability, (ii) the tidal instability can grow on a convective flow, which confirms its relevance to geo- and astrophysical contexts and (iii) its growth rate decreases when the intensity of convection increases. Simple scaling laws characterizing the evolution of the heat flux based on a competition between viscous and thermal boundary layers are derived analytically and verified numerically. Our results confirm that thermal and tidal effects have to be simultaneously taken into account when studying geophysical and astrophysical flows

Diversity of Fe2+ entry and oxidation in ferritins

The essential metal iron presents two major problems for life: it is potentially highly toxic due to its redox activity, and its extremely low solubility in aqueous solution in the presence of O2 can make it hard to acquire and store safely. Ferritins are part of nature’s answer to these problems, as they store iron in a safe but accessible form in all types of cells. How they achieve this has been the subject of intense research for several decades. Here, we highlight recent progress in elucidating the routes by which Fe2+ ions access the catalytic ferroxidase centers, and the mechanisms by which Fe2+ is oxidized. Emerging from this is a picture of diversity, both in terms of Fe2+ entry pathways and the roles played by the structurally distinct diiron ferroxidase centers

Elliptical instability of a flow in a rotating shell

A theoretical and experimental study of the spin-over mode induced by the elliptical instability of a flow contained in a slightly deformed rotating spherical shell is presented. This geometrical configuration mimics the liquid rotating cores of planets when deformed by tides coming from neighboring gravitational bodies. Theoretical estimations for the growth rates and for the non linear amplitude saturations of the unstable mode are obtained and compared to experimental data obtained from Laser D\"{o}ppler anemometry measurements. Visualizations and descriptions of the various characteristics of the instability are given as functions of the flow parameter

On dissociation of heavy mesons in a hot quark-gluon plasma

We compare two mechanisms for the dissociation of heavy mesons in an infinite quark-gluon plasma: dynamic Debye screening and multiple scattering. Using the uncertainty principle inspired by a Schrodinger-like equation, we find that the criterion a_B\simeq1/\mu\simeq 1/(\alpha_{eff}^{1/2}T) with \alpha_{eff}\equiv\alpha(N_c+{N_f\over2}) is parametrically true both for the dissociation of fast moving heavy mesons with a size a_B due to dynamic Debye screening as well as for mesons at rest in the medium. In contrast, we find that the criterion for the dissociation of heavy mesons due to uncorrelated multiple scattering is parametrically 1/a_B \simeq [\gamma\alpha_{eff}\ln{1/\alpha_{eff}}]^{1/3}T. Therefore, multiple scattering is a more efficient mechanism for the dissociation of heavy mesons in an infinite hot plasma.Comment: 23 pages, 2 figures; minor changes, added references, accepted in Nuclear Physics

A far UV study of interstellar gas towards HD34078: high excitation H2 and small scale structure - Based on observations performed by the FUSE mission and at the CFHT telescope

To investigate the presence of small scale structure in the spatial distribution of H2 molecules we have undertaken repeated FUSE UV observations of the runaway O9.5V star, HD34078. In this paper we present five spectra obtained between January 2000 and October 2002. These observations reveal an unexpectedly large amount of highly excited H2. Column densities for H2 levels from (v = 0, J = 0) up to (v = 0, J = 11) and for several v = 1 and v = 2 levels are determined. These results are interpreted in the frame of a model involving essentially two components: i) a foreground cloud (unaffected by HD34078) responsible for the H2 (J = 0, 1), CI, CH, CH+ and CO absorptions; ii) a dense layer of gas (n = 10E4 cm-3) close to the O star and strongly illuminated by its UV flux which accounts for the presence of highly excited H2. Our model successfully reproduces the H2 excitation, the CI fine-structure level populations as well as the CH, CH+ and CO column densities. We also examine the time variability of H2 absorption lines tracing each of these two components. From the stability of the J = 0, 1 and 2 damped H2 profiles we infer a 3 sigma upper limit on column density variations Delta(N(H2))/N(H2) of 5% over scales ranging from 5 to 50 AU. This result clearly rules out any pronounced ubiquitous small scale "density" structure of the kind apparently seen in HI. The lines from highly excited gas are also quite stable (equivalent to Delta(N)/N <= 30%) indicating i) that the ambient gas through which HD34078 is moving is relatively uniform and ii) that the gas flow along the shocked layer is not subject to marked instabilitie

Non-Fermi-Liquid Specific Heat of Normal Degenerate Quark Matter

We compute the low-temperature behavior of the specific heat of normal (non-color-superconducting) degenerate quark matter as well as that of an ultradegenerate electron gas. Long-range magnetic interactions lead to non-Fermi-liquid behavior with an anomalous leading $T\ln T^{-1}$ term. Depending on the thermodynamic potential used as starting point, this effect appears as a consequence of the logarithmic singularity in the fermion self-energy at the Fermi surface or directly as a contribution from the only weakly screened quasistatic magnetic gauge bosons. We show that a calculation of Boyanovsky and de Vega claiming the absence of a leading $T\ln T^{-1}$ term missed it by omitting vector boson contributions to the internal energy. Using a formulation which collects all nonanalytic contributions in bosonic ring diagrams, we systematically calculate corrections beyond the well-known leading-log approximation. The higher-order terms of the low-temperature expansion turn out to also involve fractional powers $T^{(3+2n)/3}$ and we explicitly determine their coefficients up to and including order $T^{7/3}$ as well as the subsequent logarithmically enhanced term $T^3 \ln (c/T)$. We derive also a hard-dense-loop resummed expression which contains the infinite series of anomalous terms to leading order in the coupling and which we evaluate numerically. At low temperatures, the resulting deviation of the specific heat from its value in naive perturbation theory is significant in the case of strongly coupled normal quark matter and thus of potential relevance for the cooling rates of (proto-)neutron stars with a quark matter component.Comment: REVTEX, 26 pages, 5 postscript figures. v3: new chapter added which performs a complete hard-dense-loop resummation, covering the infinite series of anomalous terms and extending the range of applicability to all T << m