Twenty-Three Propositions for Stone Artefact Studies

While we often consider a stone artefact as belonging to the sphere of technology, ultimately its beginning and end exists within that of geology and sedimentary process. Between these end points we can attempt to understand the material’s interaction with,and modification by, a biological agent. From this starting point how we might re-approach stone artefact analysis is considered through 23 propositions

Engineering the Anthropocene: Scalable social networks and resilience building in human evolutionary timescales

The Anthropocene represents the emergence of human societies as a ‘great force of nature’. To understand and engage productively with this emergent global force, it is necessary to understand its origins, dynamics and structuring processes as the long-term evolutionary product of human niche construction, based on three key human characteristics: tool making, habitat construction and most importantly: social network engineering. The exceptional social capacities of behaviourally modern humans, constituting human ultrasociality, are expressed through the formation of increasingly complex and extensive social networks, enabling flexible and diverse group organisation, sociocultural niche construction, engineered adaptation and resilience building. The human drive towards optimising communication infrastructures and expanding social networks is the key human adaptation underpinning the emergence of the Anthropocene. Understanding the deep roots of human ultrasocial behaviour is essential to guiding contemporary societies towards more sustainable human–environment interactions in the Anthropocene present and future. We propose that socially networked engineered solutions will continue to be the prime driver of human resilience and adaptive capacity in the face of global environmental risks and societal challenges such as climate change, sea-level rise, localised extreme weather events and ecosystem degradation

Mesolithic and late neolithic/Bronze Age activity on the site of the American Express Community Stadium, Falmer, East Sussex

Excavations on the site of the American Express Community Stadium, Falmer, East Sussex have revealed evidence for over 7,000 years of human activity. The earliest occupation was a mesolithic camp, where the production of flint tools (microliths) was carried out, on a scale unprecedented in East Sussex. There was little recognisable human activity in the early and middle neolithic but geoarchaeological investigations have shown that the landscape continued to change, with probable deforestation causing colluvial deposition within the river valley to the west. In the late neolithic/Early Bronze Age, a series of three ring ditches were dug, close to the location of the mesolithic pits. There are a number of possibilities as to what these ring ditches represent, but the most likely explanation is a group of barrows or other type of ceremonial ring ditch. Whatever their function, the structures were re-visited later in prehistory, a testament to the continued topographic importance of the site. Finally the site became the focus of Anglo-Saxon habitation, including a sunken-featured building, perhaps an outlying part of the precursor to Falmer village

Star Formation and AGN Activity in Galaxy Clusters from z=1−2z=1-2: a Multi-wavelength Analysis Featuring HerschelHerschel/PACS

We present a detailed, multi-wavelength study of star formation (SF) and AGN activity in 11 near-infrared (IR) selected, spectroscopically confirmed, massive ($\gtrsim10^{14}\,\rm{M_{\odot}}$) galaxy clusters at $1<z<1.75$. Using new, deep $Herschel$/PACS imaging, we characterize the optical to far-IR spectral energy distributions (SEDs) for IR-luminous cluster galaxies, finding that they can, on average, be well described by field galaxy templates. Identification and decomposition of AGN through SED fittings allows us to include the contribution to cluster SF from AGN host galaxies. We quantify the star-forming fraction, dust-obscured SF rates (SFRs), and specific-SFRs for cluster galaxies as a function of cluster-centric radius and redshift. In good agreement with previous studies, we find that SF in cluster galaxies at $z\gtrsim1.4$ is largely consistent with field galaxies at similar epochs, indicating an era before significant quenching in the cluster cores ($r<0.5\,$Mpc). This is followed by a transition to lower SF activity as environmental quenching dominates by $z\sim1$. Enhanced SFRs are found in lower mass ($10.1< \log \rm{M_{\star}}/\rm{M_{\odot}}<10.8$) cluster galaxies. We find significant variation in SF from cluster-to-cluster within our uniformly selected sample, indicating that caution should be taken when evaluating individual clusters. We examine AGN in clusters from $z=0.5-2$, finding an excess AGN fraction at $z\gtrsim1$, suggesting environmental triggering of AGN during this epoch. We argue that our results $-$ a transition from field-like to quenched SF, enhanced SF in lower mass galaxies in the cluster cores, and excess AGN $-$ are consistent with a co-evolution between SF and AGN in clusters and an increased merger rate in massive haloes at high redshift.Comment: 26 pages, 14 figures, 6 tables with appendix, accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journa

General relation for stationary probability density functions

A linear relation between a normalized, time (t) dependent, statistically stationary quantity (z) and the normalized conditional expectation (r) of ∂2z/∂t2 allows r to generally satisfy two conditions subject to the stationarity requirement. Experimental data for both temperature and vorticity in several turbulent flows indicate that this relation appears universal. As a result, the exact expression derived by Pope and Ching [Phys. Fluids A 5, 1529 (1993)] for the probability density function (PDF) of any stationary quantity should generally reduce to the simpler form obtained by Ching [Phys. Rev. Lett. 70, 283 (1993)].J. Mi and R. A. Antoni

Search For Heavy Pointlike Dirac Monopoles

We have searched for central production of a pair of photons with high transverse energies in $p\bar p$ collisions at $\sqrt{s} = 1.8$ TeV using $70 pb^{-1}$ of data collected with the D\O detector at the Fermilab Tevatron in 1994--1996. If they exist, virtual heavy pointlike Dirac monopoles could rescatter pairs of nearly real photons into this final state via a box diagram. We observe no excess of events above background, and set lower 95% C.L. limits of $610, 870, or 1580 GeV/c^2$ on the mass of a spin 0, 1/2, or 1 Dirac monopole.Comment: 12 pages, 4 figure

Search for High Mass Photon Pairs in p-pbar --> gamma-gamma-jet-jet Events at sqrt(s)=1.8 TeV

A search has been carried out for events in the channel p-barp --> gamma gamma jet jet. Such a signature can characterize the production of a non-standard Higgs boson together with a W or Z boson. We refer to this non-standard Higgs, having standard model couplings to vector bosons but no coupling to fermions, as a "bosonic Higgs." With the requirement of two high transverse energy photons and two jets, the diphoton mass (m(gamma gamma)) distribution is consistent with expected background. A 90(95)% C.L. upper limit on the cross section as a function of mass is calculated, ranging from 0.60(0.80) pb for m(gamma gamma) = 65 GeV/c^2 to 0.26(0.34) pb for m(gamma gamma) = 150 GeV/c^2, corresponding to a 95% C.L. lower limit on the mass of a bosonic Higgs of 78.5 GeV/c^2.Comment: 9 pages, 3 figures. Replacement has new H->gamma gamma branching ratios and corresponding new mass limit