@article{CecchiniThielSchelteretal.2018, author = {Cecchini, Gloria and Thiel, Marco and Schelter, Bj{\"o}rn and Sommerlade, Linda}, title = {Improving network inference}, series = {Journal of neuroscience methods}, volume = {307}, journal = {Journal of neuroscience methods}, publisher = {Elsevier}, address = {Amsterdam}, issn = {0165-0270}, doi = {10.1016/j.jneumeth.2018.06.011}, pages = {31 -- 36}, year = {2018}, abstract = {Background: A reliable inference of networks from data is of key interest in the Neurosciences. Several methods have been suggested in the literature to reliably determine links in a network. To decide about the presence of links, these techniques rely on statistical inference, typically controlling the number of false positives, paying little attention to false negatives. New method: In this paper, by means of a comprehensive simulation study, we analyse the influence of false positive and false negative conclusions about the presence or absence of links in a network on the network topology. We show that different values to balance false positive and false negative conclusions about links should be used in order to reliably estimate network characteristics. We propose to run careful simulation studies prior to making potentially erroneous conclusion about the network topology. Results: Our analysis shows that optimal values to balance false positive and false negative conclusions about links depend on the network topology and characteristic of interest. Comparison with existing methods: Existing methods rely on a choice of the rate for false positive conclusions. They aim to be sure about individual links rather than the entire network. The rate of false negative conclusions is typically not investigated. Conclusions: Our investigation shows that the balance of false positive and false negative conclusions about links in a network has to be tuned for any network topology that is to be estimated. Moreover, within the same network topology, the results are qualitatively the same for each network characteristic, but the actual values leading to reliable estimates of the characteristics are different.}, language = {en} } @article{HeintzWatsonJakobssonetal.2018, author = {Heintz, Kasper Elm and Watson, D. and Jakobsson, P. and Fynbo, J. P. U. and Bolmer, J. and Arabsalmani, M. and Cano, Zach and Covino, S. and Gomboc, A. and Japelj, J. and Kaper, L. and Krogager, J. -K. and Pugliese, G. and Sanchez-Ramirez, R. and Selsing, J. and Sparre, Martin and Tanvir, N. R. and Thone, C. C. and de Ugarte Postigo, A. and Vergani, S. D.}, title = {Highly ionized metals as probes of the circumburst gas in the natal regions of gamma-ray bursts}, series = {Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society}, volume = {479}, journal = {Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society}, number = {3}, publisher = {Oxford Univ. Press}, address = {Oxford}, issn = {0035-8711}, doi = {10.1093/mnras/sty1447}, pages = {3456 -- 3476}, year = {2018}, abstract = {We present here a survey of high-ionization absorption lines in the afterglow spectra of long-duration gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) obtained with the VLT/X-shooter spectrograph. Our main goal is to investigate the circumburst medium in the natal regions of GRBs. Our primary focus is on the N vλλ 1238, 1242 line transitions, but we also discuss other high-ionization lines such as O vi, C iv, and Si iv. We find no correlation between the column density of N v and the neutral gas properties such as metallicity, H i column density, and dust depletion; however, the relative velocity of N v, typically a blueshift with respect to the neutral gas, is found to be correlated with the column density of H i. This may be explained if the N v gas is part of an H ii region hosting the GRB, where the region's expansion is confined by dense, neutral gas in the GRB's host galaxy. We find tentative evidence (at 2σ significance) that the X-ray derived column density, NH, X, may be correlated with the column density of N v, which would indicate that both measurements are sensitive to the column density of the gas located in the vicinity of the GRB. We investigate the scenario where N v (and also O vi) is produced by recombination after the corresponding atoms have been stripped entirely of their electrons by the initial prompt emission, in contrast to previous models where highly ionized gas is produced by photoionization from the GRB afterglow.}, language = {en} } @article{LebigaSantosLimaYan2018, author = {Lebiga, O. and Santos-Lima, Reinaldo and Yan, Huirong}, title = {Kinetic-MHD simulations of gyroresonance instability driven by CR pressure anisotropy}, series = {Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society}, volume = {476}, journal = {Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society}, number = {2}, publisher = {Oxford Univ. Press}, address = {Oxford}, issn = {0035-8711}, doi = {10.1093/mnras/sty309}, pages = {2779 -- 2791}, year = {2018}, abstract = {The transport of cosmic rays (CRs) is crucial for the understanding of almost all high-energy phenomena. Both pre-existing large-scale magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) turbulence and locally generated turbulence through plasma instabilities are important for the CR propagation in astrophysical media. The potential role of the resonant instability triggered by CR pressure anisotropy to regulate the parallel spatial diffusion of low-energy CRs (less than or similar to 100 GeV) in the interstellar and intracluster medium of galaxies has been shown in previous theoretical works. This work aims to study the gyroresonance instability via direct numerical simulations, in order to access quantitatively the wave-particle scattering rates. For this, we employ a 1D PIC-MHD code to follow the growth and saturation of the gyroresonance instability. We extract from the simulations the pitch-angle diffusion coefficient D-mu mu produced by the instability during the linear and saturation phases, and a very good agreement (within a factor of 3) is found with the values predicted by the quasi-linear theory (QLT). Our results support the applicability of the QLT for modelling the scattering of low-energy CRs by the gyroresonance instability in the complex interplay between this instability and the large-scale MHD turbulence.}, language = {en} } @article{ElNagarLauermannSarhanetal.2018, author = {El-Nagar, Gumaa A. and Lauermann, Iver and Sarhan, Radwan Mohamed and Roth, Christina}, title = {Hierarchically structured iron-doped silver (Ag-Fe) lotus flowers for an efficient oxygen reduction reaction}, series = {Nanoscale}, volume = {10}, journal = {Nanoscale}, number = {15}, publisher = {Royal Society of Chemistry}, address = {Cambridge}, issn = {2040-3364}, doi = {10.1039/c8nr00020d}, pages = {7304 -- 7310}, year = {2018}, abstract = {The development of cheap and efficient electrocatalysts for the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) is vital for the immediate commercialization of fuel cells which are still limited by the high cost and low performance of the utilized commercial Pt-based electrodes. As a promising alternative, this study reports on the synthesis of hierarchical iron-doped silver lotus flowers (AgFelotus) by a facile chemical procedure as robust and efficient ORR electrocatalysts. Succinic acid was used as a structure directing agent to tune the morphology of undoped and iron-doped silver particles. In the absence of succinic acid, ball-like silver particles were obtained, while using 2 mM succinic acid led to peony-like flower structures. The doping of silver peony-flowers with iron resulted in lotus-like flower structures with high electrocatalytic activity for ORR together with outstanding tolerance against poisoning with various hydrocarbon (HC) impurities, in situ generated during fuel cell operation, as well as different fuels from anodic crossover. AgFelotus exhibited a superior ORR activity with more than 40 times higher stability than the commercial Pt/C catalyst in alkaline media. This substantial performance enhancement is attributed to the unique lotus-like flower structures providing more electroactive surface sites, in addition to the iron dopants which facilitate ORR charge transfer.}, language = {en} } @article{ZhangYanRichter2018, author = {Zhang, Heshou and Yan, Huirong and Richter, Philipp}, title = {The influence of atomic alignment on absorption and emission spectroscopy}, series = {Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society}, volume = {479}, journal = {Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society}, number = {3}, publisher = {Oxford Univ. Press}, address = {Oxford}, issn = {0035-8711}, doi = {10.1093/mnras/sty1594}, pages = {3923 -- 3935}, year = {2018}, abstract = {Spectroscopic observations play essential roles in astrophysics. They are crucial for determining physical parameters in our Universe, providing information about the chemistry of various astronomical environments. The proper execution of the spectroscopic analysis requires accounting for all the physical effects that are compatible to the signal-to-noise ratio. We find in this paper the influence on spectroscopy from the atomic/ground state alignment owing to anisotropic radiation and modulated by interstellar magnetic field, has significant impact on the study of interstellar gas. In different observational scenarios, we comprehensively demonstrate how atomic alignment influences the spectral analysis and provide the expressions for correcting the effect. The variations are even more pronounced for multiplets and line ratios. We show the variation of the deduced physical parameters caused by the atomic alignment effect, including alpha-to-iron ratio ([X/Fe]) and ionization fraction. Synthetic observations are performed to illustrate the visibility of such effect with current facilities. A study of Photodissociation regions in rho Ophiuchi cloud is presented to demonstrate how to account for atomic alignment in practice. Our work has shown that due to its potential impact, atomic alignment has to be included in an accurate spectroscopic analysis of the interstellar gas with current observational capability.}, language = {en} } @article{SchmidtHennawiWorsecketal.2018, author = {Schmidt, Tobias M. and Hennawi, Joseph F. and Worseck, Gabor and Davies, Frederick B. and Lukic, Zarija and O{\~n}orbe, Jose}, title = {Modeling the HeII transverse proximity effect}, series = {The astrophysical journal : an international review of spectroscopy and astronomical physics}, volume = {861}, journal = {The astrophysical journal : an international review of spectroscopy and astronomical physics}, number = {2}, publisher = {IOP Publ. Ltd.}, address = {Bristol}, issn = {0004-637X}, doi = {10.3847/1538-4357/aac8e4}, pages = {20}, year = {2018}, abstract = {The He II transverse proximity effect-enhanced He II Ly alpha transmission in a background sightline caused by the ionizing radiation of a foreground quasar-offers a unique opportunity to probe the emission properties of quasars, in particular the emission geometry (obscuration, beaming) and the quasar lifetime. Building on the foreground quasar survey published in Schmidt et al., we present a detailed model of the He II transverse proximity effect, specifically designed to include light travel time effects, finite quasar ages, and quasar obscuration. We postprocess outputs from a cosmological hydrodynamical simulation with a fluctuating He II ultraviolet background model, with the added effect of the radiation from a single bright foreground quasar. We vary the age t(age) and obscured sky fractions Omega(obsc) of the foreground quasar, and explore the resulting effect on the He II transverse proximity effect signal. Fluctuations in intergalactic medium density and the ultraviolet background, as well as the unknown orientation of the foreground quasar, result in a large variance of the He II Ly alpha transmission along the background sightline. We develop a fully Bayesian statistical formalism to compare far-ultraviolet He II Ly alpha transmission spectra of the background quasars to our models, and extract joint constraints on t(age) and Omega(obsc) for the six Schmidt et al. foreground quasars with the highest implied He II photoionization rates. Our analysis suggests a bimodal distribution of quasar emission properties, whereby one foreground quasar, associated with a strong He II transmission spike, is relatively old (22 Myr) and unobscured (Omega(obsc) < 35\%), whereas three others are either younger than 10 Myr or highly obscured (Omega(obsc) > 70\%).}, language = {en} } @article{YangZhuWolfetal.2018, author = {Yang, Jie and Zhu, Xiaolei and Wolf, Thomas J. A. and Li, Zheng and Nunes, Jo{\~a}o Pedro Figueira and Coffee, Ryan and Cryan, James P. and G{\"u}hr, Markus and Hegazy, Kareem and Heinz, Tony F. and Jobe, Keith and Li, Renkai and Shen, Xiaozhe and Veccione, Theodore and Weathersby, Stephen and Wilkin, Kyle J. and Yoneda, Charles and Zheng, Qiang and Martinez, Todd J. and Centurion, Martin and Wang, Xijie}, title = {Imaging CF3I conical intersection and photodissociation dynamics with ultrafast electron diffraction}, series = {Science}, volume = {361}, journal = {Science}, number = {6397}, publisher = {American Assoc. for the Advancement of Science}, address = {Washington}, issn = {0036-8075}, doi = {10.1126/science.aat0049}, pages = {64 -- 67}, year = {2018}, abstract = {Conical intersections play a critical role in excited-state dynamics of polyatomic molecules because they govern the reaction pathways of many nonadiabatic processes. However, ultrafast probes have lacked sufficient spatial resolution to image wave-packet trajectories through these intersections directly. Here, we present the simultaneous experimental characterization of one-photon and two-photon excitation channels in isolated CF3I molecules using ultrafast gas-phase electron diffraction. In the two-photon channel, we have mapped out the real-space trajectories of a coherent nuclear wave packet, which bifurcates onto two potential energy surfaces when passing through a conical intersection. In the one-photon channel, we have resolved excitation of both the umbrella and the breathing vibrational modes in the CF3 fragment in multiple nuclear dimensions. These findings benchmark and validate ab initio nonadiabatic dynamics calculations.}, language = {en} } @article{OhmHoischen2018, author = {Ohm, Stefan and Hoischen, Clemens}, title = {On the expected gamma-ray emission from nearby flaring stars}, series = {Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society}, volume = {474}, journal = {Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society}, number = {1}, publisher = {Oxford Univ. Press}, address = {Oxford}, issn = {0035-8711}, doi = {10.1093/mnras/stx2806}, pages = {1335 -- 1341}, year = {2018}, abstract = {Stellar flares have been extensively studied in soft X-rays (SXRs) by basically every X-ray mission. Hard X-ray (HXR) emission from stellar superflares, however, have only been detected from a handful of objects over the past years. One very extreme event was the superflare from the young M-dwarf DGCVn binary star system, which triggered Swift/BAT as if it was a gamma-ray burst. In this work, we estimate the expected gamma-ray emission from DGCVn and the most extreme stellar flares by extrapolating from solar flares based on measured solar energetic particles (SEPs), as well as thermal and non-thermal emission properties. We find that ions are plausibly accelerated in stellar superflares to 100 GeV energies, and possibly up to TeV energies in the associated coronal mass ejections. The corresponding pi(0)-decay gamma-ray emission could be detectable from stellar superflares with ground-based gamma-ray telescopes. On the other hand, the detection of gamma-ray emission implies particle densities high enough that ions suffer significant losses due to inelastic proton-proton scattering. The next-generation Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) should be able to probe superflares from M dwarfs in the solar neighbourhood and constrain the energy in interacting cosmic rays and/or their maximum energy. The detection of gamma-ray emission from stellar flares would open a new window for the study of stellar physics, the underlying physical processes in flares and their impact on habitability of planetary systems.}, language = {en} } @article{BeniniSchenkelSchreiber2018, author = {Benini, Marco and Schenkel, Alexander and Schreiber, Urs}, title = {The Stack of Yang-Mills Fields on Lorentzian Manifolds}, series = {Communications in mathematical physics}, volume = {359}, journal = {Communications in mathematical physics}, number = {2}, publisher = {Springer}, address = {New York}, issn = {0010-3616}, doi = {10.1007/s00220-018-3120-1}, pages = {765 -- 820}, year = {2018}, abstract = {We provide an abstract definition and an explicit construction of the stack of non-Abelian Yang-Mills fields on globally hyperbolic Lorentzian manifolds. We also formulate a stacky version of the Yang-Mills Cauchy problem and show that its well-posedness is equivalent to a whole family of parametrized PDE problems. Our work is based on the homotopy theoretical approach to stacks proposed in Hollander (Isr. J. Math. 163:93-124, 2008), which we shall extend by further constructions that are relevant for our purposes. In particular, we will clarify the concretification of mapping stacks to classifying stacks such as BG (con).}, language = {en} } @article{KoopmanMucciniToffanin2018, author = {Koopman, Wouter-Willem Adriaan and Muccini, Michele and Toffanin, Stefano}, title = {High-resolution photoluminescence electro-modulation microscopy by scanning lock-in}, series = {Review of scientific instruments : a monthly journal devoted to scientific instruments, apparatus, and techniques}, volume = {89}, journal = {Review of scientific instruments : a monthly journal devoted to scientific instruments, apparatus, and techniques}, number = {4}, publisher = {American Institute of Physics}, address = {Melville}, issn = {0034-6748}, doi = {10.1063/1.5010281}, pages = {7}, year = {2018}, abstract = {Morphological inhomogeneities and structural defects in organic semiconductors crucially determine the charge accumulation and lateral transport in organic thin-film transistors. Photoluminescence Electro-Modulation (PLEM) microscopy is a laser-scanning microscopy technique that relies on the modulation of the thin-film fluorescence in the presence of charge-carriers to image the spatial distribution of charges within the active organic semiconductor. Here, we present a lock-in scheme based on a scanning beam approach for increasing the PLEM microscopy resolution and contrast. The charge density in the device is modulated by a sinusoidal electrical signal, phase-locked to the scanning beam of the excitation laser. The lock-in detection scheme is achieved by acquiring a series of images with different phases between the beam scan and the electrical modulation. Application of high resolution PLEM to an organic transistor in accumulation mode demonstrates its potential to image local variations in the charge accumulation. A diffraction-limited precision of sub-300 nm and a signal to noise ratio of 21.4 dB could be achieved. Published by AIP Publishing.}, language = {en} }