Institut für Physik und Astronomie
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We report on the preparation and characterization of photosensitive polymer brushes. The brushes are synthesized through polymer analogous attachment of azobenzene groups to surface-attached poly(methacrylic acid) (PMAA) chains. The topography of the photosensitive brushes shows a strong reaction upon irradiation with UV light. While homogeneous illumination leaves the polymer topography unchanged, irradiation of the samples with interference patterns with periodically varying light intensity leads to the formation of surface relief gratings (SRG). The height of the stripes of the grating can be controlled by adjusting the irradiation time. The SRG pattern can be erased through solvent treatment when the periodicity of the stripe pattern is less than the length of the fully stretched polymer chains. In the opposite case, photomechanical scission of receding polymer chains is observed during SRG formation, and the inscribed patterns are permanent.
We study the speed at which information propagates through systems of interacting quantum particles moving on a regular lattice and show that for a certain class of initial conditions there exists a maximum speed of sound at which information can propagate. Our argument applies equally to quantum spins, bosons such as in the Bose-Hubbard model, fermions, anyons, and general mixtures thereof, on arbitrary lattices of any dimension. It also pertains to dissipative dynamics on the lattice, and generalizes to the continuum for quantum fields. Our result can be seen as an analog of the Lieb-Robinson bound for strongly correlated models.
We report on the status of our spectropolarimetric observations of massive stars. During the last years, we have discovered magnetic fields in many objects of the upper main sequence, including Be stars, beta Cephei and Slowly Pulsating B stars, and a dozen O stars. Since the effects of those magnetic fields have been found to be substantial by recent models, we are looking into their impact on stellar rotation, pulsation, stellar winds, and chemical abundances. Accurate studies of the age, environment, and kinematic characteristics of the magnetic stars are also promising to give us new insight into the origin of the magnetic fields. Furthermore, longer time series of magnetic field measurements allow us to observe the temporal variability of the magnetic field and to deduce the stellar rotation period and the magnetic field geometry. Studies of the magnetic field in massive stars are indispensable to understand the conditions controlling the presence of those fields and their implications on the stellar physical parameters and evolution.
We deduce a new formula for the perihelion advance Theta of a test particle in the Schwarzschild black hole by applying a newly developed nonlinear transformation within the Schwarzschild space-time. By this transformation we are able to apply the well-known formula valid in the weak-field approximation near infinity also to trajectories in the strong-field regime near the horizon of the black hole. The resulting formula has the structure Theta = c(1) - c(2) ln(c(3)(2) - e(2)) with positive constants c(1,2,3) depending on the angular momentum of the test particle. It is especially useful for orbits with large eccentricities e < c(3) < 1 showing that Theta -> infinity as e -> c(3).
For the Lagrangian L = G lnG where G is the Gauss-Bonnet curvature scalar we deduce the field equation and solve it in closed form for 3-flat Friedmann models using a state-finder parametrization. Further we show that among all Lagrangians F(G) this L is the only one not having the form G(r) with a real constant r but possessing a scale-invariant field equation. This turns out to be one of its analogies to f(R) theories in two-dimensional space-time. In the appendix, we systematically list several formulas for the decomposition of the Riemann tensor in arbitrary dimensions n, which are applied in the main deduction for n = 4.
Purpose: We present a new morphometric measure of trabecular bone microarchitecture, called mean node strength (NdStr), which is part of a newly developed approach called long range nodestrut analysis. Our general aim is to describe and quantify the apparent "latticelike" microarchitecture of the trabecular bone network.
Methods: Similar in some ways to the topological node-strut analysis introduced by Garrahan et al. [J. Microsc. 142, 341-349 (1986)], our method is distinguished by an emphasis on long-range trabecular connectivity. Thus, while the topological classification of a pixel (after skeletonization) as a node, strut, or terminus, can be determined from the 3 x 3 neighborhood of that pixel, our method, which does not involve skeletonization, takes into account a much larger neighborhood. In addition, rather than giving a discrete classification of each pixel as a node, strut, or terminus, our method produces a continuous variable, node strength. The node strength is averaged over a region of interest to produce the mean node strength of the region.
Results: We have applied our long range node-strut analysis to a set of 26 high-resolution peripheral quantitative computed tomography (pQCT) axial images of human proximal tibiae acquired 17 mm below the tibial plateau. We found that NdStr has a strong positive correlation with trabecular volumetric bone mineral density (BMD). After an exponential transformation, we obtain a Pearson's correlation coefficient of r - 0.97. Qualitative comparison of images with similar BMD but with very different NdStr values suggests that the latter measure has successfully quantified the prevalence of the "latticelike" microarchitecture apparent in the image. Moreover, we found a strong correlation (r - 0.62) between NdStr and the conventional node-terminus ratio (Nd/Tm) of Garrahan et al. The Nd/Tm ratios were computed using traditional histomorphometry performed on bone biopsies obtained at the same location as the pQCT scans.
Conclusions: The newly introduced morphometric measure allows a quantitative assessment of the long-range connectivity of trabecular bone. One advantage of this method is that it is based on pQCT images that can be obtained noninvasively from patients, i.e., without having to obtain a bone biopsy from the patient.
The Casimir-Polder interaction between a single neutral atom and a nearby surface, arising from the (quantum and thermal) fluctuations of the electromagnetic field, is a cornerstone of cavity quantum electrodynamics (cQED), and theoretically well established. Recently, Bose-Einstein condensates (BECs) of ultracold atoms have been used to test the predictions of cQED. The purpose of the present thesis is to upgrade single-atom cQED with the many-body theory needed to describe trapped atomic BECs. Tools and methods are developed in a second-quantized picture that treats atom and photon fields on the same footing. We formulate a diagrammatic expansion using correlation functions for both the electromagnetic field and the atomic system. The formalism is applied to investigate, for BECs trapped near surfaces, dispersion interactions of the van der Waals-Casimir-Polder type, and the Bosonic stimulation in spontaneous decay of excited atomic states. We also discuss a phononic Casimir effect, which arises from the quantum fluctuations in an interacting BEC.
We show how the spontaneous emission rate of an excited two-level atom placed in a trapped Bose-Einstein condensate of ground-state atoms is enhanced by bosonic stimulation. This stimulation depends on the overlap of the excited matter-wave packet with the macroscopically occupied condensate wave function, and provides a probe of the spatial coherence of the Bose gas. The effect can be used to amplify the distance-dependent decay rate of an excited atom near an interface.
We present climatic consequences of the Representative Concentration Pathways (RCPs) using the coupled climate model CLIMBER-3 alpha, which contains a statistical-dynamical atmosphere and a three-dimensional ocean model. We compare those with emulations of 19 state-of-the-art atmosphere-ocean general circulation models (AOGCM) using MAGICC6. The RCPs are designed as standard scenarios for the forthcoming IPCC Fifth Assessment Report to span the full range of future greenhouse gas (GHG) concentrations pathways currently discussed. The lowest of the RCP scenarios, RCP3-PD, is projected in CLIMBER-3 alpha to imply a maximal warming by the middle of the 21st century slightly above 1.5 degrees C and a slow decline of temperatures thereafter, approaching today's level by 2500. We identify two mechanisms that slow down global cooling after GHG concentrations peak: The known inertia induced by mixing-related oceanic heat uptake; and a change in oceanic convection that enhances ocean heat loss in high latitudes, reducing the surface cooling rate by almost 50%. Steric sea level rise under the RCP3-PD scenario continues for 200 years after the peak in surface air temperatures, stabilizing around 2250 at 30 cm. This contrasts with around 1.3 m of steric sea level rise by 2250, and 2 m by 2500, under the highest scenario, RCP8.5. Maximum oceanic warming at intermediate depth (300-800 m) is found to exceed that of the sea surface by the second half of the 21st century under RCP3-PD. This intermediate-depth warming persists for centuries even after surface temperatures have returned to present-day values, with potential consequences for marine ecosystems, oceanic methane hydrates, and ice-shelf stability. Due to an enhanced land-ocean temperature contrast, all scenarios yield an intensification of monsoon rainfall under global warming.
New global maps of the five inner midsize icy saturnian satellites, Mimas, Enceladus, Tethys, Dione, and Rhea, have been constructed in three colors (UV, Green and near-IR) at resolutions of 1 km/pixel. The maps reveal prominent global patterns common to several of these satellites but also three major color features unique to specific satellites or satellite subgroups. The most common features among the group are first-order global asymmetries in color properties. This pattern, expressed on Tethys, Dione and Rhea, takes the form of a similar to 1.4-1.8 times enhancement in redness (expressed as IR/UV ratio) of the surface at the center of the trailing hemisphere of motion, and a similar though significantly weaker IR/UV enhancement at the center of the leading hemisphere. The peak in redness on the trailing hemisphere also corresponds to a known decrease in albedo. These double hemispheric asymmetries are attributable to plasma and E-ring grain bombardment on the trailing and leading hemispheres, respectively, for the outer three satellites Tethys, Dione and Rhea, whereas as E-ring bombardment may be focused on the trailing hemisphere of Mimas due to its orbital location interior to Enceladus. The maps also reveal three major deviations from these basic global patterns. We observe the previously known dark bluish leading hemisphere equatorial band on Tethys but have also discovered a similar band on Mimas. Similar in shape, both features match the surface patterns expected for irradiation of the surface by incident MeV electrons that drift in a direction opposite to the plasma flow. The global asymmetry on Enceladus is offset similar to 40 degrees to the west compared to the other satellites. We do not consider Enceladus in detail here, but the global distribution of bluish material can be shown to match the deposition pattern predicted for plume fallback onto the surface (Kempf, S., Beckmann, U., Schmidt, S. [2010]. Icarus 206, 446-457. doi:10.1016/j.icarus.2009.09.016). E-ring deposition on Enceladus thus appears to mask or prevent the formation of the lenses and hemispheric asymmetries we see on the other satellites. Finally, we observe a chain of discrete bluish splotches along the equator of Rhea. Unlike the equatorial bands of Tethys and Mimas, these splotches form a very narrow great circle <= 10-km wide (north-to-south) and appear to be related to surface disruption, exposing fresh, bluish ice on older crater rims. This feature is unique to Rhea and may have formed by impact onto its surface of orbiting material.
Glacial advances constrained by Be-10 exposure dating of bedrock landslides, Kyrgyz Tien Shan
(2011)
Numerous large landslide deposits occur in the Tien Shan, a tectonically active intraplate orogen in Central Asia. Yet their significance in Quaternary landscape evolution and natural hazard assessment remains unresolved due to the lack of "absolute" age constraints. Here we present the first Be-10 exposure ages for three prominent (>10(7) m(3)) bedrock landslides that blocked major rivers and formed lakes, two of which subsequently breached, in the northern Kyrgyz Tien Shan. Three Be-10 ages reveal that one landslide in the Alamyedin River occurred at 11-15 ka, which is consistent with two C-14 ages of gastropod shells from reworked loess capping the landslide. One large landslide in Aksu River is among the oldest documented in semi-arid continental interiors, with a Be-10 age of 63-67 ka. The Ukok River landslide deposit(s) yielded variable Be-10 ages, which may result from multiple landslides, and inheritance of Be-10. Two Be-10 ages of 8.2 and 5.9 ka suggest that one major landslide occurred in the early to mid-Holocene, followed by at least one other event between 1.5 and 0.4 ka. Judging from the regional glacial chronology, all three landslides have occurred between major regional glacial advances. Whereas Alamyedin and Ukok can be considered as postglacial in this context, Aksu is of interglacial age. None of the landslide deposits show traces of glacial erosion, hence their locations and I Be ages mark maximum extents and minimum ages of glacial advances, respectively. Using toe-to-headwall altitude ratios of 0.4-0.5, we reconstruct minimum equilibrium-line altitudes that exceed previous estimates by as much as 400 m along the moister northern fringe of the Tien Shan. Our data show that deposits from large landslides can provide valuable spatio-temporal constraints for glacial advances in landscapes where moraines and glacial deposits have low preservation potential. (C) 2011 University of Washington. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
This paper investigates the effect of chemical surface modification of polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) and low density polyethylene (LDPE) films on their electret properties. PTFE films were subjected to wet treatment with three different chemicals: orthophosphoric acid, tetrabutyl titanate and tetraethoxysilane. The technique based on the principles of molecular layer deposition (MLD) method was used to modify the surface of LDPE films with phosphorus trichloride vapors. The surfaces of the films were then corona charged, and the electret charge stability was studied by means of isothermal and thermally stimulated surface potential decay. Both PTFE and LDPE films, after the surface treatment, displayed a considerable enhancement in the charge stability compared to the virgin samples. It is important to note that the enhancement of the charge stability was achieved in the positively charged PTFE films, a result important to practical applications. We attribute this effect of charge stabilization to the formation of new energetically deep traps on the modified surface. Decrease in molecular mobility, due to attachment of new chemical structures to the surface macromolecules, may also contribute to the overall growth of the charge stability.
The surface of polytetrafluoroethylene films was treated with titanium-tetrachloride vapor. The treatment was carried out in a flow reactor by means of molecular-layer deposition, a method from the arsenal of chemical nanotechnology. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy reveals that such a treatment results in considerable changes in the chemical composition at and near the surface of the fluoropolymer film. Both, defluorination and oxidation of the surface were observed. At the same time, samples treated with titanium tetrachloride show a significant enhancement in the thermal stability of the positive homocharge. The thermally stimulated surface-potential-decay curves were observed to shift to higher temperatures by more than 100 degrees C.
Greenland ice sheet model parameters constrained using simulations of the Eemian Interglacial
(2011)
Using a new approach to force an ice sheet model, we performed an ensemble of simulations of the Greenland Ice Sheet evolution during the last two glacial cycles, with emphasis on the Eemian Interglacial. This ensemble was generated by perturbing four key parameters in the coupled regional climate-ice sheet model and by introducing additional uncertainty in the prescribed "background" climate change. The sensitivity of the surface melt model to climate change was determined to be the dominant driver of ice sheet instability, as reflected by simulated ice sheet loss during the Eemian Interglacial period. To eliminate unrealistic parameter combinations, constraints from present-day and paleo information were applied. The constraints include (i) the diagnosed present-day surface mass balance partition between surface melting and ice discharge at the margin, (ii) the modeled present-day elevation at GRIP; and (iii) the modeled elevation reduction at GRIP during the Eemian. Using these three constraints, a total of 360 simulations with 90 different model realizations were filtered down to 46 simulations and 20 model realizations considered valid. The paleo constraint eliminated more sensitive melt parameter values, in agreement with the surface mass balance partition assumption. The constrained simulations resulted in a range of Eemian ice loss of 0.4-4.4m sea level equivalent, with a more likely range of about 3.7-4.4m sea level if the GRIP delta O-18 isotope record can be considered an accurate proxy for the precipitation-weighted annual mean temperatures.
The Greenland Ice Sheet (GIS) contains enough water volume to raise global sea level by over 7 meters. It is a relic of past glacial climates that could be strongly affected by a warming world. Several studies have been performed to investigate the sensitivity of the ice sheet to changes in climate, but large uncertainties in its long-term response still exist. In this thesis, a new approach has been developed and applied to modeling the GIS response to climate change. The advantages compared to previous approaches are (i) that it can be applied over a wide range of climatic scenarios (both in the deep past and the future), (ii) that it includes the relevant feedback processes between the climate and the ice sheet and (iii) that it is highly computationally efficient, allowing simulations over very long timescales. The new regional energy-moisture balance model (REMBO) has been developed to model the climate and surface mass balance over Greenland and it represents an improvement compared to conventional approaches in modeling present-day conditions. Furthermore, the evolution of the GIS has been simulated over the last glacial cycle using an ensemble of model versions. The model performance has been validated against field observations of the present-day climate and surface mass balance, as well as paleo information from ice cores. The GIS contribution to sea level rise during the last interglacial is estimated to be between 0.5-4.1 m, consistent with previous estimates. The ensemble of model versions has been constrained to those that are consistent with the data, and a range of valid parameter values has been defined, allowing quantification of the uncertainty and sensitivity of the modeling approach. Using the constrained model ensemble, the sensitivity of the GIS to long-term climate change was investigated. It was found that the GIS exhibits hysteresis behavior (i.e., it is multi-stable under certain conditions), and that a temperature threshold exists above which the ice sheet transitions to an essentially ice-free state. The threshold in the global temperature is estimated to be in the range of 1.3-2.3°C above preindustrial conditions, significantly lower than previously believed. The timescale of total melt scales non-linearly with the overshoot above the temperature threshold, such that a 2°C anomaly causes the ice sheet to melt in ca. 50,000 years, but an anomaly of 6°C will melt the ice sheet in less than 4,000 years. The meltback of the ice sheet was found to become irreversible after a fraction of the ice sheet is already lost – but this level of irreversibility also depends on the temperature anomaly.
Control of crystallographic texture from mostly face-on to edge-on is observed for the film morphology of the n-type semicrystalline polymer [N,N-9-bis(2-octyldodecyl)naphthalene-1,4,5,8-bis(dicarboximide)-2,6-diy1]alt-5,59-(2,29-bithiophene)}, P(NDI2OD-T2), when annealing the film to the polymer melting point followed by slow cooling to ambient temperature. A variety of X-ray diffraction analyses, including pole figure construction and Fourier transform peak shape deconvolution, are employed to quantify the texture change, relative degree of crystallinity and lattice order. We find that annealing the polymer film to the melt leads to a shift from 77.5% face-on to 94.6% edge-on lamellar texture as well as to a 2-fold increase in crystallinity and a 40% decrease in intracrystallite cumulative disorder. The texture change results in a significant drop in the electron-only diode current density through the film thickness upon melt annealing while little change is observed in the in-plane transport of bottom gated thin film transistors. This suggests that the texture change is prevalent in the film interior and that either the (bottom) surface structure is different from the interior structure or the intracrystalline order and texture play a secondary role in transistor transport for this material.
We present a systematic study of weak intervening CaII absorbers at low redshift (z < 0.5), based on the analysis of archival high-resolution (R >= 45 000) optical spectra of 304 quasars and active galactic nuclei observed with VLT/UVES. Along a total redshift path of Delta z approximate to 100 we detected 23 intervening CaII absorbers in both the CaII H & K lines, with rest frame equivalent widths W-r,W-3934 = 15-799 m angstrom and column densities log N(CaII) = 11.25-13.04 (obtained by fitting Voigt-profile components). We obtain a bias-corrected number density of weak intervening CaII absorbers of dN/dz = 0.117 +/- 0.044 at < z(abs)> = 0.35 for absorbers with log N(CaII) >= 11.65 (W-r,W-3934 >= 32 m angstrom). This is similar to 2.6 times the value obtained for damped Lyman alpha absorbers (DLAs) at low redshift. All CaII absorbers in our sample show associated absorption by other low ions such as MgII and FeII; 45 percent of them have associated NaI absorption. From ionization modelling we conclude that intervening CaII absorption with log N(CaII) >= 11.5 arises in DLAs, sub-DLAs and Lyman-limit systems (LLS) at HI column densities of log N(HI) >= 17.4. Using supplementary HI information for nine of the absorbers we find that the CaII/HI ratio decreases strongly with increasing HI column density, indicating a column-density-dependent dust depletion of Ca. The observed column density distribution function of CaII absorption components follows a relatively steep power law, f(N) proportional to N-beta, with a slope of -beta = -1.68, which again points towards an enhanced dust depletion in high column density systems. The relatively large cross section of these absorbers together with the frequent detection of CaII absorption in high-velocity clouds (HVCs) in the halo of the Milky Way suggests that a considerable fraction of the intervening CaII systems trace (partly) neutral gas structures in the halos and circumgalactic environment of galaxies (i.e., they are HVC analogs). Based on the recently measured detection rate of CaII absorption in the Milky Way HVCs we estimate that the mean (projected) CaII covering fraction of galaxies and their gaseous halos is < f(c,CaII)> = 0.33. Using this value and considering all galaxies with luminosities L >= 0.05 L-star we calculate that the characteristic radial extent of (partly) neutral gas clouds with log N(HI) >= 17.4 around low-redshift galaxies is R-HVC approximate to 55 kpc.
Langmuir monolayer degradation (LMD) experiments with polymers possessing outstanding biomedical application potential yield information regarding the kinetics of their hydrolytic or enzymatic chain scission under well-defined and adjustable degradation conditions. A brief review is given of LMD investigations, including the author's own work on 2-dimensional (2D) polymer systems, providing chain scission data, which are not disturbed by simultaneously occurring transport phenomena, such as water penetration into the sample or transport of scission fragments out of the sample.
A knowledge-based approach for the description and simulation of polymer hydrolytic and enzymatic degradation based on a combination of fast LMD experiments and computer simulation of the water penetration is briefly introduced. Finally, the advantages and disadvantages of this approach are discussed.