118541441
A STANDARD-TO-BLOWOUT JET
The commonly observed jets provide critical information on the small-scale energy release in the solar atmosphere. We report a near disk-center jet on 2010 July 20, observed by the Solar Dynamics Observatory. In this event, the standard interchange magnetic reconnection between an emerging flux spanning 9 × 103 km and ambient open fields is followed by a blowout-like eruption. In the standard stage, as the emerging negative element approached the nearby positive network fields, a jet with a dome-like base in EUV grew for 30 minutes before the jet spire began to migrate laterally with enhanced flux emergence. In the blowout stage, the above converging fields collided and the subsequent cancellation produced a UV microflare lasting seven minutes, in which the dome of the jet seemed to be blown out as (1) the spire swung faster and exhibited an unwinding motion before vanishing, (2) a rising loop and a blob erupted leaving behind cusped structures, with the blob spiraling outward in acceleration after the flare maximum, and (3) ejecting material with a curtain-like structure at chromospheric to transition-region temperatures also underwent a transverse motion. It is thus suggested that the flare reconnection rapidly removes the outer fields of the emerging flux to allow its twisted core field to erupt, a scenario favoring the jet-scale magnetic breakout model as recently advocated by Moore et al. in 2010.
119209325
Response of the Photospheric Magnetic Field to the X2.2 Flare on 2011 February 15
It is well known that the long-term evolution of the photospheric magnetic field plays an important role in building up free energy to power solar eruptions. Observations, despite being controversial, have also revealed a rapid and permanent variation of the photospheric magnetic field in response to the coronal magnetic field restructuring during the eruption. The Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager instrument (HMI) on board the newly launched Solar Dynamics Observatory produces seeing-free full-disk vector magnetograms at consistently high resolution and high cadence, which finally makes possible an unambiguous and comprehensive study of this important back-reaction process. In this study, we present a near disk-center, GOES-class X2.2 flare, which occurred in NOAA AR 11158 on 2011 February 15. Using the magnetic field measurements made by HMI, we obtained the first solid evidence of a rapid (in about 30 minutes) and irreversible enhancement in the horizontal magnetic field at the flaring magnetic polarity inversion line (PIL) by a magnitude of {approx}30%. It is also shown that the photospheric field becomes more sheared and more inclined. This field evolution is unequivocally associated with the flare occurrence in this sigmoidal active region, with the enhancement area located in between the two chromospheric flare ribbons andmore » the initial conjugate hard X-ray footpoints. These results strongly corroborate our previous conjecture that the photospheric magnetic field near the PIL must become more horizontal after eruptions, which could be related to the newly formed low-lying fields resulting from the tether-cutting reconnection.« less
118858199
SIGMOID-TO-FLUX-ROPE TRANSITION LEADING TO A LOOP-LIKE CORONAL MASS EJECTION
Sigmoids are one of the most important precursor structures for solar eruptions. In this Letter, we study a sigmoid eruption on 2010 August 1 with EUV data obtained by the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA) on board the Solar Dynamic Observatory (SDO). In AIA 94 A (Fe XVIII; 6 MK), topological reconfiguration due to tether-cutting reconnection is unambiguously observed for the first time, i.e., two opposite J-shaped loops reconnect to form a continuous S-shaped loop, whose central portion is dipped and aligned along the magnetic polarity inversion line (PIL), and a compact loop crossing the PIL. A causal relationship between photospheric flows and coronal tether-cutting reconnections is evidenced by the detection of persistent converging flows toward the PIL using line-of-sight magnetograms obtained by the Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager on board SDO. The S-shaped loop remains in quasi-equilibrium in the lower corona for about 50 minutes, with the central dipped portion rising slowly at ~10 km s–1. The speed then increases to ~60 km s–1 about 10 minutes prior to the onset of a GOES-class C3.2 flare, as the S-shaped loop speeds up its transformation into an arch-shaped loop, which eventually leads to a loop-like coronal mass ejection. The AIA observations combined with Hα filtergrams as well as hard X-ray imaging and spectroscopy are consistent with most flare loops being formed by reconnection of the stretched legs of less-sheared J-shaped loops that envelopes the rising flux rope, in agreement with the standard tether-cutting scenario.
125034847
Simulation of photoelectric X-ray polarimetry and reconstruction of the photoelectron azimuthal angle
Sensitive X-ray polarimetry in the keV energy range can be achieved by measuring the azimuthal angle distribution of emitted electrons after the photoelectric absorption of X-rays in a micropattern gas detector. However, the initial direction of the electron is not readily measurable due to the randomization of its motion during energy loss. By using the Geant4, Maxwell and Garfield packages, we simulated the detected electron tracks following photoelectric absorption, electron drift and diffusion in the gas, and proposed a technique capable of reconstructing the initial direction of the emitted photoelectron. The technique allows us to measure the angular modulation of flux predicted for a polarized X-ray beam. We calculated the modulation factors in 2–10 keV with a gas mixture of neon and CO2, and discussed how electron diffusion along the drift will dilute the track and suppress the modulation. These results are useful for the design of the X-ray polarimeter.
119415475
Nonequilibrium relaxation in neutral BCS superconductors: Ginzburg-Landau approach with Landau damping in real time
We present a field-theoretical method to obtain consistently the equations of motion for small amplitude fluctuations of the order parameter directly in real time for a homogeneous, neutral BCS superconductor. This methodallows to study the nonequilibrium relaxation of the order parameter as an initial value problem. We obtain the Ward identities and the effective actions for small phase the amplitude fluctuations to one-loop order. Focusing on the long wavelength, low-frequency limit near the critical point, we obtain the time-dependent Ginzburg-Landau effective action to one-loop order, which is nonlocal as a consequence of Landau damping. The nonequilibrium relaxation of the phase and amplitude fluctuations is studied directly in real time. The long-wavelength phase fluctuation (Bogoliubov-Anderson-Goldstone mode) is overdamped by Landau damping and the relaxation time scale diverges at the critical point, revealing critical slowing down.
122689329
Searches for the standard model Higgs boson at the CDF experiment
The understanding of the dynamics behind the breaking of the electroweak symmetry is one of the most important goals in the field of high energy physics. In the Standard Model (SM) Higgs mechanism plays a key role in the symmetry breaking, one manifestation of which is spin-0 Higgs boson. Thus the search for the Higgs boson is one of the flag-ship analyses at the Tevatron. Over the past few years the CDF experiment has made significant improvements in its sensitivity on the search for the SM Higgs boson. In this paper we summarize CDF's most recent results on the searches for the SM Higgs boson production at the Tevatron using data samples of integrated luminosities up to 3 fb-1. We also present the Tevatron's latest combined results on the SM Higgs boson search, and discuss the possibility that it could be found at the Tevatron in the near future.
41231566
Quantitative Analysis of CME Deflections in the Corona
In this paper, ten CME events viewed by the STEREO twin spacecraft are analyzed to study the deflections of CMEs during their propagation in the corona. Based on the three-dimensional information of the CMEs derived by the graduated cylindrical shell (GCS) model (Thernisien, Howard, and Vourlidas in Astrophys. J.652, 1305, 2006), it is found that the propagation directions of eight CMEs had changed. By applying the theoretical method proposed by Shen et al. (Solar Phys.269, 389, 2011) to all the CMEs, we found that the deflections are consistent, in strength and direction, with the gradient of the magnetic energy density. There is a positive correlation between the deflection rate and the strength of the magnetic energy density gradient and a weak anti-correlation between the deflection rate and the CME speed. Our results suggest that the deflections of CMEs are mainly controlled by the background magnetic field and can be quantitatively described by the magnetic energy density gradient (MEDG) model.
119496727
Dynamical renormalization group approach to transport in ultrarelativistic plasmas: The Electrical conductivity in high temperature QED
The DC electrical conductivity of an ultrarelativistic QED plasma is studied in real time by implementing the dynamical renormalization group. The conductivity is obtained from the realtime dependence of a dissipative kernel related to the retarded photon polarization. Pinch singularities in the imaginary part of the polarization are manifest as growing secular terms that in the perturbative expansion of this kernel. The leading secular terms are studied explicitly and it is shown that they are insensitive to the anomalous damping of hard fermions as a result of a cancellation between self-energy and vertex corrections. The resummation of the secular terms via the dynamical renormalization group leads directly to a renormalization group equation in real time, which is the Boltzmann equation for the (gauge invariant) fermion distribution function. A direct correspondence between the perturbative expansion and the linearized Boltzmann equation is established, allowing a direct identification of the self energy and vertex contributions to the collision term.We obtain a Fokker-Planck equation in momentum space that describes the dynamics of the departure from equilibrium to leading logarithmic order in the coupling.This determines that the transport time scale is given by t_{tr}=(24 pi)/[e^4 T \ln(1/e)}]. The solution of the Fokker-Planck equation approaches asymptotically the steady- state solution as sim e^{-t/(4.038 t_{tr})}.The steady-state solution leads to the conductivity sigma = 15.698 T/[e^2 ln(1/e)] to leading logarithmic order. We discuss the contributions beyond leading logarithms as well as beyond the Boltzmann equation. The dynamical renormalization group provides a link between linear response in quantum field theory and kinetic theory.
51818165
Unified field equations coupling four forces and principle of interaction dynamics
The main objective of this article is to postulate a principle of interaction dynamics (PID) and to derive field equations coupling the four fundamental interactions based on first principles. PID is a least action principle subject to div$_A$-free constraints for the variational element with $A$ being gauge potentials. The Lagrangian action is uniquely determined by 1) the principle of general relativity, 2) the $U(1)$, $SU(2)$ and $SU(3)$ gauge invariances, 3) the Lorentz invariance, and 4) the principle of representation invariance (PRI), introduced in [11]. The unified field equations are then derived using PID. The field model spontaneously breaks the gauge symmetries, and gives rise to a new mass generation mechanism. 
The unified field model introduces a natural duality between the mediators and their dual mediators, and can be easily decoupled to study each individual interaction when other interactions are negligible. The unified field model, together with PRI and PID applied to individual interactions, provides clear explanations and solutions to a number of outstanding challenges in physics and cosmology, including e.g. the dark energy and dark matter phenomena, the quark confinement, asymptotic freedom, short-range nature of both strong and weak interactions, decay mechanism of sub-atomic particles, baryon asymmetry, and the solar neutrino problem.