• Do chaotic field lines cause fast reconnection in coronal loops?

    分类: 天文学 >> 天文学 提交时间: 2023-02-19

    摘要: Over the past decade, Boozer has argued that three-dimensional (3D) magnetic reconnection fundamentally differs from two-dimensional (2D) reconnection due to the fact that the separation between any pair of neighboring field lines almost always increases exponentially over distance in a 3D magnetic field. According to Boozer, this feature makes 3D field-line mapping chaotic and exponentially sensitive to small non-ideal effects; consequently, 3D reconnection can occur without intense current sheets. We test Boozer's theory via ideal and resistive reduced magnetohydrodynamic simulations of the Boozer-Elder coronal loop model driven by sub-Alfvenic footpoint motions [A. H. Boozer and T. Elder, Physics of Plasmas 28, 062303 (2021)]. Our simulation results significantly differ from their predictions. The ideal simulation shows that Boozer and Elder under-predict the intensity of current density due to missing terms in their reduced model equations. Furthermore, resistive simulations of varying Lundquist numbers show that the maximal current density scales linearly rather than logarithmically with the Lundquist number.

  • Perturbativity Limits for Scalar Minimal Dark Matter with Yukawa Interactions: Septuplet

    分类: 物理学 >> 核物理学 提交时间: 2016-09-14

    摘要: The candidate of minimal dark matter (MDM) is limited if one demands perturbativity up to a very high scale, and it was believed that the MDM model with a real scalar septuplet could keep perturbative up to the Planck or GUT scale. In this work we point out that it is not true after taking into account the running of the quartic self-couplings of the scalar septuplet. For the septuplet mass around 10 TeV, which is suggested by the observed dark matter relic abundance, these couplings would hit the Landau pole at a scale ∼108−109 GeV, much lower than the Planck scale. We attempt to push up the Landau pole scale as high as possible by proposing an extension with extra Yukawa interactions of the septuplet. We find that in principle the Landau pole could be deferred to a scale of ∼1014 GeV if one could tolerate a serious fine-tuning of the initial condition of the Yukawa coupling. Moreover, if the MDM particle mass could be relaxed to ∼108 GeV, which would need some nonthermal production mechanisms to give a correct relic abundance, the Landau pole scale could be pushed up above the Planck scale.

  • Reconnection-Driven Energy Cascade in Magnetohydrodynamic Turbulence

    分类: 天文学 >> 天文学 提交时间: 2023-02-19

    摘要: Magnetohydrodynamic turbulence regulates the transfer of energy from large to small scales in many astrophysical systems, including the solar atmosphere. We perform three-dimensional magnetohydrodynamic simulations with unprecedentedly large magnetic Reynolds number to reveal how rapid reconnection of magnetic field lines changes the classical paradigm of the turbulent energy cascade. By breaking elongated current sheets into chains of small magnetic flux ropes (or plasmoids), magnetic reconnection leads to a new range of turbulent energy cascade, where the rate of energy transfer is controlled by the growth rate of the plasmoids. As a consequence, the turbulent energy spectra steepen and attain a spectral index of -2.2 that is accompanied by changes in the anisotropy of turbulence eddies. The omnipresence of plasmoids and their consequences on, e.g., solar coronal heating, can be further explored with current and future spacecraft and telescopes.

  • Quantifying the sequence-function relation in gene silencing by bacterial small RNAs

    分类: 物理学 >> 交叉学科物理及相关领域的科学与技术 提交时间: 2016-05-08

    摘要: Sequence-function relations for small RNA (sRNA)-mediated gene silencing were quantified for the sRNA RyhB and some of its mRNA targets in Escherichia coli. Numerous mutants of RyhB and its targets were generated and their in vivo functions characterized at various levels of target and RyhB expression. Although a core complementary region is required for repression by RyhB, variations in the complementary sequences of the core region gave rise to a continuum of repression strengths, correlated exponentially with the computed free energy of RyhB-target duplex formation. Moreover, sequence variations inthe linker region known to interact with the RNA chaperone Hfq also gave rise to a continuum of repression strengths, correlated exponentially with thecomputed energy cost of keeping the linker region open. These results support the applicability of the thermodynamic model in predicting sRNA-mRNA interaction and suggest that sequences at these locations may be used to fine-tune the degree of repression. Surprisingly, a truncated RyhB without the Hfq-binding region is found to repress multiple targets of the wild-type RyhB effectively, both in the presence and absence of Hfq, even though the former is required for the activity of wild-type RyhB itself. These findings challenge the commonly accepted model concerning the function of Hfq in gene silencing-bothin providing stability to the sRNAs and in catalyzing the target mRNAs to take on active conformations-and raise the intriguing question of why many endogenous sRNAs subject their functions to Hfq-dependences.