Context.
The atmosphere of exoplanets has been studied extensively in recent years, making use of numerical models to retrieve chemical composition, dynamical circulation, or temperature from the ...data. One of the best observational probes in transmission is the sodium doublet thanks to its extensive cross-section. However, modelling the shape of planetary sodium lines has proven to be challenging. Models with different assumptions regarding the atmosphere have been employed to fit the lines in the literature, yet statistically-sound, direct comparisons of different models are needed to paint a clear picture.
Aims.
We aim to compare different wind and temperature patterns, as well as to provide a tool to distinguish them based on their best fit for the sodium transmission spectrum of the hot Jupiter HD 189733b. We parametrise different possible wind patterns that have already been tested the in literature and introduce the new option of an upwards-driven vertical wind.
Methods.
We construct a forward model where the wind speed, wind geometry, and temperature are injected into the calculation of the transmission spectrum. We embed this forward model in a nested sampling retrieval code to rank the models via their Bayesian evidence.
Results.
We retrieve a best-fit to the HD 189733b data for vertical upward winds |
v
ver
(mean)| = 40 ± 4 km s
−1
at altitudes above 10
−6
bar. With the current data from HARPS, we cannot distinguish wind patterns for higher-pressure atmospheric layers.
Conclusions.
We show that vertical upwards winds in the upper atmosphere provide a possible explanation for the broad sodium signature in hot Jupiters. We highlight other influences on the width of the doublet and we explore strong magnetic fields acting on the lower atmosphere as one possible origin of the retrieved wind speed.
KELT-9 b, the hottest known exoplanet, with
T
eq
~ 4400 K, is the archetype of a new planet class known as ultra-hot Jupiters. These exoplanets are presumed to have an atmosphere dominated by neutral ...and ionized atomic species. In particular, H
α
and H
β
Balmer lines have been detected in the KELT-9 b upper atmosphere, suggesting that hydrogen is filling the planetary Roche lobe and escaping from the planet. In this work, we detected
δ
Scuti-type stellar pulsation (with a period
P
puls
= 7.54 ± 0.12 h) and studied the Rossiter-McLaughlin effect (finding a spin-orbit angle
λ
= −85.01° ± 0.23°) prior to focussing on the Balmer lines (H
α
to H
ζ
) in the optical transmission spectrum of KELT-9 b. Our HARPS-N data show significant absorption for H
α
to H
δ
. The precise line shapes of the H
α
, H
β
, and H
γ
absorptions allow us to put constraints on the thermospheric temperature. Moreover, the mass loss rate, and the excited hydrogen population of KELT-9 b are also constrained, thanks to a retrieval analysis performed with a new atmospheric model. We retrieved a thermospheric temperature of
T
= 13 200
−720
+800
K and a mass loss rate of
Ṁ
= 10
12.8±0.3
g s
−1
when the atmosphere was assumed to be in hydrodynamical expansion and in local thermodynamic equilibrium (LTE). Since the thermospheres of hot Jupiters are not expected to be in LTE, we explored atmospheric structures with non-Boltzmann equilibrium for the population of the excited hydrogen. We do not find strong statistical evidence in favor of a departure from LTE. However, our non-LTE scenario suggests that a departure from the Boltzmann equilibrium may not be sufficient to explain the retrieved low number densities of the excited hydrogen. In non-LTE, Saha equilibrium departure via photo-ionization, is also likely to be necessary to explain the data.
Domain wall nanoelectronics Catalan, G.; Seidel, J.; Ramesh, R. ...
Reviews of modern physics,
02/2012, Letnik:
84, Številka:
1
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
The formation of domains in thin films of ferroelectrics, ferromagnets, ferroelastics, or multiferroics can be thought of as a consequence of a finite-size effect driven by a minimization of a ...surface energy. This review, which focuses on ferroelectrics, describes the energetics of domain formation and how domain walls can act as mobile interfaces suited to a variety of nanoelectronic devices. High-resolution studies at the atomic scale reveal functional properties within domain walls of magnetoelectric materials and broadens the discussion to include comparisons to magnetic materials and multiferroics.
Planetary boundary layer (PBL) processes control energy, water, and pollutant exchanges between the surface and free atmosphere. However, there is no observation‐based global PBL climatology for ...evaluation of climate, weather, and air quality models or for characterizing PBL variability on large space and time scales. As groundwork for such a climatology, we compute PBL height by seven methods, using temperature, potential temperature, virtual potential temperature, relative humidity, specific humidity, and refractivity profiles from a 10 year, 505‐station radiosonde data set. Six methods are directly compared; they generally yield PBL height estimates that differ by several hundred meters. Relative humidity and potential temperature gradient methods consistently give higher PBL heights, whereas the parcel (or mixing height) method yields significantly lower heights that show larger and more consistent diurnal and seasonal variations (with lower nighttime and wintertime PBLs). Seasonal and diurnal patterns are sometimes associated with local climatological phenomena, such as nighttime radiation inversions, the trade inversion, and tropical convection and associated cloudiness. Surface‐based temperature inversions are a distinct type of PBL that is more common at night and in the morning than during midday and afternoon, in polar regions than in the tropics, and in winter than other seasons. PBL height estimates are sensitive to the vertical resolution of radiosonde data; standard sounding data yield higher PBL heights than high‐resolution data. Several sources of both parametric and structural uncertainty in climatological PBL height values are estimated statistically; each can introduce uncertainties of a few 100 m.
Skyrmion crystals are regular arrangements of magnetic whirls that exist in a wide range of chiral magnets. Because of their topology, they cannot be created or destroyed by smooth rearrangements of ...the direction of the local magnetization. Using magnetic force microscopy, we tracked the destruction of the skyrmion lattice on the surface of a bulk crystal of Fe₁₋ x Co x Si (x=0.5). Our study revealed that skyrmions vanish by a coalescence, forming elongated structures. Numerical simulations showed that changes of topology are controlled by singular magnetic point defects. They can be viewed as quantized magnetic monopoles and antimonopoles, which provide sources and sinks of one flux quantum of emergent magnetic flux, respectively.
Transition metal oxides hold great potential for the development of new device paradigms because of the field-tunable functionalities driven by their strong electronic correlations, combined with ...their earth abundance and environmental friendliness. Recently, the interfaces between transition-metal oxides have revealed striking phenomena, such as insulator-metal transitions, magnetism, magnetoresistance and superconductivity. Such oxide interfaces are usually produced by sophisticated layer-by-layer growth techniques, which can yield high-quality, epitaxial interfaces with almost monolayer control of atomic positions. The resulting interfaces, however, are fixed in space by the arrangement of the atoms. Here we demonstrate a route to overcoming this geometric limitation. We show that the electrical conductance at the interfacial ferroelectric domain walls in hexagonal ErMnO(3) is a continuous function of the domain wall orientation, with a range of an order of magnitude. We explain the observed behaviour using first-principles density functional and phenomenological theories, and relate it to the unexpected stability of head-to-head and tail-to-tail domain walls in ErMnO(3) and related hexagonal manganites. As the domain wall orientation in ferroelectrics is tunable using modest external electric fields, our finding opens a degree of freedom that is not accessible to spatially fixed interfaces.
Context.
Despite swift progress in the characterisation of exoplanet atmospheres in composition and structure, the study of atmospheric dynamics has not progressed at the same speed. While ...theoretical models have been developed to describe the lower layers of the atmosphere, and independently, the exosphere, little is known about the intermediate layers up to the thermosphere.
Aims.
We aim to provide a clearer picture of atmospheric dynamics for the class of ultra-hot Jupiters, which are highly irradiated gas giants, based on the example of WASP-76 b.
Methods.
We jointly analysed two datasets that were obtained with the HARPS and ESPRESSO spectrographs to interpret the resolved planetary sodium doublet. We then applied the MERC code, which retrieves wind patterns, speeds, and temperature profiles on the line shape of the sodium doublet. An updated version of MERC, with added planetary rotation, also provides the possibility of modelling the latitude dependence of the wind patterns.
Results.
We retrieve the highest Bayesian evidence for an isothermal atmosphere, interpreted as a mean temperature of 3389 ± 227 K, a uniform day- to nightside wind of 5.5
−2.0
+1.4
km s
−1
in the lower atmosphere with a vertical wind in the upper atmosphere of 22.7
−4.1
+4.9
km s
−1
, switching atmospheric wind patterns at 10
−3
bar above the reference surface pressure (10 bar).
Conclusions.
Our results for WASP-76 b are compatible with previous studies of the lower atmospheric dynamics of WASP-76 b and other ultra-hot Jupiters. They highlight the need for vertical winds in the intermediate atmosphere above the layers probed by global circulation model studies to explain the line broadening of the sodium doublet in this planet. This work demonstrates the capability of exploiting the resolved spectral line shapes to observationally constrain possible wind patterns in exoplanet atmospheres. This is an invaluable input to more sophisticated 3D atmospheric models in the future.
A spectral survey of an ultra-hot Jupiter Hoeijmakers, H. J.; Ehrenreich, D.; Kitzmann, D. ...
Astronomy and astrophysics (Berlin),
07/2019, Letnik:
627
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
Context.
KELT-9 b exemplifies a newly emerging class of short-period gaseous exoplanets that tend to orbit hot, early type stars – termed ultra-hot Jupiters. The severe stellar irradiation heats ...their atmospheres to temperatures of ~4000 K, similar to temperatures of photospheres of dwarf stars. Due to the absence of aerosols and complex molecular chemistry at such temperatures, these planets offer the potential of detailed chemical characterization through transit and day-side spectroscopy. Detailed studies of their chemical inventories may provide crucial constraints on their formation process(es) and evolution history.
Aims.
We aim to search the optical transmission spectrum of KELT-9 b for absorption lines by metals using the cross-correlation technique.
Methods.
We analysed two transit observations obtained with the HARPS-N spectrograph. We used an isothermal equilibrium chemistry model to predict the transmission spectrum for each of the neutral and singly ionized atoms with atomic numbers between three and 78. Of these, we identified the elements that are expected to have spectral lines in the visible wavelength range and used those as cross-correlation templates.
Results.
We detect (>5
σ
) absorption by Na
I
, Cr
II
, Sc
II
and Y
II
, and confirm previous detections of Mg
I
, Fe
I
, Fe
II
, and Ti
II
. In addition, we find evidence of Ca
I
, Cr
I
, Co
I
, and Sr
II
that will require further observations to verify. The detected absorption lines are significantly deeper than predicted by our model, suggesting that the material is transported to higher altitudes where the density is enhanced compared to a hydrostatic profile, and that the material is part of an extended or outflowing envelope. There appears to be no significant blue-shift of the absorption spectrum due to a net day-to-night side wind. In particular, the strong Fe
II
feature is shifted by 0.18 ± 0.27 km s
−1
, consistent with zero. Using the orbital velocity of the planet we derive revised masses and radii of the star and the planet:
M
*
= 1.978 ± 0.023
M
⊙
,
R
*
= 2.178 ± 0.011
R
⊙
,
m
p
= 2.44 ± 0.70
M
J
and
R
p
= 1.783 ± 0.009
R
J
.
Estimates of trends in planetary boundary layer height over Europe are presented, based on daily radiosonde observations at 25 stations during 1973–2010 and using a bulk Richardson number approach to ...determine heights. Most stations show statistically significant increases in daytime heights in all four seasons, but fewer show statistically significant trends in nighttime heights. Daytime height variations show an expected strong negative correlation with surface relative humidity and strong positive correlation with surface temperature at most stations studied, on both year-to-year and day-to-day time scales. Similar relations hold for long-term trends: increasing daytime boundary layer height is associated with decreasing surface relative humidity and increasing surface temperature atmost stations. The extent towhich these changes are regionally representative or local reflections of environmental changes near the observing stations is difficult to ascertain.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
BFBNIB, DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
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