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1. Sustainability of soil organic carbon in consolidated gully land in China’s Loess Plateau

   https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-73910-7  

   Yan, Qina ; Kumar, Praveen ; Wang, Yunqiang ; Zhao, Yali ; Lin, Henry ; Ran, Qihua ; An, Zhisheng ; Zhou, Weijian ( October 2020 , Scientific Reports)

   Massive gully land consolidation projects, launched in China’s Loess Plateau, aim to restore 2667$$\mathrm{km}^2$$${\mathrm{km}}^2$agricultural lands in total by consolidating 2026 highly eroded gullies. This effort represents a social engineering project where the economic development and livelihood of the farming families are closely tied to the ability of these emergent landscapes to provide agricultural services. Whether these ‘time zero’ landscapes have the resilience to provide a sustainable soil condition such as soil organic carbon (SOC) content remains unknown. By studying two watersheds, one of which is a control site, we show that the consolidated gully serves as an enhanced carbon sink, where the magnitude of SOC increase rate (1.0$$\mathrm{g\,C}/\mathrm{m}^2/\mathrm{year}$$$gC/m^2/\mathrm{year}$) is about twice that of the SOC decrease rate (− 0.5$$\mathrm{g\,C}/\mathrm{m}^2/\mathrm{year}$$$gC/m^2/\mathrm{year}$) in the surrounding natural watershed. Over a 50-year co-evolution of landscape and SOC turnover, we find that the dominant mechanisms that determine the carbon cycling are different between the consolidated gully and natural watersheds. In natural watersheds, the flux of SOC transformation is mainly driven by the flux of SOC transport; but in the consolidated gully, the transport has little impact on the transformation. Furthermore, we find that extending the surface carbon residence time has the potential to efficiently enhance carbon sequestrationmore »from the atmosphere with a rate as high as 8$$\mathrm{g\,C}/\mathrm{m}^2/\mathrm{year}$$$gC/m^2/\mathrm{year}$compared to the current 0.4$$\mathrm{g\,C}/\mathrm{m}^2/\mathrm{year}$$$gC/m^2/\mathrm{year}$. The success for the completion of all gully consolidation would lead to as high as 26.67$$\mathrm{Gg\,C}/\mathrm{year}$$$\mathrm{Gg}C/\mathrm{year}$sequestrated into soils. This work, therefore, not only provides an assessment and guidance of the long-term sustainability of the ‘time zero’ landscapes but also a solution for sequestration$$\hbox {CO}_2$$${\text{CO}}_2$into soils.

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2. Plasmonically enhanced mid-IR light source based on tunable spectrally and directionally selective thermal emission from nanopatterned graphene

   https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-73582-3  

   Shabbir, Muhammad Waqas ; Leuenberger, Michael N. ( October 2020 , Scientific Reports)

   We present a proof of concept for a spectrally selective thermal mid-IR source based on nanopatterned graphene (NPG) with a typical mobility of CVD-grown graphene (up to 3000$$\hbox {cm}^2\,\hbox {V}^{-1}\,\hbox {s}^{-1}$$${\text{cm}}^2{\text{V}}^{-1}{\text{s}}^{-1}$), ensuring scalability to large areas. For that, we solve the electrostatic problem of a conducting hyperboloid with an elliptical wormhole in the presence of anin-planeelectric field. The localized surface plasmons (LSPs) on the NPG sheet, partially hybridized with graphene phonons and surface phonons of the neighboring materials, allow for the control and tuning of the thermal emission spectrum in the wavelength regime from$$\lambda =3$$$\lambda =3$to 12$$\upmu$$$\mu$m by adjusting the size of and distance between the circular holes in a hexagonal or square lattice structure. Most importantly, the LSPs along with an optical cavity increase the emittance of graphene from about 2.3% for pristine graphene to 80% for NPG, thereby outperforming state-of-the-art pristine graphene light sources operating in the near-infrared by at least a factor of 100. According to our COMSOL calculations, a maximum emission power per area of$$11\times 10^3$$$11\times {10}^3$W/$$\hbox {m}^2$$${\text{m}}^2$at$$T=2000$$$T=2000$K for a bias voltage of$$V=23$$$V=23$V is achieved by controlling the temperature of the hot electrons through the Joule heating. By generalizing Planck’s theory to any grey body and derivingmore »the completely general nonlocal fluctuation-dissipation theorem with nonlocal response of surface plasmons in the random phase approximation, we show that the coherence length of the graphene plasmons and the thermally emitted photons can be as large as 13$$\upmu$$$\mu$m and 150$$\upmu$$$\mu$m, respectively, providing the opportunity to create phased arrays made of nanoantennas represented by the holes in NPG. The spatial phase variation of the coherence allows for beamsteering of the thermal emission in the range between$$12^\circ$$${12}^{\circ }$and$$80^\circ$$${80}^{\circ }$by tuning the Fermi energy between$$E_F=1.0$$$E_F=1.0$eV and$$E_F=0.25$$$E_F=0.25$eV through the gate voltage. Our analysis of the nonlocal hydrodynamic response leads to the conjecture that the diffusion length and viscosity in graphene are frequency-dependent. Using finite-difference time domain calculations, coupled mode theory, and RPA, we develop the model of a mid-IR light source based on NPG, which will pave the way to graphene-based optical mid-IR communication, mid-IR color displays, mid-IR spectroscopy, and virus detection.

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3. Strong enhancement of electromagnetic shower development induced by high-energy photons in a thick oriented tungsten crystal

   https://doi.org/10.1140/epjc/s10052-023-11247-x  

   Soldani, M. ; Bandiera, L. ; Moulson, M. ; Ballerini, G. ; Baryshevsky, V. G. ; Bomben, L. ; Brizzolari, C. ; Charitonidis, N. ; D’Alessandro, G. L. ; De Salvador, D. ; et al ( January 2023 , The European Physical Journal C)

   We have observed a significant enhancement in the energy deposition by 25–$$100~\textrm{GeV}$$$100\text{GeV}$photons in a$$1~\textrm{cm}$$$1\text{cm}$thick tungsten crystal oriented along its$$\langle 111 \rangle $$$⟨111⟩$lattice axes. At$$100~\textrm{GeV}$$$100\text{GeV}$, this enhancement, with respect to the value observed without axial alignment, is more than twofold. This effect, together with the measured huge increase in secondary particle generation is ascribed to the acceleration of the electromagnetic shower development by the strong axial electric field. The experimental results have been critically compared with a newly developed Monte Carlo adapted for use with crystals of multi-$$X_0$$$X_0$thickness. The results presented in this paper may prove to be of significant interest for the development of high-performance photon absorbers and highly compact electromagnetic calorimeters and beam dumps for use at the energy and intensity frontiers.
4. Diel variability of bulk optical properties associated with the growth and division of small phytoplankton in the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre

   https://doi.org/10.1364/AO.394123  

   Henderikx Freitas, Fernanda ; Dugenne, Mathilde ; Ribalet, François ; Hynes, Annette ; Barone, Benedetto ; Karl, David M. ; White, Angelicque E. ( July 2020 , Applied Optics)

   Cross-platform observing systems are requisite to capturing the temporal and spatial dynamics of particles in the ocean. We present simultaneous observations of bulk optical properties, including the particulate beam attenuation (${\mathit{\text{c}}}_{\mathit{\text{p}}}$) and backscattering ($b_{\text{bp}}$) coefficients, and particle size distributions collected in the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre. Clear and coherent diel cycles are observed in all bulk and size-fractionated optical proxies for particle biomass. We show evidence linking diurnal increases in${\mathit{\text{c}}}_{\mathit{\text{p}}}$and${\mathit{\text{b}}}_{\text{bp}}$to daytime particle growth and division of cells, with particles$<<\#comment/>7\text{µ<\#comment/>}\mathrm{m}$driving the daily cycle of particle production and loss within the mixed layer. Flow cytometry data reveal the nitrogen-fixing cyanobacteriumCrocosphaera($\sim <\#comment/>4-<\#comment/>7\text{µ<\#comment/>}\mathrm{m}$) to be an important driver of${\mathit{\text{c}}}_{\mathit{\text{p}}}$at the time of sampling, whereasProchlorococcusdynamics ($\sim <\#comment/>0.5\text{µ<\#comment/>}\mathrm{m}$) were essential to reproducing temporal variability in${\mathit{\text{b}}}_{\text{bp}}$. This study is a step towards improved characterization of the particle size range represented byin situbulk opticalmore »properties and a better understanding of the mechanisms that drive variability in particle production in the oligotrophic open ocean.

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5. Non-simple conformal loop ensembles on Liouville quantum gravity and the law of CLE percolation interfaces

   https://doi.org/10.1007/s00440-021-01070-4  

   Miller, Jason ; Sheffield, Scott ; Werner, Wendelin ( June 2021 , Probability Theory and Related Fields)

   We study the structure of the Liouville quantum gravity (LQG) surfaces that are cut out as one explores a conformal loop-ensemble$$\hbox {CLE}_{\kappa '}$$${\text{CLE}}_{{\kappa }^{\prime }}$for$$\kappa '$$${\kappa }^{\prime }$in (4, 8) that is drawn on an independent$$\gamma $$$\gamma$-LQG surface for$$\gamma ^2=16/\kappa '$$${\gamma }^2=16/{\kappa }^{\prime }$. The results are similar in flavor to the ones from our companion paper dealing with$$\hbox {CLE}_{\kappa }$$${\text{CLE}}_{\kappa }$for$$\kappa $$$\kappa$in (8/3, 4), where the loops of the CLE are disjoint and simple. In particular, we encode the combined structure of the LQG surface and the$$\hbox {CLE}_{\kappa '}$$${\text{CLE}}_{{\kappa }^{\prime }}$in terms of stable growth-fragmentation trees or their variants, which also appear in the asymptotic study of peeling processes on decorated planar maps. This has consequences for questions that do a priori not involve LQG surfaces: In our paper entitled “CLE Percolations” described the law of interfaces obtained when coloring the loops of a$$\hbox {CLE}_{\kappa '}$$${\text{CLE}}_{{\kappa }^{\prime }}$independently into two colors with respective probabilitiespand$$1-p$$$1-p$. This description was complete up to one missing parameter$$\rho $$$\rho$. The results of the present paper about CLE on LQG allow us to determine its value in terms ofpand$$\kappa '$$${\kappa }^{\prime }$. It shows in particular that$$\hbox {CLE}_{\kappa '}$$${\text{CLE}}_{{\kappa }^{\prime }}$and$$\hbox {CLE}_{16/\kappa '}$$${\text{CLE}}_{16/{\kappa }^{\prime }}$are related via a continuum analog of the Edwards-Sokal coupling between$$\hbox {FK}_q$$${\text{FK}}_q$percolation and theq-state Potts model (which makes sense evenmore »for non-integerqbetween 1 and 4) if and only if$$q=4\cos ^2(4\pi / \kappa ')$$$q=4{cos}^2(4\pi /{\kappa }^{\prime })$. This provides further evidence for the long-standing belief that$$\hbox {CLE}_{\kappa '}$$${\text{CLE}}_{{\kappa }^{\prime }}$and$$\hbox {CLE}_{16/\kappa '}$$${\text{CLE}}_{16/{\kappa }^{\prime }}$represent the scaling limits of$$\hbox {FK}_q$$${\text{FK}}_q$percolation and theq-Potts model whenqand$$\kappa '$$${\kappa }^{\prime }$are related in this way. Another consequence of the formula for$$\rho (p,\kappa ')$$$\rho (p,{\kappa }^{\prime })$is the value of half-plane arm exponents for such divide-and-color models (a.k.a. fuzzy Potts models) that turn out to take a somewhat different form than the usual critical exponents for two-dimensional models.

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