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

title: Simulation of photoelectric X-ray polarimetry and reconstruction of the photoelectron azimuthal angle
abstract: 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.

title: SIGMOID-TO-FLUX-ROPE TRANSITION LEADING TO A LOOP-LIKE CORONAL MASS EJECTION
abstract: 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.

title: Search for the standard model Higgs boson decaying to a bb pair in events with no charged leptons and large missing transverse energy using the full CDF data set.
abstract: We report on a search for the standard model Higgs boson produced in association with a vector boson in the full data set of proton-antiproton collisions at sqrt[s]=1.96  TeV recorded by the CDF II detector at the Tevatron, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 9.45  fb(-1). We consider events having no identified charged lepton, a transverse energy imbalance, and two or three jets, of which at least one is consistent with originating from the decay of a b quark. We place 95% credibility level upper limits on the production cross section times standard model branching fraction for several mass hypotheses between 90 and 150  GeV/c(2). For a Higgs boson mass of 125  GeV/c(2), the observed (expected) limit is 6.7 (3.6) times the standard model prediction.

title: Nonequilibrium relaxation in neutral BCS superconductors: Ginzburg-Landau approach with Landau damping in real time
abstract: 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.

title: Measurement of mass and width of the excited charmed meson states D10 and D2*0 at CDF
abstract: This paper describes a measurement of the mass and of the width of two neutral narrow resonances D{sub 1}{sup 0} and D*{sub 2}{sup 0}, both composed of a charm quark and an up antiquark. The difference with respect to the well-known resonance D{sup 0}, also neutral and with the same quark composition, is that the two quarks have an orbital momentum 1, which increases their binding energy. Therefore the mass is larger than that of the D{sup 0}. Since the relative orientation of the spin is the same, in the limit of very large charm mass, the masses of these resonances should be the same; their small difference is predicted by theory and therefore important to measurement to distinguish the different models. These states have been observed in their decay into a kaon and three pions; two of these particles are required to originate from a displaced vertex with respect to the primary interaction vertex, to account for the longer lifetime of the charmed mesons. The resonances parameters have been extracted using a fitting procedure accounting for the expected resonance shape, including effects from detector resolution and background, providing a new best single measurement of the D{sub 1}{sup 0} andmore » D*{sub 2}{sup 0} masses and a competitive measurement of their widths.« less

title: Vorticity and magnetic field production in relativistic ideal fluids
abstract: In the framework of relativistic ideal hydrodynamics, we study the production mechanism for vorticity and magnetic field in relativistic ideal fluids. It is demonstrated that in the uncharged fluids the thermal vorticity will always satisfy the Kelvin's theorem and the circulation must be conserved. However, in the charged fluids, the vorticity and magnetic field can be produced by the interaction between the entropy gradients and the fluid velocity gradients. Especially, in the multiple charged fluids, the vorticity and magnetic field can be produced by the interaction between the inhomogeneous charge density ratio and the fluid velocity gradients even if the entropy distribution is homogeneous, which provides another mechanism for the production of vorticity and magnetic field in relativistic plasmas or in the early universe.

title: Is there a maximum magnetic field in QED
abstract: It was recently conjectured by Shabad and Usov that there exists in QED a maximum magnetic field of 10 42 G , above which the magnetized vacuum becomes unstable. Using a nonperturbative analysis that consistently incorporates the effective electron mass and the screening effect in a strong magnetic field, we show that the conjectured phenomenon of positronium collapse never takes place. Thus, there does not exist a maximum magnetic field in QED and the magnetized vacuum is stable for all values of the magnetic field.