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- ItemGravitational lensing in astronomy(Berlin : Springer, 1998) Wambsganss, J.Deflection of light by gravity was predicted by General Relativity and observationally confirmed in 1919. In the following decades, various aspects of the gravitational lens effect were explored theoretically. Among them were: the possibility of multiple or ring-like images of background sources, the use of lensing as a gravitational telescope on very faint and distant objects, and the possibility of determining Hubble's constant with lensing. It is only relatively recently, (after the discovery of the first doubly imaged quasar in 1979), that gravitational lensing has became an observational science. Today lensing is a booming part of astrophysics. In addition to multiply-imaged quasars, a number of other aspects of lensing have been discovered: For example, giant luminous arcs, quasar microlensing, Einstein rings, galactic microlensing events, arclets, and weak gravitational lensing. At present, literally hundreds of individual gravitational lens phenomena are known. Although still in its childhood, lensing has established itself as a very useful astrophysical tool with some remarkable successes. It has contributed significant new results in areas as different as the cosmological distance scale, the large scale matter distribution in the universe, mass and mass distribution of galaxy clusters, the physics of quasars, dark matter in galaxy halos, and galaxy structure. Looking at these successes in the recent past we predict an even more luminous future for gravitational lensing.
- ItemSelf-stabilization of the biosphere under global change: A tutorial geophysiological approach(Abingdon : Taylor and Francis Ltd., 1997) Von Bloh, W.; Block, A.; Schellnhuber, H.J.A 2-dimensional extension of the simple Lovelock-Watson model for geosphere-biosphere feed-back is introduced and discussed. Our enriched version also takes into account various pertinent physical, biological, and civilisatory processes like lateral heat transport, species competition, mutation, germination, and habitat fragmentation. The model is used as a caricature of the Earth System, which allows potential response mechanisms of the biosphere to environmental stress (as generated, e.g., by global warming or anthropogenic land-cover change) to be investigated qualitatively. Based on a cellular automaton representation of the system, extensive calculations are performed. They reveal a number of remarkable and, partially, counter-intuitive phenomena: our model biosphere is able to control almost perfectly the geophysical conditions for its own existence. If the environmental stress exceeds certain thresholds, however, life breaks down on the artificial planet via a first-order phase transition, i.e., in a non-reversible way. There is a close connection between self-stabilizing capacity, biodiversity and geometry of habitat fragmentation. It turns out, in particular, that unrestricted Darwinian competition, which reduces the number of co-existing species, is the best guarantee for survival of the artificial ecosphere as a whole.
- ItemAerosol number size distributions from 3 to 500 nm diameter in the arctic marine boundary layer during summer and autumn(Copenhagen : Blackwell Munksgaard, 1996) Covert, D.S.; Wiedensohler, A.; Aalto, P.; Heintzenberg, J.; Mcmurry, P.H.; Leck, C.Aerosol physics measurements made onboard the Swedish icebreaker Oden in the late Summer and early Autumn of 1991 during the International Arctic Ocean Expedition (IAOE-91) have provided the first data on the size distribution of particles in the Arctic marine boundary layer (MBL) that cover both the number and mass modes of the size range from 3 to 500 nm diameter. These measurements were made in conjunction with atmospheric gas and condensed phase chemistry measurements in an effort to understand a part of the ocean-atmosphere sulfur cycle. Analysis of the particle physics data showed that there were three distinct number modes in the submicrometric aerosol in the Arctic MBL. These modes had geometric mean diameters of around 170 nm. 45 nm and 14 nm referred to as accumulation, Aitken and ultrafine modes, respectively. There were clear minima in number concentrations between the modes that appeared at 20 to 30 nm and at 80 to 100 nm. The total number concentration was most frequently between 30 and 60 particles cm-3 with a mean value of around 100 particles cm-3, but the hourly average concentration varied over two to three orders of magnitude during the 70 days of the expedition. On average, the highest concentration was in the accumulation mode that contained about 45% of the total number, while the Aitken mode contained about 40%. The greatest variability was in the ultrafine mode concentration which is indicative of active, earby sources (nucleation from the gas phase) and sinks; the Aitken and accumulation mode concentrations were much less variable. The ultrafine mode was observed about two thirds of the time and was dominant 10% of the time. A detailed description and statistical analysis of the modal aerosol parameters is presented here.
- ItemReaktions-Diffusionsgleichungen in Heterostrukturen mit Anwendungen in der Halbleitertechnologie : Schlußbericht zu einem Vorhaben im BMBF-Förderprogramm Anwendungsorientierte Verbundvorhaben auf dem Gebiet der Mathematik(Berlin : Weierstraß-Institut für Angewandte Analysis und Stochastik, 1997) Hünlich, Rolf; Glitzky, Annegret; Röpke, WilfriedIm Vorhaben wurden Beitraege zur Modellierung und Simulation relevanter Teilprozesse bei der Herstellung von Halbleiterbauelementen der Nanoelektronik geleistet. Behandelt wurden vorrangig Fragestellungen,die beim Verbundpartner, dem Institut fueur Halbleiterphysik Frankfurt (Oder), zur Entwicklung von SiGe--Heterojunction--Bipolartransistoren von Bedeutung waren. Schwerpunkte bildeten Fragen zur Diffusion von Fremdatomen in verspannten SiGe--Schichten sowie zu Feldeffekten bei der Diffusion elektrisch geladener Teilchen im Hochkonzentrationsfall. Gegenstand der analytischen und numerischen Untersuchungen waren verschiedene Klassen von Elektro-Reaktions-Diffusionsgleichungen in Heterostrukturen, die relevante Aufgaben aus der Halbleitertechnologie auf verschiedenen Niveaus modellieren. Hier wurden neue Aussagen zur globalen Existenz, Einzigkeit und zum asymptotischen Verhalten der Loesungen erhalten.Weiterhin wurden Diskretisierungsschemata, die Konvergenz von Naeherungsverfahren sowie die Reduktion der Modellgleichungen fuer singulaer gestoerte Faelle diskutiert.
- ItemMAGNUS - mehrstufige Analyse grosser Netzwerke und Systeme(Berlin : Weierstraß-Institut für Angewandte Analysis und Stochastik, 1994) Borchardt, Jürgen; Grund, Friedrich; Horn, Dietmar; Uhle, Manfred[no abstract available]
- ItemThe feedback of midlatitude waves onto the Hadley cell in a simple general circulation model(Milton Park : Taylor & Francis, 1996) Becker, E.; Schmitz, G.; Geprägs, R.We present self-consistent comparisons of axissymmetric and 3-dimensional simulations of the tropospheric circulation under idealized physical conditions. These reveal a feedback of transient eddies onto the Hadley circulation which, first, strongly depends on equatorial heating and, second, is in case of realistic heating quite different from prescribed eddy forcing. A quantitative estimation for the eddy-induced mixing of vorticity into the poleward flow of the Hadley cell is given. The proposed relation is in accordance with observations. It is derived from the computational result that eddy momentum flux convergence is of the same order as the equatorward flux of relative vorticity generated by the Hadley circulation. Evaluation of the local budgets of sensible heat gives rise to a clear picture of how the poleward heat transports due to Hadley circulation and transient eddies interlock. This mechanism is found to be essential for an interpretation of the eddy feedback.
- ItemGeometry of heteroclinic cascades in scalar parabolic differential equations(Berlin : Weierstraß-Institut für Angewandte Analysis und Stochastik, 1998) Wolfrum, MatthiasWe investigate the geometrical properties of the attractor for semilinear scalar parabolic PDEs on a bounded interval with Neumann boundary conditions. Using the nodal properties of the stationary solutions which are determined by an ordinary boundary value problem, we obtain crucial information about the long-time behavior for the full PDE. Especially, we prove a criterion for the intersection of strong- stable and unstable manifolds in the finite dimensional Morse-Smale flow on the attractor.