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Number 440, July 23, 1999 by Phillip F. Schewe and Ben Stein
ANTIPROTONS AT SOLAR MAXIMUM The solar wind is an electron-proton plasma blowing away from the Sun at 400-800 km/sec and can be thought of as a tenuous atmosphere (called the heliosphere) of the Sun extending over most of the solar system. The charged particles in this gust both envelope and are influenced by the Sun's magnetic field. This field, because it rotates with the Sun, gets pretty tangled up (see figure at Physics News Graphics). When new cosmic rays from outside the solar system venture in they are buffeted by wind and field. During the present solar cycle of the 1990s, the configuration of the field is such that positively charged cosmic-ray protons drift into the inner heliosphere via solar polar regions and exit in equatorial regions. After the soon approaching peak period of solar activity (solar maximum), however, the Sun's field will be reversed. Then the negatively charged cosmic-ray antiprotons preferentially follow the polar route and more easily enter the inner heliosphere to be detected by earthbound or satellite detectors. Thus in the period 2001-2010 we should see relatively more antiprotons than in the previous cycle, which is now ending. Physicists at the Bartol Research Institute at the University of Delaware (Thomas Gaisser, gaisser@bartol.udel.edu, 302-831-8113) have calculated when and by how much this antiproton surplus should manifest itself, telling us how well we understand the solar cycle. They have also sought ways of understanding the source of the antiprotons. Most antiprotons are made when commonplace protons strike interstellar dust, but some might have a more spectacular birth in the annihilation of dark matter or in the evaporation of primordial black holes. (Bieber et al., Physical Review Letters, 26 July 1999.)
WHY IS THE SAHARA A DESERT? Fossil pollen, rock art, and other hints indicate that the Sahara was much greener 6000 years ago in the mid-Holocene period. Neolithic peoples seemed to have hastened desertification at the northern and southern edges of the Sahara, but German geophysicists believe the main causes were natural. They point to the fact that precession (wobble) in the Earth's orbit causes changes in the timing of perihelion (closest Earth-Sun approach) and our planet's rotational tilt. These combined to promote a milder climate in most regions of the mid-Holocene northern hemisphere. Since then the climate has become cooler and more arid. The subtle alterations in northern hemisphere cooling, however, were amplified by a feedback between atmosphere and vegetation causing climate change in the Sahara region to be far more drastic than elsewhere. Indeed what occurred was "the largest change in land cover during the last 6000 years," according to Martin Claussen (Potsdam Institute for Climatology, claussen@pik-postdam.de, 011-49-331-288-2522). He and his colleagues have now confirmed this hypothesis with computer modeling. (Claussen et al., Geophysical Research Letters, 15 July; http://www.pik-potsdam.de/)
THE MOST POWERFUL FREE ELECTRON LASER (FEL), as of this week, is the one at Jefferson Lab in Virginia. In an FEL amplified laser light comes from a beam of electrons passing through a cavity. The advantages of FEL's are their tunability (with output from microwaves up into the ultraviolet), their high "duty cycle" (they deliver light continuously) and the fact that the light is produced in closely spaced picosecond bursts tied to the pulselike nature of the parent electron beam. This makes the light useful for doing fast things, such as melting metals and then watching as they re-freeze into non-crystal solids, or roughening up sheets of polymer fabric so that they will accept glues or dyes. Jefferson's FEL has an average power of 1.7 kilowatts; the best previous continuous FEL power was 11 watts. (Jefferson Lab press release, 20 July; contact George Neil, 757-269-7443.)
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