A bimodal distribution of haze in Pluto’s atmosphere

Pluto, Titan, and Triton make up a unique class of solar system bodies, with icy surfaces and chemically reducing atmospheres rich in organic photochemistry and haze formation. Hazes play important roles in these atmospheres, with physical and chemical processes highly dependent on particle sizes, but the haze size distribution in reducing atmospheres is currently poorly understood. Here we report observational evidence that Pluto’s haze particles are bimodally distributed, which successfully reproduces the full phase scattering observations from New Horizons. Combined with previous simulations of Titan’s haze, this result suggests that haze particles in reducing atmospheres undergo rapid shape change near pressure levels ~0.5 Pa and favors a photochemical rather than a dynamical origin for the formation of Titan’s detached haze. It also demonstrates that both oxidizing and reducing atmospheres can produce multi-modal hazes, and encourages reanalysis of observations of hazes on Titan and Triton.

SU(3) analysis of four-quark operators: K → ππ and vacuum matrix elements

Hadronic matrix elements of local four-quark operators play a central role in non-leptonic kaon decays, while vacuum matrix elements involving the same kind of operators appear in inclusive dispersion relations, such as those relevant in τ-decay analyses. Using an SU(3)L ⊗ SU(3)R decomposition of the operators, we derive generic relations between these matrix elements, extending well-known results that link observables in the two different sectors. Two relevant phenomenological applications are presented. First, we determine the electroweak-penguin contribution to the kaon CP-violating ratio ε′/ε, using the measured hadronic spectral functions in τ decay. Second, we fit our SU(3) dynamical parameters to the most recent lattice data on K → ππ matrix elements. The comparison of this numerical fit with results from previous analytical approaches provides an interesting anatomy of the ∆I = $$ \frac{1}{2} $$ 1 2 enhancement, confirming old suggestions about its underlying dynamical origin.

B-anomalies in U(2) flavor symmetry

We analyzed how to test flavor and helicity structures of the corresponding amplitudes in view of future data, motivated by the recent hints of lepton flavor universality violation observed in semileptonic B decays. The general assumption that non-standard effects are controlled by a U(2)5 flavor symmetry, minimally broken as in the Standard Model Yukawa sector, leads to stringent predictions on leptonic and semileptonic B decays. Future measurements will allow to prove or falsify this general hypothesis independently of its dynamical origin.

Breakdown of Scaling and Friction Weakening in Intermittent Granular Flow

Many materials are produced, processed and stored as grains, while granularity of matter can be crucial in triggering potentially catastrophic geological events like landslides, avalanches and earthquakes. The response of grain assemblies to shear stress is therefore of utmost relevance to both human and natural environment. At low shear rate a granular system flows intermittently by distinct avalanches. In such state the avalanche velocity in time is expected to follow a symmetrical and universal average behavior, whose dependence on the slip size reduces to a scale factor. Analyzing data from long lasting experiments, we observe a breakdown of this scaling: While in short slips velocity shows indeed a self-similar and symmetric profile, it does not in long slips. The investigation of frictional response in these different regimes evidences that this breakdown can be traced back to the onset of a friction weakening, which is of dynamical origin and can amplify instabilities exactly in this critical state, the most frequent state for natural hazards.