Moscow State University

About: Moscow State University is a education organization based out in Moscow, Russia. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Catalysis & Laser. The organization has 66747 authors who have published 123358 publications receiving 1753995 citations. The organization is also known as: MSU & Lomonosov Moscow State University.

Crossing the w = - 1 barrier in the D3-brane dark energy model

Abstract: We explore a possibility for the Universe to cross the $w=\ensuremath{-}1$ cosmological constant barrier for the dark energy state parameter. We consider the Universe as a slowly decaying D3-brane. The D3-brane dynamics are approximately described by a nonlocal string tachyon interaction and the backreaction of gravity is incorporated in the closed string tachyon dynamics. In a local effective approximation this model contains one phantom component and one usual field with a simple polynomial interaction. To understand cosmological properties of this system we study toy models with the same scalar fields but with modified interactions. These modifications admit polynomial superpotentials. We find restrictions on these interactions under which it is possible to reach $w=\ensuremath{-}1$ from below at large time. Explicit solutions with the dark energy state parameter crossing or not crossing the barrier $w=\ensuremath{-}1$ at large time are presented.

Present-day and mid-Holocene biomes reconstructed from pollen and plant macrofossil data from the former Soviet Union and Mongolia

Abstract: Fossil pollen data supplemented by tree macrofossil records were used to reconstruct the vegetation of the Former Soviet Union and Mongolia at 6000 years. Pollen spectra were assigned to biomes using the plant-functional-type method developed by Prentice et al. (1996). Surface pollen data and a modern vegetation map provided a test of the method. This is the first time such a broad-scale vegetation reconstruction for the greater part of northern Eurasia has been attempted with objective techniques. The new results confirm previous regional palaeoenvironmental studies of the mid-Holocene while providing a comprehensive synopsis and firmer conclusions. West of the Ural Mountains temperate deciduous forest extended both northward and southward from its modern range. The northern limits of cool mixed and cool conifer forests were also further north than present. Taiga was reduced in European Russia, but was extended into Yakutia where now there is cold deciduous forest. The northern limit of taiga was extended (as shown by increased Picea pollen percentages, and by tree macrofossil records north of the present-day forest limit) but tundra was still present in north-eastern Siberia. The boundary between forest and steppe in the continental interior did not shift substantially, and dry conditions similar to present existed in western Mongolia and north of the Aral Sea.

"RadioAstron"-A telescope with a size of 300 000 km: Main parameters and first observational results

Abstract: The Russian Academy of Sciences and Federal Space Agency, together with the participation of many international organizations, worked toward the launch of the RadioAstron orbiting space observatory with its onboard 10-m reflector radio telescope from the Baikonur cosmodrome on July 18, 2011. Together with some of the largest ground-based radio telescopes and a set of stations for tracking, collecting, and reducing the data obtained, this space radio telescope forms a multi-antenna ground-space radio interferometer with extremely long baselines, making it possible for the first time to study various objects in the Universe with angular resolutions a million times better than is possible with the human eye. The project is targeted at systematic studies of compact radio-emitting sources and their dynamics. Objects to be studied include supermassive black holes, accretion disks, and relativistic jets in active galactic nuclei, stellar-mass black holes, neutron stars and hypothetical quark stars, regions of formation of stars and planetary systems in our and other galaxies, interplanetary and interstellar plasma, and the gravitational field of the Earth. The results of ground-based and inflight tests of the space radio telescope carried out in both autonomous and ground-space interferometric regimes are reported. The derived characteristics are in agreement with the main requirements of the project. The astrophysical science program has begun.