On the potential of the EChO mission to characterise gas giant atmospheres

Space telescopes such as EChO (Exoplanet Characterisation Observatory) and JWST (James Webb Space Telescope) will be important for the future study of extrasolar planet atmospheres. Both of these missions are capable of performing high sensitivity spectroscopic measurements at moderate resolutions in the visible and infrared, which will allow the characterisation of atmospheric properties using primary and secondary transit spectroscopy. We use the NEMESIS radiative transfer and retrieval tool (Irwin et al. 2008, Lee et al. 2012) to explore the potential of the proposed EChO mission to solve the retrieval problem for a range of H2-He planets orbiting different stars. We find that EChO should be capable of retrieving temperature structure to ~200 K precision and detecting H2O, CO2 and CH4 from a single eclipse measurement for a hot Jupiter orbiting a Sun-like star and a hot Neptune orbiting an M star, also providing upper limits on CO and NH3. We provide a table of retrieval precisions for these quantities in each test case. We expect around 30 Jupiter-sized planets to be observable by EChO; hot Neptunes orbiting M dwarfs are rarer, but we anticipate observations of at least one similar planet.Comment: 22 pages, 30 figures, 4 tables. Accepted for publication in MNRA

The influence of coronal EUV irradiance on the emission in the He I 10830 A and D3 multiplets

Two of the most attractive spectral windows for spectropolarimetric investigations of the physical properties of the plasma structures in the solar chromosphere and corona are the ones provided by the spectral lines of the He I 10830 A and 5876 A (or D3) multiplets, whose polarization signals are sensitive to the Hanle and Zeeman effects. However, in order to be able to carry out reliable diagnostics, it is crucial to have a good physical understanding of the sensitivity of the observed spectral line radiation to the various competing driving mechanisms. Here we report a series of off-the-limb non-LTE calculations of the He I D3 and 10830 A emission profiles, focusing our investigation on their sensitivity to the EUV coronal irradiation and the model atmosphere used in the calculations. We show in particular that the intensity ratio of the blue to the red components in the emission profiles of the He I 10830 A multiplet turns out to be a good candidate as a diagnostic tool for the coronal irradiance. Measurements of this observable as a function of the distance to the limb and its confrontation with radiative transfer modeling might give us valuable information on the physical properties of the solar atmosphere and on the amount of EUV radiation at relevant wavelengths penetrating the chromosphere from above.Comment: 19 pages, 11 figures (pre-print format). Accepted for publication in Ap

Inverse scattering of an embedded inhomogeneous dielectric cylinders coated on a conductor

[[abstract]]In this paper, the inverse problem of an embedded inhomogeneous dielectric cylinders coated on a conductor by TM wave illumination is investigated. Inhomogeneous dielectric cylinders coated on a conductor embedded in a slab scatters a group of unrelated incident waves from outside. The scattered field is recorded outside the slab. By proper arrangement of the various unrelated incident field, the difficulties of ill-posedness and nonlinearity are circumvented, and the permittivity distribution can be reconstructed through simple matrix operations. The algorithm is based on the moment method and the unrelated illumination method. Numerical results are given to demonstrate the capability of the inverse algorithm. They also show that the permittivity distribution of the cylinders can be successfully reconstructed even when the permittivity is fairly large. Good reconstructed is obtained even in the presence of additive Gaussian noise in measured data. In addition, the effect of noise on the reconstruction result is also investigated.[[notice]]需補地點及國別[[conferencetype]]國際[[conferencedate]]20060903~2006090

Image reconstruction of inhomogeneous biaxial dielectric cylinders buried in a slab medium

100學年度研究獎補助論文[[abstract]]The image reconstruction of inhomogeneous biaxial dielectric cylinders buried in a slab medium is investigated. A biaxial dielectric cylinder of unknown permittivities buried in a slab scatters a group of unrelated incident waves from outside. The scattered field is recorded outside the slab. By proper arrangement of the various unrelated incident fields, the difficulties of ill-posedness and nonlinearity are circumvented, and the permittivity distribution can be reconstructed through simple matrix operations. The algorithm is based on the moment method and the unrelated illumination method. Numerical results are given to demonstrate the capability of the inverse algorithm. Good reconstructed results are obtained even in the presence of additive Gaussian random noise in measured data. In addition, the effect of noise on the reconstruction result is also investigated.[[incitationindex]]SCI[[incitationindex]]EI[[booktype]]紙

Electromagnetic Imaging for Inhomogeneous Dielectric Cylinder Buried in a Slab Medium

[[abstract]]The electromagnetic imaging of inhomogeneous dielectric cylinders buried in a slab medium is investigated. Dielectric cylinders of unknown permittivities are buried in second space and scattered a group of unrelated waves incident from first space where the scattered field is recorded. By proper arrangement of the various unrelated incident field, the difficulties of ill-posedness and nonlinearity are circumvented, and the permittivity distribution can be reconstructed through simple matrix operations. The algorithm is based on the moment method and the unrelated illumination method. Numerical results are given to demonstrate the capability of the inverse algorithm. They also show that the permittivity distribution of the cylinders can be successfully reconstructed even when the permittivity is fairly large. Good reconstructed results are obtained even in the presence of additive Gaussian noise in measured data. In addition, the effect of noise on the reconstruction result is also investigated.[[notice]]補正完畢[[incitationindex]]EI[[booktype]]紙

Neutrino tomography

Neutrinos are produced in weak interactions as states with definite flavor—electron, muon, or tau—and these flavor states are superpositions of states of different mass. As a neutrino propagates through space, the different mass eigenstates interfere, resulting in time-dependent flavor oscillation. Though matter is transparent to neutrinos, the flavor oscillation probability is modified when neutrinos travel through matter. Herein, we present an introduction to neutrino propagation through matter in a manner accessible to advanced undergraduate students. As an interesting application, we consider neutrino propagation through matter with a piecewise-constant density profile. This scenario has relevance in neutrino tomography, in which the density profile of matter, like the Earth\u27s interior, can be probed via a broad-spectrum neutrino beam. We provide an idealized example to demonstrate the principle of neutrino tomography

A General Theory of Non-equilibrium Dynamics of Lipid-protein Fluid Membranes

We present a general and systematic theory of non-equilibrium dynamics of multi-component fluid membranes, in general, and membranes containing transmembrane proteins, in particular. Developed based on a minimal number of principles of statistical physics and designed to be a meso/macroscopic-scale effective description, the theory is formulated in terms of a set of equations of hydrodynamics and linear constitutive relations. As a particular emphasis of the theory, the equations and the constitutive relations address both the thermodynamic and the hydrodynamic consequences of the unconventional material characteristics of lipid-protein membranes and contain proposals as well as predictions which have not yet been made in already existed work on membrane hydrodynamics and which may have experimental relevance. The framework structure of the theory makes possible its applications to a range of non-equilibrium phenomena in a range of membrane systems, as discussions in the paper of a few limit cases demonstrate.Comment: 22 pages, 2 figures, minor changes and addition