130,543 research outputs found
Power Spectra of CMB Polarization by Scattering in Clusters
Mapping CMB polarization is an essential ingredient of current cosmological
research. Particularly challenging is the measurement of an extremely weak
B-mode polarization that can potentially yield unique insight on inflation.
Achieving this objective requires very precise measurements of the secondary
polarization components on both large and small angular scales. Scattering of
the CMB in galaxy clusters induces several polarization effects whose
measurements can probe cluster properties. Perhaps more important are levels of
the statistical polarization signals from the population of clusters. Power
spectra of five of these polarization components are calculated and compared
with the primary polarization spectra. These spectra peak at multipoles , and attain levels that are unlikely to appreciably contaminate the
primordial polarization signals.Comment: 11 pages, 2 figures, submitte
Synchrotron Polarization at High Galactic Latitude
We present preliminary results from mapping the high-latitude Galactic
polarization with the Effelsberg Telescope at 21 cm. Structures on the
resulting maps are mostly on the scale of several degrees. The results show
detection of polarization over most of the field, at the level of tens of
percent of the synchrotron emission. The evidence of more structure in Stokes Q
and U rather than in suggests the existence of Faraday
rotation.Comment: To be published in the proceedings of "The Cosmic Microwave
Background and its Polarization", New Astronomy Reviews, (eds. S. Hanany and
K.A. Olive
Polarization Drift Channel Model for Coherent Fibre-Optic Systems
A theoretical framework is introduced to model the dynamical changes of the
state of polarization during transmission in coherent fibre-optic systems. The
model generalizes the one-dimensional phase noise random walk to higher
dimensions, accounting for random polarization drifts, emulating a random walk
on the Poincar\'e sphere, which has been successfully verified using
experimental data. The model is described in the Jones, Stokes and real
four-dimensional formalisms, and the mapping between them is derived. Such a
model will be increasingly important in simulating and optimizing future
systems, where polarization-multiplexed transmission and sophisticated digital
signal processing will be natural parts. The proposed polarization drift model
is the first of its kind as prior work either models polarization drift as a
deterministic process or focuses on polarization-mode dispersion in systems
where the state of polarization does not affect the receiver performance. We
expect the model to be useful in a wide-range of photonics applications where
stochastic polarization fluctuation is an issue.Comment: 15 pages, 4 figure
Nonlinear cross-Kerr quasiclassical dynamics
We study the quasiclassical dynamics of the cross-Kerr effect. In this
approximation, the typical periodical revivals of the decorrelation between the
two polarization modes disappear and they remain entangled. By mapping the
dynamics onto the Poincare space, we find simple conditions for polarization
squeezing. When dissipation is taken into account, the shape of the states in
such a space is not considerably modified, but their size is reduced.Comment: 16 pages, 5 figure
The balloon-borne large-aperture submillimeter telescope for polarimetry: BLAST-Pol
The Balloon-borne Large Aperture Submillimeter Telescope for Polarimetry
(BLAST-Pol) is a suborbital mapping experiment designed to study the role
played by magnetic fields in the star formation process. BLAST-Pol is the
reconstructed BLAST telescope, with the addition of linear polarization
capability. Using a 1.8 m Cassegrain telescope, BLAST-Pol images the sky onto a
focal plane that consists of 280 bolometric detectors in three arrays,
observing simultaneously at 250, 350, and 500 um. The diffraction-limited
optical system provides a resolution of 30'' at 250 um. The polarimeter
consists of photolithographic polarizing grids mounted in front of each
bolometer/detector array. A rotating 4 K achromatic half-wave plate provides
additional polarization modulation. With its unprecedented mapping speed and
resolution, BLAST-Pol will produce three-color polarization maps for a large
number of molecular clouds. The instrument provides a much needed bridge in
spatial coverage between larger-scale, coarse resolution surveys and narrow
field of view, and high resolution observations of substructure within
molecular cloud cores. The first science flight will be from McMurdo Station,
Antarctica in December 2010.Comment: 14 pages, 9 figures Submitted to SPIE Astronomical Telescopes and
Instrumentation Conference 201
Thermal collapse of spin-polarization in half-metallic ferromagnets
The temperature dependence of the magnetization and spin-polarization at the
Fermi level is investigated for half-metallic ferromagnets. We reveal a new
mechanism, where the hybridization of states forming the half-metallic gap
depends on thermal spin fluctuations and the polarization can drop abruptly at
temperatures much lower than the Curie point. We verify this for NiMnSb by
ab-initio calculations. The thermal properties are studied by mapping ab-initio
results to an extended Heisenberg model which includes longitudinal
fluctuations and is solved by a Monte Carlo method
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