21,706 research outputs found
Optical diffraction for measurements of nano-mechanical bending
Micromechanical transducers such as cantilevers for AFM often rely on optical
readout methods that require illumination of a specific region of the
microstructure. Here we explore and exploit the diffraction effects that have
been previously neglected when modeling cantilever bending measurement
techniques. The illumination of a cantilever end causes an asymmetric
diffraction pattern at the photodetector that significantly affects the
calibration of the signal in the popular optical beam deflection technique
(OBDT). Conditions for optimized linear signals that avoid detection artifacts
conflict with small numerical aperture illumination and narrow cantilevers
which are softer and therefore more sensitive. Embracing diffraction patterns
as a physical measurable allows a richer detection technique that decouples
measurements of tilt and curvature and simultaneously relaxes the requirements
on the alignment of illumination and detector. We show analytical results,
numerical simulations and physiologically relevant experimental data
demonstrating the usefulness of these diffraction features. We offer
experimental design guidelines and identify and quantify possible sources of
systematic error of up to 10% in OBDT. We demonstrate a new nanometre
resolution detection method that can replace OBDT, where Frauenhofer and Bragg
diffraction effects from finite sized and patterned cantilevers are exploited.
Such effects are readily generalized to arrays, and allow transmission
detection of mechanical curvature, enabling in-line instruments. In particular,
a cantilever with a periodic array of slots produces Bragg peaks which can be
analyzed to deduce the cantilever curvature. We highlight the comparative
advantages over OBDT by detecting molecular activity of antibiotic Vancomycin,
with an RMS noise equivalent to less than (1.5 nm), as example of
possible multi-maker bio-assays.Comment: 9 pages, 8 figure
Testing Inflation with Large Scale Structure: Connecting Hopes with Reality
The statistics of primordial curvature fluctuations are our window into the
period of inflation, where these fluctuations were generated. To date, the
cosmic microwave background has been the dominant source of information about
these perturbations. Large scale structure is however from where drastic
improvements should originate. In this paper, we explain the theoretical
motivations for pursuing such measurements and the challenges that lie ahead.
In particular, we discuss and identify theoretical targets regarding the
measurement of primordial non-Gaussianity. We argue that when quantified in
terms of the local (equilateral) template amplitude
(), natural target levels of sensitivity are . We highlight that such levels are within
reach of future surveys by measuring 2-, 3- and 4-point statistics of the
galaxy spatial distribution. This paper summarizes a workshop held at CITA
(University of Toronto) on October 23-24, 2014.Comment: 27 pages + reference
A Measurement of the Angular Power Spectrum of the CMB Temperature Anisotropy from the 2003 Flight of Boomerang
We report on observations of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) obtained
during the January 2003 flight of Boomerang . These results are derived from
195 hours of observation with four 145 GHz Polarization Sensitive Bolometer
(PSB) pairs, identical in design to the four 143 GHz Planck HFI polarized
pixels. The data include 75 hours of observations distributed over 1.84% of the
sky with an additional 120 hours concentrated on the central portion of the
field, itself representing 0.22% of the full sky. From these data we derive an
estimate of the angular power spectrum of temperature fluctuations of the CMB
in 24 bands over the multipole range (50 < l < 1500). A series of features,
consistent with those expected from acoustic oscillations in the primordial
photon-baryon fluid, are clearly evident in the power spectrum, as is the
exponential damping of power on scales smaller than the photon mean free path
at the epoch of last scattering (l > 900). As a consistency check, the
collaboration has performed two fully independent analyses of the time ordered
data, which are found to be in excellent agreement.Comment: 11 pages, 7 figures, 3 tables. High resolution figures and data are
available at http://cmb.phys.cwru.edu/boomerang/ and
http://oberon.roma1.infn.it/boomerang/b2
Calibration of semi-analytic models of galaxy formation using Particle Swarm Optimization
We present a fast and accurate method to select an optimal set of parameters
in semi-analytic models of galaxy formation and evolution (SAMs). Our approach
compares the results of a model against a set of observables applying a
stochastic technique called Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO), a self-learning
algorithm for localizing regions of maximum likelihood in multidimensional
spaces that outperforms traditional sampling methods in terms of computational
cost. We apply the PSO technique to the SAG semi-analytic model combined with
merger trees extracted from a standard CDM N-body simulation. The
calibration is performed using a combination of observed galaxy properties as
constraints, including the local stellar mass function and the black hole to
bulge mass relation. We test the ability of the PSO algorithm to find the best
set of free parameters of the model by comparing the results with those
obtained using a MCMC exploration. Both methods find the same maximum
likelihood region, however the PSO method requires one order of magnitude less
evaluations. This new approach allows a fast estimation of the best-fitting
parameter set in multidimensional spaces, providing a practical tool to test
the consequences of including other astrophysical processes in SAMs.Comment: 11 pages, 4 figures, 1 table. Accepted for publication in ApJ.
Comments are welcom
The Similarity of Broad Iron Lines in X-ray Binaries and Active Galactic Nuclei
We have compared the 2001 XMM-Newton spectra of the stellar mass black hole
binary XTE J1650-500 and the active galaxy MGC-6-30-15, focusing on the broad,
excess emission features at ~4--7 keV displayed by both sources. Such features
are frequently observed in both low mass X-ray binaries and active galactic
nuclei. For the former case it is generally accepted that the excess arises due
to iron emission, but there is some controversy over whether their width is
partially enhanced by instrumental processes, and hence also over the intrinsic
broadening mechanism. Meanwhile, in the latter case, the origin of this feature
is still subject to debate; physically motivated reflection and absorption
interpretations are both able to reproduce the observed spectra. In this work
we make use of the contemporaneous BeppoSAX data to demonstrate that the
breadth of the excess observed in XTE J1650-500 is astrophysical rather than
instrumental, and proceed to highlight the similarity of the excesses present
in this source and MGC-6-30-15. Both optically thick accretion discs and
optically thin coronae, which in combination naturally give rise to
relativistically-broadened iron lines when the disc extends close to the black
hole, are commonly observed in both class of object. The simplest solution is
that the broad emission features present arise from a common process, which we
argue must be reflection from the inner regions of an accretion disc around a
rapidly rotating black hole; for XTE J1650-500 we find spin constraints of 0.84
< a* < 0.98 at the 90 per cent confidence level. Other interpretations proposed
for AGN add potentially unnecessary complexities to the theoretical framework
of accretion in strong gravity.Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRAS; 22 pages, 17 figure
Optical and IR Photometry of Globular Clusters in NGC1399: Evidence for Color-Metallicity Nonlinearity
We combine new Wide Field Camera~3 IR Channel (WFC3/IR) F160W (H) imaging
data for NGC1399, the central galaxy in the Fornax cluster, with archival F475W
(g), F606W (V), F814W (I), and F850LP (z) optical data from the Advanced Camera
for Surveys (ACS). The purely optical g-I, V-I, and g-z colors of NGC1399's
rich globular cluster (GC) system exhibit clear bimodality, at least for
magnitudes . The optical-IR I-H color distribution appears
unimodal, and this impression is confirmed by mixture modeling analysis. The
V-H colors show marginal evidence for bimodality, consistent with bimodality in
V-I and unimodality in I-H. If bimodality is imposed for I-H with a double
Gaussian model, the preferred blue/red split differs from that for optical
colors; these "differing bimodalities" mean that the optical and optical-IR
colors cannot both be linearly proportional to metallicity. Consistent with the
differing color distributions, the dependence of I-H on g-I for the matched GC
sample is significantly nonlinear, with an inflection point near the trough in
the g-I color distribution; the result is similar for the I-H dependence on g-z
colors taken from the ACS Fornax Cluster Survey. These g-z colors have been
calibrated empirically against metallicity; applying this calibration yields a
continuous, skewed, but single-peaked metallicity distribution. Taken together,
these results indicate that nonlinear color-metallicity relations play an
important role in shaping the observed bimodal distributions of optical colors
in extragalactic GC systems.Comment: 15 pages, 12 figures, accepted for publication in the Astrophysical
Journa
A Model for Multi-property Galaxy Cluster Statistics
The massive dark matter halos that host groups and clusters of galaxies have
observable properties that appear to be log-normally distributed about
power-law mean scaling relations in halo mass. Coupling this assumption with
either quadratic or cubic approximations to the mass function in log space, we
derive closed-form expressions for the space density of halos as a function of
multiple observables as well as forms for the low-order moments of properties
of observable-selected samples. Using a Tinker mass function in a {\Lambda}CDM
cosmology, we show that the cubic analytic model reproduces results obtained
from direct, numerical convolution at the 10 percent level or better over
nearly the full range of observables covered by current observations and for
redshifts extending to z = 1.5. The model provides an efficient framework for
estimating effects arising from selection and covariance among observable
properties in survey samples.Comment: 9 pages, 4 figures, uses on-line mass function calculator
http://hmf.icrar.org/. Submitted to MNRA
Effects of Intermittent Emission: Noise Inventory for Scintillating Pulsar B0834+06
We compare signal and noise for observations of the scintillating pulsar
B0834+06, using very-long baseline interferometry and a single-dish
spectrometer. Comparisons between instruments and with models suggest that
amplitude variations of the pulsar strongly affect the amount and distribution
of self-noise. We show that noise follows a quadratic polynomial with flux
density, in spectral observations. Constant coefficients, indicative of
background noise, agree well with expectation; whereas second-order
coefficients, indicative of self-noise, are about 3 times values expected for a
pulsar with constant on-pulse flux density. We show that variations in flux
density during the 10-sec integration account for the discrepancy. In the
secondary spectrum, about 97% of spectral power lies within the pulsar's
typical scintillation bandwidth and timescale; an extended scintillation arc
contains about 3%. For a pulsar with constant on-pulse flux density, noise in
the dynamic spectrum will appear as a uniformly-distributed background in the
secondary spectrum. We find that this uniform noise background contains 95% of
noise in the dynamic spectrum for interferometric observations; but only 35% of
noise in the dynamic spectrum for single-dish observations. Receiver and sky
dominate noise for our interferometric observations, whereas self-noise
dominates for single-dish. We suggest that intermittent emission by the pulsar,
on timescales < 300 microseconds, concentrates self-noise near the origin in
the secondary spectrum, by correlating noise over the dynamic spectrum. We
suggest that intermittency sets fundamental limits on pulsar astrometry or
timing. Accounting of noise may provide means for detection of intermittent
sources, when effects of propagation are unknown or impractical to invert.Comment: 38 pages, 10 figure
- …