7,179 research outputs found
Forced motion of a probe particle near the colloidal glass transition
We use confocal microscopy to study the motion of a magnetic bead in a dense
colloidal suspension, near the colloidal glass transition volume fraction
. For dense liquid-like samples near , below a threshold force
the magnetic bead exhibits only localized caged motion. Above this force, the
bead is pulled with a fluctuating velocity. The relationship between force and
velocity becomes increasingly nonlinear as is approached. The
threshold force and nonlinear drag force vary strongly with the volume
fraction, while the velocity fluctuations do not change near the transition.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures revised version, accepted for publication in
Europhysics Letter
Three path interference using nuclear magnetic resonance: a test of the consistency of Born's rule
The Born rule is at the foundation of quantum mechanics and transforms our
classical way of understanding probabilities by predicting that interference
occurs between pairs of independent paths of a single object. One consequence
of the Born rule is that three way (or three paths) quantum interference does
not exist. In order to test the consistency of the Born rule, we examine
detection probabilities in three path intereference using an ensemble of
spin-1/2 quantum registers in liquid state nuclear magnetic resonance (LSNMR).
As a measure of the consistency, we evaluate the ratio of three way
interference to two way interference. Our experiment bounded the ratio to the
order of , and hence it is consistent with Born's rule.Comment: 11 pages, 4 figures; Improved presentation of figures 1 and 4,
changes made in section 2 to better describe the experiment, minor changes
throughout, and added several reference
Twisted Conjugacy Classes in Lattices in Semisimple Lie Groups
Given a group automorphism , one has an action of
on itself by -twisted conjugacy, namely, .
The orbits of this action are called -conjugacy classes. One says that
has the -property if there are infinitely many
-conjugacy classes for every automorphism of . In this
paper we show that any irreducible lattice in a connected semi simple Lie group
having finite centre and rank at least 2 has the -property.Comment: 6 page
A First Principles Theory of Nuclear Magnetic Resonance J-Coupling in solid-state systems
A method to calculate NMR J-coupling constants from first principles in
extended systems is presented. It is based on density functional theory and is
formulated within a planewave-pseudopotential framework. The all-electron
properties are recovered using the projector augmented wave approach. The
method is validated by comparison with existing quantum chemical calculations
of solution-state systems and with experimental data. The approach has been
applied to verify measured J-coupling in a silicophosphate structure,
Si5O(PO4)6Comment: 9 page
Multispin correlations and pseudo-thermalization of the transient density matrix in solid-state NMR: free induction decay and magic echo
Quantum unitary evolution typically leads to thermalization of generic
interacting many-body systems. There are very few known general methods for
reversing this process, and we focus on the magic echo, a radio-frequency pulse
sequence known to approximately "rewind" the time evolution of dipolar coupled
homonuclear spin systems in a large magnetic field. By combining analytic,
numerical, and experimental results we systematically investigate factors
leading to the degradation of magic echoes, as observed in reduced revival of
mean transverse magnetization. Going beyond the conventional analysis based on
mean magnetization we use a phase encoding technique to measure the growth of
spin correlations in the density matrix at different points in time following
magic echoes of varied durations and compare the results to those obtained
during a free induction decay (FID). While considerable differences are
documented at short times, the long-time behavior of the density matrix appears
to be remarkably universal among the types of initial states considered -
simple low order multispin correlations are observed to decay exponentially at
the same rate, seeding the onset of increasingly complex high order
correlations. This manifestly athermal process is constrained by conservation
of the second moment of the spectrum of the density matrix and proceeds
indefinitely, assuming unitary dynamics.Comment: 12 Pages, 9 figure
Hyper-Ramsey Spectroscopy of Optical Clock Transitions
We present non-standard optical Ramsey schemes that use pulses individually
tailored in duration, phase, and frequency to cancel spurious frequency shifts
related to the excitation itself. In particular, the field shifts and their
uncertainties of Ramsey fringes can be radically suppressed (by 2-4 orders of
magnitude) in comparison with the usual Ramsey method (using two equal pulses)
as well as with single-pulse Rabi spectroscopy. Atom interferometers and
optical clocks based on two-photon transitions, heavily forbidden transitions,
or magnetically induced spectroscopy could significantly benefit from this
method. In the latter case these frequency shifts can be suppressed
considerably below a fractional level of 10^{-17}. Moreover, our approach opens
the door for the high-precision optical clocks based on direct frequency comb
spectroscopy.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure
Surface Topographical and Compositional Characterization Using Backscattered Electron Methods
Two pairs of diametrically opposed Schottky surface barrier diodes in a modified scanning electron microscope (SEM) are used to reconstruct surface elevations and composition differences. An empirically determined function of difference of signals from opposing diodes is used to calculate slopes, which are then integrated to elevations by an efficient 2-dimensional Fast Fourier Transform. Composition differences are distinguished by variations in the overall backscattered electron (BSE) intensity estimated by the sum of the four diode signals. Arithmetic average roughness measurements from the BSE device are within 10% of stylus surface tracer measurements when surface slopes average less than 6 degrees and maximum slopes are less than 45°; shadowing effects for rough surfaces, aliasing, and averaging effects from Fourier integration are apparent. Composition measurements show distinction of high contrast phases; phase boundary-slope interactions are noted
NASA space station automation: AI-based technology review. Executive summary
Research and Development projects in automation technology for the Space Station are described. Artificial Intelligence (AI) based technologies are planned to enhance crew safety through reduced need for EVA, increase crew productivity through the reduction of routine operations, increase space station autonomy, and augment space station capability through the use of teleoperation and robotics
Telecommunications systems design techniques handbook
Handbook presents design and analysis of tracking, telemetry, and command functions utilized in these systems with particular emphasis on deep-space telecommunications. Antenna requirements are also discussed. Handbook provides number of tables outlining various performance criteria. Block diagrams and performance charts are also presented
Nanoscale Weibull Statistics
In this paper a modification of the classical Weibull Statistics is developed
for nanoscale applications. It is called Nanoscale Weibull Statistics. A
comparison between Nanoscale and classical Weibull Statistics applied to
experimental results on fracture strength of carbon nanotubes clearly shows the
effectiveness of the proposed modification. A Weibull's modulus around 3 is,
for the first time, deduced for nanotubes. The approach can treat (also) a
small number of structural defects, as required for nearly defect free
structures (e.g., nanotubes) as well as a quantized crack propagation (e.g., as
a consequence of the discrete nature of matter), allowing to remove the
paradoxes caused by the presence of stress-intensifications
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