Determination of the composition of rarefied neutral atmospheres by mass spectrometers carried on high-speed spacecraft

The quantitative measurement of atomic and molecular O2 in rarefied atmospheres by mass spectrometers onboard high speed spacecraft is reported. Data are also given on instrument performance in high speed molecular beams and in the fly through mode

An explicit model for the adiabatic evolution of quantum observables driven by 1D shape resonances

This paper is concerned with a linearized version of the transport problem where the Schr\"{o}dinger-Poisson operator is replaced by a non-autonomous Hamiltonian, slowly varying in time. We consider an explicitly solvable model where a semiclassical island is described by a flat potential barrier, while a time dependent 'delta' interaction is used as a model for a single quantum well. Introducing, in addition to the complex deformation, a further modification formed by artificial interface conditions, we give a reduced equation for the adiabatic evolution of the sheet density of charges accumulating around the interaction point.Comment: latex; 26 page

Optimal non-reversible linear drift for the convergence to equilibrium of a diffusion

We consider non-reversible perturbations of reversible diffusions that do not alter the invariant distribution and we ask whether there exists an optimal perturbation such that the rate of convergence to equilibrium is maximized. We solve this problem for the case of linear drift by proving the existence of such optimal perturbations and by providing an easily implementable algorithm for constructing them. We discuss in particular the role of the prefactor in the exponential convergence estimate. Our rigorous results are illustrated by numerical experiments

Mass spectrometer with magnetic pole pieces providing the magnetic fields for both the magnetic sector and an ion-type vacuum pump

A mass spectrometer (MS) with unique magnetic pole pieces which provide a homogenous magnetic field across the gap of the MS magnetic sector as well as the magnetic field across an ion-type vacuum pump is disclosed. The pole pieces form the top and bottom sides of a housing. The housing is positioned so that portions of the pole pieces form part of the magnetic sector with the space between them defining the gap region of the magnetic sector, through which an ion beam passes. The pole pieces extend beyond the magnetic sector with the space between them being large enough to accommodate the electrical parts of an ion-type vacuum pump. The pole pieces which provide the magnetic field for the pump, together with the housing form the vacuum pump enclosure or housing

How Dissociated Are Implicit and Explicit Racial Attitudes? A Bogus Pipeline Approach

The current study examined the implicit and explicit attitudes of White Americans toward African-Americans. A variation of the Bogus Pipeline procedure was employed to determine if the apparent dissociation between implicit and explicit measures of racial attitudes that is reported in previous research might be exaggerated. The results indicated that the relationship between implicit and explicit attitudes was only significant under Bogus Pipeline conditions, while implicit and explicit attitudes were largely dissociated when they were measured under normal circumstances. Thus, it appeared that as the motivation to accurately report explicit attitudes increased, the implicit-explicit relationship strengthened and the dissociation between implicit and explicit racial attitudes was substantially reduced. The results indicate that Whites’ implicit and explicit attitudes toward African-Americans may not be as greatly dissociated as some theories of racial attitudes have presumed

Mean field limit for bosons and propagation of Wigner measures

We consider the N-body Schr\"{o}dinger dynamics of bosons in the mean field limit with a bounded pair-interaction potential. According to the previous work \cite{AmNi}, the mean field limit is translated into a semiclassical problem with a small parameter $\epsilon\to 0$, after introducing an $\epsilon$-dependent bosonic quantization. The limit is expressed as a push-forward by a nonlinear flow (e.g. Hartree) of the associated Wigner measures. These object and their basic properties were introduced in \cite{AmNi} in the infinite dimensional setting. The additional result presented here states that the transport by the nonlinear flow holds for rather general class of quantum states in their mean field limit.Comment: 10 page

A study of the feasibility of employing a magnetic mass spectrometer for the analysis of the Martian atmosphere

Magnetic-sector mass spectrometer for Mars atmosphere analysi

Ardis H. Nier, 1921–2009

Ardis Hovland Nier died on December 16, 2009. Ardis was a great friend of the Meteoritical Society and endowed its Nier Prize in celebration of the remarkable contributions of Alfred Nier to meteorite research. She very much enjoyed meeting many interesting and friendly people at the society’s meetings. She was by nature curious, intelligent, and good spirited, and she tried to find humor and optimism in whatever situation or condition she faced throughout her 88 years

Vortex distribution in the Lowest Landau Level

We study the vortex distribution of the wave functions minimizing the Gross Pitaevskii energy for a fast rotating condensate in the Lowest Landau Level (LLL): we prove that the minimizer cannot have a finite number of zeroes thus the lattice is infinite, but not uniform. This uses the explicit expression of the projector onto the LLL. We also show that any slow varying envelope function can be approximated in the LLL by distorting the lattice. This is used in particular to approximate the inverted parabola and understand the role of ``invisible'' vortices: the distortion of the lattice is very small in the Thomas Fermi region but quite large outside, where the "invisible" vortices lie.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figur

Dynamical phase transition for a quantum particle source

We analyze the time evolution describing a quantum source for noninteracting particles, either bosons or fermions. The growth behaviour of the particle number (trace of the density matrix) is investigated, leading to spectral criteria for sublinear or linear growth in the fermionic case, but also establishing the possibility of exponential growth for bosons. We further study the local convergence of the density matrix in the long time limit and prove the semiclassical limit.Comment: 24 pages; In the new version, we added several references concerning open quantum systems and present an extended result on linear particle production in the fermionic cas