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Acoustic controlled rotation and orientation
Acoustic energy is applied to a pair of locations spaced about a chamber, to control rotation of an object levitated in the chamber. Two acoustic transducers applying energy of a single acoustic mode, one at each location, can (one or both) serve to levitate the object in three dimensions as well as control its rotation. Slow rotation is achieved by initially establishing a large phase difference and/or pressure ratio of the acoustic waves, which is sufficient to turn the object by more than 45 deg, which is immediately followed by reducing the phase difference and/or pressure ratio to maintain slow rotation. A small phase difference and/or pressure ratio enables control of the angular orientation of the object without rotating it. The sphericity of an object can be measured by its response to the acoustic energy
Single mode levitation and translation
A single frequency resonance mode is applied by a transducer to acoustically levitate an object within a chamber. This process allows smooth movement of the object and suppression of unwanted levitation modes that would urge the object to a different levitation position. A plunger forms one end of the chamber, and the frequency changes as the plunger moves. Acoustic energy is applied to opposite sides of the chamber, with the acoustic energy on opposite sides being substantially 180 degrees out of phase
Is the squeezing of relic gravitational waves produced by inflation detectable?
Grishchuk has shown that the stochastic background of gravitational waves
produced by an inflationary phase in the early Universe has an unusual
property: it is not a stationary Gaussian random process. Due to squeezing, the
phases of the different waves are correlated in a deterministic way, arising
from the process of parametric amplification that created them. The resulting
random process is Gaussian but non-stationary. This provides a unique signature
that could in principle distinguish a background created by inflation from
stationary stochastic backgrounds created by other types of processes. We
address the question: could this signature be observed with a gravitational
wave detector? Sadly, the answer appears to be "no": an experiment which could
distinguish the non-stationary behavior would have to last approximately the
age of the Universe at the time of measurement. This rules out direct detection
by ground and space based gravitational wave detectors, but not indirect
detections via the electromagnetic Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation
(CMBR).Comment: 17 pages, 4 Postscript figures, uses revtex, psfig, to be submitted
to PRD, minor revisions - appendix B clarified, corrected typos, added
reference
Gravity enhanced acoustic levitation method and apparatus
An acoustic levitation system is provided for acoustically levitating an object by applying a single frequency from a transducer into a resonant chamber surrounding the object. The chamber includes a stabilizer location along its height, where the side walls of the chamber are angled so they converge in an upward direction. When an acoustic standing wave pattern is applied between the top and bottom of the chamber, a levitation surface within the stabilizer does not lie on a horizontal plane, but instead is curved with a lowermost portion near the vertical axis of the chamber. As a result, an acoustically levitated object is urged by gravity towards the lowermost location on the levitation surface, so the object is kept away from the side walls of the chamber
BRST quantization of the massless minimally coupled scalar field in de Sitter space (zero modes, euclideanization and quantization)
We consider the massless scalar field on the four-dimensional sphere .
Its classical action is degenerate
under the global invariance . We then quantize
the massless scalar field as a gauge theory by constructing a BRST-invariant
quantum action. The corresponding gauge-breaking term is a non-local one of the
form where
is a gauge parameter and is the volume of . It allows us to
correctly treat the zero mode problem. The quantum theory is invariant under
SO(5), the symmetry group of , and the associated two-point functions have
no infrared divergence. The well-known infrared divergence which appears by
taking the massless limit of the massive scalar field propagator is therefore a
gauge artifact. By contrast, the massless scalar field theory on de Sitter
space - the lorentzian version of - is not invariant under the
symmetry group of that spacetime SO(1,4). Here, the infrared divergence is
real. Therefore, the massless scalar quantum field theories on and
cannot be linked by analytic continuation. In this case, because of zero modes,
the euclidean approach to quantum field theory does not work. Similar
considerations also apply to massive scalar field theories for exceptional
values of the mass parameter (corresponding to the discrete series of the de
Sitter group).Comment: This paper has been published under the title "Zero modes,
euclideanization and quantization" [Phys. Rev. D46, 2553 (1992)
The metrology of spherical shells using synchrotron x ray microtomography
With recent advances in solid state imaging technology and the increasing availability of synchrotron x-ray radiation sources, synchrotron x-ray microtomography is emerging as a nondestructive technique for the evaluation of the structure and composition of small specimens with spatial resolution in the micron range. Synchrotron radiation offers the following advantages over conventional x-ray sources: high brightness, continuous emission which is tunable over a large energy range, faster data collection rates, and a highly collimated beam of large cross section permitting the illumination of large specimens. Synchrotron x-ray microtomography enables the structure of individual spheres to be evaluated in order to reveal the concentricity and sphericity of the internal void and the uniformity of the shell wall in the case of high quality spherical shells for Sandia National Laboratories' Inertial Confinement Fusion project
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Native and invasive inoculation sources modify fungal community assembly and biomass production of a chaparral shrub
Feedbacks between plants and surrounding soil microbes can contribute to the establishment and persistence of invasive annual grasses as well as limit the success of restoration efforts. In this study, we aim to understand how three sources of soil inocula – native, invasive (from under Bromus diandrus) and sterile – affect the growth response and fungal community composition in the roots of a chaparral shrub, Adenostoma fasciculatum. We grew A. fasciculatum from seed in a greenhouse with each inoculum source and harvested at six months. We measured above- and below-ground biomass, arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal (AMF) colonization and conducted targeted-amplicon sequencing of the 18S and ITS2 loci to characterize AMF and general fungal community composition, respectively. Native inoculum resulted in roots with richer communities of some groups of AMF and non-AMF symbionts, when compared to roots grown with invasive or sterile inoculum. Seedlings grown with invasive and native inoculum did not have different growth responses, but both produced more biomass than a sterile control. These findings suggest that inoculation with soil from native species can increase the diversity of multiple groups of fungal symbionts and inoculation with live soil (invasive or native) can increase seedling biomass. Moreover, future work would benefit from assessing if a more diverse community of fungal symbionts increases seedling survival when planted in field restoration sites
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Fungal community assembly in soils and roots under plant invasion and nitrogen deposition
Slow light in degenerate Fermi gases
We investigate the effect of slow light propagating in a degenerate atomic
Fermi gas. In particular we use slow light with an orbital angular momentum. We
present a microscopic theory for the interplay between light and matter and
show how the slow light can provide an effective magnetic field acting on the
electrically neutral fermions, a direct analogy of the free electron gas in an
uniform magnetic field. As an example we illustrate how the corresponding de
Haas-van Alphen effect can be seen in a neutral gas of fermions.Comment: Slightly updated. Phys. Rev. Lett. 93, 033602 (2004
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