32,998 research outputs found
Laser-controlled fluorescence in two-level systems
The ability to modify the character of fluorescent emission by a laser-controlled, optically nonlinear process has recently been shown theoretically feasible, and several possible applications have already been identified. In operation, a pulse of off-resonant probe laser beam, of sufficient intensity, is applied to a system exhibiting fluorescence, during the interval of excited- state decay following the initial excitation. The result is a rate of decay that can be controllably modified, the associated changes in fluorescence behavior affording new, chemically specific information. In this paper, a two-level emission model is employed in the further analysis of this all-optical process; the results should prove especially relevant to the analysis and imaging of physical systems employing fluorescent markers, these ranging from quantum dots to green fluorescence protein. Expressions are presented for the laser-controlled fluorescence anisotropy exhibited by samples in which the fluorophores are randomly oriented. It is also shown that, in systems with suitably configured electronic levels and symmetry properties, fluorescence emission can be produced from energy levels that would normally decay nonradiatively. © 2010 American Chemical Society
Did GW170817 harbor a pulsar?
If the progenitor of GW170817 harbored a pulsar, then a Poynting flux
dominated bow-shock cavity would have been expected to form around the
traveling binary. The characteristic size of this evacuated region depends
strongly on the spin-down evolution of the pulsar companion, which in turn
depends on the merging timescale of the system. If this evacuated region is
able to grow to a sufficiently large scale, then the deceleration of the jet,
and thus the onset of the afterglow, would be noticeably delayed. The first
detection of afterglow emission, which was uncovered 9.2 days after the
-ray burst trigger, can thus be used to constrain the size of a
pre-existing pulsar-wind cavity. We use this information, together with a model
of the jet to place limits on the presence of a pulsar in GW170817 and discuss
the derived constraints in the context of the observed double neutron star
binary population. We find that the majority of Galactic systems that are close
enough to merge within a Hubble time would have carved a discernibly large
pulsar-wind cavity, inconsistent with the onset timescale of the X-ray
afterglow of GW170817. Conversely, the recently detected system J1913+1102,
which host a low-luminosity pulsar, provides a congruous Milky Way analog of
GW170817's progenitor model. This study highlights the potential of the
proposed observational test for gaining insight into the origin of double
neutron star binaries, in particular if the properties of Galactic systems are
representative of the overall merging population.Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJL, 6 pages, 5 figure
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