A W:B4C multilayer phase retarder for broadband polarization analysis of soft x-ray radiation \ud

A W:B4C multilayer phase retarder has been designed and characterized which shows a nearly constant phase retardance between 640 and 850 eV photon energies when operated near the Bragg condition. This freestanding transmission multilayer was used successfully to determine, for the first time, the full polarization vector at soft x-ray energies above 600 eV, which was not possible before due to the lack of suitable optical elements. Thus, quantitative polarimetry is now possible at the 2p edges of the magnetic substances Fe, Co, and Ni for the benefit of magnetic circular dichroism spectroscopy employing circularly polarized synchrotron radiatio

Rydberg-Blockade Effects in Autler-Townes Spectra of Ultracold Strontium

We present a combined experimental and theoretical study of the effects of Rydberg interactions on Autler-Townes spectra of ultracold gases of atomic strontium. Realizing two-photon Rydberg excitation via a long-lived triplet state allows us to probe the thus far unexplored regime where Rydberg state decay presents the dominant decoherence mechanism. The effects of Rydberg interactions are observed in shifts, asymmetries, and broadening of the measured atom-loss spectra. The experiment is analyzed within a one-body density matrix approach, accounting for interaction-induced level shifts and dephasing through nonlinear terms that approximately incorporate correlations due to the Rydberg blockade. This description yields good agreement with our experimental observations for short excitation times. For longer excitation times, the loss spectrum is altered qualitatively, suggesting additional dephasing mechanisms beyond the standard blockade mechanism based on pure van der Waals interactions

Relativistic models for quasi-elastic neutrino scattering

We present quasi-elastic neutrino-nucleus cross sections in the energy range from 150 MeV up to 5 GeV for the target nuclei 12C and 56Fe. A relativistic description of the nuclear dynamics and the neutrino-nucleus coupling is adopted. For the treatment of final-state interactions (FSI) we rely on two frameworks succesfully applied to exclusive electron-nucleus scattering: a relativistic optical potential and a relativistic multiple-scattering Glauber approximation. At lower energies, the optical-potential approach is considered to be the optimum choice, whereas at high energies a Glauber approach is more natural. Comparing the results of both calculations, it is found that the Glauber approach yields valid results down to the remarkably small nucleon kinetic energies of 200 MeV. We argue that the nuclear transparencies extracted from A(e,e'p) measurements can be used to obtain realistic estimates of the effect of FSI mechanisms on quasi-elastic neutrino-nucleus cross sections. We present two independent relativistic plane-wave impulse approximation (RPWIA) calculations of quasi-elastic neutrino-nucleus cross sections. They agree at the percent level, showing the reliability of the numerical techniques adopted and providing benchmark RPWIA results.Comment: revised version,28 pages, 7 figures, accepted in Phys.Rev.

Improving the Angular Resolution of EGRET and New Limits on Supersymmetric Dark Matter Near the Galactic Center

Using the EGRET data and an improved point source analysis, including an energy dependent point spread function and an unbinned maximum likelihood technique, we have been able to place considerably lower limits on the gamma ray flux from the galactic center region. We also test this method on known sources, the Crab and Vela pulsars. In both cases, we find that our method improves the angular precision of EGRET data over the 3EG catalog. This new limit on gamma rays from the galactic center can be used to test models of annihilating supersymmetric dark matter and galactic halo profiles. We find that the present EGRET data can limit many supersymmetric models if the density of the galactic dark matter halo is cuspy or spiked toward the galactic center. We also discuss the ability of GLAST to test these models.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figure

Rapid, selective and stable HaloTag-Lb ADH immobilization directly from crude cell extract for the continuous biocatalytic production of chiral alcohols and epoxides

A strategy for biocatalyst immobilization in flow directly from the crude cell extract is described.EPSRC (Award Nos. EP/K009494/1 and EP/K039520/1), the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) within the project “Molecular Interaction Engineering” (funding code 031A095)

Energy Conversion Alternatives Study (ECAS), General Electric Phase 1. Volume 2: Advanced energy conversion systems. Part 3: Direct energy conversion cycles

For abstract, see N76-23680

Minimum and maximum against k lies

A neat 1972 result of Pohl asserts that [3n/2]-2 comparisons are sufficient, and also necessary in the worst case, for finding both the minimum and the maximum of an n-element totally ordered set. The set is accessed via an oracle for pairwise comparisons. More recently, the problem has been studied in the context of the Renyi-Ulam liar games, where the oracle may give up to k false answers. For large k, an upper bound due to Aigner shows that (k+O(\sqrt{k}))n comparisons suffice. We improve on this by providing an algorithm with at most (k+1+C)n+O(k^3) comparisons for some constant C. The known lower bounds are of the form (k+1+c_k)n-D, for some constant D, where c_0=0.5, c_1=23/32=0.71875, and c_k=\Omega(2^{-5k/4}) as k goes to infinity.Comment: 11 pages, 3 figure

Remarks on Legendrian Self-Linking

The Thurston-Bennequin invariant provides one notion of self-linking for any homologically-trivial Legendrian curve in a contact three-manifold. Here we discuss related analytic notions of self-linking for Legendrian knots in Euclidean space. Our definition is based upon a reformulation of the elementary Gauss linking integral and is motivated by ideas from supersymmetric gauge theory. We recover the Thurston-Bennequin invariant as a special case.Comment: 42 pages, many figures; v2: minor revisions, published versio