942 research outputs found
Multi-spin dynamics of the solid-state NMR Free Induction Decay
We present a new experimental investigation of the NMR free induction decay
(FID) in a lattice of spin-1/2 nuclei in a strong Zeeman field. Following a
pi/2 pulse, evolution under the secular dipolar Hamiltonian preserves coherence
number in the Zeeman eigenbasis, but changes the number of correlated spins in
the state. The observed signal is seen to decay as single-spin, single-quantum
coherences evolve into multiple-spin coherences under the action of the dipolar
Hamiltonian. In order to probe the multiple-spin dynamics during the FID, we
measured the growth of coherence orders in a basis other than the usual Zeeman
eigenbasis. This measurement provides the first direct experimental observation
of the growth of coherent multiple-spin correlations during the FID.
Experiments were performed with a cubic lattice of spins (19F in calcium
fluoride) and a linear spin chain (19F in fluorapatite). It is seen that the
geometrical arrangement of the spins plays a significant role in the
development of higher order correlations. The results are discussed in light of
existing theoretical models.Comment: 7 pages, 6 figure
Enhanced resolution imaging of ultrathin ZnO layers on Ag(111) by multiple hydrogen molecules in a scanning tunneling microscope junction
Molecular hydrogen in a scanning tunneling microscope (STM) junction has been found to enhance the lateral spatial resolution of the STM imaging, referred to as scanning tunneling hydrogen microscopy (STHM). Here we report atomic resolution imaging of 2- and 3-monolayer (ML) thick ZnO layers epitaxially grown on Ag(111) using STHM. The enhanced resolution can be obtained at a relatively large tip to surface distance and resolves a more defective structure exhibiting dislocation defects for 3-ML-thick ZnO than for 2 ML. In order to elucidate the enhanced imaging mechanism, the electric and mechanical properties of the hydrogen molecular junction (HMJ) are investigated by a combination of STM and atomic force microscopy. It is found that the HMJ shows multiple kinklike features in the tip to surface distance dependence of the conductance and frequency shift curves, which are absent in a hydrogen-free junction. Based on a simple modeling, we propose that the junction contains several hydrogen molecules and sequential squeezing of the molecules out of the junction results in the kinklike features in the conductance and frequency shift curves. The model also qualitatively reproduces the enhanced resolution image of the ZnO films
A Novel Use of Light Guides and Wavelength Shifting Plates for the Detection of Scintillation Photons in Large Liquid Argon Detectors
Scintillation light generated as charged particles traverse large liquid
argon detectors adds valuable information to studies of weakly-interacting
particles. This paper uses both laboratory measurements and cosmic ray data
from the Blanche dewar facility at Fermilab to characterize the efficiency of
the photon detector technology developed at Indiana University for the single
phase far detector of DUNE. The efficiency of this technology was found to be
0.48% at the readout end when the detector components were characterized with
laboratory measurements. A second determination of the efficiency using cosmic
ray tracks is in reasonable agreement with the laboratory determination. The
agreement of these two efficiency determinations supports the result that
minimum ionizing muons generate photons/MeV as
they cross the LAr volume.Comment: Accepted version (without final editorial corrections
Social Communication Across Reproductive Boundaries: Hormones And The Auditory Periphery Of Songbirds And Frogs
Most animals experience reproductive transitions in their lives; for instance, reaching reproductive maturity or cycling in and out of breeding condition. Some reproductive transitions are abrupt, while others are more gradual. In most cases, changes in communication between the sexes follow the time course of these reproductive transitions and are typically thought to be coordinated by steroid hormones. We know a great deal about hormonal control of communication behaviors in birds and frogs, as well as the central neural control of these behaviors. There has also been significant interest in the effects of steroid hormones on central nervous system structures that control both the production and reception of communication signals associated with reproductive behaviors. However, peripheral sensory structures have typically received less attention, although there has been growing interest in recent years. It is becoming clear that peripheral sensory systems play an important role in reproductive communication, are plastic across reproductive conditions, and, in some cases, this plasticity may be mediated by steroid hormones. In this paper, we discuss recent evidence for the role of peripheral auditory structures in reproductive communication in birds and frogs, the plasticity of the peripheral auditory system, and the role of steroid hormones in mediating the effects of the peripheral auditory system on reproductive communication. We focus on both seasonal and acute reproductive transitions, introduce new data on the role of hormones in modulating seasonal patterns, and make recommendations for future work
Cosmic cookery : making a stereoscopic 3D animated movie.
This paper describes our experience making a short stereoscopic movie visualizing the development of structure in
the universe during the 13.7 billion years from the Big Bang to the present day. Aimed at a general audience for
the Royal Society's 2005 Summer Science Exhibition, the movie illustrates how the latest cosmological theories
based on dark matter and dark energy are capable of producing structures as complex as spiral galaxies and
allows the viewer to directly compare observations from the real universe with theoretical results. 3D is an
inherent feature of the cosmology data sets and stereoscopic visualization provides a natural way to present the
images to the viewer, in addition to allowing researchers to visualize these vast, complex data sets.
The presentation of the movie used passive, linearly polarized projection onto a 2m wide screen but it was
also required to playback on a Sharp RD3D display and in anaglyph projection at venues without dedicated
stereoscopic display equipment. Additionally lenticular prints were made from key images in the movie. We
discuss the following technical challenges during the stereoscopic production process; 1) Controlling the depth
presentation, 2) Editing the stereoscopic sequences, 3) Generating compressed movies in display speciÂŻc formats.
We conclude that the generation of high quality stereoscopic movie content using desktop tools and equipment
is feasible. This does require careful quality control and manual intervention but we believe these overheads
are worthwhile when presenting inherently 3D data as the result is signiÂŻcantly increased impact and better
understanding of complex 3D scenes
Quasar Clustering and the Lifetime of Quasars
Although the population of luminous quasars rises and falls over a period of
10^9 years, the typical lifetime of individual quasars is uncertain by several
orders of magnitude. We show that quasar clustering measurements can
substantially narrow the range of possible lifetimes with the assumption that
luminous quasars reside in the most massive host halos. If quasars are
long-lived, then they are rare phenomena that are highly biased with respect to
the underlying dark matter, while if they are short-lived they reside in more
typical halos that are less strongly clustered. For a given quasar lifetime, we
calculate the minimum host halo mass by matching the observed space density of
quasars, using the Press-Schechter approximation. We use the results of Mo &
White to calculate the clustering of these halos, and hence of the quasars they
contain, as a function of quasar lifetime. A lifetime of t_Q = 4 x 10^7 years,
the e-folding timescale of an Eddington luminosity black hole with accretion
efficiency eps=0.1, corresponds to a quasar correlation length r_0 ~ 10 Mpc/h
in low-density cosmological models at z=2-3; this value is consistent with
current clustering measurements, but these have large uncertainties.
High-precision clustering measurements from the 2dF and Sloan quasar surveys
will test our key assumption of a tight correlation between quasar luminosity
and host halo mass, and if this assumption holds then they should determine t_Q
to a factor of three or better. An accurate determination of the quasar
lifetime will show whether supermassive black holes acquire most of their mass
during high-luminosity accretion, and it will show whether the black holes in
the nuclei of typical nearby galaxies were once the central engines of
high-luminosity quasars.Comment: ApJ Accepted (Feb 2001). 30 pages, 8 embedded ps figures, AASTEX5.
Added discussion of quasar luminosity evolution. Also available at
http://www.ociw.edu/~martini/pubs
The Bulge-Disk Orthogonal Decoupling in Galaxies: NGC 4698
The R-band isophotal map of the Sa galaxy NGC 4698 shows that the inner
region of the bulge structure is elongated perpendicularly to the major axis of
the disk, this is also true for the outer parts of the bulge if a parametric
photometric decomposition is adopted. At the same time the stellar component is
characterized by an inner velocity gradient and a central zero-velocity plateau
along the minor and major axis of the disk respectively. This remarkable
geometric and kinematic decoupling suggests that a second event occurred in the
formation history of this galaxy.Comment: 12 pages, LaTex, with 4 PostScript figures. Accepted for publication
in The Astrophysical Journal Letter
First Measurement of the Clustering Evolution of Photometrically-Classified Quasars
We present new measurements of the quasar autocorrelation from a sample of
\~80,000 photometrically-classified quasars taken from SDSS DR1. We find a
best-fit model of for the angular
autocorrelation, consistent with estimates from spectroscopic quasar surveys.
We show that only models with little or no evolution in the clustering of
quasars in comoving coordinates since z~1.4 can recover a scale-length
consistent with local galaxies and Active Galactic Nuclei (AGNs). A model with
little evolution of quasar clustering in comoving coordinates is best explained
in the current cosmological paradigm by rapid evolution in quasar bias. We show
that quasar biasing must have changed from b_Q~3 at a (photometric) redshift of
z=2.2 to b_Q~1.2-1.3 by z=0.75. Such a rapid increase with redshift in biasing
implies that quasars at z~2 cannot be the progenitors of modern L* objects,
rather they must now reside in dense environments, such as clusters. Similarly,
the duration of the UVX quasar phase must be short enough to explain why local
UVX quasars reside in essentially unbiased structures. Our estimates of b_Q are
in good agreement with recent spectroscopic results, which demonstrate the
implied evolution in b_Q is consistent with quasars inhabiting halos of similar
mass at every redshift. Treating quasar clustering as a function of both
redshift and luminosity, we find no evidence for luminosity dependence in
quasar clustering, and that redshift evolution thus affects quasar clustering
more than changes in quasars' luminosity. We provide a new method for
quantifying stellar contamination in photometrically-classified quasar catalogs
via the correlation function.Comment: 34 pages, 10 figures, 1 table, Accepted to ApJ after: (i) Minor
textual changes; (ii) extra points added to Fig.
The Canada-UK Deep Submillimeter Survey VI: The 3-Hour Field
We present the complete submillimeter data for the Canada-UK Deep
Submillimeter Survey (CUDSS) 3-hour field. The obeservations were taken with
the Submillimeter Common-User Bolometer Array (SCUBA) on the James Clerk
Maxwell Telescope on Mauna Kea. The 3-hour field is one of two main fields in
our survey and covers 60 square arcminutes to a 3-sigma depth of 3 mJy. In this
field we have detected 27 sources above 3-sigma and 15 above 3.5-sigma. We
assume the source counts follow the form and
measure = 3.3. This is in good agreement with previous
studies and further supports our claim (Eales et al., 2000) that SCUBA sources
brighter than 3 mJy produce ~20% of the 850m background energy. Using
preliminary ISO 15 m maps and VLA 1.4 GHz data we have identified
counterparts for six objects and have marginal detections at 450m for two
additional sources. With this information we estimate a median redshift for the
sample of 2.00.5, with 10% lying at 1. We have measured the
angular clustering of S850 > 3 mJy sources using the source catalogues from the
CUDSS two main fields, the 3-hour and 14-hour fields, and find a marginal
detection of clustering, primarily from the 14-hour field, of
. This is consistent with clustering at
least as strong as that seen for the Lyman-break galaxy population and the
Extremely Red Objects. Since SCUBA sources are selected over a broader range in
redshifts than these two populations the strength of the true spatial
clustering is expected to be correspondingly stronger.Comment: 17 pages, 8 figures, submitted to Ap
The Lx-T Relation and Temperature Function for Nearby Clusters Revisited
The X-ray luminosity-temperature relation for nearby T=3.5-10 keV clusters is
rederived using new ASCA temperatures and ROSAT luminosities. Both quantities
are derived by directly excluding the cooling flow regions. This correction
results in a greatly reduced scatter in the Lx-T relation; cooling flow
clusters are similar to others outside the small cooling flow regions. For a
fit of the form L_bol ~ T^alpha, we obtain alpha=2.64+-0.27 (90%) and a
residual rms scatter in log L_bol of 0.10. The derived relation can be directly
compared to theoretical predictions that do not include radiative cooling. It
also provides an accurate reference point for future evolution searches and
comparison to cooler clusters.
The new temperatures together with a newly selected cluster sample are used
to update the temperature function at z~0.05. The resulting function is
generally higher and flatter than the previous estimates by Edge et al (1990)
and Henry & Arnaud (1991, corrected). For a qualitative estimate of constraints
that the new data place on the density fluctuation spectrum, we apply the
Press-Schechter formalism for Omega=1 and 0.3. For Omega=1, assuming cluster
isothermality, the temperature function implies sigma_8=0.55+-0.03, while
taking into account the observed cluster temperature profiles,
sigma_8=0.51+-0.03, consistent with the previously derived range. The
dependence of sigma_8 on Omega differs from earlier findings, because of our
treatment of n as a free parameter. We find n=-(2.0-2.3)+-0.3, somewhat steeper
than derived from the earlier temperature function data, in agreement with the
local slope of the galaxy fluctuation spectrum from the APM survey, and
significantly steeper than the standard CDM prediction.Comment: Accepted for ApJ. Significand additions: Omega=0.3 model for the TF;
a discussion of the TF derivation method; a comparison with recent Allen &
Fabian L-T results. Latex, 8 pages, uses emulateapj.st
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