591 research outputs found
Optomechanically induced transparency in membrane-in-the-middle setup at room temperature
We demonstrate the analogue of electromagnetically induced transparency in a
room temperature cavity optomechanics setup formed by a thin semitransparent
membrane within a Fabry-P\'erot cavity. Due to destructive interference, a weak
probe field is completely reflected by the cavity when the pump beam is
resonant with the motional red sideband of the cavity. Under this condition we
infer a significant slowing down of light of hundreds of microseconds, which is
easily tuned by shifting the membrane along the cavity axis. We also observe
the associated phenomenon of electromagnetically induced amplification which
occurs due to constructive interference when the pump is resonant with the blue
sideband.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure
Trigger-disabling Acquisition System for Quantum Key Distribution failsafe against Self-blinding
Modern single-photon detectors based on avalanche photodiodes offer
increasingly higher triggering speeds, thus fostering their use in several
fields, prominently in the recent area of Quantum Key Distribution. To reduce
the probability of an afterpulse, these detectors are usually equipped with a
circuitry that disables the trigger for a certain time after a positive
detection event, known as dead time. If the acquisition system connected to the
detector is not properly designed, efficiency issues arise when the triggering
rate is faster than the inverse of detector's dead-time. Moreover, when this
happens with two or more detectors used in coincidence, a security risk called
"self-blinding" can jeopardize the distribution of a secret quantum key. In
this paper we introduce a trigger-disabling circuitry based on an FPGA-driven
feedback loop, so to avoid the above-mentioned inconveniences. In the regime of
single-photon-attenuated light, the electronics dynamically accept a trigger
only after detectors' complete recovery from dead-time. This technique proves
useful to work with detectors at their maximum speed and to increase the
security of a quantum key distribution setup.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures. Version 2 corrected and improve
Two-membrane cavity optomechanics
We study the optomechanical behaviour of a driven Fabry-P\'erot cavity
containing two vibrating dielectric membranes. We characterize the cavity-mode
frequency shift as a function of the two-membrane positions, and report a gain in the optomechanical coupling strength of the membrane relative
motion with respect to the single membrane case. This is achieved when the two
membranes are properly positioned to form an inner cavity which is resonant
with the driving field. We also show that this two-membrane system has the
capability to tune the single-photon optomechanical coupling on demand, and
represents a promising platform for implementing cavity optomechanics with
distinct oscillators. Such a configuration has the potential to enable cavity
optomechanics in the strong single-photon coupling regime, and to study
synchronization in optically linked mechanical resonators
The cosmic web of dwarf galaxies in a warm versus cold dark matter universe: mock galaxies in CDM and WDM simulations
Using cosmological simulations, we show that the cosmic web of dwarf galaxies in a warm dark matter (WDM) universe, wherein low mass halo formation is heavily suppressed, is nearly indistinguishable to that of a cold dark matter (CDM) universe whose low mass halos are not seen because galaxy formation is suppressed below some threshold mass. Low mass warm dark matter halos are suppressed nearly equally in all environments. For example, WDM voids in the galaxy distribution are neither larger nor emptier than CDM voids, once normalized to the same total galaxy number density and assuming galaxy luminosity scales with halo mass. It is thus a challenge to find hints about the dark matter particle in the cosmic web of galaxies. However, if the scatter between dwarf galaxy luminosity and halo properties is large, low mass CDM halos would sometimes host bright galaxies thereby populating voids that would be empty in WDM. Future surveys that will capture the small scale clustering in the local volume could thus help determine whether the CDM problem of the over-abundance of small halos with respect to the number density of observed dwarf galaxies has a cosmological solution or an astrophysical solution
Probing deformed commutators with macroscopic harmonic oscillators
A minimal observable length is a common feature of theories that aim to merge
quantum physics and gravity. Quantum mechanically, this concept is associated
to a nonzero minimal uncertainty in position measurements, which is encoded in
deformed commutation relations. In spite of increasing theoretical interest,
the subject suffers from the complete lack of dedicated experiments and bounds
to the deformation parameters are roughly extrapolated from indirect
measurements. As recently proposed, low-energy mechanical oscillators could
allow to reveal the effect of a modified commutator. Here we analyze the free
evolution of high quality factor micro- and nano-oscillators, spanning a wide
range of masses around the Planck mass (), and compare it with a model of deformed dynamics.
Previous limits to the parameters quantifying the commutator deformation are
substantially lowered.Comment: 11 pages, 3 figures, reference adde
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All-sky search for short gravitational-wave bursts in the second Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo run
We present the results of a search for short-duration gravitational-wave transients in the data from the second observing run of Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo. We search for gravitational-wave transients with a duration of milliseconds to approximately one second in the 32-4096 Hz frequency band with minimal assumptions about the signal properties, thus targeting a wide variety of sources. We also perform a matched-filter search for gravitational-wave transients from cosmic string cusps for which the waveform is well modeled. The unmodeled search detected gravitational waves from several binary black hole mergers which have been identified by previous analyses. No other significant events have been found by either the unmodeled search or the cosmic string search. We thus present the search sensitivities for a variety of signal waveforms and report upper limits on the source rate density as a function of the characteristic frequency of the signal. These upper limits are a factor of 3 lower than the first observing run, with a 50% detection probability for gravitational-wave emissions with energies of âŒ10-9 Mc2 at 153 Hz. For the search dedicated to cosmic string cusps we consider several loop distribution models, and present updated constraints from the same search done in the first observing run
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Search for intermediate mass black hole binaries in the first and second observing runs of the Advanced LIGO and Virgo network
Gravitational-wave astronomy has been firmly established with the detection of gravitational waves from the merger of ten stellar-mass binary black holes and a neutron star binary. This paper reports on the all-sky search for gravitational waves from intermediate mass black hole binaries in the first and second observing runs of the Advanced LIGO and Virgo network. The search uses three independent algorithms: two based on matched filtering of the data with waveform templates of gravitational-wave signals from compact binaries, and a third, model-independent algorithm that employs no signal model for the incoming signal. No intermediate mass black hole binary event is detected in this search. Consequently, we place upper limits on the merger rate density for a family of intermediate mass black hole binaries. In particular, we choose sources with total masses M=m1+m2Ï”[120,800] M and mass ratios q=m2/m1Ï”[0.1,1.0]. For the first time, this calculation is done using numerical relativity waveforms (which include higher modes) as models of the real emitted signal. We place a most stringent upper limit of 0.20 Gpc-3 yr-1 (in comoving units at the 90% confidence level) for equal-mass binaries with individual masses m1,2=100 M and dimensionless spins Ï1,2=0.8 aligned with the orbital angular momentum of the binary. This improves by a factor of âŒ5 that reported after Advanced LIGO's first observing run
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Search for Eccentric Binary Black Hole Mergers with Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo during Their First and Second Observing Runs
When formed through dynamical interactions, stellar-mass binary black holes (BBHs) may retain eccentric orbits (e > 0.1 at 10 Hz) detectable by ground-based gravitational-wave detectors. Eccentricity can therefore be used to differentiate dynamically formed binaries from isolated BBH mergers. Current template-based gravitational-wave searches do not use waveform models associated with eccentric orbits, rendering the search less efficient for eccentric binary systems. Here we present the results of a search for BBH mergers that inspiral in eccentric orbits using data from the first and second observing runs (O1 and O2) of Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo. We carried out the search with the coherent WaveBurst algorithm, which uses minimal assumptions on the signal morphology and does not rely on binary waveform templates. We show that it is sensitive to binary mergers with a detection range that is weakly dependent on eccentricity for all bound systems. Our search did not identify any new binary merger candidates. We interpret these results in light of eccentric binary formation models. We rule out formation channels with rates âȘ100 Gpc-3 yr-1 for e > 0.1, assuming a black hole mass spectrum with a power-law index âČ2
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