39,238 research outputs found
What measurable zero point fluctuations can(not) tell us about dark energy
We show that laboratory experiments cannot measure the absolute value of dark
energy. All known experiments rely on electromagnetic interactions. They are
thus insensitive to particles and fields that interact only weakly with
ordinary matter. In addition, Josephson junction experiments only measure
differences in vacuum energy similar to Casimir force measurements. Gravity,
however, couples to the absolute value. Finally we note that Casimir force
measurements have tested zero point fluctuations up to energies of ~10 eV, well
above the dark energy scale of ~0.01 eV. Hence, the proposed cut-off in the
fluctuation spectrum is ruled out experimentally.Comment: 4 page
Designers manual for circuit design by analog/digital techniques Final report
Manual for designing circuits by hybrid compute
Unusual magnetic fields in the interacting spiral NGC 3627
By observing the interacting galaxy NGC 3627 in radio polarization we try to
answer the question to which degree the magnetic field follows the galactic gas
flows. We obtained total power and polarized intensity maps at 8.46 GHz and
4.85 GHz using the VLA in its compact D-configuration. In order to overcome the
zero-spacing problems, the interferometric data were combined with single-dish
measurements obtained with the Effelsberg 100-m radio telescope. The observed
magnetic field structure in NGC 3627 suggests that two field components are
superposed. One component smoothly fills the interarm space and shows up also
in the outermost disk regions, the other component follows a symmetric S-shaped
structure. In the western disk the latter component is well aligned with an
optical dust lane, following a bend which is possibly caused by external
interactions. However, in the SE disk the magnetic field crosses a heavy dust
lane segment, apparently being insensitive to strong density-wave effects. We
suggest that the magnetic field is decoupled from the gas by high turbulent
diffusion, in agreement with the large \ion{H}{i} line width in this region. We
discuss in detail the possible influence of compression effects and
non-axisymmetric gas flows on the general magnetic field asymmetries in NGC
3627. On the basis of the Faraday rotation distribution we also suggest the
existence of a large ionized halo around this galaxy.Comment: 11 pages, 11 figure
Lagrangian acceleration statistics in turbulent flows
We show that the probability densities af accelerations of Lagrangian test
particles in turbulent flows as measured by Bodenschatz et al. [Nature 409,
1017 (2001)] are in excellent agreement with the predictions of a stochastic
model introduced in [C. Beck, PRL 87, 180601 (2001)] if the fluctuating
friction parameter is assumed to be log-normally distributed. In a generalized
statistical mechanics setting, this corresponds to a superstatistics of
log-normal type. We analytically evaluate all hyperflatnes factors for this
model and obtain a flatness prediction in good agreement with the experimental
data. There is also good agreement with DNS data of Gotoh et al. We relate the
model to a generalized Sawford model with fluctuating parameters, and discuss a
possible universality of the small-scale statistics.Comment: 10 pages, 2 figure
The Infrared Nucleus of the Wolf-Rayet Galaxy Henize 2-10
We have obtained near-infrared images and mid-infrared spectra of the
starburst core of the dwarf Wolf-Rayet galaxy He 2-10. We find that the
infrared continuum and emission lines are concentrated in a flattened ellipse
3-4'' or 150 pc across which may show where a recent accretion event has
triggered intense star formation. The ionizing radiation from this cluster has
an effective temperature of 40,000 K, corresponding to stars, and
the starburst is years old.Comment: 17 pages Latex, 7 postscript figures, 1 postscript table, accepted to
A
Spin lifetimes and strain-controlled spin precession of drifting electrons in zinc blende type semiconductors
We study the transport of spin polarized electrons in n-GaAs using spatially
resolved continuous wave Faraday rotation. From the measured steady state
distribution, we determine spin relaxation times under drift conditions and, in
the presence of strain, the induced spin splitting from the observed spin
precession. Controlled variation of strain along [110] allows us to deduce the
deformation potential causing this effect, while strain along [100] has no
effect. The electric field dependence of the spin lifetime is explained
quantitatively in terms of an increase of the electron temperature.Comment: 5 pages, 6 figure
Dense Molecular Filaments Feeding a Starburst: ALMA Maps of CO(3-2) in Henize 2-10
We present ALMA CO(3-2) observations at 0.3 arcsec resolution of He2-10, a
starburst dwarf galaxy and possible high-z galaxy analogue. The warm dense gas
traced by CO(3--2) is found in clumpy filaments that are kinematically and
spatially distinct. The filaments have no preferred orientation or direction;
this may indicate that the galaxy is not evolving into a disk galaxy. Filaments
appear to be feeding the active starburst; the velocity field in one filament
suggests acceleration onto an embedded star cluster. The relative strengths of
CO(3-2) and radio continuum vary strongly on decaparsec scales in the
starburst. There is no CO(3--2) clump coincident with the non-thermal radio
source that has been suggested to be an AGN, nor unusual kinematics.
The kinematics of the molecular gas show significant activity apparently
unrelated to the current starburst. The longest filament, east of the
starburst, has a pronounced shear of FWHM ~\kms\ across its 50~pc
width over its entire kpc length. The cause of the shear is not
clear. This filament is close in projection to a `dynamically distinct' CO
feature previously seen in CO(1--0). The most complex region and the most
highly disturbed gas velocities are in a region 200~pc south of the starburst.
The CO(3--2) emission there reveals a molecular outflow, of linewidth FWZI
120-140 \kms, requiring an energy . There is
at present {\it no} candidate for the driving source of this outflow.Comment: This was revised 31 October to correct some typos and to replace
Figure
Synthetic X-ray and radio maps for two different models of Stephan's Quintet
We present simulations of the compact galaxy group Stephan's Quintet (SQ)
including magnetic fields, performed with the N-body/smoothed particle
hydrodynamics (SPH) code \textsc{Gadget}. The simulations include radiative
cooling, star formation and supernova feedback. Magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) is
implemented using the standard smoothed particle magnetohydrodynamics (SPMHD)
method. We adapt two different initial models for SQ based on Renaud et al. and
Hwang et al., both including four galaxies (NGC 7319, NGC 7320c, NGC 7318a and
NGC 7318b). Additionally, the galaxies are embedded in a magnetized, low
density intergalactic medium (IGM). The ambient IGM has an initial magnetic
field of G and the four progenitor discs have initial magnetic fields
of G. We investigate the morphology, regions of star
formation, temperature, X-ray emission, magnetic field structure and radio
emission within the two different SQ models. In general, the enhancement and
propagation of the studied gaseous properties (temperature, X-ray emission,
magnetic field strength and synchrotron intensity) is more efficient for the SQ
model based on Renaud et al., whose galaxies are more massive, whereas the less
massive SQ model based on Hwang et al. shows generally similar effects but with
smaller efficiency. We show that the large shock found in observations of SQ is
most likely the result of a collision of the galaxy NGC 7318b with the IGM.
This large group-wide shock is clearly visible in the X-ray emission and
synchrotron intensity within the simulations of both SQ models. The order of
magnitude of the observed synchrotron emission within the shock front is
slightly better reproduced by the SQ model based on Renaud et al., whereas the
distribution and structure of the synchrotron emission is better reproduced by
the SQ model based on Hwang et al..Comment: 20 pages, 15 figures, accepted to MNRA
Magnetic fields and spiral arms in the galaxy M51
(Abridged) We use new multi-wavelength radio observations, made with the VLA
and Effelsberg telescopes, to study the magnetic field of the nearby galaxy M51
on scales from 200\pc to several \kpc. Interferometric and single dish data
are combined to obtain new maps at \wwav{3}{6} in total and polarized emission,
and earlier \wav{20} data are re-reduced. We compare the spatial distribution
of the radio emission with observations of the neutral gas, derive radio
spectral index and Faraday depolarization maps, and model the large-scale
variation in Faraday rotation in order to deduce the structure of the regular
magnetic field. We find that the \wav{20} emission from the disc is severely
depolarized and that a dominating fraction of the observed polarized emission
at \wav{6} must be due to anisotropic small-scale magnetic fields. Taking this
into account, we derive two components for the regular magnetic field in this
galaxy: the disc is dominated by a combination of azimuthal modes, , but
in the halo only an mode is required to fit the observations. We disuss
how the observed arm-interarm contrast in radio intensities can be reconciled
with evidence for strong gas compression in the spiral shocks. The average
arm--interam contrast, representative of the radii r>2\kpc where the spiral
arms are broader, is not compatible with straightforward compression: lower
arm--interarm contrasts than expected may be due to resolution effects and
\emph{decompression} of the magnetic field as it leaves the arms. We suggest a
simple method to estimate the turbulent scale in the magneto-ionic medium from
the dependence of the standard deviation of the observed Faraday rotation
measure on resolution. We thus obtain an estimate of 50\pc for the size of
the turbulent eddies.Comment: 21 pages, 18 figures (some at lower resolution than submitted
version), accepted for publication in MNRA
A New Multi-Resource cumulatives Constraint with Negative Heights
This paper presents a new cumulatives constraint which generalizes the original cumulative constraint in different ways. The two most important aspects consist in permitting multiple cumulative resources as well as negative heights for the resource consumption of the tasks. This allows modeling in an easy way new scheduling and planning problems. The introduction of negative heights has forced us to come up with new propagation algorithms and to revisit existing ones. The first propagation algorithm is derived from an idea called sweep which is extensively used in computational geometry; the second algorithm is based on a combination of sweep and constructive disjunction, while the last is a generalization of task intervals to this new context. A real-life timetabling problem originally motivated this constraint which was implemented within the SICStus finite domain solver and evaluated against different problem patterns
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