1,326 research outputs found
Trace levels of sewage effluent are sufficient to increase class 1 integron prevalence in freshwater biofilms without changing the core community
Most river systems are impacted by sewage effluent. It remains unclear if there is a lower threshold to the concentration of sewage effluent that can significantly change the structure of the microbial community and its mobile genetic elements in a natural river biofilm. We used novel in situ mesocosms to conduct replicated experiments to study how the addition of low-level concentrations of sewage effluent (nominally 2.5 ppm) affects river biofilms in two contrasting Chalk river systems, the Rivers Kennet and Lambourn (high/low sewage impact, respectively). 16S sequencing and qPCR showed that community composition was not significantly changed by the sewage effluent addition, but class 1 integron prevalence (Lambourn control 0.07% (SE ± 0.01), Lambourn sewage effluent 0.11% (SE ± 0.006), Kennet control 0.56% (SE ± 0.01), Kennet sewage effluent 1.28% (SE ± 0.16)) was significantly greater in the communities exposed to sewage effluent than in the control flumes (ANOVA, F = 5.11, p = 0.045) in both rivers. Furthermore, the difference in integron prevalence between the Kennet control (no sewage effluent addition) and Kennet sewage-treated samples was proportionally greater than the difference in prevalence between the Lambourn control and sewage-treated samples (ANOVA (interaction between treatment and river), F = 6.42, p = 0.028). Mechanisms that lead to such differences could include macronutrient/biofilm or phage/bacteria interactions. Our findings highlight the role that low-level exposure to complex polluting mixtures such as sewage effluent can play in the spread of antibiotic resistance genes. The results also highlight that certain conditions, such as macronutrient load, might accelerate spread of antibiotic resistance genes
Bose-Einstein condensation with magnetic dipole-dipole forces
Ground-state solutions in a dilute gas interacting via contact and magnetic
dipole-dipole forces are investigated. To the best of our knowledge, it is the
first example of studies of the Bose-Einstein condensation in a system with
realistic long-range interactions. We find that for the magnetic moment of e.g.
chromium and a typical value of the scattering length all solutions are stable
and only differ in size from condensates without long-range interactions. By
lowering the value of the scattering length we find a region of unstable
solutions. In the neighborhood of this region the ground state wavefunctions
show internal structures not seen before in condensates. Finally, we find an
analytic estimate for the characteristic length appearing in these solutions.Comment: final version, 4 pages, 4 figure
Limits on mode coherence in pulsating DA white dwarfs due to a nonstatic convection zone
The standard theory of pulsations deals with the frequencies and growth rates of infinitesimal perturbations in a stellar model. Modes that are calculated to be linearly driven should increase their amplitudes exponentially with time; the fact that nearly constant amplitudes are usually observed is evidence that nonlinear mechanisms inhibit the growth of finite-amplitude pulsations. Models predict that the mass of convection zones in pulsating hydrogen-atmosphere (DAV) white dwarfs is very sensitive to temperature (i.e., M_CZ∝T_eff^-90), leading to the possibility that even low-amplitude pulsators may experience significant nonlinear effects. In particular, the outer turning point of finite-amplitude g-mode pulsations can vary with the local surface temperature, producing a reflected wave that is out of phase with what is required for a standing wave. This can lead to a lack of coherence of the mode and a reduction in its global amplitude. In this paper we show that (1) whether a mode is calculated to propagate to the base of the convection zone is an accurate predictor of its width in the Fourier spectrum, (2) the phase shifts produced by reflection from the outer turning point are large enough to produce significant damping, and (3) amplitudes and periods are predicted to increase from the blue edge to the middle of the instability strip, and subsequently decrease as the red edge is approached. This amplitude decrease is in agreement with the observational data while the period decrease has not yet been systematically studied.Published versio
A high-flux source of polarization-entangled photons from a periodically-poled KTP parametric downconverter
We have demonstrated a high-flux source of polarization-entangled photons
using a type-II phase-matched periodically-poled KTP parametric downconverter
in a collinearly propagating configuration. We have observed quantum
interference between the single-beam downconverted photons with a visibility of
99% and a measured coincidence flux of 300/s/mW of pump. The
Clauser-Horne-Shimony-Holt version of Bell's inequality was violated with a
value of 2.711 +/- 0.017.Comment: 7 pages submitted to Physical Review
The mixed problem in L^p for some two-dimensional Lipschitz domains
We consider the mixed problem for the Laplace operator in a class of
Lipschitz graph domains in two dimensions with Lipschitz constant at most 1.
The boundary of the domain is decomposed into two disjoint sets D and N. We
suppose the Dirichlet data, f_D has one derivative in L^p(D) of the boundary
and the Neumann data is in L^p(N). We find conditions on the domain and the
sets D and N so that there is a p_0>1 so that for p in the interval (1,p_0), we
may find a unique solution to the mixed problem and the gradient of the
solution lies in L^p
Continuous loading of a magnetic trap
We have realized a scheme for continuous loading of a magnetic trap (MT).
^{52}Cr atoms are continuously captured and cooled in a magneto-optical trap
(MOT). Optical pumping to a metastable state decouples atoms from the cooling
light. Due to their high magnetic moment (6 Bohr magnetons), low-field seeking
metastable atoms are trapped in the magnetic quadrupole field provided by the
MOT. Limited by inelastic collisions between atoms in the MOT and in the MT, we
load 10^8 metastable atoms at a rate of 10^8 atoms/s below 100 microkelvin into
the MT. After loading we can perform optical repumping to realize a MT of
ground state chromium atoms.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, version 2, modified references, included
additional detailed information, minor changes in figure 3 and in tex
Reliability of the beamsplitter based Bell-state measurement
A linear 50/50 beamsplitter, together with a coincidence measurement, has
been widely used in quantum optical experiments, such as teleportation, dense
coding, etc., for interferometrically distinguishing, measuring, or projecting
onto one of the four two-photon polarization Bell-states . In
this paper, we demonstrate that the coincidence measurement at the output of a
beamsplitter cannot be used as an absolute identifier of the input state
nor as an indication that the input photons have projected to
the state.Comment: 4 pages, two-colum
Entangled-Photon Generation from Parametric Down-Conversion in Media with Inhomogeneous Nonlinearity
We develop and experimentally verify a theory of Type-II spontaneous
parametric down-conversion (SPDC) in media with inhomogeneous distributions of
second-order nonlinearity. As a special case, we explore interference effects
from SPDC generated in a cascade of two bulk crystals separated by an air gap.
The polarization quantum-interference pattern is found to vary strongly with
the spacing between the two crystals. This is found to be a cooperative effect
due to two mechanisms: the chromatic dispersion of the medium separating the
crystals and spatiotemporal effects which arise from the inclusion of
transverse wave vectors. These effects provide two concomitant avenues for
controlling the quantum state generated in SPDC. We expect these results to be
of interest for the development of quantum technologies and the generation of
SPDC in periodically varying nonlinear materials.Comment: submitted to Physical Review
Preliminary simulations of internal waves and mixing generated by finite amplitude tidal flow over isolated topography
Author Posting. © The Authors, 2005. This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here by permission of Elsevier B.V. for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Deep Sea Research Part II: Topical Studies in Oceanography 53 (2006): 140-156, doi:10.1016/j.dsr2.2005.09.014.Much recent observational evidence suggests that energy from the barotropic tides may be used for mixing in the deep ocean. Here the process of internal tide generation and dissipation by tidal flow over an isolated Gaussian topography is examined, using 2-dimensional numerical simulations
employing the MITgcm. Four different topographies are considered, for five different amplitudes of barotropic forcing, thereby allowing a variety of combinations of key nondimensional parameters.
While much recent attention has focused on the role of relative topographic steepness and height in modifying the rate of conversion of energy from barotropic to baroclinic modes, here attention is
focused on parameters dependent on the
flow amplitude. For narrow topography, large amplitude forcing gives rise to baroclinic responses at higher harmonics of the forcing frequency. Tall narrow topographies are found to be the most conducive to mixing. Dissipation rates in these calculations
are most efficient for the narrowest topography.KH was supported by a Summer Student Fellowship at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.
SL was supported by Office of Naval Research grant N00014-03-1-0336
Quantum Locality
It is argued that while quantum mechanics contains nonlocal or entangled
states, the instantaneous or nonlocal influences sometimes thought to be
present due to violations of Bell inequalities in fact arise from mistaken
attempts to apply classical concepts and introduce probabilities in a manner
inconsistent with the Hilbert space structure of standard quantum mechanics.
Instead, Einstein locality is a valid quantum principle: objective properties
of individual quantum systems do not change when something is done to another
noninteracting system. There is no reason to suspect any conflict between
quantum theory and special relativity.Comment: Introduction has been revised, references added, minor corrections
elsewhere. To appear in Foundations of Physic
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