923 research outputs found
Development of Lumped Element Kinetic Inductance Detectors for the W-Band
We are developing a Lumped Element Kinetic Inductance Detector (LEKID) array
able to operate in the W-band (75-110 GHz) in order to perform ground-based
Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) and mm-wave astronomical observations. The
W-band is close to optimal in terms of contamination of the CMB from Galactic
synchrotron, free-free, and thermal interstellar dust. In this band, the
atmosphere has very good transparency, allowing interesting ground-based
observations with large (>30 m) telescopes, achieving high angular resolution
(<0.4 arcmin). In this work we describe the startup measurements devoted to the
optimization of a W-band camera/spectrometer prototype for large aperture
telescopes like the 64 m SRT (Sardinia Radio Telescope). In the process of
selecting the best superconducting film for the LEKID, we characterized a 40 nm
thick Aluminum 2-pixel array. We measured the minimum frequency able to break
CPs (i.e. ) obtaining
GHz, that corresponds to a critical temperature of 1.31 K. This is not suitable
to cover the entire W-band. For an 80 nm layer the minimum frequency decreases
to 93.2 GHz, which corresponds to a critical temperature of 1.28 K; this value
is still suboptimal for W-band operation. Further increase of the Al film
thickness results in bad performance of the detector. We have thus considered a
Titanium-Aluminum bi-layer (10 nm thick Ti + 25 nm thick Al, already tested in
other laboratories), for which we measured a critical temperature of 820 mK and
a cut-on frequency of 65 GHz: so this solution allows operation in the entire
W-band.Comment: 16th International Workshop on Low Temperature Detectors, Grenoble
20-24 July 2015, Journal of Low Temperature Physics, Accepte
Unstable and stable regimes of polariton condensation
Modulational instabilities play a key role in a wide range of nonlinear
optical phenomena, leading e.g. to the formation of spatial and temporal
solitons, rogue waves and chaotic dynamics. Here we experimentally demonstrate
the existence of a modulational instability in condensates of cavity
polaritons, arising from the strong coupling of cavity photons with quantum
well excitons. For this purpose we investigate the spatiotemporal coherence
properties of polariton condensates in GaAs-based microcavities under
continuous-wave pumping. The chaotic behavior of the instability results in a
strongly reduced spatial and temporal coherence and a significantly
inhomogeneous density. Additionally we show how the instability can be tamed by
introducing a periodic potential so that condensation occurs into negative mass
states, leading to largely improved coherence and homogeneity. These results
pave the way to the exploration of long-range order in dissipative quantum
fluids of light within a controlled platform.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figure
Delayed Recombination and Standard Rulers
Measurements of Baryonic Acoustic Oscillations in galaxy surveys have been
recognized as a powerful tool for constraining dark energy. However, this
method relies on the knowledge of the size of the acoustic horizon at
recombination derived from Cosmic Microwave Background Anisotropy measurements.
This estimate is typically derived assuming a standard recombination scheme;
additional radiation sources can delay recombination altering the cosmic
ionization history and the cosmological inferences drawn from CMB and BAO data.
In this paper we quantify the effect of delayed recombination on the
determination of dark energy parameters from future BAO surveys such as BOSS
and WFMOS. We find the impact to be small but still not negligible. In
particular, if recombination is non-standard (to a level still allowed by CMB
data), but this is ignored, future surveys may incorrectly suggest the presence
of a redshift dependent dark energy component. On the other hand, in the case
of delayed recombination, adding to the analysis one extra parameter describing
deviations from standard recombination, does not significantly degrade the
error-bars on dark energy parameters and yields unbiased estimates.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figure
Renormalization-group running of the cosmological constant and its implication for the Higgs boson mass in the Standard Model
The renormalization-group equation for the zero-point energies associated
with vacuum fluctuations of massive fields from the Standard Model is examined.
Our main observation is that at any scale the running is necessarily dominated
by the heaviest degrees of freedom, in clear contradistinction with the
Appelquist & Carazzone decoupling theorem. Such an enhanced running would
represent a disaster for cosmology, unless a fine-tuned relation among the
masses of heavy particles is imposed. In this way, we obtain for the Higgs mass, a value safely within the unitarity bound, but far
above the more stringent triviality bound for the case when the validity of the
Standard Model is pushed up to the grand unification (or Planck) scale.Comment: 11 pages, LaTex2
Variations of the spectral index of dust emissivity from Hi-GAL observations of the Galactic plane
Original article can be found at: http://www.aanda.org/ Copyright The European Southern ObservatoryContext. Variations in the dust emissivity are critical for gas mass determinations derived from far-infrared observations, but also for separating dust foreground emission from the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB). Hi-GAL observations allow us for the first time to study the dust emissivity variations in the inner regions of the Galactic plane at resolution below 1°. Aims. We present maps of the emissivity spectral index derived from the combined Herschel PACS 160 ÎŒm, SPIRE 250 ÎŒm, 350 ÎŒm, and 500 ÎŒm data, and the IRIS 100 ÎŒm data, and we analyze the spatial variations of the spectral index as a function of dust temperature and wavelength in the two science demonstration phase Hi-GAL fields, centered at l = 30° and l = 59°. Methods. Applying two different methods, we determine both dust temperature and emissivity spectral index between 100 and 500 ÎŒm, at an angular resolution (Ξ) of 4'. Results. Combining both fields, the results show variations of the emissivity spectral index in the range 1.8â2.6 for temperatures between 14 and 23 K. The median values of the spectral index are similar in both fields, i.e. 2.3 in the range 100â500 ÎŒm, while the median dust temperatures are equal to 19.1 K and 16.0 K in the l = 30° and l = 59° field, respectively. Statistically, we do not see any significant deviations in the spectra from a power law emissivity between 100 and 500 ÎŒm. We confirm the existence of an inverse correlation between the emissivity spectral index and dust temperature, found in previous analyses.Peer reviewe
Scale Dependence of Dark Energy Antigravity
We investigate the effects of negative pressure induced by dark energy
(cosmological constant or quintessence) on the dynamics at various
astrophysical scales. Negative pressure induces a repulsive term (antigravity)
in Newton's law which dominates on large scales. Assuming a value of the
cosmological constant consistent with the recent SnIa data we determine the
critical scale beyond which antigravity dominates the dynamics () and discuss some of the dynamical effects implied. We show that
dynamically induced mass estimates on the scale of the Local Group and beyond
are significantly modified due to negative pressure. We also briefly discuss
possible dynamical tests (eg effects on local Hubble flow) that can be applied
on relatively small scales (a few ) to determine the density and equation
of state of dark energy.Comment: Contributed talk at the 2nd Hellenic Cosmology Workshop at NOA
(Athens) Jan. 2001.To appear in the proceedings. Based on work done in
collaboration with M. Axenides and E. Florato
Conceptul de permaculturÄ Ăźn amenajarea peisagisticÄ 3 D
Permaculture is a design system for creating sustainable human environments, that expands its applicabilaty also in agricultural landscaping.Permaculture is not limited to plant and animal agriculture, but also includes community planning and development, use of appropriate technologies (coupledwith an adjustment of life-style), and adoption of concepts and philosophies that are both earth-based and people-centered, such as bioregionalism.The general aim of this study is to emphesise the benefits of permaculture concept in the actual globalization context and serve as a guidepost to right livelihood in concert with the global community and the environment, rather than individualism and indifference.Whereas permaculture ethics are more akin to broad moral values or codes of behavior, the principles of permaculture provide a set of universally applicable guidelines which can be used in designing sustainable habitats. Distilled from multiple disciplinesâecology, energy conservation, landscape design, and environmental scienceâthese principles are inherent in any permaculture design, in any climate, and at any scale
Kinetic Inductance Detectors for the OLIMPO experiment: design and pre-flight characterization
We designed, fabricated, and characterized four arrays of horn--coupled,
lumped element kinetic inductance detectors (LEKIDs), optimized to work in the
spectral bands of the balloon-borne OLIMPO experiment. OLIMPO is a 2.6 m
aperture telescope, aimed at spectroscopic measurements of the
Sunyaev-Zel'dovich (SZ) effect. OLIMPO will also validate the LEKID technology
in a representative space environment. The corrected focal plane is filled with
diffraction limited horn-coupled KID arrays, with 19, 37, 23, 41 active pixels
respectively at 150, 250, 350, and 460GHz. Here we report on the full
electrical and optical characterization performed on these detector arrays
before the flight. In a dark laboratory cryostat, we measured the resonator
electrical parameters, such as the quality factors and the electrical
responsivities, at a base temperature of 300mK. The measured average
resonator s are 1.7, 7.0, 1.0, and
1.0 for the 150, 250, 350, and 460GHz arrays, respectively.
The average electrical phase responsivities on resonance are 1.4rad/pW,
1.5rad/pW, 2.1rad/pW, and 2.1rad/pW; the electrical noise
equivalent powers are 45, 160,
80, and 140, at 12 Hz. In the OLIMPO
cryostat, we measured the optical properties, such as the noise equivalent
temperatures (NET) and the spectral responses. The measured NETs are
, , ,
and , at 12 Hz; under 78, 88, 92, and 90 mK
Rayleigh-Jeans blackbody load changes respectively for the 150, 250, 350, and
460 GHz arrays. The spectral responses were characterized with the OLIMPO
differential Fourier transform spectrometer (DFTS) up to THz frequencies, with
a resolution of 1.8 GHz.Comment: Published on JCA
CALDER - Neutrinoless double-beta decay identification in TeO bolometers with kinetic inductance detectors
Next-generation experiments searching for neutrinoless double-beta decay must
be sensitive to a Majorana neutrino mass as low as 10 meV. CUORE, an array of
988 TeO bolometers being commissioned at Laboratori Nazionali del Gran
Sasso in Italy, features an expected sensitivity of 50-130 meV at 90% C.L, that
can be improved by removing the background from radioactivity. This is
possible if, in coincidence with the heat release in a bolometer, the Cherenkov
light emitted by the signal is detected. The amount of light detected
is so far limited to only 100 eV, requiring low-noise cryogenic light
detectors. The CALDER project (Cryogenic wide-Area Light Detectors with
Excellent Resolution) aims at developing a small prototype experiment
consisting of TeO bolometers coupled to new light detectors based on
kinetic inductance detectors. The R&D is focused on the light detectors that
could be implemented in a next-generation neutrinoless double-beta decay
experiment.Comment: 8 pages, 3 figures, added reference to first result
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