Atomic matter wave scanner

We report on the experimental realization of an atom optical device, that allows scanning of an atomic beam. We used a time-modulated evanescent wave field above a glass surface to diffract a continuous beam of metastable Neon atoms at grazing incidence. The diffraction angles and efficiencies were controlled by the frequency and form of modulation, respectively. With an optimized shape, obtained from a numerical simulation, we were able to transfer more than 50% of the atoms into the first order beam, which we were able to move over a range of 8 mrad.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

MgII absorption systems with W_0 > 0.1 \AA for a radio selected sample of 77 QSOs and their associated magnetic fields at high redshifts

We present a catalogue of MgII absorption systems obtained from high resolution UVES/VLT data of 77 QSOs in the redshift range 0.6 < z < 2.0, and down to an equivalent width W_0 > 0.1 \AA. The statistical properties of our sample are found to be in agreement with those from previous work in the literature. However, we point out that the previously observed increase with redshift of dN/dz for weak absorbers, pertains exclusively to very weak absorbers with W_0 < 0.1 \AA. Instead, dN/dz for absorbers with W_0 in the range 0.1-0.3 \AA actually decreases with redshift, similarly to the case of strong absorbers. We then use this catalogue to extend our earlier analysis of the links between the Faraday Rotation Measure of the quasars and the presence of intervening MgII absorbing systems in their spectra. In contrast to the case with strong MgII absorption systems W_0 > 0.3 \AA, the weaker systems do not contribute significantly to the observed Rotation Measure of the background quasars. This is possibly due to the higher impact parameters of the weak systems compared to strong ones, suggesting that the high column density magnetized material that is responsible for the Faraday Rotation is located within about 50 kpc of the galaxies. Finally, we show that this result also rules out the possibility that some unexpected secondary correlation between the quasar redshift and its intrinsic Rotation Measure is responsible for the association of high Rotation Measure and strong intervening MgII absorption that we have presented elsewhere, since this would have produced an equal effect for the weak absorption line systems, which exhibit a very similar distribution of quasar redshifts.Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJ. 12 pages, 8 figure

The phase spiral in Gaia DR3

We aim to study the phase spiral in the Milky Way (MW) with Gaia DR3. We used an edge detection algorithm to find the border of the phase spiral, allowing us to robustly quantify its shape at different positions and for different selections. We calculated the time of onset of the phase-mixing by determining the different turns of the phase spiral and using the vertical frequencies from commonly used MW potential models. We find that the phase spiral extends down to $-1.2$ kpc in height below the plane (about 3 to 5 scale heights of the thin disc) and beyond $\pm 50$ km/s in $V_Z$. We see a secondary branch mostly at positive vertical velocities when coloured by azimuthal velocity and in the counts projection. We also find complex variations of the phase spirals with angular momentum and azimuth. All these possibly provide evidence of multiple perturbations (from different times or from different perturbers) and/or of the complexity of the phase mixing process. We detect the phase spiral from 6 to 11 kpc from the Galactic centre and find signatures of vertical asymmetries 1-2 kpc beyond this range. We measure small but clear variations with azimuth. When we determine the phase mixing times from the phase spiral at different angular momenta and using the different spiral turns (at different $Z$) we obtain inconsistent times with systematic differences (times increasing with $|L_Z|$ and with $|Z|$). Our determinations are mostly in the range of [0.3-0.9] Gyr, with an average of 0.5 Gyr. The inconsistencies do not change when using different usual potential models, different stellar distances or frequencies for different kinetic temperatures. They could stem from the inconsistency of potential models with the true MW, and from too simple modelling, in particular neglecting self-gravity, not considering the multiple perturbations and the interference with other processes.Comment: accepted for publication in A&

Familial risk for depressive and anxiety disorders:associations with genetic, clinical, and psychosocial vulnerabilities

BACKGROUND: In research and clinical practice, familial risk for depression and anxiety is often constructed as a simple Yes/No dichotomous family history (FH) indicator. However, this measure may not fully capture the liability to these conditions. This study investigated whether a continuous familial loading score (FLS), incorporating family- and disorder-specific characteristics (e.g. family size, prevalence of depression/anxiety), (i) is associated with a polygenic risk score (PRS) for major depression and with clinical/psychosocial vulnerabilities and (ii) still captures variation in clinical/psychosocial vulnerabilities after information on FH has been taken into account. METHODS: Data came from 1425 participants with lifetime depression and/or anxiety from the Netherlands Study of Depression and Anxiety. The Family Tree Inventory was used to determine FLS/FH indicators for depression and/or anxiety. RESULTS: Persons with higher FLS had higher PRS for major depression, more severe depression and anxiety symptoms, higher disease burden, younger age of onset, and more neuroticism, rumination, and childhood trauma. Among these variables, FH was not associated with PRS, severity of symptoms, and neuroticism. After regression out the effect of FH from the FLS, the resulting residualized measure of FLS was still associated with severity of symptoms of depression and anxiety, rumination, and childhood trauma. CONCLUSIONS: Familial risk for depression and anxiety deserves clinical attention due to its associated genetic vulnerability and more unfavorable disease profile, and seems to be better captured by a continuous score that incorporates family- and disorder-specific characteristics than by a dichotomous FH measure

Matter wave pulses characteristics

We study the properties of quantum single-particle wave pulses created by sharp-edged or apodized shutters with single or periodic openings. In particular, we examine the visibility of diffraction fringes depending on evolution time and temperature; the purity of the state depending on the opening-time window; the accuracy of a simplified description which uses ``source'' boundary conditions instead of solving an initial value problem; and the effects of apodization on the energy width.Comment: 11 pages, 11 figure

Search for lepton-flavour-violating decays of Higgs-like bosons.

A search is presented for a Higgs-like boson with mass in the range 45 to 195 GeV/c2 decaying into a muon and a tau lepton. The dataset consists of proton-proton interactions at a centre-of-mass energy of 8 TeV , collected by the LHCb experiment, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 2 fb-1 . The tau leptons are reconstructed in both leptonic and hadronic decay channels. An upper limit on the production cross-section multiplied by the branching fraction at 95% confidence level is set and ranges from 22 pb for a boson mass of 45 GeV/c2 to 4 pb for a mass of 195 GeV/c2

A Global Probe of Cosmic Magnetic Fields to High Redshifts

Faraday rotation (RM) probes of magnetic fields in the universe are sensitive to cosmological and evolutionary effects as $z$ increases beyond $\sim$1 because of the scalings of electron density and magnetic fields, and the growth in the number of expected intersections with galaxy-scale intervenors, $d$N/$dz$. In this new global analysis of an unprecedented large sample of RM's of high latitude quasars extending out to $z\sim$3.7 we find that the distribution of RM broadens with redshift in the 20 $-$ 80 rad m$^{-2}$ range range, despite the (1 +$z$)$^{-2}$ wavelength dilution expected in the observed Faraday rotation. Our results indicate that the Universe becomes increasingly ``Faraday-opaque'' to sources beyond $z \sim$ 2, that is, as $z$ increases progressively fewer sources are found with a ``small'' RM in the observer's frame. This is in contrast to sources at z \la1. They suggest that the environments of galaxies were significantly magnetized at high redshifts, with magnetic field strengths that were at least as strong within a few Gyr of the Big Bang as at the current epoch. We separately investigate a simple unevolving toy model in which the RM is produced by MgII absorber systems, and find that it can approximately reproduce the observed trend with redshift. An additional possibility is that the intrinsic RM associated with the radio sources was much higher in the past, and we show that this is not a trivial consequence of the higher radio luminosities of the high redshift sources.Comment: 10 pages, 8 figures Astrophysical Jounrnal in press, March 200