Effect of flow on the acoustic reflection coefficient at a duct inlet

The effect of duct Mach number upon the acoustic reflection coefficient at the inlet of a duct with mean flow is investigated. An analysis, which models the duct inlet as a very short, one-dimensional nozzle over which the mean flow is accelerated from rest, gives good agreement with some recent experimental results. Discrepancies between the analysis and the experimental results are discussed in terms of radiation losses at the inlet and real fluid-flow effects within the duct

Observation of Heteronuclear Feshbach Resonances in a Bose-Fermi Mixture

Three magnetic-field induced heteronuclear Feshbach resonances were identified in collisions between bosonic 87Rb and fermionic 40K atoms in their absolute ground states. Strong inelastic loss from an optically trapped mixture was observed at the resonance positions of 492, 512, and 543 +/- 2 G. The magnetic-field locations of these resonances place a tight constraint on the triplet and singlet cross-species scattering lengths, yielding -281 +/- 15 Bohr and -54 +/- 12 Bohr, respectively. The width of the loss feature at 543 G is 3.7 +/- 1.5 G wide; this broad Feshbach resonance should enable experimental control of the interspecies interactions.Comment: revtex4 + 5 EPS figure

Chaotic Orbits in Thermal-Equilibrium Beams: Existence and Dynamical Implications

Phase mixing of chaotic orbits exponentially distributes these orbits through their accessible phase space. This phenomenon, commonly called ``chaotic mixing'', stands in marked contrast to phase mixing of regular orbits which proceeds as a power law in time. It is operationally irreversible; hence, its associated e-folding time scale sets a condition on any process envisioned for emittance compensation. A key question is whether beams can support chaotic orbits, and if so, under what conditions? We numerically investigate the parameter space of three-dimensional thermal-equilibrium beams with space charge, confined by linear external focusing forces, to determine whether the associated potentials support chaotic orbits. We find that a large subset of the parameter space does support chaos and, in turn, chaotic mixing. Details and implications are enumerated.Comment: 39 pages, including 14 figure

Wave Mechanics of a Two Wire Atomic Beamsplitter

We consider the problem of an atomic beam propagating quantum mechanically through an atom beam splitter. Casting the problem in an adiabatic representation (in the spirit of the Born-Oppenheimer approximation in molecular physics) sheds light on explicit effects due to non-adiabatic passage of the atoms through the splitter region. We are thus able to probe the fully three dimensional structure of the beam splitter, gathering quantitative information about mode-mixing, splitting ratios,and reflection and transmission probabilities

The role of elastic stresses on leaf venation morphogenesis

We explore the possible role of elastic mismatch between epidermis and mesophyll as a driving force for the development of leaf venation. The current prevalent 'canalization' hypothesis for the formation of veins claims that the transport of the hormone auxin out of the leaves triggers cell differentiation to form veins. Although there is evidence that auxin plays a fundamental role in vein formation, the simple canalization mechanism may not be enough to explain some features observed in the vascular system of leaves, in particular, the abundance of vein loops. We present a model based on the existence of mechanical instabilities that leads very naturally to hierarchical patterns with a large number of closed loops. When applied to the structure of high order veins, the numerical results show the same qualitative features as actual venation patterns and, furthermore, have the same statistical properties. We argue that the agreement between actual and simulated patterns provides strong evidence for the role of mechanical effects on venation development.Comment: 10 figures, published in PLoS Computational Biolog

Measurement and Modeling of Infrared Nonlinear Absorption Coefficients and Laser-induced Damage Thresholds in Ge and GaSb

Using a simultaneous fitting technique to extract nonlinear absorption coefficients from data at two pulse widths, we measure two-photon and free-carrier absorption coefficients for Ge and GaSb at 2.05 and 2.5 μm for the first time, to our knowledge. Results agreed well with published theory. Single-shot damage thresholds were also measured at 2.5 μm and agreed well with modeled thresholds using experimentally determined parameters including nonlinear absorption coefficients and temperature dependent linear absorption. The damage threshold for a single-layer Al2O3 anti-reflective coating on Ge was 55% or 35% lower than the uncoated threshold for picosecond or nanosecond pulses, respectively

A Dielectric Superfluid of Polar Molecules

We show that, under achievable experimental conditions, a Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) of polar molecules can exhibit dielectric character. In particular, we derive a set of self-consistent mean-field equations that couple the condensate density to its electric dipole field, leading to the emergence of polarization modes that are coupled to the rich quasiparticle spectrum of the condensate. While the usual roton instability is suppressed in this system, the coupling can give rise to a phonon-like instability that is characteristic of a dielectric material with a negative static dielectric function.Comment: Version published in New Journal of Physics, 11+ pages, 4 figure

Reconstruction of eye movements during blinks

In eye movement research in reading, the amount of data plays a crucial role for the validation of results. A methodological problem for the analysis of the eye movement in reading are blinks, when readers close their eyes. Blinking rate increases with increasing reading time, resulting in high data losses, especially for older adults or reading impaired subjects. We present a method, based on the symbolic sequence dynamics of the eye movements, that reconstructs the horizontal position of the eyes while the reader blinks. The method makes use of an observed fact that the movements of the eyes before closing or after opening contain information about the eyes movements during blinks. Test results indicate that our reconstruction method is superior to methods that use simpler interpolation approaches. In addition, analyses of the reconstructed data show no significant deviation from the usual behavior observed in readers