3,331 research outputs found
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
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