2,192 research outputs found
Pseudo-potential treatment of two aligned dipoles under external harmonic confinement
Dipolar Bose and Fermi gases, which are currently being studied extensively
experimentally and theoretically, interact through anisotropic, long-range
potentials. Here, we replace the long-range potential by a zero-range
pseudo-potential that simplifies the theoretical treatment of two dipolar
particles in a harmonic trap. Our zero-range pseudo-potential description
reproduces the energy spectrum of two dipoles interacting through a
shape-dependent potential under external confinement very well, provided that
sufficiently many partial waves are included, and readily leads to a
classification scheme of the energy spectrum in terms of approximate angular
momentum quantum numbers. The results may be directly relevant to the physics
of dipolar gases loaded into optical lattices.Comment: 9 pages, 4 figure
Methane emissions from western Siberian wetlands: heterogeneity and sensitivity to climate change
The prediction of methane emissions from high-latitude wetlands is important given concerns about their sensitivity to a warming climate. As a basis for the prediction of wetland methane emissions at regional scales, we coupled the variable infiltration capacity macroscale hydrological model (VIC) with the biosphere–energy-transfer–hydrology terrestrial ecosystem model (BETHY) and a wetland methane emissions model to make large-scale estimates of methane emissions as a function of soil temperature, water table depth, and net primary productivity (NPP), with a parameterization of the sub-grid heterogeneity of the water table depth based on TOPMODEL. We simulated the methane emissions from a 100 km × 100 km region of western Siberia surrounding the Bakchar Bog, for a retrospective baseline period of 1980–1999 and have evaluated their sensitivity to increases in temperature of 0–5 °C and increases in precipitation of 0–15%. The interactions of temperature and precipitation, through their effects on the water table depth, played an important role in determining methane emissions from these wetlands. The balance between these effects varied spatially, and their net effect depended in part on sub-grid topographic heterogeneity. Higher temperatures alone increased methane production in saturated areas, but caused those saturated areas to shrink in extent, resulting in a net reduction in methane emissions. Higher precipitation alone raised water tables and expanded the saturated area, resulting in a net increase in methane emissions. Combining a temperature increase of 3 °C and an increase of 10% in precipitation to represent climate conditions that may pertain in western Siberia at the end of this century resulted in roughly a doubling in annual emissions
Linking Ultracold Polar Molecules
We predict that pairs of polar molecules can be weakly bound together in an
ultracold environment, provided that a dc electric field is present. The field
that links the molecules together also strongly influences the basic properties
of the resulting dimer, such as its binding energy and predissociation
lifetime. Because of their long-range character these dimers will be useful in
disentangling cold collision dynamics of polar molecules. As an example, we
estimate the microwave photoassociation yield for OH-OH cold collisions.Comment: 4 pages 2 figure
Influence of a humidor on the aerodynamics of baseballs
We investigate whether storing baseballs in a controlled humidity environment
significantly affects their aerodynamic properties. To do this, we measure the
change in diameter and mass of baseballs as a function of relative humidity
(RH) in which the balls are stored. We then model trajectories for pitched and
batted baseballs to assess the difference between those stored at 30% RH versus
50% RH. The results show that a drier baseball may be expected to curve
slightly more than a humidified one for a given pitch velocity. We also find
that the aerodynamics alone would add ~2 feet to the distance a moister ball is
hit. However, this is compensated by a ~6 foot reduction in batted distance due
to the well known change in coefficient of restitution of the ball. We discuss
consequences of these results for baseball played at Coors Field in Denver,
where baseballs have been stored in a humidor at 50% RH since 2002.Comment: 21 pages, 7 figures, modified and re-posted 2/2
A New Version of Reimers' law of Mass Loss Based on a Physical Approach
We present a new semi-empirical relation for the mass loss of cool stellar
winds, which so far has frequently been described by "Reimers' law".
Originally, this relation was based solely on dimensional scaling arguments
without any physical interpretation. In our approach, the wind is assumed to
result from the spill-over of the extended chromosphere, possibly associated
with the action of waves, especially Alfven waves, which are used as guidance
in the derivation of the new formula. We obtain a relation akin to the original
Reimers law, but which includes two new factors. They reflect how the
chromospheric height depends on gravity and how the mechanical energy flux
depends, mainly, on effective temperature. The new relation is tested and
sensitively calibrated by modelling the blue end of the Horizontal Branch of
globular clusters. The most significant difference from mass loss rates
predicted by the Reimers relation is an increase by up to a factor of 3 for
luminous late-type (super-)giants, in good agreement with observations.Comment: 12 pages, 4 figures, accepted by ApJ Letter
Photoassociation of sodium in a Bose-Einstein condensate
We report on the formation of ultra-cold Na molecules using single-photon
photoassociation of a Bose-Einstein condensate. The photoassociation rate,
linewidth and light shift of the J=1, vibrational level of the
\mterm{A}{1}{+}{u} molecular bound state have been measured. We find that the
photoassociation rate constant increases linearly with intensity, even where it
is predicted that many-body effects might limit the rate. Our observations are
everywhere in good agreement with a two-body theory having no free parameters.Comment: Fixes to the figures and references. Just the normal human stupidity
type stuff, nothing Earth-shatterin
Dipolar collisions of polar molecules in the quantum regime
Ultracold polar molecules offer the possibility of exploring quantum gases
with interparticle interactions that are strong, long-range, and spatially
anisotropic. This is in stark contrast to the dilute gases of ultracold atoms,
which have isotropic and extremely short-range, or "contact", interactions. The
large electric dipole moment of polar molecules can be tuned with an external
electric field; this provides unique opportunities such as control of ultracold
chemical reactions, quantum information processing, and the realization of
novel quantum many-body systems. In spite of intense experimental efforts aimed
at observing the influence of dipoles on ultracold molecules, only recently
have sufficiently high densities been achieved. Here, we report the observation
of dipolar collisions in an ultracold molecular gas prepared close to quantum
degeneracy. For modest values of an applied electric field, we observe a
dramatic increase in the loss rate of fermionic KRb molecules due to ultrcold
chemical reactions. We find that the loss rate has a steep power-law dependence
on the induced electric dipole moment, and we show that this dependence can be
understood with a relatively simple model based on quantum threshold laws for
scattering of fermionic polar molecules. We directly observe the spatial
anisotropy of the dipolar interaction as manifested in measurements of the
thermodynamics of the dipolar gas. These results demonstrate how the long-range
dipolar interaction can be used for electric-field control of chemical reaction
rates in an ultracold polar molecule gas. The large loss rates in an applied
electric field suggest that creating a long-lived ensemble of ultracold polar
molecules may require confinement in a two-dimensional trap geometry to
suppress the influence of the attractive dipolar interactions
Field-linked States of Ultracold Polar Molecules
We explore the character of a novel set of ``field-linked'' states that were
predicted in [A. V. Avdeenkov and J. L. Bohn, Phys. Rev. Lett. 90, 043006
(2003)]. These states exist at ultralow temperatures in the presence of an
electrostatic field, and their properties are strongly dependent on the field's
strength. We clarify the nature of these quasi-bound states by constructing
their wave functions and determining their approximate quantum numbers. As the
properties of field-linked states are strongly defined by anisotropic dipolar
and Stark interactions, we construct adiabatic surfaces as functions of both
the intermolecular distance and the angle that the intermolecular axis makes
with the electric field. Within an adiabatic approximation we solve the 2-D
Schrodinger equation to find bound states, whose energies correlate well with
resonance features found in fully-converged multichannel scattering
calculations
Ultracold collisions of oxygen molecules
Collision cross sections and rate constants between two ground- state oxygen
molecules are investigated theoretically at translational energies below K and in zero magnetic field. We present calculations for elastic and spin-
changing inelastic collision rates for different isotopic combinations of
oxygen atoms as a prelude to understanding their collisional stability in
ultracold magnetic traps. A numerical analysis has been made in the framework
of a rigid- rotor model that accounts fully for the singlet, triplet, and
quintet potential energy surfaces in this system. The results offer insights
into the effectiveness of evaporative cooling and the properties of molecular
Bose- Einstein condensates, as well as estimates of collisional lifetimes in
magnetic traps. Specifically, looks like a good candidate for
ultracold studies, while is unlikely to survive evaporative
cooling. Since is representative of a wide class of molecules that
are paramagnetic in their ground state we conclude that many molecules can be
successfully magnetically trapped at ultralow temperatures.Comment: 15 pages, 9 figure
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