Stress buildup in the Himalaya

The seismic cycle on a major fault involves long periods of elastic strain and stress accumulation, driven by aseismic ductile deformation at depth, ultimately released by sudden fault slip events. Coseismic slip distributions are generally heterogeneous with most of the energy being released in the rupture of asperities. Since, on the long term, the fault's walls generally do not accumulate any significant permanent deformation, interseismic deformation might be heterogeneous, revealing zones of focused stress buildup. The pattern of current deformation along the Himalayan arc, which is known to produce recurring devastating earthquakes, and where several seismic gaps have long been recognized, might accordingly show significant lateral variations, providing a possible explanation for the uneven microseismic activity along the Himalayan arc. By contrast, the geodetic measurements show a rather uniform pattern of interseismic strain, oriented consistently with long-term geological deformation, as indicated from stretching lineation. We show that the geodetic data and seismicity distribution are reconciled from a model in which microseismicity is interpreted as driven by stress buildup increase in the interseismic period. The uneven seismicity pattern is shown to reflect the impact of the topography on the stress field, indicating low deviatoric stresses (<35 MPa) and a low friction (<0.3) on the Main Himalayan Thrust. Arc-normal thrusting along the Himalayan front and east-west extension in southern Tibet are quantitatively reconciled by the model

Requirements for regional short-haul air service and the definition of a flight program to determine neighborhood reactions to small transport aircraft

An evaluation of the current status and future requirements of an intraregional short haul air service is given. A brief definition of the different types of short haul air service is given. This is followed by a historical review of previous attempts to develop short haul air service in high density urban areas and an assessment of the current status. The requirements for intraregional air service, the need for economic and environmental viability and the need for a flight research program are defined. A detailed outline of a research program that would determine urban community reaction to frequent operations of small transport aircraft is also given. Both the operation of such an experiment in a specific region (San Francisco Bay area) and the necessary design modifications of an existing fixed wing aircraft which could be used in the experiment are established. An estimate is made of overall program costs

Phase-coherent detection of an optical dipole force by Doppler velocimetry

We report phase-coherent Doppler detection of optical dipole forces using large ion crystals in a Penning trap. The technique is based on laser Doppler velocimetry using a cycling transition in $^{9}$Be$^{+}$ near 313 nm and the center-of-mass (COM) ion motional mode. The optical dipole force is tuned to excite the COM mode, and measurements of photon arrival times synchronized with the excitation potential show oscillations with a period commensurate with the COM motional frequency. Experimental results compare well with a quantitative model for a driven harmonic oscillator. This technique permits characterization of motional modes in ion crystals; the measurement of both frequency and phase information relative to the driving force is a key enabling capability -- comparable to lockin detection -- providing access to a parameter that is typically not available in time-averaged measurements. This additional information facilitates discrimination of nearly degenerate motional modes.Comment: Related manuscripts at http://www.physics.usyd.edu.au/~mbiercuk

Efficient engineering of multi-atom entanglement through single-photon detections

We propose an efficient scheme to engineer multi-atom entanglement by detecting cavity decay through single-photon detectors. In the special case of two atoms, this scheme is much more efficient than previous probabilistic schemes, and insensitive to randomness in the atom's position. More generally, the scheme can be used to prepare arbitrary superpositions of multi-atom Dicke states without the requirements of high-efficiency detection and separate addressing of different atoms.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figure

Thermal structure and exhumation history of the Lesser Himalaya in central Nepal

The Lesser Himalaya (LH) consists of metasedimentary rocks that have been scrapped off from the underthrusting Indian crust and accreted to the mountain range over the last ~20 Myr. It now forms a significant fraction of the Himalayan collisional orogen. We document the kinematics and thermal metamorphism associated with the deformation and exhumation of the LH, combining thermometric and thermochronological methods with structural geology. Peak metamorphic temperatures estimated from Raman spectroscopy of carbonaceous material decrease gradually from 520°–550°C below the Main Central Thrust zone down to less than 330°C. These temperatures describe structurally a 20°–50°C/km inverted apparent gradient. The Ar muscovite ages from LH samples and from the overlying crystalline thrust sheets all indicate the same regular trend; i.e., an increase from about 3–4 Ma near the front of the high range to about 20 Ma near the leading edge of the thrust sheets, about 80 km to the south. This suggests that the LH has been exhumed jointly with the overlying nappes as a result of overthrusting by about 5 mm/yr. For a convergence rate of about 20 mm/yr, this implies underthrusting of the Indian basement below the Himalaya by about 15 mm/yr. The structure, metamorphic grade and exhumation history of the LH supports the view that, since the mid-Miocene, the Himalayan orogen has essentially grown by underplating, rather than by frontal accretion. This process has resulted from duplexing at a depth close to the brittle-ductile transition zone, by southward migration of a midcrustal ramp along the Main Himalayan Thrust fault, and is estimated to have resulted in a net flux of up to 150 m^2/yr of LH rocks into the Himalayan orogenic wedge. The steep inverse thermal gradient across the LH is interpreted to have resulted from a combination of underplating and post metamorphic shearing of the underplated units

Observation of a parity oscillation in the conductance of atomic wires

Using a scanning tunnel microscope or mechanically controlled break junctions, atomic contacts of Au, Pt and Ir are pulled to form chains of atoms. We have recorded traces of conductance during the pulling process and averaged these for a large amount of contacts. An oscillatory evolution of conductance is observed during the formation of the monoatomic chain suggesting a dependence on even or odd numbers of atoms forming the chain. This behaviour is not only present in the monovalent metal Au, as it has been previously predicted, but is also found in the other metals which form chains suggesting it to be a universal feature of atomic wires

Verification of a many-ion simulator of the Dicke model through slow quenches across a phase transition

We use a self-assembled two-dimensional Coulomb crystal of $\sim 70$ ions in the presence of an external transverse field to engineer a simulator of the Dicke Hamiltonian, an iconic model in quantum optics which features a quantum phase transition between a superradiant/ferromagnetic and a normal/paramagnetic phase. We experimentally implement slow quenches across the quantum critical point and benchmark the dynamics and the performance of the simulator through extensive theory-experiment comparisons which show excellent agreement. The implementation of the Dicke model in fully controllable trapped ion arrays can open a path for the generation of highly entangled states useful for enhanced metrology and the observation of scrambling and quantum chaos in a many-body system.Comment: 6 + 5 pages, 2 + 5 figures. arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:1711.0739