3,248 research outputs found
Discovery of a ~5 day characteristic timescale in the Kepler power spectrum of Zw 229-15
We present time series analyses of the full Kepler dataset of Zw 229-15. This
Kepler light curve --- with a baseline greater than three years, composed of
virtually continuous, evenly sampled 30-minute measurements --- is
unprecedented in its quality and precision. We utilize two methods of power
spectral analysis to investigate the optical variability and search for
evidence of a bend frequency associated with a characteristic optical
variability timescale. Each method yields similar results. The first
interpolates across data gaps to use the standard Fourier periodogram. The
second, using the CARMA-based time-domain modeling technique of Kelly et al.
(2014), does not need evenly-sampled data. Both methods find excess power at
high frequencies that may be due to Kepler instrumental effects. More
importantly both also show strong bends ({\Delta}{\alpha} ~ 2) at timescales of
~5 days, a feature similar to those seen in the X-ray PSDs of AGN but never
before in the optical. This observed ~5 day timescale may be associated with
one of several physical processes potentially responsible for the variability.
A plausible association could be made with light-crossing, dynamical or thermal
timescales, depending on the assumed value of the accretion disk size and on
unobserved disk parameters such as {\alpha} and H/R. This timescale is not
consistent with the viscous timescale, which would be years in a ~10^7 Solar
mass AGN such as Zw 229-15. However there must be a second bend on long (>~1
year) timescales, and that feature could be associated with the viscous
timescale.Comment: 10 pages, 5 figures, 1 table. To appear in the Astrophysical Journal,
Part
CQC’s impact on the quality of care:An assessment of CQC’s contribution, and suggestions for improvement
A case study of stakeholder experiences and views of a novel electronic Monitored Dosage System: Biodose Connect
Realisation of Hardy's Thought Experiment
We present an experimental realisation of Hardy's thought experiment [Phys.
Rev. Lett. {\bf 68}, 2981 (1992)], using photons. The experiment consists of a
pair of Mach-Zehnder interferometers that interact through photon bunching at a
beam splitter. A striking contradiction is created between the predictions of
quantum mechanics and local hidden variable based theories. The contradiction
relies on non-maximally entangled position states of two particles.Comment: 5 page
Augmented reality and older adults:A comparison of prompting types
Older adults can benefit from technologies that help them to complete everyday tasks. However, they are an often-under-represented population in augmented reality (AR) research. We present the results of a study in which people aged 50 years or older were asked to perform actions by interpreting visual AR prompts in a lab setting. Our results show that users were less successful at completing actions when using ARROWand HIGHLIGHT augmentations than when using ghosted OBJECT or GHOSTHAND augmentations. We found that user confidence in performing actions varied according to action and augmentation type. Users preferred combined AUDIO+TEXT prompts (our control condition) overall, but the GHOSTHAND was the most preferred visual prompt. We discuss reasons for these differences and provide insight for developers of AR content for older adults. Ourwork provides the first comparative study of AR with older adults in a non-industrial context.</p
Quantum Memory with a controlled homogeneous splitting
We propose a quantum memory protocol where a input light field can be stored
onto and released from a single ground state atomic ensemble by controlling
dynamically the strength of an external static and homogeneous field. The
technique relies on the adiabatic following of a polaritonic excitation onto a
state for which the forward collective radiative emission is forbidden. The
resemblance with the archetypal Electromagnetically-Induced-Transparency (EIT)
is only formal because no ground state coherence based slow-light propagation
is considered here. As compared to the other grand category of protocols
derived from the photon-echo technique, our approach only involves a
homogeneous static field. We discuss two physical situations where the effect
can be observed, and show that in the limit where the excited state lifetime is
longer than the storage time, the protocols are perfectly efficient and
noise-free. We compare the technique to other quantum memories, and propose
atomic systems where the experiment can be realized.Comment: submitted to New Journal of Physics, Focus on Quantum Memor
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