Spectral analysis of the Elatina varve series

The Elatina formation in South America, which provides a rich fossil record of presumptive solar activity in the late Precambrian, is of great potential significance for the physics of the sun because it contains luminae grouped in cycles of about 12, an appearance suggestive of the solar cycle. Here, the laminae are treated as varves laid down yearly and modulated in thickness in accordance with the late Precambrian sunspot activity for the year of deposition. The purpose is to present a simple structure, or intrinsic spectrum, that will be uncovered by appropriate data analysis

Trapped Resonant Fermions above Superfluid Transition Temperature

We investigate trapped resonant fermions with unequal populations within the local density approximation above the superfluid transition temperature. By tuning the attractive interaction between fermions via Feshbach resonance, the system evolves from weakly interacting fermi gas to strongly interacting fermi gas, and finally becomes bose-fermi mixture. The density profiles of fermions are examined and compared with experiments. We also point out the simple relationships between the local density, the axial density, and the gas pressure within the local density approximation.Comment: 9 pages, 4 figure

Harmonic analysis of irradiation asymmetry for cylindrical implosions driven by high-frequency rotating ion beams

Cylindrical implosions driven by intense heavy ions beams should be instrumental in a near future to study High Energy Density Matter. By rotating the beam by means of a high frequency wobbler, it should be possible to deposit energy in the outer layers of a cylinder, compressing the material deposited in its core. The beam temporal profile should however generate an inevitable irradiation asymmetry likely to feed the Rayleigh-Taylor instability (RTI) during the implosion phase. In this paper, we compute the Fourier components of the target irradiation in order to make the junction with previous works on RTI performed in this setting. Implementing a 1D and 2D beam models, we find these components can be expressed exactly in terms of the Fourier transform of the temporal beam profile. If $T$ is the beam duration and $\Omega$ its rotation frequency, "magic products" $\Omega T$ can be identified which cancel the first harmonic of the deposited density, resulting in an improved irradiation symmetry.Comment: 19 pages, 8 figures, to appear in PR

Dynamic modelling of aqueous two-phase systems to quantify the impact of bioprocess design, operation and variability

Aqueous two-phase extraction (ATPE) is a promising downstream separation technology as an alternative, or addition, to chromatography in the production of biological products. Increasing demand for therapeutic proteins have triggered manufacturers to consider continuous upstream technologies to achieve greater process efficiencies; however, such technologies have an inherent variability, resulting in output streams of varying compositions and properties. It is therefore important to understand how this variability impacts on the downstream separation processes. Exploring all potential sources of variability is challenging due to resource and time constraints, however, the use of targeted mathematical modelling can significantly reduce the need for expensive and time consuming experimentation. In this work, we present a dynamic equilibrium stage process model, and a methodology for prediction of key process parameters from limited experiments, capable of describing ATPE separations under both multi-cycle batch and continuous counter-current modes of operation. The capabilities of the proposed methodology are demonstrated using a case study separation of the enzyme α-amylase from impurities in a PEG 4000–phosphate aqueous two phase system (ATPS) containing NaCl. The model can be used to predict the separation performance of the process, as well as for the investigation of suitable design and operating conditions

Tomographic RF Spectroscopy of a Trapped Fermi Gas at Unitarity

We present spatially resolved radio-frequency spectroscopy of a trapped Fermi gas with resonant interactions and observe a spectral gap at low temperatures. The spatial distribution of the spectral response of the trapped gas is obtained using in situ phase-contrast imaging and 3D image reconstruction. At the lowest temperature, the homogeneous rf spectrum shows an asymmetric excitation line shape with a peak at 0.48(4)$\epsilon_F$ with respect to the free atomic line, where $\epsilon_F$ is the local Fermi energy

Measurements of Surface Diffusivity and Coarsening During Pulsed Laser Deposition

Pulsed Laser Deposition (PLD) of homoepitaxial SrTiO3 was studied with in-situ x-ray specular reflectivity and surface diffuse x-ray scattering. Unlike prior reflectivity-based studies, these measurements access both the time- and the length-scales of the evolution of the surface morphology during growth. In particular, we show that this technique allows direct measurements of the diffusivity for both inter- and intra-layer transport. Our results explicitly limit the possible role of island break-up, demonstrate the key roles played by nucleation and coarsening in PLD, and place an upper bound on the Ehrlich-Schwoebel (ES) barrier for downhill diffusion

Green's function of a finite chain and the discrete Fourier transform

A new expression for the Green's function of a finite one-dimensional lattice with nearest neighbor interaction is derived via discrete Fourier transform. Solution of the Heisenberg spin chain with periodic and open boundary conditions is considered as an example. Comparison to Bethe ansatz clarifies the relation between the two approaches.Comment: preprint of the paper published in Int. J. Modern Physics B Vol. 20, No. 5 (2006) 593-60

Observation of Phase Separation in a Strongly-Interacting Imbalanced Fermi Gas

We have observed phase separation between the superfluid and the normal component in a strongly interacting Fermi gas with imbalanced spin populations. The in situ distribution of the density difference between two trapped spin components is obtained using phase-contrast imaging and 3D image reconstruction. A shell structure is clearly identified where the superfluid region of equal densities is surrounded by a normal gas of unequal densities. The phase transition induces a dramatic change in the density profiles as excess fermions are expelled from the superfluid.Comment: 5 pages, 7 figure

Escherichia Coli-Based Cell-Free Protein Synthesis for Iterative Design of Tandem-Core Virus-Like Particles

Tandem-core hepatitis B core antigen (HBcAg) virus-like particles (VLPs), in which two HBcAg monomers are joined together by a peptide linker, can be used to display two different antigens on the VLP surface. We produced universal influenza vaccine candidates that use this scaffold in an Escherichia coli-based cell-free protein synthesis (CFPS) platform. We then used the CFPS system to rapidly test modifications to the arginine-rich region typically found in wild-type HBcAg, the peptide linkers around the influenza antigen inserts, and the plasmid vector backbone to improve titer and quality. Using a minimal plasmid vector backbone designed for CFPS improved titers by at least 1.4-fold over the original constructs. When the linker lengths for the influenza inserts were more consistent in length and a greater variety of codons for glycine and serine were utilized, titers were further increased to over 70 μg/mL (4.0-fold greater than the original construct) and the presence of lower molecular weight product-related impurities was significantly reduced, although improvements in particle assembly were not seen. Furthermore, any constructs with the C-terminal arginine-rich region removed resulted in asymmetric particles of poor quality. This demonstrates the potential for CFPS as a screening platform for VLPs

Tomographic approach to resolving the distribution of LISA Galactic binaries

The space based gravitational wave detector LISA is expected to observe a large population of Galactic white dwarf binaries whose collective signal is likely to dominate instrumental noise at observational frequencies in the range 10^{-4} to 10^{-3} Hz. The motion of LISA modulates the signal of each binary in both frequency and amplitude, the exact modulation depending on the source direction and frequency. Starting with the observed response of one LISA interferometer and assuming only doppler modulation due to the orbital motion of LISA, we show how the distribution of the entire binary population in frequency and sky position can be reconstructed using a tomographic approach. The method is linear and the reconstruction of a delta function distribution, corresponding to an isolated binary, yields a point spread function (psf). An arbitrary distribution and its reconstruction are related via smoothing with this psf. Exploratory results are reported demonstrating the recovery of binary sources, in the presence of white Gaussian noise.Comment: 13 Pages and 9 figures high resolution figures can be obtains from http://www.phys.utb.edu/~rajesh/lisa_tomography.pd