11,051 research outputs found
Northern Ireland's longstanding record wind gust is almost certainly incorrect
Accurate assessment of record extreme wind gusts is important for building design standards and for industries such as insurance and forestry. Here, we show that the current record wind gust for Northern Ireland – 108kn (56ms−1) recorded at Kilkeel on 12 January 1974 – is almost certainly incorrect and may have arisen from an instrumental error or a power surge. We deduce this from direct anemograph inspection and from a variety of indirect supporting evidence. We recommend that other longstanding UK record wind gusts should also be independently re‐examined to assess their veracity
Ariel - Volume 3 Number 5
Editors
Richard J. Bonanno
Robin A. Edwards
Associate Editors
Steven Ager
Tom Williams
Lay-out Editor
Eugenia Miller
Contributing Editors
Paul Bialas
Robert Breckenridge
Lynne Porter
David Jacoby
Terry Burt
Mark Pearlman
Michael Leo
Mike LeWitt
Editors Emeritus
Delvyn C. Case., Jr.
Paul M. Fernhof
Population inversion in optically pumped asymmetric quantum well terahertz lasers
Intersubband carrier lifetimes and population ratios are calculated for three- and four-level optically pumped terahertz laser structures. Laser operation is based on intersubband transitions between the conduction band states of asymmetric GaAs-Ga(1 – x)Al(x)As quantum wells. It is shown that the carrier lifetimes in three-level systems fulfill the necessary conditions for stimulated emission only at temperatures below 200 K. The addition of a fourth level, however, enables fast depopulation of the lower laser level by resonant longitudinal optical phonon emission and thus offers potential for room temperature laser operation. © 1997 American Institute of Physics
Effective attraction between oscillating electrons in a plasmoid via acoustic waves exchange
We consider the effective interaction between electrons due to the exchange
of virtual acoustic waves in a low temperature plasma. Electrons are supposed
to participate in rapid radial oscillations forming a spherically symmetric
plasma structure. We show that under certain conditions this effective
interaction can result in the attraction between oscillating electrons and can
be important for the dynamics of a plasmoid. Some possible applications of the
obtained results to the theory of natural long-lived plasma structures are also
discussed.Comment: 14 pages in LaTeX2e, two columns, 3 eps figures; minimal changes,
some typos are corrected; version published on-line in Proc. R. Soc.
Time-Varying Potassium in High-Resolution Spectra of the Type Ia Supernova 2014J
We present a time series of the highest resolution spectra yet published for
the nearby Type Ia supernova (SN) 2014J in M82. They were obtained at 11 epochs
over 33 days around peak brightness with the Levy Spectrograph (resolution
R~110,000) on the 2.4m Automated Planet Finder telescope at Lick Observatory.
We identify multiple Na I D and K I absorption features, as well as absorption
by Ca I H & K and several of the more common diffuse interstellar bands (DIBs).
We see no evolution in any component of Na I D, Ca I, or in the DIBs, but do
establish the dissipation/weakening of the two most blueshifted components of K
I. We present several potential physical explanations, finding the most
plausible to be photoionization of circumstellar material, and discuss the
implications of our results with respect to the progenitor scenario of SN
2014J.Comment: 11 pages, 8 figures, 3 tables, submitted to Ap
Interface states in junctions of two semiconductors with intersecting dispersion curves
A novel type of shallow interface state in junctions of two semiconductors
without band inversion is identified within the envelope function
approximation, using the two-band model. It occurs in abrupt junctions when the
interband velocity matrix elements of the two semiconductors differ and the
bulk dispersion curves intersect. The in-plane dispersion of the interface
state is found to be confined to a finite range of momenta centered around the
point of intersection. These states turn out to exist also in graded junctions,
with essentially the same properties as in the abrupt case.Comment: 1 figur
Supersymmetric Galileons
Galileon theories are of considerable interest since they allow for stable
violations of the null energy condition. Since such violations could have
occurred during a high-energy regime in the history of our universe, we are
motivated to study supersymmetric extensions of these theories. This is carried
out in this paper, where we construct generic classes of N=1 supersymmetric
Galileon Lagrangians. They are shown to admit non-equivalent stress-energy
tensors and, hence, vacua manifesting differing conditions for violating the
null energy condition. The temporal and spatial fluctuations of all component
fields of the supermultiplet are analyzed and shown to be stable on a large
number of such backgrounds. In the process, we uncover a surprising connection
between conformal Galileon and ghost condensate theories, allowing for a deeper
understanding of both types of theories.Comment: 41 pages, v2: added a referenc
First-principles envelope-function theory for lattice-matched semiconductor heterostructures
In this paper a multi-band envelope-function Hamiltonian for lattice-matched
semiconductor heterostructures is derived from first-principles norm-conserving
pseudopotentials. The theory is applicable to isovalent or heterovalent
heterostructures with macroscopically neutral interfaces and no spontaneous
bulk polarization. The key assumption -- proved in earlier numerical studies --
is that the heterostructure can be treated as a weak perturbation with respect
to some periodic reference crystal, with the nonlinear response small in
comparison to the linear response. Quadratic response theory is then used in
conjunction with k.p perturbation theory to develop a multi-band effective-mass
Hamiltonian (for slowly varying envelope functions) in which all interface
band-mixing effects are determined by the linear response. To within terms of
the same order as the position dependence of the effective mass, the quadratic
response contributes only a bulk band offset term and an interface dipole term,
both of which are diagonal in the effective-mass Hamiltonian. Long-range
multipole Coulomb fields arise in quantum wires or dots, but have no
qualitative effect in two-dimensional systems beyond a dipole contribution to
the band offsets.Comment: 25 pages, no figures, RevTeX4; v3: final published versio
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