2,648 research outputs found
The Distribution and Importance of Arthropods Associated with Agriculture and Forestry in Chile
Farm Management,
Direct probe of anisotropy in atom-molecule collisions via quantum scattering resonances
Anisotropy is a fundamental property of particle interactions. It occupies a
central role in cold and ultra-cold molecular processes, where long range
forces have been found to significantly depend on orientation in ultra-cold
polar molecule collisions. Recent experiments have demonstrated the emergence
of quantum phenomena such as scattering resonances in the cold collisions
regime due to quantization of the intermolecular degrees of freedom. Although
these states have been shown to be sensitive to interaction details, the effect
of anisotropy on quantum resonances has eluded experimental observation so far.
Here, we directly measure the anisotropy in atom-molecule interactions via
quantum resonances by changing the quantum state of the internal molecular
rotor. We observe that a quantum scattering resonance at a collision energy of
x 270 mK appears in the Penning ionization of molecular hydrogen with
metastable helium only if the molecule is rotationally excited. We use state of
the art ab initio and multichannel quantum molecular dynamics calculations to
show that the anisotropy contributes to the effective interaction only for
molecules in the first excited rotational state, whereas rotationally
ground state interacts purely isotropically with metastable helium.
Control over the quantum state of the internal molecular rotation allows us to
switch the anisotropy on or off and thus disentangle the isotropic and
anisotropic parts of the interaction. These quantum phenomena provide a
challenging benchmark for even the most advanced theoretical descriptions,
highlighting the advantage of using cold collisions to advance the microscopic
understanding of particle interactions.Comment: 19 pages, 3 figure
An evaluation of metal removal during wastewater treatment: The potential to achieve more stringent final effluent standards
This is the author's accepted manuscript. The final published article is available from the link below. Copyright @ 2011 Taylor & Francis.Metals are of particular importance in relation to water quality, and concern regarding the impact of these contaminants on biodiversity is being encapsulated within the latest water-related legislation such as the Water Framework Directive in Europe and criteria revisions to the Clean Water Act in the United States. This review undertakes an evaluation of the potential of 2-stage wastewater treatment consisting of primary sedimentation and biological treatment in the form of activated sludge processes, to meet more stringent discharge consents that are likely to be introduced as a consequence. The legislation, sources of metals, and mechanisms responsible for their removal are discussed, to elucidate possible pathways by which the performance of conventional processes may be optimized or enhanced. Improvements in effluent quality, achievable by reducing concentrations of suspended solids or biochemical oxygen demand, may also reduce metal concentrations although meeting possible requirements for the removal of copper my be challenging
Spin instabilities and quantum phase transitions in integral and fractional quantum Hall states
The inter-Landau-level spin excitations of quantum Hall states at filling
factors nu=2 and 4/3 are investigated by exact numerical diagonalization for
the situation in which the cyclotron (hbar*omega_c) and Zeeman (E_Z) splittings
are comparable. The relevant quasiparticles and their interactions are studied,
including stable spin wave and skyrmion bound states. For nu=2, a spin
instability at a finite value of epsilon=hbar*omega_c-E_Z leads to an abrupt
paramagnetic to ferromagnetic transition, in agreement with the mean-field
approximation. However, for nu=4/3 a new and unexpected quantum phase
transition is found which involves a gradual change from paramagnetic to
ferromagnetic occupancy of the partially filled Landau level as epsilon is
decreased.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figures, submitted to Phys.Rev.Let
The Phase Diagram of Disordered Vortices from London Langevin Simulations
We study the phase diagram of vortex matter in disordered type-II
superconductors. We performed numerical simulations in the London Langevin
approximation, using a new realistic representation of the disorder. At low
magnetic fields we find a disentangled and dislocation free Bragg-glass regime.
Increasing the field introduces disorder-driven entanglement in a discontinuous
manner, leading to a vortex-glass phase, which subsequently melts into the
vortex liquid. The obtained phase boundaries are in quantitative agreement with
the experimental data.Comment: 4 pages, revtex, 8 postscript figures include
Measuring space-time variation of the fundamental constants with redshifted submillimetre transitions of neutral carbon
We compare the redshifts of neutral carbon and carbon monoxide in the
redshifted sources in which the fine structure transition of neutral carbon,
[CI], has been detected, in order to measure space-time variation of the
fundamental constants. Comparison with the CO rotational lines measures gives
the same combination of constants obtained from the comparison fine structure
line of singly ionised carbon, [CII]. However, neutral carbon has the distinct
advantage that it may be spatially coincident with the carbon monoxide, whereas
[CII] could be located in the diffuse medium between molecular clouds, and so
any comparison with CO could be dominated by intrinsic velocity differences.
Using [CI], we obtain a mean variation of dF/F = (-3.6 +/- 8.5) x 10^-5, over z
= 2.3 - 4.1, for the eight [CI] systems, which degrades to (-1.5+/- 11) x
10^-5, over z = 2.3 - 6.4 when the two [CII] systems are included. That is,
zero variation over look-back times of 10.8-12.8 Gyr. However, the latest
optical results indicate a spatial variation in alpha, which describes a dipole
and we see the same direction in dF/F. This trend is, however, due to a single
source for which the [CI] spectrum is of poor quality. This also applies to one
of the two [CII] spectra previously used to find a zero variation in
alpha^2/mu. Quantifying this, we find an anti-correlation between |dF/F| and
the quality of the carbon detection, as measured by the spectral resolution,
indicating that the typical values of >50 km/s, used to obtain a detection, are
too coarse to reliably measure changes in the constants. From the fluxes of the
known z > 1 CO systems, we predict that current instruments are incapable of
the sensitivities required to measure changes in the constants through the
comparison of CO and carbon lines. We therefore discuss in detail the use of
ALMA for such an undertaking ... ABRIDGEDComment: Accepted for publication in Section 3 - Cosmology (including clusters
of galaxies) of Astronomy and Astrophysic
A Large Solid Angle Study of Pion Absorption on He3
Measurements have been made of pi+ absorption on He3 at T_pi+ = 118, 162, and
239 MeV using the Large Acceptance Detector System (LADS). The nearly 4pi solid
angle coverage of this detector minimizes uncertainties associated with
extrapolations over unmeasured regions of phase space. The total absorption
cross section is reported. In addition, the total cross section is divided into
components in which only two or all three nucleons play a significant role in
the process. These are the first direct measurements of the total and three
nucleon absorption cross sections.Comment: 8 pages, LaTeX. 3 figures, anonymous ftp MITLNS.MIT.EDU, cd LADS.
Submitted to PRL. PSI-PR-94-11 (Paul Scherrer Institute) and LNS 94-56 (MIT
Lab. for Nucl. Sci.
Electrostatic potential in a superconductor
The electrostatic potential in a superconductor is studied. To this end
Bardeen's extension of the Ginzburg-Landau theory to low temperatures is used
to derive three Ginzburg-Landau equations - the Maxwell equation for the vector
potential, the Schroedinger equation for the wave function and the Poisson
equation for the electrostatic potential. The electrostatic and the
thermodynamic potential compensate each other to a great extent resulting into
an effective potential acting on the superconducting condensate. For the
Abrikosov vortex lattice in Niobium, numerical solutions are presented and the
different contributions to the electrostatic potential and the related charge
distribution are discussed.Comment: 19 pages, 11 figure
Photoproduction of pi0 omega off protons for E(gamma) < 3 GeV
Differential and total cross-sections for photoproduction of gamma proton to
proton pi0 omega and gamma proton to Delta+ omega were determined from
measurements of the CB-ELSA experiment, performed at the electron accelerator
ELSA in Bonn. The measurements covered the photon energy range from the
production threshold up to 3GeV.Comment: 8 pages, 13 figure
Regularity Properties and Pathologies of Position-Space Renormalization-Group Transformations
We reconsider the conceptual foundations of the renormalization-group (RG)
formalism, and prove some rigorous theorems on the regularity properties and
possible pathologies of the RG map. Regarding regularity, we show that the RG
map, defined on a suitable space of interactions (= formal Hamiltonians), is
always single-valued and Lipschitz continuous on its domain of definition. This
rules out a recently proposed scenario for the RG description of first-order
phase transitions. On the pathological side, we make rigorous some arguments of
Griffiths, Pearce and Israel, and prove in several cases that the renormalized
measure is not a Gibbs measure for any reasonable interaction. This means that
the RG map is ill-defined, and that the conventional RG description of
first-order phase transitions is not universally valid. For decimation or
Kadanoff transformations applied to the Ising model in dimension ,
these pathologies occur in a full neighborhood of the low-temperature part of the first-order
phase-transition surface. For block-averaging transformations applied to the
Ising model in dimension , the pathologies occur at low temperatures
for arbitrary magnetic-field strength. Pathologies may also occur in the
critical region for Ising models in dimension . We discuss in detail
the distinction between Gibbsian and non-Gibbsian measures, and give a rather
complete catalogue of the known examples. Finally, we discuss the heuristic and
numerical evidence on RG pathologies in the light of our rigorous theorems.Comment: 273 pages including 14 figures, Postscript, See also
ftp.scri.fsu.edu:hep-lat/papers/9210/9210032.ps.
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