Strain-Induced Coupling of Spin Current to Nanomechanical Oscillations

We propose a setup which allows to couple the electron spin degree of freedom to the mechanical motions of a nanomechanical system not involving any of the ferromagnetic components. The proposed method employs the strain induced spin-orbit interaction of electrons in narrow gap semiconductors. We have shown how this method can be used for detection and manipulation of the spin flow through a suspended rod in a nanomechanical device.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figur

The Radon Monitoring System in Daya Bay Reactor Neutrino Experiment

We developed a highly sensitive, reliable and portable automatic system (H$^{3}$) to monitor the radon concentration of the underground experimental halls of the Daya Bay Reactor Neutrino Experiment. H$^{3}$ is able to measure radon concentration with a statistical error less than 10\% in a 1-hour measurement of dehumidified air (R.H. 5\% at 25$^{\circ}$C) with radon concentration as low as 50 Bq/m$^{3}$. This is achieved by using a large radon progeny collection chamber, semiconductor $\alpha$-particle detector with high energy resolution, improved electronics and software. The integrated radon monitoring system is highly customizable to operate in different run modes at scheduled times and can be controlled remotely to sample radon in ambient air or in water from the water pools where the antineutrino detectors are being housed. The radon monitoring system has been running in the three experimental halls of the Daya Bay Reactor Neutrino Experiment since November 2013

CMB Constraint on Radion Evolution in the Brane World Scenario

In many versions of brane model, the modulus field of extra dimensions, the radion, could have cosmological evolution, which induces variation of the Higgs vacuum expectation value, , resulting in cosmological variation of the electron mass $m_e$. The formation of Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) anisotropies is thus affected, causing changes both in the peaks positions and amplitudes in the CMB power spectra. Using the three-year Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropies Probe (WMAP) CMB data, with the Hubble parameter $H_0$ fixed to be the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) result 72 km s$^{-1}$ Mpc$^{-1}$, we obtain a constraint on $\rho$, the ratio of the value of at CMB recombination to its present value, to be [0.97, 1.02].Comment: 7 pages, 6 figures, minor changes of format to conform with PRD forma

The first operation and results of the Chung-Li VHF radar

The Chung-Li Very High Frequency (VHF) radar is used in the dual-mode operations, applying Doppler beam-swinging as well as the spaced-antenna-drift method. The design of the VHF radar is examined. Results of performance tests are discussed

Nonequilibrium Dynamics in Noncommutative Spacetime

We study the effects of spacetime noncommutativity on the nonequilibrium dynamics of particles in a thermal bath. We show that the noncommutative thermal bath does not suffer from any further IR/UV mixing problem in the sense that all the finite-temperature non-planar quantities are free from infrared singularities. We also point out that the combined effect of finite temperature and noncommutative geometry has a distinct effect on the nonequilibrium dynamics of particles propagating in a thermal bath: depending on the momentum of the mode of concern, noncommutative geometry may switch on or switch off their decay and thermalization. This momentum dependent alternation of the decay and thermalization rates could have significant impacts on the nonequilibrium phenomena in the early universe at which spacetime noncommutativity may be present. Our results suggest a re-examination of some of the important processes in the early universe such as reheating after inflation, baryogenesis and the freeze-out of superheavy dark matter candidates.Comment: 24 pages, 2 figure

Evidence for the Role of Instantons in Hadron Structure from Lattice QCD

Cooling is used as a filter on a set of gluon fields sampling the Wilson action to selectively remove essentially all fluctuations of the gluon field except for the instantons. The close agreement between quenched lattice QCD results with cooled and uncooled configurations for vacuum correlation functions of hadronic currents and for density-density correlation functions in hadronic bound states provides strong evidence for the dominant role of instantons in determining light hadron structure and quark propagation in the QCD vacuum.Comment: 26 pages in REVTeX, plus 10 figures, uuencoded. Submitted to Physical Review D. MIT-CTP-226