Optically bound microscopic particles in one dimension

Counter-propagating light fields have the ability to create self-organized one-dimensional optically bound arrays of microscopic particles, where the light fields adapt to the particle locations and vice versa. We develop a theoretical model to describe this situation and show good agreement with recent experimental data (Phys. Rev. Lett. 89, 128301 (2002)) for two and three particles, if the scattering force is assumed to dominate the axial trapping of the particles. The extension of these ideas to two and three dimensional optically bound states is also discussed.Comment: 12 pages, incl. 5 figures, accepted by Phys. Rev.

Transverse Fresnel-Fizeau drag effects in strongly dispersive media

A light beam normally incident upon an uniformly moving dielectric medium is in general subject to bendings due to a transverse Fresnel-Fizeau light drag effect. In conventional dielectrics, the magnitude of this bending effect is very small and hard to detect. Yet, it can be dramatically enhanced in strongly dispersive media where slow group velocities in the m/s range have been recently observed taking advantage of the electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) effect. In addition to the usual downstream drag that takes place for positive group velocities, we predict a significant anomalous upstream drag to occur for small and negative group velocities. Furthermore, for sufficiently fast speeds of the medium, higher order dispersion terms are found to play an important role and to be responsible for peculiar effects such as light propagation along curved paths and the restoration of the spatial coherence of an incident noisy beam. The physics underlying this new class of slow-light effects is thoroughly discussed

Cosmic histories of star formation and reionization: An analysis with a power-law approximation

With a simple power-law approximation of high-redshift ($\gtrsim3.5$) star formation history, i.e., $\dot{\rho}_*(z)\propto [(1+z)/4.5]^{-\alpha}$, we investigate the reionization of intergalactic medium (IGM) and the consequent Thomson scattering optical depth for cosmic microwave background (CMB) photons. A constraint on the evolution index $\alpha$ is derived from the CMB optical depth measured by the {\it Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe} (WMAP) experiment, which reads $\alpha\approx2.18\lg{\mathscr{N}_{\gamma}}-3.89$, where the free parameter $\mathscr{N}_\gamma$ is the number of the escaped ionizing ultraviolet photons per baryon. Moreover, the redshift for full reionization, $z_f$, can also be expressed as a function of $\alpha$ as well as $\mathscr{N}_{\gamma}$. By further taking into account the implication of the Gunn-Peterson trough observations to quasars for the full reionization redshift, i.e., $6\lesssim z_f \lesssim7$, we obtain $0.3\lesssim\alpha\lesssim1.3$ and $80\lesssim\mathscr{N}_{\gamma}\lesssim230$. For a typical number of $\sim4000$ of ionizing photons released per baryon of normal stars, the fraction of these photons escaping from the stars, $f_{\rm esc}$, can be constrained to within the range of $(2.0-5.8)$.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figures, accepted for publication in JCA

Background-free detection of trapped ions

We demonstrate a Doppler cooling and detection scheme for ions with low-lying D levels which almost entirely suppresses scattered laser light background, while retaining a high fluorescence signal and efficient cooling. We cool a single ion with a laser on the 2S1/2 to 2P1/2 transition as usual, but repump via the 2P3/2 level. By filtering out light on the cooling transition and detecting only the fluorescence from the 2P_3/2 to 2S1/2 decays, we suppress the scattered laser light background count rate to 1 per second while maintaining a signal of 29000 per second with moderate saturation of the cooling transition. This scheme will be particularly useful for experiments where ions are trapped in close proximity to surfaces, such as the trap electrodes in microfabricated ion traps, which leads to high background scatter from the cooling beam

Interface ferromagnetism and orbital reconstruction in BiFeO3- La0.7Sr0.3MnO3 heterostructures

We report the formation of a novel ferromagnetic state in the antiferromagnet BiFeO3 at the interface with La0.7Sr0.3MnO3. Using x-ray magnetic circular dichroism at Mn and Fe L2,3-edges, we discovered that the development of this ferromagnetic spin structure is strongly associated with the onset of a significant exchange bias. Our results demonstrate that the magnetic state is directly related with an electronic orbital reconstruction at the interface, which is supported by the linearly polarized x-ray absorption measurement at oxygen K-edge.Comment: 17 pages, 4 figures, PRL in pres

Use of viral pathogens and indicators to differentiate between human and non-human fecal contamination in a microbial source tracking comparison study

Assays for the detection and typing of adenoviruses, enteroviruses and F+ specific coliphages were performed on samples created as part of a national microbial source tracking methods comparison study. The samples were created blind to the researchers, and were inoculated with a variety of types of fecal contamination source (human, sewage, dog, seagull and cow) and mixtures of sources. Viral tracer and pathogen assays demonstrated a general ability to discriminate human from non-human fecal contamination. For example, samples inoculated with sewage were correctly identified as containing human fecal contamination because they contained human adenovirus or human enterovirus. In samples containing fecal material from individual humans, human pathogen analysis yielded negative results probably because the stool samples were taken from healthy individuals. False positive rates for the virus-based methods (0-8%) were among the lowest observed during the methods comparison study. It is suggested that virus-based source tracking methods are useful for identification of sewage contamination, and that these methods may also be useful as an indication of the public health risk associated with viral pathogens. Overall, virus-based source tracking methods are an important approach to include in the microbial source tracking 'toolbox'

Symmetry-breaking Effects for Polariton Condensates in Double-Well Potentials

We study the existence, stability, and dynamics of symmetric and anti-symmetric states of quasi-one-dimensional polariton condensates in double-well potentials, in the presence of nonresonant pumping and nonlinear damping. Some prototypical features of the system, such as the bifurcation of asymmetric solutions, are similar to the Hamiltonian analog of the double-well system considered in the realm of atomic condensates. Nevertheless, there are also some nontrivial differences including, e.g., the unstable nature of both the parent and the daughter branch emerging in the relevant pitchfork bifurcation for slightly larger values of atom numbers. Another interesting feature that does not appear in the atomic condensate case is that the bifurcation for attractive interactions is slightly sub-critical instead of supercritical. These conclusions of the bifurcation analysis are corroborated by direct numerical simulations examining the dynamics of the system in the unstable regime.MICINN (Spain) project FIS2008- 0484

Au+Au Reactions at the AGS: Experiments E866 and E917

Particle production and correlation functions from Au+Au reactions have been measured as a function of both beam energy (2-10.7AGeV) and impact parameter. These results are used to probe the dynamics of heavy-ion reactions, confront hadronic models over a wide range of conditions and to search for the onset of new phenomena.Comment: 12 pages, 14 figures, Talk presented at Quark Matter '9