Modelling of radio supernovae: Including the effects of inhomogeneities and radiative cooling

The presence of inhomogeneities in a spatially unresolved source is often hard to establish. This limits the accuracy with which the source properties can be determined. It is shown how observed features not expected for a homogeneous model can be used to infer the properties of the inhomogeneities in radio supernovae. Furthermore, the observed consequences of radiative cooling can be seriously affected by inhomogeneities. It is shown that the deduced source properties are very sensitive to the observed value of the cooling frequency; even a lower limit is often useful to constrain its characteristics. It is argued that the main synchrotron emission region in SN 2003L has a small volume filling factor, possibly as low as a few per cent. On the contrary, deviations from homogeneity are substantially smaller in SN 2002ap. The observed properties of type Ib/c radio supernovae in general indicate the volume filling factor to remain rather constant with time for individual sources but those peaking later at radio frequencies have lower filling factors. The conditions in the main synchrotron component in both SN 2003L and SN 2002ap are consistent with equipartition of energy between relativistic electrons and magnetic fields.Comment: Accepted to ApJ, 26 pages, 1 figur

Thermoelectric power factor limit of a 1D nanowire

In the past decade, there has been significant interest in the potentially advantageous thermoelectric properties of one-dimensional (1D) nanowires, but it has been challenging to find high thermoelectric power factors based on 1D effect in practice. Here we point out that there is an upper limit to the thermoelectric power factor of non-ballistic 1D nanowires, as a consequence of the recently established quantum bound of thermoelectric power output. We experimentally test this limit in quasi-ballistic InAs nanowires by extracting the maximum power factor of the first 1D subband through I-V characterization, finding that the measured maximum power factors conform to the theoretical limit. The established limit predicts that a competitive power factor, on the order of mW/m-K^2, can be achieved by a single 1D electronic channel in state-of-the-art semiconductor nanowires with small cross-section and high crystal quality

Radio Emission and Particle Acceleration in SN 1993J

The radio light curves of SN 1993J are found to be well fit by a synchrotron spectrum, suppressed by external free-free absorption and synchrotron self-absorption. A standard r^-2 circumstellar medium is assumed, and found to be adequate. The magnetic field and number density of relativistic electrons behind the shock are determined. The strength of the magnetic field argues strongly for turbulent amplification behind the shock. The ratio of the magnetic and thermal energy density behind the shock is ~0.14. Synchrotron and Coulomb cooling dominate the losses of the electrons. The injected electron spectrum has a power law index -2.1, consistent with diffusive shock acceleration, and the number density scales with the thermal electron energy density. The total energy density of the relativistic electrons is, if extrapolated to gamma ~ 1, ~ 5x10^-4 of the thermal energy density. The free-free absorption required is consistent with previous calculations of the circumstellar temperature of SN 1993J, T_e ~ (2-10)x10^5 K. The relative importance of free-free absorption, Razin suppression, and the synchrotron self-absorption effect for other supernovae are briefly discussed. Guidelines for the modeling and interpretation of VLBI observations are given.Comment: accepted for Ap.

Multiple synchrotron self-Compton modeling of gamma-ray flares in 3C 279

The correlation often observed in blazars between optical-to-radio outbursts and gamma-ray flares suggests that the high-energy emission region shall be co-spatial with the radio knots, several parsecs away from the central engine. This would prevent the important contribution at high-energies from the Compton scattering of seed photons from the accretion disk and the broad-line region that is generally used to model the spectral energy distribution of low-frequency peaking blazars. While a pure synchrotron self-Compton model has so far failed to explain the observed gamma-ray emission of a flat spectrum radio quasar like 3C 279, the inclusion of the effect of multiple inverse-Compton scattering might solve the apparent paradox. Here, we present for the first time a physical, self-consistent SSC modeling of a series of shock-waves in the jet of 3C 279. We show that the analytic description of the high-energy emission from multiple inverse-Compton scatterings in the Klein-Nishina limit can fairly well account for the observed gamma-ray spectrum of 3C 279 in flaring states.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures, proceedings of "Beamed and Unbeamed Gamma-rays from Galaxies", 11-15 April 2011, Finland. To be published in the Journal of Physics: Conference Serie

Electrical control of spins and giant g-factors in ring-like coupled quantum dots

Emerging theoretical concepts for quantum technologies have driven a continuous search for structures where a quantum state, such as spin, can be manipulated efficiently. Central to many concepts is the ability to control a system by electric and magnetic fields, relying on strong spin-orbit interaction and a large g-factor. Here, we present a new mechanism for spin and orbital manipulation using small electric and magnetic fields. By hybridizing specific quantum dot states at two points inside InAs nanowires, nearly perfect quantum rings form. Large and highly anisotropic effective g-factors are observed, explained by a strong orbital contribution. Importantly, we find that the orbital and spin-orbital contributions can be efficiently quenched by simply detuning the individual quantum dot levels with an electric field. In this way, we demonstrate not only control of the effective g-factor from 80 to almost 0 for the same charge state, but also electrostatic change of the ground state spin

Spatially self-similar locally rotationally symmetric perfect fluid models

Einstein's field equations for spatially self-similar locally rotationally symmetric perfect fluid models are investigated. The field equations are rewritten as a first order system of autonomous ordinary differential equations. Dimensionless variables are chosen in such a way that the number of equations in the coupled system of differential equations is reduced as far as possible. The system is subsequently analyzed qualitatively for some of the models. The nature of the singularities occurring in the models is discussed.Comment: 27 pages, pictures available at ftp://vanosf.physto.se/pub/figures/ssslrs.tar.g

Investigating the trade-off between the effectiveness and efficiency of process modeling

Despite recent efforts to improve the quality of process models, we still observe a significant dissimilarity in quality between models. This paper focuses on the syntactic condition of process models, and how it is achieved. To this end, a dataset of 121 modeling sessions was investigated. By going through each of these sessions step by step, a separate ‘revision’ phase was identified for 81 of them. Next, by cutting the modeling process off at the start of the revision phase, a partial process model was exported for these modeling sessions. Finally, each partial model was compared with its corresponding final model, in terms of time, effort, and the number of syntactic errors made or solved, in search for a possible trade-off between the effectiveness and efficiency of process modeling. Based on the findings, we give a provisional explanation for the difference in syntactic quality of process models