4,417 research outputs found
Spectropolarimetric observations of Herbig Ae/Be Stars I: HiVIS spectropolarimetric calibration and reduction techniques
Using the HiVIS spectropolarimeter built for the Haleakala 3.7m AEOS
telescope in Hawaii, we are collecting a large number of high precision
spectropolarimetrc observations of stars. In order to precisely measure very
small polarization changes, we have performed a number of polarization
calibration techniques on the AEOS telescope and HiVIS spectrograph. We have
extended our dedicated IDL reduction package and have performed some hardware
upgrades to the instrument. We have also used the ESPaDOnS spectropolarimeter
on CFHT to verify the HiVIS results with back-to-back observations of MWC 361
and HD163296. Comparision of this and other HiVIS data with stellar
observations from the ISIS and WW spectropolarimeters in the literature further
shows the usefulness of this instrument.Comment: 35 pages, 44 figures, Accepted by PAS
An electron Talbot interferometer
The Talbot effect, in which a wave imprinted with transverse periodicity
reconstructs itself at regular intervals, is a diffraction phenomenon that
occurs in many physical systems. Here we present the first observation of the
Talbot effect for electron de Broglie waves behind a nanofabricated
transmission grating. This was thought to be difficult because of Coulomb
interactions between electrons and nanostructure gratings, yet we were able to
map out the entire near-field interference pattern, the "Talbot carpet", behind
a grating. We did this using a Talbot interferometer, in which Talbot
interference fringes from one grating are moire'-filtered by a 2nd grating.
This arrangement has served for optical, X-ray, and atom interferometry, but
never before for electrons. Talbot interferometers are particularly sensitive
to distortions of the incident wavefronts, and to illustrate this we used our
Talbot interferometer to measure the wavefront curvature of a weakly focused
electron beam. Here we report how this wavefront curvature demagnified the
Talbot revivals, and we discuss applications for electron Talbot
interferometers.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figures, updated version with abstrac
Characteristics of the summit lakes of Ambae volcano and their potential for generating lahars
Volcanic eruptions through crater lakes often generate lahars, causing loss of life and property. On Ambae volcano, recent eruptive activities have rather tended to reduce the water volume in the crater lake (Lake Voui), in turn, reducing the chances for outburst floods. Lake Voui occupies a central position in the summit caldera and is well enclosed by the caldera relief. Eruptions with significantly higher magnitude than that of 1995 and 2005 are required for an outburst. A more probable scenario for lahar events is the overflow from Lake Manaro Lakua bounded on the eastern side by the caldera wall. Morphology and bathymetry analysis have been used to identify the weakest point of the caldera rim from which water from Lake Manaro Lakua may overflow to initiate lahars. The 1916 disaster described on south-east Ambae was possibly triggered by such an outburst from Lake Manaro Lakua. Taking into account the current level of Lake Manaro Lakua well below a critical overflow point, and the apparently low potential of Lake Voui eruptions to trigger lahars, the Ambae summit lakes may not be directly responsible for numerous lahar deposits identified around the Island
Neutral Pions with Large Transverse Momentum in d+Au and Au+Au Collisions
Measurements of transverse-momentum p_T spectra of neutral pions in Au+Au and
d+Au collisions at sqrt{s_NN}=200 GeV and 62.4 GeV by the PHENIX experiment at
RHIC in comparison to p+p reference spectra at the same sqrt{s_NN} are
presented. In central Au+Au collisions at sqrt{s_NN}=200 GeV a factor 4-5
suppression for neutral pions and charged hadrons with p_T > 5 GeV/c is found
relative to the p+p reference scaled by the nuclear overlap function .
In contrast, such a suppression of high-p_T particles is absent in d+Au
collisions independent of the centrality of the collision. To study the
sqrt{s_NN} dependence of the suppression Au+Au collisions at sqrt{s_NN}=200 GeV
and 62.4 GeV are compared.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figures, presented at Hot Quarks 2004, Taos, N
Direct photons in d+Au collisions at s_(NN)**(1/2)=200GeV with STAR
Results are presented of an ongoing analysis of direct photon production in
s_(NN)=200GeV deuteron-gold collisions with the STAR experiment at RHIC. A
significant excess of direct photons is observed near mid-rapidity 0<y<1 and
found to be consistent with next-to-leading order pQCD calculations including
the contribution from fragmentation photons.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, HotQuarks 200
Visual predation during springtime foraging of the North Atlantic right whale (Eubalaena glacialis)
Author Posting. © The Author(s), 2017. This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here under a nonexclusive, irrevocable, paid-up, worldwide license granted to WHOI. It is made available for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Marine Mammal Science 33 (2017): 991–1013, doi:10.1111/mms.12417.To assess the role that vision plays in the ability of the North Atlantic right whale (Eubalaena glacialis) to detect its primary prey species, the calanoid copepod Calanus finmarchicus, we have compared the absorbance spectrum of the E. glacialis rod visual pigment, the transmittance spectra of C. finmarchicus carotenoid pigments, as well as the downwelling irradiance and horizontal radiance spectra collected during springtime at three locations in the western Gulf of Maine. The E. glacialis rod visual pigment absorbs light maximally at 493 nm, while microspectrophotometric measurements of the C. finmarchicus carotenoid pigments reveal transmission spectra with minima matching very well with the E. glacialis rod visual pigment absorbance spectra maximum. Springtime spectral downwelling irradiance and horizontal radiance values from the surface waters of Cape Cod Bay and at all depths in Great South Channel overlap the E. glacialis rod absorbance spectrum, allowing C. finmarchicus to appear as a high-contrast dark silhouette against a bright background space-light, thus facilitating visually-guided contrast foraging. In contrast, spectral downwelling irradiance and horizontal radiance at depth in Cape Cod Bay, and all depths in Wilkinson Basin, do not overlap the E. glacialis rod absorbance spectrum, providing little if any useful light for contrast vision.This work was supported by Wildlife Bycatch Reduction at the New England Aquarium under U.S. Department of Commerce NOAA Award #NA09NMF4520413 (J.I.F.). T.W.C. was supported by the National Science Foundation (IOS0721608) and the Air Force Office of Scientific Research (FA9550-09-1-0149). Additional support comes from NIH grant 2RO1EY009514 (D.D.Oprian)
Statistics of clustering of ultra-high energy cosmic rays and the number of their sources
Observation of clustering of ultra-high energy cosmic rays (UHECR) suggests
that they are emitted by compact sources. Assuming small deflection of UHECR
during the propagation, the statistical analysis of clustering allows to
estimate the spatial density of the sources, h, including those which have not
yet been observed directly. When applied to astrophysical models involving
extra-galactic sources, the estimate based on 14 events with energy E>10^{20}
eV gives h ~ 6 X 10^{-3} Mps^{-3}. With increasing statistics, this estimate
may lead to exclusion of the models which associate the production of UHECR
with exceptional galaxies such as AGN, powerful radio-galaxies, dead quasars,
and models based on gamma ray bursts.Comment: The version accepted for publication in Phys. Rev. Lett. Notations
changed to conventional ones. The estimate of the effective GZK radius
replaced by the result of numerical simulatio
Deriving Telescope Mueller Matrices Using Daytime Sky Polarization Observations
Telescopes often modify the input polarization of a source so that the
measured circular or linear output state of the optical signal can be
signficantly different from the input. This mixing, or polarization
"cross-talk", is defined by the optical system Mueller matrix. We describe here
an efficient method for recovering the input polarization state of the light
and the full 4 x 4 Mueller matrix of the telescope with an accuracy of a few
percent without external masks or telescope hardware modification. Observations
of the bright, highly polarized daytime sky using the Haleakala 3.7m AEOS
telescope and a coude spectropolarimeter demonstrate the technique.Comment: Accepted for publication in PAS
Hard spectra and QCD matter: experimental review
The most significant experimental results on hadron spectra at large
transverse momentum available at the time of Quark Matter 2004 conference are
reviewed. Emphasis is put on those measurements that provide insights on the
properties of the QCD media, ``Quark Gluon Plasma'' and ``Color Glass
Condensate'', expected to be present in nucleus-nucleus collisions at collider
energies.Comment: 2 plots updated. Minor changes in tex
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