A new dual-beam technique for precise measurements of spectral reflectance in the field

Field spectral measurements made using the single - beam method often include errors due to variation in illumination between measurement of the target and the reference (panel or cosine -corrected receptor). Although the dual-beam method avoids these errors, it introduces greater complexity due to the need to intercalibrate the two sensor heads used, and it is significantly more expensive. This paper describes an alternative dual-beam method which uses a neural network to estimate the complete irradiance spectrum from measurements made in 7 narrow bands. These narrow band measurements of irradiance may be made with a simple filter-based radiometer, thus avoiding the expense and complexity of a second spectroradiometer. The new technique has been tested using irradiance spectra from both continental and maritime locations

Development of the PsAQoL: a quality of life instrument specific to psoriatic arthritis

Background: Patient reported outcome measures used in studies of psoriatic arthritis (PsA) have been found to be inadequate for determining the impact of the disease from the patient’s perspective. Objective: To produce the PsAQoL, a PsA-specific quality of life (QoL) instrument, employing the needs based model of QoL that would be relevant and acceptable to respondents, valid, and reliable. Methods: Content was derived from qualitative interviews conducted with patients with PsA. Face and content validity were assessed by field test interviews with a new sample of patients with PsA. A postal survey was conducted to improve the scaling properties of the new measure. Finally, a test-retest postal survey was used to identify the final measure and to test its scaling properties, reliability, internal consistency, and validity. Results: Analysis of the qualitative interview transcripts identified a 51 item questionnaire. Field test interviews confirmed the acceptability and relevance of the measure. Analysis of data from the first postal survey (n = 94) reduced the questionnaire to 35 items. Rasch analysis of data from the test-retest survey (n = 286) identified a 20 item version of the PsAQoL with good item fit. This version had excellent internal consistency (a = 0.91), test-retest reliability (0.89), and validity. Conclusions: The PsAQoL is a valuable tool for assessing the impact of interventions for PsA in clinical studies and trials. It is well accepted by patients, taking about three minutes to complete, is easy to administer, and has excellent scaling and psychometric properties

Properties of Odd Gap Superconductors

A new class of superconductors with the gap function {\it odd} under time reversal is considered. Some of the physical properties of these superconductors such as the Meissner effect, composite condensate, gapless spectrum and transition from the {\it odd} gap superconductor to the BCS state at lower temperatures are discussed.Comment: 9 pages + 2 fig, LA-UR-93-299

The response of the magnetosphere to the passage of a coronal mass ejection on March 20-21 1990

International audienceThe geomagnetic response to the passage of a coronal mass ejection (CME) is studied. The passage of the CME resulted in a storm sudden commencement (SSC) at 2243 UT on March 20 1990 with disturbed magnetic activity during the following 24 h. The auroral, sub-auroral and equatorial magnetic response to the southward turning at 1314 (±5) UT on March 21 and the equatorial response to the southward turning associated with the SSC on 20 March are discussed in terms of existing models. It is found that the auroral and sub-auroral response to the southward turning associated with the SSC is a factor 2 or more quicker than normal due to the shock in the solar wind dynamic pressure. The low-latitude response time to the southward turning, characterised by Dst and the magnetopause current corrected Dst*, is unaffected by the shock. Dst and Dst*, characteristic of the equatorial magnetic field, responded to the 1314 (±5) UT southward turning prior to the first observed substorm expansion phase onset, suggesting that a dayside loading process was responsible for the initial enhancement in the ring current rather than nightside particle injection. The response time of the auroral and sub-auroral magnetic field to the southward turning at 1314 (±5) UT on March 21 is measured at a variety of longitudes and latitudes. The azimuthal propagation velocity of the response to the southward turning varied considerably with latitude, ranging from ~8 km s?1 at 67°N to ~4 km s?1 at 55°N. The southward velocity of the equatorward boundary of the northern polar convection pattern has been measured. This velocity was ~1.2 km s?1 at 1600 MLT, although there was evidence that this may vary at different local times

Stroboscopic Laser Diagnostics for Detection of Ordering in One-Dimensional Ion beam

A novel diagnostic method for detecting ordering in one-dimensional ion beams is presented. The ions are excited by a pulsed laser at two different positions along the beam and fluorescence is observed by a group of four photomultipliers. Correlation in fluorescence signals is firm indication that the ion beam has an ordered structure.Comment: 7 pages, REVTEX, fig3 uuencoded, figs 1-2 available upon request from [email protected], to appear in Phys. Rev.

Conductivity Due to Classical Phase Fluctuations in a Model For High-T_c Superconductors

We consider the real part of the conductivity, \sigma_1(\omega), arising from classical phase fluctuations in a model for high-T_c superconductors. We show that the frequency integral of that conductivity, \int_0^\infty \sigma_1 d\omega, is non-zero below the superconducting transition temperature $T_c$, provided there is some quenched disorder in the system. Furthermore, for a fixed amount of quenched disorder, this integral at low temperatures is proportional to the zero-temperature superfluid density, in agreement with experiment. We calculate \sigma_1(\omega) explicitly for a model of overdamped phase fluctuations.Comment: 4pages, 2figures, submitted to Phys.Rev.

A microscopic model for d-wave charge carrier pairing and non-Fermi-liquid behavior in a purely repulsive 2D electron system

We investigate a microscopic model for strongly correlated electrons with both on-site and nearest neighbor Coulomb repulsion on a 2D square lattice. This exhibits a state in which electrons undergo a ``somersault'' in their internal spin-space (spin-flux) as they traverse a closed loop in external coordinate space. When this spin-1/2 antiferromagnetic (AFM) insulator is doped, the ground state is a liquid of charged, bosonic meron-vortices, which for topological reasons are created in vortex-antivortex pairs. The magnetic exchange energy of the distorted AFM background leads to a logarithmic vortex-antivortex attraction which overcomes the direct Coulomb repulsion between holes localized on the vortex cores. This leads to the appearance of pre-formed charged pairs. We use the Configuration Interaction (CI) Method to study the quantum translational and rotational motion of various charged magnetic solitons and soliton pairs. The CI method systematically describes fluctuation and quantum tunneling corrections to the Hartree-Fock Approximation (HFA). We find that the lowest energy charged meron-antimeron pairs exhibit d-wave rotational symmetry, consistent with the symmetry of the cuprate superconducting order parameter. For a single hole in the 2D AFM plane, we find a precursor to spin-charge separation in which a conventional charged spin-polaron dissociates into a singly charged meron-antimeron pair. This model provides a unified microscopic basis for (i) non-Fermi-liquid transport properties, (ii) d-wave preformed charged carrier pairs, (iii) mid-infrared optical absorption, (iv) destruction of AFM long range order with doping and other magnetic properties, and (v) certain aspects of angled resolved photo-emission spectroscopy (ARPES).Comment: 14 pages, 17 figure

The ground state of the two-leg Hubbard ladder: a density--matrix renormalization group study

We present density-matrix renormalization group results for the ground state properties of two-leg Hubbard ladders. The half-filled Hubbard ladder is an insulating spin-gapped system, exhibiting a crossover from a spin-liquid to a band-insulator as a function of the interchain hopping matrix element. When the system is doped, there is a parameter range in which the spin gap remains. In this phase, the doped holes form singlet pairs and the pair-field and the "$4 k_F$" density correlations associated with pair density fluctuations decay as power laws, while the "$2 k_F$" charge density wave correlations decay exponentially. We discuss the behavior of the exponents of the pairing and density correlations within this spin gapped phase. Additional one-band Luttinger liquid phases which occur in the large interband hopping regime are also discussed.Comment: 14 pages, 18 figures, uses Revtex with epsfig to include the figure

Models for Enhanced Absorption in Inhomogeneous Superconductors

We discuss the low-frequency absorption arising from quenched inhomogeneity in the superfluid density rho_s of a model superconductor. Such inhomogeneities may arise in a high-T_c superconductor from a wide variety of sources, including quenched random disorder and static charge density waves such as stripes. Using standard classical methods for treating randomly inhomogeneous media, we show that both mechanisms produce additional absorption at finite frequencies. For a two-fluid model with weak mean-square fluctuations <(d rho_s)^2 > in rho_s and a frequency-independent quasiparticle conductivity, the extra absorption has oscillator strength proportional to the quantity <(d rho_s)^2>/rho_s, as observed in some experiments. Similar behavior is found in a two-fluid model with anticorrelated fluctuations in the superfluid and normal fluid densities. The extra absorption typically occurs as a Lorentzian centered at zero frequency. We present simple model calculations for this extra absorption under conditions of both weak and strong fluctuations. The relation between our results and other model calculations is briefly discussed

Spectral properties of the one-dimensional two-channel Kondo lattice model

We have studied the energy spectrum of a one-dimensional Kondo lattice, where the localized magnetic moments have SU(N) symmetry and two channels of conduction electrons are present. At half filling, the system is shown to exist in two phases: one dominated by RKKY-exchange interaction effects, and the other by Kondo screening. A quantum phase transition point separates these two regimes at temperature $T = 0$. The Kondo-dominated phase is shown to possess soft modes, with spectral gaps much smaller than the Kondo temperature.Comment: 4 pages + 2 figures. Submitted for publicatio