Clouds, shadows, or twilight? Mayfly nymphs recognise the difference

1. We examined the relative changes in light intensity that initiate night-time locomotor activity changes in nymphs of the mayfly, Stenonema modestum (Heptageniidae). Tests were carried out in a laboratory stream to examine the hypothesis that nymphs increase their locomotion in response to the large and sustained reductions in relative light intensity that take place during twilight but not to short-term daytime light fluctuations or a minimum light intensity threshold. Ambient light intensity was reduced over a range of values representative of evening twilight. Light was reduced over the same range of intensities either continuously or in discrete intervals while at the same time nymph activity on unglazed tile substrata was video recorded. 2. Nymphs increased their locomotor activity during darkness in response to large, sustained relative light decreases, but not in response to short-term, interrupted periods of light decrease. Nymphs did not recognise darkness unless an adequate light stimulus, such as large and sustained relative decrease in light intensity, had taken place. 3. We show that nymphs perceive light change over time and respond only after a lengthy period of accumulation of light stimulus. The response is much lengthier than reported for other aquatic organisms and is highly adaptive to heterogeneous stream environments

Transition from antibunching to bunching for two dipole-interacting atoms

It is known that there is a transition from photon antibunching to bunching in the resonance fluorescence of a driven system of two two-level atoms with dipole-dipole interaction when the atomic distance decreases and the other parameters are kept fixed. We give a simple explanation for the underlying mechanism which in principle can also be applied to other systems. PACS numbers 42.50.Ar, 42.50FxComment: Submitted to Phys. Rev. A; 15 pages Latex + 4 figure

Near-IR Atlas of S0-Sa galaxies (NIRS0S)

An atlas of Ks-band images of 206 early-type galaxies is presented, including 160 S0-S0/a galaxies, 12 ellipticals, and 33 Sa galaxies. A majority of the Atlas galaxies belong to a magnitude-limited (mB<12.5 mag) sample of 185 NIRS0S (Near-IR S0 galaxy Survey) galaxies. To assure that mis-classified S0s are not omitted, 25 ellipticals from RC3 classified as S0s in the Carnegie Atlas were included in the sample. The images are 2-3 mag deeper than 2MASS images. Both visual and photometric classifications are made. Special attention is paid to the classification of lenses, coded in a systematic manner. A new lens-type, called a 'barlens', is introduced. Also, boxy/peanut/x-shaped structures are identified in many barred galaxies, even-though the galaxies are not seen in edge-on view, indicating that vertical thickening is not enough to explain them. Multiple lenses appear in 25% of the Atlas galaxies, which is a challenge to the hierarchical evolutionary picture of galaxies. Such models need to explain how the lenses were formed and survived in multiple merger events that galaxies may have suffered during their lifetimes. Following the early suggestion by van den Bergh, candidates of S0c galaxies are shown, which galaxies are expected to be former Sc-type spirals stripped out of gas.Comment: 67 pages (include 16 figures and 6 tables). Accepted to MNRAS 2011 June 1

Performance of novel VUV-sensitive Silicon Photo-Multipliers for nEXO

Liquid xenon time projection chambers are promising detectors to search for neutrinoless double beta decay (0$\nu \beta \beta$), due to their response uniformity, monolithic sensitive volume, scalability to large target masses, and suitability for extremely low background operations. The nEXO collaboration has designed a tonne-scale time projection chamber that aims to search for 0$\nu \beta \beta$ of \ce{^{136}Xe} with projected half-life sensitivity of $1.35\times 10^{28}$~yr. To reach this sensitivity, the design goal for nEXO is $\leq$1\% energy resolution at the decay $Q$-value ($2458.07\pm 0.31$~keV). Reaching this resolution requires the efficient collection of both the ionization and scintillation produced in the detector. The nEXO design employs Silicon Photo-Multipliers (SiPMs) to detect the vacuum ultra-violet, 175 nm scintillation light of liquid xenon. This paper reports on the characterization of the newest vacuum ultra-violet sensitive Fondazione Bruno Kessler VUVHD3 SiPMs specifically designed for nEXO, as well as new measurements on new test samples of previously characterised Hamamatsu VUV4 Multi Pixel Photon Counters (MPPCs). Various SiPM and MPPC parameters, such as dark noise, gain, direct crosstalk, correlated avalanches and photon detection efficiency were measured as a function of the applied over voltage and wavelength at liquid xenon temperature (163~K). The results from this study are used to provide updated estimates of the achievable energy resolution at the decay $Q$-value for the nEXO design