221 research outputs found
Demonstration of an inductively coupled ring trap for cold atoms
We report the first demonstration of an inductively coupled magnetic ring trap for cold atoms. A uniform, ac magnetic field is used to induce current in a copper ring, which creates an opposing magnetic field that is time-averaged to produce a smooth cylindrically symmetric ring trap of radius 5 mm. We use a laser-cooled atomic sample to characterize the loading efficiency and adiabaticity of the magnetic potential, achieving a vacuum-limited lifetime in the trap. This technique is suitable for creating scalable toroidal waveguides for applications in matter-wave interferometry, offering long interaction times and large enclosed areas
Nanosatellites for quantum science and technology
Bringing quantum science and technology to the space frontier offers exciting prospects for both fundamental physics and applications such as long-range secure communication and space-borne quantum probes for inertial sensing with enhanced accuracy and sensitivity. But despite important terrestrial pathfinding precursors on common microgravity platforms and promising proposals to exploit the significant advantages of space quantum missions, large-scale quantum testbeds in space are yet to be realized due to the high costs and leadtimes of traditional “Big Space” satellite development. But the “small space” revolution, spearheaded by the rise of nanosatellites such as CubeSats, is an opportunity to greatly accelerate the progress of quantum space missions by providing easy and affordable access to space and encouraging agile development. We review space quantum science and technology, CubeSats and their rapidly developing capabilities, and how they can be used to advance quantum satellite systems
Ion Program of Na61/Shine at the CERN SPS
The NA61/SHINE experiment at the CERN SPS aims to discover the critical point
of strongly interacting matter and study properties of the onset of
deconfinement. These goals will be reached by measurements of hadron production
properties in nucleus-nucleus, proton-proton and proton-lead interactions as a
function of collision energy and size of the colliding nuclei. Furthermore,
NA61/SHINE will perform numerous precision measurements needed for neutrino
(T2K) and cosmic-ray (Pierre Auger Observatory and KASCADE) experiments. This
paper summarizes physics arguments for the NA61/SHINE ion program and presents
the status and plans of the experiment.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figures, invited talk at the SQM 2008, typos correcte
Search for the QCD critical point in nuclear collisions at the CERN SPS
Pion production in nuclear collisions at the SPS is investigated with the aim
to search, in a restricted domain of the phase diagram, for power-laws in the
behavior of correlations which are compatible with critical QCD. We have
analyzed interactions of nuclei of different size (p+p, C+C, Si+Si, Pb+Pb) at
158 GeV adopting, as appropriate observables, scaled factorial moments in a
search for intermittent fluctuations in transverse dimensions. The analysis is
performed for pairs with invariant mass very close to the two-pion
threshold. In this sector one may capture critical fluctuations of the sigma
component in a hadronic medium, even if the -meson has no well defined
vacuum state. It turns out that for the Pb+Pb system the proposed analysis
technique cannot be applied without entering the invariant mass region with
strong Coulomb correlations. As a result the treatment becomes inconclusive in
this case. Our results for the other systems indicate the presence of power-law
fluctuations in the freeze-out state of Si+Si approaching in size the
prediction of critical QCD.Comment: 31 pages, 11 figure
Transverse Momentum Fluctuations in Nuclear Collisions at 158 AGeV
Results are presented on event-by-event fluctuations in transverse momentum
of charged particles, produced at forward rapidities in p+p, C+C, Si+Si and
Pb+Pb collisions at 158 AGeV. Three different characteristics are discussed:
the average transverse momentum of the event, the Phi_pT fluctuation measure
and two-particle transverse momentum correlations. In the kinematic region
explored, the dynamical fluctuations are found to be small. However, a
significant system size dependence of Phi_pT is observed, with the largest
value measured in peripheral Pb+Pb interactions. The data are compared with
predictions of several models.Comment: will be submitted to Phys. Rev.
Inclusive production of charged pions in p+C collisions at 158 GeV/c beam momentum
The production of charged pions in minimum bias p+C interactions is studied
using a sample of 377000 inelastic events obtained with the NA49 detector at
the CERN SPS at 158 GeV/c beam momentum. The data cover a phase space area
ranging from 0 to 1.8 GeV/c in transverse momentum and from -0.1 to 0.5 in
Feynman x. Inclusive invariant cross sections are given on a grid of 270 bins
per charge thus offering for the first time a dense coverage of the projectile
hemisphere and of the cross-over region into the target fragmentation zone.Comment: 31 pages, 30 figures, submitted to European Journal of Physic
Multiplicity fluctuations in nuclear collisions at 158 A GeV
System size dependence of multiplicity fluctuations of charged particles
produced in nuclear collisions at 158 A GeV was studied in the NA49 CERN
experiment. Results indicate a non-monotonic dependence of the scaled variance
of the multiplicity distribution with a maximum for semi-peripheral Pb+Pb
interactions with number of projectile participants of about 35. This effect is
not observed in a string-hadronic model of nuclear collision HIJING.Comment: Presented at "Focus on Multiplicity", 17-19 of June, Bari, Ital
System-size and centrality dependence of charged kaon and pion production in nucleus-nucleus collisions at 40A GeV and158A GeV beam energy
Measurements of charged pion and kaon production are presented in centrality
selected Pb+Pb collisions at 40A GeV and 158A GeV beam energy as well as in
semi-central C+C and Si+Si interactions at 40A GeV. Transverse mass spectra,
rapidity spectra and total yields are determined as a function of centrality.
The system-size and centrality dependence of relative strangeness production in
nucleus-nucleus collisions at 40A GeV and 158A GeV beam energy are derived from
the data presented here and published data for C+C and Si+Si collisions at 158A
GeV beam energy. At both energies a steep increase with centrality is observed
for small systems followed by a weak rise or even saturation for higher
centralities. This behavior is compared to calculations using transport models
(UrQMD and HSD), a percolation model and the core-corona approach.Comment: 32 pages, 14 figures, 4 tables, typo table II correcte
Omega and Antiomega production in central Pb+Pb collisions at 40 and 158 AGeV
Results are presented on Omega production in central Pb+Pb collisions at 40
and 158 AGeV beam energy. Given are transverse-mass spectra, rapidity
distributions, and total yields for the sum Omega+Antiomega at 40 AGeV and for
Omega and Antiomega separately at 158 AGeV. The yields are strongly
under-predicted by the string-hadronic UrQMD model and are in better agreement
with predictions from a hadron gas models.Comment: 5 papes, 4 figures, 1 table, updated figure 4 and table 1. Final
version, including some editorial changes, as published in PR
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