1,418 research outputs found
Ultrasensitive 3He magnetometer for measurements of high magnetic fields
We describe a 3He magnetometer capable to measure high magnetic fields (B >
0.1 Tesla) with a relative accuracy of better than 10^-12. Our approach is
based on the measurement of the free induction decay of gaseous, nuclear spin
polarized 3He following a resonant radio frequency pulse excitation. The
measurement sensitivity can be attributed to the long coherent spin precession
time T2* being of order minutes which is achieved for spherical sample cells in
the regime of motional narrowing where the disturbing influence of field
inhomogeneities is strongly suppressed. The 3He gas is spin polarized in-situ
using a new, non-standard variant of the metastability exchange optical
pumping. We show that miniaturization helps to increase T2* further and that
the measurement sensitivity is not significantly affected by temporal field
fluctuations of order 10^-4.Comment: 27 pages, 7 figure
Determination of the parameters of a Skyrme type effective interaction using the simulated annealing approach
We implement for the first time the simulated annealing method (SAM) to the
problem of searching for the global minimum in the hyper-surface of the
chi-square function which depends on the values of the parameters of a Skyrme
type effective nucleon-nucleon interaction. We undertake a realistic case of
fitting the values of the Skyrme parameters to an extensive set of experimental
data on the ground state properties of many nuclei ranging from normal to
exotic ones. The set of experimental data used in our fitting procedure
includes the radii for the valence and neutron orbits in
the O and Ca nuclei, respectively, and the breathing mode
energies for several nuclei, in addition to the typically used data on binding
energy, charge radii and spin-orbit splitting. We also include in the fit the
critical density and further constrain the values of the Skyrme
parameters by requiring that (i) the quantity ,
directly related to the slope of the symmetry energy , must be positive for
densities up to (ii) the enhancement factor , associated with
the isovector giant dipole resonance, should lie in the range of
and (iii) the Landau parameter is positive at . We
provide simple but consistent schemes to account for the center of mass
corrections to the binding energy and charge radii.Comment: 33 pages, 4 figures, Phys. Rev. C (in press
Exploring the extended density-dependent Skyrme effective forces for normal and isospin-rich nuclei to neutron stars
We parameterize the recently proposed generalized Skyrme effective force
(GSEF) containing extended density dependence. The parameters of the GSEF are
determined by the fit to several properties of the normal and isospin-rich
nuclei. We also include in our fit a realistic equation of state for the pure
neutron matter up to high densities so that the resulting Skyrme parameters can
be suitably used to model the neutron star with the "canonical" mass (). For the appropriate comparison we generate a parameter set for the
standard Skyrme effective force (SSEF) using exactly the same set of the data
as employed to determine the parameters of the GSEF. We find that the GSEF
yields larger values for the neutron skin thickness which are closer to the
recent predictions based on the isospin diffusion data. The Skyrme parameters
so obtained are employed to compute the strength function for the isoscalar
giant monopole, dipole and quadrupole resonances. It is found that in the case
of GSEF, due to the the larger value of the nucleon effective mass the values
of centroid energies for the isoscalar giant resonances are in better agreement
with the corresponding experimental data in comparison to those obtained using
the SSEF. We also present results for some of the key properties associated
with the neutron star of "canonical" mass and for the one with the maximum
mass.Comment: 45pages, 16 figure
Precision high voltage divider for the KATRIN experiment
The Karlsruhe Tritium Neutrino Experiment (KATRIN) aims to determine the
absolute mass of the electron antineutrino from a precise measurement of the
tritium beta-spectrum near its endpoint at 18.6 keV with a sensitivity of 0.2
eV. KATRIN uses an electrostatic retardation spectrometer of MAC-E filter type
for which it is crucial to monitor high voltages of up to 35 kV with a
precision and long-term stability at the ppm level. Since devices capable of
this precision are not commercially available, a new high voltage divider for
direct voltages of up to 35 kV has been designed, following the new concept of
the standard divider for direct voltages of up to 100 kV developed at the
Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB). The electrical and mechanical
design of the divider, the screening procedure for the selection of the
precision resistors, and the results of the investigation and calibration at
PTB are reported here. During the latter, uncertainties at the low ppm level
have been deduced for the new divider, thus qualifying it for the precision
measurements of the KATRIN experiment.Comment: 22 pages, 12 figure
The KATRIN Experiment
The KArlsruhe TRitium Neutrino mass experiment, KATRIN, aims to search for
the mass of the electron neutrino with a sensitivity of 0.2 eV/c^2 (90% C.L.)
and a detection limit of 0.35 eV/c^2 (5 sigma). Both a positive or a negative
result will have far reaching implications for cosmology and the standard model
of particle physics and will give new input for astroparticle physics and
cosmology. The major components of KATRIN are being set up at the Karlsruhe
Institut of Technology in Karlsruhe, Germany, and test measurements of the
individual components have started. Data taking with tritium is scheduled to
start in 2012.Comment: 3 pages, 1 figure, proceedings of the TAUP 2009 International
Conference on Topics in Astroparticle and Underground Physics, to be
published in Journal of Physics, Conference Serie
Nuclear effects in atomic transitions
Atomic electrons are sensitive to the properties of the nucleus they are
bound to, such as nuclear mass, charge distribution, spin, magnetization
distribution, or even excited level scheme. These nuclear parameters are
reflected in the atomic transition energies. A very precise determination of
atomic spectra may thus reveal information about the nucleus, otherwise hardly
accessible via nuclear physics experiments. This work reviews theoretical and
experimental aspects of the nuclear effects that can be identified in atomic
structure data. An introduction to the theory of isotope shifts and hyperfine
splitting of atomic spectra is given, together with an overview of the typical
experimental techniques used in high-precision atomic spectroscopy. More exotic
effects at the borderline between atomic and nuclear physics, such as parity
violation in atomic transitions due to the weak interaction, or nuclear
polarization and nuclear excitation by electron capture, are also addressed.Comment: review article, 53 pages, 14 figure
The tensor part of the Skyrme energy density functional. I. Spherical nuclei
We perform a systematic study of the impact of the J^2 tensor term in the
Skyrme energy functional on properties of spherical nuclei. In the Skyrme
energy functional, the tensor terms originate both from zero-range central and
tensor forces. We build a set of 36 parameterizations, which covers a wide
range of the parameter space of the isoscalar and isovector tensor term
coupling constants, with a fit protocol very similar to that of the successful
SLy parameterizations. We analyze the impact of the tensor terms on a large
variety of observables in spherical mean-field calculations, such as the
spin-orbit splittings and single-particle spectra of doubly-magic nuclei, the
evolution of spin-orbit splittings along chains of semi-magic nuclei, mass
residuals of spherical nuclei, and known anomalies of charge radii. Our main
conclusion is that the currently used central and spin-orbit parts of the
Skyrme energy density functional are not flexible enough to allow for the
presence of large tensor terms.Comment: 38 pages, 36 figures; Minor correction
Ultra-stable implanted 83Rb/83mKr electron sources for the energy scale monitoring in the KATRIN experiment
The KATRIN experiment aims at the direct model-independent determination of
the average electron neutrino mass via the measurement of the endpoint region
of the tritium beta decay spectrum. The electron spectrometer of the MAC-E
filter type is used, requiring very high stability of the electric filtering
potential. This work proves the feasibility of implanted 83Rb/83mKr calibration
electron sources which will be utilised in the additional monitor spectrometer
sharing the high voltage with the main spectrometer of KATRIN. The source
employs conversion electrons of 83mKr which is continuously generated by 83Rb.
The K-32 conversion line (kinetic energy of 17.8 keV, natural line width of 2.7
eV) is shown to fulfill the KATRIN requirement of the relative energy stability
of +/-1.6 ppm/month. The sources will serve as a standard tool for continuous
monitoring of KATRIN's energy scale stability with sub-ppm precision. They may
also be used in other applications where the precise conversion lines can be
separated from the low energy spectrum caused by the electron inelastic
scattering in the substrate.Comment: 30 pages, 10 figures, 1 table, minor revision of the preprint,
accepted by JINST on 5.2.201
Inter-muscular coherence in speed skaters with skater's cramp
Introduction: Skater's cramp is a career-ending movement disorder in expert speed skaters noted to be a likely task-specific dystonia. In other movement disorders, including task-specific dystonia, studies have found evidence of central dysregulation expressed as higher inter-muscular coherence. We looked at whether inter-muscular coherence was higher in affected skaters as a possible indicator that it is centrally driven, and by extension further evidence it is a task-specific dystonia.Methods: In 14 affected and 14 control skaters we calculated inter-muscular coherence in the theta-band in a stationary task where tonic muscle activation was measured at 10%, 20% and 50% of maximum voluntary contraction. Additionally, we calculated wavelet coherence while skating at key moments in the stroke cycle.Results: Coherence did not differ in the stationary activation task. While skating, coherence was higher in the impacted leg of affected skaters compared to their non-impacted leg, p = .05, η2 = 0.031, and amplitude of electromyography correlated with coherence in the impacted leg, p = .009, R2adjusted = 0.41. A sub-group of severely affected skaters (n = 6) had higher coherence in the impacted leg compared to the left and right leg of controls, p = .02, Cohen's d = 1.59 and p = .01, Cohen's d = 1.63 respectively. Results were less clear across the entire affected cohort probably due to a diverse case-mix.Conclusion: Our results of higher coherence in certain severe cases of skater's cramp is preliminary evidence of a central dysregulation, making the likelihood it is a task-specific dystonia higher.</p
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