Thermal Properties of a Simulated Lunar Material in Air and in Vacuum

Thermal properties of simulated lunar material in air and in vacuu

Selective detection of gaseous ammonia with specifically functionalized silicon photonic microring resonator: towards low cost and portable breath monitoring

We demonstrate a selective ammonia sensor based on a silicon photonic microring resonator functionalized with nanoporous silicate films. The potential of this sensor as a low cost, portable and real-time medical breath monitoring device is discussed

Exact Results for the Kuramoto Model with a Bimodal Frequency Distribution

We analyze a large system of globally coupled phase oscillators whose natural frequencies are bimodally distributed. The dynamics of this system has been the subject of long-standing interest. In 1984 Kuramoto proposed several conjectures about its behavior; ten years later, Crawford obtained the first analytical results by means of a local center manifold calculation. Nevertheless, many questions have remained open, especially about the possibility of global bifurcations. Here we derive the system's complete stability diagram for the special case where the bimodal distribution consists of two equally weighted Lorentzians. Using an ansatz recently discovered by Ott and Antonsen, we show that in this case the infinite-dimensional problem reduces exactly to a flow in four dimensions. Depending on the parameters and initial conditions, the long-term dynamics evolves to one of three states: incoherence, where all the oscillators are desynchronized; partial synchrony, where a macroscopic group of phase-locked oscillators coexists with a sea of desynchronized ones; and a standing wave state, where two counter-rotating groups of phase-locked oscillators emerge. Analytical results are presented for the bifurcation boundaries between these states. Similar results are also obtained for the case in which the bimodal distribution is given by the sum of two Gaussians.Comment: 28 pages, 7 figures; submitted to Phys. Rev. E Added comment

Solar Coronal Structures and Stray Light in TRACE

Using the 2004 Venus transit of the Sun to constrain a semi-empirical point-spread function for the TRACE EUV solar telescope, we have measured the effect of stray light in that telescope. We find that 43% of 171A EUV light that enters TRACE is scattered, either through diffraction off the entrance filter grid or through other nonspecular effects. We carry this result forward, via known-PSF deconvolution of TRACE images, to identify its effect on analysis of TRACE data. Known-PSF deconvolution by this derived PSF greatly reduces the effect of visible haze in the TRACE 171A images, enhances bright features, and reveals that the smooth background component of the corona is considerably less bright (and hence much more rarefied) than commonly supposed. Deconvolution reveals that some prior conlclusions about the Sun appear to have been based on stray light in the images. In particular, the diffuse background "quiet corona" becomes consistent with hydrostatic support of the coronal plasma; feature contrast is greatly increased, possibly affecting derived parameters such as the form of the coronal heating function; and essentially all existing differential emission measure studies of small features appear to be affected by contamination from nearby features. We speculate on further implications of stray light for interpretation of EUV images from TRACE and similar instruments, and advocate deconvolution as a standard tool for image analysis with future instruments such as SDO/AIA.Comment: Accepted by APJ; v2 reformatted to single-column format for online readabilit

Macroscopic effects in attosecond pulse generation

We examine how the generation and propagation of high-order harmonics in a partly ionized gas medium affect their strength and synchronization. The temporal properties of the resulting attosecond pulses generated in long gas targets can be significantly influenced by macroscopic effects, in particular by the intensity in the medium and the degree of ionization. Under some conditions, the use of gas targets longer than the absorption length can lead to the generation of self-compressed attosecond pulses. We show this effect experimentally, using long argon-filled gas cells as generating medium.Comment: 5 pages 4 figure

Self-heating Effect in Silicon-Photomultipliers

The main effect of radiation damage in a Silicon-Photolumtiplier (SiPM) is a dramatic increase in the dark current. The power dissipated, if not properly cooled, heats the SiPM, whose performance parameters depend on temperature. Heating studies were performed with a KETEK SiPM, glued on an Al$_2$O$_3$ substrate, which is either directly connected to the temperature-controlled chuck of a probe station, or through layers of material with well-known thermal resistance. The SiPM is illuminated by a LED operated in DC-mode. The SiPM current is measured and used to determine the steady-state temperature as a function of power dissipated in the multiplication region of the SiPM and thermal resistance, as well as the time dependencies for heating and cooling. This information can be used to correct the parameters determined for radiation-damaged SiPM for the effects of self-heating. The method can also be employed for packaged SiPMs with unknown thermal contact to a heat sink. The results presented in this paper are preliminary

On Non-Abelian Symplectic Cutting

We discuss symplectic cutting for Hamiltonian actions of non-Abelian compact groups. By using a degeneration based on the Vinberg monoid we give, in good cases, a global quotient description of a surgery construction introduced by Woodward and Meinrenken, and show it can be interpreted in algebro-geometric terms. A key ingredient is the `universal cut' of the cotangent bundle of the group itself, which is identified with a moduli space of framed bundles on chains of projective lines recently introduced by the authors.Comment: Various edits made, to appear in Transformation Groups. 28 pages, 8 figure