1,891 research outputs found
Product state control of bi-alkali chemical reactions
We consider ultracold, chemically reactive scattering collisions of the
diatomic molecules KRb. When two such molecules collide in an ultracold gas, we
find that they are energetically forbidden from reacting to form the trimer
species KRb or RbK, hence can only react via the bond-swapping reaction
2KRb K + Rb. Moreover, the tiny energy released in this reaction
can in principle be set to zero by applying electric or microwave fields,
implying a means of controlling the available reaction channels in a chemical
reaction.Comment: 4 pages double column, 2 figures, 2 table
OH hyperfine ground state: from precision measurement to molecular qubits
We perform precision microwave spectroscopy--aided by Stark deceleration--to
reveal the low magnetic field behavior of OH in its ^2\Pi_{3/2} ro-vibronic
ground state, identifying two field-insensitive hyperfine transitions suitable
as qubits and determining a differential Lande g-factor of
1.267(5)\times10^{-3} between opposite parity components of the
\Lambda-doublet. The data are successfully modeled with an effective hyperfine
Zeeman Hamiltonian, which we use to make a tenfold improvement of the
magnetically sensitive, astrophysically important \Delta F=\pm1 satellite-line
frequencies, yielding 1720529887(10) Hz and 1612230825(15) Hz.Comment: 4+ pages, 3 figure
Influence of a humidor on the aerodynamics of baseballs
We investigate whether storing baseballs in a controlled humidity environment
significantly affects their aerodynamic properties. To do this, we measure the
change in diameter and mass of baseballs as a function of relative humidity
(RH) in which the balls are stored. We then model trajectories for pitched and
batted baseballs to assess the difference between those stored at 30% RH versus
50% RH. The results show that a drier baseball may be expected to curve
slightly more than a humidified one for a given pitch velocity. We also find
that the aerodynamics alone would add ~2 feet to the distance a moister ball is
hit. However, this is compensated by a ~6 foot reduction in batted distance due
to the well known change in coefficient of restitution of the ball. We discuss
consequences of these results for baseball played at Coors Field in Denver,
where baseballs have been stored in a humidor at 50% RH since 2002.Comment: 21 pages, 7 figures, modified and re-posted 2/2
Candidate molecular ions for an electron electric dipole moment experiment
This paper is a theoretical work in support of a newly proposed experiment
(R. Stutz and E. Cornell, Bull. Am. Soc. Phys. 89, 76 2004) that promises
greater sensitivity to measurements of the electron's electric dipole moment
(EDM) based on the trapping of molecular ions. Such an experiment requires the
choice of a suitable molecule that is both experimentally feasible and
possesses an expectation of a reasonable EDM signal. We find that the molecular
ions PtH+, HfH+, and HfF+ are suitable candidates in their low-lying triplet
Delta states. In particular, we anticipate that the effective electric fields
generated inside these molecules are approximately of 73 GV/cm, -17 GV/cm, and
-18 GV/cm respectively. As a byproduct of this discussion, we also explain how
to make estimates of the size of the effective electric field acting in a
molecule, using commercially available, nonrelativistic molecular structure
software.Comment: 25 pages, 3 figures, submitted to Physical Review
Precision Spectroscopy of Polarized Molecules in an Ion Trap
Polar molecules are desirable systems for quantum simulations and cold
chemistry. Molecular ions are easily trapped, but a bias electric field applied
to polarize them tends to accelerate them out of the trap. We present a general
solution to this issue by rotating the bias field slowly enough for the
molecular polarization axis to follow but rapidly enough for the ions to stay
trapped. We demonstrate Ramsey spectroscopy between Stark-Zeeman sublevels in
180Hf19F+ with a coherence time of 100 ms. Frequency shifts arising from
well-controlled topological (Berry) phases are used to determine magnetic
g-factors. The rotating-bias-field technique may enable using trapped polar
molecules for precision measurement and quantum information science, including
the search for an electron electric dipole moment.Comment: Accepted to Scienc
Berry-Like Phases in Structured Atoms and Molecules
Quantum mechanical phases arising from a periodically varying Hamiltonian are considered. These phases are derived from the eigenvalues of a stationary, “dressed” Hamiltonian that is able to treat internal atomic or molecular structure in addition to the time variation. In the limit of an adiabatic time variation, the usual Berry phase is recovered. For more rapid variation, nonadiabatic corrections to the Berry phase are recovered in perturbation theory, and their explicit dependence on internal structure emerges. Simple demonstrations of this formalism are given, to particles containing interacting spins, and to molecules in electric fields
Chemical pathways in ultracold reactions of SrF molecules
We present a theoretical investigation of the chemical reaction SrF + SrF
products, focusing on reactions at ultralow temperatures. We find
that bond swapping, SrF + SrF Sr + F, is energetically
forbidden at these temperatures. Rather, the only energetically allowed
reaction is SrF + SrF SrF + Sr, and even then only singlet
states of the SrF trimer can form. A calculation along a reduced reaction
path demonstrates that this abstraction reaction is barrierless, and proceeds
by one SrF molecule "handing off" a fluorine atom to the other molecule.Comment: Two column format, 7 pages, 3 figures. Submitted to PR
Prospects for an electron electric dipole moment search in metastable ThO and ThF
The observation of an electron electric dipole moment (eEDM) would have major
ramifications for the standard model of physics. Polar molecules offer a
near-ideal laboratory for such searches due to the large effective electric
field (), on order of tens of GV/cm that can be easily
oriented in the lab frame. We present an improved method for simply and
accurately determining , in a heavy polar molecule, allowing
for a quick determination of candidates for an eEDM experiment. We apply this
method to ThO and ThF, both of which possess metastable
electronic states. The values of in ThO and ThF
are estimated to be 104 GV/cm and 90 GV/cm respectively, and are therefore two
of the best known candidates for the eEDM search.Comment: Two column format submitted to PR
A Component Based Heuristic Search Method with Evolutionary Eliminations
Nurse rostering is a complex scheduling problem that affects hospital
personnel on a daily basis all over the world. This paper presents a new
component-based approach with evolutionary eliminations, for a nurse scheduling
problem arising at a major UK hospital. The main idea behind this technique is
to decompose a schedule into its components (i.e. the allocated shift pattern
of each nurse), and then to implement two evolutionary elimination strategies
mimicking natural selection and natural mutation process on these components
respectively to iteratively deliver better schedules. The worthiness of all
components in the schedule has to be continuously demonstrated in order for
them to remain there. This demonstration employs an evaluation function which
evaluates how well each component contributes towards the final objective. Two
elimination steps are then applied: the first elimination eliminates a number
of components that are deemed not worthy to stay in the current schedule; the
second elimination may also throw out, with a low level of probability, some
worthy components. The eliminated components are replenished with new ones
using a set of constructive heuristics using local optimality criteria.
Computational results using 52 data instances demonstrate the applicability of
the proposed approach in solving real-world problems.Comment: 27 pages, 4 figure
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