38,565 research outputs found
Interstellar grain mantles
Interstellar molecular grain mantles are an important component of the interstellar dust inside dense molecular clouds as evidenced by the detection of absorption bands at 2.97, 3.08, 4.61, 6.0 and 6.8 microns. Mantles may also be the precursors of more complex grain mantles in the diffuse interstellar medium. The molecular composition of these icy grain mantles were calculated employing gas phase as well as grain surface reactions. The calculated mixtures consist mainly of the molecules H2O, H2CO, N2, CO, O2, H2O2, NH2, and their deuterated counterparts in varying ratios. The exact compositions depend strongly on the physical conditions in the gas phase. The absorption spectra of H2O with other molecules was studied in the laboratory. Optical constants were determined for a few selected mixtures. Extinction and polarization cross sections across the 3 micron ice band were calculated. A comparison with the observations towards BN shows that the low frequency wing observed on this feature is due to absorption by a mixture of H2O and other molecules rather than scattering by large, pure H2O ice grains
Development of dispersion strengthened chromium alloys Summary report
Dispersion strengthened chromium alloys with minimal quantities of interstitial impuritie
Frustration and sound attenuation in structural glasses
Three classes of harmonic disorder systems (Lennard-Jones like glasses,
percolators above threshold, and spring disordered lattices) have been
numerically investigated in order to clarify the effect of different types of
disorder on the mechanism of high frequency sound attenuation. We introduce the
concept of frustration in structural glasses as a measure of the internal
stress, and find a strong correlation between the degree of frustration and the
exponent alpha that characterizes the momentum dependence of the sound
attenuation . In particular, alpha decreases from
about d+1 in low-frustration systems (where d is the spectral dimension), to
about 2 for high frustration systems like the realistic glasses examined.Comment: Revtex, 4 pages including 4 figure
Phonon-induced decay of the electron spin in quantum dots
We study spin relaxation and decoherence in a
GaAs quantum dot due to spin-orbit interaction. We derive an effective
Hamiltonian which couples the electron spin to phonons or any other fluctuation
of the dot potential. We show that the spin decoherence time is as large
as the spin relaxation time , under realistic conditions. For the
Dresselhaus and Rashba spin-orbit couplings, we find that, in leading order,
the effective magnetic field can have only fluctuations transverse to the
applied magnetic field. As a result, for arbitrarily large Zeeman
splittings, in contrast to the naively expected case
. We show that the spin decay is drastically suppressed for
certain magnetic field directions and values of the
Rashba coupling constant. Finally, for the spin coupling to acoustic phonons,
we show that
for all spin-orbit mechanisms in leading order in the
electron-phonon interaction.Comment: 5 pages, 1 figur
FUSE observations of HD 5980: The wind structure of the eruptor
HD 5980 is a unique system containing one massive star (star A) that is
apparently entering the luminous blue variable phase, and an eclipsing
companion (star B) that may have already evolved beyond this phase to become a
Wolf-Rayet star. In this paper we present the results from FUSE observations
obtained in 1999, 2000, and 2002 and one far-UV observation obtained by
ORFEUS/BEFS in 1993 shortly before the first eruption of HD 5980. The eight
phase-resolved spectra obtained by FUSE in 2002 are analyzed in the context of
a wind-eclipse model. This analysis shows that the wind of the eruptor obeyed a
very fast velocity law in 2002, which is consistent with the line-driving
mechanism. Large amplitude line-profile variations on the orbital period are
shown to be due to the eclipse of star B by the wind of star A, although the
eclipse due to gas flowing in the direction of star B is absent. This can only
be explained if the wind of star A is not spherically symmetric, or if the
eclipsed line radiation is "filled-in" by emission originating from somewhere
else in the system, e.g., in the wind-wind collision region. Except for a
slightly lower wind speed, the ORFEUS/BEFS spectrum is very similar to the
spectrum obtained by FUSE at the same orbital phase: there is no indication of
the impending eruption. However, the trend for decreasing wind velocity
suggests the occurrence of the "bi-stability" mechanism, which in turn implies
that the restructuring of the circumbinary environment caused by the transition
from "fast, rarefied wind" to "slow, dense wind" was observed as the eruptive
event. The underlying mechanism responsible for the long-term decrease in wind
velocity that precipitated this change remains an open issue.Comment: 19 pages, 13 figure
The Epstein-Glaser approach to pQFT: graphs and Hopf algebras
The paper aims at investigating perturbative quantum field theory (pQFT) in
the approach of Epstein and Glaser (EG) and, in particular, its formulation in
the language of graphs and Hopf algebras (HAs). Various HAs are encountered,
each one associated with a special combination of physical concepts such as
normalization, localization, pseudo-unitarity, causality and an associated
regularization, and renormalization. The algebraic structures, representing the
perturbative expansion of the S-matrix, are imposed on the operator-valued
distributions which are equipped with appropriate graph indices. Translation
invariance ensures the algebras to be analytically well-defined and graded
total symmetry allows to formulate bialgebras. The algebraic results are given
embedded in the physical framework, which covers the two recent EG versions by
Fredenhagen and Scharf that differ with respect to the concrete recursive
implementation of causality. Besides, the ultraviolet divergences occuring in
Feynman's representation are mathematically reasoned. As a final result, the
change of the renormalization scheme in the EG framework is modeled via a HA
which can be seen as the EG-analog of Kreimer's HA.Comment: 52 pages, 5 figure
Observation of the Cabibbo-suppressed charmed baryon decay Λ_c^+→pφ
We report the observation of the Cabibbo-suppressed decays Λ_c^+→pK^-K^+ and Λ_c^+→pφ using data collected with the CLEO II detector at CESR. The latter mode, observed for the first time with significant statistics, is of interest as a test of color suppression in charm decays. We have determined the branching ratios for these modes relative to Λ_c^+→pK^-π^+ and compared our results with theory
Botulinum neurotoxin serotype F is a zinc endopeptidase specific for VAMP/synaptobrevin
Botulinum neurotoxin serotype F contains the zinc binding motif of zinc endopeptidases. Atomic adsorption analysis of highly purified toxin preparation revealed the presence of one atom of zinc per molecule of toxin, which could be removed with EDTA or o-phenanthroline. The light chain of the neurotoxin was shown to have a zinc-dependent protease activity specific for VAMP/synaptobrevin, an integral membrane protein of synaptic vesicles. Both isoforms of rat VAMP were cleaved at the same site corresponding to the single Gln-Lys peptide bond present in their sequences. This proteolytic activity was inhibited by EDTA, o-phenanthroline, and captopril as well as by VAMP peptides spanning the cleavage site
Performance of the PADME calorimeter prototype at the DANE BTF
The PADME experiment at the DANE Beam-Test Facility (BTF) aims at
searching for invisible decays of the dark photon by measuring the final state
missing mass in the process , with undetected. The
measurement requires the determination of the 4-momentum of the recoil photon,
performed using a homogeneous, highly segmented BGO crystals calorimeter. We
report the results of the test of a 55 crystals prototype performed
with an electron beam at the BTF in July 2016
Chaos-driven dynamics in spin-orbit coupled atomic gases
The dynamics, appearing after a quantum quench, of a trapped, spin-orbit
coupled, dilute atomic gas is studied. The characteristics of the evolution is
greatly influenced by the symmetries of the system, and we especially compare
evolution for an isotropic Rashba coupling and for an anisotropic spin-orbit
coupling. As we make the spin-orbit coupling anisotropic, we break the
rotational symmetry and the underlying classical model becomes chaotic; the
quantum dynamics is affected accordingly. Within experimentally relevant
time-scales and parameters, the system thermalizes in a quantum sense. The
corresponding equilibration time is found to agree with the Ehrenfest time,
i.e. we numerically verify a ~log(1/h) scaling. Upon thermalization, we find
the equilibrated distributions show examples of quantum scars distinguished by
accumulation of atomic density for certain energies. At shorter time-scales we
discuss non-adiabatic effects deriving from the spin-orbit coupled induced
Dirac point. In the vicinity of the Dirac point, spin fluctuations are large
and, even at short times, a semi-classical analysis fails.Comment: 11 pages, 10 figure
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