Laser ignition of an optically sensitised secondary explosive by a diode laser

As a green technology, laser ignition of a relatively insensitive secondary explosive has been experimentally investigated. The explosive, hexanitrostilbene (HNS), was doped with one of two optical sensitizers, carbon black or a laser absorbing dye, and a continuous-wave (CW) infrared diode laser was used as the igniting source. The ignition sensitivities of HNS with each of the two optical sensitizers were analysed and compared in terms of: optical power threshold for ignition, ignition delay and full burn delay at various laser powers. The results have shown that both the chemical dye and carbon black optically sensitize the explosive with similar efficiencies. In contrast to the carbon black, the dye provides wavelength specificity and selectivity in the laser ignition process and its solubility in some specific solvents improves the coating of the explosive material. It was therefore concluded that the laser absorbing dye is a better candidate for optical sensitization in laser ignition than the commonly used carbon black. The combination of laser ignition sensitivity with wavelength selectivity potentially offers higher reliability and safety at a low optical power for future ignitors of secondary explosives

Coronal rain in magnetic arcades: Rebound shocks, Limit cycles, and Shear flows

We extend our earlier multidimensional, magnetohydrodynamic simulations of coronal rain occurring in magnetic arcades with higher resolution, grid-adaptive computations covering a much longer ($>6$ hour) timespan. We quantify how in-situ forming blob-like condensations grow along and across field lines and show that rain showers can occur in limit cycles, here demonstrated for the first time in 2.5D setups. We discuss dynamical, multi-dimensional aspects of the rebound shocks generated by the siphon inflows and quantify the thermodynamics of a prominence-corona-transition-region like structure surrounding the blobs. We point out the correlation between condensation rates and the cross-sectional size of loop systems where catastrophic cooling takes place. We also study the variations of the typical number density, kinetic energy and temperature while blobs descend, impact and sink into the transition region. In addition, we explain the mechanisms leading to concurrent upflows while the blobs descend. As a result, there are plenty of shear flows generated with relative velocity difference around 80 km s$^{-1}$ in our simulations. These shear flows are siphon flows set up by multiple blob dynamics and they in turn affect the deformation of the falling blobs. In particular, we show how shear flows can break apart blobs into smaller fragments, within minutes

Simulating coronal condensation dynamics in 3D

We present numerical simulations in 3D settings where coronal rain phenomena take place in a magnetic configuration of a quadrupolar arcade system. Our simulation is a magnetohydrodynamic simulation including anisotropic thermal conduction, optically thin radiative losses, and parametrised heating as main thermodynamical features to construct a realistic arcade configuration from chromospheric to coronal heights. The plasma evaporation from chromospheric and transition region heights eventually causes localised runaway condensation events and we witness the formation of plasma blobs due to thermal instability, that evolve dynamically in the heated arcade part and move gradually downwards due to interchange type dynamics. Unlike earlier 2.5D simulations, in this case there is no large scale prominence formation observed, but a continuous coronal rain develops which shows clear indications of Rayleigh-Taylor or interchange instability, that causes the denser plasma located above the transition region to fall down, as the system moves towards a more stable state. Linear stability analysis is used in the non-linear regime for gaining insight and giving a prediction of the system's evolution. After the plasma blobs descend through interchange, they follow the magnetic field topology more closely in the lower coronal regions, where they are guided by the magnetic dips.Comment: 47 pages, 59 figure

Spectroscopic Observations of Planetary Nebulae in the Northern Spur of M31

We present spectroscopy of three planetary nebulae (PNe) in the Northern Spur of the Andromeda Galaxy (M31) obtained with the Double Spectrograph on the 5.1 m Hale Telescope at the Palomar Observatory. The samples are selected from the observations of Merrett et al. Our purpose is to investigate formation of the substructures of M31 using PNe as a tracer of chemical abundances. The [O III] 4363 auroral line is detected in the spectra of two objects, enabling temperature determinations. Ionic abundances are derived from the observed collisionally excited lines, and elemental abundances of nitrogen, oxygen, and neon as well as sulphur and argon are estimated. Correlations between oxygen and the alpha-element abundance ratios are studied, using our sample and the M31 disk and bulge PNe from the literature. In one of the three PNe, we observed relatively higher oxygen abundance compared to the disk sample in M31 at similar galactocentric distances. The results of at least one of the three Northern Spur PNe might be in line with the proposed possible origin of the Northern Spur substructure of M31, i.e. the Northern Spur is connected to the Southern Stream and both substructures comprise the tidal debris of the satellite galaxies of M31.Comment: 5 tables, 17 figures; accepted for publication in Ap

The Serpens filament: at the onset of slightly supercritical collapse

The Serpens filament, as one of the nearest infrared dark clouds, is regarded as a pristine filament at a very early evolutionary stage of star formation. In order to study its molecular content and dynamical state, we mapped this filament in seven species. Among them, HCO$^{+}$, HNC, HCN, and CS show self-absorption, while C$^{18}$O is most sensitive to the filamentary structure. A kinematic analysis demonstrates that this filament forms a velocity-coherent (trans-)sonic structure, a large part of which is one of the most quiescent regions in the Serpens cloud. Widespread C$^{18}$O depletion is found throughout the Serpens filament. Based on the Herschel dust-derived H$_{2}$ column density map, the line mass of the filament is 36--41~M$_{\odot}$~pc$^{-1}$, and its full width at half maximum is 0.17$\pm$0.01~pc, while its length is ~1.6~pc. The inner radial column density profile of this filament can be well fitted with a Plummer profile with an exponent of 2.2$\pm$0.1, a scale radius of $0.018\pm 0.003$ pc, and a central density of $(4.0\pm 0.8)\times 10^{4}$~cm$^{-3}$. The Serpens filament appears to be slightly supercritical. The widespread blue-skewed HNC and CS line profiles and HCN hyperfine line anomalies across this filament indicate radial infall in parts of the Serpens filament. C$^{18}$O velocity gradients also indicate accretion flows along the filament. The velocity and density structures suggest that such accretion flows are likely due to a longitudinal collapse parallel to the filament's long axis. Both the radial infall rate and the longitudinal accretion rate along the Serpens filament are lower than all previously reported values in other filaments. This indicates that the Serpens filament lies at an early evolutionary stage when collapse has just begun, or that thermal and non-thermal support are effective in providing support against gravity.Comment: 22 pages, 14 figures, 4 tables, accepted for publication in A&A; for the draft showing figures with full resolution, see http://gongyan2444.github.io/pdf/absfil.pd

Formation of Enhanced Uniform Chiral Fields in Symmetric Dimer Nanostructures

Chiral fields with large optical chirality are very important in chiral molecules analysis, sensing and other measurements. Plasmonic nanostructures have been proposed to realize such super chiral fields for enhancing weak chiral signals. However, most of them cannot provide uniform chiral near-fields close to the structures, which makes these nanostructures not so efficient for applications. Plasmonic helical nanostructures and blocked squares have been proved to provide uniform chiral near-fields, but structure fabrication is a challenge. In this paper, we show that very simple plasmonic dimer structures can provide uniform chiral fields in the gaps with large enhancement of both near electric fields and chiral fields under linearly polarized light illumination with polarization off the dimer axis at dipole resonance. An analytical dipole model is utilized to explain this behavior theoretically. 30 times of volume averaged chiral field enhancement is gotten in the whole gap. Chiral fields with opposite handedness can be obtained simply by changing the polarization to the other side of the dimer axis. It is especially useful in Raman optical activity measurement and chiral sensing of small quantity of chiral molecule

Approximate broadcasting of quantum correlations

© 2017 American Physical Society. Broadcasting quantum and classical information is a basic task in quantum information processing, and is also a useful model in the study of quantum correlations including quantum discord. We establish a full operational characterization of two-sided quantum discord in terms of bilocal broadcasting of quantum correlations. Moreover, we show that both the optimal fidelity of unilocal broadcasting of the correlations in an arbitrary bipartite quantum state and that of broadcasting an arbitrary set of quantum states can be formulized as semidefinite programs (SDPs), which are efficiently computable. We also analyze some properties of these SDPs and evaluate the broadcasting fidelities for some cases of interest