Formation of plasma around a small meteoroid: 1. Kinetic theory

This article is a companion to Dimant and Oppenheim [2017] https://doi.org/10.1002/2017JA023963.This paper calculates the spatial distribution of the plasma responsible for radar head echoes by applying the kinetic theory developed in the companion paper. This results in a set of analytic expressions for the plasma density as a function of distance from the meteoroid. It shows that at distances less than a collisional mean free path from the meteoroid surface, the plasma density drops in proportion to 1/R where R is the distance from the meteoroid center; and, at distances much longer than the mean‐free‐path behind the meteoroid, the density diminishes at a rate proportional to 1/R2. The results of this paper should be used for modeling and analysis of radar head echoes.This work was supported by NSF grant AGS-1244842. (AGS-1244842 - NSF

Scalar resonances: scattering and production amplitudes

Scattering and production amplitudes involving scalar resonances are known, according to Watson's theorem, to share the same phase $\delta(s)$. We show that, at low energies, the production amplitude is fully determined by the combination of $\delta(s)$ with another phase $\omega(s)$, which describes intermediate two-meson propagation and is theoretically unambiguous. Our main result is a simple and almost model independent expression, which generalizes the usual $K$-matrix unitarization procedure and is suited to be used in analyses of production data involving scalar resonances.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figures. Minor changes, references added, version to appear in Phys. Rev.

An Improved Rotary Singulator

A new operating approach for a previously existing rotary singulator was developed which improves the versatility of the device. This was accomplished by the implementation of a modular mechanism that performed the basic functions of agitation, gating, pocket formation, and exit, all inherent in this type of singulation device

Orbit equivalence rigidity for ergodic actions of the mapping class group

We establish orbit equivalence rigidity for any ergodic, essentially free and measure-preserving action on a standard Borel space with a finite positive measure of the mapping class group for a compact orientable surface with higher complexity. We prove similar rigidity results for a finite direct product of mapping class groups as well.Comment: 11 pages, title changed, a part of contents remove

Battery-Operated Atomic Force Microscope

The design of a battery-operated atomic force microscope (AFM) using a piezoresistive cantilever is described. The AFM is designed so that all power to drive the scanning tube and detection electronics comes from a self-contained battery. The prototype AFM uses a 6 V, Ni–Cd, camcorder battery, however, any battery that supplies between 6 and 12 V may be used. Scanner control and data acquisition are implemented using commercially available software running on an external computer. The prototype AFM achieves a scan area of 53 by 53 μm, consumes 1.8 W of power, and can scan continuously for about 7 h on a single battery charge

Stimulated wave of polarization in spin chains

Stimulated wave of polarization, triggered by a flip of a single spin, presents a simple model of quantum amplification. Previously, it has been found that such wave can be excited in a 1D Ising chain with nearest-neighbor interactions, irradiated by a weak resonant transverse field. Here we explore models with more realistic Hamiltonians, in particular, with natural dipole-dipole interactions. Results of simulations for 1D spin chains and rings with up to nine spins are presented.Comment: 15 pages, 5 figure

Compound transfer matrices: Constructive and destructive interference

Scattering from a compound barrier, one composed of a number of distinct non-overlapping sub-barriers, has a number of interesting and subtle mathematical features. If one is scattering classical particles, where the wave aspects of the particle can be ignored, the transmission probability of the compound barrier is simply given by the product of the transmission probabilities of the individual sub-barriers. In contrast if one is scattering waves (whether we are dealing with either purely classical waves or quantum Schrodinger wavefunctions) each sub-barrier contributes phase information (as well as a transmission probability), and these phases can lead to either constructive or destructive interference, with the transmission probability oscillating between nontrivial upper and lower bounds. In this article we shall study these upper and lower bounds in some detail, and also derive bounds on the closely related process of quantum excitation (particle production) via parametric resonance.Comment: V1: 28 pages. V2: 21 pages. Presentation significantly streamlined and shortened. This version accepted for publication in the Journal of Mathematical Physic

Encounter complexes and dimensionality reduction in protein-protein association

An outstanding challenge has been to understand the mechanism whereby proteins associate. We report here the results of exhaustively sampling the conformational space in protein–protein association using a physics-based energy function. The agreement between experimental intermolecular paramagnetic relaxation enhancement (PRE) data and the PRE profiles calculated from the docked structures shows that the method captures both specific and non-specific encounter complexes. To explore the energy landscape in the vicinity of the native structure, the nonlinear manifold describing the relative orientation of two solid bodies is projected onto a Euclidean space in which the shape of low energy regions is studied by principal component analysis. Results show that the energy surface is canyon-like, with a smooth funnel within a two dimensional subspace capturing over 75% of the total motion. Thus, proteins tend to associate along preferred pathways, similar to sliding of a protein along DNA in the process of protein-DNA recognition