7,638 research outputs found
High Sensitivity Torsion Balance Tests for LISA Proof Mass Modeling
We have built a highly sensitive torsion balance to investigate small forces
between closely spaced gold coated surfaces. Such forces will occur between the
LISA proof mass and its housing. These forces are not well understood and
experimental investigations are imperative. We describe our torsion balance and
present the noise of the system. A significant contribution to the LISA noise
budget at low frequencies is the fluctuation in the surface potential
difference between the proof mass and its housing. We present first results of
these measurements with our apparatus.Comment: 6th International LISA Symposiu
Extreme tunability of interactions in a Li Bose-Einstein condensate
We use a Feshbach resonance to tune the scattering length a of a
Bose-Einstein condensate of 7Li in the |F = 1, m_F = 1> state. Using the
spatial extent of the trapped condensate we extract a over a range spanning 7
decades from small attractive interactions to extremely strong repulsive
interactions. The shallow zero-crossing in the wing of the Feshbach resonance
enables the determination of a as small as 0.01 Bohr radii. In this regime,
evidence of the weak anisotropic magnetic dipole interaction is obtained by
comparison with different trap geometries
Charge Management for Gravitational Wave Observatories using UV LEDs
Accumulation of electrical charge on the end mirrors of gravitational wave
observatories, such as the space-based LISA mission and ground-based LIGO
detectors, can become a source of noise limiting the sensitivity of such
detectors through electronic couplings to nearby surfaces. Torsion balances
provide an ideal means for testing gravitational wave technologies due to their
high sensitivity to small forces. Our torsion pendulum apparatus consists of a
movable Au-coated Cu plate brought near a Au-coated Si plate pendulum suspended
from a non-conducting quartz fiber. A UV LED located near the pendulum
photoejects electrons from the surface, and a UV LED driven electron gun
directs photoelectrons towards the pendulum surface. We have demonstrated both
charging and discharging of the pendulum with equivalent charging rates of
, as well as spectral measurements of the pendulum
charge resulting in a white noise level equivalent to .Comment: 5 pages, submitted to PR
A Demonstration of LISA Laser Communication
Over the past few years questions have been raised concerning the use of
laser communications links between sciencecraft to transmit phase information
crucial to the reduction of laser frequency noise in the LISA science
measurement. The concern is that applying medium frequency phase modulations to
the laser carrier could compromise the phase stability of the LISA fringe
signal. We have modified the table-top interferometer presented in a previous
article by applying phase modulations to the laser beams in order to evaluate
the effects of such modulations on the LISA science fringe signal. We have
demonstrated that the phase resolution of the science signal is not degraded by
the presence of medium frequency phase modulations.Comment: minor corrections found in the CQG versio
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Detection of human influence on a new, validated 1500-Year temperature reconstruction
Climate records over the last millennium place the twentieth-century warming in a longer historical context. Reconstructions of millennial temperatures show a wide range of variability, raising questions about the reliability of currently available reconstruction techniques and the uniqueness of late-twentieth-century warming. A calibration method is suggested that avoids the loss of low-frequency variance. A new reconstruction using this method shows substantial variability over the last 1500 yr. This record is consistent with independent temperature change estimates from borehole geothermal records, compared over the same spatial and temporal domain. The record is also broadly consistent with other recent reconstructions that attempt to fully recover low-frequency climate variability in their central estimate. High variability in reconstructions does not hamper the detection of greenhouse gas-induced climate change, since a substantial fraction of the variance in these reconstructions from the beginning of the analysis in the late thirteenth century to the end of the records can be attributed to external forcing. Results from a detection and attribution analysis show that greenhouse warming is detectable in all analyzed high-variance reconstructions (with the possible exception of one ending in 1925), and that about a third of the warming in the first half of the twentieth century can be attributed to anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions. The estimated magnitude of the anthropogenic signal is consistent with most of the warming in the second half of the twentieth century being anthropogenic
VLBI Polarimetry of 177 Sources from the Caltech-Jodrell Bank Flat-spectrum Survey
We present VLBA observations and a statistical analysis of 5 GHz VLBI
polarimetry data from 177 sources in the Caltech-Jodrell Bank flat-spectrum
(CJF) survey. The CJF survey, a complete, flux-density-limited sample of 293
extragalactic radio sources, gives us the unique opportunity to compare a broad
range of source properties for quasars, galaxies and BL Lacertae objects. We
focus primarily on jet properties, specifically the correlation between the jet
axis angle and the polarization angle in the core and jet. A strong correlation
is found for the electric vector polarization angle in the cores of quasars to
be perpendicular to the jet axis. Contrary to previous claims, no correlation
is found between the jet polarization angle and the jet axis in either quasars
or BL Lac objects. With this large, homogeneous sample we are also able to
investigate cosmological issues and AGN evolution.Comment: Accepted to the Astrophysical Journal: 37 pages, 14 figure
A pharmacokinetic model of inhaled methanol in humans and comparison to methanol disposition in mice and rats.
We estimated kinetic parameters associated with methanol disposition in humans from data reported in the literature. Michaelis-Menten elimination parameters (Vmax = 115 mg/L/hr; Km = 460 mg/L) were selected for input into a semi-physiologic pharmacokinetic model. We used reported literature values for blood or urine methanol concentrations in humans and nonhuman primates after methanol inhalation as input to an inhalation disposition model that evaluated the absorption of methanol, expressed as the fraction of inhaled methanol concentration that was absorbed (phi). Values of phi for nonexercising subjects typically varied between 0.64 and 0.75; 0.80 was observed to be a reasonable upper boundary for fractional absorption. Absorption efficiency in exercising subjects was lower than that in resting individuals. Incorporation of the kinetic parameters and phi into a pharmacokinetic model of human exposure to methanol, compared to a similar analysis in rodents, indicated that following an 8-hr exposure to 5000 ppm of methanol vapor, blood methanol concentrations in the mouse would be 13- to 18-fold higher than in humans exposed to the same methanol vapor concentration; blood methanol concentrations in the rat under similar conditions would be 5-fold higher than in humans. These results demonstrate the importance in the risk assessment for methanol of basing extrapolations from rodents to humans on actual blood concentrations rather than on methanol vapor exposure concentrations
Collective excitation of a Bose-Einstein condensate by modulation of the atomic scattering length
We excite the lowest-lying quadrupole mode of a Bose-Einstein condensate by
modulating the atomic scattering length via a Feshbach resonance. Excitation
occurs at various modulation frequencies, and resonances located at the natural
quadrupole frequency of the condensate and at the first harmonic are observed.
We also investigate the amplitude of the excited mode as a function of
modulation depth. Numerical simulations based on a variational calculation
agree with our experimental results and provide insight into the observed
behavior.Comment: Submitted to PR
Dissipative Transport of a Bose-Einstein Condensate
We investigate the effects of impurities, either correlated disorder or a
single Gaussian defect, on the collective dipole motion of a Bose-Einstein
condensate of Li in an optical trap. We find that this motion is damped at
a rate dependent on the impurity strength, condensate center-of-mass velocity,
and interatomic interactions. Damping in the Thomas-Fermi regime depends
universally on the disordered potential strength scaled to the condensate
chemical potential and the condensate velocity scaled to the peak speed of
sound. The damping rate is comparatively small in the weakly interacting
regime, and the damping in this case is accompanied by strong condensate
fragmentation. \textit{In situ} and time-of-flight images of the atomic cloud
provide evidence that this fragmentation is driven by dark soliton formation.Comment: 14 pages, 20 figure
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