124 research outputs found
Existence of superposition solutions for pulse propagation in nonlinear resonant media
Existence of self-similar, superposed pulse-train solutions of the nonlinear,
coupled Maxwell-Schr\"odinger equations, with the frequencies controlled by the
oscillator strengths of the transitions, is established. Some of these
excitations are specific to the resonant media, with energy levels in the
configurations of and and arise because of the interference
effects of cnoidal waves, as evidenced from some recently discovered identities
involving the Jacobian elliptic functions. Interestingly, these excitations
also admit a dual interpretation as single pulse-trains, with widely different
amplitudes, which can lead to substantially different field intensities and
population densities in different atomic levels.Comment: 11 Pages, 6 Figures, presentation changed and 3 figures adde
Spatiotemporally localized solitons in resonantly absorbing Bragg reflectors
We predict the existence of spatiotemporal solitons (``light bullets'') in
two-dimensional self-induced transparency media embedded in a Bragg grating.
The "bullets" are found in an approximate analytical form, their stability
being confirmed by direct simulations. These findings suggest new possibilities
for signal transmission control and self-trapping of light.Comment: RevTex, 3 pages, 2 figures, to be published in PR
Lyapunov Potential Description for Laser Dynamics
We describe the dynamical behavior of both class A and class B lasers in
terms of a Lyapunov potential. For class A lasers we use the potential to
analyze both deterministic and stochastic dynamics. In the stochastic case it
is found that the phase of the electric field drifts with time in the steady
state. For class B lasers, the potential obtained is valid in the absence of
noise. In this case, a general expression relating the period of the relaxation
oscillations to the potential is found. We have included in this expression the
terms corresponding to the gain saturation and the mean value of the
spontaneously emitted power, which were not considered previously. The validity
of this expression is also discussed and a semi-empirical relation giving the
period of the relaxation oscillations far from the stationary state is proposed
and checked against numerical simulations.Comment: 13 pages (including 7 figures) LaTeX file. To appear in Phys Rev.A
(June 1999
Constant Curvature Coefficients and Exact Solutions in Fractional Gravity and Geometric Mechanics
We study fractional configurations in gravity theories and Lagrange
mechanics. The approach is based on Caputo fractional derivative which gives
zero for actions on constants. We elaborate fractional geometric models of
physical interactions and we formulate a method of nonholonomic deformations to
other types of fractional derivatives. The main result of this paper consists
in a proof that for corresponding classes of nonholonomic distributions a large
class of physical theories are modelled as nonholonomic manifolds with constant
matrix curvature. This allows us to encode the fractional dynamics of
interactions and constraints into the geometry of curve flows and solitonic
hierarchies.Comment: latex2e, 11pt, 27 pages, the variant accepted to CEJP; added and
up-dated reference
Resonant nonstationary amplification of polychromatic laser pulses and conical emission in an optically dense ensemble of neon metastable atoms
Experimental and numerical investigation of single-beam and pump-probe
interaction with a resonantly absorbing dense extended medium under strong and
weak field-matter coupling is presented. Significant probe beam amplification
and conical emission were observed. Under relatively weak pumping and high
medium density, when the condition of strong coupling between field and
resonant matter is fulfilled, the probe amplification spectrum has a form of
spectral doublet. Stronger pumping leads to the appearance of a single peak of
the probe beam amplification at the transition frequency. The greater probe
intensity results in an asymmetrical transmission spectrum with amplification
at the blue wing of the absorption line and attenuation at the red one. Under
high medium density, a broad band of amplification appears. Theoretical model
is based on the solution of the Maxwell-Bloch equations for a two-level system.
Different types of probe transmission spectra obtained are attributed to
complex dynamics of a coherent medium response to broadband polychromatic
radiation of a multimode dye laser.Comment: 9 pages, 13 figures, corrected, Fig.8 was changed, to be published in
Phys. Rev.
A High Statistics Search for Ultra-High Energy Gamma-Ray Emission from Cygnus X-3 and Hercules X-1
We have carried out a high statistics (2 Billion events) search for
ultra-high energy gamma-ray emission from the X-ray binary sources Cygnus X-3
and Hercules X-1. Using data taken with the CASA-MIA detector over a five year
period (1990-1995), we find no evidence for steady emission from either source
at energies above 115 TeV. The derived upper limits on such emission are more
than two orders of magnitude lower than earlier claimed detections. We also
find no evidence for neutral particle or gamma-ray emission from either source
on time scales of one day and 0.5 hr. For Cygnus X-3, there is no evidence for
emission correlated with the 4.8 hr X-ray periodicity or with the occurrence of
large radio flares. Unless one postulates that these sources were very active
earlier and are now dormant, the limits presented here put into question the
earlier results, and highlight the difficulties that possible future
experiments will have in detecting gamma-ray signals at ultra-high energies.Comment: 26 LaTeX pages, 16 PostScript figures, uses psfig.sty to be published
in Physical Review
Commemorating the First World War in Britain: A Cultural Legacy of Media Remembrance
One of the often-overlooked legacies of the First World War is how the conflict established the media’s role in remembrance. In the years that have followed, media’s circulation of iconic images of national and local commemoration have enabled individuals to engage with public remembrance. This article takes a historical approach to First World War remembrance in Britain, looking at how the practices and meaning of remembrance became established, although they were never fixed but instead constantly shifting, reinvented and contested. They are also gendered, in remembrance, as in war, women, are often seen as to be playing supportive roles; yet within media texts, women have always found spaces to exert influence over who is remembered and how, as memories jostle for prominence
Observing the First Stars and Black Holes
The high sensitivity of JWST will open a new window on the end of the
cosmological dark ages. Small stellar clusters, with a stellar mass of several
10^6 M_sun, and low-mass black holes (BHs), with a mass of several 10^5 M_sun
should be directly detectable out to redshift z=10, and individual supernovae
(SNe) and gamma ray burst (GRB) afterglows are bright enough to be visible
beyond this redshift. Dense primordial gas, in the process of collapsing from
large scales to form protogalaxies, may also be possible to image through
diffuse recombination line emission, possibly even before stars or BHs are
formed. In this article, I discuss the key physical processes that are expected
to have determined the sizes of the first star-clusters and black holes, and
the prospect of studying these objects by direct detections with JWST and with
other instruments. The direct light emitted by the very first stellar clusters
and intermediate-mass black holes at z>10 will likely fall below JWST's
detection threshold. However, JWST could reveal a decline at the faint-end of
the high-redshift luminosity function, and thereby shed light on radiative and
other feedback effects that operate at these early epochs. JWST will also have
the sensitivity to detect individual SNe from beyond z=10. In a dedicated
survey lasting for several weeks, thousands of SNe could be detected at z>6,
with a redshift distribution extending to the formation of the very first stars
at z>15. Using these SNe as tracers may be the only method to map out the
earliest stages of the cosmic star-formation history. Finally, we point out
that studying the earliest objects at high redshift will also offer a new
window on the primordial power spectrum, on 100 times smaller scales than
probed by current large-scale structure data.Comment: Invited contribution to "Astrophysics in the Next Decade: JWST and
Concurrent Facilities", Astrophysics & Space Science Library, Eds. H.
Thronson, A. Tielens, M. Stiavelli, Springer: Dordrecht (2008
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