Preliminary design of the full-Stokes UV and visible spectropolarimeter for UVMag/Arago

The UVMag consortium proposed the space mission project Arago to ESA at its M4 call. It is dedicated to the study of the dynamic 3D environment of stars and planets. This space mission will be equipped with a high-resolution spectropolarimeter working from 119 to 888 nm. A preliminary optical design of the whole instrument has been prepared and is presented here. The design consists of the telescope, the instrument itself, and the focusing optics. Considering not only the scientific requirements, but also the cost and size constraints to fit a M-size mission, the telescope has a 1.3 m diameter primary mirror and is a classical Cassegrain-type telescope that allows a polarization-free focus. The polarimeter is placed at this Cassegrain focus. This is the key element of the mission and the most challenging to be designed. The main challenge lies in the huge spectral range offered by the instrument; the polarimeter has to deliver the full Stokes vector with a high precision from the FUV (119 nm) to the NIR (888 nm). The polarimeter module is then followed by a high-resolution echelle-spectrometer achieving a resolution of 35000 in the visible range and 25000 in the UV. The two channels are separated after the echelle grating, allowing a specific cross-dispersion and focusing optics for the UV and visible ranges. Considering the large field of view and the high numerical aperture, the focusing optic for both the UV and visible channels is a Three-Mirror-Anastigmat (TMA) telescope, in order to focus the various wavelengths and many orders onto the detectors.Comment: 6 pages, 6 figures, IAUS 30

UVMag: Space UV and visible spectropolarimetry

UVMag is a project of a space mission equipped with a high-resolution spectropolarimeter working in the UV and visible range. This M-size mission will be proposed to ESA at its M4 call. The main goal of UVMag is to measure the magnetic fields, winds and environment of all types of stars to reach a better understanding of stellar formation and evolution and of the impact of stellar environment on the surrounding planets. The groundbreaking combination of UV and visible spectropolarimetric observations will allow the scientists to study the stellar surface and its environment simultaneously. The instrumental challenge for this mission is to design a high-resolution space spectropolarimeter measuring the full-Stokes vector of the observed star in a huge spectral domain from 117 nm to 870 nm. This spectral range is the main difficulty because of the dispersion of the optical elements and of birefringence issues in the FUV. As the instrument will be launched into space, the polarimetric module has to be robust and therefore use if possible only static elements. This article presents the different design possibilities for the polarimeter at this point of the project.Comment: 9 pages, 4 figures, SPIE Conference Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation Montreal June 201

Proof of Quasipatterns for the Swift-Hohenberg Equation

This paper establishes the existence of quasipatterns solutions of the Swift-Hohenberg PDE. In a former approach we avoided the use of Nash-Moser scheme, but our proof contains a gap. The present proof of existence is based on the works by Berti et al related to the Nash-Moser scheme. For solving the small divisor problem, we need to introduce a new free parameter related to the freedom in the choice of parameterization of the bifurcating solution. Thanks to a transversality condition, the result gives only a bifurcating set, located in a small hornlike region centered on a curve, with the origin at the bifurcation point

Mechanical response of face-centered cubic metallic nanospheres under uniaxial compression

The mechanical response of metallic nanoparticles has recently attracted a lot of interest due to their specific properties compared to their bulk counterpart, which allow for novel applications in various fields, e.g., composite materials, nanomanufacturing/nano-electromechanical systems. We have employed Molecular Dynamic simulations to study the mechanical behavior of face-centered cubic metallic nanoparticles. Uniaxial compression of monocrystalline nanosphere is investigated using the EAM potentials developed by Mishin et al. [1] [2]. The resulting behaviors vary with nanoparticle size, crystallographic orientation, and temperature. This work shows that the elastic modulus of metallic nanoparticles is higher than that of the bulk material. Three fcc metals have been tested, allowing to study the effect of different stacking fault energy. The plastic deformation mechanisms were analyzed, with partial dislocations nucleation at the top and bottom contact edges of the nanosphere, followed by dislocations propagation towards the center of the nanoparticle

Nouvelle économie régionale et réforme territoriale

La recherche en économie témoigne d’un fort regain d’intérêt pour l’analyse spatiale, depuis les travaux de la nouvelle économie géographique à la fin des années 1980 (Fujita, 1988) et au début des années 1990 (Krugman, 1991 et 1998) qui ont repris, pour les formaliser, les modèles fondateurs de von Thünen, Weber et quelques autres. L’objectif initial était de rompre avec l’absence de la géographie dans les réflexions des économistes. La localisation des activités, des infrastructures, les incitations des agents économiques tout comme la façon dont sont prises les décisions individuelles et communes devaient concourir à comprendre le processus de développement et les questions macroéconomiques. Au-delà de l’évidence empirique que les activités économiques sont spatialisées et assez immobiles, leur localisation repose sur des forces de convergence et de divergence et induit des irréversibilités (et donc des coûts de localisation). Cet intérêt renouvelé pour la géographie économique a bien sûr trouvé un écho fort dans le processus de mondialisation. Les délocalisations et relocalisation de l’activité industrielle ont été (et sont encore) des phénomènes plus amples que ceux induits par les cycles macroéconomiques et sont un enjeu majeur pour les politiques visant à accroître « compétitivité » et « attractivité » des territoires. [Premier paragraphe de l'introduction

Influence of fillers on mechanical properties of ATH filled EPDM during ageing by gamma irradiation

International audienceThe presence of a significant content of fillers accelerates the degradation of ATH filled EPDM subjected to gamma irradiation at room temperature. Above the melting temperature of the EPDM, this induces a decrease in the apparent mechanical reinforcement of the fillers. This also promotes de-cohesion mechanisms which leads to an increase in the strain at break with irradiation dose. It is not clear whether the use of a filler treatment attenuates this accelerating effect or not; however, part of this treatment remains efficient at a high dose and seems also to delay but not suppress the occurrence of de-cohesion mechanisms at large strain. Moreover, at room temperature, i.e. below the melting temperature, all the consequences of ageing by gamma irradiation are strongly attenuated by the presence of a semicrystalline microstructure, the morphology of which is not too strongly modified by irradiation. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

A Cluster Approach for the modelling of the layer-by-layer growth of SiC polytypes

10 pagesInternational audienceA cluster approach has been designed in order to confirm the physical bases of a previously presented dynamical model for chemical vapor deposition-chemical vapor infiltration SiC growth (Vignoles, G. L. J. Cryst. Growth 1992, 118, 430). The clusters consist of two or three Si-C bilayers; the relaxation of the bond lengths in the upper bilayer of the clusters simulates the impingement of a new bilayer on the crystal surface. The quantities relevant to the model (energies and optimized geometries) have been calculated at the semiempirical level. The use of regular series of clusters allowed us to obtain extrapolated values for infinite surfaces. Qualitative agreement has been obtained between the cluster calculations and the assumptions made for the dynamical model

Comparison between two different pretreatment technologies of rice straw fibers prior to fiberboard manufacturing: Twin-screw extrusion and digestion plus defibration

The present work compares two different pretreatment technologies, i.e. twin-screw extrusion, and steaming digestion plus defibration, for producing a thermo-mechanical pulp from rice straw for fiberboard manufacturing. Five liquid/solid ratios from 0.43 to 1.02 were tested for twin-screw extrusion pretreatment, while liquid/solid ratios from 4 to 6 were used for digestion pretreatment. Energy consumption, and characteristics of the extrudates (twin-screw extrusion) and pulps (digestion) (including fiber morphology, chemical composition, thermal properties, apparent and tapped densities, as well as color) were the analyzed parameters for the resulting lignocellulosic fibers. The results showed that liquid/solid ratio had influence on energy consumption of the equipment for both defibrating methods For the twin-screw extrusion method, a lower liquid/solid ratio required more energy while for the digestion plus defibration the effect was the opposite. The corresponding total specific energy consumption ranged from 0.668 kW h/kg to 0.946 kW h/kg dry matter for twin-screw extrusion, and from 6.176 kW h/kg to 8.52 kW h/kg dry matter for digestion plus defibration. Thus, the pulping method consumed about nine times more energy than that of the twin-screw extrusion. In addition, for twin-screw extrusion, the liquid/solid ratio did not have a substantial effect on fiber characteristics with similar chemical compositions and thermal properties. For twin-screw extrusion, the energy consumption was 37% reduced when the liquid/solid ratio was increased from 0.43 to 1.02. Instead, for digestion plus defibration, the energy increase was 38% when the liquid/solid ratio increased from 4 to 6

Novel Charge Sensitive Amplifier Design Methodology suitable for Large Detector Capacitance Applications

Current mode charge sensitive amplifier (CSA) topology and related methodology for use as pre-amplification block in radiation detection read out front end IC systems is proposed1. It is based on the use of a suitably configured current conveyor topology providing advantageous noise performance characteristics in comparison to the typical used CSA structures. In the proposed architecture the noise at the output of the CSA is independent of the detector capacitance value, allowing the use of large area detectors without affecting the system noise performance. Theoretical analysis and simulation analysis are performed concerning the operation – performance of the proposed topology. Measurement results on a current mode CSA prototype fabricated with a 0.35 μm CMOS process by Austriamicrosystems are provided supporting the theoretical and simulation results and confirming the performance mainly in terms of the noise performance dependency on the detector capacitance value