Anisotropic field ionization in nano-clusters mediated by Brunel-electron driven plasma waves

Ionization is one of the most fundamental processes in intense laser-matter interaction. It is extremely efficient for clusters in laser fields and often leads to surprisingly high charge states at moderate laser intensities. Here we reveal a novel ionization mechanism in laser-cluster interaction through particle-in-cell simulations. As the laser field ionizes a cluster, Brunel electrons pushed back into the clustered plasma form an attosecond bunches, impulsively exciting plasma oscillation. The resulting localized wake field further ionizes the cluster, causing a highly ionized rod-like core along the polarization axis. This anisotropic ionization is prominent using few-cycle pulses and may be washed out using longer pulses due to collisional ionization. This newly identified ionization channel can potentially provide complicated site-specific control of ionization in nanometer-scale targets

Control of spatiotemporal localization of infrared pulses in gas-filled capillaries using weak ultraviolet pulses

Manipulation of intense pulse propagation in gas-filled capillaries is desirable for various high-field applications. The conventional approach is to adjust the parameters of the driving laser pulse and working gas but it offers limited capability of control. Here we demonstrate through numerical simulations a novel scheme to control the intense infrared pulse propagation. A weak ultraviolet pulse is launched into the capillary with a negative delay with respect to the main infrared pulse. As the main pulse self-compresses, the control pulse becomes temporally overlapped with the main pulse due to dispersion and is red-shifted due to cross phase modulation. The frequency shift of the two pulse mitigates pulse walk-off and allows an efficient coupling, substantially extending the propagation length with an ionizing intensity. This interesting phenomenon not only adds to the rich spatiotemporal dynamics of intense pulse propagation but also has practical importance for applications such as high-order harmonic generation

Analysis of Corpus-based Translation Practice on CiteSpace-Supported Foreign Language Teaching

This paper reviews corpus-based multidisciplinary studies. The study covers hot inter-discipline areas, with emphasis on corpus-based translation studies. This paper explores the feasibility and efficacy of corpus-based studies that combine CiteSpace and business English teaching. We expect CiteSpace could better develop the function of methodology in designing the concept to the realization of the linguistic corpus, detecting academic frontiers and choosing research directions. The results show that corpus-based experiments have been carried out along major lines of research to realize the potential to turn isolated techniques into an integrative learning environment

Dark Matter in (Volatility and) Equity Option Risk Premiums

Emphasizing the statistics of jumps crossing the strike and local time, we develop a decomposition of equity option risk premiums. Operationalizing this theoretical treatment, we equip the pricing kernel process with unspanned risks, embed (unspanned) jump risks, and allow equity return volatility to contain unspanned risks. Unspanned risks are consistent with negative risk premiums for jumps crossing the strike and local time and imply negative risk premiums for out-of-the-money call options and straddles. The empirical evidence from weekly and farther-dated index options is supportive of our theory of economically relevant unspanned risks and reveals ``dark matter" in option risk premiums

Exponential stability of delayed recurrent neural networks with Markovian jumping parameters

This is the post print version of the article. The official published version can be obtained from the link below - Copyright 2006 Elsevier Ltd.In this Letter, the global exponential stability analysis problem is considered for a class of recurrent neural networks (RNNs) with time delays and Markovian jumping parameters. The jumping parameters considered here are generated from a continuous-time discrete-state homogeneous Markov process, which are governed by a Markov process with discrete and finite state space. The purpose of the problem addressed is to derive some easy-to-test conditions such that the dynamics of the neural network is stochastically exponentially stable in the mean square, independent of the time delay. By employing a new Lyapunov–Krasovskii functional, a linear matrix inequality (LMI) approach is developed to establish the desired sufficient conditions, and therefore the global exponential stability in the mean square for the delayed RNNs can be easily checked by utilizing the numerically efficient Matlab LMI toolbox, and no tuning of parameters is required. A numerical example is exploited to show the usefulness of the derived LMI-based stability conditions.This work was supported in part by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) of the UK under Grant GR/S27658/01, the Nuffield Foundation of the UK under Grant NAL/00630/G, and the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation of Germany

A polarization study of the supernova remnant CTB 80

We present a radio polarization study of the supernova remnant CTB 80 based on images at 1420 MHz from the Canadian Galactic plane survey, at 2695 MHz from the Effelsberg survey of the Galactic plane, and at 4800 MHz from the Sino-German 6cm polarization survey of the Galactic plane. We obtained a rotation measure (RM) map using polarization angles at 2695 MHz and 4800 MHz as the polarization percentages are similar at these two frequencies. RM exhibits a transition from positive values to negative values along one of the shells hosting the pulsar PSR B1951+32 and its pulsar wind nebula. The reason for the change of sign remains unclear. We identified a partial shell structure, which is bright in polarized intensity but weak in total intensity. This structure could be part of CTB 80 or part of a new supernova remnant unrelated to CTB 80.Comment: 12 pages, 6 figures, accepted for publication in RA

Robust variance-constrained H∞ control for stochastic systems with multiplicative noises

This is the post print version of the article. The official published version can be obtained from the link below - Copyright 2007 Elsevier Ltd.In this paper, the robust variance-constrained H∞ control problem is considered for uncertain stochastic systems with multiplicative noises. The norm-bounded parametric uncertainties enter into both the system and output matrices. The purpose of the problem is to design a state feedback controller such that, for all admissible parameter uncertainties, (1) the closed-loop system is exponentially mean-square quadratically stable; (2) the individual steady-state variance satisfies given upper bound constraints; and (3) the prescribed noise attenuation level is guaranteed in an H∞ sense with respect to the additive noise disturbances. A general framework is established to solve the addressed multiobjective problem by using a linear matrix inequality (LMI) approach, where the required stability, the H∞ characterization and variance constraints are all easily enforced. Within such a framework, two additional optimization problems are formulated: one is to optimize the H∞ performance, and the other is to minimize the weighted sum of the system state variances. A numerical example is provided to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed design algorithm.This work was supported in part by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) of the UK under Grant GR/S27658/01, the Nuffield Foundation of the UK under Grant NAL/00630/G, and the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation of Germany

A note on control of a class of discrete-time stochastic systems with distributed delays and nonlinear disturbances

The official published version of this article can be found at the link below.This paper is concerned with the state feedback control problem for a class of discrete-time stochastic systems involving sector nonlinearities and mixed time-delays. The mixed time-delays comprise both discrete and distributed delays, and the sector nonlinearities appear in the system states and all delayed states. The distributed time-delays in the discrete-time domain are first defined and then a special matrix inequality is developed to handle the distributed time-delays within an algebraic framework. An effective linear matrix inequality (LMI) approach is proposed to design the state feedback controllers such that, for all admissible nonlinearities and time-delays, the overall closed-loop system is asymptotically stable in the mean square sense. Sufficient conditions are established for the nonlinear stochastic time-delay systems to be asymptotically stable in the mean square sense, and then the explicit expression of the desired controller gains is derived. A numerical example is provided to show the usefulness and effectiveness of the proposed design method.This work was supported in part by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) of the U.K. under Grant GR/S27658/01, the Royal Society of the U.K., the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grants 60774073 and 60974030, the National 973 Program of China under Grant 2009CB320600, and the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation of Germany