610 research outputs found
Phase-space reconstruction of an atomic chaotic system
We consider the dynamics of a single atom submitted to periodic pulses of a
far-detuned standing wave generated by a high-finesse optical cavity, which is
an atomic version of the well-known ``kicked rotor''. We show that the
classical phase-space map can be ``reconstructed'' by monitoring the
transmission of the cavity. We also studied the effect of spontaneous emission
on the reconstruction, and put limits to the maximum acceptable spontaneous
emission rate.Comment: 5 figures, submitted to PR
Quantum scaling laws in the onset of dynamical delocalization
We study the destruction of dynamical localization, experimentally observed
in an atomic realization of the kicked rotor, by a deterministic Hamiltonian
perturbation, with a temporal periodicity incommensurate with the principal
driving. We show that the destruction is gradual, with well defined scaling
laws for the various classical and quantum parameters, in sharp contrast with
predictions based on the analogy with Anderson localization.Comment: 3 pages, revtex
The role of perceived source location in auditory stream segregation: separation affects sound organization, common fate does not
The human auditory system is capable of grouping sounds originating from different sound sources into coherent auditory streams, a process termed auditory stream segregation. Several cues can inïŹuence auditory stream segregation, but the full set of cues and the way in which they are integrated is still unknown. In the current study, we tested whether auditory motion can serve as a cue for segregating sequences of tones. Our hypothesis was that, following the principle of common fate, sounds emitted by sources moving together in space along similar trajectories will be more likely to be grouped into a single auditory stream, while sounds emitted by independently moving sources will more often be heard as two streams. Stimuli were derived from sound recordings in which the sound source motion was induced by walking humans. Although the results showed a clear effect of spatial separation, auditory motion had a negligible inïŹuence on stream segregation. Hence, auditory motion may not be used as a primitive cue in auditory stream segregation
Low Metal Loading (Au, Ag, Pt, Pd) PhotoâCatalysts Supported on TiO2 for Renewable Processes
Photoâcatalysts based on titanium dioxide, and modified with highly dispersed metallic nanoparticles of Au, Ag, Pd and Pt, either monoâ or biâmetallic, have been analyzed by multiple characterization techniques, including XRD, XPS, SEM, EDX, UVâVis and N2 adsorption/desorption. Monoâmetallic photoâcatalysts were prepared by wet impregnation, while biâmetallic photocatalysts were obtained via depositionâprecipitation (DP). The relationship between the physicoâchemical properties and the catalystâs behavior for various photoâsynthetic processes, such as carbon dioxide photoâreduction to liquid products and glucose photoâreforming to hydrogen have been investigated. Among the tested materials, the catalysts containing platinum alone (i.e., 0.1 mol% Pt/TiO2) or biâmetallic goldâcontaining materials (e.g., 1 wt% (AuxAgy)/TiO2 and 1 wt% (AuxPtz)/TiO2) showed the highest activity, presenting the best results in terms of productivity and conversion for both applications. The textural, structural and morphological properties of the different samples being very similar, the main parameters to improve performance were function of the metal as electron sink, together with optoelectronic properties. The high activity in both applications was related to the low band gap, that allows harvesting more energy from a polychromatic light source with respect to the bare TiO2. Overall, high selectivity and productivity were achieved with respect to most literature data
Classical chaos with Bose-Einstein condensates in tilted optical lattices
A widely accepted definition of ``quantum chaos'' is ``the behavior of a
quantum system whose \emph{classical} \emph{limit is chaotic}''. The dynamics
of quantum-chaotic systems is nevertheless very different from that of their
classical counterparts. A fundamental reason for that is the linearity of
Schr{\"o}dinger equation. In this paper, we study the quantum dynamics of an
ultra-cold quantum degenerate gas in a tilted optical lattice and show that it
displays features very close to \emph{classical} chaos. We show that its phase
space is organized according to the Kolmogorov-Arnold-Moser theorem.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure
Theoretical analysis of quantum dynamics in 1D lattices: Wannier-Stark description
This papers presents a formalism describing the dynamics of a quantum
particle in a one-dimensional tilted time-dependent lattice. The description
uses the Wannier-Stark states, which are localized in each site of the lattice
and provides a simple framework leading to fully-analytical developments.
Particular attention is devoted to the case of a time-dependent potential,
which results in a rich variety of quantum coherent dynamics is found.Comment: 8 pages, 6 figures, submitted to PR
Do audio-visual motion cues promote segregation of auditory streams?
An audio-visual experiment using moving sound sources was designed to investigate whether the analysis of auditory scenes is modulated by synchronous presentation of visual information. Listeners were presented with an alternating sequence of two pure tones delivered by two separate sound sources. In different conditions, the two sound sources were either stationary or moving on random trajectories around the listener. Both the sounds and the movement trajectories were derived from recordings in which two humans were moving with loudspeakers attached to their heads. Visualized movement trajectories modeled by a computer animation were presented together with the sounds. In the main experiment, behavioral reports on sound organization were collected from young healthy volunteers. The proportion and stability of the different sound organizations were compared between the conditions in which the visualized trajectories matched the movement of the sound sources and when the two were independent of each other. The results corroborate earlier findings that separation of sound sources in space promotes segregation. However, no additional effect of auditory movement per se on the perceptual organization of sounds was obtained. Surprisingly, the presentation of movement-congruent visual cues did not strengthen the effects of spatial separation on segregating auditory streams. Our findings are consistent with the view that bistability in the auditory modality can occur independently from other modalities
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