On the 1/f Frequency Noise in Ultra-Stable Quartz Oscillators

The frequency flicker of an oscillator, which appears as a 1/f^3 line in the phase noise spectral density, and as a floor on the Allan variance plot, originates from two basic phenomena, namely: (1) the 1/f phase noise turned into 1/f frequency noise via the Leeson effect, and (2) the 1/f fluctuation of the resonator natural frequency. The discussion on which is the dominant effect, thus on how to improve the stability of the oscillator, has been going on for years without giving a clear answer. This article tackles the question by analyzing the phase noise spectrum of several commercial oscillators and laboratory prototypes, and demonstrates that the fluctuation of the resonator natural frequency is the dominant effect. The investigation method starts from reverse engineering the oscillator phase noise in order to show that if the Leeson effect was dominant, the resonator merit factor Q would be too low as compared to the available technology.Comment: 20 pages, list of symbols, 1 table, 6 figures, 43 reference

Hadronic total cross sections at high energy and the QCD spectrum

We show how to obtain the leading energy dependence of hadronic total cross sections, in the framework of the nonperturbative approach to soft high-energy scattering based on Wilson-loop correlation functions, if certain nontrivial analyticity assumptions are satisfied. The total cross sections turn out to be of "Froissart" type, $\sigma_{\rm tot}^{(hh)}(s) \mathop\sim B\log^2 s$ for ${s \to \infty}$. We also discuss under which conditions the coefficient $B$ is universal, i.e., independent of the hadrons involved in the scattering process. In the most natural scenarios for universality, $B$ can be related to the stable spectrum of QCD, and is predicted to be $B_{\rm th}\simeq 0.22~{\rm mb}$, in fair agreement with experimental results. If we consider, instead, the stable spectrum of the quenched (i.e., pure-gauge) theory, we obtain a quite larger value $B^{(Q)}_{\rm th} \ge 0.42~{\rm mb}$, suggesting (quite surprisingly) large unquenching effects due to the sea quarks.Comment: Revised version; 43 pages, 3 figure

Comments on high-energy total cross sections in QCD

We discuss how hadronic total cross sections at high energy depend on the details of QCD, namely on the number of colours $N_c$ and the quark masses. We find that while a "Froissart"-type behaviour $\sigma_{\rm tot}\sim B\log^2s$ is rather general, relying only on the presence of higher-spin stable particles in the spectrum, the value of $B$ depends quite strongly on the quark masses. Moreover, we argue that $B$ is of order ${\cal O}(N_c^0)$ at large $N_c$, and we discuss a bound for $B$ which does not become singular in the $N_f=2$ chiral limit, unlike the Froissart-\L ukaszuk-Martin bound.Comment: Revised version; matches published versio

Wilson-loop correlators on the lattice and asymptotic behaviour of hadronic total cross sections

We show how universal, Froissart-like hadronic total cross sections can be obtained in QCD in the functional-integral approach to soft high-energy scattering, and we discuss indications of this behaviour obtained from lattice simulations.Comment: Presented at EDS Blois 2013 (arXiv:1309.5705

Characterization of Zero-Bias Microwave Diode Power Detectors at Cryogenic Temperature

We present the characterization of commercial tunnel diode low-level microwave power detectors at room and cryogenic temperatures. The sensitivity as well as the output voltage noise of the tunnel diodes are measured as functions of the applied microwave power, the signal frequency being 10 GHz. We highlight strong variations of the diode characteristics when the applied microwave power is higher than few microwatt. For a diode operating at ${4}$ K, the differential gain increases from ${1,000}$ V/W to about ${4,500}$ V/W when the power passes from ${-30}$ dBm to ${-20}$ dBm. The diode present a white noise floor equivalent to a NEP of ${0.8}$ pW/ ${\sqrt{\mathrm{Hz}}}$ and ${8}$ pW/${ \sqrt{\mathrm{Hz}}}$ at 4 K and 300 K respectively. Its flicker noise is equivalent to a relative amplitude noise power spectral density ${S_{\alpha}(1~\mathrm{Hz})=-120}$~dB/Hz at ${4}$ K. Flicker noise is 10 dB higher at room temperature.Comment: 8 pages and 16 figure

Remarks on the static dipole-dipole potential at large distances

We determine the large-distance behavior of the static dipole-dipole potential for a wide class of gauge theories on nonperturbative grounds, exploiting only general properties of the theory. In the case of QCD, we recover the known results in the regime of small dipole sizes and discuss recent nonperturbative calculations. Moreover, we discuss the case of pure-gauge theories and compare our prediction with the available lattice results

Hadronic total cross sections, Wilson loop correlators and the QCD spectrum

We show how to obtain rising hadronic total cross sections in QCD, in the framework of the nonperturbative approach to soft high-energy scattering based on Wilson-loop correlators. Total cross sections turn out to be of "Froissart"-type, i.e., the leading energy dependence is of the form σtot~Blog2s, in agreement with experiments. The observed universality of the prefactor B is obtained rather naturally in this framework. In this case, B is entirely determined by the stable spectrum of QCD, and predicted to be Bth=0.22 mb, in fair agreement with experiments

High-energy behavior of hadronic total cross sections from lattice QCD

By means of a nonperturbative approach to soft high-energy hadron-hadron scattering, based on the analytic continuation of Wilson-loop correlation functions from Euclidean to Minkowskian theory, we shall investigate the asymptotic energy dependence of hadron-hadron total cross sections in lattice QCD: we will show, using best fits of the lattice data with proper functional forms satisfying unitarity and other physical constraints, how indications emerge in favor of a universal asymptotic high-energy behavior of the kind $B \log^2 s$ for hadronic total cross sections.Comment: Talk given (by E. Meggiolaro) at the "16th High-Energy Physics International Conference in Quantum ChromoDynamics" (QCD 12), Montpellier (France), 2-6 July 2012; 4 pages, 1 figure, 2 table