Self-contained breathing apparatus

A self-contained breathing apparatus with automatic redundant fluid pressure controls and a facemask mounted low pressure whistle alarm is described. The first stage of the system includes pair of pressure regulators connected in parallel with different outlet pressures, both of which reduce the pressure of the stored supply gas to pressures compatible with the second stage breathing demand regulator. A primary regulator in the first stage delivers a low output pressure to the demand regulator. In the event of a failure closed condition of the primary regulator an automatic transfer valve switches on the backup regulator. A warning that the supply pressure has been depleted is also provided by a supply pressure actuated transfer valve which transfers the output of the first stage pressure regulators from the primary to the backup regulator. The alarm is activated in either the failure closed condition or if the supply pressure is reduced to a dangerously low level

Beyond Tonks-Girardeau: strongly correlated regime in quasi-one-dimensional Bose gases

We consider a homogeneous 1D Bose gas with contact interactions and large attractive coupling constant. This system can be realized in tight waveguides by exploiting a confinement induced resonance of the effective 1D scattering amplitude. By using a variational {\it ansatz} for the many-body wavefunction, we show that for small densities the gas-like state is stable and the corresponding equation of state is well described by a gas of hard rods. By calculating the compressibility of the system, we provide an estimate of the critical density at which the gas-like state becomes unstable against cluster formation. Within the hard-rod model we calculate the one-body density matrix and the static structure factor of the gas. The results show that in this regime the system is more strongly correlated than a Tonks-Girardeau gas. The frequency of the lowest breathing mode for harmonically trapped systems is also discussed as a function of the interaction strength.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

Single-particle vs. pair superfluidity in a bilayer system of dipolar bosons

We consider the ground state of a bilayer system of dipolar bosons, where dipoles are oriented by an external field in the direction perpendicular to the parallel planes. Quantum Monte Carlo methods are used to calculate the ground-state energy, the one-body and two-body density matrix, and the superfluid response as a function of the separation between layers. We find that by decreasing the interlayer distance for fixed value of the strength of the dipolar interaction, the system undergoes a quantum phase transition from a single-particle to a pair superfluid. The single-particle superfluid is characterized by a finite value of both the atomic condensate and the super-counterfluid density. The pair superfluid phase is found to be stable against formation of many-body cluster states and features a gap in the spectrum of elementary excitations.Comment: 4 figure

The Scattered Disk as the source of the Jupiter Family comets

The short period Jupiter family comets (JFCs) are thought to originate in the Kuiper Belt; specifically, a dynamical subclass of the Kuiper Belt known as the `scattered disk' is argued to be the dominant source of JFCs. However, the best estimates from observational surveys indicate that this source may fall short by more than two orders of magnitude the estimates obtained from theoretical models of the dynamical evolution of Kuiper belt objects into JFCs. We re-examine the scattered disk as a source of the JFCs and make a rigorous estimate of the discrepancy. We find that the uncertainties in the dynamical models combined with a change in the size distribution function of the scattered disk at faint magnitudes (small sizes) beyond the current observational limit offer a possible but problematic resolution to the discrepancy. We discuss several other possibilities: that the present population of JFCs is a large fluctuation above their long term average, that larger scattered disk objects tidally break-up into multiple fragments during close planetary encounters as their orbits evolve from the trans-Neptune zone to near Jupiter, or that there are alternative source populations that contribute significantly to the JFCs. Well-characterized observational investigations of the Centaurs, objects that are transitioning between the trans-Neptune Kuiper belt region and the inner solar system, can test the predictions of the non-steady state and the tidal break-up hypotheses. The classical and resonant classes of the Kuiper belt are worth re-consideration as significant additional or alternate sources of the JFCs.Comment: 33 pages, 6 figures. Revised Content. To be published in The Astrophysical Journa

Intervalos de confianza y pruebas de hipótesis : una comparación entre dos métodos para estimación de parámetros

p.191-198Las dos formas más usuales de inferencia estadística son la estimación a través de intervalos de confianza y las pruebas de hipótesis. Ambas formas de inferencia permiten llegar a conclusiones similares. Sin embargo, se observa en el ambiente científico una sobrevaluación del alcance de las pruebas de hipótesis, mientras que los intervalos de confianza tienen la imagen de una herramienta rudimentaria. El valor p, resultante de una prueba de hipótesis, puede ser de gran utilidad cuando no se dispone de una estimación directa de un efecto o cuando dicha estimación es difícilmente interpretable. No obstante, es pobre la información que proporciona si se lo presenta aislado de sus implicaciones o limitado a las categorías de «significativo» o «no significativo». Los intervalos de confianza suministran, además de toda la información que provee una prueba de hipótesis, una rica información adicional. No existe razón para limitar la posibilidad de los resultados de un ensayo a una dicotomía cuando el intervalo de confianza presenta la diversidad de los valores reales y potenciales en estudio

Experimental evidence for the breakdown of a Hartree-Fock approach in a weakly interacting Bose gas

We study the formation of a quasi-condensate in a nearly one dimensional, weakly interacting trapped atomic Bose gas. We show that a Hartree Fock (mean-field) approach fails to explain the presence of the quasi-condensate in the center of the cloud: the quasi-condensate appears through an interaction-driven cross-over and not a saturation of the excited states. Numerical calculations based on Bogoliubov theory give an estimate of the cross-over density in agreement with experimental results.Comment: submitted to Phys. Rev. Letter

Momentum distribution and condensate fraction of a Fermi gas in the BCS-BEC crossover

By using the diffusion Monte Carlo method we calculate the one- and two-body density matrix of an interacting Fermi gas at T=0 in the BCS-BEC crossover. Results for the momentum distribution of the atoms, as obtained from the Fourier transform of the one-body density matrix, are reported as a function of the interaction strength. Off-diagonal long-range order in the system is investigated through the asymptotic behavior of the two-body density matrix. The condensate fraction of fermionic pairs is calculated in the unitary limit and on both sides of the BCS-BEC crossover.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

Superfluidity and binary-correlations within clusters of fermions

We propose a method for simulating the behaviour of small clusters of particles that explicitly accounts for all mean-field and binary-correlation effects. Our approach leads to a set of variational equations that can be used to study both the dynamics and thermodynamics of these clusters. As an illustration of this method, we explore the BCS-BEC crossover in the simple model of four fermions, interacting with finite-range potentials, in a harmonic potential. We find, in the crossover regime, that the particles prefer to occupy two distinct pair states as opposed to the one assumed by BCS theory

Superfluidity vs Bose-Einstein condensation in a Bose gas with disorder

We investigate the phenomenon of Bose-Einstein condensation and superfluidity in a Bose gas at zero temperature with disorder. By using the Diffusion Monte-Carlo method we calculate the superfluid and the condensate fraction of the system as a function of density and strength of disorder. In the regime of weak disorder we find agreement with the analytical results obtained within the Bogoliubov model. For strong disorder the system enters an unusual regime where the superfluid fraction is smaller than the condensate fraction.Comment: 4 pages, 4 Postscript figure