1,688 research outputs found
Modern Michelson-Morley experiment using cryogenic optical resonators
We report on a new test of Lorentz invariance performed by comparing the
resonance frequencies of two orthogonal cryogenic optical resonators subject to
Earth's rotation over 1 year. For a possible anisotropy of the speed of light
c, we obtain 2.6 +/- 1.7 parts in 10^15. Within the Robertson-Mansouri-Sexl
test theory, this implies an isotropy violation parameter beta - delta - 1/2 of
-2.2 +/- 1.5 parts in 10^9, about three times lower than the best previous
result. Within the general extension of the standard model of particle physics,
we extract limits on 7 parameters at accuracies down to a part in 10^15,
improving the best previous result by about two orders of magnitude
Storage-ring measurement of the hyperfine induced 47Ti18+(2s 2p 3P0 -> 2s2 1S0) transition rate
The hyperfine induced 2s 2p 3P0 > 2s2 1S0 transition rate AHFI in
berylliumlike 47Ti18+ was measured. Resonant electron-ion recombination in a
heavy-ion storage ring was employed to monitor the time dependent population of
the 3P0 state. The experimental value AHFI=0.56(3)/s is almost 60% larger than
theoretically predicted.Comment: 4 pages. 3 figures, 1 table, accepted for publication in Physical
Review Letter
Dissociative recombination measurements of HCl+ using an ion storage ring
We have measured dissociative recombination of HCl+ with electrons using a
merged beams configuration at the heavy-ion storage ring TSR located at the Max
Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics in Heidelberg, Germany. We present the
measured absolute merged beams recombination rate coefficient for collision
energies from 0 to 4.5 eV. We have also developed a new method for deriving the
cross section from the measurements. Our approach does not suffer from
approximations made by previously used methods. The cross section was
transformed to a plasma rate coefficient for the electron temperature range
from T=10 to 5000 K. We show that the previously used HCl+ DR data
underestimate the plasma rate coefficient by a factor of 1.5 at T=10 K and
overestimate it by a factor of 3.0 at T=300 K. We also find that the new data
may partly explain existing discrepancies between observed abundances of
chlorine-bearing molecules and their astrochemical models.Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJ (July 7, 2013
Dielectronic Recombination in Photoionized Gas. II. Laboratory Measurements for Fe XVIII and Fe XIX
In photoionized gases with cosmic abundances, dielectronic recombination (DR)
proceeds primarily via nlj --> nl'j' core excitations (Dn=0 DR). We have
measured the resonance strengths and energies for Fe XVIII to Fe XVII and Fe
XIX to Fe XVIII Dn=0 DR. Using our measurements, we have calculated the Fe
XVIII and Fe XIX Dn=0 DR DR rate coefficients. Significant discrepancies exist
between our inferred rates and those of published calculations. These
calculations overestimate the DR rates by factors of ~2 or underestimate it by
factors of ~2 to orders of magnitude, but none are in good agreement with our
results. Almost all published DR rates for modeling cosmic plasmas are computed
using the same theoretical techniques as the above-mentioned calculations.
Hence, our measurements call into question all theoretical Dn=0 DR rates used
for ionization balance calculations of cosmic plasmas. At temperatures where
the Fe XVIII and Fe XIX fractional abundances are predicted to peak in
photoionized gases of cosmic abundances, the theoretical rates underestimate
the Fe XVIII DR rate by a factor of ~2 and overestimate the Fe XIX DR rate by a
factor of ~1.6. We have carried out new multiconfiguration Dirac-Fock and
multiconfiguration Breit-Pauli calculations which agree with our measured
resonance strengths and rate coefficients to within typically better than
<~30%. We provide a fit to our inferred rate coefficients for use in plasma
modeling. Using our DR measurements, we infer a factor of ~2 error in the Fe XX
through Fe XXIV Dn=0 DR rates. We investigate the effects of this estimated
error for the well-known thermal instability of photoionized gas. We find that
errors in these rates cannot remove the instability, but they do dramatically
affect the range in parameter space over which it forms.Comment: To appear in ApJS, 44 pages with 13 figures, AASTeX with postsript
figure
Ion-lithium collision dynamics studied with an in-ring MOTReMi
We present a novel experimental tool allowing for kinematically complete
studies of break-up processes of laser-cooled atoms. This apparatus, the
'MOTReMi', is a combination of a magneto-optical trap (MOT) and a Reaction
Microscope (ReMi). Operated in an ion-storage ring, the new setup enables to
study the dynamics in swift ion-atom collisions on an unprecedented level of
precision and detail. In first experiments on collisions with 1.5 MeV/amu
O-Li the pure ionization of the valence electron as well as
ionization-excitation of the lithium target has been investigated
Role of Projectile Coherence in Close Heavy Ion-Atom Collisions
We have measured fully differential cross sections for single ionization and transfer ionization (TI) in 16 MeV O7++He collisions. The impact parameters mostly contributing to single ionization are about an order of magnitude larger than for TI. Therefore, the projectile beam was much more coherent for the latter compared to the former process. The measured data suggest that, as a result, TI is significantly affected by interference effects which are not present in single ionization
Regularity for eigenfunctions of Schr\"odinger operators
We prove a regularity result in weighted Sobolev spaces (or
Babuska--Kondratiev spaces) for the eigenfunctions of a Schr\"odinger operator.
More precisely, let K_{a}^{m}(\mathbb{R}^{3N}) be the weighted Sobolev space
obtained by blowing up the set of singular points of the Coulomb type potential
V(x) = \sum_{1 \le j \le N} \frac{b_j}{|x_j|} + \sum_{1 \le i < j \le N}
\frac{c_{ij}}{|x_i-x_j|}, x in \mathbb{R}^{3N}, b_j, c_{ij} in \mathbb{R}. If u
in L^2(\mathbb{R}^{3N}) satisfies (-\Delta + V) u = \lambda u in distribution
sense, then u belongs to K_{a}^{m} for all m \in \mathbb{Z}_+ and all a \le 0.
Our result extends to the case when b_j and c_{ij} are suitable bounded
functions on the blown-up space. In the single-electron, multi-nuclei case, we
obtain the same result for all a<3/2.Comment: to appear in Lett. Math. Phy
Dielectronic Recombination (via N=2 --> N'=2 Core Excitations) and Radiative Recombination of Fe XX: Laboratory Measurements and Theoretical Calculations
We have measured the resonance strengths and energies for dielectronic
recombination (DR) of Fe XX forming Fe XIX via N=2 --> N'=2 (Delta_N=0) core
excitations. We have also calculated the DR resonance strengths and energies
using AUTOSTRUCTURE, HULLAC, MCDF, and R-matrix methods, four different
state-of-the-art theoretical techniques. On average the theoretical resonance
strengths agree to within <~10% with experiment. However, the 1 sigma standard
deviation for the ratios of the theoretical-to-experimental resonance strengths
is >~30% which is significantly larger than the estimated relative experimental
uncertainty of <~10%. This suggests that similar errors exist in the calculated
level populations and line emission spectrum of the recombined ion. We confirm
that theoretical methods based on inverse-photoionization calculations (e.g.,
undamped R-matrix methods) will severely overestimate the strength of the DR
process unless they include the effects of radiation damping. We also find that
the coupling between the DR and radiative recombination (RR) channels is small.
We have used our experimental and theoretical results to produce
Maxwellian-averaged rate coefficients for Delta_N=0 DR of Fe XX. For kT>~1 eV,
which includes the predicted formation temperatures for Fe XX in an optically
thin, low-density photoionized plasma with cosmic abundances, our experimental
and theoretical results are in good agreement. We have also used our R-matrix
results, topped off using AUTOSTRUCTURE for RR into J>=25 levels, to calculate
the rate coefficient for RR of Fe XX. Our RR results are in good agreement with
previously published calculations.Comment: To be published in ApJS. 65 pages with 4 tables and lots of figure
Radiative rotational lifetimes and state-resolved relative detachment cross sections from photodetachment thermometry of molecular anions in a cryogenic storage ring
Photodetachment thermometry on a beam of OH in a cryogenic storage ring
cooled to below 10 K is carried out using two-dimensional, frequency and time
dependent photodetachment spectroscopy over 20 minutes of ion storage. In
equilibrium with the low-level blackbody field, we find an effective radiative
temperature near 15 K with about 90% of all ions in the rotational ground
state. We measure the J = 1 natural lifetime (about 193 s) and determine the
OH rotational transition dipole moment with 1.5% uncertainty. We also
measure rotationally dependent relative near-threshold photodetachment cross
sections for photodetachment thermometry.Comment: Manuscript LaTeX with 5 pages, 3 figures, and 1 table plus LaTeX
supplement with 12 pages, 3 figures and 3 tables. This article has been
accepted by Physical Review Letter
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