25 research outputs found
An electron Talbot interferometer
The Talbot effect, in which a wave imprinted with transverse periodicity
reconstructs itself at regular intervals, is a diffraction phenomenon that
occurs in many physical systems. Here we present the first observation of the
Talbot effect for electron de Broglie waves behind a nanofabricated
transmission grating. This was thought to be difficult because of Coulomb
interactions between electrons and nanostructure gratings, yet we were able to
map out the entire near-field interference pattern, the "Talbot carpet", behind
a grating. We did this using a Talbot interferometer, in which Talbot
interference fringes from one grating are moire'-filtered by a 2nd grating.
This arrangement has served for optical, X-ray, and atom interferometry, but
never before for electrons. Talbot interferometers are particularly sensitive
to distortions of the incident wavefronts, and to illustrate this we used our
Talbot interferometer to measure the wavefront curvature of a weakly focused
electron beam. Here we report how this wavefront curvature demagnified the
Talbot revivals, and we discuss applications for electron Talbot
interferometers.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figures, updated version with abstrac
Examining the BMI-mortality relationship using fractional polynomials
<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Many previous studies estimating the relationship between body mass index (BMI) and mortality impose assumptions regarding the functional form for BMI and result in conflicting findings. This study investigated a flexible data driven modelling approach to determine the nonlinear and asymmetric functional form for BMI used to examine the relationship between mortality and obesity. This approach was then compared against other commonly used regression models.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>This study used data from the National Health Interview Survey, between 1997 and 2000. Respondents were linked to the National Death Index with mortality follow-up through 2005. We estimated 5-year all-cause mortality for adults over age 18 using the logistic regression model adjusting for BMI, age and smoking status. All analyses were stratified by sex. The multivariable fractional polynomials (MFP) procedure was employed to determine the best fitting functional form for BMI and evaluated against the model that includes linear and quadratic terms for BMI and the model that groups BMI into standard weight status categories using a deviance difference test. Estimated BMI-mortality curves across models were then compared graphically.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The best fitting adjustment model contained the powers -1 and -2 for BMI. The relationship between 5-year mortality and BMI when estimated using the MFP approach exhibited a J-shaped pattern for women and a U-shaped pattern for men. A deviance difference test showed a statistically significant improvement in model fit compared to other BMI functions. We found important differences between the MFP model and other commonly used models with regard to the shape and nadir of the BMI-mortality curve and mortality estimates.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The MFP approach provides a robust alternative to categorization or conventional linear-quadratic models for BMI, which limit the number of curve shapes. The approach is potentially useful in estimating the relationship between the full spectrum of BMI values and other health outcomes, or costs.</p
A Three-Grating Electron Interferometer
We report the observation of fringes from a three-grating electron interferometer. Interference fringes have been observed at low energies ranging from 6 to 10 keV. Contrasts of up to 25% are recorded and exceed the maximal contrast of the classical equivalent Moiré deflectometer. This type of interferometer could serve as a separate beam Mach–Zehnder interferometer for low-energy electron interferometry experiments
A Kapitza–Dirac–Talbot–Lau interferometer for highly polarizable molecules
Research on matter waves is a thriving field of quantum physics and has
recently stimulated many investigations with electrons, neutrons, atoms,
Bose-condensed ensembles, cold clusters and hot molecules. Coherence
experiments with complex objects are of interest for exploring the transition
to classical physics, for measuring molecular properties and they have even
been proposed for testing new models of space-time. For matter-wave experiments
with complex molecules, the strongly dispersive effect of the interaction
between the diffracted molecule and the grating wall is a major challenge
because it imposes enormous constraints on the velocity selection of the
molecular beam. We here describe the first experimental realization of a new
interferometer that solves this problem by combining the advantages of a
Talbot-Lau setup with the benefits of an optical phase grating and we show
quantum interference with new large molecules.Comment: 13 pages, 4 figure