4,938 research outputs found
Modeling the Pulse Profiles of Millisecond Pulsars in the Second LAT Catalog of gamma-ray Pulsars
Significant gamma-ray pulsations have been detected from ~40 millisecond
pulsars (MSPs) using 3 years of sky-survey data from the Fermi LAT and radio
timing solutions from across the globe. We have fit the radio and gamma-ray
pulse profiles of these MSPs using geometric versions of slot gap and outer gap
gamma-ray emission models and radio cone and core models. For MSPs with radio
and gamma-ray peaks aligned in phase we also explore low-altitude slot gap
gamma-ray models and caustic radio models. The best-fit parameters provide
constraints on the viewing geometries and emission sites. While the exact
pulsar magnetospheric geometry is unknown, we can use the increased number of
known gamma-ray MSPs to look for significant trends in the population which
average over these uncertainties.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, to appear in the proceedings of the 5th
International Symposium on High-Energy Astronom
Coupling of shells in a carbon nanotube quantum dot
We systematically study the coupling of longitudinal modes (shells) in a
carbon nanotube quantum dot. Inelastic cotunneling spectroscopy is used to
probe the excitation spectrum in parallel, perpendicular and rotating magnetic
fields. The data is compared to a theoretical model including coupling between
shells, induced by atomically sharp disorder in the nanotube. The calculated
excitation spectra show good correspondence with experimental data.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figure
The mission oriented terminal area simulation facility
The Mission Oriented Terminal Area Simulation (MOTAS) was developed to provide an ATC environment in which flight management and flight operations research studies can be conducted with a high degree of realism. This facility provides a flexible and comprehensive simulation of the airborne, ground-based and communication aspects of the airport terminal area environment. Major elements of the simulation are: an airport terminal area environment model, two air traffic controller stations, several aircraft models and simulator cockpits, four pseudo pilot stations, and a realistic air-ground communications network. MOTAS has been used for one study with the DC-9 simulator and a series of data link studies are planned in the near future
A simple proof of Perelman's collapsing theorem for 3-manifolds
We will simplify earlier proofs of Perelman's collapsing theorem for
3-manifolds given by Shioya-Yamaguchi and Morgan-Tian. Among other things, we
use Perelman's critical point theory (e.g., multiple conic singularity theory
and his fibration theory) for Alexandrov spaces to construct the desired local
Seifert fibration structure on collapsed 3-manifolds. The verification of
Perelman's collapsing theorem is the last step of Perelman's proof of
Thurston's Geometrization Conjecture on the classification of 3-manifolds. Our
proof of Perelman's collapsing theorem is almost self-contained, accessible to
non-experts and advanced graduate students. Perelman's collapsing theorem for
3-manifolds can be viewed as an extension of implicit function theoremComment: v1: 9 Figures. In this version, we improve the exposition of our
arguments in the earlier arXiv version. v2: added one more grap
Thermal structure and exhumation history of the Lesser Himalaya in central Nepal
The Lesser Himalaya (LH) consists of metasedimentary rocks that have been scrapped off from the underthrusting Indian crust and accreted to the mountain range over the last ~20 Myr. It now forms a significant fraction of the Himalayan collisional orogen. We document the kinematics and thermal metamorphism associated with the deformation and exhumation of the LH, combining thermometric and thermochronological methods with structural geology. Peak metamorphic temperatures estimated from Raman spectroscopy of carbonaceous material decrease gradually from 520°–550°C below the Main Central Thrust zone down to less than 330°C. These temperatures describe structurally a 20°–50°C/km inverted apparent gradient. The Ar muscovite ages from LH samples and from the overlying crystalline thrust sheets all indicate the same regular trend; i.e., an increase from about 3–4 Ma near the front of the high range to about 20 Ma near the leading edge of the thrust sheets, about 80 km to the south. This suggests that the LH has been exhumed jointly with the overlying nappes as a result of overthrusting by about 5 mm/yr. For a convergence rate of about 20 mm/yr, this implies underthrusting of the Indian basement below the Himalaya by about 15 mm/yr. The structure, metamorphic grade and exhumation history of the LH supports the view that, since the mid-Miocene, the Himalayan orogen has essentially grown by underplating, rather than by frontal accretion. This process has resulted from duplexing at a depth close to the brittle-ductile transition zone, by southward migration of a midcrustal ramp along the Main Himalayan Thrust fault, and is estimated to have resulted in a net flux of up to 150 m^2/yr of LH rocks into the Himalayan orogenic wedge. The steep inverse thermal gradient across the LH is interpreted to have resulted from a combination of underplating and post metamorphic shearing of the underplated units
Mosaics of canopy openness induced by tropical cyclones in lowland rain forests with contrasting management histories in northeastern Australia
Tropical Cyclone 'Rona' crossed the coast of the Daintree lowlands of northeastern Australia in 1999. This study reports on its impact on forest canopy openness at six lowland rain forest sites with contrasting management histories (old-growth, selectively logged and regrowth). Percentage canopy openness was calculated from individual hemispherical photographs taken from marked points below the forest canopy at nine plots per site 3±4 mo before the cyclone, and at the same points a month afterwards. Before the cyclone, when nine sites were visited, canopy openness in old-growth and logged sites was similar, but significantly higher in regrowth forest. After the cyclone, all six revisited sites showed an increase in canopy openness, but the increase was very patchy amongst plots and sites and varied from insignificant to severe. The most severely impacted site was an old-growth one, the least impacted a logged one. Although proneness to impact was apparently related to forest management history (old-growth being the most impacted), underlying local topography may have had an equally strong influence in this case. It was concluded that the likelihood of severe impact may be determined at the landscape-scale by the interaction of anthropogenic with meteorological, physiographic and biotic factors. In the long term, such interactions may caution against pursuing forest management in cyclone-prone areas
Magnetic-Field Dependence of Tunnel Couplings in Carbon Nanotube Quantum Dots
By means of sequential and cotunneling spectroscopy, we study the tunnel
couplings between metallic leads and individual levels in a carbon nanotube
quantum dot. The levels are ordered in shells consisting of two doublets with
strong- and weak-tunnel couplings, leading to gate-dependent level
renormalization. By comparison to a one- and two-shell model, this is shown to
be a consequence of disorder-induced valley mixing in the nanotube. Moreover, a
parallel magnetic field is shown to reduce this mixing and thus suppress the
effects of tunnel renormalization.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures; revised version as publishe
Superconductivity-enhanced bias spectroscopy in carbon nanotube quantum dots
We study low-temperature transport through carbon nanotube quantum dots in
the Coulomb blockade regime coupled to niobium-based superconducting leads. We
observe pronounced conductance peaks at finite source-drain bias, which we
ascribe to elastic and inelastic cotunneling processes enhanced by the
coherence peaks in the density of states of the superconducting leads. The
inelastic cotunneling lines display a marked dependence on the applied gate
voltage which we relate to different tunneling-renormalizations of the two
subbands in the nanotube. Finally, we discuss the origin of an especially
pronounced sub-gap structure observed in every fourth Coulomb diamond
Nonnegatively curved homogeneous metrics obtained by scaling fibers of submersions
We consider invariant Riemannian metrics on compact homogeneous spaces G/H
where an intermediate subgroup K between G and H exists, so that the
homogeneous space G/H is the total space of a Riemannian submersion. We study
the question as to whether enlarging the fibers of the submersion by a constant
scaling factor retains the nonnegative curvature in the case that the
deformation starts at a normal homogeneous metric. We classify triples of
groups (H,K,G) where nonnegative curvature is maintained for small
deformations, using a criterion proved by Schwachh\"ofer and Tapp. We obtain a
complete classification in case the subgroup H has full rank and an almost
complete classification in the case of regular subgroups.Comment: 23 pages; minor revisions, to appear in Geometriae Dedicat
The ^(54)Mn Clock and Its Implications for Cosmic Ray Propagation and Fe Isotope Studies
Radioactive ^(54)Mn suggested as a 'clock' for measuring the lifetime of heavy cosmic rays, has a poorly known β-decay half-life estimated to be in the range from ~10^5 to 10 ^7 yr. Some years ago Koch et al. concluded from measurements of the Mn/Fe ratio that a significant fraction of low-energy (<1 GeV/nucleon) ^(54)Mn produced by Fe fragmentation had decayed. Using a propagation code that includes improved fragmentation cross-sections, and recent data from HEAO 3 and a number of other spacecraft, we have reexamined the evidence for ^(54)Mn decay in cosmic rays. We conclude that present cosmic-ray data cannot establish the degree of ^(54)Mn decay, but point out that this question has important implications for studies of the ^(54)Fe abundance in cosmic-ray source material, as well as for cosmic-ray propagation studies
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