57,796 research outputs found
Retrieving the Size of Deep-subwavelength Objects via Tunable Optical Spin-Orbit Coupling
We propose a scheme to retrieve the size parameters of a nano-particle on a
glass substrate at a scale much smaller than the wavelength. This is achieved
by illuminating the particle using two plane waves to create rich and
non-trivial local polarization distributions, and observing the far-field
scattering pattern into the substrate. A simple dipole model which exploits
tunneling effect of evanescent field into regions beyond the critical angle, as
well as directional scattering due to spin-orbit coupling is developed, to
relate the particle's shape, size and position to the far-field scattering with
remarkable sensitivity. Our method brings about a far-field super-resolution
imaging scheme based on the interaction of vectorial light with nanoparticles
Non-negligible magnetic dipole scattering from metallic nanowire for ultrasensitive deflection sensing
It is generally believed that when a single metallic nanowire is sufficiently
small, it scatters like a point electric dipole. We show theoretically when a
metallic nanowire is placed inside specially designed beams, the non-negligible
magnetic dipole contribution along with the electric dipole resonance can lead
to unidirectional scattering in the far-field, fulfilling Kerker's condition.
Remarkably, this far-field unidirectional scattering encodes information that
is highly dependent on the nanowire's deflection at a scale much smaller than
the wavelength. The special role of small but non-negligible magnetic response
and plasmonic resonance are highlighted for this extreme sensitivity as
compared with the dielectric counterpart. Effects such as scattering efficiency
and shape of the nanowire's cross section are also discussed.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures. Comments are welcom
Superluminal Caustics of Close, Rapidly-Rotating Binary Microlenses
The two outer triangular caustics (regions of infinite magnification) of a
close binary microlens move much faster than the components of the binary
themselves, and can even exceed the speed of light. When , where
is the caustic speed, the usual formalism for calculating the lens
magnification breaks down. We develop a new formalism that makes use of the
gravitational analog of the Li\'enard-Wiechert potential. We find that as the
binary speeds up, the caustics undergo several related changes: First, their
position in space drifts. Second, they rotate about their own axes so that they
no longer have a cusp facing the binary center of mass. Third, they grow larger
and dramatically so for . Fourth, they grow weaker roughly in
proportion to their increasing size. Superluminal caustic-crossing events are
probably not uncommon, but they are difficult to observe.Comment: 12 pages, 7 ps figures, submitted to Ap
Constraining the HI-Halo Mass Relation From Galaxy Clustering
We study the dependence of galaxy clustering on atomic gas mass using a
sample of 16,000 galaxies with redshift in the range of
and HI mass of , drawn from the 70% complete sample
of the Arecibo Legacy Fast ALFA survey. We construct subsamples of galaxies
with above different thresholds, and make volume-limited
clustering measurements in terms of three statistics: the projected two-point
correlation function, the projected cross-correlation function with respect to
a reference sample selected from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, and the
redshift-space monopole moment. In contrast to previous studies, which found
no/weak HI-mass dependence, we find both the clustering amplitude on scales
above a few Mpc and the bias factors to increase significantly with increasing
HI mass for subsamples with HI mass thresholds above . For HI
mass thresholds below , while the measurements have large
uncertainties caused by the limited survey volume and sample size, the inferred
galaxy bias factors are systematically lower than the minimum halo bias factor
from mass-selected halo samples. The simple halo model, in which galaxy content
is only determined by halo mass, has difficulties in interpreting the
clustering measurements of the HI-selected samples. We extend the simple model
by including the halo formation time as an additional parameter. A model that
puts HI-rich galaxies into halos that formed late can reproduce the clustering
measurements reasonably well. We present the implications of our best-fitting
model on the correlation of HI mass with halo mass and formation time, as well
as the halo occupation distributions and HI mass functions for central and
satellite galaxies. These results are compared with the predictions from
semi-analytic galaxy formation models and hydrodynamic galaxy formation
simulations.Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJ. The 2PCF measurements are available
at http://sdss4.shao.ac.cn/guoh
Is there a universality of the helix-coil transition in protein models?
The similarity in the thermodynamic properties of two completely different
theoretical models for the helix-coil transition is examined critically. The
first model is an all-atomic representation for a poly-alanine chain, while the
second model is a minimal helix-forming model that contains no system
specifics. Key characteristics of the helix-coil transition, in particular, the
effective critical exponents of these two models agree with each other, within
a finite-size scaling analysis.Comment: Latex, to appear in Eur. Phys. J.
Optical spectroscopy study of Nd(O,F)BiS2 single crystals
We present an optical spectroscopy study on F-substituted NdOBiS
superconducting single crystals grown using KCl/LiCl flux method. The
measurement reveals a simple metallic response with a relatively low screened
plasma edge near 5000 \cm. The plasma frequency is estimated to be 2.1 eV,
which is much smaller than the value expected from the first-principles
calculations for an electron doping level of x=0.5, but very close to the value
based on a doping level of 7 of itinerant electrons per Bi site as
determined by ARPES experiment. The energy scales of the interband transitions
are also well reproduced by the first-principles calculations. The results
suggest an absence of correlation effect in the compound, which essentially
rules out the exotic pairing mechanism for superconductivity or scenario based
on the strong electronic correlation effect. The study also reveals that the
system is far from a CDW instability as being widely discussed for a doping
level of x=0.5.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figure
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