774 research outputs found
Seeing Double at Neptune's South Pole
Keck near-infrared images of Neptune from UT 26 July 2007 show that the cloud
feature typically observed within a few degrees of Neptune's south pole had
split into a pair of bright spots. A careful determination of disk center
places the cloud centers at -89.07 +/- 0 .06 and -87.84 +/- 0.06 degrees
planetocentric latitude. If modeled as optically thick, perfectly reflecting
layers, we find the pair of features to be constrained to the troposphere, at
pressures greater than 0.4 bar. By UT 28 July 2007, images with comparable
resolution reveal only a single feature near the south pole. The changing
morphology of these circumpolar clouds suggests they may form in a region of
strong convection surrounding a Neptunian south polar vortex.Comment: 10 pages, 7 figures; accepted to Icaru
Comparing key compositional indicators in Jupiter with those in extra-solar giant planets
Spectroscopic transiting observations of the atmospheres of hot Jupiters
around other stars, first with Hubble Space Telescope and then Spitzer, opened
the door to compositional studies of exoplanets. The James Webb Space Telescope
will provide such a profound improvement in signal-to-noise ratio that it will
enable detailed analysis of molecular abundances, including but not limited to
determining abundances of all the major carbon- and oxygen-bearing species in
hot Jupiter atmospheres. This will allow determination of the carbon-to-oxygen
ratio, an essential number for planet formation models and a motivating goal of
the Juno mission currently around JupiterComment: Submitted to the Astro2020 Decadal Survey as a white paper; thematic
areas "Planetary Systems" and "Star and Planet Formation
Stability Properties of Nonhyperbolic Chaotic Attractors under Noise
We study local and global stability of nonhyperbolic chaotic attractors
contaminated by noise. The former is given by the maximum distance of a noisy
trajectory from the noisefree attractor, while the latter is provided by the
minimal escape energy necessary to leave the basin of attraction, calculated
with the Hamiltonian theory of large fluctuations. We establish the important
and counterintuitive result that both concepts may be opposed to each other.
Even when one attractor is globally more stable than another one, it can be
locally less stable. Our results are exemplified with the Holmes map, for two
different sets of parameter, and with a juxtaposition of the Holmes and the
Ikeda maps. Finally, the experimental relevance of these findings is pointed
out.Comment: Phys.Rev. Lett., to be publishe
Retrieving Neptune's aerosol properties from Keck OSIRIS observations. I. Dark regions
We present and analyze three-dimensional data cubes of Neptune from the
OSIRIS integral-field spectrograph on the 10-m Keck telescope, from July 2009.
These data have a spatial resolution of 0.035"/pixel and spectral resolution of
R~3800 in the H and K broad bands. We focus our analysis on regions of
Neptune's atmosphere that are near-infrared dark- that is, free of discrete
bright cloud features. We use a forward model coupled to a Markov chain Monte
Carlo algorithm to retrieve properties of Neptune's aerosol structure and
methane profile above ~4 bar in these near-infrared dark regions.
Using a set of high signal-to-noise spectra in a cloud-free band from 2-12N,
we find that Neptune's cloud opacity is dominated by a compact, optically thick
cloud layer with a base near 3 bar and composed of low albedo, forward
scattering particles, with an assumed characteristic size of ~1m. Above
this cloud, we require a vertically extended haze of smaller (~0.1 m)
particles, which reaches from the upper troposphere (~0.6 bar) into the
stratosphere. The particles in this haze are brighter and more isotropically
scattering than those in the deep cloud. When we extend our analysis to 18
cloud-free locations from 20N to 87S, we observe that the optical depth in
aerosols above 0.5 bar decreases by a factor of 2-3 or more at mid- and
high-southern latitudes relative to low latitudes.
We also consider Neptune's methane (CH) profile, and find that our
retrievals indicate a strong preference for a low methane relative humidity at
pressures where methane is expected to condense. Our preferred solution at most
locations is for a methane relative humidity below 10% near the tropopause in
addition to methane depletion down to 2.0-2.5 bar. We tentatively identify a
trend of lower CH columns above 2.5 bar at mid- and high-southern latitudes
over low latitudes.Comment: Published in Icarus: 15 September 201
Spatial characterization of the magnetic field profile of a probe tip used in magnetic resonance force microscopy
We have developed the experimental approach to characterize spatial
distribution of the magnetic field produced by cantilever tips used in magnetic
resonance force microscopy (MRFM). We performed MRFM measurements on a well
characterized diphenyl-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) film and mapped the 3D field
profile produced by a Nd2Fe14B probe tip. Using our technique field profiles of
arbitrarily shaped probe magnets can be imaged.Comment: 10 pages, 5 figure
Localized ferromagnetic resonance force microscopy in permalloy-cobalt films
We report Ferromagnetic Resonance Force Microscopy (FMRFM) experiments on a
justaposed continuous films of permalloy and cobalt. Our studies demonstrate
the capability of FMRFM to perform local spectroscopy of different
ferromagnetic materials. Theoretical analysis of the uniform resonance mode
near the edge of the film agrees quantitatively with experimental data. Our
experiments demonstrate the micron scale lateral resolution in determining
local magnetic properties in continuous ferromagnetic samples.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figure
Ferromagnetic resonance force microscopy on a thin permalloy film
Ferromagnetic Resonance Force Microscopy (FMRFM) offers a means of performing
local ferromagnetic resonance. We have studied the evolution of the FMRFM force
spectra in a continuous 50 nm thick permalloy film as a function of probe-film
distance and performed numerical simulations of the intensity of the FMRFM
probe-film interaction force, accounting for the presence of the localized
strongly nonuniform magnetic field of the FMRFM probe magnet. Excellent
agreement between the experimental data and the simulation results provides
insight into the mechanism of FMR mode excitation in an FMRFM experiment.Comment: 9 pages, 2 figure
Escaping from nonhyperbolic chaotic attractors
We study the noise-induced escape process from chaotic attractors in
nonhyperbolic systems. We provide a general mechanism of escape in the low
noise limit, employing the theory of large fluctuations. Specifically, this is
achieved by solving the variational equations of the auxiliary Hamiltonian
system and by incorporating the initial conditions on the chaotic attractor
unambiguously. Our results are exemplified with the H{\'e}non and the Ikeda map
and can be implemented straightforwardly to experimental data.Comment: replaced with published versio
A 0.8V, 7μA, rail-to-rail input/output, constant Gm operational amplifier in standard digital 0.18μm CMOS
A two-stage amplifier, operational at 0.8V and drawing 7/spl mu/A, has been integrated in a standard digital 0.18/spl mu/m CMOS process. Rail-to-rail operations at the input are enabled by complementary transistor pairs with g/sub m/ control. The efficient rail-to-rail output stage is biased in class AB. The measured DC gain of the amplifier is 75dB, and the unity-gain frequency is 870kHz with a 12pF, 100k/spl Omega/load. Both input and output stage transistors are biased in weak inversion
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