Analytical approach to dielectric optical bent slab waveguides

A rigorous classical analytic frequency domain model of con?ned optical wave propagation along 2D bent slab waveguides and curved dielectric interfaces is investigated, based on a piecewise ansatz for bend mode profiles in terms of Bessel and Hankel functions. This approach provides a clear picture of the behaviour of bend modes, concerning their decay for large radial arguments or effects of varying bend radius. Fast and accurate routines are required to evaluate Bessel functions with large complex orders and large arguments. Our implementation enabled detailed studies of bent waveguide properties, including higher order bend modes and whispering gallery modes, their interference patterns, and issues related to bend mode normalization and orthogonality properties

Surface pressure measurements at two tips of a model helicopter rotor in hover

Surface pressures were measured near the tip of a hovering single-bladed model helicopter rotor with two tip shapes. The rotor had a constant-chord, untwisted blade with a square, flat tip which could be modified to a body-of-revolution tip. Pressure measurements were made on the blade surface along the chordwise direction at six radial stations outboard of the 94 percent blade radius. Data for each blade tip configuration were taken at blade collective pitch angles of 0, 6.18 and 11.4 degrees at a Reynolds number of 736,000 and a Mach number of 0.25 both based on tip speed. Chordwise pressure distributions and constant surface pressure contours are presented and discussed

Amplitude and phase evolution of optical fields inside periodic photonic structures

Optical amplitude distributions of light inside periodic photonic structures are visualized with subwavelength resolution. In addition, using a phase-sensitive photon scanning tunneling microscope, we simultaneously map the phase evolution of light. Two different structures, which consist of a ridge wave-guide containing periodic arrays of nanometer scale features, are investigated. We determine the wavelength dependence of the exponential decay rate inside the periodic arrays. Furthermore, various interference patterns are observed, which we interpret as interference between light reflected by the substrate and light inside the waveguide. The phase information obtained reveals scattering phenomena around the periodic array, which gives rise to phase jumps and phase singularities. Locally around the air rods, we observe an unexpected change in effective refractive index, a possible indication for anomalous dispersion resulting from the periodicity of the array

The Judgment Continues: Eighteenth Century Stereotypes and The Modern Woman

Early feminist Mary Wollstonecraft directly confronted the female stereotypes of the eighteenth century in A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792). Over 50 years later, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, wrote an epic poem, Aurora Leigh, about a female artist who must decide between marriage and her profession. Both Wollstonecraft and Browning believed that women should not value marriage over career and encouraged women to focus on intellect, not outer beauty, and to pursue the more rigorous studies left for men, including science and mathematics. After tracing the arguments of both authors, this co-authored paper uses current educational and social research to argue that while less obvious, eighteenth century stereotypes continue to affect women today. Educational research demonstrates that young children become aware of gender roles and expectations from an early age, a problem that can affect their future prospects. Despite Wollstonecraft’s and Browning’s defiance of social norms, these gender biases continue. For example, the focus in women’s magazines on external beauty reflects continuation of the social pressure to marry. In the professional world, the 77 cent wage gap, the glass ceiling, and the lack of women in the STEM fields demonstrate that equality has not yet been achieved. While today’s causes are different from Wollstonecraft’s and Browning’s, feminists are still working to end lingering eighteenth century stereotypes

Generalized Swiss-cheese cosmologies: Mass scales

We generalize the Swiss-cheese cosmologies so as to include nonzero linear momenta of the associated boundary surfaces. The evolution of mass scales in these generalized cosmologies is studied for a variety of models for the background without having to specify any details within the local inhomogeneities. We find that the final effective gravitational mass and size of the evolving inhomogeneities depends on their linear momenta but these properties are essentially unaffected by the details of the background model.Comment: 10 pages, 14 figures, 1 table, revtex4, Published form (with minor corrections

The Formation of Large Galactic Disks: Revival or Survival?

Using the deepest and the most complete set of observations of distant galaxies, we investigate how extended disks could have formed. Observations include spatially-resolved kinematics, detailed morphologies and photometry from UV to mid-IR. Six billion years ago, half of the present-day spiral progenitors had anomalous kinematics and morphologies, as well as relatively high gas fractions. We argue that gas-rich major mergers, i.e., fusions between gas-rich disk galaxies of similar mass, can be the likeliest driver for such strong peculiarities. This suggests a new channel of disk formation, e.g. many disks could be reformed after gas-rich mergers. This is found to be in perfect agreement with predictions from the state-of-the-art LCDM semi-empirical models: due to our sensitivity in detecting mergers at all phases, from pairs to relaxed post-mergers, we find a more accurate merger rate. The scenario can be finally confronted to properties of nearby galaxies, including M31 and galaxies showing ultra-faint, gigantic structures in their haloes.Comment: Proceedings of the annual meeting of the French Astronomical Society, 2011, 6 pages, 1 Figur

Potential Energy Surface for H_2 Dissociation over Pd(100)

The potential energy surface (PES) of dissociative adsorption of H_2 on Pd(100) is investigated using density functional theory and the full-potential linear augmented plane wave (FP-LAPW) method. Several dissociation pathways are identified which have a vanishing energy barrier. A pronounced dependence of the potential energy on ``cartwheel'' rotations of the molecular axis is found. The calculated PES shows no indication of the presence of a precursor state in front of the surface. Both results indicate that steering effects determine the observed decrease of the sticking coefficient at low energies of the H_2 molecules. We show that the topology of the PES is related to the dependence of the covalent H(s)-Pd(d) interactions on the orientation of the H_2 molecule.Comment: RevTeX, 8 pages, 5 figures in uufiles forma

Environment, morphology and stellar populations of bulgeless low surface brightness galaxies

Based on the Sloan Digital Sky Survey DR 7, we investigate the environment, morphology and stellar population of bulgeless low surface brightness (LSB) galaxies in a volume-limited sample with redshift ranging from 0.024 to 0.04 and $M_r$ $\leq$ $-18.8$. The local density parameter $\Sigma_5$ is used to trace their environments. We find that, for bulgeless galaxies, the surface brightness does not depend on the environment. The stellar populations are compared for bulgeless LSB galaxies in different environments and for bulgeless LSB galaxies with different morphologies. The stellar populations of LSB galaxies in low density regions are similar to those of LSB galaxies in high density regions. Irregular LSB galaxies have more young stars and are more metal-poor than regular LSB galaxies. These results suggest that the evolution of LSB galaxies may be driven by their dynamics including mergers rather than by their large scale environment.Comment: 12 pages, 13 figures, Accepted by A&