3,067 research outputs found
Can optical squeezing be generated via polarization self-rotation in a thermal vapour cell?
The traversal of an elliptically polarized optical field through a thermal
vapour cell can give rise to a rotation of its polarization axis. This process,
known as polarization self-rotation (PSR), has been suggested as a mechanism
for producing squeezed light at atomic transition wavelengths. In this paper,
we show results of the characterization of PSR in isotopically enhanced
Rubidium-87 cells, performed in two independent laboratories. We observed that,
contrary to earlier work, the presence of atomic noise in the thermal vapour
overwhelms the observation of squeezing. We present a theory that contains
atomic noise terms and show that a null result in squeezing is consistent with
this theory.Comment: 10 pages, 11 figures, submitted to PRA. Please email author for a PDF
file if the article does not appear properl
Prediction of vascular aging based on smartphone acquired PPG signals
Photoplethysmography (PPG) measured by smartphone has the potential for a large scale, non-invasive, and easy-to-use screening tool. Vascular aging is linked to increased arterial stiffness, which can be measured by PPG. We investigate the feasibility of using PPG to predict healthy vascular aging (HVA) based on two approaches: machine learning (ML) and deep learning (DL). We performed data preprocessing, including detrending, demodulating, and denoising on the raw PPG signals. For ML, ridge penalized regression has been applied to 38 features extracted from PPG, whereas for DL several convolutional neural networks (CNNs) have been applied to the whole PPG signals as input. The analysis has been conducted using the crowd-sourced Heart for Heart data. The prediction performance of ML using two features (AUC of 94.7%) â the a wave of the second derivative PPG and tpr, including four covariates, sex, height, weight, and smoking â was similar to that of the best performing CNN, 12-layer ResNet (AUC of 95.3%). Without having the heavy computational cost of DL, ML might be advantageous in finding potential biomarkers for HVA prediction. The whole workflow of the procedure is clearly described, and open software has been made available to facilitate replication of the results
Prediction of vascular aging based on smartphone acquired PPG signals
Photoplethysmography (PPG) measured by smartphone has the potential for a large scale, non-invasive, and easy-to-use screening tool. Vascular aging is linked to increased arterial stiffness, which can be measured by PPG. We investigate the feasibility of using PPG to predict healthy vascular aging (HVA) based on two approaches: machine learning (ML) and deep learning (DL). We performed data preprocessing, including detrending, demodulating, and denoising on the raw PPG signals. For ML, ridge penalized regression has been applied to 38 features extracted from PPG, whereas for DL several convolutional neural networks (CNNs) have been applied to the whole PPG signals as input. The analysis has been conducted using the crowd-sourced Heart for Heart data. The prediction performance of ML using two features (AUC of 94.7%) \u2013 the a wave of the second derivative PPG and tpr, including four covariates, sex, height, weight, and smoking \u2013 was similar to that of the best performing CNN, 12-layer ResNet (AUC of 95.3%). Without having the heavy computational cost of DL, ML might be advantageous in finding potential biomarkers for HVA prediction. The whole workflow of the procedure is clearly described, and open software has been made available to facilitate replication of the results
A Broadband X-Ray Study of the Supernova Remnant 3C 397
We present an X-ray study of the radio bright supernova remnant (SNR) 3C 397
with ROSAT, ASCA, and RXTE. A central X-ray spot seen with the ROSAT
High-Resolution Imager hints at the presence of a pulsar-powered component, and
gives this SNR a composite X-ray morphology. Combined ROSAT and ASCA imaging
show that the remnant is highly asymmetric, with its hard X-ray emission
peaking at the western lobe. The spectrum of 3C 397 is heavily absorbed, and
dominated by thermal emission with emission lines evident from Mg, Si, S, Ar
and Fe. Single-component models fail to describe the spectrum, and at least two
components are required. We use a set of non-equilibrium ionization (NEI)
models (Borkowski et al. in preparation). The temperatures from the soft and
hard components are 0.2 keV and 1.6 keV respectively. The corresponding
ionization time-scales ( being the pre-shock hydrogen density) are
6 cm s and 6 10 cm s,
respectively. The spectrum obtained with the Proportional Counter Array (PCA)
of RXTE is contaminated by emission from the Galactic ridge, with only
15% of the count rate originating from 3C 397 in the 5-15 keV range. The PCA
spectrum allowed us to confirm the thermal nature of the hard X-ray emission. A
third component originating from a pulsar-driven component is possible, but the
contamination of the source signal by the Galactic ridge did not allow us to
find pulsations from any hidden pulsar. We discuss the X-ray spectrum in the
light of two scenarios: a young ejecta-dominated remnant of a core-collapse SN,
and a middle-aged SNR expanding in a dense ISM. Spatially resolved spectroscopy
(with CHANDRA and XMM) is needed to differentiate between the two scenarios,
and address the nature of the mysterious radio-quiet X-ray hot spot.Comment: 21 pages including 8 figures and 5 tables. Accepted for publication
in the Astrophysical journa
The network structure of visited locations according to geotagged social media photos
Businesses, tourism attractions, public transportation hubs and other points
of interest are not isolated but part of a collaborative system. Making such
collaborative network surface is not always an easy task. The existence of
data-rich environments can assist in the reconstruction of collaborative
networks. They shed light into how their members operate and reveal a potential
for value creation via collaborative approaches. Social media data are an
example of a means to accomplish this task. In this paper, we reconstruct a
network of tourist locations using fine-grained data from Flickr, an online
community for photo sharing. We have used a publicly available set of Flickr
data provided by Yahoo! Labs. To analyse the complex structure of tourism
systems, we have reconstructed a network of visited locations in Europe,
resulting in around 180,000 vertices and over 32 million edges. An analysis of
the resulting network properties reveals its complex structure.Comment: 8 pages, 3 figure
DA495 - an aging pulsar wind nebula
We present a radio continuum study of the pulsar wind nebula (PWN) DA 495
(G65.7+1.2), including images of total intensity and linear polarization from
408 to 10550 MHz based on the Canadian Galactic Plane Survey and observations
with the Effelsberg 100-m Radio Telescope. Removal of flux density
contributions from a superimposed \ion{H}{2} region and from compact
extragalactic sources reveals a break in the spectrum of DA 495 at 1.3 GHz,
with a spectral index below the break and
above it (). The
spectral break is more than three times lower in frequency than the lowest
break detected in any other PWN. The break in the spectrum is likely the result
of synchrotron cooling, and DA 495, at an age of 20,000 yr, may have
evolved from an object similar to the Vela X nebula, with a similarly energetic
pulsar. We find a magnetic field of 1.3 mG inside the nebula. After
correcting for the resulting high internal rotation measure, the magnetic field
structure is quite simple, resembling the inner part of a dipole field
projected onto the plane of the sky, although a toroidal component is likely
also present. The dipole field axis, which should be parallel to the spin axis
of the putative pulsar, lies at an angle of {\sim}50\degr east of the North
Celestial Pole and is pointing away from us towards the south-west. The upper
limit for the radio surface brightness of any shell-type supernova remnant
emission around DA 495 is OAWatt
m Hz sr (assuming a radio spectral index of ), lower than the faintest shell-type remnant known to date.Comment: 25 pages, accepted by Ap
X-Ray Observations of the supernova remnant G21.5-0.9
We present the analysis of archival X-ray observations of the supernova
remnant (SNR) G21.5-0.9. Based on its morphology and spectral properties,
G21.5-0.9 has been classified as a Crab-like SNR. In their early analysis of
the CHANDRA calibration data, Slane et al. (2000) discovered a
low-surface-brightness, extended emission. They interpreted this component as
the blast wave formed in the supernova (SN) explosion. In this paper, we
present the CHANDRA analysis using a total exposure of ~150 ksec. We also
include ROSAT and ASCA observations. Our analysis indicates that the extended
emission is non-thermal -- a result in agreement with XMM observations. The
entire remnant of radius ~ 2'.5 is best fitted with a power law model with a
photon index steepening away from the center. The total unabsorbed flux in the
0.5-10 keV is 1.1E-10 erg/cm2/s with an 85% contribution from the 40" radius
inner core. Timing analysis of the High-Resolution Camera (HRC) data failed to
detect any pulsations. We put a 16% upper limit on the pulsed fraction. We
derive the physical parameters of the putative pulsar and compare them with
those of other plerions (such as the Crab and 3C 58). G21.5-0.9 remains the
only plerion whose size in X-rays is bigger than in the radio. Deep radio
observations will address this puzzle.Comment: 23 pages including 11 figures and 3 tables; accepted by ApJ June 22,
2001; to appear in Oct 20, 2001 issue of Ap
Balanced carving turns in alpine skiing
In this paper, we analyse the model of pure carving turns in alpine skiing and snowboarding based on the usual assumption of approximate balance between forces and torques acting on the skier during the turn. The approximation of torque balance yields both lower and upper limits on the skier speed, which depend only on the sidecut radius of skis and the slope gradient. We use the model to simulate carving runs on slopes of constant gradient and find that pure carving is possible only on slopes of relatively small gradient, with the critical slope angle in the range of 8ââ20â. The exact value depends mostly on the coefficient of snow friction and to a lesser degree on the sidecut radius of skis. Comparison with the practice of ski racing shows that the upper speed limit and the related upper limit on the slope gradient set by the model are too restrictive and so must be the assumption of torque balance used in the model. A more advanced theory is needed
Intensity noise of injection-locked lasers: Quantum theory using a linearized input-output method
We derive analytical expressions for the quantum-noise spectra of an atomic laser using a linearized input-output method. We generalize the method to the problem of injection-locked lasers. We identify three distinct spectral noise regimes in the solution, unifying previous results. The approach offers insights into the physical processes and is especially suited for comparison with experiment. The quantum spectral noise properties of the pump laser and the injected laser appear explicitly in the solution
Quantum Measurement Theory in Gravitational-Wave Detectors
The fast progress in improving the sensitivity of the gravitational-wave (GW)
detectors, we all have witnessed in the recent years, has propelled the
scientific community to the point, when quantum behaviour of such immense
measurement devices as kilometer-long interferometers starts to matter. The
time, when their sensitivity will be mainly limited by the quantum noise of
light is round the corner, and finding the ways to reduce it will become a
necessity. Therefore, the primary goal we pursued in this review was to
familiarize a broad spectrum of readers with the theory of quantum measurements
in the very form it finds application in the area of gravitational-wave
detection. We focus on how quantum noise arises in gravitational-wave
interferometers and what limitations it imposes on the achievable sensitivity.
We start from the very basic concepts and gradually advance to the general
linear quantum measurement theory and its application to the calculation of
quantum noise in the contemporary and planned interferometric detectors of
gravitational radiation of the first and second generation. Special attention
is paid to the concept of Standard Quantum Limit and the methods of its
surmounting.Comment: 147 pages, 46 figures, 1 table. Published in Living Reviews in
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