Laser Guide Stars for Extremely Large Telescopes: Efficient Shack-Hartmann Wavefront Sensor Design using Weighted center-of-gravity algorithm

Over the last few years increasing consideration has been given to the study of Laser Guide Stars (LGS) for the measurement of the disturbance introduced by the atmosphere in optical and near-infrared astronomical observations from the ground. A possible method for the generation of a LGS is the excitation of the Sodium layer in the upper atmosphere at approximately 90 km of altitude. Since the Sodium layer is approximately 10 km thick, the artificial reference source looks elongated, especially when observed from the edge of a large aperture. The spot elongation strongly limits the performance of the most common wavefront sensors. The centroiding accuracy in a Shack-Hartmann wavefront sensor, for instance, decreases proportionally to the elongation (in a photon noise dominated regime). To compensate for this effect a straightforward solution is to increase the laser power, i.e. to increase the number of detected photons per subaperture. The scope of the work presented in this paper is twofold: an analysis of the performance of the Weighted Center of Gravity algorithm for centroiding with elongated spots and the determination of the required number of photons to achieve a certain average wavefront error over the telescope aperture.Comment: 10 pages, 14 figure

Dielectric catastrophe at the magnetic field induced insulator to metal transition in Pr1-xCaxMnO3 (x=0.30, 0.37) crystals

The dielectric permittivity and resistivity have been measured simultaneously as a function of magnetic field in Pr1-xCaxMnO3 crystals with different doping. A huge increase of dielectric permittivity was detected near percolation threshold. The dielectric and conductive properties are found to be mutually correlated throughout insulator to metal transition evidencing the dielectric catastrophe phenomenon. Data are analyzed in a framework of Maxwell-Garnett theory and the Mott-Hubbard theory attributed to the role of strong Coulomb interactions.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figure

Perspectives on the clonal persistence of presumed ‘ghost’ genomes in unisexual or allopolyploid taxa arising via hybridization

Although hybridization between non-sibling species rarely results in viable or fertile offspring, it occasionally produces self-perpetuating or sexually-parasitic lineages in which ancestral genomes are inherited clonally and thus may persist as 'ghost species' after ancestor extinction. Ghost species have been detected in animals and plants, for polyploid and diploid organisms, and across clonal, semi-clonal, and even sexual reproductive modes. Here we use a detailed investigation of the evolutionary and taxonomic status of a newly-discovered, putative ghost lineage (HX) in the fish genus Hypseleotris to provide perspectives on several important issues not previously explored by other studies on ghost species, but relevant to ongoing discussions about their detection, conservation, and artificial re-creation. Our comprehensive genetic (allozymes, mtDNA) and genomic (SNPs) datasets successfully identified a threatened sexual population of HX in one tiny portion of the extensive distribution displayed by two hemi-clonal HX-containing lineages. We also discuss what confidence should be placed on any assertion that an ancestral species is actually extinct, and how to assess whether any putative sexual ancestor represents a pure remnant, as shown here, or a naturally-occurring resurrection via the crossing of compatible clones or hemi-clones.P. J. Unmack, M. Adams, J. Bylemans, C. M. Hardy, M. P . Hammer, A. George

The Superconducting Instabilities of the non half-filled Hubbard Model in Two Dimensions

The problem of weakly correlated electrons on a square lattice is formulated in terms of one-loop renormalization group. Starting from the action for the entire Brillouin zone (and not with a low-energy effective action) we reduce successively the cutoff $\Lambda$ about the Fermi surface and follow the renormalization of the coupling $U$ as a function of three energy-momenta. We calculate the intrinsic scale $T_{co}$ where the renormalization group flow crosses over from the regime ($\Lambda > T_{co}$) where the electron-electron (e-e) and electron-hole (e-h) terms are equally important to the regime ($\Lambda < T_{co}$) where only the e-e term plays a role. In the low energy regime only the pairing interaction $V$ is marginally relevant, containing contributions from all renormalization group steps of the regime $\Lambda > T_{co}$. After diagonalization of $V_{\Lambda =T_{co}}$, we identify its most attractive eigenvalue $\lambda _{\min}$. At low filling, $\lambda _{\min}$ corresponds to the $B_2$ representation ($d_{xy}$ symmetry), while near half filling the strongest attraction occurs in the $B_1$ representation ($d_{x^2-y^2}$ symmetry). In the direction of the van Hove singularities, the order parameter shows peaks with increasing strength as one approaches half filling. Using the form of pairing and the structure of the renormalization group equations in the low energy regime, we give our interpretation of ARPES experiments trying to determine the symmetry of the order parameter in the Bi2212 high-$T_{c}$ compound.Comment: 24 pages (RevTeX) + 11 figures (the tex file appeared incomplete

Sum rules via large deviations

International audienceIn the theory of orthogonal polynomials, sum rules are remarkable relationships between a functional defined on a subset of all probability measures involving the reverse Kullback-Leibler divergence with respect to a particular distribution and recursion coefficients related to the orthogonal polynomial construction. Killip and Simon (Killip and Simon (2003)) have given a revival interest to this subject by showing a quite surprising sum rule for measures dominating the semicircular distribution on [−2, 2]. This sum rule includes a contribution of the atomic part of the measure away from [−2, 2]. In this paper, we recover this sum rule by using probabilistic tools on random matrices. Furthermore, we obtain new (up to our knowledge) magic sum rules for the reverse Kullback-Leibler divergence with respect to the Marchenko-Pastur or Kesten-McKay distributions. As in the semicircular case, these formulas include a contribution of the atomic part appearing away from the support of the reference measure

Magnetic interactions in iron superconductors: A review

High temperature superconductivity in iron pnictides and chalcogenides emerges when a magnetic phase is suppressed. The multi-orbital character and the strength of correlations underlie this complex phenomenology, involving magnetic softness and anisotropies, with Hund's coupling playing an important role. We review here the different theoretical approaches used to describe the magnetic interactions in these systems. We show that taking into account the orbital degree of freedom allows us to unify in a single phase diagram the main mechanisms proposed to explain the (\pi,0) order in iron pnictides: the nesting-driven, the exchange between localized spins, and the Hund induced magnetic state with orbital differentiation. Comparison of theoretical estimates and experimental results helps locate the Fe superconductors in the phase diagram. In addition, orbital physics is crucial to address the magnetic softness, the doping dependent properties, and the anisotropies.Comment: Invited review article for a focus issue of Comptes Rendus Physique: 26 pages, 10 figures. Revised version, as accepted. Small changes throughout the text plus new subsection (Sec. IIIE

The Hubbard model within the equations of motion approach

The Hubbard model has a special role in Condensed Matter Theory as it is considered as the simplest Hamiltonian model one can write in order to describe anomalous physical properties of some class of real materials. Unfortunately, this model is not exactly solved except for some limits and therefore one should resort to analytical methods, like the Equations of Motion Approach, or to numerical techniques in order to attain a description of its relevant features in the whole range of physical parameters (interaction, filling and temperature). In this manuscript, the Composite Operator Method, which exploits the above mentioned analytical technique, is presented and systematically applied in order to get information about the behavior of all relevant properties of the model (local, thermodynamic, single- and two- particle ones) in comparison with many other analytical techniques, the above cited known limits and numerical simulations. Within this approach, the Hubbard model is shown to be also capable to describe some anomalous behaviors of the cuprate superconductors.Comment: 232 pages, more than 300 figures, more than 500 reference

Distinct Kinetics of Memory B-Cell and Plasma-Cell Responses in Peripheral Blood Following a Blood-Stage Plasmodium chabaudi Infection in Mice

B cell and plasma cell responses take place in lymphoid organs, but because of the inaccessibility of these organs, analyses of human responses are largely performed using peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC). To determine whether PBMC are a useful source of memory B cells and plasma cells in malaria, and whether they reflect Plasmodium-specific B cell responses in spleen or bone marrow, we have investigated these components of the humoral response in PBMC using a model of Plasmodium chabaudi blood-stage infections in C57BL/6 mice. We detected memory B cells, defined as isotype-switched IgD− IgM− CD19+ B cells, and low numbers of Plasmodium chabaudi Merozoite Surface Protein-1 (MSP1)-specific memory B cells, in PBMC at all time points sampled for up to 90 days following primary or secondary infection. By contrast, we only detected CD138+ plasma cells and MSP1-specific antibody-secreting cells within a narrow time frame following primary (days 10 to 25) or secondary (day 10) infection. CD138+ plasma cells in PBMC at these times expressed CD19, B220 and MHC class II, suggesting that they were not dislodged bone-marrow long-lived plasma cells, but newly differentiated migratory plasmablasts migrating to the bone marrow; thus reflective of an ongoing or developing immune response. Our data indicates that PBMC can be a useful source for malaria-specific memory B cells and plasma cells, but extrapolation of the results to human malaria infections suggests that timing of sampling, particularly for plasma cells, may be critical. Studies should therefore include multiple sampling points, and at times of infection/immunisation when the B-cell phenotypes of interest are likely to be found in peripheral blood