1,460 research outputs found

    An Artist as Soldier: Seeking Refuge in Love and Art

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    At the center of this book are the World War II letters (Feldpostbriefe) of a German artist and art teacher to his wife. While Bernhard Epple’s letters to his wife, Gudrun, address many of the topics usually found in war letters (food, lodging conditions, the weather, problems with the mail service, requests for favors from home), they are unusual in two respects. Each letter is lovingly decorated with a drawing and the letters make few references to the war itself. In addition to many personal communications and expressions of love for his wife and children, Epple writes about landscapes he saw as well as churches, museums and bookstores he visited. Epple’s letters give testimony to how a particular German soldier who was drafted and survived the war did his best to remain a civilian in uniform; distancing himself from a reality that was not of his choosing, seeking comfort and refuge in his love for art and his ability to share this love with his wife, herself an artist. While Epple’s letters are deeply personal, this book is about the human experience of war and the separation from civilian life and from family and friends. The introduction provides a short discussion of the importance and uses of war letters as historical documents, followed by a biography of the letter writer. The letters make up the two central chapters. The drawings form an integral part of the letters; each is reproduced and accompanied by an English translation of the letter. In addition to the drawings, the text includes several photographs of the letter writer and his family.https://cupola.gettysburg.edu/books/1126/thumbnail.jp

    Control of surface plasmon resonance in out-diffused silver nanoislands for surface-enhanced Raman scattering

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    Abstract We present the studies of self-assembled silver nanoislands on the surface of silver ion-exchanged glasses. The nanoislands were formed by out-diffusion of reduced silver atoms from the bulk of the glass to its surface. Control of silver ions distribution in the glass by thermal poling after the ion exchange allowed formation of relatively big, up to 250 nm, isolated silver nanoislands while without the poling an ensemble of silver nanoislands with average size from several to tens of nanometers with random size distribution was formed. The nanoislands were characterized using atomic force microscopy and spectral measurements. We used optical absorption spectroscopy for “random” nanoislands and dark field scattering spectroscopy for isolated ones, corresponding spectra showed peaks in the vicinity of 450 nm and 600 nm, respectively. The “random” nanoislands significantly enhanced Raman scattering from Rhodamine 6G, also the modification of Raman signal from deposited on the surface of the samples bacteriorhodopsin in purple membranes was registered

    Theoretical Modeling of Starburst Galaxies

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    We have modeled a large sample of infrared starburst galaxies using both the PEGASE v2.0 and STARBURST99 codes to generate the spectral energy distribution of the young star clusters. PEGASE utilizes the Padova group tracks while STARBURST99 uses the Geneva group tracks, allowing comparison between the two. We used our MAPPINGS III code to compute photoionization models which include a self-consistent treatment of dust physics and chemical depletion. We use the standard optical diagnostic diagrams as indicators of the hardness of the EUV radiation field in these galaxies. These diagnostic diagrams are most sensitive to the spectral index of the ionizing radiation field in the 1-4 Rydberg region. We find that warm infrared starburst galaxies contain a relatively hard EUV field in this region. The PEGASE ionizing stellar continuum is harder in the 1-4 Rydberg range than that of STARBURST99. As the spectrum in this regime is dominated by emission from Wolf-Rayet (W-R) stars, this difference is most likely due to the differences in stellar atmosphere models used for the W-R stars. We believe that the stellar atmospheres in STARBURST99 are more applicable to the starburst galaxies in our sample, however they do not produce the hard EUV field in the 1-4 Rydberg region required by our observations. The inclusion of continuum metal blanketing in the models may be one solution. Supernova remnant (SNR) shock modeling shows that the contribution by mechanical energy from SNRs to the photoionization models is << 20%. The models presented here are used to derive a new theoretical classification scheme for starbursts and AGN galaxies based on the optical diagnostic diagrams.Comment: 36 pages, 16 figures, to be published in ApJ, July 20, 200

    Dark-field spectroscopy of plasmon resonance in metal nanoislands: effect of shape and light polarization

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    Abstract We present the experimental dark-field scattering studies and the simulation of plasmonic properties of isolated silver nanoislands. The nanoislands were fabricated on a soda- lime glass substrate using silver-sodium ion exchange, subsequent thermal poling and annealing of the processed glass substrate in hydrogen. The morphology of the nanoislands was characterized with atomic force microscopy and scanning electron microscopy; the dimensions were 100-180 nm in base and 80-160 nm in height. We measured and modeled dark-field scattering spectra of the silver hemiellipsoidal nanoparticles differing in size and shape. The SPR position varied from 450 nm to 730 nm depending on the particle shape and dimensions. Both experiments and simulation showed a red shift of the SPR for bigger nanoislands of the same shape. Losing the axial symmetry in nanoislands resulted in the resonance splitting, while their elongation led to an increase in the scattering of p-polarized light

    SBF Distances to Dwarf Elliptical Galaxies in the Sculptor Group

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    As part of an ongoing search for dwarf elliptical galaxies (dE) in the vicinity of the Local Group, we acquired deep B and R-band images for five dE candidates identified in the Sculptor (Scl) group region. We carried out a surface brightness fluctuation (SBF) analysis on the R-band images to measure the apparent fluctuation magnitude \bar{m}_R for each dE. Using predictions from stellar population synthesis models the galaxy distances were determined. All of these dE candidates turned out to be satellites of Scl group major members. A redshift measurement of the dE candidate ESO294-010 yielded an independent confirmation of its group membership: the [OIII] and Hα_\alpha emission lines from a small HII region gave a heliocentric velocity of 117(\pm 5) km s-1, in close agreement with the velocity of its parent galaxy NGC 55 (v_\odot=125 km s-1). The precision of the SBF distances (5 to 10%) contributes to delineating the cigar-like distribution of the Scl group members, which extend over distances from 1.7 to 4.4 Mpc and are concentrated in three, possibly four subclumps. The Hubble diagram for nine Scl galaxies, including two of our dEs, exhibits a tight linear velocity--distance relation with a steep slope of 119 km s-1 Mpc-1. The results indicate that gravitational interaction among the Scl group members plays only a minor role in the dynamics of the group. However, the Hubble flow of the entire system appears strongly disturbed by the large masses of our Galaxy and M31 leading to the observed shearing motion. From the distances and velocities of 49 galaxies located in the Local Group and towards the Scl group, we illustrate the continuity of the galaxy distribution which strongly supports the view that the two groups form a single supergalactic structure.Comment: To appear in The Astronomical Journal, December 1998; 28 pages with 22 figure

    Two-Dimensional Electronic Spectroscopy of Chlorophyll a: Solvent Dependent Spectral Evolution

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    The interaction of the monomeric chlorophyll Q-band electronic transition with solvents of differing physical-chemical properties is investigated through two-dimensional electronic spectroscopy (2DES). Chlorophyll constitutes the key chromophore molecule in light harvesting complexes. It is well-known that the surrounding protein in the light harvesting complex fine-tunes chlorophyll electronic transitions to optimize energy transfer. Therefore, an understanding of the influence of the environment on the monomeric chlorophyll electronic transitions is important. The Q-band 2DES is inhomogeneous at early times, particularly in hydrogen bonding polar solvents, but also in nonpolar solvents like cyclohexane. Interestingly this inhomogeneity persists for long times, even up to the nanosecond time scale in some solvents. The reshaping of the 2DES occurs over multiple time scales and was assigned mainly to spectral diffusion. At early times the reshaping is Gaussian-like, hinting at a strong solvent reorganization effect. The temporal evolution of the 2DES response was analyzed in terms of a Brownian oscillator model. The spectral densities underpinning the Brownian oscillator fitting were recovered for the different solvents. The absorption spectra and Stokes shift were also properly described by this model. The extent and nature of inhomogeneous broadening was a strong function of solvent, being larger in H-bonding and viscous media and smaller in nonpolar solvents. The fastest spectral reshaping components were assigned to solvent dynamics, modified by interactions with the solute
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