6,536 research outputs found
The Thermal Memory of Reionization History
The recent measurement by WMAP of a large electron scattering optical depth
tau_e = 0.17 +- 0.04 is consistent with a simple model of reionization in which
the intergalactic medium (IGM) is ionized at redshift z ~ 15, and remains
highly ionized thereafter. Here, we show that existing measurements of the IGM
temperature from the Lyman-alpha forest at z ~ 2 - 4 rule out this ``vanilla''
model. Under reasonable assumptions about the ionizing spectrum, as long as the
universe is reionized before z = 10, and remains highly ionized thereafter, the
IGM reaches an asymptotic thermal state which is too cold compared to
observations. To simultaneously satisfy the CMB and forest constraints, the
reionization history must be complex: reionization begins early at z >~ 15, but
there must have been significant (order unity) changes in fractions of neutral
hydrogen and/or helium at 6 < z < 10, and/or singly ionized helium at 4 < z <
10. We describe a physically motivated reionization model that satisfies all
current observations. We also explore the impact of a stochastic reionization
history and show that a late epoch of (HeII --> HeIII) reionization induces a
significant scatter in the IGM temperature, but the scatter diminishes with
time quickly. Finally, we provide an analytic formula for the thermal
asymptote, and discuss possible additional heating mechanisms that might evade
our constraints.Comment: 10 pages, submitted to ApJ, new references, additional discussion on
earlier work and partial HeII reionizatio
High Dimensional Apollonian Networks
We propose a simple algorithm which produces high dimensional Apollonian
networks with both small-world and scale-free characteristics. We derive
analytical expressions for the degree distribution, the clustering coefficient
and the diameter of the networks, which are determined by their dimension
Evolving small-world networks with geographical attachment preference
We introduce a minimal extended evolving model for small-world networks which
is controlled by a parameter. In this model the network growth is determined by
the attachment of new nodes to already existing nodes that are geographically
close. We analyze several topological properties for our model both
analytically and by numerical simulations. The resulting network shows some
important characteristics of real-life networks such as the small-world effect
and a high clustering.Comment: 11 pages, 4 figure
Effects of localization and amplification on distribution of intensity transmitted through random media
We numerically study the statistical distribution of intensity transmitted
through quasi-one dimensional random media by varying the dimensionless
conductance and the amount of absorption or gain. Markedly non-Rayleigh
distribution is found to be well fitted by the analytical formula of
Nieuwenhuizen {\it et al}, Phys. Rev. Lett. {\bf 74}, 2674 (1995) with a single
parameter . We show that in the passive random system is
uniquely related to , while in amplifying/absorbing random media
also depends on gain/absorption coefficient.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, 1 tabl
Automatically extracted Antarctic coastline using remotely-sensed data: an update
The temporal and spatial variability of the Antarctic coastline is a clear indicator of change in extent and mass balance of ice sheets and shelves. In this study, the Canny edge detector was utilized to automatically extract high-resolution information of the Antarctic coastline for 2005, 2010, and 2017, based on optical and microwave satellite data. In order to improve the accuracy of the extracted coastlines, we developed the Canny algorithm by automatically calculating the local low and high thresholds via the intensity histogram of each image to derive thresholds to distinguish ice sheet from water. A visual comparison between extracted coastlines and mosaics from remote sensing images shows good agreement. In addition, comparing manually extracted coastline, based on prior knowledge, the accuracy of planimetric position of automated extraction is better than two pixels of Landsat images (30 m resolution). Our study shows that the percentage of deviation (7 km2 (2005) to 1.3537 Ă— 107 km2 (2010) and 1.3657 Ă— 107 km2 (2017). We have found that the decline of the Antarctic area between 2005 and 2010 is related to the breakup of some individual ice shelves, mainly in the Antarctic Peninsula and off East Antarctica. We present a detailed analysis of the temporal and spatial change of coastline and area change for the six ice shelves that exhibited the largest change in the last decade. The largest area change (a loss of 4836 km2) occurred at the Wilkins Ice Shelf between 2005 and 2010
INDIVIDUAL TREE AGB ESTIMATION BASED ON FRACTAL PARAMETERS AND TREE VOLUME
Forest is an important component of ecosystem. To estimate forest above-ground biomass (AGB) accurately, this paper proposed an individual tree AGB estimation method based on fractal geometry and individual tree volume. In this study, fractal parameters, such as fractal dimension and intercept were first calculated. And then, a fast tree volume estimation method based on point clouds voxelization was proposed. By combining fractal parameters, tree volume and specific wood density together, an individual tree AGB estimation method was developed. The datasets of three different tree species with harvest referenced AGB values were used for evaluating the performance of the developed model. Experimental results showed that the coefficient of determination (R2) of the developed model was 0.853. Compared with other four traditional allometric models, the proposed model performs the best no matter which accuracy indicator was adopted
Quantum Entanglement and Teleportation in Higher Dimensional Black Hole Spacetimes
We study the properties of quantum entanglement and teleportation in the
background of stationary and rotating curved space-times with extra dimensions.
We show that a maximally entangled Bell state in an inertial frame becomes less
entangled in curved space due to the well-known Hawking-Unruh effect. The
degree of entanglement is found to be degraded with increasing the extra
dimensions. For a finite black hole surface gravity, the observer may choose
higher frequency mode to keep high level entanglement. The fidelity of quantum
teleporation is also reduced because of the Hawking-Unruh effect. We discuss
the fidelity as a function of extra dimensions, mode frequency, black hole mass
and black hole angular momentum parameter for both bosonic and fermionic
resources.Comment: 15 pages, 10 figures,contents expande
Glassy Dynamics in a Frustrated Spin System: Role of Defects
In an effort to understand the glass transition, the kinetics of a spin model
with frustration but no quenched randomness has been analyzed. The
phenomenology of the spin model is remarkably similiar to that of structural
glasses. Analysis of the model suggests that defects play a major role in
dictating the dynamics as the glass transition is approached.Comment: 9 pages, 5 figures, accepted in J. Phys.: Condensed Matter,
proceedings of the Trieste workshop on "Unifying Concepts in Glass Physics
A Tracker Solution for a Holographic Dark Energy Model
We investigate a kind of holographic dark energy model with the future event
horizon the IR cutoff and the equation of state -1. In this model, the
constraint on the equation of state automatically specifies an interaction
between matter and dark energy. With this interaction included, an accelerating
expansion is obtained as well as the transition from deceleration to
acceleration. It is found that there exists a stable tracker solution for the
numerical parameter , and smaller than one will not lead to a physical
solution. This model provides another possible phenomenological framework to
alleviate the cosmological coincidence problem in the context of holographic
dark energy. Some properties of the evolution which are relevant to
cosmological parameters are also discussed.Comment: 10 pages, 3 figures; accepted for publication in Int.J.Mod.Phys.
BICEP3: a 95GHz refracting telescope for degree-scale CMB polarization
Bicep3 is a 550 mm-aperture refracting telescope for polarimetry of radiation in the cosmic microwave background at 95 GHz. It adopts the methodology of Bicep1, Bicep2 and the Keck Array experiments | it possesses sufficient resolution to search for signatures of the inflation-induced cosmic gravitational-wave background while utilizing a compact design for ease of construction and to facilitate the characterization and mitigation of systematics. However, Bicep3 represents a significant breakthrough in per-receiver sensitivity, with a focal plane area 5x larger than a Bicep2/Keck Array receiver and faster optics (f=1:6 vs. f=2:4). Large-aperture infrared-reflective metal-mesh filters and infrared-absorptive cold alumina filters and lenses were developed and implemented for its optics. The camera consists of 1280 dual-polarization pixels; each is a pair of orthogonal antenna arrays coupled to transition-edge sensor bolometers and read out by multiplexed SQUIDs. Upon deployment at the South Pole during the 2014-15 season, Bicep3 will have survey speed comparable to Keck Array 150 GHz (2013), and will signifcantly enhance spectral separation of primordial B-mode power from that of possible galactic dust contamination in the Bicep2 observation patch
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