6,366 research outputs found
Strong Gravitational Lensing and Dark Energy Complementarity
In the search for the nature of dark energy most cosmological probes measure
simple functions of the expansion rate. While powerful, these all involve
roughly the same dependence on the dark energy equation of state parameters,
with anticorrelation between its present value w_0 and time variation w_a.
Quantities that have instead positive correlation and so a sensitivity
direction largely orthogonal to, e.g., distance probes offer the hope of
achieving tight constraints through complementarity. Such quantities are found
in strong gravitational lensing observations of image separations and time
delays. While degeneracy between cosmological parameters prevents full
complementarity, strong lensing measurements to 1% accuracy can improve
equation of state characterization by 15-50%. Next generation surveys should
provide data on roughly 10^5 lens systems, though systematic errors will remain
challenging.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figure
Controlling the superconducting transition by spin-orbit coupling
Whereas there exists considerable evidence for the conversion of singlet
Cooper pairs into triplet Cooper pairs in the presence of inhomogeneous
magnetic fields, recent theoretical proposals have suggested an alternative way
to exert control over triplet generation: intrinsic spin-orbit coupling in a
homogeneous ferromagnet coupled to a superconductor. Here, we proximity-couple
Nb to an asymmetric Pt/Co/Pt trilayer, which acts as an effective spin-orbit
coupled ferromagnet owing to structural inversion asymmetry. Unconventional
modulation of the superconducting critical temperature as a function of
in-plane and out-of- plane applied magnetic fields suggests the presence of
triplets that can be controlled by the magnetic orientation of a single
homogeneous ferromagnet. Our studies demonstrate for the first time an active
role of spin-orbit coupling in controlling the triplets -- an important step
towards the realization of novel superconducting spintronic devices.Comment: 11 pages + 4 figures + supplemental informatio
Dramatic robustness of a multiple delay dispersed interferometer to spectrograph errors: how mixing delays reduces or cancels wavelength drift
We describe demonstrations of remarkable robustness to instrumental noises by using a multiple delay externally dispersed interferometer (EDI) on stellar observations at the Hale telescope. Previous observatory EDI demonstrations used a single delay. The EDI (also called “TEDI”) boosted the 2,700 resolution of the native TripleSpec NIR spectrograph (950-2450 nm) by as much as 10x to 27,000, using 7 overlapping delays up to 3 cm. We observed superb rejection of fixed pattern noises due to bad pixels, since the fringing signal responds only to changes in multiple exposures synchronous to the applied delay dithering. Remarkably, we observed a ~20x reduction of reaction in the output spectrum to PSF shifts of the native spectrograph along the dispersion direction, using our standard processing. This allowed high resolution observations under conditions of severe and irregular PSF drift otherwise not possible without the interferometer. Furthermore, we recently discovered an improved method of weighting and mixing data between pairs of delays that can theoretically further reduce the net reaction to PSF drift to zero. We demonstrate a 350x reduction in reaction to a native PSF shift using a simple simulation. This technique could similarly reduce radial velocity noise for future EDI’s that use two delays overlapped in delay space (or a single delay overlapping the native peak). Finally, we show an extremely high dynamic range EDI measurement of our ThAr lamp compared to a literature ThAr spectrum, observing weak features (~0.001x height of nearest strong line) that occur between the major lines. Because of individuality of each reference lamp, accurate knowledge of its spectrum between the (unfortunately) sparse major lines is important for precision radial velocimetry
Evaluation of trends in derived snowfall and rainfall across Eurasia and linkages with discharge to the Arctic Ocean
To more fully understand the role of precipitation in observed increases in freshwater discharge to the Arctic Ocean, data from a new archive of bias-adjusted precipitation records for the former USSR (TD9813), along with the CRU and Willmott-Matsuura data sets, were examined for the period 1936–1999. Across the six largest Eurasian river basins, snowfall derived from TD9813 exhibits a strongly significant increase until the late 1950s and a moderately significant decrease thereafter. A strongly significant decline in derived rainfall is also noted. Spatially, snowfall increases are found primarily across north-central Eurasia, an area where the rainfall decreases are most prominent. Although no significant change is determined in Eurasian-basin snowfall over the entire 64 year period, we note that interpolation from early, uneven station networks causes an overestimation of spatial precipitation, and that the local snowfall trends determined from gridded TD9813 data are likely underestimated. Yet, numerous uncertainties in historical Arctic climate data and the sparse, irregular nature of Arctic station networks preclude a confident assessment of precipitation-discharge linkages during the period of reported discharge trends
Spin-Transfer Torque and Magnetoresistance in Superconducting Spin-Valves
We study the spin-transfer torque and magnetoresistance of a
ferromagnetsuperconductorferromagnet spin-valve, allowing for an
arbitrary magnetization misorientation and treating both s-wave and d-wave
symmetries of the superconductor. We take fully into account Andreev reflection
and also the spin-triplet correlations that are generated when the
magnetizations are non-collinear. It is found that the torque and
magnetoresistance are both strongly enhanced when topological zero-energy
states are present at the interfaces, which is the case for d-wave
superconductors with a crystallographic orientation of [110] relative to the
interface (-wave symmetry). Moreover, we find that the
magnetoresistance displays a strong oscillatory and non-monotonous behavior as
a function of where and are the interlayer width of the
superconducting region and the superconducting coherence length, respectively.
This feature is also attributed to the crossover from layers of size to layers of size , where the contribution to transport from
zero-energy states gradually vanishes.Comment: 10 pages, 7 figures. Accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.
The Limits of Quintessence
We present evidence that the simplest particle-physics scalar-field models of
dynamical dark energy can be separated into distinct behaviors based on the
acceleration or deceleration of the field as it evolves down its potential
towards a zero minimum. We show that these models occupy narrow regions in the
phase-plane of w and w', the dark energy equation-of-state and its
time-derivative in units of the Hubble time. Restricting an energy scale of the
dark energy microphysics limits how closely a scalar field can resemble a
cosmological constant. These results, indicating a desired measurement
resolution of order \sigma(w')\approx (1+w), define firm targets for
observational tests of the physics of dark energy.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figure
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