113,018 research outputs found
A search for debris disks in the Herschel-ATLAS
Aims. We aim to demonstrate that the Herschel-ATLAS (H-ATLAS) is suitable for a blind and unbiased survey for debris disks by identifying candidate debris disks associated with main sequence stars in the initial science demonstration field of the survey. We show that H-ATLAS reveals a population of far-infrared/sub-mm sources that are associated with stars or star-like objects on the SDSS main-sequence locus. We validate our approach by comparing the properties of the most likely candidate disks to those of the known population.
Methods. We use a photometric selection technique to identify main sequence stars in the SDSS DR7 catalogue and a Bayesian Likelihood Ratio method to identify H-ATLAS catalogue sources associated with these main sequence stars. Following this photometric selection we apply distance cuts to identify the most likely candidate debris disks and rule out the presence of contaminating galaxies using UKIDSS LAS K-band images.
Results. We identify 78 H-ATLAS sources associated with SDSS point sources on the main-sequence locus, of which two are the most likely debris disk candidates: H-ATLAS J090315.8 and H-ATLAS J090240.2. We show that they are plausible candidates by comparing their properties
to the known population of debris disks. Our initial results indicate that bright debris disks are rare, with only 2 candidates identified in a search
sample of 851 stars. We also show that H-ATLAS can derive useful upper limits for debris disks associated with Hipparcos stars in the field and outline the future prospects for our debris disk search programme
Transform-limited X-ray pulse generation from a high-brightness self-amplified spontaneous-emission free-electron laser
A method to achieve high-brightness self-amplified spontaneous emission (HB-SASE) in the free-electron laser (FEL) is described. The method uses repeated nonequal electron beam delays to delocalize the collective FEL interaction and break the radiation coherence length dependence on the FEL cooperation length. The method requires no external seeding or photon optics and so is applicable at any wavelength or repetition rate. It is demonstrated, using linear theory and numerical simulations, that the radiation coherence length can be increased by approximately 2 orders of magnitude over SASE with a corresponding increase in spectral brightness. Examples are shown of HB-SASE generating transform-limited FEL pulses in the soft x-ray and near transform-limited pulses in the hard x-ray. Such pulses may greatly benefit existing applications and may also open up new areas of scientific research
Application of satellite data to tropic/subtropic moisture coupling
The objective is to utilize various satellite products from a number of satellites together with data observed from platforms available during the FGGE Special Observing Periods to diagnose synoptic scale events in date void regions. The focus is on episodes of northeastward traveling cloud bands which move out of the ITCZ over the eastern North Pacific Ocean. These events are called moisture bursts
Freshwater Culture Of Salmonids In Recirculating Aquaculture Systems (RAS) With Emphasis On The Monitoring And Control Of Key Environmental Parameters
This report is intended as a briefing paper on Recirculating Aquaculture Systems with emphasis on the monitoring of water quality parameters relating to the freshwater culture of the Arctic charr Salvelinus alpinus
Pattern formation in large domains
Pattern formation is a phenomenon that arises in a wide variety of physical, chemical
and biological situations. A great deal of theoretical progress has been made in
understanding the universal aspects of pattern formation in terms of amplitudes of
the modes that make up the pattern. Much of the theory has sound mathematical
justification, but experiments and numerical simulations over the last decade have
revealed complex two-dimensional patterns that do not have a satisfactory theoretical
explanation. This paper focuses on quasi-patterns, where the appearance of small
divisors causes the standard theoretical method to fail, and ends with a discussion
of other outstanding problems in the theory of two-dimensional pattern formation
in large domains
Omniscopes: Large Area Telescope Arrays with only N log N Computational Cost
We show that the class of antenna layouts for telescope arrays allowing cheap
analysis hardware (with correlator cost scaling as N log N rather than N^2 with
the number of antennas N) is encouragingly large, including not only previously
discussed rectangular grids but also arbitrary hierarchies of such grids, with
arbitrary rotations and shears at each level. We show that all correlations for
such a 2D array with an n-level hierarchy can be efficiently computed via a
Fast Fourier Transform in not 2 but 2n dimensions. This can allow major
correlator cost reductions for science applications requiring exquisite
sensitivity at widely separated angular scales, for example 21cm tomography
(where short baselines are needed to probe the cosmological signal and long
baselines are needed for point source removal), helping enable future 21cm
experiments with thousands or millions of cheap dipole-like antennas. Such
hierarchical grids combine the angular resolution advantage of traditional
array layouts with the cost advantage of a rectangular Fast Fourier Transform
Telescope. We also describe an algorithm for how a subclass of hierarchical
arrays can efficiently use rotation synthesis to produce global sky maps with
minimal noise and a well-characterized synthesized beam.Comment: Replaced to match accepted PRD version. 10 pages, 9 fig
Carbonate Formation in Non-Aqueous Environments by Solid-Gas Carbonation of Silicates
We have produced synthetic analogues of cosmic silicates using the Sol Gel
method, producing amorphous silicates of composition Mg(x)Ca(1-x)SiO3. Using
synchrotron X-ray powder diffraction on Beamline I11 at the Diamond Light
Source, together with a newly-commissioned gas cell, real-time powder
diffraction scans have been taken of a range of silicates exposed to CO2 under
non-ambient conditions. The SXPD is complemented by other techniques including
Raman and Infrared Spectroscopy and SEM imaging.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures. Contribution to the Proceedings of the First
European Conference on Laboratory Astrophysics (ECLA
Nonlinear spectroscopy in the strong-coupling regime of cavity QED
A nonlinear spectroscopic investigation of a strongly coupled atom-cavity system is presented. A two-field pump-probe experiment is employed to study nonlinear structure as the average number of intracavity atoms is varied from N̅≈4.2 to N̅≈0.8. Nonlinear effects are observed for as few as 0.1 intracavity pump photons. A detailed semiclassical simulation of the atomic beam experiment gives reasonable agreement with the data for N̅≳2 atoms. The simulation procedure accounts for fluctuations in atom-field coupling which have important effects on both the linear and nonlinear probe transmission spectra. A discrepancy between the simulations and the experiments is observed for small numbers of atoms (N̅≲1). Unfortunately, it is difficult to determine if this discrepancy is a definitive consequence of the quantum nature of the atom-cavity coupling or a result of the severe technical complications of the experiment
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