3,556 research outputs found
Expanding e-MERLIN with the Goonhilly Earth Station
A consortium of universities has recently been formed with the goal of using
the decommissioned telecommunications infrastructure at the Goonhilly Earth
Station in Cornwall, UK, for astronomical purposes. One particular goal is the
introduction of one or more of the ~30-metre parabolic antennas into the
existing e-MERLIN radio interferometer. This article introduces this scheme and
presents some simulations which quantify the improvements that would be brought
to the e-MERLIN system. These include an approximate doubling of the spatial
resolution of the array, an increase in its N-S extent with strong implications
for imaging the most well-studied equatorial fields, accessible to ESO
facilities including ALMA. It also increases the overlap between the e-MERLIN
array and the European VLBI Network. We also discuss briefly some niche science
areas in which an e-MERLIN array which included a receptor at Goonhilly would
be potentially world-leading, in addition to enhancing the existing potential
of e-MERLIN in its role as a Square Kilometer Array pathfinder instrument.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figures, to appear in the proceedings of "Astronomy with
megastructures: Joint science with the E-ELT and SKA", 10-14 May 2010, Crete,
Greece (Eds: Isobel Hook, Dimitra Rigopoulou, Steve Rawlings and Aris
Karastergiou
Goonhilly: a new site for e-MERLIN and the EVN
The benefits for the e-MERLIN and EVN arrays of using antennae at the
satellite communication station at Goonhilly in Cornwall are discussed. The
location of this site - new to astronomy - will provide an almost equal
distribution of long baselines in the east-west- and north-south directions,
and opens up the possibility to get significantly improved observations of
equatorial fields with e-MERLIN. These additional baselines will improve the
sensitivity on a set of critical spatial scales and will increase the angular
resolution of e-MERLIN by a factor of two. e-MERLIN observations, including
many allocated under the e-MERLIN Legacy programme, will benefit from the
enhanced angular resolution and imaging capability especially for sources close
to or below the celestial equator (where ESO facilities such as ALMA will
operate) of including the Goonhilly telescopes. Furthermore, the baselines
formed between Goonhilly and the existing stations will close the gap between
the baselines of e-MERLIN and those of the European VLBI Network (EVN) and
therefore enhance the legacy value of e-MERLIN datasets.Comment: 10 pages, 2 figue
Polynomial super-gl(n) algebras
We introduce a class of finite dimensional nonlinear superalgebras providing gradings of . Odd generators close by anticommutation on polynomials (of
degree ) in the generators. Specifically, we investigate `type I'
super- algebras, having odd generators transforming in a single
irreducible representation of together with its contragredient.
Admissible structure constants are discussed in terms of available
couplings, and various special cases and candidate superalgebras are identified
and exemplified via concrete oscillator constructions. For the case of the
-dimensional defining representation, with odd generators , and even generators , , a three
parameter family of quadratic super- algebras (deformations of
) is defined. In general, additional covariant Serre-type conditions
are imposed, in order that the Jacobi identities be fulfilled. For these
quadratic super- algebras, the construction of Kac modules, and
conditions for atypicality, are briefly considered. Applications in quantum
field theory, including Hamiltonian lattice QCD and space-time supersymmetry,
are discussed.Comment: 31 pages, LaTeX, including minor corrections to equation (3) and
reference [60
Lyapunov exponent and natural invariant density determination of chaotic maps: An iterative maximum entropy ansatz
We apply the maximum entropy principle to construct the natural invariant
density and Lyapunov exponent of one-dimensional chaotic maps. Using a novel
function reconstruction technique that is based on the solution of Hausdorff
moment problem via maximizing Shannon entropy, we estimate the invariant
density and the Lyapunov exponent of nonlinear maps in one-dimension from a
knowledge of finite number of moments. The accuracy and the stability of the
algorithm are illustrated by comparing our results to a number of nonlinear
maps for which the exact analytical results are available. Furthermore, we also
consider a very complex example for which no exact analytical result for
invariant density is available. A comparison of our results to those available
in the literature is also discussed.Comment: 16 pages including 6 figure
Sharks of the order Carcharhiniformes from the British Coniacian, Santonian and Campanian (Upper Cretaceous).
Bulk sampling of phosphate-rich horizons within the British Coniacian to Campanian (Upper Cretaceous) yielded very large samples of shark and ray teeth. All of these samples yielded teeth of diverse members of the Carcharhiniformes, which commonly dominate the fauna. The following species are recorded and described: Pseudoscyliorhinus reussi (Herman, 1977) comb. nov., Crassescyliorhinus germanicus (Herman, 1982) gen. nov., Scyliorhinus elongatus (Davis, 1887), Scyliorhinus brumarivulensis sp. nov., ? Palaeoscyllium sp., Prohaploblepharus riegrafi (MĂźller, 1989) gen. nov., ? Cretascyliorhinus sp., Scyliorhinidae inc. sedis 1, Scyliorhinidae inc. sedis 2, Pteroscyllium hermani sp. nov., Protoscyliorhinus sp., Leptocharias cretaceus sp. nov., Palaeogaleus havreensis Herman, 1977, Paratriakis subserratus sp. nov., Paratriakis tenuis sp. nov., Paratriakis sp. indet. and ? Loxodon sp. Taxa belonging to the families ?Proscylliidae, Leptochariidae, and Carcharhinidae are described from the Cretaceous for the first time. The evolutionary and palaeoecological implications of these newly recognised faunas are discussed
Some entanglement features of three-atoms Tavis-Cummings model: Cooperative case
In this paper we consider a system of identical three two-level atoms
interacting at resonance with a single-mode of the quantized field in a
lossless cavity. The initial cavity field is prepared in the coherent state
while the atoms are taken initially to be either in the uppermost excited state
"" or The -state or the -state. For this
system we investigate different kinds of atomic inversion and entanglement,
which arise between the different parts of the system due to the interaction.
Also the relationship, between entanglement and some other nonclassical effects
in the statistical properties, such as collapses and revivals in the atomic
inversion where superharmonic effects appear, is discussed. The -functions
for different cases are discussed. Most remarkably it is found that the
-state is more robust against energy losses, showing almost
coherent trapping and Schr\"odinger-cat states can not be produced from such
state. Also the entanglement of -state is more robust than the
-state. Another interesting feature found is that the state which
has no pairwise entanglement initially will have a much improvement of such
pairwise entanglement through the evolution. Sudden death and sudden revival of
atoms-pairwise entanglement are produced with the -state.Comment: 14 pages, 7 figure
Covariant scalar representation of quantization of the scalar relativistic particle
A covariant scalar representation of is constructed and
analysed in comparison with existing methods for the quantization of the scalar
relativistic particle. It is found that, with appropriately defined
wavefunctions, this produced representation can be identified
with the state space arising from the canonical BFV-BRST quantization of the
modular invariant, unoriented scalar particle (or antiparticle) with admissible
gauge fixing conditions. For this model, the cohomological determination of
physical states can thus be obtained purely from the representation theory of
the algebra.Comment: 16 pages Late
The contribution of discrete sources to the sky temperature at 144 MHz
This paper is part of the 1st data release of the LoTSS Deep Fields. Š 2020 The European Southern Observatory (ESO)In recent years, the level of the extragalactic radio background has become a point of considerable interest, with some lines of argument pointing to an entirely new cosmological synchrotron background. The contribution of the known discrete source population to the sky temperature is key to this discussion. Because of the steep spectral index of the excess over the cosmic microwave background, it is best studied at low frequencies where the signal is strongest. The Low-Frequency Array (LOFAR) wide and deep sky surveys give us the best constraints yet on the contribution of discrete extragalactic sources at 144 MHz, and in particular allow us to include contributions from diffuse, low-surface-brightness emission that could not be fully accounted for in previous work. We show that, even with these new data, known sources can still only account for around a quarter of the estimated extragalactic sky temperature at LOFAR frequencies.Peer reviewedFinal Accepted Versio
Use of an Outbred Rat Hepacivirus Challenge Model for Design and Evaluation of Efficacy of Different Immunization Strategies for Hepatitis C Virus
BACKGROUND AND AIMS: The lack of immunocompetent small animal models for hepatitis C virus (HCV) has greatly hindered the development of effective vaccines. Using rodent hepacivirus (RHV), a homolog of HCV that shares many characteristics of HCV infection, we report the development and application of an RHV outbred rat model for HCV vaccine development. APPROACH AND RESULTS: Simian adenovirus (ChAdOx1) encoding a genetic immune enhancer (truncated shark class II invariant chain) fused to the nonstructural (NS) proteins NS3-NS5B from RHV (ChAd-NS) was used to vaccinate Sprague-Dawley rats, resulting in high levels of cluster of differentiation 8-positive (CD8+ ) T-cell responses. Following RHV challenge (using 10 or 100 times the minimum infectious dose), 42% of vaccinated rats cleared infection within 6-8 weeks, while all mock vaccinated controls became infected with high-level viremia postchallenge. A single, 7-fold higher dose of ChAd-NS increased efficacy to 67%. Boosting with ChAd-NS or with a plasmid encoding the same NS3-NS5B antigens increased efficacy to 100% and 83%, respectively. A ChAdOx1 vector encoding structural antigens (ChAd-S) was also constructed. ChAd-S alone showed no efficacy. Strikingly, when combined with ChAd-NS, ChAD-S produced 83% efficacy. Protection was associated with a strong CD8+ interferon gamma-positive recall response against NS4. Next-generation sequencing of a putative RHV escape mutant in a vaccinated rat identified mutations in both identified immunodominant CD8+ T-cell epitopes. CONCLUSIONS: A simian adenovirus vector vaccine strategy is effective at inducing complete protective immunity in the rat RHV model. The RHV Sprague-Dawley rat challenge model enables comparative testing of vaccine platforms and antigens and identification of correlates of protection and thereby provides a small animal experimental framework to guide the development of an effective vaccine for HCV in humans
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