Statistical PT-symmetric lasing in an optical fiber network

PT-symmetry in optics is a condition whereby the real and imaginary parts of the refractive index across a photonic structure are deliberately balanced. This balance can lead to a host of novel optical phenomena, such as unidirectional invisibility, loss-induced lasing, single-mode lasing from multimode resonators, and non-reciprocal effects in conjunction with nonlinearities. Because PT-symmetry has been thought of as fragile, experimental realizations to date have been usually restricted to on-chip micro-devices. Here, we demonstrate that certain features of PT-symmetry are sufficiently robust to survive the statistical fluctuations associated with a macroscopic optical cavity. We construct optical-fiber-based coupled-cavities in excess of a kilometer in length (the free spectral range is less than 0.8 fm) with balanced gain and loss in two sub-cavities and examine the lasing dynamics. In such a macroscopic system, fluctuations can lead to a cavity-detuning exceeding the free spectral range. Nevertheless, by varying the gain-loss contrast, we observe that both the lasing threshold and the growth of the laser power follow the predicted behavior of a stable PT-symmetric structure. Furthermore, a statistical symmetry-breaking point is observed upon varying the cavity loss. These findings indicate that PT-symmetry is a more robust optical phenomenon than previously expected, and points to potential applications in optical fiber networks and fiber lasers.Comment: Submitted to Nature Communications, Pages 1-19: Main manuscript; Pages 20-38: Supplementary material

Synthesis of Triazolo and Pyrazolo Derivatives of Quinoline Nucleus

New heterocyclic derivatives of quinoline are reported. Reaction of quinoline-2-thiol 4 with hydrazine hydrate gave 2-hydrazionoquinoline 5. Treatment of  5 with CS2 in pyridine afforded 1,2,4-triazolo-[4,3-a]-quinolin-1-2H-thione 6, whereas the reaction of 5 with carboxylic acids namely formic acid or acetic acid, yielded the 1,2,4-triazol-[4,3-a]-quinolin 7 or 5-methyl-1,2,4-triazolo [4,3-a]-quinoline 8 through ring closure. Diazotization of 5 under acidic conditions produced the fused tetrazole compound 9, tetrzolo-[1,5-a]-quinoline. Moreover, treatment of 5 with active methlyene compounds gave two pyrazole derivatives 10 and 11. Azomethines 12a-e were prepared through condensation of 5 with aromatic aldehydes or ketones. Keyword: triazoloquinoline, tetrazoloquinoline, pyrazoloquinolines, azomethines.

Effect of Interaction between Bridge Piers on Local Scouring in Cohesive Soils

Local scour at the piers is one of the main reasons of bridge foundation undermining. Earlier research studies focused mainly on the scour at a single bridge pier; nevertheless, modern designs of the bridges comprise wide-span and thus group of piers rather than a single pier are usually used to support the superstructure. The flow and scour pattern around group of piers is different from the case of a single pier due to the interaction effect. Reviewing the literature of local scour around bridge piers group revealed that the local scour around bridge piers group founded in cohesive soil bed was not investigated, and most of the scour studies were related to scour in cohesionless soils. The objective of the present study is to investigate the effect of the interaction between two in-line (tandem) circular bridge piers of variable spacings founded in cohesive soil on the local scour. A set of laboratory flume experiments were conducted under the clear-water scour condition to investigate this effect. This study is the first that investigates experimentally the scour around group of bridge piers in cohesive bed. It was found that the maximum scour depth at the upstream pier of the two in-line piers occurred at a spacing of two times the diameter of the pier, scour at the downstream pier was reduced due to a sheltering effect, the interference effect will be reduced for pier spacings larger than three times of the pier diameter. A recent pier scour equation was used to estimate the scour depths at the two in-line piers in cohesive soil and compare the estimated value with the measured scour depths in the laboratory. The comparison indicated that the proposed scour equation overestimates the scour depths at both the upstream and the downstream pier

Monte Carlo Performance Studies of Candidate Sites for the Cherenkov Telescope Array

The Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) is the next-generation gamma-ray observatory with sensitivity in the energy range from 20 GeV to beyond 300 TeV. CTA is proposed to consist of two arrays of 40-100 imaging atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes, with one site located in each of the Northern and Southern Hemispheres. The evaluation process for the candidate sites for CTA is supported by detailed Monte Carlo simulations, which take different attributes like site altitude and geomagnetic field configuration into account. In this contribution we present the comparison of the sensitivity and performance of the different CTA site candidates for the measurement of very-high energy gamma rays.Comment: In Proceedings of the 34th International Cosmic Ray Conference (ICRC2015), The Hague, The Netherlands. All CTA contributions at arXiv:1508.0589

The Growth Of Highly Doped p-GaN On Sapphire By RF Plasma-Assisted Molecular Beam Epitaxy.

In this paper, we present the study of the electrical, structural and optical properties of p-type GaN grown on sapphire by RF plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy (RF-MBE)

A UK-Wide Survey of Life-Threatening Thyroidectomy Complications

Background and Aims. Complications following thyroidectomy can prolong hospital stay and cause significant morbidity particularly for patients treated for benign thyroid conditions. Our aim was to administer a UK-wide survey of thyroid surgery units on frequency and timing of the onset of life-threatening airway complications & correlate to factors that might be associated with them. Methods. A questionnaire including the number of and timing of the onset of life-threatening airway complications, number of thyroidectomy procedures performed per year, surgeon years of experience, the use of difficult airway management protocol, post-operative patient destination, and patient deaths, was sent to 80 UK surgical units. Results. 23/41 hospitals responded reported no postthyroidectomy airway complications. Life-threatening airways complications all occurred within the first 12 hours postoperatively, with 9 cases occurring in the recovery room and in less than 2 hours, 3 cases occurring 2–6 hours, and 3 cases occurring 6 to 12 hours after surgery. Conclusion. The results may support recent publications that advocate thyroidectomy as a less-than-24-hour surgery procedure in selected patients. Further a larger study and standardised protocol are required to establish patients' selection criteria to determine who are likely to develop serious postoperative complication and may require HDU bed

Effects Of Thermal Annealing Of Pt Schottky Contacts On n-GaN.

In this paper, the Schottky behavior of Pt contact on n- GaN grown by RF-plasma assisted molecular beam epitaxy was investigated under different annealing temperatures

Analysis of generalized negative binomial distributions attached to hyperbolic Landau levels

To each hyperbolic Landau level of the Poincar\'e disc is attached a generalized negative binomial distribution. In this paper, we compute the moment generating function of this distribution and supply its decomposition as a perturbation of the negative binomial distribution by a finitely-supported measure. Using the Mandel parameter, we also discuss the nonclassical nature of the associated coherent states. Next, we determine the L\'evy-Kintchine decomposition its characteristic function when the latter does not vanish and deduce that it is quasi-infinitely divisible except for the lowest hyperbolic Landau level corresponding to the negative binomial distribution. By considering the total variation of the obtained quasi-L\'evy measure, we introduce a new infinitely-divisible distribution for which we derive the characteristic function

Collective character of spin excitations in a system of Mn2+^{2+} spins coupled to a two-dimensional electron gas

We have studied the low energy spin excitations in n-type CdMnTe based dilute magnetic semiconductor quantum wells. For magnetic fields for which the energies for the excitation of free carriers and Mn spins are almost identical an anomalously large Knight shift is observed. Our findings suggests the existence of a magnetic field induced ferromagnetic order in these structures, which is in agreement with recent theoretical predictions [J. K{\"o}nig and A. H. MacDonald, submitted Phys. Rev. Lett. (2002)]Comment: 4 figure

Microbial biomass, nutrient availability and nutrient uptake by wheat in two soils with organic amendments

A 72-day greenhouse pot experiment was conducted with a sandy loam or a silt loam soil to examine the effects of farmyard manure (FYM), poultry litter (PL) and biogenic waste compost (BWC) at 10 g dw kg-1 soil on microbial biomass and activity and growth and nutrient uptake by wheat. Soil samples were collected at days 0, 14, 28, 42, 56 and 72 after planting. Growth and nutrient uptake by wheat were determined on day 72. All three amendments increased microbial biomass C, N and P, dehydrogenase activity, plant growth and nutrient uptake with a greater effect by FYM and PL than by BWC. All amendments increased microbial biomass C, N and P and enzyme activity particularly on day 0. These microbial parameters decreased after day 0 indicating microbial biomass turnover. All amendments increased plant growth and nutrient uptake. It is concluded that organicamendments can stimulate microbial growth and nutrient uptake as well as plant growth and nutrient uptake. Microbes can increase plant nutrient availability by nutrient mobilisation but also because nutrients taken up by the microbial biomass initially could become available to plants when the microbial biomass turns over as the easily available C is depleted.M.A. Malik, K.S. Khan, P. Marschner, Fayyaz-ul-Hassa