801 research outputs found
Early Spring Surface Runoff from Grassland and Arable Land
Surface runoff is regarded as an undesirable phenomenon because it deprives plants and soil of precipitation water and reduces its penetration underground. It is also the cause erosion and flooding. The occurrence and depth of a frozen soil layer is the main factor which determines the amount of surface runoff in winter. A well-developed surface and/or sub-surface layer of frozen soil is practically impenetrable for water. This layer results from ice-forming processes, which are influenced by snow melting due to diurnal fluctuations in temperature in early spring, partial thaws, winter rainfalls, and thermocapillary processes taking place in frozen soil
Coherence dynamics and quantum-to-classical crossover in an exciton-cavity system in the quantum strong coupling regime
Interaction between light and matter generates optical nonlinearities, which are particularly pronounced in the quantum strong coupling regime. When a single bosonic mode couples to a single fermionic mode, a Jaynes-Cummings (JC) ladder is formed, which we realize here using cavity photons and quantum dot excitons. We measure and model the coherent anharmonic response of this strongly coupled exciton-cavity system at resonance. Injecting two photons into the cavity, we demonstrate a root 2 larger polariton splitting with respect to the vacuum Rabi splitting. This is achieved using coherent nonlinear spectroscopy, specifically four-wave mixing, where the coherence between the ground state and the first (second) rung of the JC ladder can be interrogated for positive (negative) delays. With increasing excitation intensity and thus rising average number of injected photons, we observe spectral signatures of the quantum-to-classical crossover of the strong coupling regime.Peer reviewe
Physical processes in the plasma mantle of Venus
Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/94598/1/grl5690.pd
Laboratory Simulations of the Titan Surface to Elucidate the Huygens Probe GCMS Observations
The Cassini/Huygens mission has vastly increased the information we have available to stndy Satnro's moon Titan. The complete mission has included an array of observational methods including remote sensing techniques, upper atmosphere in-situ saropling, and the descent of the Huygens probe directly through the atmosphere to the surface [1,2]. The instruments on the Huygens probe remain the ouly source of in-situ measurements at the surface of Titan, and work evaluating these measurements to create a pict.rre of the surface environment is ongoing. In particular, the Gas Chromatograph Mass Spectrometer (GCMS) experiment on Huygens found that although there were no heavy hydrocarbons detected in the lower atmosphere, a rich spectrum of mass peaks arose once the probe landed on the surface [3,4], However, to date it has not been possible to extract the identity and abundances of the many minor components of the spectra due to a lack of temperatnre- and instrumentappropriate data for the relevant species. We are performing laboratory stndies designed to elucidate the spectrum collected on Titan's surface, utilizing a cryogenic charober maintained at appropriate temperature and pressure conditions. The experiments will simulate the temperatnre rise experienced by the surface, which led to an enhanced signal of volatiles detected by the Huygens GCMS. The objective of this study is to exaroine the characteristics of various surface analogs as measured by the Huygens GCMS flight spare instrument, which is currently housed in our laboratory at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC). This identification cannot be adequately accomplished through theoretical work alone since the thermodynamic properties of many species at these temperatnres (94 K, HASI measurement [5]) are not known
Superfluid phase transition and strong-coupling effects in an ultracold Fermi gas with mass imbalance
We investigate the superfluid phase transition and effects of mass imbalance
in the BCS (Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer)-BEC (Bose-Einstein condensation)
crossover regime of an cold Fermi gas. We point out that the Gaussian
fluctuation theory developed by Nozi\`eres and Schmitt-Rink and the -matrix
theory, that are now widely used to study strong-coupling physics of cold Fermi
gases, give unphysical results in the presence of mass imbalance. To overcome
this problem, we extend the -matrix theory to include higher-order pairing
fluctuations. Using this, we examine how the mass imbalance affects the
superfluid phase transition. Since the mass imbalance is an important key in
various Fermi superfluids, such as K-Li Fermi gas mixture, exciton
condensate, and color superconductivity in a dense quark matter, our results
would be useful for the study of these recently developing superfluid systems.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures, Proceedings of QFS-201
A highly stable atomic vector magnetometer based on free spin precession
We present a magnetometer based on optically pumped Cs atoms that measures
the magnitude and direction of a 1 T magnetic field. Multiple circularly
polarized laser beams were used to probe the free spin precession of the Cs
atoms. The design was optimized for long-time stability and achieves a scalar
resolution better than 300 fT for integration times ranging from 80 ms to 1000
s. The best scalar resolution of less than 80 fT was reached with integration
times of 1.6 to 6 s. We were able to measure the magnetic field direction with
a resolution better than 10 rad for integration times from 10 s up to 2000
s
Constraining interactions mediated by axion-like particles with ultracold neutrons
We report a new limit on a possible short range spin-dependent interaction
from the precise measurement of the ratio of Larmor precession frequencies of
stored ultracold neutrons and Hg atoms confined in the same volume. The
measurement was performed in a 1 T vertical magnetic holding field
with the apparatus searching for a permanent electric dipole moment of the
neutron at the Paul Scherrer Institute. A possible coupling between freely
precessing polarized neutron spins and unpolarized nucleons of the wall
material can be investigated by searching for a tiny change of the precession
frequencies of neutron and mercury spins. Such a frequency change can be
interpreted as a consequence of a short range spin-dependent interaction that
could possibly be mediated by axions or axion-like particles. The interaction
strength is proportional to the CP violating product of scalar and pseudoscalar
coupling constants . Our result confirms limits from complementary
experiments with spin-polarized nuclei in a model-independent way. Limits from
other neutron experiments are improved by up to two orders of magnitude in the
interaction range of m
The Composition of Titan's Lower Atmosphere and Simple Surface Volatiles as Measured by the Cassini-Huygens Probe Gas Chromatograph Mass Spectrometer Experiment
The Cassini-Huygens Probe Gas Chromatograph Mass Spectrometer (GCMS) determined the composition of the Titan atmosphere from ~140km altitude to the surface. After landing, it returned composition data of gases evaporated from the surface. Height profiles of molecular nitrogen (N2), methane (CH4) and molecular hydrogen (H2) were determined. Traces were detected on the surface of evaporating methane, ethane (C2H6), acetylene (C2H2), cyanogen (C2N2) and carbon dioxide (CO2). The methane data showed evidence that methane precipitation occurred recently. The methane mole fraction was (1.48+/-0.09) x 10(exp -2) in the lower stratosphere (139.8 km to 75.5 km) and (5.65+/-0.18) x 10(exp -2) near the surface (6.7 km to the surface). The molecular hydrogen mole fraction was (1.01+/-0.16) x 10(exp -3) in the atmosphere and (9.90+/-0.17) x 10(exp -4) on the surface. Isotope ratios were 167.7+/-0.6 for N-14/N-15 in molecular nitrogen, 91.1+/-1.4 for C-12/C-13 in methane and (1.35+/-0.30) x 10(exp -4) for D/H in molecular hydrogen. The mole fractions of Ar-36 and radiogenic Ar-40 are (2.1+/-0.8) x 10(exp -7) and (3.39 +/-0.12) x 10(exp -5) respectively. Ne-22 has been tentatively identified at a mole fraction of (2.8+/-2.1) x 10(exp -7) Krypton and xenon were below the detection threshold of 1 x 10(exp -8) mole fraction. Science data were not retrieved from the gas chromatograph subsystem as the abundance of the organic trace gases in the atmosphere and on the ground did not reach the detection threshold. Results previously published from the GCMS experiment are superseded by this publication
Exciton Condensation and Perfect Coulomb Drag
Coulomb drag is a process whereby the repulsive interactions between
electrons in spatially separated conductors enable a current flowing in one of
the conductors to induce a voltage drop in the other. If the second conductor
is part of a closed circuit, a net current will flow in that circuit. The drag
current is typically much smaller than the drive current owing to the heavy
screening of the Coulomb interaction. There are, however, rare situations in
which strong electronic correlations exist between the two conductors. For
example, bilayer two-dimensional electron systems can support an exciton
condensate consisting of electrons in one layer tightly bound to holes in the
other. One thus expects "perfect" drag; a transport current of electrons driven
through one layer is accompanied by an equal one of holes in the other. (The
electrical currents are therefore opposite in sign.) Here we demonstrate just
this effect, taking care to ensure that the electron-hole pairs dominate the
transport and that tunneling of charge between the layers is negligible.Comment: 12 pages, 4 figure
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