3,155 research outputs found
Dark solitons in laser radiation build-up dynamics
We reveal the existence of slowly-decaying dark solitons in the radiation
build-up dynamics of bright pulses in all-normal dispersion mode-locked fiber
lasers, numerically modeled in the framework of a generalized nonlinear
Schr\"odinger equation. The evolution of noise perturbations to
quasi-stationary dark solitons is examined, and the significance of background
shape and soliton-soliton collisions on the eventual soliton decay is
established. We demonstrate the role of a restoring force in extending soliton
interactions in conservative systems to include the effects of dissipation, as
encountered in laser cavities, and generalize our observations to other
nonlinear systems
Towards 'smart lasers': self-optimisation of an ultrafast pulse source using a genetic algorithm
Short-pulse fibre lasers are a complex dynamical system possessing a broad
space of operating states that can be accessed through control of cavity
parameters. Determination of target regimes is a multi-parameter global
optimisation problem. Here, we report the implementation of a genetic algorithm
to intelligently locate optimum parameters for stable single-pulse mode-locking
in a Figure-8 fibre laser, and fully automate the system turn-on procedure.
Stable ultrashort pulses are repeatably achieved by employing a compound
fitness function that monitors both temporal and spectral output properties of
the laser. Our method of encoding photonics expertise into an algorithm and
applying machine-learning principles paves the way to self-optimising `smart'
optical technologies
Genetic algorithm-based control of birefringent filtering for self-tuning, self-pulsing fiber lasers
Polarization-based filtering in fiber lasers is well-known to enable spectral
tunability and a wide range of dynamical operating states. This effect is
rarely exploited in practical systems, however, because optimization of cavity
parameters is non-trivial and evolves due to environmental sensitivity. Here,
we report a genetic algorithm-based approach, utilizing electronic control of
the cavity transfer function, to autonomously achieve broad wavelength tuning
and the generation of Q-switched pulses with variable repetition rate and
duration. The practicalities and limitations of simultaneous spectral and
temporal self-tuning from a simple fiber laser are discussed, paving the way to
on-demand laser properties through algorithmic control and machine learning
schemes.Comment: Accepted for Optics Letters, 12th June 201
Scale-invariance in gravity and implications for the cosmological constant
Recently a scale invariant theory of gravity was constructed by imposing a
conformal symmetry on general relativity. The imposition of this symmetry
changed the configuration space from superspace - the space of all Riemannian
3-metrics modulo diffeomorphisms - to conformal superspace - the space of all
Riemannian 3-metrics modulo diffeomorphisms and conformal transformations.
However, despite numerous attractive features, the theory suffers from at least
one major problem: the volume of the universe is no longer a dynamical
variable. In attempting to resolve this problem a new theory is found which has
several surprising and atractive features from both quantisation and
cosmological perspectives. Furthermore, it is an extremely restrictive theory
and thus may provide testable predictions quickly and easily. One particularly
interesting feature of the theory is the resolution of the cosmological
constant problem.Comment: Replaced with final version: minor changes to text; references adde
Scale-invariant gravity: Spacetime recovered
The configuration space of general relativity is superspace - the space of
all Riemannian 3-metrics modulo diffeomorphisms. However, it has been argued
that the configuration space for gravity should be conformal superspace - the
space of all Riemannian 3-metrics modulo diffeomorphisms and conformal
transformations. Recently a manifestly 3-dimensional theory was constructed
with conformal superspace as the configuration space. Here a fully
4-dimensional action is constructed so as to be invariant under conformal
transformations of the 4-metric using general relativity as a guide. This
action is then decomposed to a (3+1)-dimensional form and from this to its
Jacobi form. The surprising thing is that the new theory turns out to be
precisely the original 3-dimensional theory. The physical data is identified
and used to find the physical representation of the theory. In this
representation the theory is extremely similar to general relativity. The
clarity of the 4-dimensional picture should prove very useful for comparing the
theory with those aspects of general relativity which are usually treated in
the 4-dimensional framework.Comment: Replaced with final version: minor changes to tex
Beef Cattle Instance Segmentation Using Fully Convolutional Neural Network
In this paper we present a novel instance segmentation algorithm that extends a fully convolutional network to learn to label objects separately without prediction of regions of interest. We trained the new algorithm on a challenging CCTV recording of beef cattle, as well as benchmark MS COCO and Pascal VOC datasets. Extensive experimentation showed that our approach outperforms the state-of-the-art solutions by up to 8% on our data
The physical gravitational degrees of freedom
When constructing general relativity (GR), Einstein required 4D general
covariance. In contrast, we derive GR (in the compact, without boundary case)
as a theory of evolving 3-dimensional conformal Riemannian geometries obtained
by imposing two general principles: 1) time is derived from change; 2) motion
and size are relative. We write down an explicit action based on them. We
obtain not only GR in the CMC gauge, in its Hamiltonian 3 + 1 reformulation but
also all the equations used in York's conformal technique for solving the
initial-value problem. This shows that the independent gravitational degrees of
freedom obtained by York do not arise from a gauge fixing but from hitherto
unrecognized fundamental symmetry principles. They can therefore be identified
as the long-sought Hamiltonian physical gravitational degrees of freedom.Comment: Replaced with published version (minor changes and added references
Bootstrapping Labelled Dataset Construction for Cow Tracking and Behavior Analysis
This paper introduces a new approach to the long-term tracking of an object in a challenging environment. The object is a cow and the environment is an enclosure in a cowshed. Some of the key challenges in this domain are a cluttered background, low contrast and high similarity between moving objects - which greatly reduces the efficiency of most existing approaches, including those based on background subtraction. Our approach is split into object localization, instance segmentation, learning and tracking stages. Our solution is benchmarked against a range of semi-supervised object tracking algorithms and we show that the performance is strong and well suited to subsequent analysis. We present our solution as a first step towards broader tracking and behavior monitoring for cows in precision agriculture with the ultimate objective of early detection of lameness
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