3,959 research outputs found
A limit on the detectability of the energy scale of inflation
We show that the polarization of the cosmic microwave background can be used
to detect gravity waves from inflation if the energy scale of inflation is
above 3.2 times 10^15 GeV. These gravity waves generate polarization patterns
with a curl, whereas (to first order in perturbation theory) density
perturbations do not. The limiting ``noise'' arises from the second--order
generation of curl from density perturbations, or rather residuals from its
subtraction. We calculate optimal sky coverage and detectability limits as a
function of detector sensitivity and observing time.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, submitted to PR
Influence of Humidity on Ultraviolet Injury
High humidity enhances the injurious effect of ultraviolet radiation. This was demonstrated in experiments in which hairless mice were irradiated with Westinghouse FS-40-T-12 sunlamps while maintained in an environmental chamber allowing controlled conditions of relative humidity and temperature. Hairless mice given 10 MED (minimal erythemal dose) while maintained at 80% relative humidity had markedly greater exfoliation, crusting, and erosion of skin than did mice maintained at 5% and 10% relative humidity. Animals kept at 50% humidity had damage intermediate to those kept at high and low humidity. These morphologic observations were confirmed histologically.Additionally, water immersion enhances ultraviolet injury. Animals immersed in water for 6 hr prior to irradiation with 3 MED had more damage than animals irradiated but not immersed. Similarly, albino rabbits irradiated with 300 nm radiation from a xenon arc grating monochrometer had lower erythemal energy requirements on that part of their skin that had been hydrated with wet packs compared to nonhydrated skin
Thermal performance of two heat exchangers for thermoelectric generators
Thermal performance of heat exchanger is important for potential application in integrated solar cell/module and
thermoelectric generator (TEG) system. Usually, thermal performance of a heat exchanger for TEGs is analysed
by using a 1D heat conduction theory which ignores the detailed phenomena associated with thermo-hydraulics.
In this paper, thermal and mass transports in two different exchangers are simulated by means of a steady-state,
3D turbulent flow k -e model with a heat conduction module under various flow rates. In order to simulate an
actual working situation of the heat exchangers, hot block with an electric heater is included in the model. TEG
model is simplified by using a 1D heat conduction theory, so its thermal performance is equivalent to a real TEG.
Natural convection effect on the outside surfaces of the computational model is considered. Computational
models and methods used are validated under transient thermal and electrical experimental conditions of a TEG.
It is turned out that the two heat exchangers designed have a better thermal performance compared with an
existing heat exchanger for TEGs, and more importantly, the fin heat exchanger is more compact and has nearly
half temperature rise compared with the tube heat exchanger
A Method for Individual Source Brightness Estimation in Single- and Multi-band Data
We present a method of reliably extracting the flux of individual sources
from sky maps in the presence of noise and a source population in which number
counts are a steeply falling function of flux. The method is an extension of a
standard Bayesian procedure in the millimeter/submillimeter literature. As in
the standard method, the prior applied to source flux measurements is derived
from an estimate of the source counts as a function of flux, dN/dS. The key
feature of the new method is that it enables reliable extraction of properties
of individual sources, which previous methods in the literature do not. We
first present the method for extracting individual source fluxes from data in a
single observing band, then we extend the method to multiple bands, including
prior information about the spectral behavior of the source population(s). The
multi-band estimation technique is particularly relevant for classifying
individual sources into populations according to their spectral behavior. We
find that proper treatment of the correlated prior information between
observing bands is key to avoiding significant biases in estimations of
multi-band fluxes and spectral behavior, biases which lead to significant
numbers of misclassified sources. We test the single- and multi-band versions
of the method using simulated observations with observing parameters similar to
that of the South Pole Telescope data used in Vieira, et al. (2010).Comment: 11 emulateapj pages, 3 figures, revised to match published versio
Can inflationary models of cosmic perturbations evade the secondary oscillation test?
We consider the consequences of an observed Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB)
temperature anisotropy spectrum containing no secondary oscillations. While
such a spectrum is generally considered to be a robust signature of active
structure formation, we show that such a spectrum {\em can} be produced by
(very unusual) inflationary models or other passive evolution models. However,
we show that for all these passive models the characteristic oscillations would
show up in other observable spectra. Our work shows that when CMB polarization
and matter power spectra are taken into account secondary oscillations are
indeed a signature of even these very exotic passive models. We construct a
measure of the observability of secondary oscillations in a given experiment,
and show that even with foregrounds both the MAP and \pk satellites should be
able to distinguish between models with and without oscillations. Thus we
conclude that inflationary and other passive models can {\em not} evade the
secondary oscillation test.Comment: Final version accepted for publication in PRD. Minor improvements
have been made to the discussion and new data has been included. The
conclusions are unchagne
Assessing future drought risks and wheat yield losses in England
Acknowledgement: The authors acknowledge the Class Stiftung Foundation their financial support, Cambridge NIAB for solar radiation data, Cranfield Soil and Agrifood Institute for the soil characteristics data, AHDB for access to their Recommended List Trial yield data. We are grateful for access to the UK Meteorological Office MIDAS Land Surface Stations data (1853-current) from the British Atmospheric Data Centre (http://badc.nerc.ac.uk/data/ukmo-midas). Rothamsted Research receives grant-aided support from the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council through Designing Future Wheat [BB/P016855/1] and Achieving Sustainable Agricultural Systems [NE/N018125/1].Peer reviewedPublisher PD
The Detectability of Departures from the Inflationary Consistency Equation
We study the detectability, given CMB polarization maps, of departures from
the inflationary consistency equation, r \equiv T/S \simeq -5 n_T, where T and
S are the tensor and scalar contributions to the quadrupole variance,
respectively. The consistency equation holds if inflation is driven by a
slowly-rolling scalar field. Departures can be caused by: 1) higher-order terms
in the expansion in slow-roll parameters, 2) quantum loop corrections or 3)
multiple fields. Higher-order corrections in the first two slow-roll parameters
are undetectably small. Loop corrections are detectable if they are nearly
maximal and r \ga 0.1. Large departures (|\Delta n_T| \ga 0.1) can be seen if r
\ga 0.001. High angular resolution can be important for detecting non-zero
r+5n_T, even when not important for detecting non-zero r.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures, submitted to PR
Anisotropy in the Cosmic Microwave Background at Degree Angular Scales: Python V Results
Observations of the microwave sky using the Python telescope in its fifth
season of operation at the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station in Antarctica are
presented. The system consists of a 0.75 m off-axis telescope instrumented with
a HEMT amplifier-based radiometer having continuum sensitivity from 37-45 GHz
in two frequency bands. With a 0.91 deg x 1.02 deg beam the instrument fully
sampled 598 deg^2 of sky, including fields measured during the previous four
seasons of Python observations. Interpreting the observed fluctuations as
anisotropy in the cosmic microwave background, we place constraints on the
angular power spectrum of fluctuations in eight multipole bands up to l ~ 260.
The observed spectrum is consistent with both the COBE experiment and previous
Python results. There is no significant contamination from known foregrounds.
The results show a discernible rise in the angular power spectrum from large (l
~ 40) to small (l ~ 200) angular scales. The shape of the observed power
spectrum is not a simple linear rise but has a sharply increasing slope
starting at l ~ 150.Comment: 5 page
Hubble Space Telescope Observations of UV Oscillations in WZ Sagittae During the Decline from Outburst
We present a time series analysis of Hubble Space Telescope observations of
WZ Sge obtained in 2001 September, October, November and December as WZ Sge
declined from its 2001 July superoutburst. Previous analysis of these data
showed the temperature of the white dwarf decreased from ~29,000 K to ~18,000
K. In this study we binned the spectra over wavelength to yield ultraviolet
light curves at each epoch that were then analyzed for the presence of the
well-known 27.87 s and 28.96 s oscillations. We detect the 29 s periodicity at
all four epochs, but the 28 s periodicity is absent. The origin of these
oscillations has been debated since their discovery in the 1970s and competing
hypotheses are based on either white dwarf non-radial g-mode pulsations or
magnetically-channelled accretion onto a rotating white dwarf. By analogy with
the ZZ Ceti stars, we argue that the non-radial g-mode pulsation model demands
a strong dependence of pulse period on the white dwarf's temperature. However,
these observations show the 29 s oscillation is independent of the white
dwarf's temperature. Thus we reject the white dwarf non-radial g-mode pulsation
hypothesis as the sole origin of the oscillations. It remains unclear if
magnetically-funnelled accretion onto a rapidly rotating white dwarf (or belt
on the white dwarf) is responsible for producing the oscillations. We also
report the detection of a QPO with period ~18 s in the September light curve.
The amplitudes of the 29 s oscillation and the QPO vary erratically on short
timescales and are not correlated with the mean system brightness nor with each
other.Comment: 20 pages, 3 figures, 1 table; accepted for publication in Ap
Indoor characterization of a reflective type 3D LCPV system
This is the final version of the article. Available from AIP Publishing via the DOI in this record.Low concentrating photovoltaic (LCPV) systems produces higher electrical output per unit solar cell compared to typical PV systems. The high efficiency Si solar cells can be utilized with little design and manufacturing changes for these applications. However, a key barrier towards achieving economic viability and the widespread adoption of LCPV technologies is the losses related to high operating temperature. In the present study, we evaluate the performance 3D low concentration system designed for 3.6x, using a reflective Cross compound parabolic concentrator (CCPC) and a Laser Grooved Buried Contact solar cell having an area of 50â50mm 2 . Results demonstrate the losses occurring due to the temperature rise of the solar cell under concentration and we analyze the potential which could be utilized for low grade heating applications.The authors gratefully acknowledge financial support received from the EPSRC through Solar Challenge project
SUNTRAP (EP/K022156/1). We would also like to thank the Super Solar Hub for providing us with the travel grant
for this conference
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