181 research outputs found
Application of ERTS-1 imagery and underflight photography in the detection and monitoring of forest insect infections in the Sierra Nevada Mountains of California
The author has identified the following significant results. Analysis of ERTS-1 imagery with underflight aerial photo support including U-2, in the Sierra Nevada Mountains of California, indicates promising possibilities of detecting and monitoring forest insect outbreaks visually with some mechanical support utilizing the VP-8 image analyzer. Visually, it is possible at a scale of 1:1,000,000 to discriminate between large areas of damaged and undamaged forests; timbered and non-timbered areas; pasture land and cultivated fields; desert and riparian vegetation. At a scale of 1:80,000 it is possible to distinguish among three classes of tree mortality; defoliated and undefoliated areas; non-host mixed conifers; and mountain meadows, rock domes, lakes and glaciers. Machine tests showed significant differences in image densities among various bands and mortality areas
Precision measurement of light shifts in a single trapped Ba ion
Using a single trapped barium ion we have developed an rf spectroscopy
technique to measure the ratio of the off-resonant vector ac Stark effect (or
light shift) in the 6S_{1/2} and 5D_{3/2} states to 0.1% precision. We find R =
Delta_S / Delta_D = -11.494(13) at 514.531 nm where Delta_{S,D} are the light
shifts of the m = +/- 1/2 splittings due to circularly polarized light.
Comparison of this result with an ab initio calculation of R would yield a new
test of atomic theory. By appropriately choosing an off-resonant light shift
wavelength one can emphasize the contribution of one or a few dipole matrix
elements and precisely determine their values.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figures, in submission to PR
Universal de Sitter solutions at tree-level
Type IIA string theory compactified on SU(3)-structure manifolds with
orientifolds allows for classical de Sitter solutions in four dimensions. In
this paper we investigate these solutions from a ten-dimensional point of view.
In particular, we demonstrate that there exists an attractive class of de
Sitter solutions, whose geometry, fluxes and source terms can be entirely
written in terms of the universal forms that are defined on all SU(3)-structure
manifolds. These are the forms J and Omega, defining the SU(3)-structure
itself, and the torsion classes. The existence of such universal de Sitter
solutions is governed by easy-to-verify conditions on the SU(3)-structure,
rendering the problem of finding dS solutions purely geometrical. We point out
that the known (unstable) solution coming from the compactification on SU(2)x
SU(2) is of this kind.Comment: 20 pages, 3 figures, v2: added reference
Nonperturbative aspects of ABJM theory
Using the matrix model which calculates the exact free energy of ABJM theory
on S^3 we study non-perturbative effects in the large N expansion of this
model, i.e., in the genus expansion of type IIA string theory on AdS4xCP^3. We
propose a general prescription to extract spacetime instanton actions from
general matrix models, in terms of period integrals of the spectral curve, and
we use it to determine them explicitly in the ABJM matrix model, as exact
functions of the 't Hooft coupling. We confirm numerically that these
instantons control the asymptotic growth of the genus expansion. Furthermore,
we find that the dominant instanton action at strong coupling determined in
this way exactly matches the action of an Euclidean D2-brane instanton wrapping
RP^3.Comment: 26 pages, 14 figures. v2: small corrections, final version published
in JHE
Perturbing gauge/gravity duals by a Romans mass
We show how to produce algorithmically gravity solutions in massive IIA (as
infinitesimal first order perturbations in the Romans mass parameter) dual to
assigned conformal field theories. We illustrate the procedure on a family of
Chern--Simons--matter conformal field theories that we recently obtained from
the N=6 theory by waiving the condition that the levels sum up to zero.Comment: 30 page
Flux compactification on smooth, compact three-dimensional toric varieties
Three-dimensional smooth, compact toric varieties (SCTV), when viewed as real
six-dimensional manifolds, can admit G-structures rendering them suitable for
internal manifolds in supersymmetric flux compactifications. We develop
techniques which allow us to systematically construct G-structures on SCTV and
read off their torsion classes. We illustrate our methods with explicit
examples, one of which consists of an infinite class of toric CP^1 bundles. We
give a self-contained review of the relevant concepts from toric geometry, in
particular the subject of the classification of SCTV in dimensions less or
equal to 3. Our results open up the possibility for a systematic construction
and study of supersymmetric flux vacua based on SCTV.Comment: 27 pages, 10 figures; v2: references, minor typos & improvement
Nonabelian Phenomena on D-branes
A remarkable feature of D-branes is the appearance of a nonabelian gauge
theory in the description of several (nearly) coincident branes. This
nonabelian structure plays an important role in realizing various geometric
effects with D-branes. In particular, the branes' transverse displacements are
described by matrix-valued scalar fields and so noncommutative geometry
naturally appears in this framework. I review the action governing this
nonabelian theory, as well as various related physical phenomena such as the
dielectric effect, giant gravitons and fuzzy funnels.Comment: Lecture at Leuven workshop on ``The quantum structure of spacetime
and the geometrical nature of fundamental interactions'' (September 13-19,
2002); ref.'s adde
The effective theory of type IIA AdS4 compactifications on nilmanifolds and cosets
We consider string theory compactifications of the form AdS4 x M6 with
orientifold six-planes, where M6 is a six-dimensional compact space that is
either a nilmanifold or a coset. For all known solutions of this type we obtain
the four-dimensional N=1 low energy effective theory by computing the
superpotential, the Kaehler potential and the mass spectrum for the light
moduli. For the nilmanifold examples we perform a cross-check on the result for
the mass spectrum by calculating it alternatively from a direct Kaluza-Klein
reduction and find perfect agreement. We show that in all but one of the coset
models all moduli are stabilized at the classical level. As an application we
show that all but one of the coset models can potentially be used to bypass a
recent no-go theorem against inflation in type IIA theory.Comment: 47 pages main text, 28 pages appendix, 3 tables, 7 figures, v2: added
references, corrected typo
Standard Model tests with trapped radioactive atoms
We review the use of laser cooling and trapping for Standard Model tests,
focusing on trapping of radioactive isotopes. Experiments with neutral atoms
trapped with modern laser cooling techniques are testing several basic
predictions of electroweak unification. For nuclear decay, demonstrated
trap techniques include neutrino momentum measurements from beta-recoil
coincidences, along with methods to produce highly polarized samples. These
techniques have set the best general constraints on non-Standard Model scalar
interactions in the first generation of particles. They also have the promise
to test whether parity symmetry is maximally violated, to search for tensor
interactions, and to search for new sources of time reversal violation. There
are also possibilites for exotic particle searches. Measurements of the
strength of the weak neutral current can be assisted by precision atomic
experiments using traps of small numbers of radioactive atoms, and sensitivity
to possible time-reversal violating electric dipole moments can be improved.Comment: 45 pages, 17 figures, v3 includes clarifying referee comments,
especially in beta decay section, and updated figure
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