Methanol as a tracer of fundamental constants

The methanol molecule CH3OH has a complex microwave spectrum with a large number of very strong lines. This spectrum includes purely rotational transitions as well as transitions with contributions of the internal degree of freedom associated with the hindered rotation of the OH group. The latter takes place due to the tunneling of hydrogen through the potential barriers between three equivalent potential minima. Such transitions are highly sensitive to changes in the electron-to-proton mass ratio, mu = m_e/m_p, and have different responses to mu-variations. The highest sensitivity is found for the mixed rotation-tunneling transitions at low frequencies. Observing methanol lines provides more stringent limits on the hypothetical variation of mu than ammonia observation with the same velocity resolution. We show that the best quality radio astronomical data on methanol maser lines constrain the variability of mu in the Milky Way at the level of |Delta mu/mu| < 28x10^{-9} (1sigma) which is in line with the previously obtained ammonia result, |Delta mu/mu| < 29x10^{-9} (1\sigma). This estimate can be further improved if the rest frequencies of the CH3OH microwave lines will be measured more accurately.Comment: 7 pages, 1 table, 1 figure. Accepted for publication in Ap

Correlations of two photons at hadron colliders

We study the Bose-Einstein correlations of two photons and their coherent properties that can provide the information about the space-time structure of the emitting source through the Higgs-boson decays into two photons. We argue that such an investigation could probe the Higgs-boson mass. The model is rather sensitive to the temperature of the environment and to the external distortion effect in medium.Comment: 10 pages, 1 figur

Transport properties of a 3D topological insulator based on a strained high mobility HgTe film

We investigated the magnetotransport properties of strained, 80nm thick HgTe layers featuring a high mobility of mu =4x10^5 cm^2/Vs. By means of a top gate the Fermi-energy is tuned from the valence band through the Dirac type surface states into the conduction band. Magnetotransport measurements allow to disentangle the different contributions of conduction band electrons, holes and Dirac electrons to the conductivity. The results are are in line with previous claims that strained HgTe is a topological insulator with a bulk gap of ~15meV and gapless surface states.Comment: 11 pages (4 pages of main text, 6 pages of supplemental materials), 8 figure

Electric dipole moment enhancement factor of thallium

The goal of this work is to resolve the present controversy in the value of the EDM enhancement factor of Tl. We have carried out several calculations by different high-precision methods, studied previously omitted corrections, as well as tested our methodology on other parity conserving quantities. We find the EDM enhancement factor of Tl to be equal to -573(20). This value is 20% larger than the recently published result of Nataraj et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 106, 200403 (2011)], but agrees very well with several earlier results.Comment: 5 pages; v2: link to supplemental material adde

Trailing Edge Noise Reduction by Passive and Active Flow Controls

This paper presents the results on the use of porous metal foams (passive control) and dielectric barrier surface plasma actuations (active control) for the reduction of vortex shedding tonal noises from the nonflat plate type trailing edge serration in a NACA0012 airfoil previously discussed in Chong et al. (AIAA J. Vol. 51, 2013, pp. 2665-2677). The use of porous metal foams to fill the interstices between adjacent members of the sawtooth can almost completely suppress the vortex shedding tonal noise, whilst the serration effect on the broadband noise reduction is retained. This concept will promote the nonflat plate type serrated trailing edge to become a genuine alternative to the conventional flat plate type serrated trailing edge, which is known to have drawbacks in the structural stability, aerodynamic performances and implementation issues. For the plasma actuators, configuration which produces electric wind in a tangential direction is found to be not very effective in suppressing the vortices emanated from the serration blunt root. On the other hand, for the plasma configuration which produces electric wind in a vertical direction, good level of vortex shedding tonal noise reduction has been demonstrated. However, the self noise produced by the plasma actuators negates the noise benefits on the tonal noise reduction. This characteristic illustrates the need to further develop the plasma actuators in a two pronged approach. First is to increase the electric wind speed, thereby allowing the plasma actuators to be used in a higher free jet velocity which naturally produces a larger level of jet noise. Second, the self noise radiated by the plasma actuators should be reduced

Energy Dependence of Scattering Ground State Polar Molecules

We explore the total cross section of ground state polar molecules in an electric field at various energies, focusing on RbCs and RbK. An external electric field polarizes the molecules and induces strong dipolar interactions leading to non-zero partial waves contributing to the scattering even as the collision energy goes to zero. This results in the need to compute scattering problems with many different values of total M to converge the total cross section. An accurate and efficient approximate total cross section is introduced and used to study the low field temperature dependence. To understand the scattering of the polar molecules we compare a semi-classical cross section with quantum unitarity limit. This comparison leads to the ability to characterize the scattering based on the value of the electric field and the collision energy.Comment: Accepted PRA, 10 pages, 5 figure