Exohedral Physisorption of Ambient Moisture Scales Non-monotonically with Fiber Proximity in Aligned Carbon Nanotube Arrays

Here we present a study on the presence of physisorbed water on the surface of aligned carbon nanotubes (CNTs) in ambient conditions, where the wet CNT array mass can be more than 200% larger than that of dry CNTs, and modeling indicates that a water layer >5 nm thick can be present on the outer CNT surface. The experimentally observed nonlinear and non-monotonic dependence of the mass of adsorbed water on the CNT packing (volume fraction) originates from two competing modes. Physisorbed water cannot be neglected in the design and fabrication of materials and devices using nanowires/nanofibers, especially CNTs, and further experimental and ab initio studies on the influence of defects on the surface energies of CNTs, and nanowires/nanofibers in general, are necessary to understand the underlying physics and chemistry that govern this system.National Science Foundation (U.S.) (NSF Grant No. CMMI-1130437)National Science Foundation (U.S.) (NSF Award Number ECS-0335765)United States. Army Research Office (contract W911NF-07-D-0004

Characterization of Silicon Photomultipliers for nEXO

Silicon Photomultipliers (SiPMs) are attractive candidates for light detectors for next generation liquid xenon double-beta decay experiments, like nEXO. In this paper we discuss the requirements that the SiPMs must satisfy in order to be suitable for nEXO and similar experiments, describe the two test setups operated by the nEXO collaboration, and present the results of characterization of SiPMs from several vendors. In particular, we find that the photon detection efficiency at the peak of xenon scintillation light emission (175-178 nm) approaches the nEXO requirements for tested FBK and Hamamatsu devices. Additionally, the nEXO collaboration performed radioassay of several grams of bare FBK devices using neutron activation analysis, indicating levels of 40K, 232Th, and 238U of the order of <0.15, (6.9e10-4 - 1.3e10-2), and <0.11 mBq/kg, respectively.Comment: Version as accepted to Transaction of Nuclear Science. 12 pages, 15 figures (one figure removed following peer review), 8 tables (1 table added following peer review

Learning about compact binary merger: the interplay between numerical relativity and gravitational-wave astronomy

Activities in data analysis and numerical simulation of gravitational waves have to date largely proceeded independently. In this work we study how waveforms obtained from numerical simulations could be effectively used within the data analysis effort to search for gravitational waves from black hole binaries. We propose measures to quantify the accuracy of numerical waveforms for the purpose of data analysis and study how sensitive the analysis is to errors in the waveforms. We estimate that ~100 templates (and ~10 simulations with different mass ratios) are needed to detect waves from non-spinning binary black holes with total masses in the range 100 Msun < M < 400 Msun using initial LIGO. Of course, many more simulation runs will be needed to confirm that the correct physics is captured in the numerical evolutions. From this perspective, we also discuss sources of systematic errors in numerical waveform extraction and provide order of magnitude estimates for the computational cost of simulations that could be used to estimate the cost of parameter space surveys. Finally, we discuss what information from near-future numerical simulations of compact binary systems would be most useful for enhancing the detectability of such events with contemporary gravitational wave detectors and emphasize the role of numerical simulations for the interpretation of eventual gravitational-wave observations.Comment: 19 pages, 12 figure

A microfabricated sensor for thin dielectric layers

We describe a sensor for the measurement of thin dielectric layers capable of operation in a variety of environments. The sensor is obtained by microfabricating a capacitor with interleaved aluminum fingers, exposed to the dielectric to be measured. In particular, the device can measure thin layers of solid frozen from a liquid or gaseous medium. Sensitivity to single atomic layers is achievable in many configurations and, by utilizing fast, high sensitivity capacitance read out in a feedback system onto environmental parameters, coatings of few layers can be dynamically maintained. We discuss the design, read out and calibration of several versions of the device optimized in different ways. We specifically dwell on the case in which atomically thin solid xenon layers are grown and stabilized, in cryogenic conditions, from a liquid xenon bath

Preserving coherence in quantum computation by pairing quantum bits

A scheme is proposed for protecting quantum states from both independent decoherence and cooperative decoherence. The scheme operates by pairing each qubit (two-state quantum system) with an ancilla qubit and by encoding the states of the qubits into the corresponding coherence-preserving states of the qubit-pairs. In this scheme, the amplitude damping (loss of energy) is prevented as well as the phase damping (dephasing) by a strategy called the free-Hamiltonian-elimination We further extend the scheme to include quantum gate operations and show that loss and decoherence during the gate operations can also be prevented.Comment: 12 pages, Latex, some correction in the reference and introduction. Jour-ref: Phys. Rev. Lett. 79, 1953, 199

Comparisons of binary black hole merger waveforms

This a particularly exciting time for gravitational wave physics. Ground-based gravitational wave detectors are now operating at a sensitivity such that gravitational radiation may soon be directly detected, and recently several groups have independently made significant breakthroughs that have finally enabled numerical relativists to solve the Einstein field equations for coalescing black-hole binaries, a key source of gravitational radiation. The numerical relativity community is now in the position to begin providing simulated merger waveforms for use by the data analysis community, and it is therefore very important that we provide ways to validate the results produced by various numerical approaches. Here, we present a simple comparison of the waveforms produced by two very different, but equally successful approaches--the generalized harmonic gauge and the moving puncture methods. We compare waveforms of equal-mass black hole mergers with minimal or vanishing spins. The results show exceptional agreement for the final burst of radiation, with some differences attributable to small spins on the black holes in one case.Comment: Revtex 4, 5 pages. Published versio

The theory of heating of the quantum ground state of trapped ions

Using a displacement operator formalism, I analyse the depopulation of the vibrational ground state of trapped ions. Two heating times, one characterizing short time behaviour, the other long time behaviour are found. The short time behaviour is analyzed both for single and multiple ions, and a formula for the relative heating rates of different modes is derived. The possibility of correction of heating via the quantum Zeno effect, and the exploitation of the suppression of heating of higher modes to reduce errors in quantum computation is considered.Comment: 9 pages, 2 figure

Mobility of thorium ions in liquid xenon

We present a measurement of the $^{226}$Th ion mobility in LXe at 163.0 K and 0.9 bar. The result obtained, 0.240$\pm$0.011 (stat) $\pm$0.011 (syst) cm$^{2}$/(kV-s), is compared with a popular model of ion transport.Comment: 6.5 pages,

Impact of carbon nanotube length on electron transport in aligned carbon nanotube networks

Here, we quantify the electron transport properties of aligned carbon nanotube (CNT) networks as a function of the CNT length, where the electrical conductivities may be tuned by up to 10× with anisotropies exceeding 40%. Testing at elevated temperatures demonstrates that the aligned CNT networks have a negative temperature coefficient of resistance, and application of the fluctuation induced tunneling model leads to an activation energy of ≈14 meV for electron tunneling at the CNT-CNT junctions. Since the tunneling activation energy is shown to be independent of both CNT length and orientation, the variation in electron transport is attributed to the number of CNT-CNT junctions an electron must tunnel through during its percolated path, which is proportional to the morphology of the aligned CNT network.United States. Army Research Office (contract W911NF-07-D-0004)United States. Army Research Office (contract W911NF-13-D-0001)United States. Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFRL/RX contract FA8650-11-D-5800, Task Order 0003)National Science Foundation (U.S.) (NSF Award No. ECS-0335765)United States. Dept. of Defense (National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate Fellowship