Deeply subrecoil two-dimensional Raman cooling

We report the implementation of a two-dimensional Raman cooling scheme using sequential excitations along the orthogonal axes. Using square pulses, we have cooled a cloud of ultracold Cesium atoms down to an RMS velocity spread of 0.39(5) recoil velocity, corresponding to an effective temperature of 30 nK (0.15 T_rec). This technique can be useful to improve cold atom atomic clocks, and is particularly relevant for clocks in microgravity.Comment: 8 pages, 6 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev.

Absence of Metastable States in Strained Monatomic Cubic Crystals

A tetragonal (Bain path) distortion of a metal with an fcc (bcc) ground state will initially cause an increase in energy, but at some point along the Bain path the energy will again decrease until a local minimum is reached. Using a combination of parametrized tight-binding and first-principles LAPW calculations we show that this local minimum is unstable with respect to an elastic distortion, except in the rare case that the minimum is at the bcc (fcc) point on the Bain path. This shows that body-centered tetragonal phases of these materials, which have been seen in epitaxially grown thin films, must be stabilized by the substrate and cannot be free-standing films.Comment: 7 pages, 5 postscript figures, REVTEX, submitted to Phys. Rev.

The Contribution of Thermally-pulsing Asymptotic Giant Branch and Red Supergiant Stars to the Luminosities of the Magellanic Clouds at 1-24 μm

We present the near-through mid-infrared flux contribution of thermally-pulsing asymptotic giant branch (TP-AGB) and massive red supergiant (RSG) stars to the luminosities of the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds (LMC and SMC, respectively). Combined, the peak contribution from these cool evolved stars occurs at ~3-4 μm, where they produce 32% of the SMC light, and 25% of the LMC flux. The TP-AGB star contribution also peaks at ~3-4 μm and amounts to 21% in both galaxies. The contribution from RSG stars peaks at shorter wavelengths, 2.2 μm, where they provide 11% of the SMC flux, and 7% for the LMC. Both TP-AGB and RSG stars are short lived, and thus potentially impose a large stochastic scatter on the near-IR derived mass-to-light (M/L) ratios of galaxies at rest-frame 1-4 μm. To minimize their impact on stellar mass estimates, one can use the M/L ratio at shorter wavelengths (e.g., at 0.8-1 μm). At longer wavelengths (≥8 μm), emission from dust in the interstellar medium dominates the flux. In the LMC, which shows strong polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) emission at 8 μm, TP-AGB and RSG contribute less than 4% of the 8 μm flux. However, 19% of the SMC 8 μm flux is from evolved stars, nearly half of which is produced by the rarest, dustiest, carbon-rich TP-AGB stars. Thus, star formation rates of galaxies, based on an 8 μm flux (e.g., observed-frame 24 μm at z = 2), may be biased modestly high, especially for galaxies with little PAH emission

The Contribution of Thermally-Pulsing Asymptotic Giant Branch and Red Supergiant Starts to the Luminosities of the Magellanic Clouds at 1-24 micrometers

We present the near-through mid-infrared flux contribution of thermally-pulsing asymptotic giant branch (TP-AGB) and massive red supergiant (RSG) stars to the luminosities of the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds (LMC and SMC, respectively). Combined, the peak contribution from these cool evolved stars occurs at approx 3 - 4 micron, where they produce 32% of the SMC light, and 25% of the LMC flux. The TP-AGB star contribution also peaks at approx 3 - 4 micron and amounts to 21% in both galaxies. The contribution from RSG stars peaks at shorter wavelengths, 2.2 micron, where they provide 11% of the SMC flux, and 7% for the LMC. Both TP-AGB and RSG stars are short lived, and thus potentially impose a large stochastic scatter on the near-IR derived mass-to-light (M/L) ratios of galaxies at rest-frame 1 - 4 micron. To minimize their impact on stellar mass estimates, one can use the M/L ratio at shorter wavelengths (e.g., at 0.8 - 1 micron). At longer wavelengths (much > 8 micron), emission from dust in the interstellar medium dominates the flux. In the LMC, which shows strong polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) emission at 8 micron, TP-AGB and RSG contribute less than 4% of the 8 micron flux. However, 19% of the SMC 8 micron flux is from evolved stars, nearly half of which is produced by the rarest, dustiest, carbon-rich TP-AGB stars. Thus, star formation rates of galaxies, based on an 8 micron flux (e.g., observed-frame 24 micron at z = 2), may be biased modestly high, especially for galaxies with little PAH emission

Calculation of Dielectric Susceptibility for Complex Ionic Systems: Application to a Predicted Superlattice

The Gordon-Kim theory of interionic interactions between closed-shell ions, which has had considerable success for existing alkali halide systems, has been applied to the determination of the structure, phonon dispersion, and room-temperature dielectric properties of a proposed superlattice, RbF(NaC1)2, of alkali halides. The dielectric properties of such a hypothetical material can have an unusually strong low-frequency dependence because of the presence of Brillouin-zonefolded infrared”-active modes. In evaluating the standard expressions for the dielectric properties, in the rigid-ion approximation, we make use of standard cubic and quartic anharmonic terms in addition to the instantaneous-phonon cubic anharmonic term, which is needed because of the lack of a center of inversion. Our procedure for numerically calculating the absorption for complex materials is described in detail. Effects of off-diagonal terms in the Green\u27s function and of the long-range ionic Coulomb interactions are examined. In particular, an absorption peak at 30 cm-1 is found to be especially sensitive to these contributions. This paper demonstrates (a) the theoretical existence of metastable phases of an alkali halide superlattice and (b) the application of anharmonic perturbation theory to determine the dielectric response in the infrared and millimeter-wave region for such complex materials. The particular structure studied is just one of many possibilities in this class of materials, which offers the opportunity for joint theoretical and experimental research to fabricate structures with properties tailored for specific applications

Level-1 jet trigger hardware for the ALICE electromagnetic calorimeter at LHC

The ALICE experiment at the LHC is equipped with an electromagnetic calorimeter (EMCal) designed to enhance its capabilities for jet measurement. In addition, the EMCal enables triggering on high energy jets. Based on the previous development made for the Photon Spectrometer (PHOS) level-0 trigger, a specific electronic upgrade was designed in order to allow fast triggering on high energy jets (level-1). This development was made possible by using the latest generation of FPGAs which can deal with the instantaneous incoming data rate of 26 Gbit/s and process it in less than 4 {\mu}s.Comment: proceeding of TWEPP-10 at Aachen. 6 pages, 4 figure

Some Aspects of Flow Through Rotating Circular Tubes

The flow of water in a circular tube rotating about an axis perpendicular to the axis of the tube is studied. Information about the flow is obtained from coated hot-film probes and a constant temperature anemometer. A maximum Reynold\u27s number of 9,500 is obtained and the Taylor number is varied from 800 to 3,100. Little similarity is found to exist between flows in rotating and in non-rotating systems in this range of parameters

Construction and Calibration of a Low-Cost 3D Laser Scanner with 360◦ Field of View for Mobile Robots

Navigation of many mobile robots relies on environmental information obtained from three-dimensional (3D) laser scanners. This paper presents a new 360◦ field-of-view 3D laser scanner for mobile robots that avoids the high cost of commercial devices. The 3D scanner is based on spinning a Hokuyo UTM- 30LX-EX two-dimensional (2D) rangefinder around its optical center. The proposed design profits from lessons learned with the development of a previous 3D scanner with pitching motion. Intrinsic calibration of the new device has been performed to obtain both temporal and geometric parameters. The paper also shows the integration of the 3D device in the outdoor mobile robot Andabata.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tec