Holographic optical elements: Fabrication and testing

The basic properties and use of holographic optical elements were investigated to design and construct wide-angle, Fourier-transform holographic optical systems for use in a Bragg-effect optical memory. The performance characteristics are described along with the construction of the holographic system

Scanning Tunneling Spectroscopy and Vortex Imaging in the Iron-Pnictide Superconductor BaFe1.8_{1.8}Co0.2_{0.2}As2_2

We present an atomic resolution scanning tunneling spectroscopy study of superconducting BaFe$_{1.8}$Co$_{0.2}$As$_2$ single crystals in magnetic fields up to $9 \text{Tesla}$. At zero field, a single gap with coherence peaks at $\overline{\Delta}=6.25 \text{meV}$ is observed in the density of states. At $9 \text{T}$ and $6 \text{T}$, we image a disordered vortex lattice, consistent with isotropic, single flux quantum vortices. Vortex locations are uncorrelated with strong scattering surface impurities, demonstrating bulk pinning. The vortex-induced sub-gap density of states fits an exponential decay from the vortex center, from which we extract a coherence length $\xi=27.6\pm 2.9 \text{\AA}$, corresponding to an upper critical field $H_{c2}=43 \text{T}$.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

Preservation Methods Differ in Fecal Microbiome Stability, Affecting Suitability for Field Studies.

Immediate freezing at -20°C or below has been considered the gold standard for microbiome preservation, yet this approach is not feasible for many field studies, ranging from anthropology to wildlife conservation. Here we tested five methods for preserving human and dog fecal specimens for periods of up to 8 weeks, including such types of variation as freeze-thaw cycles and the high temperature fluctuations often encountered under field conditions. We found that three of the methods-95% ethanol, FTA cards, and the OMNIgene Gut kit-can preserve samples sufficiently well at ambient temperatures such that differences at 8 weeks are comparable to differences among technical replicates. However, even the worst methods, including those with no fixative, were able to reveal microbiome differences between species at 8 weeks and between individuals after a week, allowing meta-analyses of samples collected using various methods when the effect of interest is expected to be larger than interindividual variation (although use of a single method within a study is strongly recommended to reduce batch effects). Encouragingly for FTA cards, the differences caused by this method are systematic and can be detrended. As in other studies, we strongly caution against the use of 70% ethanol. The results, spanning 15 individuals and over 1,200 samples, provide our most comprehensive view to date of storage effects on stool and provide a paradigm for the future studies of other sample types that will be required to provide a global view of microbial diversity and its interaction among humans, animals, and the environment. IMPORTANCE Our study, spanning 15 individuals and over 1,200 samples, provides our most comprehensive view to date of storage and stabilization effects on stool. We tested five methods for preserving human and dog fecal specimens for periods of up to 8 weeks, including the types of variation often encountered under field conditions, such as freeze-thaw cycles and high temperature fluctuations. We show that several cost-effective methods provide excellent microbiome stability out to 8 weeks, opening up a range of field studies with humans and wildlife that would otherwise be cost-prohibitive

Scanning Tunneling Microscopy and Spectroscopy on Iron-Pnictides

Tremendous excitement has followed the recent discovery of superconductivity up to Tc= 56 K in iron–arsenic based materials (pnictides). This discovery breaks the monopoly on high-Tc superconductivity held by copper-oxides (cuprates) for over two decades and renews hope that high-Tc superconductivity may finally be theoretically understood and widely applied. Since scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) and spectroscopy (STS) have been key tools in the investigation and understanding of both conventional and unconventional superconductivity, these techniques are also applied to the pnictides. While the field is still in its early stages, several important achievements by STM and STS have been reported on the pnictides. In this paper, we will review their contribution towards an understanding of superconductivity in this new class of materials.Physic

Non-parametric comparison of histogrammed two-dimensional data distributions using the Energy Test

When monitoring complex experiments, comparison is often made between regularly acquired histograms of data and reference histograms which represent the ideal state of the equipment. With the larger HEP experiments now ramping up, there is a need for automation of this task since the volume of comparisons could overwhelm human operators. However, the two-dimensional histogram comparison tools available in ROOT have been noted in the past to exhibit shortcomings. We discuss a newer comparison test for two-dimensional histograms, based on the Energy Test of Aslan and Zech, which provides more conclusive discrimination between histograms of data coming from different distributions than methods provided in a recent ROOT release.The Science and Technology Facilities Council, U

Josephson junction between anisotropic superconductors

The sin-Gordon equation for Josephson junctions with arbitrary misaligned anisotropic banks is derived. As an application, the problem of Josephson vortices at twin planes of a YBCO-like material is considered. It is shown that for an arbitrary orientation of these vortices relative to the crystal axes of the banks, the junctions should experience a mechanical torque which is evaluated. This torque and its angular dependence may, in principle, be measured in small fields, since the flux penetration into twinned crystals begins with nucleation of Josephson vortices at twin planes.Comment: 6 page

SST-GATE: A dual mirror telescope for the Cherenkov Telescope Array

The Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) will be the world's first open observatory for very high energy gamma-rays. Around a hundred telescopes of different sizes will be used to detect the Cherenkov light that results from gamma-ray induced air showers in the atmosphere. Amongst them, a large number of Small Size Telescopes (SST), with a diameter of about 4 m, will assure an unprecedented coverage of the high energy end of the electromagnetic spectrum (above ~1TeV to beyond 100 TeV) and will open up a new window on the non-thermal sky. Several concepts for the SST design are currently being investigated with the aim of combining a large field of view (~9 degrees) with a good resolution of the shower images, as well as minimizing costs. These include a Davies-Cotton configuration with a Geiger-mode avalanche photodiode (GAPD) based camera, as pioneered by FACT, and a novel and as yet untested design based on the Schwarzschild-Couder configuration, which uses a secondary mirror to reduce the plate-scale and to allow for a wide field of view with a light-weight camera, e.g. using GAPDs or multi-anode photomultipliers. One objective of the GATE (Gamma-ray Telescope Elements) programme is to build one of the first Schwarzschild-Couder prototypes and to evaluate its performance. The construction of the SST-GATE prototype on the campus of the Paris Observatory in Meudon is under way. We report on the current status of the project and provide details of the opto-mechanical design of the prototype, the development of its control software, and simulations of its expected performance.Comment: In Proceedings of the 33rd International Cosmic Ray Conference (ICRC2013), Rio de Janeiro (Brazil). All CTA contributions at arXiv:1307.223

Active Galactic Nuclei under the scrutiny of CTA

Active Galactic Nuclei (hereafter AGN) produce powerful outflows which offer excellent conditions for efficient particle acceleration in internal and external shocks, turbulence, and magnetic reconnection events. The jets as well as particle accelerating regions close to the supermassive black holes (hereafter SMBH) at the intersection of plasma inflows and outflows, can produce readily detectable very high energy gamma-ray emission. As of now, more than 45 AGN including 41 blazars and 4 radiogalaxies have been detected by the present ground-based gamma-ray telescopes, which represents more than one third of the cosmic sources detected so far in the VHE gamma-ray regime. The future Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) should boost the sample of AGN detected in the VHE range by about one order of magnitude, shedding new light on AGN population studies, and AGN classification and unification schemes. CTA will be a unique tool to scrutinize the extreme high-energy tail of accelerated particles in SMBH environments, to revisit the central engines and their associated relativistic jets, and to study the particle acceleration and emission mechanisms, particularly exploring the missing link between accretion physics, SMBH magnetospheres and jet formation. Monitoring of distant AGN will be an extremely rewarding observing program which will inform us about the inner workings and evolution of AGN. Furthermore these AGN are bright beacons of gamma-rays which will allow us to constrain the extragalactic infrared and optical backgrounds as well as the intergalactic magnetic field, and will enable tests of quantum gravity and other "exotic" phenomena.Comment: 28 pages, 23 figure

Superconducting Magnetization above the Irreversibility Line in Tl2Ba2CuO6

Piezolever torque magnetometry has been used to measure the magnetization of superconducting Tl2Ba2CuO6. Three crystals with different levels of oxygen overdoping were investigated in magnetic fields up to 10 Tesla. In all cases, the magnetization above the irreversibility line was found to depart from the behaviour M ~ ln(Hc2/H) of a simple London-like vortex liquid. In particular, for a strongly overdoped (Tc = 15K) crystal, the remnant superconducting order above the irreversibility line is characterized by a linear diamagnetic response (M ~ H) that persists well above Tc and also up to the highest field employed.Comment: RevTeX, 11 pages, 7 encapsulated PostScript figures, submitted to Physical Review

Inference for bounded parameters

The estimation of signal frequency count in the presence of background noise has had much discussion in the recent physics literature, and Mandelkern [1] brings the central issues to the statistical community, leading in turn to extensive discussion by statisticians. The primary focus however in [1] and the accompanying discussion is on the construction of a confidence interval. We argue that the likelihood function and $p$-value function provide a comprehensive presentation of the information available from the model and the data. This is illustrated for Gaussian and Poisson models with lower bounds for the mean parameter