1,155 research outputs found
Spot activity of the RS CVn star {\sigma} Geminorum
We model the photometry of RS CVn star Geminorum to obtain new
information on the changes of the surface starspot distribution, i.e., activity
cycles, differential rotation and active longitudes. We use the previously
published Continuous Periods Search-method (CPS) to analyse V-band differential
photometry obtained between the years 1987 and 2010 with the T3 0.4 m Automated
Telescope at the Fairborn Observatory. The CPS-method divides data into short
subsets and then models the light curves with Fourier-models of variable orders
and provides estimates of the mean magnitude, amplitude, period and light curve
minima. These light curve parameters are then analysed for signs of activity
cycles, differential rotation and active longitudes. We confirm the presence of
two previously found stable active longitudes, synchronised with the orbital
period d and find eight events where the active longitudes
are disrupted. The epochs of the primary light curve minima rotate with a
shorter period d than the orbital motion. If the
variations in the photometric rotation period were to be caused by differential
rotation, this would give a differential rotation coefficient of . The presence of two slightly different periods of active regions may
indicate a superposition of two dynamo modes, one stationary in the orbital
frame and the other one propagating in the azimuthal direction. Our estimate of
the differential rotation is much higher than previous results. However,
simulations show that this can be caused by insufficient sampling in our data.Comment: 10 pages, 6 figures. Submitted to A&
Direct Observation of Josephson Capacitance
The effective capacitance has been measured in the split Cooper pair box
(CPB) over its phase-gate bias plane. Our low-frequency reactive measurement
scheme allows to probe purely the capacitive susceptibility due to the CPB band
structure. The data are quantitatively explained using parameters determined
independently by spectroscopic means. In addition, we show in practice that the
method offers an efficient way to do non-demolition readout of the CPB quantum
state.Comment: 4 page
Structure and magnetic properties of adatoms on carbon nanotubes
We use ab initio methods to calculate the physical and electronic properties of carbon adatoms on different characteristic carbon nanotubes. We found that for every tube the energetically favored adsorption geometry is a “bridgelike” structure between two surface carbons, perpendicular to the long axis of the tube. For adsorption perpendicular or parallel to the axis, the calculations show that the adatom is spin polarized, although the magnitude of the magnetic moment depends mainly on the electronic structure of the nanotube itself.Peer reviewe
Relativistic electrons from sparks in the laboratory
Discharge experiments were carried out at the Eindhoven University of
Technology in 2013. The experimental setup was designed to search for electrons
produced in meter-scale sparks using a 1 MV Marx generator. Negative voltage
was applied to the high voltage (HV) electrode. Five thin (1 mm) plastic
detectors (5 each) were distributed in various configurations close
to the spark gap. Earlier studies have shown (for HV negative) that X-rays are
produced when a cloud of streamers is developed 30-60 cm from the negative
electrode. This indicates that the electrons producing the X-rays are also
accelerated at this location, that could be in the strong electric field from
counterstreamers of opposite polarity. Comparing our measurements with modeling
results, we find that 300 keV electrons produced about 30-60 cm from the
negative electrode are the most likely source of our measurements. A
statistical analysis of expected detection of photon bursts by these fiber
detectors indicates that only 20%-45% of the detected bursts could be from soft
(10 keV) photons, which further supports that the majority of detected
bursts are produced by relativistic electrons
Sequential Monte Carlo Instant Radiosity
Instant Radiosity and its derivatives are interactive methods for efficiently estimating global (indirect) illumination. They represent the last indirect bounce of illumination before the camera as the composite radiance field emitted by a set of virtual point light sources (VPLs). In complex scenes, current algorithms suffer from a difficult combination of two issues: it remains a challenge to distribute VPLs in a manner that simultaneously gives a high-quality indirect illumination solution for each frame, and to do so in a temporally coherent manner. We address both issues by building, and maintaining overtime, an adaptive and temporally coherent distribution of VPLs in locations where they bring indirect light to the image. We introduce a novel heuristic sampling method that strives to only move as few of the VPLs between frames as possible. The result is, to the best of our knowledge, the first interactive global illumination algorithm that works in complex, highly-occluded scenes, suffers little from temporal flickering, supports moving cameras and light sources, and is output-sensitive in the sense that it places VPLs in locations that matter most to the final result
On equations over sets of integers
Systems of equations with sets of integers as unknowns are considered. It is
shown that the class of sets representable by unique solutions of equations
using the operations of union and addition S+T=\makeset{m+n}{m \in S, \: n \in
T} and with ultimately periodic constants is exactly the class of
hyper-arithmetical sets. Equations using addition only can represent every
hyper-arithmetical set under a simple encoding. All hyper-arithmetical sets can
also be represented by equations over sets of natural numbers equipped with
union, addition and subtraction S \dotminus T=\makeset{m-n}{m \in S, \: n \in
T, \: m \geqslant n}. Testing whether a given system has a solution is
-complete for each model. These results, in particular, settle the
expressive power of the most general types of language equations, as well as
equations over subsets of free groups.Comment: 12 apges, 0 figure
Proton-induced magnetic order in carbon: SQUID measurements
In this work we have studied systematically the changes in the magnetic
behavior of highly oriented pyrolytic graphite (HOPG) samples after proton
irradiation in the MeV energy range. Superconducting quantum interferometer
device (SQUID) results obtained from samples with thousands of localized spots
of micrometer size as well on samples irradiated with a broad beam confirm
previously reported results. Both, the para- and ferromagnetic contributions
depend strongly on the irradiation details. The results indicate that the
magnetic moment at saturation of spots of micrometer size is of the order of
emu.Comment: Invited contribution at ICACS2006 to be published in Nucl. Instr. and
Meth. B. 8 pages and 6 figure
Learning in the Large - An Exploratory Study of Retrospectives in Large-Scale Agile Development
Many see retrospectives as the most important practice of agile software development. Previous studies of retrospectives have focused on pro- cess and outcome at team level. In this article, we study how a large-scale agile development project uses retrospectives through an analysis of retrospective reports identifying a total of 109 issues and 36 action items as a part of a longitudinal case study. We find that most of the issues identified relate to team-level learning and improvement, and discuss these findings in relation to current advice to improve learning outcome in large-scale agile development.Learning in the Large - An Exploratory Study of Retrospectives in Large-Scale Agile DevelopmentpublishedVersio
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