102,185 research outputs found
Alternative approach to all-angle negative refraction in two-dimensional photonic crystals
We show that with an appropriate surface modification, a slab of photonic
crystal can be made to allow wave transmission within the band gap.
Furthermore, negative refraction and all-angle-negative-refraction (AANR) can
be achieved by this surface modification in frequency windows that were not
realized before in two-dimensional photonic crystals [C. Luo et al, Phys. Rev.
B 65, 201104 (2002)]. This approach to AANR leads to new applications in flat
lens imaging. Previous flat lens using photonic crystals requires object-image
distance u+v less than or equal to the lens thickness d, u+v d. Our approach
can be used to design flat lens with u+v=sd with s>>1, thus being able to image
large and/or far away objects. Our results are confirmed by FDTD simulations.Comment: 5 pages, 9 eps figs in RevTex forma
A probabilistic model checking approach to analysing reliability, availability, and maintainability of a single satellite system
Satellites now form a core component for space
based systems such as GPS and GLONAS which provide
location and timing information for a variety of uses. Such
satellites are designed to operate in-orbit and have lifetimes of
10 years or more. Reliability, availability and maintainability
(RAM) analysis of these systems has been indispensable in
the design phase of satellites in order to achieve minimum
failures or to increase mean time between failures (MTBF)
and thus to plan maintainability strategies, optimise reliability
and maximise availability. In this paper, we present formal
modelling of a single satellite and logical specification of
its reliability, availability and maintainability properties. The
probabilistic model checker PRISM has been used to perform
automated quantitative analyses of these properties
Closed-form Absorption Probability of Certain D=5 and D=4 Black Holes and Leading-Order Cross-Section of Generic Extremal p-branes
We obtain the closed-form absorption probabilities for minimally-coupled
massless scalars propagating in the background of D=5 single-charge and D=4
two-charge black holes. These are the only two examples of extremal black holes
with non-vanishing absorption probabilities that can be solved in closed form
for arbitrary incident frequencies. In both cases, the absorption probability
vanishes when the frequency is below a certain threshold, and we discuss the
connection between this phenomenon and the behaviour of geodesics in these
black hole backgrounds. We also obtain leading-order absorption cross-sections
for generic extremal p-branes, and show that the expression for the
cross-section as a function of frequency coincides with the leading-order
dependence of the entropy on the temperature in the corresponding near-extremal
p-branes.Comment: Latex (3 times), 20 page
The Cosmic Evolution of Faint Satellite Galaxies as a Test of Galaxy Formation and the Nature of Dark Matter
The standard cosmological model based on cold dark matter (CDM) predicts a
large number of subhalos for each galaxy-size halo. It is well known that
matching the subhalos to the observed properties of luminous satellites of
galaxies in the local universe poses a significant challenge to our
understanding of the astrophysics of galaxy formation. We show that the cosmic
evolution and host mass dependence of the luminosity function of satellites
provides a powerful new diagnostic to disentangle astrophysical effects from
variations in the underlying dark matter mass function. We illustrate this by
comparing the results of recent observations of satellites out to based
on Hubble Space Telescope images with the predictions of three different sets
of state-of-the art semi-analytic models with underlying CDM power spectra and
one semi-analytic model with an underlying Warm Dark Matter (WDM) power
spectrum. We find that even though CDM models provide a reasonable fit to the
local luminosity function of satellites around galaxies comparable or slightly
larger than the Milky Way, they do not reproduce the data as well for different
redshift and host galaxy stellar mass. This tension indicates that further
improvements are likely to be needed in the description of star formation if
the models are to be reconciled with the data. The WDM model matches the
observed mass dependence and redshift evolution of satellite galaxies more
closely than any of the CDM models, indicating that a modification of the
underlying power spectrum may offer an alternative solution to this tension. We
conclude by presenting predictions for the color magnitude relation of
satellite galaxies to demonstrate how future observations will be able to
further distinguish between these models and help constrain baryonic and
non-baryonic physics.Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJ, revised to incorporate referee
comment
Scalable Text and Link Analysis with Mixed-Topic Link Models
Many data sets contain rich information about objects, as well as pairwise
relations between them. For instance, in networks of websites, scientific
papers, and other documents, each node has content consisting of a collection
of words, as well as hyperlinks or citations to other nodes. In order to
perform inference on such data sets, and make predictions and recommendations,
it is useful to have models that are able to capture the processes which
generate the text at each node and the links between them. In this paper, we
combine classic ideas in topic modeling with a variant of the mixed-membership
block model recently developed in the statistical physics community. The
resulting model has the advantage that its parameters, including the mixture of
topics of each document and the resulting overlapping communities, can be
inferred with a simple and scalable expectation-maximization algorithm. We test
our model on three data sets, performing unsupervised topic classification and
link prediction. For both tasks, our model outperforms several existing
state-of-the-art methods, achieving higher accuracy with significantly less
computation, analyzing a data set with 1.3 million words and 44 thousand links
in a few minutes.Comment: 11 pages, 4 figure
The Generalized Crewther Relation in QCD and its Experimental Consequences
We use the BLM scale-fixing prescription to derive a renormalization-scheme
invariant relation between the coefficient function for the Bjorken sum rule
for polarized deep inelastic scattering and the -ratio for the
annihilation cross section. This relation provides a generalization of the
Crewther relation to non-conformally invariant gauge theories. The derived
relations allow one to calculate unambiguously without renormalization scale or
scheme ambiguity the effective charges of the polarized Bjorken and the
Gross-Llewellen Smith sum rules from the experimental value for the effective
charge associated with -ratio. Present data are consistent with the
generalized Crewther relations, but measurements at higher precision and
energies will be needed to decisively test these fundamental relations in QCD.Comment: 16 pages, LATEX fil
A Black Hole in the Galactic Center Complex IRS 13E?
The IRS 13E complex is an unusual concentration of massive, early-type stars
at a projected distance of ~0.13 pc from the Milky Way's central supermassive
black hole Sagittarius A* (Sgr A*). Because of their similar proper motion and
their common nature as massive, young stars it has recently been suggested that
IRS 13E may be the remnant of a massive stellar cluster containing an
intermediate-mass black hole (IMBH) that binds its members gravitationally in
the tidal field of Sgr A*. Here, we present an analysis of the proper motions
in the IRS~13E environment that combines the currently best available data with
a time line of 10 years. We find that an IMBH in IRS 13E must have a minimum
mass of ~10^4 solar masses in order to bind the source complex gravitationally.
This high mass limit in combination with the absence so far of compelling
evidence for a non-thermal radio and X-ray source in IRS 13E make it appear
unlikely that an IMBH exists in IRS 13E that is sufficiently massive to bind
the system gravitationally.Comment: accepted by AP
DNA-decorated graphene chemical sensors
Graphene is a true two dimensional material with exceptional electronic
properties and enormous potential for practical applications. Graphene's
promise as a chemical sensor material has been noted but there has been
relatively little work on practical chemical sensing using graphene, and in
particular how chemical functionalization may be used to sensitize graphene to
chemical vapors. Here we show one route towards improving the ability of
graphene to work as a chemical sensor by using single stranded DNA as a
sensitizing agent. The resulting broad response devices show fast response
times, complete and rapid recovery to baseline at room temperature, and
discrimination between several similar vapor analytes.Comment: 7 pages, To appear in Applied Physics Letter
Diverse Temporal Properties of GRB Afterglow
The detection of delayed X-ray, optical and radio emission, "afterglow",
associated with -ray bursts (GRBs) is consistent with fireball models,
where the emission are produced by relativistic expanding blast wave, driven by
expanding fireball at cosmogical distances. The emission mechanisms of GRB
afterglow have been discussed by many authors and synchrotron radiation is
believed to be the main mechanism. The observations show that the optical light
curves of two observed gamma-ray bursts, GRB970228 and GRB GRB970508, can be
described by a simple power law, which seems to support the synchrotron
radiation explanation. However, here we shall show that under some
circumstances, the inverse Compton scattering (ICS) may play an important role
in emission spectrum and this may influence the temporal properties of GRB
afterglow. We expect that the light curves of GRB afterglow may consist of
multi-components, which depends on the fireball parameters.Comment: Latex, no figures, minor correctio
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