1,843 research outputs found
Classical Region of a Trapped Bose Gas
The classical region of a Bose gas consists of all single-particle modes that
have a high average occupation and are well-described by a classical field.
Highly-occupied modes only occur in massive Bose gases at ultra-cold
temperatures, in contrast to the photon case where there are highly-occupied
modes at all temperatures. For the Bose gas the number of these modes is
dependent on the temperature, the total number of particles and their
interaction strength. In this paper we characterize the classical region of a
harmonically trapped Bose gas over a wide parameter regime. We use a
Hartree-Fock approach to account for the effects of interactions, which we
observe to significantly change the classical region as compared to the
idealized case. We compare our results to full classical field calculations and
show that the Hartree-Fock approach provides a qualitatively accurate
description of classical region for the interacting gas.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figures; updated to include new results with interaction
Conditional citizens? welfare rights and responsibilities in the late 1990s
In Britain the relationship between welfare rights and responsibilities has undergone change. A new welfare 'consensus' that emphasizes a citizen ship centred on notions of duty rather than rights has been built. This has allowed the state to reduce its role as a provider of welfare and also defend a position in which the welfare rights of some citizens are increas ingly conditional on those individuals meeting compulsory responsibili ties or duties. This concentration on individual responsibility/duty has undermined the welfare rights of some of the poorest members of society. Three levels of debate are considered within the article: academic, pol itical and 'grassroots'. The latter is included in an attempt to allow some 'bottom up' views into what is largely a debate dominated by social sci entists and politicians
Contractive Schroedinger cat states for a free mass
Contractive states for a free quantum particle were introduced by Yuen [Yuen
H P 1983 Phys. Rev. Lett. 51, 719] in an attempt to evade the standard quantum
limit for repeated position measurements. We show how appropriate families of
two- and three component ``Schroedinger cat states'' are able to support
non-trivial correlations between the position and momentum observables leading
to contractive behavior. The existence of contractive Schroedinger cat states
is suggestive of potential novel roles of non-classical states for precision
measurement schemes.Comment: 24 pages, 7 encapsulated eps color figures, REVTeX4 style. Published
online in New Journal of Physics 5 (2003) 5.1-5.21. Higher-resolution figures
available in published version. (accessible at http://www.njp.org/
Force distributions in 3D granular assemblies: Effects of packing order and inter-particle friction
We present a systematic investigation of the distribution of normal forces at
the boundaries of static packings of spheres. A new method for the efficient
construction of large hexagonal-close-packed crystals is introduced and used to
study the effect of spatial ordering on the distribution of forces. Under
uniaxial compression we find that the form for the probability distribution of
normal forces between particles does not depend strongly on crystallinity or
inter-particle friction. In all cases the distribution decays exponentially at
large forces and shows a plateau or possibly a small peak near the average
force but does not tend to zero at small forces.Comment: 9 pages including 8 figure
Sideband Cooling Micromechanical Motion to the Quantum Ground State
The advent of laser cooling techniques revolutionized the study of many
atomic-scale systems. This has fueled progress towards quantum computers by
preparing trapped ions in their motional ground state, and generating new
states of matter by achieving Bose-Einstein condensation of atomic vapors.
Analogous cooling techniques provide a general and flexible method for
preparing macroscopic objects in their motional ground state, bringing the
powerful technology of micromechanics into the quantum regime. Cavity opto- or
electro-mechanical systems achieve sideband cooling through the strong
interaction between light and motion. However, entering the quantum regime,
less than a single quantum of motion, has been elusive because sideband cooling
has not sufficiently overwhelmed the coupling of mechanical systems to their
hot environments. Here, we demonstrate sideband cooling of the motion of a
micromechanical oscillator to the quantum ground state. Entering the quantum
regime requires a large electromechanical interaction, which is achieved by
embedding a micromechanical membrane into a superconducting microwave resonant
circuit. In order to verify the cooling of the membrane motion into the quantum
regime, we perform a near quantum-limited measurement of the microwave field,
resolving this motion a factor of 5.1 from the Heisenberg limit. Furthermore,
our device exhibits strong-coupling allowing coherent exchange of microwave
photons and mechanical phonons. Simultaneously achieving strong coupling,
ground state preparation and efficient measurement sets the stage for rapid
advances in the control and detection of non-classical states of motion,
possibly even testing quantum theory itself in the unexplored region of larger
size and mass.Comment: 13 pages, 7 figure
Exploring the spectral properties of faint hard X-ray sources with XMM-Newton
We present a spectroscopic study of 41 hard X-ray sources detected
serendipitously with high significance (> 5 sigma in the 2-10 keV band) in
seven EPIC performance/verification phase observations. The large collecting
area of EPIC allows us to explore the spectral properties of these faint hard
X-ray sources with 2< F_{2-10} < 80 x 10^{-14} erg cm^{-2}s^{-1} even though
the length of the exposures are modest (~ 20 ks). Optical identifications are
available for 21 sources of our sample. Using a simple power law plus Galactic
absorption model we find an average value of the photon index Gamma ~ 1.6-1.7,
broadly consistent with recent measurements made at similar fluxes with ASCA
and with Chandra stacked spectral analyses. We find that 31 out of 41 sources
are well fitted by this simple model and only eight sources require absorption
in excess of the Galactic value. Interestingly enough, one third of these
absorbed sources are broad line objects, though with moderate column densities.
Two sources in the sample are X-ray bright optically quiet galaxies and show
flat X-ray spectra. Comparing our observational results with those expected
from standard synthesis models of the cosmic X-ray background (CXB) we find a
fraction of unabsorbed to absorbed sources larger than predicted by theoretical
models at our completeness limit of F_{2-10} ~ 5 x 10^{-14} erg cm^{-2}s^{-1}.
The results presented here illustrate well how wide-angle surveys performed
with EPIC on board XMM-Newton allow population studies of interesting and
unusual sources to be made as well as enabling constraints to be placed on some
input parameters for synthesis models of the CXB.Comment: 16 pages, 11 figures. To be published in A&
- …