9,797 research outputs found
Manipulating the torsion of molecules by strong laser pulses
A proof-of-principle experiment is reported, where torsional motion of a
molecule, consisting of a pair of phenyl rings, is induced by strong laser
pulses. A nanosecond laser pulse spatially aligns the carbon-carbon bond axis,
connecting the two phenyl rings, allowing a perpendicularly polarized, intense
femtosecond pulse to initiate torsional motion accompanied by an overall
rotation about the fixed axis. The induced motion is monitored by femtosecond
time-resolved Coulomb explosion imaging. Our theoretical analysis accounts for
and generalizes the experimental findings.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, submitted to PRL; Major revision of the
presentation of the material; Correction of ion labels in Fig. 2(a
Solving the m-mixing problem for the three-dimensional time-dependent Schr\"{o}dinger equation by rotations: application to strong-field ionization of H2+
We present a very efficient technique for solving the three-dimensional
time-dependent Schrodinger equation. Our method is applicable to a wide range
of problems where a fullly three-dimensional solution is required, i.e., to
cases where no symmetries exist that reduce the dimensionally of the problem.
Examples include arbitrarily oriented molecules in external fields and atoms
interacting with elliptically polarized light. We demonstrate that even in such
cases, the three-dimensional problem can be decomposed exactly into two
two-dimensional problems at the cost of introducing a trivial rotation
transformation. We supplement the theoretical framework with numerical results
on strong-field ionization of arbitrarily oriented H2+ molecules.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure
NuSTAR Observations of G11.2–0.3
We present in this paper the hard X-ray view of the pulsar wind nebula in G11.2−0.3 and its central pulsar powered pulsar J1811−1925 as seen by NuSTAR. We complement the data with Chandra for a more complete picture and confirm the existence of a hard, power-law component in the shell with photon index Γ = 2.1 ± 0.1, which we attribute to synchrotron emission. Our imaging observations of the shell show a slightly smaller radius at higher energies, consistent with Chandra results, and we find shrinkage as a function of increased energy along the jet direction, indicating that the electron outflow in the PWN may be simpler than that seen in other young PWNe. Combining NuSTAR with INTEGRAL, we find that the pulsar spectrum can be fit by a power law with Γ = 1.32 ± 0.07 up to 300 keV without evidence of curvature
Strong Orientation Effects in Ionization of H by Short, Intense, High-Frequency Light Sources
We present three dimensional time-dependent calculations of ionization of
arbitrarily spatially oriented H by attosecond, intense, high-frequency
laser fields. The ionization probability shows a strong dependence on both the
internuclear distance and the relative orientation between the laser field and
the internuclear axis.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure
Zero-Point cooling and low heating of trapped 111Cd+ ions
We report on ground state laser cooling of single 111Cd+ ions confined in
radio-frequency (Paul) traps. Heating rates of trapped ion motion are measured
for two different trapping geometries and electrode materials, where no effort
was made to shield the electrodes from the atomic Cd source. The low measured
heating rates suggest that trapped 111Cd+ ions may be well-suited for
experiments involving quantum control of atomic motion, including applications
in quantum information science.Comment: 4 pages, 6 figures, Submitted to PR
Antihydrogen studies in ALPHA
he ALPHA experiment studies antihydrogen as a means to investigate the symmetry of matter and antimatter. Spectroscopic studies of the anti-atom hold the promise of the most precise direct comparisons of matter and antimatter possible. ALPHA was the first to trap antihydrogen in a magnetic trap, allowing the first ever detection of atomic transitions in an anti-atom. More recently, through stochastic heating, we have also been able to put a new limit on the charge neutrality of antihydrogen. ALPHA is currently preparing to perform the first laser-spectroscopy of antihydrogen, hoping to excite the 2s state using a two-photon transition from the 1s state. We discuss the recent results as well as the key developments that led to these successes and discuss how we are preparing to perform the first laser-spectroscopy. We will also discuss plans to use our novel technique for gravitational tests on antihydrogen for a direct measurement of the sign of the gravitational force on antihydrogen
Coupled quintessence and curvature-assisted acceleration
Spatially homogeneous models with a scalar field non-minimally coupled to the
space-time curvature or to the ordinary matter content are analysed with
respect to late-time asymptotic behaviour, in particular to accelerated
expansion and isotropization. It is found that a direct coupling to the
curvature leads to asymptotic de Sitter expansion in arbitrary exponential
potentials, thus yielding a positive cosmological constant although none is
apparent in the potential. This holds true regardless of the steepness of the
potential or the smallness of the coupling constant. For matter-coupled scalar
fields, the asymptotics are obtained for a large class of positive potentials,
generalizing the well-known cosmic no-hair theorems for minimal coupling. In
this case it is observed that the direct coupling to matter does not impact the
late-time dynamics essentially.Comment: 17 pages, no figures. v2: typos correcte
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