1,624 research outputs found
The influence of Galactic aberration on precession parameters determined from VLBI observations
The influence of proper motions of sources due to Galactic aberration on
precession models based on VLBI data is determined. Comparisons of the linear
trends in the coordinates of the celestial pole obtained with and without
taking into account Galactic aberration indicate that this effect can reach 20
as per century, which is important for modern precession models. It is
also shown that correcting for Galactic aberration influences the derived
parameters of low-frequency nutation terms. It is therefore necessary to
correct for Galactic aberration in the reduction of modern astrometric
observations
Empiric Models of the Earth's Free Core Nutation
Free core nutation (FCN) is the main factor that limits the accuracy of the
modeling of the motion of Earth's rotational axis in the celestial coordinate
system. Several FCN models have been proposed. A comparative analysis is made
of the known models including the model proposed by the author. The use of the
FCN model is shown to substantially increase the accuracy of the modeling of
Earth's rotation. Furthermore, the FCN component extracted from the observed
motion of Earth's rotational axis is an important source for the study of the
shape and rotation of the Earth's core. A comparison of different FCN models
has shown that the proposed model is better than other models if used to
extract the geophysical signal (the amplitude and phase of FCN) from
observational data.Comment: 8 pages, 3 figures; minor update of the journal published versio
Simultaneous Comparison of Many Triphasic Defibrillation Waveforms
Biphasic defibrillation waveforms are now accepted as being more effective at terminating ventricular fibrillation (VF) than monophasic waveforms. If two phases are better than one, this naturally leads to the hypothesis that additional phases improve efficacy. This study tests the hypothesis by adding one additional phase. We examined the efficacy of 18 different triphasic waveforms simultaneously
One-Parameter Squeezed Gaussian States of Time-Dependent Harmonic Oscillator and Selection Rule for Vacuum States
By using the invariant method we find one-parameter squeezed Gaussian states
for both time-independent and time-dependent oscillators. The squeezing
parameter is expressed in terms of energy expectation value for
time-independent case and represents the degree of mixing positive and negative
frequency solutions for time-dependent case. A {\it minimum uncertainty
proposal} is advanced to select uniquely vacuum states at each moment of time.
We show that the Gaussian states with minimum uncertainty coincide with the
true vacuum state for time-independent oscillator and the Bunch-Davies vacuum
for a massive scalar field in a de Sitter spacetime.Comment: 13 Pages, ReVTeX, no figure
Decoherence window and electron-nuclear cross-relaxation in the molecular magnet V 15
Rabi oscillations in the V_15 Single Molecule Magnet (SMM) embedded in the
surfactant DODA have been studied at different microwave powers. An intense
damping peak is observed when the Rabi frequency Omega_R falls in the vicinity
of the Larmor frequency of protons w_N, while the damping time t_R of
oscillations reaches values 10 times shorter than the phase coherence time t_2
measured at the same temperature. The experiments are interpreted by the N-spin
model showing that t_R is directly associated with the decoherence via
electronic/nuclear spin cross-relaxation in the rotating reference frame. It is
shown that this decoherence is accompanied with energy dissipation in the range
of the Rabi frequencies w_N - sigma_e < Omega_R < w_N, where sigma_e is the
mean super-hyperfine field (in frequency units) induced by protons at SMMs.
Weaker damping without dissipation takes place outside this dissipation window.
Simple local field estimations suggest that this rapid cross-relaxation in
resonant microwave field observed for the first time in SMMV_15 should take
place in other SMMs like Fe_8 and Mn_12 containing protons, too
Chirped pulse Raman amplification in warm plasma: towards controlling saturation
Stimulated Raman backscattering in plasma is potentially an efficient method of amplifying laser pulses to reach exawatt powers because plasma is fully broken down and withstands extremely high electric fields. Plasma also has unique nonlinear optical properties that allow simultaneous compression of optical pulses to ultra-short durations. However, current measured efficiencies are limited to several percent. Here we investigate Raman amplification of short duration seed pulses with different chirp rates using a chirped pump pulse in a preformed plasma waveguide. We identify electron trapping and wavebreaking as the main saturation mechanisms, which lead to spectral broadening and gain saturation when the seed reaches several millijoules for durations of 10's - 100's fs for 250 ps, 800 nm chirped pump pulses. We show that this prevents access to the nonlinear regime and limits the efficiency, and interpret the experimental results using slowly-varying-amplitude, current-averaged particle-in-cell simulations. We also propose methods for achieving higher efficiencies.close0
Coherent states and related quantizations for unbounded motions
We build coherent states (CS) for unbounded motions along two different
procedures. In the first one we adapt the Malkin-Manko construction for
quadratic Hamiltonians to the motion of a particle in a linear potential. A
generalization to arbitrary potentials is discussed. The second one extends to
continuous spectrum previous constructions of action-angle coherent states in
view of a consistent energy quantization
Optical spectra, crystal-field parameters, and magnetic susceptibility of the new multiferroic NdFe3(BO3)4
We report high-resolution optical absorption spectra for NdFe3(BO3)4 trigonal
single crystal which is known to exhibit a giant magnetoelectric effect below
the temperature of magnetic ordering TN = 33 K. The analysis of the
temperature-dependent polarized spectra reveals the energies and, in some
cases, symmetries and exchange splittings of Nd3+ 84 Kramers doublets. We
perform crystal-field calculations starting from the exchange-charge model,
obtain a set of six real crystal-field parameters, and calculate wave functions
and magnetic g-factors. In particular, the values g(perpendicular) = 2.385,
g(parallel) = 1.376 were found for the Nd3+ ground-state doublet. We obtain
Bloc=7.88 T and |JFN|= 0.48 K for the values of the local effective magnetic
field at liquid helium temperatures at the Nd3+ site and the Nd - Fe exchange
integral, respectively, using the experimentally measured Nd3+ ground-state
splitting of 8.8 cm-1. To check reliability of our set of crystal field
parameters we model the magnetic susceptibility data from literature. A dimer
containing two nearest-neighbor iron ions in the spiral chain is considered to
partly account for quasi-one-dimensional properties of iron borates, and then
the mean-field approximation is used. The results of calculations with the
exchange parameters for Fe3+ ions Jnn = -6.25 K (intra-chain interactions) and
Jnnn = -1.92 K (inter-chain interactions) obtained from fitting agree well with
the experimental data.Comment: 13 pages, 8 figures, 2 table
HIV infection and severe malnutrition: a clinical and epidemiological study in Burkina Faso.
OBJECTIVE: To define a clinical profile indicative of HIV infection in a population of severely malnourished children in Burkina Faso. A total of 433 children (average age, 19 months) were recruited at the Sanou Souro National Hospital, Bobo Dioulasso, Burkina Faso.
RESULTS: Sixty-three per cent presented with marasmus, 13% with kwashiorkor and 24% with both forms of malnutrition. The prevalence of HIV infection in children aged over 12 months was 13.8%, with a marked predominance of HIV-1 (95.8%). Mother-to-child transmission was proven in 77% of the cases; in 10% of the observed paediatric AIDS cases, transmission may have occurred through multi-injections with contaminated equipment. Marasmus was the form of malnutrition most frequently associated with HIV (P < 0.001); its severity was exacerbated by HIV infection. Adenopathy (P < 0.0001), oral candidiasis (P < 0.0006), skin disorders (P < 0.01) and hepatomegaly (P = 0.01) appeared to be significantly related to HIV infection. Discriminant analysis revealed that the presence of adenopathies was the strongest indicator symptom of HIV infection. Multivariate analysis revealed that a clinical profile of marasmus, adenopathies and oral candidiasis (specificity, 82%) was indicative of HIV infection in this population. The short-term clinical prognosis was poor and usually led to the death of the child when seropositive (P < 0.001).
CONCLUSIONS: Among children exhibiting severe malnutrition, HIV-positive children are distinguished by a high horizontal transmission rate, a high specific clinical profile and a very poor prognosis
Magnetic and spectral properties of multi-sublattice oxides SrY2O4:Er3+ and SrEr2O4
SrEr2O4 is a geometrically frustrated magnet which demonstrates rather
unusual properties at low temperatures including a coexistence of long- and
short-range magnetic order, characterized by two different propagation vectors.
In the present work, the effects of crystal fields (CF) in this compound
containing four magnetically inequivalent erbium sublattices are investigated
experimentally and theoretically. We combine the measurements of the CF levels
of the Er3+ ions made on a powder sample of SrEr2O4 using neutron spectroscopy
with site-selective optical and electron paramagnetic resonance measurements
performed on single crystal samples of the lightly Er-doped nonmagnetic
analogue, SrY2O4. Two sets of CF parameters corresponding to the Er3+ ions at
the crystallographically inequivalent lattice sites are derived which fit all
the available experimental data well, including the magnetization and dc
susceptibility data for both lightly doped and concentrated samples.Comment: 14 pages, 9 figure
- …