Optimized Multimode Interference Fiber Based Refractometer in A Reflective Interrogation Scheme

A fiber based refractometer in a reflective interrogation scheme is investigated and optimized. A thin gold film was deposited on the tip of a coreless fiber section, which is spliced with a single mode fiber. The coreless fiber is a multimode waveguide, and the observed effects are due to multimode interference. To investigate and optimize the structure, the multimode part of the sensor is built with 3 different lengths: 58 mm, 29 mm and 17 mm. We use a broadband light source ranging from 1475 nm to 1650 nm and we test the sensors with liquids of varying refractive indices, from 1.333 to 1.438. Our results show that for a fixed wavelength, the sensor sensitivity is independent of the multimode fiber length, but we observed a sensitivity increase of approximately 0.7 nm/RIU for a one-nanometer increase in wavelength

Unitarity of the Leptonic Mixing Matrix

We determine the elements of the leptonic mixing matrix, without assuming unitarity, combining data from neutrino oscillation experiments and weak decays. To that end, we first develop a formalism for studying neutrino oscillations in vacuum and matter when the leptonic mixing matrix is not unitary. To be conservative, only three light neutrino species are considered, whose propagation is generically affected by non-unitary effects. Precision improvements within future facilities are discussed as well.Comment: Standard Model radiative corrections to the invisible Z width included. Some numerical results modified at the percent level. Updated with latest bounds on the rare tau decay. Physical conculsions unchange

Entangled single-wire NiTi material: a porous metal with tunable superelastic and shape memory properties

NiTi porous materials with unprecedented superelasticity and shape memory were manufactured by self-entangling, compacting and heat treating NiTi wires. The versatile processing route used here allows to produce entanglements of either superelastic or ferroelastic wires with tunable mesostructures. Three dimensional (3D) X-ray microtomography shows that the entanglement mesostructure is homogeneous and isotropic. The thermomechanical compressive behavior of the entanglements was studied using optical measurements of the local strain field. At all relative densities investigated here ($\sim$ 25 - 40$\%$), entanglements with superelastic wires exhibit remarkable macroscale superelasticity, even after compressions up to 25$\%$, large damping capacity, discrete memory effect and weak strain-rate and temperature dependencies. Entanglements with ferroelastic wires resemble standard elastoplastic fibrous systems with pronounced residual strain after unloading. However, a full recovery is obtained by heating the samples, demonstrating a large shape memory effect at least up to 16% strain.Comment: 31 pages, 10 figures, submitted to Acta Materiali

Analytical Results for the Statistical Distribution Related to Memoryless Deterministic Tourist Walk: Dimensionality Effect and Mean Field Models

Consider a medium characterized by N points whose coordinates are randomly generated by a uniform distribution along the edges of a unitary d-dimensional hypercube. A walker leaves from each point of this disordered medium and moves according to the deterministic rule to go to the nearest point which has not been visited in the preceding \mu steps (deterministic tourist walk). Each trajectory generated by this dynamics has an initial non-periodic part of t steps (transient) and a final periodic part of p steps (attractor). The neighborhood rank probabilities are parameterized by the normalized incomplete beta function I_d = I_{1/4}[1/2,(d+1)/2]. The joint distribution S_{\mu,d}^{(N)}(t,p) is relevant, and the marginal distributions previously studied are particular cases. We show that, for the memory-less deterministic tourist walk in the euclidean space, this distribution is: S_{1,d}^{(\infty)}(t,p) = [\Gamma(1+I_d^{-1}) (t+I_d^{-1})/\Gamma(t+p+I_d^{-1})] \delta_{p,2}, where t=0,1,2,...,\infty, \Gamma(z) is the gamma function and \delta_{i,j} is the Kronecker's delta. The mean field models are random link model, which corresponds to d \to \infty, and random map model which, even for \mu = 0, presents non-trivial cycle distribution [S_{0,rm}^{(N)}(p) \propto p^{-1}]: S_{0,rm}^{(N)}(t,p) = \Gamma(N)/\{\Gamma[N+1-(t+p)]N^{t+p}\}. The fundamental quantities are the number of explored points n_e=t+p and I_d. Although the obtained distributions are simple, they do not follow straightforwardly and they have been validated by numerical experiments.Comment: 9 pages and 4 figure