Narrowband spectroscopy by all-optical correlation of broadband pulses

High peak power ultrafast lasers are widely used in nonlinear spectroscopy but often limit its spectral resolution because of the broad frequency bandwidth of ultrashort laser pulses. Improving the resolution by achieving spectrally narrow excitation of, or emission from, the resonant medium by means of multi-photon interferences has been the focus of many recent developments in ultrafast spectroscopy. We demonstrate an alternative approach, in which high resolution is exercised by detecting narrow spectral correlations between broadband excitation and emission optical fields. All-optical correlation analysis, easily incorporated into the traditional spectroscopic setup, enables direct, robust and simultaneous detection of multiple narrow resonances with a single femtosecond pulse.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, submitted to PR

The potential of historical spy-satellite imagery to support research in ecology and conservation

Remote sensing data are important for assessing ecological change, but their value is often restricted by their limited temporal coverage. Major historical events that affected the environment, such as those associated with colonial history, World War II, or the Green Revolution are not captured by modern remote sensing. In the present article, we highlight the potential of globally available black-and-white satellite photographs to expand ecological and conservation assessments back to the 1960s and to illuminate ecological concepts such as shifting baselines, time-lag responses, and legacy effects. This historical satellite photography can be used to monitor ecosystem extent and structure, species’ populations and habitats, and human pressures on the environment. Even though the data were declassified decades ago, their use in ecology and conservation remains limited. But recent advances in image processing and analysis can now unlock this research resource. We encourage the use of this opportunity to address important ecological and conservation questions

Gluon Shadowing in DIS off Nuclei

Within a light-cone quantum-chromodynamics dipole formalism based on the Green function technique, we study nuclear shadowing in deep-inelastic scattering at small Bjorken xB < 0.01. Such a formalism incorporates naturally color transparency and coherence length effects. Calculations of the nuclear shadowing for the \bar{q}q Fock component of the photon are based on an exact numerical solution of the evolution equation for the Green function, using a realistic form of the dipole cross section and nuclear density function. Such an exact numerical solution is unavoidable for xB > 0.0001, when a variation of the transverse size of the \bar{q}q Fock component must be taken into account. The eikonal approximation, used so far in most other models, can be applied only at high energies, when xB < 0.0001 and the transverse size of the \bar{q}q Fock component is "frozen" during propagation through the nuclear matter. At xB < 0.01 we find quite a large contribution of gluon suppression to nuclear shadowing, as a shadowing correction for the higher Fock states containing gluons. Numerical results for nuclear shadowing are compared with the available data from the E665 and NMC collaborations. Nuclear shadowing is also predicted at very small xB corresponding to LHC kinematical range. Finally the model predictions are compared and discussed with the results obtained from other models.Comment: 29 pages including 7 figures; Fig.7 modified, some references and corresponding discussion adde

Integration of formalization tools for graphical-analytical "Unit-Function-Object" models

A new method for the formal description of systems in terms of "Unit", "Function", and "Object" based on the comparative study and integration of tools from the Grenander algebraic theory of pat terns and Milner’s process calculus is considered. Decomposition and aggregation procedures are formalized for the graphic-analytical models “Unit-Function-Object” using the proposed approachyesBelgorod State Universit

Self-Assembly of Supramolecular Triblock Copolymer Complexes

Four different poly(tert-butoxystyrene)-b-polystyrene-b-poly(4-vinylpyridine) (PtBOS-b-PS-b-P4VP) linear triblock copolymers, with the P4VP weight fraction varying from 0.08 to 0.39, were synthesized via sequential anionic polymerization. The values of the unknown interaction parameters between styrene and tert-butoxystyrene and between tert-butoxystyrene and 4-vinylpyridine were determined from random copolymer blend miscibility studies and found to satisfy 0.031<χS,tBOS<0.034 and 0.39<χ4VP,tBOS<0.43, the latter being slightly larger than the known 0.30<χS,4VP≤0.35 value range. All triblock copolymers synthesized adopted a P4VP/PS core/shell cylindrical self-assembled morphology. From these four triblock copolymers supramolecular complexes were prepared by hydrogen bonding a stoichiometric amount of pentadecylphenol (PDP) to the P4VP blocks. Three of these complexes formed a triple lamellar ordered state with additional short length scale ordering inside the P4VP(PDP) layers. The self-assembled state of the supramolecular complex based on the triblock copolymer with the largest fraction of P4VP consisted of alternating layers of PtBOS and P4VP(PDP) layers with PS cylinders inside the latter layers. The difference in morphology between the triblock copolymers and the supramolecular complexes is due to two effects: (i) a change in effective composition and, (ii) a reduction in interfacial tension between the PS and P4VP containing domains. The small angle X-ray scattering patterns of the supramolecules systems are very temperature sensitive. A striking feature is the disappearance of the first order scattering peak of the triple lamellar state in certain temperature intervals, while the higher order peaks (including the third order) remain. This is argued to be due to the thermal sensitivity of the hydrogen bonding and thus directly related to the very nature of these systems.

Measurements of the Generalized Electric and Magnetic Polarizabilities of the Proton at Low Q2 Using the VCS Reaction

The mean square polarizability radii of the proton have been measured for the first time in a virtual Compton scattering experiment performed at the MIT-Bates out-of-plane scattering facility. Response functions and polarizabilities obtained from a dispersion analysis of the data at Q2=0.06 GeV2/c2 are in agreement with O(p3) heavy baryon chiral perturbation theory. The data support the dominance of mesonic effects in the polarizabilities, and the increase of beta with increasing Q2 is evidence for the cancellation of long-range diamagnetism by short-range paramagnetism from the pion cloud

Investigation of the conjectured nucleon deformation at low momentum transfer

We report new precise H$(e,e^\prime p)\pi^0$ measurements at the $\Delta(1232)$ resonance at $Q^2= 0.127$ (GeV/c)$^2$ using the MIT/Bates out-of-plane scattering (OOPS) facility. The data reported here are particularly sensitive to the transverse electric amplitude ($E2$) of the $\gamma^* N\to\Delta$ transition. Analyzed together with previous data yield precise quadrupole to dipole amplitude ratios $EMR = (-2.3 \pm 0.3_{stat+sys} \pm 0.6_{model})$ and $CMR = (-6.1 \pm 0.2_{stat+sys}\pm 0.5_{model})$ and for $M^{3/2}_{1+} = (41.4 \pm 0.3_{stat+sys}\pm 0.4_{model})(10^{-3}/m_{\pi^+})$. They give credence to the conjecture of deformation in hadronic systems favoring, at low $Q^2$, the dominance of mesonic effects.Comment: 4 pages, 1figur

Measurement of the Partial Cross Sections s(TT), s(LT) and [s(T)+epsilon*s(L)] of the p(e,e' pi+)n Reaction in the Delta(1232) Resonance

We report new precision p(e,e' pi+})n measurements in the Delta(1232) resonance at Q2 = 0.127(GeV/c)2 obtained at the MIT-Bates Out-Of-Plane scattering facility. These are the lowest, but non-zero, Q2 measurements in the pi+ channel. The data offer new tests of the theoretical calculations, particularly of the background amplitude contributions. The chiral effective field theory and Sato-Lee model calculations are not in agreement with this experiment

Hard Two-Photon Contribution to Elastic Lepton-Proton Scattering: Determined by the OLYMPUS Experiment

The OLYMPUS collaboration reports on a precision measurement of the positron-proton to electron-proton elastic cross section ratio, $R_{2\gamma}$, a direct measure of the contribution of hard two-photon exchange to the elastic cross section. In the OLYMPUS measurement, 2.01~GeV electron and positron beams were directed through a hydrogen gas target internal to the DORIS storage ring at DESY. A toroidal magnetic spectrometer instrumented with drift chambers and time-of-flight scintillators detected elastically scattered leptons in coincidence with recoiling protons over a scattering angle range of $\approx 20\degree$ to $80\degree$. The relative luminosity between the two beam species was monitored using tracking telescopes of interleaved GEM and MWPC detectors at $12\degree$, as well as symmetric M{\o}ller/Bhabha calorimeters at $1.29\degree$. A total integrated luminosity of 4.5~fb$^{-1}$ was collected. In the extraction of $R_{2\gamma}$, radiative effects were taken into account using a Monte Carlo generator to simulate the convolutions of internal bremsstrahlung with experiment-specific conditions such as detector acceptance and reconstruction efficiency. The resulting values of $R_{2\gamma}$, presented here for a wide range of virtual photon polarization $0.456<\epsilon<0.978$, are smaller than some hadronic two-photon exchange calculations predict, but are in reasonable agreement with a subtracted dispersion model and a phenomenological fit to the form factor data.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, 2 table