3,034 research outputs found
Modeling pulsar time noise with long term power law decay modulated by short term oscillations of the magnetic fields of neutron stars
We model the evolution of the magnetic fields of neutron stars as consisting
of a long term power-law decay modulated by short term small amplitude
oscillations. Our model predictions on the timing noise of neutron
stars agree well with the observed statistical properties and correlations of
normal radio pulsars. Fitting the model predictions to the observed data, we
found that their initial parameter implies their initial surface magnetic
dipole magnetic field strength ~ 5E14 G at ~0.4 year old and that the
oscillations have amplitude between E-8 to E-5 and period on the order of
years. For individual pulsars our model can effectively reduce their timing
residuals, thus offering the potential of more sensitive detections of
gravitational waves with pulsar timing arrays. Finally our model can also
re-produce their observed correlation and oscillations of the second derivative
of spin frequency, as well as the "slow glitch" phenomenon.Comment: 10 pages, 6 figures, submitted to IJMPD, invited talk in the 3rd
Galileo-XuGuangqi Meeting}, Beijing, China, 12-16 October 201
Anisotropic charge transport in non-polar GaN QW: polarization induced charge and interface roughness scattering
Charge transport in GaN quantum well (QW) devices grown in non-polar
direction has been theoretically investigated . Emergence of anisotropic line
charge scattering mechanism originating as a result of anisotropic rough
surface morphology in conjunction with in-plane built-in polarization has been
proposed. It has shown that in-plane growth anisotropy leads to large
anisotropic carrier transport at low temperatures. At high temperatures, this
anisotropy in charge transport is partially washed out by strong isotropic
optical phonon scattering in GaN QW.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure
XMM-Newton Spectra of Intermediate-Mass Black Hole Candidates: Application of a Monte-Carlo Simulated Model
We present a systematic spectral analysis of six ultraluminous X-ray sources
(NGC1313 X-1/X-2, IC342 X-1, HoIX X-1, NGC5408 X-1 and NGC3628 X-1) observed
with XMM-Newton Observatory. These extra-nuclear X-ray sources in nearby
late-type galaxies have been considered as intermediate-mass black hole
candidates. We have performed Monte-Carlo simulations of Comptonized
multi-color black-body accretion disks. This unified and self-consistent
spectral model assumes a spherically symmetric, thermal corona around each disk
and accounts for the radiation transfer in the Comptonization. We find that the
model provides satisfactory fits to the XMM-Newton spectra of thesources. The
characteristic temperatures of the accretion disks (T_in), for example, are in
the range of ~ 0.05-0.3 keV, consistent with the intermediate-mass black hole
interpretation. We find that the black hole mass is typically about a few times
10^3 M_\odot and has an accretion rate ~ 10^{-6} - 10^{-5} M_\odot yr^{-1}. For
the spectra considered here, we find that the commonly used multi-color
black-body accretion disk model with an additive power law component, though
not physical, provides a good mathematical approximation to the Monte-Carlo
simulated model. However, the latter model provides additional constraints on
the properties of the accretion systems, such as the disk inclination angles
and corona optical depths.Comment: 23 pages, 4 figures, 5 tables. ApJ accepted, July 2004 issu
Phase Change Observed in Ultrathin Ba0.5Sr0.5TiO3 Films by in-situ Resonant Photoemission Spectroscopy
Epitaxial Ba0.5Sr0.5TiO3 thin films were prepared on Nb-doped SrTiO3
(100)substrates by the pulsed laser deposition technique, and were studied by
measuring the Ti 2p - 3d resonant photoemission spectra in the valence-band
region as a function of film thickness, both at room temperature and low
temperature. Our results demonstrated an abrupt variation in the spectral
structures between 2.8 nm (~7 monolayers) and 2.0 nm (~5 monolayers)
Ba0.5Sr0.5TiO3 films, suggesting that there exists a critical thickness for
phase change in the range of 2.0 nm to 2.8 nm. This may be ascribed mainly to
the intrinsic size effects.Comment: 13 pages, 4 figure
Scaling law for the electromagnetic form factors of the proton
The violation of the scaling law for the electric and magnetic form factors
of the proton are examined within the cloudy bag model. The suppression of the
ratio of the electric and magnetic form factors is natural in the bag model.
The pion cloud plays a moderate role in understanding the recent data from
TJNAF.Comment: 8 pages, REVTeX, 2 figures include
Estuarine exchange flow quantified with isohaline coordinates : contrasting long and short estuaries
Author Posting. © American Meteorological Society, 2012. This article is posted here by permission of American Meteorological Society for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Journal of Physical Oceanography 42 (2012): 748–763, doi:10.1175/JPO-D-11-086.1.Isohaline coordinate analysis is used to compare the exchange flow in two contrasting estuaries, the long (with respect to tidal excursion) Hudson River and the short Merrimack River, using validated numerical models. The isohaline analysis averages fluxes in salinity space rather than in physical space, yielding the isohaline exchange flow that incorporates both subtidal and tidal fluxes and precisely satisfies the Knudsen relation. The isohaline analysis can be consistently applied to both subtidally and tidally dominated estuaries. In the Hudson, the isohaline exchange flow is similar to results from the Eulerian analysis, and the conventional estuarine theory can be used to quantify the salt transport based on scaling with the baroclinic pressure gradient. In the Merrimack, the isohaline exchange flow is much larger than the Eulerian quantity, indicating the dominance of tidal salt flux. The exchange flow does not scale with the baroclinic pressure gradient but rather with tidal volume flux. This tidal exchange is driven by tidal pumping due to the jet–sink flow at the mouth constriction, leading to a linear dependence of exchange flow on tidal volume flux. Finally, a tidal conversion parameter Qin/Qprism, measuring the fraction of tidal inflow Qprism that is converted into net exchange Qin, is proposed to characterize the exchange processes among different systems. It is found that the length scale ratio between tidal excursion and salinity intrusion provides a characteristic to distinguish estuarine regimes.SNC is supported by a WHOI
postdoctoral scholarship, a NSF Grant OCE-0926427,
and a Taiwan National Science Council Grant NSC 100-
2199-M-002-028.WRGis supported byNSFGrantOCE-
0926427. JAL is supported by NSF Grant OCE-0452054.2012-11-0
On the Solution to the "Frozen Star" Paradox, Nature of Astrophysical Black Holes, non-Existence of Gravitational Singularity in the Physical Universe and Applicability of the Birkhoff's Theorem
Oppenheimer and Snyder found in 1939 that gravitational collapse in vacuum
produces a "frozen star", i.e., the collapsing matter only asymptotically
approaches the gravitational radius (event horizon) of the mass, but never
crosses it within a finite time for an external observer. Based upon our recent
publication on the problem of gravitational collapse in the physical universe
for an external observer, the following results are reported here: (1) Matter
can indeed fall across the event horizon within a finite time and thus BHs,
rather than "frozen stars", are formed in gravitational collapse in the
physical universe. (2) Matter fallen into an astrophysical black hole can never
arrive at the exact center; the exact interior distribution of matter depends
upon the history of the collapse process. Therefore gravitational singularity
does not exist in the physical universe. (3) The metric at any radius is
determined by the global distribution of matter, i.e., not only by the matter
inside the given radius, even in a spherically symmetric and pressureless
gravitational system. This is qualitatively different from the Newtonian
gravity and the common (mis)understanding of the Birkhoff's Theorem. This
result does not contract the "Lemaitre-Tolman-Bondi" solution for an external
observer.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figures, invited plenary talk at "The first Galileo-Xu
Guangqi conference", Shanghai, China, 2009. To appear in International
Journal of Modern Physics D (2010
Health-related quality of life in patients treated with Continuous Ambulatory Peritoneal Dialysis and Automated Peritoneal Dialysis in Singapore
OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to compare the health-related quality of life (HRQOL) in patients with end-stage renal disease (ESRD) treated with continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis (CAPD) and automated peritoneal dialysis (APD) in Singapore. METHODS: The data used in this study were from two cross-sectional surveys of ESRD patients. HRQOL was assessed using the Kidney Disease Quality of Life (KDQOL) instrument. Socio-demographic characteristics and clinical data were collected. The physical component summary (PCS) and mental component summary (MCS) scores, kidney disease component summary (KDCS) score and its three scales (symptoms, effects, burden), and one health utility score [EuroQol 5-dimension (EQ-5D)] were calculated and compared between CAPD and APD using multivariate linear regression. RESULTS: In total, 266 patients were included, with 145 on CAPD (mean age 60.8 years) and 121 on APD (mean age 57.4 years). After adjustment for all variables collected, APD patients had significant higher scores in PCS and KDQOL symptoms than CAPD patients, suggesting that APD was associated with better physical health and milder dialysis-related symptoms. CONCLUSION: The HRQOL of CAPD and APD patients was largely equivalent in Singapore, but APD patients seemed to experience better physical health and be less bothered by dialysis-related symptoms
Studying the Optimal Scheduling for Controlling Prostate Cancer under Intermittent Androgen Suppression
This retrospective study shows that the majority of patients’ correlations between PSA and Testosterone during the on-treatment period is at least 0.90. Model-based duration calculations to control PSA levels during off-treatment are provided. There are two pairs of models. In one pair, the Generalized Linear Model and Mixed Model are both used to analyze the variability of PSA at the individual patient level by using the variable “Patient ID” as a repeated measure. In the second pair, Patient ID is not used as a repeated measure but additional baseline variables are included to analyze the variability of PSA
Optical effects of spin currents in semiconductors
A spin current has novel linear and second-order nonlinear optical effects
due to its symmetry properties. With the symmetry analysis and the eight-band
microscopic calculation we have systematically investigated the interaction
between a spin current and a polarized light beam (or the "photon spin
current") in direct-gap semiconductors. This interaction is rooted in the
intrinsic spin-orbit coupling in valence bands and does not rely on the Rashba
or Dresselhaus effect. The light-spin current interaction results in an optical
birefringence effect of the spin current. The symmetry analysis indicates that
in a semiconductor with inversion symmetry, the linear birefringence effect
vanishes and only the circular birefringence effect exists. The circular
birefringence effect is similar to the Faraday rotation in magneto-optics but
involves no net magnetization nor breaking the time-reversal symmetry.
Moreover, a spin current can induce the second-order nonlinear optical
processes due to the inversion-symmetry breaking. These findings form a basis
of measuring a pure spin current where and when it flows with the standard
optical spectroscopy, which may provide a toolbox to explore a wealth of
physics connecting the spintronics and photonics.Comment: 16 pages, 7 fig
- …