3,223 research outputs found
The Energy of a Plasma in the Classical Limit
When \lambda_{T} << d_{T}, where \lambda_{T} is the de Broglie wavelength and
d_{T}, the distance of closest approach of thermal electrons, a classical
analysis of the energy of a plasma can be made. In all the classical analysis
made until now, it was assumed that the frequency of the fluctuations \omega <<
T (k_{B}=\hbar=1). Using the fluctuation-dissipation theorem, we evaluate the
energy of a plasma, allowing the frequency of the fluctuations to be arbitrary.
We find that the energy density is appreciably larger than previously thought
for many interesting plasmas, such as the plasma of the Universe before the
recombination era.Comment: 10 pages, 2 figures, accepted for publication in Phys.Rev.Let
Nonlinear saturation of electrostatic waves: mobile ions modify trapping scaling
The amplitude equation for an unstable electrostatic wave in a multi-species
Vlasov plasma has been derived. The dynamics of the mode amplitude is
studied using an expansion in ; in particular, in the limit
, the singularities in the expansion coefficients are
analyzed to predict the asymptotic dependence of the electric field on the
linear growth rate . Generically , as
, but in the limit of infinite ion mass or for
instabilities in reflection-symmetric systems due to real eigenvalues the more
familiar trapping scaling is predicted.Comment: 13 pages (Latex/RevTex), 4 postscript encapsulated figures which are
included using the utility "uufiles". They should be automatically included
with the text when it is downloaded. Figures also available in hard copy from
the authors ([email protected]
Transparent Films Made of Highly Scattering Particles
Today, colloids are widely employed in various products from creams and coatings to electronics. The ability to control their chemical, optical, or electronic features by controlling their size and shape explains why these materials are so widely preferred. Nevertheless, altering some of these properties may also lead to some undesired side effects, one of which is an increase in optical scattering upon concentration. Here, we address this strong scattering issue in films made of binary colloidal suspensions. In particular, we focus on raspberry-type polymeric particles made of a spherical polystyrene core decorated by small hemispherical domains of acrylate with an overall positive charge, which display an unusual stability against aggregation in aqueous solutions. Their solid films display a brilliant red color due to Bragg scattering but appear completely white on account of strong scattering otherwise. To suppress the scattering and induce transparency, we prepared films by hybridizing them with oppositely charged PS particles with a size similar to that of the bumps on the raspberries. We report that the smaller PS particles prevent raspberry particle aggregation in solid films and suppress scattering by decreasing the spatial variation of the refractive index inside the film. We believe that the results presented here provide a simple strategy to suppress strong scattering of larger particles to be used in optical coatings
Nuclear Disks of Gas and Dust in Early Type Galaxies and the Hunt for Massive Black Holes: Hubble Space Telescope Observations of NGC 6251
We discuss Hubble Space Telescope optical images and spectra of NGC 6251, a
giant E2 galaxy and powerful radio source at a distance of 106 Mpc (for H_0 =
70 km/s/Mpc). The galaxy is known to host a very well defined dust disk (O'Neil
et al. 1994); the exceptional resolution of our V and I images allows a
detailed study of the disk structure. Furthermore, narrow band images centered
on the Halpha+[NII] emission lines, reveal the presence of ionized gas in the
inner 0.3 arcsec of the disk. We used the HST/Faint Object Spectrograph with
the 0.09 arcsec aperture to study the velocity structure of the disk. Dynamical
models were constructed for two extreme (in terms of central concentration)
analytical representations of the stellar surface brightness profile, from
which the mass density and corresponding rotational velocity are derived
assuming a constant mass-to-light ratio (M/L)_V ~ 8.5 M_solar/L_solar. For both
representations of the stellar component, the models show that the gas is in
Keplerian motion around a central mass ~ 4 - 8 X 10^8 solar masses, and that
the contribution of radial flows to the velocity field is negligible.Comment: 45 pages, submitted to Ap
Searching in HI for Massive Low Surface Brightness Galaxies: Samples from HyperLeda and the UGC
A search has been made for 21 cm HI line emission in a total of 350 unique
galaxies from two samples whose optical properties indicate they may be massive
The first consists of 241 low surface brightness (LSB) galaxies of
morphological type Sb and later selected from the HyperLeda database and the
the second consists of 119 LSB galaxies from the UGC with morphological types
Sd-m and later. Of the 350 unique galaxies, 239 were observed at the Nancay
Radio Telescope, 161 at the Green Bank Telescope, and 66 at the Arecibo
telescope. A total of 295 (84.3%) were detected, of which 253 (72.3%) appear to
be uncontaminated by any other galaxies within the telescope beam. Finally, of
the total detected, uncontaminated galaxies, at least 31 appear to be massive
LSB galaxies, with a total HI mass 10 M, for H = 70
km/s/Mpc. If we expand the definition to also include galaxies with significant
total (rather than just gas) mass, i.e., those with inclination-corrected HI
line width W,cor > 500 km/s, this bring the total number of massive LSB
galaxies to 41. There are no obvious trends between the various measured global
galaxy properties, particularly between mean surface brightness and galaxy
mass.Comment: 71 pages, including all tables and figures; Accepted by A
Defining the gap between research and practice in public relations programme evaluation - towards a new research agenda
The current situation in public relations programme evaluation is neatly summarized by McCoy who commented that 'probably the most common buzzwords in public relations in the last ten years have been evaluation and accountability' (McCoy 2005, 3). This paper examines the academic and practitioner-based literature and research on programme evaluation and it detects different priorities and approaches that may partly explain why the debate on acceptable and agreed evaluation methods continues. It analyses those differences and proposes a research agenda to bridge the gap and move the debate forward
Probing photo-ionization: simulations of positive streamers in varying N2:O2 mixtures
Photo-ionization is the accepted mechanism for the propagation of positive
streamers in air though the parameters are not very well known; the efficiency
of this mechanism largely depends on the presence of both nitrogen and oxygen.
But experiments show that streamer propagation is amazingly robust against
changes of the gas composition; even for pure nitrogen with impurity levels
below 1 ppm streamers propagate essentially with the same velocity as in air,
but their minimal diameter is smaller, and they branch more frequently.
Additionally, they move more in a zigzag fashion and sometimes exhibit a
feathery structure. In our simulations, we test the relative importance of
photo-ionization and of the background ionization from pulsed repetitive
discharges, in air as well as in nitrogen with 1 ppm O2 . We also test
reasonable parameter changes of the photo-ionization model. We find that photo-
ionization dominates streamer propagation in air for repetition frequencies of
at least 1 kHz, while in nitrogen with 1 ppm O2 the effect of the repetition
frequency has to be included above 1 Hz. Finally, we explain the feather-like
structures around streamer channels that are observed in experiments in
nitrogen with high purity, but not in air.Comment: 12 figure
Absolute Energy Calibration of X-ray TESs with 0.04 eV Uncertainty at 6.4 keV in a Hadron-Beam Environment
A performance evaluation of superconducting transition-edge sensors (TESs) in
the environment of a pion beam line at a particle accelerator is presented.
Averaged across the 209 functioning sensors in the array, the achieved energy
resolution is 5.2 eV FWHM at Co (6.9 keV) when the pion beam is
off and 7.3 eV at a beam rate of 1.45 MHz. Absolute energy uncertainty of
0.04 eV is demonstrated for Fe (6.4 keV) with in-situ energy
calibration obtained from other nearby known x-ray lines. To achieve this small
uncertainty, it is essential to consider the non-Gaussian energy response of
the TESs and thermal cross-talk pile-up effects due to charged-particle hits in
the silicon substrate of the TES array.Comment: Accepted for publication in J. Low Temperature Physics, special issue
for the proceedings of the Low Temperature Detectors 16 conferenc
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