Laminar-turbulent transition in Raman fiber lasers:a first passage statistics based analysis

Loss of coherence with increasing excitation amplitudes and spatial size modulation is a fundamental problem in designing Raman fiber lasers. While it is known that ramping up laser pump power increases the amplitude of stochastic excitations, such higher energy inputs can also lead to a transition from a linearly stable coherent laminar regime to a non-desirable disordered turbulent state. This report presents a new statistical methodology, based on first passage statistics, that classifies lasing regimes in Raman fiber lasers, thereby leading to a fast and highly accurate identification of a strong instability leading to a laminar-turbulent phase transition through a self-consistently defined order parameter. The results have been consistent across a wide range of pump power values, heralding a breakthrough in the non-invasive analysis of fiber laser dynamics

Spectral correlations in a random distributed feedback fibre laser

Random distributed feedback fibre lasers belong to the class of random lasers, where the feedback is provided by amplified Rayleigh scattering on sub-micron refractive index inhomogenities randomly distributed over the fibre length. Despite the elastic nature of Rayleigh scattering, the feedback mechanism has been insofar deemed incoherent, which corresponds to the commonly observed smooth generation spectra. Here, using a real-time spectral measurement technique based on a scanning Fabry-Pérot interferometer, we observe long-living narrowband components in the random fibre laser's spectrum. Statistical analysis of the ∼104 single-scan spectra reveals a preferential interspacing for the components and their anticorrelation in intensities. Furthermore, using mutual information analysis, we confirm the existence of nonlinear correlations between different parts of the random fibre laser spectra. The existence of such narrowband spectral components, together with their observed correlations, establishes a long-missing parallel between the fields of random fibre lasers and conventional random lasers

Multi-messenger observations of a binary neutron star merger

On 2017 August 17 a binary neutron star coalescence candidate (later designated GW170817) with merger time 12:41:04 UTC was observed through gravitational waves by the Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo detectors. The Fermi Gamma-ray Burst Monitor independently detected a gamma-ray burst (GRB 170817A) with a time delay of ~1.7 s with respect to the merger time. From the gravitational-wave signal, the source was initially localized to a sky region of 31 deg2 at a luminosity distance of 40+8-8 Mpc and with component masses consistent with neutron stars. The component masses were later measured to be in the range 0.86 to 2.26 Mo. An extensive observing campaign was launched across the electromagnetic spectrum leading to the discovery of a bright optical transient (SSS17a, now with the IAU identification of AT 2017gfo) in NGC 4993 (at ~40 Mpc) less than 11 hours after the merger by the One- Meter, Two Hemisphere (1M2H) team using the 1 m Swope Telescope. The optical transient was independently detected by multiple teams within an hour. Subsequent observations targeted the object and its environment. Early ultraviolet observations revealed a blue transient that faded within 48 hours. Optical and infrared observations showed a redward evolution over ~10 days. Following early non-detections, X-ray and radio emission were discovered at the transient’s position ~9 and ~16 days, respectively, after the merger. Both the X-ray and radio emission likely arise from a physical process that is distinct from the one that generates the UV/optical/near-infrared emission. No ultra-high-energy gamma-rays and no neutrino candidates consistent with the source were found in follow-up searches. These observations support the hypothesis that GW170817 was produced by the merger of two neutron stars in NGC4993 followed by a short gamma-ray burst (GRB 170817A) and a kilonova/macronova powered by the radioactive decay of r-process nuclei synthesized in the ejecta

Guidelines for the use and interpretation of assays for monitoring autophagy (4th edition)1.

In 2008, we published the first set of guidelines for standardizing research in autophagy. Since then, this topic has received increasing attention, and many scientists have entered the field. Our knowledge base and relevant new technologies have also been expanding. Thus, it is important to formulate on a regular basis updated guidelines for monitoring autophagy in different organisms. Despite numerous reviews, there continues to be confusion regarding acceptable methods to evaluate autophagy, especially in multicellular eukaryotes. Here, we present a set of guidelines for investigators to select and interpret methods to examine autophagy and related processes, and for reviewers to provide realistic and reasonable critiques of reports that are focused on these processes. These guidelines are not meant to be a dogmatic set of rules, because the appropriateness of any assay largely depends on the question being asked and the system being used. Moreover, no individual assay is perfect for every situation, calling for the use of multiple techniques to properly monitor autophagy in each experimental setting. Finally, several core components of the autophagy machinery have been implicated in distinct autophagic processes (canonical and noncanonical autophagy), implying that genetic approaches to block autophagy should rely on targeting two or more autophagy-related genes that ideally participate in distinct steps of the pathway. Along similar lines, because multiple proteins involved in autophagy also regulate other cellular pathways including apoptosis, not all of them can be used as a specific marker for bona fide autophagic responses. Here, we critically discuss current methods of assessing autophagy and the information they can, or cannot, provide. Our ultimate goal is to encourage intellectual and technical innovation in the field

Particle identification in ALICE : a Bayesian approach

Peer reviewe

Multiwavelength observations of GRB 140629A: a long burst with an achromatic jet break in the optical and X-ray afterglow

We investigate the long gamma-ray burst (GRB) 140629A through multiwavelength observations to derive the properties of the dominant jet and its host galaxy. Methods. The afterglow and host galaxy observations were taken in the optical (Swift/UVOT and various facilities worldwide), infrared (Spitzer), and X-rays (Swift/XRT) between 40 s and 3 yr after the burst trigger. Results. Polarisation observations by the MASTER telescope indicate that this burst is weakly polarised. The optical spectrum contains absorption features, from which we confirm the redshift of the GRB as originating at z=2.276 +/- 0.001. We performed spectral fitting of the X-rays to optical afterglow data and find there is no strong spectral evolution. We determine the hydrogen column density N-H to be 7.2 x 10(21) cm(-2) along the line of sight. The afterglow in this burst can be explained by a blast wave jet with a long-lasting central engine expanding into a uniform medium in the slow cooling regime. At the end of energy injection, a normal decay phase is observed in both the optical and X-ray bands. An achromatic jet break is also found in the afterglow light curves similar to 0.4 d after trigger. We fit the multiwavelength data simultaneously with a model based on a numerical simulation and find that the observations can be explained by a narrow uniform jet in a dense environment with an opening angle of 6.7 degrees viewed 3.8 degrees off-axis, which released a total energy of 1.4 x 10(54) erg. Using the redshift and opening angle, we find GRB 140629A follows both the Ghirlanda and Amati relations. From the peak time of the light curve, identified as the onset of the forward shock (181s after trigger), the initial Lorentz factor (Gamma(0)) is constrained in the range 82-118. Fitting the host galaxy photometry, we find the host to be a low mass, star-forming galaxy with a star formation rate of log (SFR) 1.1(-0.4)(+0.9) M(circle dot)log(SFR)=1.1-0.4+0.9M circle dot$\log\mathrm{(SFR)}=1.1_{-0.4}{+0.9}\,M_\odot$ yr(-1). We obtain a value of the neutral hydrogen density by fitting the optical spectrum, log N-HI=21.0 +/- 0.3, classifying this host as a damped Lyman-alpha. High ionisation lines (NV, SiIV) are also detected in the spectrum.© ESO 2019Acknowledge the support by the program of China Scholarships Council (CSC) under the Grant no. 201406660015. We also acknowledge support from the Spanish MINEICO ministry and European FEDER funds AYA-2015-71718-R. SRO gratefully acknowledges the support of the Leverhulme Trust Early Career Fellowship. RS-R acknowledges support from ASI (Italian Space Agency) through the Contract no. 2015-046-R.0 and from European Union Horizon 2020 Programme under the AHEAD project (grant agreement no. 654215). MASTER equipment is supported by Lomonosov MSU Development Program and by Moscow Union OPTIKA. VL,EG, NT, VK are supported by BRICS RFBR grant 17-52-80133. MASTER-Tunka equipment is supported of Russian Federation Ministry of Science and High Education (grants 2019-05-592-0001-7293 and 2019-05-595-0001-2496). B.-B.Z. acknowledges support from the National Key Research and Development Program of China (2018YFA0404204), and NSFC-11833003. S.B.P. acknowledges BRICS grant DST/IMRCD/BRICS/Pilotcall/ProFCheap/2017(G) for this work. I.D. acknowledges L. Piro his invitation and financial support to visit and work at IAPS (Rome). We also acknowledge the use of the public data from the Swift data archive. We thank the excellent support form the GTC staff which is located at Observatorio del Roque de los Muchachos at Canary Islands (Spain). Thanks to the data support by NASA with Spitzer Space Telescope. SP and RB acknowledge support from RBRF grant 17-52-80139 BRICS-a. IHP acknowledges support from NRF 2018R1A2A1A05022685. Finally, we want to thank the anonymous referee for his/her comments, which have substantially improved the manuscrip