3,696 research outputs found
Reconstruction of the Structure of Accretion Disks in Dwarf Novae from the Multi-Band Light Curves of Early Superhumps
We propose a new method to reconstruct the structure of accretion disks in
dwarf novae using multi-band light curves of early superhumps. Our model
assumes that early superhumps are caused by the rotation effect of
non-axisymmetrically flaring disks. We have developed a Bayesian model for this
reconstruction, in which a smoother disk-structure tends to have a higher prior
probability. We analyzed simultaneous optical and near-infrared photometric
data of early superhumps of the dwarf nova, V455 And using this technique. The
reconstructed disk has two flaring parts in the outermost region of the disk.
These parts are responsible for the primary and secondary maxima of the light
curves. The height-to-radius ratio is h/r=0.20-0.25 in the outermost region. In
addition to the outermost flaring structures, flaring arm-like patterns can be
seen in an inner region of the reconstructed disk. The overall profile of the
reconstructed disk is reminiscent of the disk structure that is deformed by the
tidal effect. However, an inner arm-like pattern, which is responsible for the
secondary minimum in the light curve, cannot be reproduced only by the tidal
effect. It implies the presence of another mechanism that deforms the disk
structure. Alternatively, the temperature distribution of the disk could be
non-axisymmetric. We demonstrate that the disk structure with weaker arm-like
patterns is optimal in the model including the irradiation effect. However, the
strongly irradiated disk gives quite blue colors, which may conflict with the
observation. Our results suggest that the amplitude of early superhumps depends
mainly on the height of the outermost flaring regions of the disk. We predict
that early superhumps can be detected with an amplitude of >0.02 mag in about
90% of WZ Sge stars.Comment: 17 pages, 17 figures, accepted for publication in PAS
Surface Acoustic Wave Single-Electron Interferometry
We propose an experiment to observe interference of a single electron as it
is transported along two parallel quasi-one-dimensional channels trapped in a
single minimum of a travelling periodic electric field. The experimental device
is a modification of the surface acoustic wave (SAW) based quantum processor.
Interference is achieved by creating a superposition of spatial wavefunctions
between the two channels and inducing a relative phase shift via either a
transverse electric field or a magnetic field. The interference can be used to
estimate the decoherence time of an electron in this type of solid-state
device
Single-dot spectroscopy via elastic single-electron tunneling through a pair of coupled quantum dots
We study the electronic structure of a single self-assembled InAs quantum dot
by probing elastic single-electron tunneling through a single pair of weakly
coupled dots. In the region below pinch-off voltage, the non-linear threshold
voltage behavior provides electronic addition energies exactly as the linear,
Coulomb blockade oscillation does. By analyzing it, we identify the s and p
shell addition spectrum for up to six electrons in the single InAs dot, i.e.
one of the coupled dots. The evolution of shell addition spectrum with magnetic
field provides Fock-Darwin spectra of s and p shell.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figures, Accepted for publication in Phys. Rev. Let
A generalized Derjaguin approximation for electrical-double-layer interactions at arbitrary separations
Multi-mode storage and retrieval of microwave fields in a spin ensemble
A quantum memory at microwave frequencies, able to store the state of
multiple superconducting qubits for long times, is a key element for quantum
information processing. Electronic and nuclear spins are natural candidates for
the storage medium as their coherence time can be well above one second.
Benefiting from these long coherence times requires to apply the refocusing
techniques used in magnetic resonance, a major challenge in the context of
hybrid quantum circuits. Here we report the first implementation of such a
scheme, using ensembles of nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centres in diamond coupled to
a superconducting resonator, in a setup compatible with superconducting qubit
technology. We implement the active reset of the NV spins into their ground
state by optical pumping and their refocusing by Hahn echo sequences. This
enables the storage of multiple microwave pulses at the picoWatt level and
their retrieval after up to s, a three orders of magnitude improvement
compared to previous experiments.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figures + Supplementary information (text and 6 figures
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