788 research outputs found
Two-dimensional shear modulus of a Langmuir foam
We deform a two-dimensional (2D) foam, created in a Langmuir monolayer, by
applying a mechanical perturbation, and simultaneously image it by Brewster
angle microscopy. We determine the foam stress tensor (through a determination
of the 2D gas-liquid line tension, 2.35 0.4 pJm) and the
statistical strain tensor, by analyzing the images of the deformed structure.
We deduce the 2D shear modulus of the foam, .
The foam effective rigidity is predicted to be , which agrees with the value obtained in an independent mechanical measurement.Comment: submitted May 12, 2003 ; resubmitted Sept 9, 200
Comparison between buried uncultivated and cultivated Iron Age soils on the west coast of Jutland, Denmark
Wind blown sands have buried and preserved the soil profiles of some lron Age soils near an Iron Age settlement in the present day Parish of Lodbjerg on the west coast of Jutland, Denmark. Some of these buried soils show signs of Iron Age agriculture, while others were not disturbed. The present study attempts to clarify this difference and to see how lron Age cultivation affected soil-forming processes. We have found that the cultivated soils contain an abundance of fine charcoal and silt, which is integrated with the top horizon of the soil. In fact, this can be used as a diagnostic criterion for the cultivated soils. Our physical and chemical data show that the ancient cultivation affected particle size distribution, distribution of organic matter, C/N ratio, and organic phosphorous content, as well as some other parameters
Standard geological methods used on archaeological problems
This paper presents some examples of geological methods applied to archaeological problems. The site is an Iron Age village at Heltborg, Thy, Northern Denmark. The very thick layer of occupation material found in this and other Iran Age villages in the area seems to come from the accumulation of grass turf walls of the houses. This explanation can be confirmed by the geological methods. The boundary between a brownish and a more gray horizon in the occupation material can be explained as a redox boundary. As such it is not related to any archaeological event and in fact crosses the archaeological horizons in the material. Micramorphological methods were used, especially on samples from a burnt house. Here it was possible to identify the floor material as till and to identify wattle and daub material. lt proved possible even to give a likely estimation of the appearance of the wall and the technique used in preparing the inside of the house
Quantum fluctuations for drag free geodesic motion
The drag free technique is used to force a proof mass to follow a geodesic
motion. The mass is protected from perturbations by a cage, and the motion of
the latter is actively controlled to follow the motion of the proof mass. We
present a theoretical analysis of the effects of quantum fluctuations for this
technique. We show that a perfect drag free operation is in principle possible
at the quantum level, in spite of the back action exerted on the mass by the
position sensor.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figure, RevTeX, minor change
Chirality transfer and stereo-selectivity of imprinted cholesteric networks
Imprinting of cholesteric textures in a polymer network is a method of
preserving a macroscopically chiral phase in a system with no molecular
chirality. By modifying the elastics properties of the network, the resulting
stored helical twist can be manipulated within a wide range since the
imprinting efficiency depends on the balance between the elastics constants and
twisting power at network formation. One spectacular property of phase
chirality imprinting is the created ability of the network to adsorb
preferentially one stereo-component from a racemic mixture. In this paper we
explore this property of chirality transfer from a macroscopic to the molecular
scale. In particular, we focus on the competition between the phase chirality
and the local nematic order. We demonstrate that it is possible to control the
subsequent release of chiral solvent component from the imprinting network and
the reversibility of the stereo-selective swelling by racemic solvents
Stereo-selective swelling of imprinted cholesteric networks
Molecular chirality, and the chiral symmetry breaking of resulting
macroscopic phases, can be topologically imprinted and manipulated by
crosslinking and swelling of polymer networks. We present a new experimental
approach to stereo-specific separation of chiral isomers by using a cholesteric
elastomer in which a helical director distribution has been topological
imprinted by crosslinking. This makes the material unusual in that is has a
strong phase chirality, but no molecular chirality at all; we study the nature
and parameters controlling the twist-untwist transition. Adding a racemic
mixture to the imprinted network results in selective swelling by only the
component of ``correct'' handedness. We investigate the capacity of demixing in
a racemic environment, which depends on network parameters and the underlying
nematic order
Pioneer 10 data analysis: Investigation on periodic anomalies
International audienceThe Pioneer Anomaly refers to the diïŹerence between the expected theoretical tra jectory of the Pioneer 10 and 11 spacecrafts and the observed tra jectory through Doppler measurements. It has been interpreted by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) as a constant anomalous acceleration (Anderson et al. 2002). For this analysis, the Groupe Anomalie Pioneer (GAP) composed of several french laboratories has developped a speciïŹc tra jectography software, ODYSSEY, which enables to test diïŹerent anomaly models. The paper will present, after a brief description of the software and the implemented models, the last results obtained: in addition to the constant anomaly, time dependent signatures of the anomaly have been noticed which can be described geometrically. The ïŹt of the Pioneer 10 data with these new models yields a reduction of the standard deviation of the residual by a factor 2 with respect to the simple constant anomaly
Transverse-mode coupling in a Kerr medium
We analyze nonlinear transverse mode coupling in a Kerr medium placed in an
optical cavity and its influence on bistability and different kinds of quantum
noise reduction. Even for an input beam that is perfectly matched to a cavity
mode, the nonlinear coupling produces an excess noise in the fluctuations of
the output beam. Intensity squeezing seems to be particularly robust with
respect to mode coupling, while quadrature squeezing is more sensitive.
However, it is possible to find a mode the quadrature squeezing of which is not
affected by the coupling.Comment: 11 pages, 6 figures, LaTe
Direct Measurement of the Photon Statistics of a Triggered Single Photon Source
We studied intensity fluctuations of a single photon source relying on the
pulsed excitation of the fluorescence of a single molecule at room temperature.
We directly measured the Mandel parameter Q(T) over 4 orders of magnitude of
observation timescale T, by recording every photocount. On timescale of a few
excitation periods, subpoissonian statistics is clearly observed and the
probablility of two-photons events is 10 times smaller than Poissonian pulses.
On longer times, blinking in the fluorescence, due to the molecular triplet
state, produces an excess of noise.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, 1 table submitted to Physical Review Letter
Pioneer 10 Doppler data analysis: disentangling periodic and secular anomalies
This paper reports the results of an analysis of the Doppler tracking data of
Pioneer probes which did show an anomalous behaviour. A software has been
developed for the sake of performing a data analysis as independent as possible
from that of J. Anderson et al. \citep{anderson}, using the same data set. A
first output of this new analysis is a confirmation of the existence of a
secular anomaly with an amplitude about 0.8 nms compatible with that
reported by Anderson et al. A second output is the study of periodic variations
of the anomaly, which we characterize as functions of the azimuthal angle
defined by the directions Sun-Earth Antenna and Sun-Pioneer. An
improved fit is obtained with periodic variations written as the sum of a
secular acceleration and two sinusoids of the angles and .
The tests which have been performed for assessing the robustness of these
results are presented.Comment: 13 pages, 6 figures, minor amendment
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