38,218 research outputs found
Fast high--voltage amplifiers for driving electro-optic modulators
We describe five high-voltage (60 to 550V peak to peak), high-speed (1-300ns
rise time; 1.3-300MHz bandwidth) linear amplifiers for driving capacitive or
resistive loads such as electro-optic modulators. The amplifiers use bipolar
transistors in various topologies. Two use electron tubes to overcome the speed
limitations of high-voltage semiconductors. All amplifiers have been built.
Measured performance data is given for each.Comment: 9pages, 6figures, 6tables, to appear in Review of Scientific
Instrument
Simulations of the Magneto-rotational Instability in Core-Collapse Supernovae
We assess the importance of the magneto-rotational instability in
core-collapse supernovae by an analysis of the growth rates of unstable modes
in typical post-collapse systems and by numerical simulations of simplified
models. The interplay of differential rotation and thermal stratification
defines different instability regimes which we confirm in our simulations. We
investigate the termination of the growth of the MRI by parasitic
instabilities, establish scaling laws characterising the termination amplitude,
and study the long-term evolution of the saturated turbulent state.Comment: 6 pages, 1 figure. To appear in Proceedings of 4th International
Conference on Numerical Modeling of Space Plasma Flows (Chamonix 2009
Thermal Infrared Observations of Asteroid (99942) Apophis with Herschel
The near-Earth asteroid (99942) Apophis is a potentially hazardous asteroid.
We obtained far-infrared observations of this asteroid with the Herschel Space
Observatory's PACS instrument at 70, 100, and 160 micron. These were taken at
two epochs in January and March 2013 during a close Earth encounter. These
first thermal measurements of Apophis were taken at similar phase angles before
and after opposition. We performed a detailed thermophysical model analysis by
using the spin and shape model recently derived from applying a 2-period
Fourier series method to a large sample of well-calibrated photometric
observations. We find that the tumbling asteroid Apophis has an elongated shape
with a mean diameter of 375 m (of an equal volume sphere) and a
geometric V-band albedo of 0.30. We find a thermal inertia in
the range 250-800 JmsK (best solution at 600
JmsK), which can be explained by a mixture of low
conductivity fine regolith with larger rocks and boulders of high thermal
inertia on the surface. The thermal inertia, and other similarities with
(25143) Itokawa indicate that Apophis might also have a rubble-pile structure.
If we combine the new size value with the assumption of an Itokawa-like density
and porosity we estimate a mass between 4.4 and 6.2 10 kg which is more
than 2-3 times larger than previous estimates. We expect that the newly derived
properties will influence impact scenario studies and influence the long-term
orbit predictions of Apophis.Comment: Accepted for publication in Astronomy & Astrophysics, 21 pages, 8
figures, 2 table
Test of constancy of speed of light with rotating cryogenic optical resonators
A test of Lorentz invariance for electromagnetic waves was performed by
comparing the resonance frequencies of two optical resonators as a function of
orientation in space. In terms of the Robertson-Mansouri-Sexl theory, we obtain
, a ten-fold improvement compared to
the previous best results. We also set a first upper limit for a so far unknown
parameter of the Standard Model Extension test theory,
.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, accepted for publication Phys. Rev. A (2005
Testate amoebae record from the Laptev Sea coast and its implication for the reconstruction of Late Pleistocene and Holocene environments in the Arctic Siberia
Spin Waves in Quantum Antiferromagnets
Using a self-consistent mean-field theory for the Heisenberg
antiferromagnet Kr\"uger and Schuck recently derived an analytic expression for
the dispersion. It is exact in one dimension () and agrees well with
numerical results in . With an expansion in powers of the inverse
coordination number () we investigate if this expression can be
{\em exact} for all . The projection method of Mori-Zwanzig is used for the
{\em dynamical} spin susceptibility. We find that the expression of Kr\"uger
and Schuck deviates in order from our rigorous result. Our method is
generalised to arbitrary spin and to models with easy-axis anisotropy \D.
It can be systematically improved to higher orders in . We clarify its
relation to the expansion.Comment: 8 pages, uuencoded compressed PS-file, accepted as Euro. Phys. Lette
Reactions at polymer interfaces: A Monte Carlo Simulation
Reactions at a strongly segregated interface of a symmetric binary polymer
blend are investigated via Monte Carlo simulations. End functionalized
homopolymers of different species interact at the interface instantaneously and
irreversibly to form diblock copolymers. The simulations, in the framework of
the bond fluctuation model, determine the time dependence of the copolymer
production in the initial and intermediate time regime for small reactant
concentration . The results are compared to
recent theories and simulation data of a simple reaction diffusion model. For
the reactant concentration accessible in the simulation, no linear growth of
the copolymer density is found in the initial regime, and a -law is
observed in the intermediate stage.Comment: to appear in Macromolecule
Integrability in Yang-Mills theory on the light cone beyond leading order
The one-loop dilatation operator in Yang-Mills theory possesses a hidden
integrability symmetry in the sector of maximal helicity Wilson operators. We
calculate two-loop corrections to the dilatation operator and demonstrate that
while integrability is broken for matter in the fundamental representation of
the SU(3) gauge group, for the adjoint SU(N_c) matter it survives the conformal
symmetry breaking and persists in supersymmetric N=1, N=2 and N=4 Yang-Mills
theories.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figure
Signs of strong Na and K absorption in the transmission spectrum of WASP-103b
Context: Transmission spectroscopy has become a prominent tool for
characterizing the atmospheric properties on close-in transiting planets.
Recent observations have revealed a remarkable diversity in exoplanet spectra,
which show absorption signatures of Na, K and , in some cases
partially or fully attenuated by atmospheric aerosols. Aerosols (clouds and
hazes) themselves have been detected in the transmission spectra of several
planets thanks to wavelength-dependent slopes caused by the particles'
scattering properties. Aims: We present an optical 550 - 960 nm transmission
spectrum of the extremely irradiated hot Jupiter WASP-103b, one of the hottest
(2500 K) and most massive (1.5 ) planets yet to be studied with this
technique. WASP-103b orbits its star at a separation of less than 1.2 times the
Roche limit and is predicted to be strongly tidally distorted. Methods: We have
used Gemini/GMOS to obtain multi-object spectroscopy hroughout three transits
of WASP-103b. We used relative spectrophotometry and bin sizes between 20 and 2
nm to infer the planet's transmission spectrum. Results: We find that WASP-103b
shows increased absorption in the cores of the alkali (Na, K) line features. We
do not confirm the presence of any strong scattering slope as previously
suggested, pointing towards a clear atmosphere for the highly irradiated,
massive exoplanet WASP-103b. We constrain the upper boundary of any potential
cloud deck to reside at pressure levels above 0.01 bar. This finding is in line
with previous studies on cloud occurrence on exoplanets which find that clouds
dominate the transmission spectra of cool, low surface gravity planets while
hot, high surface gravity planets are either cloud-free, or possess clouds
located below the altitudes probed by transmission spectra.Comment: Accepted for publication in A&
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