9,263 research outputs found
Terrestrial planets across space and time
The study of cosmology, galaxy formation and exoplanets has now advanced to a
stage where a cosmic inventory of terrestrial planets may be attempted. By
coupling semi-analytic models of galaxy formation to a recipe that relates the
occurrence of planets to the mass and metallicity of their host stars, we trace
the population of terrestrial planets around both solar-mass (FGK type) and
lower-mass (M dwarf) stars throughout all of cosmic history. We find that the
mean age of terrestrial planets in the local Universe is Gyr for FGK
hosts and Gyr for M dwarfs. We estimate that hot Jupiters have
depleted the population of terrestrial planets around FGK stars by no more than
, and that only of the terrestrial planets at the
current epoch are orbiting stars in a metallicity range for which such planets
have yet to be confirmed. The typical terrestrial planet in the local Universe
is located in a spheroid-dominated galaxy with a total stellar mass comparable
to that of the Milky Way. When looking at the inventory of planets throughout
the whole observable Universe, we argue for a total of and terrestrial planets around FGK and M
stars, respectively. Due to light travel time effects, the terrestrial planets
on our past light cone exhibit a mean age of just Gyr. These
results are discussed in the context of cosmic habitability, the Copernican
principle and searches for extraterrestrial intelligence at cosmological
distances.Comment: 11 pages, 8 figures. v.2: Accepted for publication in ApJ. Some
changes in quantitative results compared to v.1, mainly due to differences in
IMF assumption
Ray optics in flux avalanche propagation in superconducting films
Experimental evidence of wave properties of dendritic flux avalanches in
superconducting films is reported. Using magneto-optical imaging the
propagation of dendrites across boundaries between a bare NbN film and areas
coated by a Cu-layer was visualized, and it was found that the propagation is
refracted in full quantitative agreement with Snell's law. For the studied film
of 170 nm thickness and a 0.9 mkm thick metal layer, the refractive index was
close to n=1.4. The origin of the refraction is believed to be caused by the
dendrites propagating as an electromagnetic shock wave, similar to damped modes
considered previously for normal metals. The analogy is justified by the large
dissipation during the avalanches raising the local temperature significantly.
Additional time-resolved measurements of voltage pulses generated by segments
of the dendrites traversing an electrode confirm the consistency of the adapted
physical picture.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure
Products of Random Matrices
We derive analytic expressions for infinite products of random 2x2 matrices.
The determinant of the target matrix is log-normally distributed, whereas the
remainder is a surprisingly complicated function of a parameter characterizing
the norm of the matrix and a parameter characterizing its skewness. The
distribution may have importance as an uncommitted prior in statistical image
analysis.Comment: 9 pages, 1 figur
Addressing \mu-b_\mu and proton lifetime problems and active neutrino masses in a U(1)^\prime-extended supergravity model
We present a locally supersymmetric extension of the minimal supersymmetric
Standard Model (MSSM) based on the gauge group where, except for the supersymmetry breaking scale
which is fixed to be GeV, we require that all non-Standard-Model
parameters allowed by the {\it local} spacetime and gauge symmetries assume
their natural values. The symmetry, which is spontaneously broken
at the intermediate scale, serves to ({\it i}) explain the weak scale
magnitudes of and terms, ({\it ii}) ensure that dimension-3 and
dimension-4 baryon-number-violating superpotential operators are forbidden,
solving the proton-lifetime problem, ({\it iii}) predict {\it bilinear lepton
number violation} in the superpotential at just the right level to accommodate
the observed mass and mixing pattern of active neutrinos (leading to a novel
connection between the SUSY breaking scale and neutrino masses), while
corresponding trilinear operators are strongly supppressed. The phenomenology
is like that of the MSSM with bilinear R-parity violation, were the would-be
lightest supersymmetric particle decays leptonically with a lifetime of s. Theoretical consistency of our model requires the
existence of multi-TeV, stable, colour-triplet, weak-isosinglet scalars or
fermions, with either conventional or exotic electric charge which should be
readily detectable if they are within the kinematic reach of a hadron collider.
Null results of searches for heavy exotic isotopes implies that the re-heating
temperature of our Universe must have been below their mass scale which, in
turn, suggests that sphalerons play a key role for baryogensis. Finally, the
dark matter cannot be the weakly interacting neutralino.Comment: 33 pages, 2 figures, Discussion on proton decay and radiative
neutrino masses augmented, and references adde
Dendritic flux patterns in MgB2 films
Magneto-opitcal studies of a c-oriented epitaxial MgB2 film with critical
current density 10^7 A/cm^2 demonstrate a breakdown of the critical state at
temperatures below 10 K [cond-mat/0104113]. Instead of conventional uniform and
gradual flux penetration in an applied magnetic field, we observe an abrupt
invasion of complex dendritic structures. When the applied field subsequently
decreases, similar dendritic structures of the return flux penetrate the film.
The static and dynamic properties of the dendrites are discussed.Comment: Accepted to Supercond. Sci. Techno
Nonclassicality in Weak Measurements
We examine weak measurements of arbitrary observables where the object is
prepared in a mixed state and on which measurements with imperfect detectors
are made. The weak value of an observable can be expressed as a conditional
expectation value over an infinite class of different generalized Kirkwood
quasi-probability distributions. "Strange" weak values for which the real part
exceeds the eigenvalue spectrum of the observable can only be found if the
Terletsky-Margenau-Hill distribution is negative, or, equivalently, if the real
part of the weak value of the density operator is negative. We find that a
classical model of a weak measurement exists whenever the
Terletsky-Margenau-Hill representation of the observable equals the classical
representation of the observable and the Terletsky-Margenau-Hill distribution
is nonnegative. Strange weak values alone are not sufficient to obtain a
contradiction with classical models.
We propose feasible weak measurements of photon number of the radiation
field. Negative weak values of energy contradicts all classical stochastic
models, whereas negative weak values of photon number contradict all classical
stochastic models where the energy is bounded from below by the zero-point
energy. We examine coherent states in particular, and find negative weak values
with probabilities of 16% for kinetic energy (or squared field quadrature), 8%
for harmonic oscillator energy and 50% for photon number. These experiments are
robust against detector inefficiency and thermal noise.Comment: 12 pages, 8 figure
Decay dynamics of quantum dots influenced by the local density of optical states of two-dimensional photonic crystal membranes
We have performed time-resolved spectroscopy on InAs quantum dot ensembles in
photonic crystal membranes. The influence of the photonic crystal is
investigated by varying the lattice constant systematically. We observe a
strong slow down of the quantum dots' spontaneous emission rates as the
two-dimensional bandgap is tuned through their emission frequencies. The
measured band edges are in full agreement with theoretical predictions. We
characterize the multi-exponential decay curves by their mean decay time and
find enhancement of the spontaneous emission at the bandgap edges and strong
inhibition inside the bandgap in good agreement with local density of states
calculations.Comment: 9 pages (preprint), 3 figure
The formation of the solar system
The solar system started to form about 4.56 Gyr ago and despite the long
intervening time span, there still exist several clues about its formation. The
three major sources for this information are meteorites, the present solar
system structure and the planet-forming systems around young stars. In this
introduction we give an overview of the current understanding of the solar
system formation from all these different research fields. This includes the
question of the lifetime of the solar protoplanetary disc, the different stages
of planet formation, their duration, and their relative importance. We consider
whether meteorite evidence and observations of protoplanetary discs point in
the same direction. This will tell us whether our solar system had a typical
formation history or an exceptional one. There are also many indications that
the solar system formed as part of a star cluster. Here we examine the types of
cluster the Sun could have formed in, especially whether its stellar density
was at any stage high enough to influence the properties of today's solar
system. The likelihood of identifying siblings of the Sun is discussed.
Finally, the possible dynamical evolution of the solar system since its
formation and its future are considered.Comment: 36 pages, 7 figures, invited review in Physica Script
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