2,482 research outputs found
Bayesian photon counting with electron-multiplying charge coupled devices (EMCCDs)
The EMCCD is a CCD type that delivers fast readout and negligible detector
noise, making it an ideal detector for high frame rate applications. Because of
the very low detector noise, this detector can potentially count single
photons. Considering that an EMCCD has a limited dynamical range and negligible
detector noise, one would typically apply an EMCCD in such a way that multiple
images of the same object are available, for instance, in so called lucky
imaging. The problem of counting photons can then conveniently be viewed as
statistical inference of flux or photon rates, based on a stack of images. A
simple probabilistic model for the output of an EMCCD is developed. Based on
this model and the prior knowledge that photons are Poisson distributed, we
derive two methods for estimating the most probable flux per pixel, one based
on thresholding, and another based on full Bayesian inference. We find that it
is indeed possible to derive such expressions, and tests of these methods show
that estimating fluxes with only shot noise is possible, up to fluxes of about
one photon per pixel per readout.Comment: Fixed a few typos compared to the published versio
Energy Conservation and Gravity Waves in Sound-proof Treatments of Stellar Interiors: Part I Anelastic Approximations
Typical flows in stellar interiors are much slower than the speed of sound.
To follow the slow evolution of subsonic motions, various sound-proof equations
are in wide use, particularly in stellar astrophysical fluid dynamics. These
low-Mach number equations include the anelastic equations. Generally, these
equations are valid in nearly adiabatically stratified regions like stellar
convection zones, but may not be valid in the sub-adiabatic, stably stratified
stellar radiative interiors. Understanding the coupling between the convection
zone and the radiative interior is a problem of crucial interest and may have
strong implications for solar and stellar dynamo theories as the interface
between the two, called the tachocline in the Sun, plays a crucial role in many
solar dynamo theories. Here we study the properties of gravity waves in
stably-stratified atmospheres. In particular, we explore how gravity waves are
handled in various sound-proof equations. We find that some anelastic
treatments fail to conserve energy in stably-stratified atmospheres, instead
conserving pseudo-energies that depend on the stratification, and we
demonstrate this numerically. One anelastic equation set does conserve energy
in all atmospheres and we provide recommendations for converting low-Mach
number anelastic codes to this set of equations.Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJ. 20 pages emulateapj format, 7
figure
Impact of Stark Shifts on the Radiation Cooling of Cu-Dominated Plasmas
We study the impact of Stark line shifts reported recently for Cu I transitions on the radiative cooling of Cu-dominated plasmas. The observed detuning in absorption between the hot core and cold shell of the arc leads to a reduction in radiation reabsorption compared to the case where Stark line shifts are neglected. Using a modeling based on a phenomenological treatment of the Stark line shift, we show that this reduction is below 2%
A neutrino-nucleon interaction generator for the FLUKA Monte Carlo code
Event generators that handle neutrino-nucleon interaction have been developed for the FLUKA code [1]. In earlier FLUKA versions only quasi-elastic (QEL) interactions were included, and the code relied on external event generators for the resonance (RES) and deep inelastic scattering (DIS). The new DIS+RES event generator is fully integrated in FLUKA and uses the same hadronization routines as those used for simulating hadron-nucleon interactions. Nuclear effects in neutrino-nucleus interactions are simulated within the same framework as in the FLUKA hadron-nucleus interaction model (PEANUT), thus profiting from its detailed physics modelling and longstanding benchmarking. The generators are available in the standard FLUKA distribution. They are presently under development and several improvements are planned to be implemented. The physics relevant to the neutrino-nucleon interactions and the results of comparisons with experimental data are discussed
The photoinduced transition in magnetoresistive manganites: a comprehensive view
We use femtosecond x-ray diffraction to study the structural response of
charge and orbitally ordered PrCaMnO thin films across a phase
transition induced by 800 nm laser pulses. By investigating the dynamics of
both superlattice reflections and regular Bragg peaks, we disentangle the
different structural contributions and analyze their relevant time-scales. The
dynamics of the structural and charge order response are qualitatively
different when excited above and below a critical fluence . For
excitations below the charge order and the superlattice is only partially
suppressed and the ground state recovers within a few tens of nanosecond via
diffusive cooling. When exciting above the critical fluence the superlattice
vanishes within approximately half a picosecond followed by a change of the
unit cell parameters on a 10 picoseconds time-scale. At this point all memory
from the symmetry breaking is lost and the recovery time increases by many
order of magnitudes due to the first order character of the structural phase
transition
Domain size effects on the dynamics of a charge density wave in 1T-TaS2
Recent experiments have shown that the high temperature incommensurate (I)
charge density wave (CDW) phase of 1T-TaS2 can be photoinduced from the lower
temperature, nearly commensurate (NC) CDW state. Here we report a time-resolved
x-ray diffraction study of the growth process of the photoinduced I-CDW
domains. The layered nature of the material results in a marked anisotropy in
the size of the photoinduced domains of the I-phase. These are found to grow
self-similarly, their shape remaining unchanged throughout the growth process.
The photoinduced dynamics of the newly formed I-CDW phase was probed at various
stages of the growth process using a double pump scheme, where a first pump
creates I-CDW domains and a second pump excites the newly formed I-CDW state.
We observe larger magnitudes of the coherently excited I-CDW amplitude mode in
smaller domains, which suggests that the incommensurate lattice distortion is
less stable for smaller domain sizes.Comment: 8 pages, 8 figure
Ultrafast relaxation dynamics of the antiferrodistortive phase in Ca doped SrTiO3
The ultrafast dynamics of the octahedral rotation in Ca:SrTiO3 is studied by
time resolved x-ray diffraction after photo excitation over the band gap. By
monitoring the diffraction intensity of a superlattice reflection that is
directly related to the structural order parameter of the soft-mode driven
antiferrodistortive phase in Ca:SrTiO3, we observe a ultrafast relaxation on a
0.2 ps timescale of the rotation of the oxygen octahedron, which is found to be
independent of the initial temperaure despite large changes in the
corresponding soft-mode frequency. A further, much smaller reduction on a
slower picosecond timescale is attributed to thermal effects. Time-dependent
density-functional-theory calculations show that the fast response can be
ascribed to an ultrafast displacive modification of the soft-mode potential
towards the normal state, induced by holes created in the oxygen 2p states
Characterization of a Be(p,xn) neutron source for fission yields measurements
We report on measurements performed at The Svedberg Laboratory (TSL) to
characterize a proton-neutron converter for independent fission yield studies
at the IGISOL-JYFLTRAP facility (Jyv\"askyl\"a, Finland). A 30 MeV proton beam
impinged on a 5 mm water-cooled Beryllium target. Two independent experimental
techniques have been used to measure the neutron spectrum: a Time of Flight
(TOF) system used to estimate the high-energy contribution, and a Bonner Sphere
Spectrometer able to provide precise results from thermal energies up to 20
MeV. An overlap between the energy regions covered by the two systems will
permit a cross-check of the results from the different techniques. In this
paper, the measurement and analysis techniques will be presented together with
some preliminary results.Comment: 3 pages, 3 figures, also submitted as proceedings of the
International Conference on Nuclear Data for Science and Technology 201
Watching the birth of a charge density wave order: diffraction study on nanometer-and picosecond-scales
Femtosecond time-resolved X-ray diffraction is used to study a photo-induced
phase transition between two charge density wave (CDW) states in 1T-TaS,
namely the nearly commensurate (NC) and the incommensurate (I) CDW states.
Structural modulations associated with the NC-CDW order are found to disappear
within 400 fs. The photo-induced I-CDW phase then develops through a
nucleation/growth process which ends 100 ps after laser excitation. We
demonstrate that the newly formed I-CDW phase is fragmented into several
nanometric domains that are growing through a coarsening process. The
coarsening dynamics is found to follow the universal Lifshitz-Allen-Cahn growth
law, which describes the ordering kinetics in systems exhibiting a
non-conservative order parameter.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figure
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