7,930 research outputs found
Acoustic confinement and Stimulated Brillouin Scattering in integrated optical waveguides
We examine the effect of acoustic mode confinement on Stimulated Brillouin
Scattering in optical waveguides that consist of a guiding core embedded in a
solid substrate. We find that SBS can arise due to coupling to acoustic modes
in three different regimes. First, the acoustic modes may be guided by total
internal reflection; in this case the SBS gain depends directly on the degree
of confinement of the acoustic mode in the core, which is in turn determined by
the acoustic V-parameter. Second, the acoustic modes may be leaky, but may
nevertheless have a sufficiently long lifetime to have a large effect on the
SBS gain; the lifetime of acoustic modes in this regime depends not only on the
contrast in acoustic properties between the core and the cladding, but is also
highly dependent on the waveguide dimensions. Finally SBS may occur due to
coupling to free modes, which exist even in the absence of acoustic
confinement; we find that the cumulative effect of coupling to these
non-confined modes results in significant SBS gain. We show how the different
acoustic properties of core and cladding lead to these different regimes, and
discuss the feasibility of SBS experiments using different material systems
The Parsec-Scale Jets of the TeV Blazars H 1426+428, 1ES 1959+650, and PKS 2155-304: 2001-2004
We present Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA) observations of the TeV blazars H
1426+428, 1ES 1959+650, and PKS 2155-304 obtained during the years 2001 through
2004. We observed H 1426+428 at four epochs at 8 GHz, and found that its
parsec-scale structure consisted of a ~17 mJy core and a single ~3 mJy jet
component with an apparent speed of 2.09 +/- 0.53c. The blazar 1ES 1959+650 was
observed at three epochs at frequencies of 15 and 22 GHz. Spectral index
information from these dual-frequency observations was used to definitively
identify the core of the parsec-scale structure. PKS 2155-304 was observed at a
single epoch at 15 GHz with dual-circular polarization, and we present the
first VLBI polarimetry image of this source. For 1ES 1959+650 and PKS 2155-304,
the current observations are combined with the VLBA observations from our
earlier paper to yield improved apparent speed measurements for these sources
with greatly reduced measurement errors. The new apparent speed measured for
component C2 in 1ES 1959+650 is 0.00 +/- 0.04c (stationary), and the new
apparent speed measured for component C1 in PKS 2155-304 is 0.93 +/- 0.31c. We
combine the new apparent speed measurements from this paper with the apparent
speeds measured in TeV blazar jets from our earlier papers to form a current
set of apparent speed measurements in TeV HBLs. The mean peak apparent pattern
speed in the jets of the TeV HBLs is about 1c. We conclude the paper with a
detailed discussion of the interpretation of the collected VLBA data on TeV
blazars in the context of current theoretical models for the parsec-scale
structure of TeV blazar jets.Comment: 16 pages, Astrophysical Journal, in pres
User Preference Analysis of Internet Social Media services
The size, scope and significance of Internet Social Media (ISM) services have grown exponentially in recent years. This paper discusses the context, methodology, findings, and conclusions from an exploratory study that assessed users’ preferences of ISM services. The study uses a mixed methods approach to explain why ISM services are liked or disliked by users. This is an important area for research since users are the most important stakeholders of any ISM service. The outcomes of this exploratory study were sets of rankings of ISM services that were based entirely on users\u27 preferences. This has not been studied in prior research up to this point. As Internet social networks continue to grow in their popularity and usefulness, this study provides a better understanding of the preferences of ISM users that is valuable to both academia and practitioners. The ISM services that are compared in this study include Facebook, MySpace, Google Plus, LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube, Groupon, Digg, Yelp, and Loopt
Changes in concentration and size distribution of aerosols during fog over the south Indian Ocean
Measurements of the concentration and size distribution of aerosol particles in the size-ranges of 0.5-20 μm and 16-700 nm diameters were made during six fog episodes over the south Indian Ocean. Observations show that concentrations of particles of all sizes start decreasing 1-2 hours before the occurrence of fog. This decrease is more prominent for coarse particles of >1 μm diameter and continues until 10-20 minutes before the onset of fog when particle concentrations in all size ranges rapidly increase by one/two orders of magnitude in ~20 minutes. Thereafter, concentrations of particles of all sizes gradually decrease until the dissipation of fog. After the fog dissipation, concentrations of coarse mode particles rapidly increase and restore to their pre-fog levels but concentrations of the Aitken mode particles decrease slowly and reach their pre-fog levels only after 1-2 hours. The net effect of fog is to change the bimodal size distributions of aerosols with a coarse mode at 1.0 μm and an accumulation mode at 40-60 nm to a power law size distribution. It is proposed that the preferential growth and sedimentation of the coarse mode hygroscopic particles in the initial phase cause a large decrease in the aerosol surface area. As a result, the low vapour pressure gases which were initially being used for the growth of coarse mode particles, now accelerate the growth rates of the accumulation and Aitken mode particles
First passage time of N excluded volume particles on a line
Motivated by recent single molecule studies of proteins sliding on a DNA
molecule, we explore the targeting dynamics of N particles ("proteins") sliding
diffusively along a line ("DNA") in search of their target site (specific
target sequence). At lower particle densities, one observes an expected
reduction of the mean first passage time proportional to 1/N**2, with
corrections at higher concentrations. We explicitly take adsorption and
desorption effects, to and from the DNA, into account. For this general case,
we also consider finite size effects, when the continuum approximation based on
the number density of particles, breaks down. Moreover, we address the first
passage time problem of a tagged particle diffusing among other particles.Comment: 9 pages, REVTeX, 6 eps figure
On the response of the equatorial and low latitude ionospheric regions in the Indian sector to the large magnetic disturbance of 29 October 2003
The present paper investigates the response of the equatorial and low latitude ionosphere over the Indian longitudes to the events on 29 October 2003 using ionosonde data at Trivandrum (8.5° N (0.5° N geomagnetic), 77° E) and SHAR (13.7° N (5.7° N geomagnetic), 80.2° E), groundbased magnetometer data from Trivandrum and Total Electron Content (TEC) derived from GPS data at the locations of Ahmedabad (23° N (15° N geomagnetic), 72° E), Jodhpur (26.3° N (18.3° N geomagnetic), 73° E) and Delhi (28° N (20° N geomagnetic), 77° E). Following the storm sudden commencement, the TEC at all the three stations showed an overall enhancement in association with episodes of interplanetary electric field penetration. Interestingly, real ionospheric height profiles derived using the ionosonde data at both Trivandrum and SHAR showed significant short-term excursions and recoveries. In the post noon sector, these features are more pronounced over SHAR, an off equatorial station, than those over Trivandrum indicating the increased effects of neutral winds
- …