24,016 research outputs found
All-sky Relative Opacity Mapping Using Night Time Panoramic Images
An all-sky cloud monitoring system that generates relative opacity maps over
many of the world's premier astronomical observatories is described.
Photometric measurements of numerous background stars are combined with
simultaneous sky brightness measurements to differentiate thin clouds from sky
glow sources such as air glow and zodiacal light. The system takes a continuous
pipeline of all-sky images, and compares them to canonical images taken on
other nights at the same sidereal time. Data interpolation then yields
transmission maps covering almost the entire sky. An implementation of this
system is currently operating through the Night Sky Live network of CONCAM3s
located at Cerro Pachon (Chile), Mauna Kea (Hawaii), Haleakala (Hawaii), SALT
(South Africa) and the Canary Islands (Northwestern Africa).Comment: Accepted for publication in PAS
Berry phases and zero-modes in toroidal topological insulator
An effective Hamiltonian describing the surface states of a toroidal
topological insulator is obtained, and it is shown to support both bound-states
and charged zero-modes. Actually, the spin connection induced by the toroidal
curvature can be viewed as an position-dependent effective vector potential,
which ultimately yields the zero-modes whose wave-functions harmonically
oscillate around the toroidal surface. In addition, two distinct Berry phases
are predicted to take place by the virtue of the toroidal topology.Comment: New version, accepted for publication in EPJB, 6 pages, 1 figur
Non-Collinear Ferromagnetic Luttinger Liquids
The presence of electron-electron interactions in one dimension profoundly
changes the properties of a system. The separation of charge and spin degrees
of freedom is just one example. We consider what happens when a system
consisting of a ferromagnetic region of non-collinearity, i.e. a domain wall,
is coupled to interacting electrons in one-dimension (more specifically a
Luttinger liquid). The ferromagnetism breaks spin charge separation and the
presence of the domain wall introduces a spin dependent scatterer into the
problem. The absence of spin charge separation and the effects of the electron
correlations results in very different behaviour for the excitations in the
system and for spin-transfer-torque effects in this model.Comment: 6 pages, submitted to Journal of Physics: Conference Series for JEMS
201
Cancellation of atmospheric turbulence effects in entangled two-photon beams
Turbulent airflow in the atmosphere and the resulting random fluctuations in
its refractive index have long been known as a major cause of image
deterioration in astronomical imaging and figures among the obstacles for
reliable optical communication when information is encoded in the spatial
profile of a laser beam. Here we show that using correlation imaging and a
suitably prepared source of photon pairs, the most severe of the disturbances
inflicted on the beam by turbulence can be cancelled out. Other than a
two-photon light source, only linear passive optical elements are needed and,
as opposed to adaptive optics techniques, our scheme does not rely on active
wavefront correction.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figure
Lorentzian spin foam amplitudes: graphical calculus and asymptotics
The amplitude for the 4-simplex in a spin foam model for quantum gravity is
defined using a graphical calculus for the unitary representations of the
Lorentz group. The asymptotics of this amplitude are studied in the limit when
the representation parameters are large, for various cases of boundary data. It
is shown that for boundary data corresponding to a Lorentzian simplex, the
asymptotic formula has two terms, with phase plus or minus the Lorentzian
signature Regge action for the 4-simplex geometry, multiplied by an Immirzi
parameter. Other cases of boundary data are also considered, including a
surprising contribution from Euclidean signature metrics.Comment: 30 pages. v2: references now appear. v3: presentation greatly
improved (particularly diagrammatic calculus). Definition of "Regge state"
now the same as in previous work; signs change in final formula as a result.
v4: two references adde
OT 060420: A Seemingly Optical Transient Recorded by All-Sky Cameras
We report on a ~5th magnitude flash detected for approximately 10 minutes by
two CONCAM all-sky cameras located in Cerro Pachon - Chile and La Palma -
Spain. A third all-sky camera, located in Cerro Paranal - Chile did not detect
the flash, and therefore the authors of this paper suggest that the flash was a
series of cosmic-ray hits, meteors, or satellite glints. Another proposed
hypothesis is that the flash was an astronomical transient with variable
luminosity. In this paper we discuss bright optical transient detection using
fish-eye all-sky monitors, analyze the apparently false-positive optical
transient, and propose possible causes to false optical transient detection in
all-sky cameras.Comment: 7 figures, 3 tables, accepted PAS
Método de substituição de seiva para preservação de mourões.
bitstream/CNPF-2009-09/35558/1/com_tec97.pd
On thermalization of magnetic nano-arrays at fabrication
We propose a model to predict and control the statistical ensemble of
magnetic degrees of freedom in Artificial Spin Ice (ASI) during thermalized
adiabatic growth. We predict that as-grown arrays are controlled by the
temperature at fabrication and by their lattice constant, and that they can be
described by an effective temperature. If the geometry is conducive to a phase
transition, then the lowest temperature phase is accessed in arrays of lattice
constant smaller than a critical value, which depends on the temperature at
deposition. Alternatively, for arrays of equal lattice constant, there is a
temperature threshold at deposition and the lowest temperature phase is
accessed for fabrication temperatures {\it larger rather than smaller} than
this temperature threshold. Finally we show how to define and control the
effective temperature of the as-grown array and how to measure critical
exponents directly. We discuss the role of kinetics at the critical point, and
applications to experiments, in particular to as-grown thermalized square ASI,
and to magnetic monopole crystallization in as-grown honeycomb ASI.Comment: 14 pages, 2 figures. A theoretical approach to experimental results
reported in: Morgan J P, Stein A, Langridge S and Marrows C (2010) Nature
Physics 7 7
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