91,412 research outputs found
Does Scientific Progress Consist in Increasing Knowledge or Understanding?
Bird argues that scientific progress consists in increasing knowledge. Dellsén objects that increasing knowledge is neither necessary nor sufficient for scientific progress, and argues that scientific progress rather consists in increasing understanding. Dellsén also contends that unlike Bird’s view, his view can account for the scientific practices of using idealizations and of choosing simple theories over complex ones. I argue that Dellsén’s criticisms against Bird’s view fail, and that increasing understanding cannot account for scientific progress, if acceptance, as opposed to belief, is required for scientific understanding
Driven Pair Contact Process with Diffusion
The pair contact process with diffusion (PCPD) has been recently investigated
extensively, but its critical behavior is not yet clearly established. By
introducing biased diffusion, we show that the external driving is relevant and
the driven PCPD exhibits a mean-field-type critical behavior even in one
dimension. In systems which can be described by a single-species bosonic field
theory, the Galilean invariance guarantees that the driving is irrelevant. The
well-established directed percolation (DP) and parity conserving (PC) classes
are such examples. This leads us to conclude that the PCPD universality class
should be distinct from the DP or PC class. Moreover, it implies that the PCPD
is generically a multi-species model and a field theory of two species is
suitable for proper description
True high-order VCO-based ADC
A novel approach to use a voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO) as the first integrator of a high-order continuous-time delta-sigma modulator (CT-DSM) is presented. In the proposed architecture, the VCO is combined with a digital up-down counter to implement the first integrator of the CT-DSM. Thus, the first integrator is digital-friendly and hence can maximally benefit from technological scaling
Reconstructing a pure state of a spin s through three Stern-Gerlach measurements: II
The density matrix of a spin s is fixed uniquely if the probabilities to obtain the value s upon measuring n.S are known for 4s(s+1) appropriately chosen directions n in space. These numbers are just the expectation values of the density operator in coherent spin states, and they can be determined in an experiment carried out with a Stern-Gerlach apparatus. Furthermore, the experimental data can be inverted providing thus a parametrization of the statistical operator by 4s(s+1) positive parameters
Nonclassicality of a photon-subtracted Gaussian field
Published versio
In Defense of the Epistemic Imperative
Sample (2015) argues that scientists ought not to believe that their theories are true because they cannot fulfill the epistemic obligation to take the diachronic perspective on their theories. I reply that Sample’s argument imposes an inordinately heavy epistemic obligation on scientists, and that it spells doom not only for scientific theories but also for observational beliefs and philosophical ideas that Samples endorses. I also delineate what I take to be a reasonable epistemic obligation for scientists. In sum, philosophers ought to impose on scientists only an epistemic standard that they are willing to impose on themselves
X-ray Evolution of SNR 1987A: The Radial Expansion
We present the evolution of the radial expansion of SNR 1987A as measured
using Chandra X-ray observations taken over the last 10 years. To characterize
the complex structure of the remnant and isolate the expansion measurement, we
fit the images to several empirical models including: a simple circular torus,
a torus with bilateral lobes, and a torus with four tangentially extended
lobes. We discuss the results of this measure in the context of the overall
evolution of the supernova remnant, for which we believe we have measured the
end of the free expansion phase and its transition to the adiabatic phase (at
least along the equatorial ring). The timing of this event is in agreement with
early predictions of the remnant evolution.Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJ, 21 pages, 4 figures, 3 table
Design and construction of a point-contact spectroscopy rig with lateral scanning capability
The design and realization of a cryogenic rig for point-contact spectroscopy
measurements in the needle-anvil configuration is presented. Thanks to the use
of two piezoelectric nano-positioners, the tip can move along the vertical
() and horizontal () direction and thus the rig is suitable to probe
different regions of a sample \textit{in situ}. Moreover, it can also form
double point-contacts on different facets of a single crystal for achieving,
e.g., an interferometer configuration for phase-sensitive measurements. For the
latter purpose, the sample holder can also host a Helmholtz coil for applying a
small transverse magnetic field to the junction. A semi-rigid coaxial cable can
be easily added for studying the behavior of Josephson junctions under
microwave irradiation. The rig can be detached from the probe and thus used
with different cryostats. The performance of this new probe has been tested in
a Quantum Design PPMS system by conducting point-contact Andreev reflection
measurements on Nb thin films over large areas as a function of temperature and
magnetic field.Comment: 7 pages, 7 figures, published in Rev. Sci. Instru
Electrical Nanoprobing of Semiconducting Carbon Nanotubes using an Atomic Force Microscope
We use an Atomic Force Microscope (AFM) tip to locally probe the electronic
properties of semiconducting carbon nanotube transistors. A gold-coated AFM tip
serves as a voltage or current probe in three-probe measurement setup. Using
the tip as a movable current probe, we investigate the scaling of the device
properties with channel length. Using the tip as a voltage probe, we study the
properties of the contacts. We find that Au makes an excellent contact in the
p-region, with no Schottky barrier. In the n-region large contact resistances
were found which dominate the transport properties.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figure
The Power Spectrum of Galaxies in the Nearby Universe
We compute the power spectrum of galaxy density fluctuations in a recently
completed redshift survey of optically-selected galaxies in the southern
hemisphere (SSRS2). The amplitude and shape of the SSRS2 power spectrum are
consistent with results of the Center for Astrophysics redshift survey of the
northern hemisphere (CfA2), including the abrupt change of slope on a scale of
30-50Mpc/h; these results are reproducible for independent volumes of space and
variations are consistent with the errors estimated from mock surveys. Taken
together, the SSRS2 and CfA2 form a complete sample of 14,383 galaxies which
covers one-third of the sky. The power spectrum of this larger sample continues
to rise on scales up to ~ 200Mpc/h, with weak evidence for flattening on the
largest scales. The SSRS2+CfA2 power spectrum and the power spectrum
constraints implied by COBE are well-matched by an Omega*h ~ 0.2,
Omega+lambda_0=1 CDM model with minimal biasing of optically-selected galaxies.Comment: Accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, Sept.
23, 1994. 10 pages uuencoded compressed postscript, including two figures.
JHU-9410200
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