457 research outputs found
A Simple Model for Cavity Enhanced Slow Lights in Vertical Cavity Surface Emission Lasers
We develop a simple model for the slow lights in Vertical Cavity Surface
Emission Lasers (VCSELs), with the combination of cavity and population
pulsation effects. The dependences of probe signal power, injection bias
current and wavelength detuning for the group delays are demonstrated
numerically and experimentally. Up to 65 ps group delays and up to 10 GHz
modulation frequency can be achieved in the room temperature at the wavelength
of 1.3 m. The most significant feature of our VCSEL device is that the
length of active region is only several m long. Based on the experimental
parameters of quantum dot VCSEL structures, we show that the resonance effect
of laser cavity plays a significant role to enhance the group delays
Systematics of the magnetic-Prandtl-number dependence of homogeneous, isotropic magnetohydrodynamic turbulence
We present the results of our detailed pseudospectral direct numerical
simulation (DNS) studies, with up to collocation points, of
incompressible, magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) turbulence in three dimensions,
without a mean magnetic field. Our study concentrates on the dependence of
various statistical properties of both decaying and statistically steady MHD
turbulence on the magnetic Prandtl number over a large range,
namely, . We obtain data for a wide variety of
statistical measures such as probability distribution functions (PDFs) of
moduli of the vorticity and current density, the energy dissipation rates, and
velocity and magnetic-field increments, energy and other spectra, velocity and
magnetic-field structure functions, which we use to characterise intermittency,
isosurfaces of quantities such as the moduli of the vorticity and current, and
joint PDFs such as those of fluid and magnetic dissipation rates. Our
systematic study uncovers interesting results that have not been noted
hitherto. In particular, we find a crossover from larger intermittency in the
magnetic field than in the velocity field, at large , to smaller
intermittency in the magnetic field than in the velocity field, at low . Furthermore, a comparison of our results for decaying MHD turbulence
and its forced, statistically steady analogue suggests that we have strong
universality in the sense that, for a fixed value of , multiscaling
exponent ratios agree, at least within our errorbars, for both decaying and
statistically steady homogeneous, isotropic MHD turbulence.Comment: 49 pages,33 figure
A new view of electrochemistry at highly oriented pyrolytic graphite
Major new insights on electrochemical processes at graphite electrodes are reported, following extensive investigations of two of the most studied redox couples, Fe(CN)64–/3– and Ru(NH3)63+/2+. Experiments have been carried out on five different grades of highly oriented pyrolytic graphite (HOPG) that vary in step-edge height and surface coverage. Significantly, the same electrochemical characteristic is observed on all surfaces, independent of surface quality: initial cyclic voltammetry (CV) is close to reversible on freshly cleaved surfaces (>400 measurements for Fe(CN)64–/3– and >100 for Ru(NH3)63+/2+), in marked contrast to previous studies that have found very slow electron transfer (ET) kinetics, with an interpretation that ET only occurs at step edges. Significantly, high spatial resolution electrochemical imaging with scanning electrochemical cell microscopy, on the highest quality mechanically cleaved HOPG, demonstrates definitively that the pristine basal surface supports fast ET, and that ET is not confined to step edges. However, the history of the HOPG surface strongly influences the electrochemical behavior. Thus, Fe(CN)64–/3– shows markedly diminished ET kinetics with either extended exposure of the HOPG surface to the ambient environment or repeated CV measurements. In situ atomic force microscopy (AFM) reveals that the deterioration in apparent ET kinetics is coupled with the deposition of material on the HOPG electrode, while conducting-AFM highlights that, after cleaving, the local surface conductivity of HOPG deteriorates significantly with time. These observations and new insights are not only important for graphite, but have significant implications for electrochemistry at related carbon materials such as graphene and carbon nanotubes
Precision Top-Quark Mass Measurements at CDF
We present a precision measurement of the top-quark mass using the full
sample of Tevatron TeV proton-antiproton collisions collected
by the CDF II detector, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 8.7
. Using a sample of candidate events decaying into the
lepton+jets channel, we obtain distributions of the top-quark masses and the
invariant mass of two jets from the boson decays from data. We then compare
these distributions to templates derived from signal and background samples to
extract the top-quark mass and the energy scale of the calorimeter jets with
{\it in situ} calibration. The likelihood fit of the templates from signal and
background events to the data yields the single most-precise measurement of the
top-quark mass, \mtop = 172.85 \pm\pmComment: submitted to Phys. Rev. Let
Measurement of the Lifetime Difference Between B_s Mass Eigenstates
We present measurements of the lifetimes and polarization amplitudes for B_s
--> J/psi phi and B_d --> J/psi K*0 decays. Lifetimes of the heavy (H) and
light (L) mass eigenstates in the B_s system are separately measured for the
first time by determining the relative contributions of amplitudes with
definite CP as a function of the decay time. Using 203 +/- 15 B_s decays, we
obtain tau_L = (1.05 +{0.16}/-{0.13} +/- 0.02) ps and tau_H = (2.07
+{0.58}/-{0.46} +/- 0.03) ps. Expressed in terms of the difference DeltaGamma_s
and average Gamma_s, of the decay rates of the two eigenstates, the results are
DeltaGamma_s/Gamma_s = (65 +{25}/-{33} +/- 1)%, and DeltaGamma_s = (0.47
+{0.19}/-{0.24} +/- 0.01) inverse ps.Comment: 8 pages, 3 figures, 2 tables; as published in Physical Review Letters
on 16 March 2005; revisions are for length and typesetting only, no changes
in results or conclusion
Is Sustained Virological Response a Marker of Treatment Efficacy in Patients with Chronic Hepatitis C Viral Infection with No Response or Relapse to Previous Antiviral Intervention?
Background: Randomised clinical trials (RCTs) of antiviral interventions in patients with chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection use sustained virological response (SVR) as the main outcome. There is sparse information on long-term mortality from RCTs. Methods: We created a decision tree model based on a Cochrane systematic review on interferon retreatment for patients who did not respond to initial therapy or who relapsed following SVR. Extrapolating data to 20 years, we modelled the outcome from three scenarios: (1) observed medium-term (5 year) annual mortality rates continue to the long term (20 years); (2) long-term annual mortality in retreatment responders falls to that of the general population while retreatment non-responders continue at the medium-term mortality; (3) long-term annual mortality in retreatment non-responders is the same as control group non-responders (i.e., the increased treatment-related medium mortality “wears off”). Results: The mean differences in life expectancy over 20 years with interferon versus control in the first, second, and third scenarios were -0.34 years (95% confidence interval (CI) -0.71 to 0.03), -0.23 years (95% CI -0.69 to 0.24), and -0.01 (95% CI -0.3 to 0.27), respectively. The life expectancy was always lower in the interferon group than in the control group in scenario 1. In scenario 3, the interferon group had a longer life expectancy than the control group only when more than 7% in the interferon group achieved SVR. Conclusions: SVR may be a good prognostic marker but does not seem to be a valid surrogate marker for assessing HCV treatment efficacy of interferon retreatment. The SVR threshold at which retreatment increases life expectancy may be different for different drugs depending upon the adverse event profile and treatment efficacy. This has to be determined for each drug by RCTs and appropriate modelling before SVR can be accepted as a surrogate marker
Status of Muon Collider Research and Development and Future Plans
The status of the research on muon colliders is discussed and plans are
outlined for future theoretical and experimental studies. Besides continued
work on the parameters of a 3-4 and 0.5 TeV center-of-mass (CoM) energy
collider, many studies are now concentrating on a machine near 0.1 TeV (CoM)
that could be a factory for the s-channel production of Higgs particles. We
discuss the research on the various components in such muon colliders, starting
from the proton accelerator needed to generate pions from a heavy-Z target and
proceeding through the phase rotation and decay ()
channel, muon cooling, acceleration, storage in a collider ring and the
collider detector. We also present theoretical and experimental R & D plans for
the next several years that should lead to a better understanding of the design
and feasibility issues for all of the components. This report is an update of
the progress on the R & D since the Feasibility Study of Muon Colliders
presented at the Snowmass'96 Workshop [R. B. Palmer, A. Sessler and A.
Tollestrup, Proceedings of the 1996 DPF/DPB Summer Study on High-Energy Physics
(Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, Menlo Park, CA, 1997)].Comment: 95 pages, 75 figures. Submitted to Physical Review Special Topics,
Accelerators and Beam
Search for ZZ and ZW Production in ppbar Collisions at sqrt(s) = 1.96 TeV
We present a search for ZZ and ZW vector boson pair production in ppbar
collisions at sqrt(s) = 1.96 TeV using the leptonic decay channels ZZ --> ll nu
nu, ZZ --> l l l' l' and ZW --> l l l' nu. In a data sample corresponding to an
integrated luminosity of 194 pb-1 collected with the Collider Detector at
Fermilab, 3 candidate events are found with an expected background of 1.0 +/-
0.2 events. We set a 95% confidence level upper limit of 15.2 pb on the cross
section for ZZ plus ZW production, compared to the standard model prediction of
5.0 +/- 0.4 pb.Comment: 7 pages, 2 figures. This version is accepted for publication by Phys.
Rev. D Rapid Communication
Measurement of the Cross Section for Prompt Diphoton Production in p-pbar Collisions at sqrt(s) = 1.96 TeV
We report a measurement of the rate of prompt diphoton production in
collisions at using a data sample of 207
pb collected with the upgraded Collider Detector at Fermilab (CDF II).
The background from non-prompt sources is determined using a statistical method
based on differences in the electromagnetic showers. The cross section is
measured as a function of the diphoton mass, the transverse momentum of the
diphoton system, and the azimuthal angle between the two photons and is found
to be consistent with perturbative QCD predictions.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figures,revtex4. Version accepted by PRL, but with cross
section tables i
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