15,065 research outputs found
Glory revealed in disk-integrated photometry of Venus
Context. Reflected light from a spatially unresolved planet yields unique
insight into the overall optical properties of the planet cover. Glories are
optical phenomena caused by light that is backscattered within spherical
droplets following a narrow distribution of sizes; they are well known on Earth
as localised features above liquid clouds. Aims. Here we report the first
evidence for a glory in the disk-integrated photometry of Venus and, in turn,
of any planet. Methods. We used previously published phase curves of the planet
that were reproduced over the full range of phase angles with model predictions
based on a realistic description of the Venus atmosphere. We assumed that the
optical properties of the planet as a whole can be described by a uniform and
stable cloud cover, an assumption that agrees well with observational evidence.
Results. We specifically show that the measured phase curves mimic the
scattering properties of the Venus upper-cloud micron-sized aerosols, also at
the small phase angles at which the glory occurs, and that the glory contrast
is consistent with what is expected after multiple scattering of photons. In
the optical, the planet appears to be brighter at phase angles of 11-13 deg
than at full illumination; it undergoes a maximum dimming of up to 10 percent
at phases in between. Conclusions. Glories might potentially indicate spherical
droplets and, thus, extant liquid clouds in the atmospheres of exoplanets. A
prospective detection will require exquisite photometry at the small
planet-star separations of the glory phase angles.Comment: In press. Astronomy & Astrophysics. Letter to the Editor; 201
Brauer group of moduli spaces of pairs
We show that the Brauer group of any moduli space of stable pairs with fixed
determinant over a curve is zero.Comment: 12 pages. Final version, accepted in Communications in Algebr
Influence of diffusion on models for non-equilibrium wetting
It is shown that the critical properties of a recently studied model for
non-equilibrium wetting are robust if one extends the dynamic rules by
single-particle diffusion on terraces of the wetting layer. Examining the
behavior at the critical point and along the phase transition line, we identify
a special point in the phase diagram where detailed balance of the dynamical
processes is partially broken.Comment: 6 pages, 9 figure
Optimal quantum state reconstruction for cold trapped ions
We study the physical implementation of an optimal tomographic reconstruction
scheme for the case of determining the state of a multi-qubit system, where
trapped ions are used for defining qubits. The protocol is based on the use of
mutually unbiased measurements and on the physical information described in H.
H\"{a}ffner \emph{et. al} [Nature \textbf{438}, 643-646 (2005)]. We introduce
the concept of physical complexity for different types of unbiased measurements
and analyze their generation in terms of one and two qubit gates for trapped
ions.Comment: Accepted for publication in Phys. Rev. A as Rap. Com
Molecular dynamics simulations of complex shaped particles using Minkowski operators
The Minkowski operators (addition and substraction of sets in vectorial
spaces) has been extensively used for Computer Graphics and Image Processing to
represent complex shapes. Here we propose to apply those mathematical concepts
to extend the Molecular Dynamics (MD) Methods for simulations with
complex-shaped particles. A new concept of Voronoi-Minkowski diagrams is
introduced to generate random packings of complex-shaped particles with tunable
particle roundness. By extending the classical concept of Verlet list we
achieve numerical efficiencies that do not grow quadratically with the body
number of sides. Simulations of dissipative granular materials under shear
demonstrate that the method complies with the first law of thermodynamics for
energy balance.Comment: Submitted to Phys. Rev.
- …