2,997 research outputs found
A cesium gas strongly confined in one dimension : sideband cooling and collisional properties
We study one-dimensional sideband cooling of Cesium atoms strongly confined
in a far-detuned optical lattice. The Lamb-Dicke regime is achieved in the
lattice direction whereas the transverse confinement is much weaker. The
employed sideband cooling method, first studied by Vuletic et al.\cite{Vule98},
uses Raman transitions between Zeeman levels and produces a spin-polarized
sample. We present a detailed study of this cooling method and investigate the
role of elastic collisions in the system. We accumulate of the atoms
in the vibrational ground state of the strongly confined motion, and elastic
collisions cool the transverse motion to a temperature of K=, where is the oscillation
frequency in the strongly confined direction. The sample then approaches the
regime of a quasi-2D cold gas. We analyze the limits of this cooling method and
propose a dynamical change of the trapping potential as a mean of cooling the
atomic sample to still lower temperatures. Measurements of the rate of
thermalization between the weakly and strongly confined degrees of freedom are
compatible with the zero energy scattering resonance observed previously in
weak 3D traps. For the explored temperature range the measurements agree with
recent calculations of quasi-2D collisions\cite{Petr01}. Transparent analytical
models reproduce the expected behavior for and also for where the 2D
features are prominent.Comment: 18 pages, 12 figure
Male-biased gene flow across an avian hybrid zone: evidence from mitochondrial and microsatellite DNA
Mating pattern and gene flow were studied in the contact zone between two morphologically very similar Chiffchaff taxa (Phylloscopus collybita, P. brehmii) in SW France and northern Spain. Mating was assortative in brehmii, but not in collybita. Mixed matings were strongly asymmetric (excess of callybita male x brehmii female pairs), but did produce viable offspring in some cases. Sequence divergence of the mitochondrial cytochrome b gene was 4.6%; Haplotypes segregated significantly with phenotype (only five 'mismatches' among 94 individuals), demonstrating that mitochondrial gene flow was very restricted. The estimated proportion of F-1 hybrids in the reproductive population was significantly lower than expected under a closed population model, indicating strong selection against hybrids. Genetic typing of 101 individuals at four microsatellite loci also showed significant population differentiation, but nuclear gene flow was estimated to be 75 times higher than mitochondrial gene flow. This strong discrepancy is probably due to unisexual hybrid sterility (Haldane's rule). Thus, there is a strong, but incomplete, reproductive barrier between these taxa
How do electronic carriers cross Si-bound alkyl monolayers?
Electron transport through Si-C bound alkyl chains, sandwiched between n-Si
and Hg, is characterized by two distinct types of barriers, each dominating in
a different voltage range. At low voltage, current depends strongly on
temperature but not on molecular length, suggesting transport by thermionic
emission over a barrier in the Si. At higher voltage, the current decreases
exponentially with molecular length, suggesting tunneling through the
molecules. The tunnel barrier is estimated, from transport and photoemission
data, to be ~1.5 eV with a 0.25me effective mass.Comment: 13 pages, 3 figure
The equation of state of ultracold Bose and Fermi gases: a few examples
We describe a powerful method for determining the equation of state of an
ultracold gas from in situ images. The method provides a measurement of the
local pressure of an harmonically trapped gas and we give several applications
to Bose and Fermi gases. We obtain the grand-canonical equation of state of a
spin-balanced Fermi gas with resonant interactions as a function of
temperature. We compare our equation of state with an equation of state
measured by the Tokyo group, that reveals a significant difference in the
high-temperature regime. The normal phase, at low temperature, is well
described by a Landau Fermi liquid model, and we observe a clear thermodynamic
signature of the superfluid transition. In a second part we apply the same
procedure to Bose gases. From a single image of a quasi ideal Bose gas we
determine the equation of state from the classical to the condensed regime.
Finally the method is applied to a Bose gas in a 3D optical lattice in the Mott
insulator regime. Our equation of state directly reveals the Mott insulator
behavior and is suited to investigate finite-temperature effects.Comment: 14 pages, 6 figure
A Search for Variations of Fundamental Constants using Atomic Fountain Clocks
Over five years we have compared the hyperfine frequencies of 133Cs and 87Rb
atoms in their electronic ground state using several laser cooled 133Cs and
87Rb atomic fountains with an accuracy of ~10^{-15}. These measurements set a
stringent upper bound to a possible fractional time variation of the ratio
between the two frequencies : (d/dt)ln(nu_Rb/nu_Cs)=(0.2 +/- 7.0)*10^{-16}
yr^{-1} (1 sigma uncertainty). The same limit applies to a possible variation
of the quantity (mu_Rb/mu_Cs)*alpha^{-0.44}, which involves the ratio of
nuclear magnetic moments and the fine structure constant.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, 1 table submitted to Phys. Rev. Let
Double-impulse magnetic focusing of launched cold atoms.
We have theoretically investigated three-dimensional focusing of a launched cloud of cold atoms using a pair of magnetic lens pulses (the alternate-gradient method). Individual lenses focus radially and defocus axially or vice versa. The performance of the two possible pulse sequences are compared and found to be ideal for loading both 'pancake' and 'sausage' shaped magnetic/optical microtraps. It is shown that focusing aberrations are considerably smaller for double-impulse magnetic lenses compared to single-impulse magnetic lenses. An analysis of clouds focused by the double-impulse technique is presented
Quasifree pion photoproduction on the deuteron in the region
Photo production of pions on the deuteron is studied in the spectator nucleon
model. The Born terms of the elementary production amplitude are determined in
pseudovector N coupling and supplied with a form factor. The
resonance is considered both in the and the channel. The parameters of
the resonance and the cutoff of the form factors are fixed on the
leading photoproduction multipoles. Results for total and differential cross
sections are compared with experimental data. Particular attention is paid to
the role of Pauli correlations of the final state nucleons in the quasifree
case. The results are compared with those for pion photoproduction on the
nucleon.Comment: 17 pages LateX2e including 5 postscript figure
Computational fluid dynamic simulations of maternal circulation : wall shear stress in the human placenta and its biological implications
Introduction In the human placenta the maternal blood circulates in the intervillous space (IVS). The syncytiotrophoblast (STB) is in direct contact with maternal blood. The wall shear stress (WSS) exerted by the maternal blood flow on the STB has not been evaluated. Our objective was to determine the physiological WSS exerted on the surface of the STB during the third trimester of pregnancy. Material and Methods To gain insight into the shear stress levels that the STB is expected to experience in vivo, we have formulated three different computational models of varying levels of complexity that reflect different physical representations of the IVS. Computations of the flow fields in all models were performed using the CFD module of the finite element code COMSOL Multi-physics 4.4. The mean velocity of maternal blood in the IVS during the third trimester was measured in vivo with dynamic MRI (0.94 +/- 0.14 mm.s(-1)). To investigate if the in silico results are consistent with physiological observations, we studied the cytoadhesion of human parasitized (Plasmodium falciparum) erythrocytes to primary human STB cultures, in flow conditions with different WSS values. Results The WSS applied to the STB is highly heterogeneous in the IVS. The estimated average values are relatively low (0.5 +/- 0.2 to 2.3 +/- 1.1 dyn.cm(-2)). The increase of WSS from 0.15 to 5 dyn.cm(-2) was associated with a significant decrease of infected erythrocyte cytoadhesion. No cytoadhesion of infected erythrocytes was observed above 5 dyn.cm(-2) applied for one hour. Conclusion Our study provides for the first time a WSS estimation in the maternal placental circulation. In spite of high maternal blood flow rates, the average WSS applied at the surface of the chorionic villi is low (<5 dyn.cm(-2)). These results provide the basis for future physiologicallyrelevant in vitro studies of the biological effects of WSS on the STB
New Limits to the Drift of Fundamental Constants from Laboratory Measurements
We have remeasured the absolute - transition frequency in atomic hydrogen. A comparison with the result of the previous
measurement performed in 1999 sets a limit of Hz for the drift of
with respect to the ground state hyperfine splitting in Cs. Combining this result with the recently published
optical transition frequency in Hg against and a
microwave Rb and Cs clock comparison, we deduce separate limits
on yr and the
fractional time variation of the ratio of Rb and Cs nuclear magnetic moments
equal to
yr. The latter provides information on the temporal behavior of the
constant of strong interaction.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, LaTe
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