593 research outputs found
Constraints on the Neutrino Mass from SZ Surveys
Statistical measures of galaxy clusters are sensitive to neutrino masses in
the sub-eV range. We explore the possibility of using cluster number counts
from the ongoing PLANCK/SZ and future cosmic-variance-limited surveys to
constrain neutrino masses from CMB data alone. The precision with which the
total neutrino mass can be determined from SZ number counts is limited mostly
by uncertainties in the cluster mass function and intracluster gas evolution;
these are explicitly accounted for in our analysis. We find that projected
results from the PLANCK/SZ survey can be used to determine the total neutrino
mass with a (1\sigma) uncertainty of 0.06 eV, assuming it is in the range
0.1-0.3 eV, and the survey detection limit is set at the 5\sigma significance
level. Our results constitute a significant improvement on the limits expected
from PLANCK/CMB lensing measurements, 0.15 eV. Based on expected results from
future cosmic-variance-limited (CVL) SZ survey we predict a 1\sigma uncertainty
of 0.04 eV, a level comparable to that expected when CMB lensing extraction is
carried out with the same experiment. A few percent uncertainty in the mass
function parameters could result in up to a factor \sim 2-3 degradation of our
PLANCK and CVL forecasts. Our analysis shows that cluster number counts provide
a viable complementary cosmological probe to CMB lensing constraints on the
total neutrino mass.Comment: Replaced with a revised version to match the MNRAS accepted version.
arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1009.411
Optimization of second-harmonic generation from touching plasmonic wires
We employ transformation optics to optimize the generic nonlinear wave
interaction of second-harmonic generation from a pair of touching metallic
wires. We demonstrate a 10 orders of magnitude increase in the second-harmonic
scattering cross-section by increasing the background permittivity and a 5
orders of magnitude increase in efficiency with respect to a single wire. These
results have clear implications for the design of nanostructured metallic
frequency-conversion devices. Finally, we exploit our analytic solution of a
non-trivial nanophotonic geometry as a platform for performing a critical
comparison of the strengths, weaknesses and validity of other prevailing
theoretical approaches previously employed for nonlinear wave interactions at
the nanoscale
Exotic Non-Supersymmetric Gauge Dynamics from Supersymmetric QCD
We extend Seiberg's qualitative picture of the behavior of supersymmetric QCD
to nonsupersymmetric models by adding soft supersymmetry breaking terms. In
this way, we recover the standard vacuum of QCD with flavors and
colors when . However, for , we find new exotic
states---new vacua with spontaneously broken baryon number for , and
a vacuum state with unbroken chiral symmetry for . These exotic
vacua contain massless composite fermions and, in some cases, dynamically
generated gauge bosons. In particular Seiberg's electric-magnetic duality seems
to persist also in the presence of (small) soft supersymmetry breaking. We
argue that certain, specially tailored, lattice simulations may be able to
detect the novel phenomena. Most of the exotic behavior does not survive the
decoupling limit of large SUSY breaking parameters.Comment: 36 pages, latex + 2 figures (uuencoded ps
Coulomb Drag of Edge Excitations in the Chern-Simons Theory of the Fractional Quantum Hall Effect
Long range Coulomb interaction between the edges of a Hall bar changes the
nature of the gapless edge excitations. Instead of independent modes
propagating in opposite directions on each edge as expected for a short range
interaction one finds elementary excitations living simultaneously on both
edges, i.e. composed of correlated density waves propagating in the same
direction on opposite edges. We discuss the microscopic features of this
Coulomb drag of excitations in the fractional quantum Hall regime within the
framework of the bosonic Chern-Simons Landau-Ginzburg theory. The dispersion
law of these novel excitations is non linear and depends on the distance
between the edges as well as on the current that flows through the sample. The
latter dependence indicates a possibility of parametric excitation of these
modes. The bulk distributions of the density and currents of the edge
excitations differ significantly for short and long range interactions.Comment: 11 pages, REVTEX, 2 uuencoded postscript figure
Supergravity and The Large N Limit of Theories With Sixteen Supercharges
We consider field theories with sixteen supersymmetries, which includes U(N)
Yang-Mills theories in various dimensions, and argue that their large N limit
is related to certain supergravity solutions. We study this by considering a
system of D-branes in string theory and then taking a limit where the brane
worldvolume theory decouples from gravity. At the same time we study the
corresponding D-brane supergravity solution and argue that we can trust it in
certain regions where the curvature (and the effective string coupling, where
appropriate) are small. The supergravity solutions typically have several
weakly coupled regions and interpolate between different limits of
string-M-theory.Comment: 24 pages, latex. v2: reference added, v3: typos correcte
Nanoscale covariance magnetometry with diamond quantum sensors
Nitrogen vacancy (NV) centers in diamond are atom-scale defects with long
spin coherence times that can be used to sense magnetic fields with high
sensitivity and spatial resolution. Typically, the magnetic field projection at
a single point is measured by averaging many sequential measurements with a
single NV center, or the magnetic field distribution is reconstructed by taking
a spatial average over an ensemble of many NV centers. In averaging over many
single-NV center experiments, both techniques discard information. Here we
propose and implement a new sensing modality, whereby two or more NV centers
are measured simultaneously, and we extract temporal and spatial correlations
in their signals that would otherwise be inaccessible. We analytically derive
the measurable two-point correlator in the presence of environmental noise,
quantum projection noise, and readout noise. We show that optimizing the
readout noise is critical for measuring correlations, and we experimentally
demonstrate measurements of correlated applied noise using spin-to-charge
readout of two NV centers. We also implement a spectral reconstruction protocol
for disentangling local and nonlocal noise sources, and demonstrate that
independent control of two NV centers can be used to measure the temporal
structure of correlations. Our covariance magnetometry scheme has numerous
applications in studying spatiotemporal structure factors and dynamics, and
opens a new frontier in nanoscale sensing
Supersymmetry Breaking Vacua from M Theory Fivebranes
We consider intersecting brane configurations realizing N=2 supersymmetric
gauge theories broken to N=1 by multitrace superpotentials, and softly to N=0.
We analyze, in the framework of M5-brane wrapping a curve, the supersymmetric
vacua and the analogs of spontaneous supersymmetry breaking and soft
supersymmetry breaking in gauge theories. We show that the M5-brane does not
exhibit the analog of metastable spontaneous supersymmetry breaking, and does
not have non-holomorphic minimal volume curves with holomorphic boundary
conditions. However, we find that any point in the N=2 moduli space can be
rotated to a non-holomorphic minimal volume curve, whose boundary conditions
break supersymmetry. We interpret these as the analogs of soft supersymmetry
breaking vacua in the gauge theory.Comment: 32 pages, 8 figures, harvmac; v2: corrections in eq. 3.6 and in
section 6, reference adde
Can electron distribution functions be derived through the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect?
Measurements of the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich (hereafter SZ) effect distortion of
the cosmic microwave background provide methods to derive the gas pressure and
temperature of galaxy clusters. Here we study the ability of SZ effect
observations to derive the electron distribution function (DF) in massive
galaxy clusters.
Our calculations of the SZ effect include relativistic corrections considered
within the framework of the Wright formalism and use a decomposition technique
of electron DFs into Fourier series. Using multi-frequency measurements of the
SZ effect, we find the solution of a linear system of equations that is used to
derive the Fourier coefficients; we further analyze different frequency samples
to decrease uncertainties in Fourier coefficient estimations.
We propose a method to derive DFs of electrons using SZ multi-frequency
observations of massive galaxy clusters. We found that the best frequency
sample to derive an electron DF includes high frequencies =375, 600, 700,
857 GHz. We show that it is possible to distinguish a Juttner DF from a
Maxwell-Bolzman DF as well as from a Juttner DF with the second electron
population by means of SZ observations for the best frequency sample if the
precision of SZ intensity measurements is less than 0.1%. We demonstrate by
means of 3D hydrodynamic numerical simulations of a hot merging galaxy cluster
that the morphologies of SZ intensity maps are different for frequencies
=375, 600, 700, 857 GHz. We stress that measurements of SZ intensities at
these frequencies are a promising tool for studying electron distribution
functions in galaxy clusters.Comment: 11 pages, 12 figures, published in Astronomy and Astrophysic
Bacterial Sacroiliitis Probably Induced by Lumbar Epidural Analgesia
Background: Properly administered, lumbar epidural analgesia provides adequate pain relief during labor and delivery, and is considered to be a safe procedure with limited complications. The prevalence of infection after lumbar epidural analgesia is negligible. Introduction: Infection of the sacroiliac joint, although very close to the pucture area, has never been reported as a procedure complication. Case: In this report, we describe a patient who experienced bacterial sacroiliitis a few days after lumbar epidural analgesia for labor. No portal of entry was identified, and we evoked a new potential risk factor that has never been proposed before, namely lumbar epidural analgesia. Conclusion: Sacroiliitis must be considered as a rare but serious complication of lumbar epidural analgesia
Using informative behavior to increase engagement while learning from human reward
In this work, we address a relatively unexplored aspect of designing agents that learn from human reward. We investigate how an agent’s non-task behavior can affect a human trainer’s training and agent learning. We use the TAMER framework, which facilitates the training of agents by human-generated reward signals, i.e., judgements of the quality of the agent’s actions, as the foundation for our investigation. Then, starting from the premise that the interaction between the agent and the trainer should be bi-directional, we propose two new training interfaces to increase a human trainer’s active involvement in the training process and thereby improve the agent’s task performance. One provides information on the agent’s uncertainty which is a metric calculated as data coverage, the other on its performance. Our results from a 51-subject user study show that these interfaces can induce the trainers to train longer and give more feedback. The agent’s performance, however, increases only in response to the addition of performance-oriented information, not by sharing uncertainty levels. These results suggest that the organizational maxim about human behavior, “you get what you measure”—i.e., sharing metrics with people causes them to focus on optimizing those metrics while de-emphasizing other objectives—also applies to the training of agents. Using principle component analysis, we show how trainers in the two conditions train agents differently. In addition, by simulating the influence of the agent’s uncertainty–informative behavior on a human’s training behavior, we show that trainers could be distracted by the agent sharing its uncertainty levels about its actions, giving poor feedback for the sake of reducing the agent’s uncertainty without improving the agent’s performance
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