8,876 research outputs found

    Multidimensional optical fractionation with holographic verification

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    The trajectories of colloidal particles driven through a periodic potential energy landscape can become kinetically locked in to directions dictated by the landscape's symmetries. When the landscape is realized with forces exerted by a structured light field, the path a given particle follows has been predicted to depend exquisitely sensitively on such properties as the particle's size and refractive index These predictions, however, have not been tested experimentally. Here, we describe measurements of colloidal silica spheres' transport through arrays of holographic optical traps that use holographic video microscopy to track individual spheres' motions in three dimensions and simultaneously to measure each sphere's radius and refractive index with part-per-thousand resolution. These measurements confirm previously untested predictions for the threshold of kinetically locked-in transport, and demonstrate the ability of optical fractionation to sort colloidal spheres with part-per-thousand resolution on multiple characteristics simultaneously.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures. Accepted for publication in Physical Review Letter

    Iso-singlet Down Quark Mixing And CP Violation Experiments

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    We confront the new physics models with extra iso-singlet down quarks in the new CP violation experimental era with sin(2β)\sin{(2\beta)} and ϵ/ϵ\epsilon'/\epsilon measurements, K+π+ννˉK^+ \to \pi^+ \nu \bar{\nu} events, and xsx_s limits. The closeness of the new experimental results to the standard model theory requires us to include full SM amplitudes in the analysis. In models allowing mixing to a new isosinglet down quark, as in E6_6, flavor changing neutral currents are induced that allow a Z0Z^0 mediated contribution to BBˉB-\bar B mixing and which bring in new phases. In (ρ,η)(\rho,\eta), (xs,sin(γ))(x_s,\sin{(\gamma)}), and (xs,sin(2ϕs))(x_s, \sin{(2\phi_s)}) plots we still find much larger regions in the four down quark model than in the SM, reaching down to η0\eta \approx 0, 0sin(γ)10 \leq \sin{(\gamma)} \leq 1, .75sin(2α)0.15-.75 \leq \sin{(2\alpha)} \leq 0.15, and sin(2ϕs)\sin{(2\phi_s)} down to zero, all at 1σ\sigma. We elucidate the nature of the cancellation in an order λ5\lambda^5 four down quark mixing matrix element which satisfies the experiments and reduces the number of independent angles and phases. We also evaluate tests of unitarity for the 3×33\times3 CKM submatrix.Comment: 14 pages, 16 figures, REVTeX

    Nonlocal Phases of Local Quantum Mechanical Wavefunctions in Static and Time-Dependent Aharonov-Bohm Experiments

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    We show that the standard Dirac phase factor is not the only solution of the gauge transformation equations. The full form of a general gauge function (that connects systems that move in different sets of scalar and vector potentials), apart from Dirac phases also contains terms of classical fields that act nonlocally (in spacetime) on the local solutions of the time-dependent Schr\"odinger equation: the phases of wavefunctions in the Schr\"odinger picture are affected nonlocally by spatially and temporally remote magnetic and electric fields, in ways that are fully explored. These contributions go beyond the usual Aharonov-Bohm effects (magnetic or electric). (i) Application to cases of particles passing through static magnetic or electric fields leads to cancellations of Aharonov-Bohm phases at the observation point; these are linked to behaviors at the semiclassical level (to the old Werner & Brill experimental observations, or their "electric analogs" - or to recent reports of Batelaan & Tonomura) but are shown to be far more general (true not only for narrow wavepackets but also for completely delocalized quantum states). By using these cancellations, certain previously unnoticed sign-errors in the literature are corrected. (ii) Application to time-dependent situations provides a remedy for erroneous results in the literature (on improper uses of Dirac phase factors) and leads to phases that contain an Aharonov-Bohm part and a field-nonlocal part: their competition is shown to recover Relativistic Causality in earlier "paradoxes" (such as the van Kampen thought-experiment), while a more general consideration indicates that the temporal nonlocalities found here demonstrate in part a causal propagation of phases of quantum mechanical wavefunctions in the Schr\"odinger picture. This may open a direct way to address time-dependent double-slit experiments and the associated causal issuesComment: 49 pages, 1 figure, presented in Conferences "50 years of the Aharonov-Bohm effect and 25 years of the Berry's phase" (Tel Aviv and Bristol), published in Journ. Phys. A. Compared to the published paper, this version has 17 additional lines after eqn.(14) for maximum clarity, and the Abstract has been slightly modified and reduced from the published 2035 characters to the required 1920 character

    The Luminosity Function of X-ray Selected Active Galactic Nuclei: Evolution of Supermassive Black Holes at High Redshift

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    We present a measure of the hard (2-8 keV) X-ray luminosity function (XLF) of Active Galactic Nuclei up to z~5. At high redshifts, the wide area coverage of the Chandra Multiwavength Project is crucial to detect rare and luminous (Lx > 10^44 erg s^-1) AGN. The inclusion of samples from deeper published surveys, such as the Chandra Deep Fields, allows us to span the lower Lx range of the XLF. Our sample is selected from both the hard (z 6.3x10^-16 erg cm^-2 s^-1) and soft (z > 3; f(0.5-2.0 keV) > 1.0x10^-16 erg cm^-2 s^-1) energy band detections. Within our optical magnitude limits (r',i' < 24), we achieve an adequate level of completeness (>50%) regarding X-ray source identification (i.e., redshift). We find that the luminosity function is similar to that found in previous X-ray surveys up to z~3 with an evolution dependent upon both luminosity and redshift. At z > 3, there is a significant decline in the numbers of AGN with an evolution rate similar to that found by studies of optically-selected QSOs. Based on our XLF, we assess the resolved fraction of the Cosmic X-ray Background, the cumulative mass density of Supermassive Black Holes (SMBHs), and the comparison of the mean accretion rate onto SMBHs and the star formation history of galaxies as a function of redshift. A coevolution scenario up to z~2 is plausible though at higher redshifts the accretion rate onto SMBHs drops more rapidly. Finally, we highlight the need for better statistics of high redshift AGN at z > 3, which is achievable with the upcoming Chandra surveys.Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJ; 25 pages, 18 figure

    A Demonstration of the PMF-Extraction Approach: Modeling The Effects of Sound on Crowd Behavior

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    The vast majority of psychology, sociology, and other social-science literature describing human behavior and performance does not reach the eyes of those of us working in the modeling and simulation community. Our recent work has been concerned with the extraction and implementation of Human Behavior Models (HBMs)/Performance Moderator Functions (PMFs) from this literature. This paper demonstrates how our methodology was applied to extract models of the effects of music and sound on both individuals and groups and to implement them in a simulated environment. PMFs describing how several classes of sound affect decision-making and performance were constructed based on well-established psychological models. These PMFs were implemented in a simulation of protesters and security guards outside a prison that demonstrates how the presence of chanting and music changes the response of protesters to police aggression. The extraction of PMFs from the literature, the synthesis of a coherent, cohesive model, and the implementation and results of the simulation are discussed

    Granger causality and transfer entropy are equivalent for Gaussian variables

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    Granger causality is a statistical notion of causal influence based on prediction via vector autoregression. Developed originally in the field of econometrics, it has since found application in a broader arena, particularly in neuroscience. More recently transfer entropy, an information-theoretic measure of time-directed information transfer between jointly dependent processes, has gained traction in a similarly wide field. While it has been recognized that the two concepts must be related, the exact relationship has until now not been formally described. Here we show that for Gaussian variables, Granger causality and transfer entropy are entirely equivalent, thus bridging autoregressive and information-theoretic approaches to data-driven causal inference.Comment: In review, Phys. Rev. Lett., Nov. 200
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