5,864 research outputs found
Force and energy dissipation variations in non-contact atomic force spectroscopy on composite carbon nanotube systems
UHV dynamic force and energy dissipation spectroscopy in non-contact atomic
force microscopy were used to probe specific interactions with composite
systems formed by encapsulating inorganic compounds inside single-walled carbon
nanotubes. It is found that forces due to nano-scale van der Waals interaction
can be made to decrease by combining an Ag core and a carbon nanotube shell in
the Ag@SWNT system. This specific behaviour was attributed to a significantly
different effective dielectric function compared to the individual
constituents, evaluated using a simple core-shell optical model. Energy
dissipation measurements showed that by filling dissipation increases,
explained here by softening of C-C bonds resulting in a more deformable
nanotube cage. Thus, filled and unfilled nanotubes can be discriminated based
on force and dissipation measurements. These findings have two different
implications for potential applications: tuning the effective optical
properties and tuning the interaction force for molecular absorption by
appropriately choosing the filling with respect to the nanotube.Comment: 22 pages, 6 figure
The Nystrom plus Correction Method for Solving Bound State Equations in Momentum Space
A new method is presented for solving the momentum-space Schrodinger equation
with a linear potential. The Lande-subtracted momentum space integral equation
can be transformed into a matrix equation by the Nystrom method. The method
produces only approximate eigenvalues in the cases of singular potentials such
as the linear potential. The eigenvalues generated by the Nystrom method can be
improved by calculating the numerical errors and adding the appropriate
corrections. The end results are more accurate eigenvalues than those generated
by the basis function method. The method is also shown to work for a
relativistic equation such as the Thompson equation.Comment: Revtex, 21 pages, 4 tables, to be published in Physical Review
On the thermodynamic stability and structural transition of clathrate hydrates
Gas mixtures of methane and ethane form structure II clathrate hydrates despite the fact that each of pure methane and pure ethane gases forms the structure I hydrate. Optimization of the interaction potential parameters for methane and ethane is attempted so as to reproduce the dissociation pressures of each simple hydrate containing either methane or ethane alone. An account for the structural transitions between type I and type II hydrates upon changing the mole fraction of the gas mixture is given on the basis of the van der Waals and Platteeuw theory with these optimized potentials. Cage occupancies of the two kinds of hydrates are also calculated as functions of the mole fraction at the dissociation pressure and at a fixed pressure well above the dissociation pressure
Glueball matrix elements on anisotropic lattices
We describe a lattice calculation of the matrix elements relevant for
glueball production in radiative decays. The techniques for such a
calculation on anisotropic lattices with an improved action are outlined. We
present preliminary results showing the efficacy of the computational method.Comment: 3 pages (LaTeX), 3 figures (PostScript), Presented at Lattice '9
Efficient calculation of the worst-case error and (fast) component-by-component construction of higher order polynomial lattice rules
We show how to obtain a fast component-by-component construction algorithm
for higher order polynomial lattice rules. Such rules are useful for
multivariate quadrature of high-dimensional smooth functions over the unit cube
as they achieve the near optimal order of convergence. The main problem
addressed in this paper is to find an efficient way of computing the worst-case
error. A general algorithm is presented and explicit expressions for base~2 are
given. To obtain an efficient component-by-component construction algorithm we
exploit the structure of the underlying cyclic group.
We compare our new higher order multivariate quadrature rules to existing
quadrature rules based on higher order digital nets by computing their
worst-case error. These numerical results show that the higher order polynomial
lattice rules improve upon the known constructions of quasi-Monte Carlo rules
based on higher order digital nets
CASSIS: The Cornell Atlas of Spitzer/Infrared Spectrograph Sources. II. High-resolution observations
The Infrared Spectrograph (IRS) on board the Spitzer Space Telescope observed about 15,000 objects during the cryogenic mission lifetime. Observations provided low-resolution (R~60-127) spectra over ~5-38um and high-resolution (R~600) spectra over ~10-37um. The Cornell Atlas of Spitzer/IRS Sources (CASSIS) was created to provide publishable quality spectra to the community. Low-resolution spectra have been available in CASSIS since 2011, and we present here the addition of the high-resolution spectra. The high-resolution observations represent approximately one third of all staring observations performed with the IRS instrument. While low-resolution observations are adapted to faint objects and/or broad spectral features (e.g., dust continuum, molecular bands), high-resolution observations allow more accurate measurements of narrow features (e.g., ionic emission lines) as well as a better sampling of the spectral profile of various features. Given the narrow aperture of the two high-resolution modules, cosmic ray hits and spurious features usually plague the spectra. Our pipeline is designed to minimize these effects through various improvements. A super sampled point-spread function was created in order to enable the optimal extraction in addition to the full aperture extraction. The pipeline selects the best extraction method based on the spatial extent of the object. For unresolved sources, the optimal extraction provides a significant improvement in signal-to-noise ratio over a full aperture extraction. We have developed several techniques for optimal extraction, including a differential method that eliminates low-level rogue pixels (even when no dedicated background observation was performed). The updated CASSIS repository now includes all the spectra ever taken by the IRS, with the exception of mapping observations
Numerical simulation of dynamic pore fluid-solid interaction in fully saturated non-linear porous media
In this paper, a large deformation formulation for dynamic analysis of the pore fluid-solid interaction in a fully saturated non-linear medium is presented in the framework of the Arbitrary Lagrangian-Eulerian method. This formulation is based on Biot’s theory of consolidation extended to include the momentum equations of the solid and fluid phases, large deformations and non-linear material behaviour. By including the displacements of the solid skeleton, u, and the pore fluid pressure, p, a (u-p) formulation is obtained, which is then discretised using finite elements. Time integration of the resulting highly nonlinear equations is accomplished by the generalized–α method, which assures second order accuracy as well as unconditional stability of the solution. Details of the formulation and its practical implementation in a finite element code are discussed. The formulation and its implementation are validated by solving some classical examples in geomechanics
Simulation of Cosmic Ray neutrinos Interactions in Water
The program CORSIKA, usually used to simulate extensive cosmic ray air
showers, has been adapted to a water medium in order to study the acoustic
detection of ultra high energy neutrinos. Showers in water from incident
protons and from neutrinos have been generated and their properties are
described. The results obtained from CORSIKA are compared to those from other
available simulation programs such as Geant4.Comment: Talk presented on behalf of the ACoRNE Collaboration at the ARENA
Workshop 200
Spitzer Space Telescope spectral observations of AGB stars in the Fornax dwarf spheroidal galaxy
We have observed five carbon-rich AGB stars in the Fornax dwarf spheroidal
(dSph) galaxy, using the Infrared Spectrometer on board the Spitzer Space
Telescope. The stars were selected from a near-infrared survey of Fornax and
include the three reddest stars, with presumably the highest mass-loss rates,
in that galaxy. Such carbon stars probably belong to the intermediate-age
population (2-8 Gyr old and metallicity of [Fe/H] -1) of Fornax. The primary
aim of this paper is to investigate mass-loss rate, as a function of luminosity
and metallicity, by comparing AGB stars in several galaxies with different
metallicities. The spectra of three stars are fitted with a radiative transfer
model. We find that mass-loss rates of these three stars are 4-7x10^-6 Msun
yr-1. The other two stars have mass-loss rates below 1.3x10^-6 Msun yr-1. We
find no evidence that these rates depend on metallicity, although we do suggest
that the gas-to-dust ratio could be higher than at solar metallicity, in the
range 240 to 800. The C2H2 bands are stronger at lower metallicity because of
the higher C/O ratio. In contrast, the SiC fraction is reduced at low
metallicity, due to low silicon abundance. The total mass-loss rate from all
known carbon-rich AGB stars into the interstellar medium of this galaxy is of
the order of 2x10^-5 Msun yr-1. This is much lower than that of the dwarf
irregular galaxy WLM, which has a similar visual luminosity and metallicity.
The difference is attributed to the younger stellar population of WLM. The
suppressed gas-return rate to the ISM accentuates the difference between the
relatively gas-rich dwarf irregular and the gas-poor dwarf spheroidal galaxies.
Our study will be useful to constrain gas and dust recycling processes in low
metallicity galaxies.Comment: MNRAS accepte
CASSIS: The Cornell Atlas of Spitzer/IRS Sources
We present the spectral atlas of sources observed in low resolution with the
Infrared Spectrograph on board the Spitzer Space Telescope. More than 11,000
distinct sources were extracted using a dedicated algorithm based on the SMART
software with an optimal extraction (AdOpt package). These correspond to all
13,000 low resolution observations of fixed objects (both single source and
cluster observations). The pipeline includes image cleaning, individual
exposure combination, and background subtraction. A particular attention is
given to bad pixel and outlier rejection at the image and spectra levels. Most
sources are spatially unresolved so that optimal extraction reaches the highest
possible signal-to-noise ratio. For all sources, an alternative extraction is
also provided that accounts for all of the source flux within the aperture.
CASSIS provides publishable quality spectra through an online database together
with several important diagnostics, such as the source spatial extent and a
quantitative measure of detection level. Ancillary data such as available
spectroscopic redshifts are also provided. The database interface will
eventually provide various ways to interact with the spectra, such as
on-the-fly measurements of spectral features or comparisons among spectra.Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJ Supplement Serie
- …