3,112 research outputs found
Quantum measurement backaction from a BEC coupled to a mechanical oscillator
We study theoretically the dynamics of a a hybrid optomechanical system
consisting of a macroscopic mechanical membrane magnetically coupled to a
spinor Bose-Einstein condensate via a nanomagnet attached at the membrane
center. We demonstrate that this coupling permits us to monitor indirectly the
center-of-mass position of the membrane via measurements of the spin of the
condensed atoms. These measurements normally induce a significant backaction on
the membrane motion, which we quantify for the cases of thermal and coherent
initial states of the membrane. We discuss the possibility of measuring that
quantum backaction via repeated measurements. We also investigate the potential
to generate non-classical states of the membrane, in particular Schrodinger cat
states, via such repeated measurements.Comment: 14 pages, 4 figures. Submitted to PR
Application of advanced computational codes in the design of an experiment for a supersonic throughflow fan rotor
Increased emphasis on sustained supersonic or hypersonic cruise has revived interest in the supersonic throughflow fan as a possible component in advanced propulsion systems. Use of a fan that can operate with a supersonic inlet axial Mach number is attractive from the standpoint of reducing the inlet losses incurred in diffusing the flow from a supersonic flight Mach number to a subsonic one at the fan face. The design of the experiment using advanced computational codes to calculate the components required is described. The rotor was designed using existing turbomachinery design and analysis codes modified to handle fully supersonic axial flow through the rotor. A two-dimensional axisymmetric throughflow design code plus a blade element code were used to generate fan rotor velocity diagrams and blade shapes. A quasi-three-dimensional, thin shear layer Navier-Stokes code was used to assess the performance of the fan rotor blade shapes. The final design was stacked and checked for three-dimensional effects using a three-dimensional Euler code interactively coupled with a two-dimensional boundary layer code. The nozzle design in the expansion region was analyzed with a three-dimensional parabolized viscous code which corroborated the results from the Euler code. A translating supersonic diffuser was designed using these same codes
Generation of mechanical squeezing via magnetic dipoles on cantilevers
A scheme to squeeze the center-of-mass motional quadratures of a quantum
mechanical oscillator below its standard quantum limit is proposed and analyzed
theoretically. It relies on the dipole-dipole coupling between a magnetic
dipole mounted on the tip of a cantilever to equally oriented dipoles located
on a mesoscopic tuning fork. We also investigate the influence of several
sources of noise on the achievable squeezing, including classical noise in the
driving fork and the clamping noise in the oscillator. A detection of the state
of the cantilever based on state transfer to a light field is considered. We
investigate possible limitations of that scheme.Comment: 11 pages, 11 figures, submitted to PR
Novel metallic and insulating states at a bent quantum Hall junction
A non-planar geometry for the quantum Hall (QH) effect is studied, whereby
two quantum Hall (QH) systems are joined at a sharp right angle. When both
facets are at equal filling factor nu the junction hosts a channel with
non-quantized conductance, dependent on nu. The state is metallic at nu = 1/3,
with conductance along the junction increasing as the temperature T drops. At
nu = 1, 2 it is strongly insulating, and at nu = 3, 4 shows only weak T
dependence. Upon applying a dc voltage bias along the junction, the
differential conductance again shows three different behaviors. Hartree
calculations of the dispersion at the junction illustrate possible
explanations, and differences from planar QH structures are highlighted.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, text + figs revised for clarit
Rotated stripe order and its competition with superconductivity in LaSrCuO
We report the observation of a bulk charge modulation in
LaSrCuO (LSCO) with a characteristic in-plane wave-vector
of (0.236, ), with =0.011 r.l.u. The transverse shift of
the ordering wave-vector indicates the presence of rotated charge-stripe
ordering, demonstrating that the charge ordering is not pinned to the Cu-O bond
direction. On cooling through the superconducting transition, we find an abrupt
change in the growth of the charge correlations and a suppression of the charge
order parameter indicating competition between the two orderings. Orthorhombic
LSCO thus helps bridge the apparent disparities between the behavior previously
observed in the tetragonal "214" cuprates and the orthorhombic yttrium and
bismuth-based cuprates and thus lends strong support to the idea that there is
a common motif to charge order in all cuprate families.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figue
Dynamics of Nanometer-Scale Foil Targets Irradiated with Relativistically Intense Laser Pulses
In this letter we report on an experimental study of high harmonic radiation
generated in nanometer-scale foil targets irradiated under normal incidence.
The experiments constitute the first unambiguous observation of odd-numbered
relativistic harmonics generated by the component of the
Lorentz force verifying a long predicted property of solid target harmonics.
Simultaneously the observed harmonic spectra allow in-situ extraction of the
target density in an experimental scenario which is of utmost interest for
applications such as ion acceleration by the radiation pressure of an
ultraintense laser.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure
Laser-heated capillary discharge plasma waveguides for electron acceleration to 8 GeV
A plasma channel created by the combination of a capillary discharge and inverse Bremsstrahlung laser heating enabled the generation of electron bunches with energy up to 7.8 GeV in a laser-driven plasma accelerator. The capillary discharge created an initial plasma channel and was used to tune the plasma temperature, which optimized laser heating. Although optimized colder initial plasma temperatures reduced the ionization degree, subsequent ionization from the heater pulse created a fully ionized plasma on-axis. The heater pulse duration was chosen to be longer than the hydrodynamic timescale of ≈ 1 ns, such that later temporal slices were more efficiently guided by the channel created by the front of the pulse. Simulations are presented which show that this thermal self-guiding of the heater pulse enabled channel formation over 20 cm. The post-heated channel had lower on-axis density and increased focusing strength compared to relying on the discharge alone, which allowed for guiding of relativistically intense laser pulses with a peak power of 0.85 PW and wakefield acceleration over 15 diffraction lengths. Electrons were injected into the wake in multiple buckets and times, leading to several electron bunches with different peak energies. To create single electron bunches with low energy spread, experiments using localized ionization injection inside a capillary discharge waveguide were performed. A single injected bunch with energy 1.6 GeV, charge 38 pC, divergence 1 mrad, and relative energy spread below 2% full-width half-maximum was produced in a 3.3 cm-long capillary discharge waveguide. This development shows promise for mitigation of energy spread and future high efficiency staged acceleration experiments
TRACK-CF prospective cohort study: Understanding early cystic fibrosis lung disease.
BACKGROUND
Lung disease as major cause for morbidity in patients with cystic fibrosis (CF) starts early in life. Its large phenotypic heterogeneity is partially explained by the genotype but other contributing factors are not well delineated. The close relationship between mucus, inflammation and infection, drives morpho-functional alterations already early in pediatric CF disease, The TRACK-CF cohort has been established to gain insight to disease onset and progression, assessed by lung function testing and imaging to capture morpho-functional changes and to associate these with risk and protective factors, which contribute to the variation of the CF lung disease progression.
METHODS AND DESIGN
TRACK-CF is a prospective, longitudinal, observational cohort study following patients with CF from newborn screening or clinical diagnosis throughout childhood. The study protocol includes monthly telephone interviews, quarterly visits with microbiological sampling and multiple-breath washout and as well as a yearly chest magnetic resonance imaging. A parallel biobank has been set up to enable the translation from the deeply phenotyped cohort to the validation of relevant biomarkers. The main goal is to determine influencing factors by the combined analysis of clinical information and biomaterials. Primary endpoints are the lung clearance index by multiple breath washout and semi-quantitative magnetic resonance imaging scores. The frequency of pulmonary exacerbations, infection with pro-inflammatory pathogens and anthropometric data are defined as secondary endpoints.
DISCUSSION
This extensive cohort includes children after diagnosis with comprehensive monitoring throughout childhood. The unique composition and the use of validated, sensitive methods with the attached biobank bears the potential to decisively advance the understanding of early CF lung disease.
ETHICS AND TRIAL REGISTRATION
The study protocol was approved by the Ethics Committees of the University of Heidelberg (approval S-211/2011) and each participating site and is registered at clinicaltrials.gov (NCT02270476)
Predicting environmental stressor levels with machine learning: a comparison between amplicon sequencing, metagenomics, and total RNA sequencing based on taxonomically assigned data
IntroductionMicrobes are increasingly (re)considered for environmental assessments because they are powerful indicators for the health of ecosystems. The complexity of microbial communities necessitates powerful novel tools to derive conclusions for environmental decision-makers, and machine learning is a promising option in that context. While amplicon sequencing is typically applied to assess microbial communities, metagenomics and total RNA sequencing (herein summarized as omics-based methods) can provide a more holistic picture of microbial biodiversity at sufficient sequencing depths. Despite this advantage, amplicon sequencing and omics-based methods have not yet been compared for taxonomy-based environmental assessments with machine learning.MethodsIn this study, we applied 16S and ITS-2 sequencing, metagenomics, and total RNA sequencing to samples from a stream mesocosm experiment that investigated the impacts of two aquatic stressors, insecticide and increased fine sediment deposition, on stream biodiversity. We processed the data using similarity clustering and denoising (only applicable to amplicon sequencing) as well as multiple taxonomic levels, data types, feature selection, and machine learning algorithms and evaluated the stressor prediction performance of each generated model for a total of 1,536 evaluated combinations of taxonomic datasets and data-processing methods.ResultsSequencing and data-processing methods had a substantial impact on stressor prediction. While omics-based methods detected a higher diversity of taxa than amplicon sequencing, 16S sequencing outperformed all other sequencing methods in terms of stressor prediction based on the Matthews Correlation Coefficient. However, even the highest observed performance for 16S sequencing was still only moderate. Omics-based methods performed poorly overall, but this was likely due to insufficient sequencing depth. Data types had no impact on performance while feature selection significantly improved performance for omics-based methods but not for amplicon sequencing.DiscussionWe conclude that amplicon sequencing might be a better candidate for machine-learning-based environmental stressor prediction than omics-based methods, but the latter require further research at higher sequencing depths to confirm this conclusion. More sampling could improve stressor prediction performance, and while this was not possible in the context of our study, thousands of sampling sites are monitored for routine environmental assessments, providing an ideal framework to further refine the approach for possible implementation in environmental diagnostics
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