2,140 research outputs found
The drive system of the Major Atmospheric Gamma-ray Imaging Cherenkov Telescope
The MAGIC telescope is an imaging atmospheric Cherenkov telescope, designed
to observe very high energy gamma-rays while achieving a low energy threshold.
One of the key science goals is fast follow-up of the enigmatic and short lived
gamma-ray bursts. The drive system for the telescope has to meet two basic
demands: (1) During normal observations, the 72-ton telescope has to be
positioned accurately, and has to track a given sky position with high
precision at a typical rotational speed in the order of one revolution per day.
(2) For successfully observing GRB prompt emission and afterglows, it has to be
powerful enough to position to an arbitrary point on the sky within a few ten
seconds and commence normal tracking immediately thereafter. To meet these
requirements, the implementation and realization of the drive system relies
strongly on standard industry components to ensure robustness and reliability.
In this paper, we describe the mechanical setup, the drive control and the
calibration of the pointing, as well as present measurements of the accuracy of
the system. We show that the drive system is mechanically able to operate the
motors with an accuracy even better than the feedback values from the axes. In
the context of future projects, envisaging telescope arrays comprising about
100 individual instruments, the robustness and scalability of the concept is
emphasized.Comment: 15 pages, 12 (10) figures, submitted to Astroparticle Physics, a high
resolution version of the paper (particularly fig. 1) is available at
http://publications.mppmu.mpg.de/2008/MPP-2008-101/FullText.pd
PYRAMIR: Calibration and operation of a pyramid near-infrared wavefront sensor
The concept of pyramid wavefront sensors (PWFS) has been around about a
decade by now. However, there is still a great lack of characterizing
measurements that allow the best operation of such a system under real life
conditions at an astronomical telescope. In this article we, therefore,
investigate the behavior and robustness of the pyramid infrared wavefront
sensor PYRAMIR mounted at the 3.5 m telescope at the Calar Alto Observatory
under the influence of different error sources both intrinsic to the sensor,
and arising in the preceding optical system. The intrinsic errors include
diffraction effects on the pyramid edges and detector read out noise. The
external imperfections consist of a Gaussian profile in the intensity
distribution in the pupil plane during calibration, the effect of an optically
resolved reference source, and noncommon-path aberrations. We investigated the
effect of three differently sized reference sources on the calibration of the
PWFS. For the noncommon-path aberrations the quality of the response of the
system is quantified in terms of modal cross talk and aliasing. We investigate
the special behavior of the system regarding tip-tilt control. From our
measurements we derive the method to optimize the calibration procedure and the
setup of a PWFS adaptive optics (AO) system. We also calculate the total
wavefront error arising from aliasing, modal cross talk, measurement error, and
fitting error in order to optimize the number of calibrated modes for on-sky
operations. These measurements result in a prediction of on-sky performance for
various conditions
Field-Induced Two-Step Phase Transitions in the Singlet Ground State Triangular Antiferromagnet CsFeBr
The ground state of the stacked triangular antiferromagnet CsFeBr is a
spin singlet due to the large single ion anisotropy . The
field-induced magnetic ordering in this compound was investigated by the
magnetic susceptibility, the magnetization process and specific heat
measurements for an external field parallel to the -axis. Unexpectedly, two
phase transitions were observed in the magnetic field higher than 3 T. The
phase diagram for temperature versus magnetic field was obtained. The mechanism
leading to the successive phase transitions is discussed.Comment: 8 pages, 9 figures, 10 eps files, jpsj styl
Live Biofeedback as a User Interface Design Element: A Review of the Literature
With the advances in sensor technology and real-time processing of neurophysiological data, a growing body of academic literature has begun to explore how live biofeedback can be integrated into information systems for everyday use. While researchers have traditionally studied live biofeedback in the clinical domain, the proliferation of affordable mobile sensor technology enables researchers and practitioners to consider live biofeedback as a user interface element in contexts such as decision support, education, and gaming. In order to establish the current state of research on live biofeedback, we conducted a literature review on studies that examine self and foreign live biofeedback based on neurophysiological data for healthy subjects in an information systems context. By integrating a body of highly fragmented work from computer science, engineering and technology, information systems, medical science, and psychology, this paper synthesizes results from existing research, identifies knowledge gaps, and suggests directions for future research. In this vein, this review can serve as a reference guide for researchers and practitioners on how to integrate self and foreign live biofeedback into information systems for everyday use
Dynamics of a Quantum Phase Transition
We present two approaches to the dynamics of a quench-induced phase
transition in quantum Ising model. The first one retraces steps of the standard
approach to thermodynamic second order phase transitions in the quantum
setting. The second one is purely quantum, based on the Landau-Zener formula
for transition probabilities in avoided level crossings. We show that the two
approaches yield compatible results for the scaling of the defect density with
the quench rate. We exhibit similarities between them, and comment on the
insights they give into dynamics of quantum phase transitions.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures. Replaced by revised versio
Quantum computations with atoms in optical lattices: marker qubits and molecular interactions
We develop a scheme for quantum computation with neutral atoms, based on the
concept of "marker" atoms, i.e., auxiliary atoms that can be efficiently
transported in state-independent periodic external traps to operate quantum
gates between physically distant qubits. This allows for relaxing a number of
experimental constraints for quantum computation with neutral atoms in
microscopic potential, including single-atom laser addressability. We discuss
the advantages of this approach in a concrete physical scenario involving
molecular interactions.Comment: 15 pages, 14 figure
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