Characterizing Some Gaia Alerts with LAMOST and SDSS

Gaia is regularly producing Alerts on objects where photometric variability has been detected. The physical nature of these objects has often to be determined with the complementary observations from ground-based facilities. We have compared the list of Gaia Alerts (until 20181101) with archival LAMOST and SDSS spectroscopic data. The date of the ground-based observation rarely corresponds to the date of the Alert, but this allows at least the identification of the source if it is persistent, or the host galaxy if the object was only transient like a supernova. A list of Gaia Nuclear Transients from Kostrzewa-Rutkowska et al. (2018) has been included in this search also. We found 26 Gaia Alerts with spectra in LAMOST+SDSS labelled as stars (12 with multi-epoch spectra). A majority of them are CVs. Similarly 206 Gaia Alerts have associated spectra labelled as galaxies (49 with multi-epoch spectra). Those spectra were generally obtained on a date different from the Alert date, are mostly emission-line galaxies, leading to the suspicion that most of the Alerts were due to a SN. As for the GNT list, we found 55 associated spectra labelled as galaxies (13 with multi-epoch spectra). In two galaxies, Gaia17aal and GNTJ170213+2543, was the date of the spectroscopic observation close enough to the Alert date: we find a trace of the SN itself in their LAMOST spectrum, both classified here as a type Ia SN. The GNT sample has a higher proportion of AGNs, suggesting that some of the detected variations are also due to the AGN itself. Similar for Quasars, we found 30 Gaia Alerts but 68 GNT cases have single epoch quasar spectra, while 12 plus 23 have multi-epoch spectra. For ten out of these 35, their multi-epoch spectra show appearance or disappearance of the broad Balmer lines and also variations in the continuum, qualifying them as "Changing Look Quasars".Comment: Accepted for publication in APSS, 14 pages, 8 figures, 2 table

Pinning quantum phase transition of photons in a hollow-core fiber

We show that a pinning quantum phase transition for photons could be observed in a hollow-core one-dimensional fiber loaded with a cold atomic gas. Utilizing the strong light confinement in the fiber, a range of different strongly correlated polaritonic and photonic states, corresponding to both strong and weak interactions can be created and probed. The key ingredient is the creation of a tunable effective lattice potential acting on the interacting polaritonic gas which is possible by slightly modulating the atomic density. We analyze the relevant phase diagram corresponding to the realizable Bose-Hubbard (weak) and sine-Gordon (strong) interacting regimes and conclude by describing the measurement process. The latter consists of mapping the stationary excitations to propagating light pulses whose correlations can be efficiently probed once they exit the fiber using available optical technologiesComment: 4 pages, 4 figures. Comments welcome

A scenario of heavy but visible baryonic dark matter

We consider a model in which dark matter is a composite baryon of a dark sector governed by $SU(3)$ gauge theory, with vector-like quarks also charged under $U(1)_Y$. The model provides simple answer to the dark matter stability problem: it is a result of the accidental dark baryon number conservation. And with an analogy to QCD, all physical quantities of the dark matter can be calculated by rescaling the QCD experimental results. According to the thermal freeze-out mechanism the mass of the dark matter is predicted to be $\mathcal{O}(100)$~TeV in order to achieve a correct relic abundance. Such heavy dark matter is in general hard for detection due to small dark matter number density in the universe. However, dark baryon number in our model is not necessarily strictly preserved thanks to operators suppressed by the Planck scale, and such decay operator results in a decay lifetime marginal to the current detection bound. We show our model with $\mathcal{O}(10^{27})~s$ dark matter decay life time can explain the AMS-02 anti-proton data, if it is experimentally interpreted as an access, although some theoretical uncertainty may weaken its significance. We also investigate other phenomena of this model such as the extragalactic gamma ray and neutrino signatures.Comment: 14 pages, 43 figures, published in JHE

Simulating spin-charge separation with light

In this work we show that stationary light-matter excitations generated inside a hollow one-dimensional waveguide filled with atoms, can be made to generate a photonic two-component Lieb Liniger model. We explain how to prepare and drive the atomic system to a strongly interacting regime where spin-charge separation could be possible. We then proceed by explaining how to measure the corresponding effective spin and charge densities and velocities through standard optical methods based in measuring dynamically the emitted photon intensities or by analyzing the photon spectrum. The relevant interactions exhibit the necessary tunability both to generate and efficiently observe spin charge separation with current technology.Comment: 4 pages. Comments welcom

China's energy consumption in the building sector: A Statistical Yearbook-Energy Balance Sheet based splitting method

China's energy consumption in the building sector (BEC) is not counted as a separate type of energy consumption, but divided and mixed in other sectors in China's statistical system. This led to the lack of historical data on China's BEC. Moreover, previous researches' shortages such as unsystematic research on BEC, various estimation methods with complex calculation process, and difficulties in data acquisition resulted in “heterogeneous” of current BEC in China. Aiming to these deficiencies, this study proposes a set of China building energy consumption calculation method (CBECM) by splitting out the building related energy consumption mixed in other sectors in the composition of China Statistical Yearbook-Energy Balance Sheet. Then, China's BEC from 2000 to 2014 are estimated using CBECM and compared with other studies. Results show that, from 2000 to 2014, China's BEC increased 1.7 times, rising from 301 to 814 million tons of standard coal consumed, with the BEC percentage of total energy consumption stayed relatively stable between 17.7% and 20.3%. By comparison, we find that our results are reliable and the CBECM has the following advantages over other methods: data source is authoritative, calculation process is concise, and it is easy to obtain time series data on BEC etc. The CBECM is particularly suitable for the provincial government to calculate the local BEC, even in the circumstance with statistical yearbook available only