The Impact of Transiting Planet Science on the Next Generation of Direct-Imaging Planet Searches

Within the next five years, a number of direct-imaging planet search instruments, like the VLT SPHERE instrument, will be coming online. To successfully carry out their programs, these instruments will rely heavily on a-priori information on planet composition, atmosphere, and evolution. Transiting planet surveys, while covering a different semi-major axis regime, have the potential to provide critical foundations for these next-generation surveys. For example, improved information on planetary evolutionary tracks may significantly impact the insights that can be drawn from direct-imaging statistical data. Other high-impact results from transiting planet science include information on mass-to-radius relationships as well as atmospheric absorption bands. The marriage of transiting planet and direct-imaging results may eventually give us the first complete picture of planet migration, multiplicity, and general evolution.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, IAU Transiting Planets Proceedings, in pres

Quantum Phonon Optics: Coherent and Squeezed Atomic Displacements

In this paper we investigate coherent and squeezed quantum states of phonons. The latter allow the possibility of modulating the quantum fluctuations of atomic displacements below the zero-point quantum noise level of coherent states. The expectation values and quantum fluctuations of both the atomic displacement and the lattice amplitude operators are calculated in these states---in some cases analytically. We also study the possibility of squeezing quantum noise in the atomic displacement using a polariton-based approach.Comment: 6 pages, RevTe

Phonon Transmission Rate, Fluctuations, and Localization in Random Semiconductor Superlattices: Green's Function Approach

We analytically study phonon transmission and localization in random superlattices by using a Green's function approach. We derive expressions for the average transmission rate and localization length, or Lyapunov exponent, in terms of the superlattice structure factor. This is done by considering the backscattering of phonons, due to the complex mass density fluctuations, which incorporates all of the forward scattering processes. These analytical results are applied to two types of random superlattices and compared with numerical simulations based on the transfer matrix method. Our analytical results show excellent agreement with the numerical data. A universal relation for the transmission fluctuations versus the average transmission is derived explicitly, and independently confirmed by numerical simulations. The transient of the distribution of transmission to the log-normal distribution for the localized phonons is also studied.Comment: 36 pages, Late

Epithelial integrin alpha 6 beta 4: complete primary structure of alpha 6 and variant forms of beta 4.

The integrin alpha 6 beta 4 is a heterodimer predominantly expressed by epithelia. While no definite receptor function has yet been assigned to it, this integrin may mediate adhesive and/or migratory functions of epithelial cells. We have determined the complete primary structure of both the alpha 6 and beta 4 subunits from cDNA clones isolated from pancreatic carcinoma cell line libraries. The deduced amino acid sequence of alpha 6 is homologous to other integrin alpha chains (18-26% identity). Antibodies to an alpha 6 carboxy terminus peptide immunoprecipitated alpha 6 beta 4 complexes from carcinoma cells and alpha 6 beta 1 complexes from platelets, providing further evidence for the association of alpha 6 with more than one beta subunit. The deduced amino acid sequence of beta 4 predicts an extracellular portion homologous to other integrin beta chains, and a unique cytoplasmic domain comprised of greater than 1,000 residues. This agrees with the structures of the beta 4 cDNAs from normal epithelial cells (Suzuki, S., and Y. Naitoh. 1990. EMBO [Eur. Mol. Biol. Organ.] J. 9:757-763; Hogervost, F., I. Kuikman, A. E. G. Kr. von dem Borne, and A. Sonnenberg. 1990. EMBO [Eur. Mol. Biol. Organ.] J. 9:765-770). Compared to these structures, however, the beta 4 cDNAs that we have cloned from carcinoma cells contain extra sequences. One of these is located in the 5'-untranslated region, and may encode regulatory sequences. Another specifies a segment of 70 amino acids in the cytoplasmic tail. Amplification by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction of mRNA indicated that multiple forms of beta 4 may exist, possibly due to cell-type specific alternative splicing. The unique structure of beta 4 suggests its involvement in novel cytoskeletal interactions. Consistent with this possibility, alpha 6 beta 4 is mostly concentrated on the basal surface of epithelial cells, but does not colocalize with components of adhesion plaques

ALMA Observations of the Gravitational Lens SDP.9

We present long-baseline ALMA observations of the strong gravitational lens H-ATLAS J090740.0-004200 (SDP.9), which consists of an elliptical galaxy at $z_{\mathrm{L}}=0.6129$ lensing a background submillimeter galaxy into two extended arcs. The data include Band 6 continuum observations, as well as CO $J$=6$-$5 molecular line observations, from which we measure an updated source redshift of $z_{\mathrm{S}}=1.5747$. The image morphology in the ALMA data is different from that of the HST data, indicating a spatial offset between the stellar, gas, and dust component of the source galaxy. We model the lens as an elliptical power law density profile with external shear using a combination of archival HST data and conjugate points identified in the ALMA data. Our best model has an Einstein radius of $\theta_{\mathrm{E}}=0.66\pm0.01$ and a slightly steeper than isothermal mass profile slope. We search for the central image of the lens, which can be used constrain the inner mass distribution of the lens galaxy including the central supermassive black hole, but do not detect it in the integrated CO image at a 3$\sigma$ rms level of 0.0471 Jy km s$^{-1}$.Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJL; 6 pages, 2 figures, 3 table

Analysis of quantum conductance of carbon nanotube junctions by the effective mass approximation

The electron transport through the nanotube junctions which connect the different metallic nanotubes by a pair of a pentagonal defect and a heptagonal defect is investigated by Landauer's formula and the effective mass approximation. From our previous calculations based on the tight binding model, it has been known that the conductance is determined almost only by two parameters,i.e., the energy in the unit of the onset energy of more than two channels and the ratio of the radii of the two nanotubes. The conductance is calculated again by the effective mass theory in this paper and a simple analytical form of the conductance is obtained considering a special boundary conditions of the envelop wavefunctions. The two scaling parameters appear naturally in this treatment. The results by this formula coincide fairly well with those of the tight binding model. The physical origin of the scaling law is clarified by this approach.Comment: RevTe

Optical Spatial integration methods for ambiguity function generation

A coherent optical spatial integration approach to ambiguity function generation is described. It uses one dimensional acousto-optic Bragg cells as input tranducers in conjunction with a space variant linear phase shifter, a passive optical element, to generate the two dimensional ambiguity function in one exposure. Results of a real time implementation of this system are shown