The dual parameterization of the proton generalized parton distribution functions H and E and description of the DVCS cross sections and asymmetries

We develop the minimal model of a new leading order parameterization of GPDs introduced by Shuvaev and Polyakov. The model for GPDs H and E is formulated in terms of the forward quark distributions, the Gegenbauer moments of the D-term and the forward limit of the GPD E. The model is designed primarely for small and medium-size values of x_B, x_B \leq 0.2. We examined two different models of the t-dependence of the GPDs: The factorized exponential model and the non-factorized Regge-motivated model. Using our model, we successfully described the DVCS cross section measured by H1 and ZEUS, the moments of the beam-spin A_{LU}^{\sin \phi}, beam-charge A_{C}^{\cos \phi} and transversely-polarized target A_{UT}^{\sin \phi \cos \phi} DVCS asymmetries measured by HERMES and A_{LU}^{\sin \phi} measured by CLAS. The data on A_{C}^{\cos \phi} prefers the Regge-motivated model of the t-dependence of the GPDs. The data on A_{UT}^{\sin \phi \cos \phi} indicates that the u and d quarks carry only a small fraction of the proton total angular momentum.Comment: 33 pages, 11 figure

Information Dissemination Needs of Indonesian Migrant Domestic Workers in Malaysia

Substantial numbers of Indonesian women are seeking employment as domestic workers in Malaysia in order to escape poverty and unemployment and to be able to support their families back home. Most Indonesian domestic workers in Malaysia face unpleasant working conditions with long working hours and no freedom to move or communicate; some find themselves in a situation of abuse. In many cases, the decision to work abroad is made without being properly informed about what to expect. Furthermore, most of the Indonesian migrant domestic workers do not know about process and procedures and are not aware of their rights and the possibilities of seeking assistance when problems occur. In order to empower the target group, relevant information need to be disseminated. Current strategies do not seem to achieve the desired effect. Many of the affected women come from remote areas, are poor and have a low level of education; therefore, their skills to make use of written or even digital information are limited. Appropriate strategies are suggested to utilise traditional and commonly used information dissemination channels such as cultural performances, group discussions and radio. Educational measures should be combined with aspects of local entertainment culture in order to attract attention and to provoke identification with the issues discussed. Further research is necessary to actually develop an appropriate information dissemination strategy with regard to the target group and to evaluate its benefits by conducting pilot projects

Weak Lensing Reconstruction and Power Spectrum Estimation: Minimum Variance Methods

Large-scale structure distorts the images of background galaxies, which allows one to measure directly the projected distribution of dark matter in the universe and determine its power spectrum. Here we address the question of how to extract this information from the observations. We derive minimum variance estimators for projected density reconstruction and its power spectrum and apply them to simulated data sets, showing that they give a good agreement with the theoretical minimum variance expectations. The same estimator can also be applied to the cluster reconstruction, where it remains a useful reconstruction technique, although it is no longer optimal for every application. The method can be generalized to include nonlinear cluster reconstruction and photometric information on redshifts of background galaxies in the analysis. We also address the question of how to obtain directly the 3-d power spectrum from the weak lensing data. We derive a minimum variance quadratic estimator, which maximizes the likelihood function for the 3-d power spectrum and can be computed either from the measurements directly or from the 2-d power spectrum. The estimator correctly propagates the errors and provides a full correlation matrix of the estimates. It can be generalized to the case where redshift distribution depends on the galaxy photometric properties, which allows one to measure both the 3-d power spectrum and its time evolution.Comment: revised version, 36 pages, AAS LateX, submitted to Ap

Optically-pumped saturable absorber for fast switching between continuous-wave and passively mode-locked regimes of a Nd:YVO4 laser

We report on the fast (~50 μs) remote-controlled switching between continuous-wave (cw), cw mode-locked (ML) and Q-switched ML modes of operation of a Nd:YVO4 laser using an optically-pumped saturable absorber (SA). Pulses as short as 40 ps with an average output power of 0.5 W are obtained in cw ML regime

A Comparison of Simple Mass Estimators for Galaxy Clusters

High-resolution N-body simulations are used to investigate systematic trends in the mass profiles and total masses of clusters as derived from 3 simple estimators: (1) the weak gravitational lensing shear field under the assumption of an isothermal cluster potential, (2) the dynamical mass obtained from the measured velocity dispersion under the assumption of an isothermal cluster potential, and (3) the classical virial estimator. The clusters consist of order 2.5e+05 particles of mass m_p \simeq 10^{10} \Msun, have triaxial mass distributions, and significant substructure exists within their virial radii. Not surprisingly, the level of agreement between the mass profiles obtained from the various estimators and the actual mass profiles is found to be scale-dependent. The virial estimator yields a good measurement of the total cluster mass, though it is systematically underestimated by of order 10%. This result suggests that, at least in the limit of ideal data, the virial estimator is quite robust to deviations from pure spherical symmetry and the presence of substructure. The dynamical mass estimate based upon a measurement of the cluster velocity dispersion and an assumption of an isothermal potential yields a poor measurement of the total mass. The weak lensing estimate yields a very good measurement of the total mass, provided the mean shear used to determine the equivalent cluster velocity dispersion is computed from an average of the lensing signal over the entire cluster (i.e. the mean shear is computed interior to the virial radius). [abridged]Comment: Accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal. Complete paper, including 3 large colour figures can also be obtained from http://bu-ast.bu.edu/~brainerd/preprints

Determination of the penetration depth of ceramic blasting particles during composite peening

Composite peening is a process to embed ceramic particles into the surface of materials with the aim to improve the mechanical and tribological properties. These properties depend essentially on the penetration depth of the particles. In order to investigate the penetration depth achieved with composite peening, micrographs were taken and evaluated employing digital image processing. In composite peening, the blasting particles penetrate the surface of the substrate depending on the process parameters. Models from the field of solid particle erosion were applied to predict the penetration depth of the particles. These analytical models can be used to evaluate the influence of specific process parameters on the penetration depth in composite peening. Furthermore, an additional model from ballistics was implemented. A good qualitative agreement was found between the analytical approaches and the experiments regarding the penetration depth after composite peening for the given system. In the future, this will allow estimating the penetration depth for other process parameters and materials for composite peening as well as for issues related to solid particle erosion

Hubble Space Telescope weak lensing study of the z=0.83 cluster MS 1054-03

We have measured the weak gravitational lensing signal of MS 1054-03, a rich and X-ray luminous cluster of galaxies at a redshift of z=0.83, using a two-colour mosaic of deep WFPC2 images. The small corrections for the size of the PSF and the high number density of background galaxies obtained in these observations result in an accurate and well calibrated measurement of the lensing induced distortion. The strength of the lensing signal depends on the redshift distribution of the background galaxies. We used photometric redshift distributions from the Northern and Southern Hubble Deep Fields to relate the lensing signal to the mass. The predicted variations of the signal as a function of apparent source magnitude and colour agrees well with the observed lensing signal. We determine a mass of (1.2+-0.2)x10^15 Msun within an aperture of radius 1 Mpc. Under the assumption of an isothermal mass distribution, the corresponding velocity dispersion is 1311^{+83}_{-89} km/s. For the mass-to-light ratio we find 269+-37 Msun/Lsun. The errors in the mass and mass-to-light ratio include the contribution from the random intrinsic ellipticities of the source galaxies, but not the (systematic) error due to the uncertainty in the redshift distribution. However, the estimates for the mass and mass-to-light ratio of MS 1054-03 agree well with other estimators, suggesting that the mass calibration works well. The reconstruction of the projected mass surface density shows a complex mass distribution, consistent with the light distribution. The results indicate that MS 1054-03 is a young system. The timescale for relaxation is estimated to be at least 1 Gyr. Averaging the tangential shear around the cluster galaxies, we find that the velocity dispersion of an Lstar galaxy is 203+-33 km/s.Comment: 21 pages, Latex, with 27 figures (3 figures bitmapped), ApJ, in press. Version (with non-bitmapped figures) available at http://www.astro.rug.nl/~hoekstra/papers.htm

HST/ACS weak lensing analysis of the galaxy cluster RDCS 1252.9-2927 at z=1.24

We present a weak lensing analysis of one of the most distant massive galaxy cluster known, RDCS 1252.9-2927 at z=1.24, using deep images from the Advanced Camera for Survey (ACS) on board the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). By taking advantage of the depth and of the angular resolution of the ACS images, we detect for the first time at z>1 a clear weak lensing signal in both the i (F775W) and z (F850LP) filters. We measure a 5-\sigma signal in the i band and a 3-\sigma signal in the shallower z band image. The two radial mass profiles are found to be in very good agreement with each other, and provide a measurement of the total mass of the cluster inside a 1Mpc radius of M(<1Mpc) = (8.0 +/- 1.3) x 10^14 M_\odot in the current cosmological concordance model h =0.70, \Omega_m=0.3, \Omega_\Lambda=0.7, assuming a redshift distribution of background galaxies as inferred from the Hubble Deep Fields surveys. A weak lensing signal is detected out to the boundary of our field (3' radius, corresponding to 1.5Mpc at the cluster redshift). We detect a small offset between the centroid of the weak lensing mass map and the brightest cluster galaxy, and we discuss the possible origin of this discrepancy. The cumulative weak lensing radial mass profile is found to be in good agreement with the X-ray mass estimate based on Chandr and XMM-Newton observations, at least out to R_500=0.5Mpc.Comment: 38 pages, ApJ in press. Full resolution images available at http://www.eso.org/~prosati/RDCS1252/Lombardi_etal_accepted.pd