1,890 research outputs found
A helium-3 refrigerator employing capillary confinement of liquid cryogen
A condensation refrigerator suitable for operation in a zero gravity space environment was constructed. The condensed liquid refrigerant is confined by surface tension inside a porous metal matrix. Helium-4 and helium-3 gases were condensed and held in a copper matrix. Evaporative cooling of confined liquid helium-4 resulted in a temperature of 1.4K. Using a zeolite adsorption pump external to the cryostat, a temperature of 0.6 K was achieved through evaporative cooling of liquid helium-3. The amount of time required for complete evaporation of a controlled mass of liquid helium-4 contained in the copper matrix was measured as a function of the applied background power. For heating powers below 18 mW the measured times are consistent with the normal boiling of the confined volume of liquid refrigerant. At background powers above 18 mW the rapid rise in the temperature of the copper matrix the signature of the absence of confined liquid occurs in a time a factor of two shorter than that expected on the basis of an extrapolation of the low power data
Isolated, slowly evolving, and dynamical trapping horizons: geometry and mechanics from surface deformations
We study the geometry and dynamics of both isolated and dynamical trapping
horizons by considering the allowed variations of their foliating two-surfaces.
This provides a common framework that may be used to consider both their
possible evolutions and their deformations as well as derive the well-known
flux laws. Using this framework, we unify much of what is already known about
these objects as well as derive some new results. In particular we characterize
and study the "almost-isolated" trapping horizons known as slowly evolving
horizons. It is for these horizons that a dynamical first law holds and this is
analogous and closely related to the Hawking-Hartle formula for event horizons.Comment: 39 pages, 6 figures, version to appear in PRD : a few minor changes
and many typos corrected in equation
Spacetime Embedding Diagrams for Black Holes
We show that the 1+1 dimensional reduction (i.e., the radial plane) of the
Kruskal black hole can be embedded in 2+1 Minkowski spacetime and discuss how
features of this spacetime can be seen from the embedding diagram. The purpose
of this work is educational: The associated embedding diagrams may be useful
for explaining aspects of black holes to students who are familiar with special
relativity, but not general relativity.Comment: 22 pages, 21 figures, RevTex. To be submitted to the American Journal
of Physics. Experts will wish only to skim appendix A and to look at the
pictures. Suggested Maple code is now compatible with MapleV4r
Effects of interaction on an adiabatic quantum electron pump
We study the effects of inter-electron interactions on the charge pumped
through an adiabatic quantum electron pump. The pumping is through a system of
barriers, whose heights are deformed adiabatically. (Weak) interaction effects
are introduced through a renormalisation group flow of the scattering matrices
and the pumped charge is shown to {\it always} approach a quantised value at
low temperatures or long length scales. The maximum value of the pumped charge
is set by the number of barriers and is given by . The
correlation between the transmission and the charge pumped is studied by seeing
how much of the transmission is enclosed by the pumping contour. The (integer)
value of the pumped charge at low temperatures is determined by the number of
transmission maxima enclosed by the pumping contour. The dissipation at finite
temperatures leading to the non-quantised values of the pumped charge scales as
a power law with the temperature (), or with
the system size (), where is a
measure of the interactions and vanishes at . For a double
barrier system, our result agrees with the quantisation of pumped charge seen
in Luttinger liquids.Comment: 9 pages, 9 figures, better quality figures available on request from
author
A New World Average Value for the Neutron Lifetime
The analysis of the data on measurements of the neutron lifetime is
presented. A new most accurate result of the measurement of neutron lifetime
[Phys. Lett. B 605 (2005) 72] 878.5 +/- 0.8 s differs from the world average
value [Phys. Lett. B 667 (2008) 1] 885.7 +/- 0.8 s by 6.5 standard deviations.
In this connection the analysis and Monte Carlo simulation of experiments
[Phys. Lett. B 483 (2000) 15] and [Phys. Rev. Lett. 63 (1989) 593] is carried
out. Systematic errors of about -6 s are found in each of the experiments. The
summary table for the neutron lifetime measurements after corrections and
additions is given. A new world average value for the neutron lifetime 879.9
+/- 0.9 s is presented.Comment: 27 pages, 13 figures; Fig.13 update
Testing the Unitarity of the CKM Matrix with a Space-Based Neutron Decay Experiment
If the Standard Model is correct, and fundamental fermions exist only in the
three generations, then the CKM matrix should be unitary. However, there
remains a question over a deviation from unitarity from the value of the
neutron lifetime. We discuss a simple space-based experiment that, at an orbit
height of 500 km above Earth, would measure the kinetic-energy, solid-angle,
flux spectrum of gravitationally bound neutrons (kinetic energy K<0.606 eV at
this altitude). The difference between the energy spectrum of neutrons that
come up from the Earth's atmosphere and that of the undecayed neutrons that
return back down to the Earth would yield a measurement of the neutron
lifetime. This measurement would be free of the systematics of laboratory
experiments. A package of mass kg could provide a 10^{-3} precision in
two years.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figures. Revised and updated for publicatio
Can mesoscopic fluctuations reverse the supercurrent through a disordered Josephson junction?
We calculate the Josephson coupling energy (related to the
supercurrent ) for a disordered normal metal between
two superconductors with a phase difference . We demonstrate that the
symmetry of the scattering matrix of non-interacting quasiparticles in zero
magnetic field implies that has a minimum at . A maximum
(that would lead to a -junction or negative superfluid density) is
excluded for any realization of the disorder.Comment: 2 page
Covariant coarse-graining of inhomogeneous dust flow in General Relativity
A new definition of coarse-grained quantities describing the dust flow in
General Relativity is proposed. It assigns the coarse--grained expansion, shear
and vorticity to finite-size comoving domains of fluid in a covariant,
coordinate-independent manner. The coarse--grained quantities are all
quasi-local functionals, depending only on the geometry of the boundary of the
considered domain. They can be thought of as relativistic generalizations of
simple volume averages of local quantities in a flat space. The procedure is
based on the isometric embedding theorem for S^2 surfaces and thus requires the
boundary of the domain in question to have spherical topology and positive
scalar curvature. We prove that in the limit of infinitesimally small volume
the proposed quantities reproduce the local expansion, shear and vorticity. In
case of irrotational flow we derive the time evolution for the coarse-grained
quantities and show that its structure is very similar to the evolution
equation for their local counterparts. Additional terms appearing in it may
serve as a measure of the backreacton of small-scale inhomogeneities of the
flow on the large-scale motion of the fluid inside the domain and therefore the
result may be interesting in the context of the cosmological backreaction
problem. We also consider the application of the proposed coarse-graining
procedure to a number of known exact solutions of Einstein equations with dust
and show that it yields reasonable results.Comment: 17 pages, 5 figures. Version accepted in Classical and Quantum
Gravity
Generalized Paraxial Ray Trace Procedure Derived from Geodesic Deviation
Paraxial ray tracing procedures have become widely accepted techniques for
acoustic models in seismology and underwater acoustics. To date a generic form
of these procedures including fluid motion and time dependence has not appeared
in the literature. A detailed investigation of the characteristic curves of the
equations of hydrodynamics allows for an immediate generalization of the
procedure to be extracted from the equation form geodesic deviation. The
general paraxial ray trace equations serve as an ideal supplement to ordinary
ray tracing in predicting the deformation of acoustic beams in random
environments. The general procedure is derived in terms of affine
parameterization and in a coordinate time parameterization ideal for
application to physical acoustic ray propagation. The formalism is applied to
layered media, where the deviation equation reduces to a second order
differential equation for a single field with a general solution in terms of a
depth integral along the ray path. Some features are illustrated through
special cases which lead to exact solutions in terms of either ordinary or
special functions.Comment: Original; 40 pages (double spaced), 1 figure Replaced version; 36
pages single spaced, 7 figures. Expanded content; Complete derivation of the
equations from the equations of hydrodynamics, introduction of an auxiliary
basis for three dimensional wave-front modeling. Typos in text and equations
correcte
Propagation of coherent waves in elastically scattering media
A general method for calculating statistical properties of speckle patterns
of coherent waves propagating in disordered media is developed. It allows one
to calculate speckle pattern correlations in space, as well as their
sensitivity to external parameters. This method, which is similar to the
Boltzmann-Langevin approach for the calculation of classical fluctuations,
applies for a wide range of systems: From cases where the ray propagation is
diffusive to the regime where the rays experience only small angle scattering.
The latter case comprises the regime of directed waves where rays propagate
ballistically in space while their directions diffuse. We demonstrate the
applicability of the method by calculating the correlation function of the wave
intensity and its sensitivity to the wave frequency and the angle of incidence
of the incoming wave.Comment: 19 pages, 5 figure
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