1,911 research outputs found
Estimating Electric Fields from Vector Magnetogram Sequences
Determining the electric field (E-field) distribution on the Sun's
photosphere is essential for quantitative studies of how energy flows from the
Sun's photosphere, through the corona, and into the heliosphere. This E-field
also provides valuable input for data-driven models of the solar atmosphere and
the Sun-Earth system. We show how Faraday's Law can be used with observed
vector magnetogram time series to estimate the photospheric E-field, an
ill-posed inversion problem. Our method uses a "poloidal-toroidal
decomposition" (PTD) of the time derivative of the vector magnetic field. The
PTD solutions are not unique; the gradient of a scalar potential can be added
to the PTD E-field without affecting consistency with Faraday's Law. We present
an iterative technique to determine a potential function consistent with ideal
MHD evolution; but this E-field is also not a unique solution to Faraday's Law.
Finally, we explore a variational approach that minimizes an energy functional
to determine a unique E-field, similar to Longcope's "Minimum Energy Fit". The
PTD technique, the iterative technique, and the variational technique are used
to estimate E-fields from a pair of synthetic vector magnetograms taken from an
MHD simulation; and these E-fields are compared with the simulation's known
electric fields. These three techniques are then applied to a pair of vector
magnetograms of solar active region NOAA AR8210, to demonstrate the methods
with real data.Comment: 41 pages, 10 figure
Direct Measurements of Magnetic Twist in the Solar Corona
In the present work we study evolution of magnetic helicity in the solar
corona. We compare the rate of change of a quantity related to the magnetic
helicity in the corona to the flux of magnetic helicity through the photosphere
and find that the two rates are similar. This gives observational evidence that
helicity flux across the photosphere is indeed what drives helicity changes in
solar corona during emergence.
For the purposes of estimating coronal helicity we neither assume a strictly
linear force-free field, nor attempt to construct a non-linear force-free
field. For each coronal loop evident in Extreme Ultraviolet (EUV) we find a
best-matching line of a linear force-free field and allow the twist parameter
alpha to be different for each line. This method was introduced and its
applicability was discussed in Malanushenko et. al. (2009).
The object of the study is emerging and rapidly rotating AR 9004 over about
80 hours. As a proxy for coronal helicity we use the quantity
averaged over many reconstructed lines of magnetic field. We argue that it is
approximately proportional to "flux-normalized" helicity H/Phi^2, where H is
helicity and Phi is total enclosed magnetic flux of the active region. The time
rate of change of such quantity in the corona is found to be about 0.021
rad/hr, which is compatible with the estimates for the same region obtained
using other methods Longcope et. al. (2007), who estimated the flux of
normalized helicity of about 0.016 rad/hr
What is the relationship between photospheric flow fields and solar flares?
We estimated photospheric velocities by separately applying the Fourier Local
Correlation Tracking (FLCT) and Differential Affine Velocity Estimator (DAVE)
methods to 2708 co-registered pairs of SOHO/MDI magnetograms, with nominal
96-minute cadence and ~2" pixels, from 46 active regions (ARs) from 1996-1998
over the time interval t45 when each AR was within 45^o of disk center. For
each magnetogram pair, we computed the average estimated radial magnetic field,
B; and each tracking method produced an independently estimated flow field, u.
We then quantitatively characterized these magnetic and flow fields by
computing several extensive and intensive properties of each; extensive
properties scale with AR size, while intensive properties do not depend
directly on AR size. Intensive flow properties included moments of speeds,
horizontal divergences, and radial curls; extensive flow properties included
sums of these properties over each AR, and a crude proxy for the ideal Poynting
flux, the total |u| B^2. Several magnetic quantities were also computed,
including: total unsigned flux; a measure of the amount of unsigned flux near
strong-field polarity inversion lines, R; and the total B^2. Next, using
correlation and discriminant analysis, we investigated the associations between
these properties and flares from the GOES flare catalog, when averaged over
both t45 and shorter time windows, of 6 and 24 hours. We found R and total |u|
B^2 to be most strongly associated with flares; no intensive flow properties
were strongly associated with flares.Comment: 57 pages, 13 figures; revised content; added URL to manuscript with
higher-quality image
Nonclassical Moments and their Measurement
Practically applicable criteria for the nonclassicality of quantum states are
formulated in terms of different types of moments. For this purpose the moments
of the creation and annihilation operators, of two quadratures, and of a
quadrature and the photon number operator turn out to be useful. It is shown
that all the required moments can be determined by homodyne correlation
measurements. An example of a nonclassical effect that is easily characterized
by our methods is amplitude-squared squeezing.Comment: 12 pages, 6 figure
Quantum-state extraction from high-Q cavities
The problem of extraction of a single-mode quantum state from a high-Q cavity
is studied for the case in which the time of preparation of the quantum state
of the cavity mode is short compared with its decay time. The temporal
evolution of the quantum state of the field escaping from the cavity is
calculated in terms of phase-space functions. A general condition is derived
under which the quantum state of the pulse built up outside the cavity is a
nearly perfect copy of the quantum state the cavity field was initially
prepared in. The results show that unwanted losses prevent the realization of a
nearly perfect extraction of nonclassical quantum states from high-Q optical
microcavities with presently available technology.Comment: RevTeX4, 9 pages with 6 figures; extended version as submitted to
Phys. Rev.
Efficiency of tunable band-gap structures for single-photon emission
The efficiency of recently proposed single-photon emitting sources based on
tunable planar band-gap structures is examined. The analysis is based on the
study of the total and ``radiative'' decay rates, the expectation value of
emitted radiation energy and its collimating cone. It is shown that the scheme
operating in the frequency range near the defect resonance of a defect band-gap
structure is more efficient than the one operating near the band edge of a
perfect band-gap structure.Comment: 9 pages, 7 figure
Determination of quantum-noise parameters of realistic cavities
A procedure is developed which allows one to measure all the parameters
occurring in a complete model [A.A. Semenov et al., Phys. Rev. A 74, 033803
(2006); quant-ph/0603043] of realistic leaky cavities with unwanted noise. The
method is based on the reflection of properly chosen test pulses by the cavity.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figure
True photo-counting statistics of multiple on-off detectors
We derive a closed photo-counting formula, including noise counts and a
finite quantum efficiency, for photon number resolving detectors based on
on-off detectors. It applies to detection schemes such as array detectors and
multiplexing setups. The result renders it possible to compare the
corresponding measured counting statistics with the true photon number
statistics of arbitrary quantum states. The photo-counting formula is applied
to the discrimination of photon numbers of Fock states, squeezed states, and
odd coherent states. It is illustrated for coherent states that our formula is
indispensable for the correct interpretation of quantum effects observed with
such devices.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figure
RF Characterization of Superconducting Samples
At CERN a compact Quadrupole Resonator has been re-commissioned for the RF characterization of superconducting materials at 400 MHz. In addition the resonator can also be excited at multiple integers of this frequency. Besides Rs it enables determination of the maximum RF magnetic field, the thermal conductivity and the penetration depth of the attached samples, at different temperatures. The features of the resonator will be compared with those of similar RF devices and first results will be presented
Quantum-state input-output relations for absorbing cavities
The quantized electromagnetic field inside and outside an absorbing high-
cavity is studied, with special emphasis on the absorption losses in the
coupling mirror and their influence on the outgoing field. Generalized operator
input-output relations are derived, which are used to calculate the Wigner
function of the outgoing field. To illustrate the theory, the preparation of
the outgoing field in a Schr\"{o}dinger cat-like state is discussed.Comment: 12 pages, 5 eps figure
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