640 research outputs found
Atmospheric scintillation in astronomical photometry
Scintillation noise due to the Earth's turbulent atmosphere can be a dominant noise source in high-precision astronomical photometry when observing bright targets from the ground. Here we describe the phenomenon of scintillation from its physical origins to its effect on photometry. We show that Young's scintillation-noise approximation used by many astronomers tends to underestimate the median scintillation noise at several major observatories around the world. We show that using median atmospheric optical turbulence profiles, which are now available for most sites, provides a better estimate of the expected scintillation noise and that real-time turbulence profiles can be used to precisely characterize the scintillation-noise component of contemporaneous photometric measurements. This will enable a better understanding and calibration of photometric noise sources and the effectiveness of scintillation correction techniques. We also provide new equations for calculating scintillation noise, including for extremely large telescopes where the scintillation noise will actually be lower than previously thought. These equations highlight the fact that scintillation noise and shot noise have the same dependence on exposure time and so if an observation is scintillation limited, it will be scintillation limited for all exposure times. The ratio of scintillation noise to shot noise is also only weakly dependent on telescope diameter and so a bigger telescope may not yield a reduction in fractional scintillation noise
Pulmonary Hydatid Cyst with Complicating Aspergillus Infection Presenting as a Refractory Lung Abscess
Background Hydatid disease is rare in the United States. Rarely the hydatid cyst can become infected with mycotic organisms, such as Aspergillus . We describe a young male who presents with clinical features of suppurative lung abscess whose workup diagnosed hydatid cyst complicated by Aspergillus co-infection. Case presentation A 27-year-old Peruvian male was hospitalized because of fever, chills, and productive cough of three months’ duration. Clinical features were consistent with a suppurative lung abscess. Significant findings included leukocytosis with eosinophilia and a chest x-ray showing a large lingular lobe thick walled cavity with a wavy irregular fluid level. The patient ultimately underwent surgical resection of the lingular lobe. Examination of the surgical specimen revealed the cavity to be a hydatid cyst. Histologic examination of the cyst wall showed intense inflammation and several septate hyphae of Aspergillus species. The patient recovered fully and has remained in good health. Conclusion A thick-walled cavity and a wavy meniscus constitute unusual features for an ordinary pyogenic lung abscess and suggests other possibilities. Endogenous cases of hydatid disease are uncommon in the United States, with the majority of cases occurring in immigrants. There are few published case reports describing incidental findings of Aspergillus in a hydatid cyst. The rare occurrence of such a condition can lead to a delay in diagnosis and treatment
Lax pairs, Painlev\'e properties and exact solutions of the alogero Korteweg-de Vries equation and a new (2+1)-dimensional equation
We prove the existence of a Lax pair for the Calogero Korteweg-de Vries
(CKdV) equation. Moreover, we modify the T operator in the the Lax pair of the
CKdV equation, in the search of a (2+1)-dimensional case and thereby propose a
new equation in (2+1) dimensions. We named this the (2+1)-dimensional CKdV
equation. We show that the CKdV equation as well as the (2+1)-dimensional CKdV
equation are integrable in the sense that they possess the Painlev\'e property.
Some exact solutions are also constructed
Thermal Field Theory and Generalized Light Front Coordinates
The dependence of thermal field theory on the surface of quantization and on
the velocity of the heat bath is investigated by working in general coordinates
that are arbitrary linear combinations of the Minkowski coordinates. In the
general coordinates the metric tensor is non-diagonal. The
Kubo, Martin, Schwinger condition requires periodicity in thermal correlation
functions when the temporal variable changes by an amount
. Light front quantization fails since
, however various related quantizations are possible.Comment: 10 page
On the Resummation of the epe^+e^-$ Annihilation
The resummation of the non-singlet contributions is
performed for initial state QED corrections. As examples, the effect of the
resummation on neutral-current deep-inelastic scattering and the scattering cross section near the -peak is
investigated.Comment: 11 pages Latex, including 3 eps-figure
SS Cancri: the shortest modulation-period Blazhko RR Lyrae
In order to study the Blazhko effect, we characterise the modulation of the RR Lyrae star SS Cancri,
which has been reported to have the shortest modulation Blazhko period. B, V and R band data have been acquired.
The pulsation period is 0.36731 +- 0.00004 d. No significant change in the period over the last 80 years is observed.
We measure a periodic variation in the light curve maxima, which has a period of 5.313 +- 0.018 d and an amplitude
of 0.016 +- 0.003 mag. The best model that describes the Blazhko effect is the resonance coupling between a low
and a high order radial mode
HiPERCAM: A high-speed quintuple-beam CCD camera for the study of rapid variability in the universe
HiPERCAM is a high-speed camera for the study of rapid variability in the Universe. The project is funded by a ϵ3.5M European Research Council Advanced Grant. HiPERCAM builds on the success of our previous instrument, ULTRACAM, with very significant improvements in performance thanks to the use of the latest technologies. HiPERCAM will use 4 dichroic beamsplitters to image simultaneously in 5 optical channels covering the u'g'r'I'z' bands. Frame rates of over 1000 per second will be achievable using an ESO CCD controller (NGC), with every frame GPS timestamped. The detectors are custom-made, frame-transfer CCDs from e2v, with 4 low noise (2.5e -) outputs, mounted in small thermoelectrically-cooled heads operated at 180 K, resulting in virtually no dark current. The two reddest CCDs will be deep-depletion devices with anti-etaloning, providing high quantum efficiencies across the red part of the spectrum with no fringing. The instrument will also incorporate scintillation noise correction via the conjugate-plane photometry technique. The opto-mechanical chassis will make use of additive manufacturing techniques in metal to make a light-weight, rigid and temperature-invariant structure. First light is expected on the 4.2m William Herschel Telescope on La Palma in 2017 (on which the field of view will be 10' with a 0.3"/pixel scale), with subsequent use planned on the 10.4m Gran Telescopio Canarias on La Palma (on which the field of view will be 4' with a 0.11"/pixel scale) and the 3.5m New Technology Telescope in Chile
Quantum coherence in a degenerate two-level atomic ensemble: for a transition
For a transition driven by a linearly polarized
light and probed by a circularly light, quantum coherence effects are
investigated. Due to the coherence between the drive Rabi frequency and Zeeman
splitting, electromagnetically induced transparency, electromagnetically
induced absorption, and the transition from positive to negative dispersion are
obtained, as well as the populations coherently oscillating in a wide spectral
region. At the zero pump-probe detuning, the subluminal and superluminal light
propagation is predicted. Finally, coherent population trapping states are not
highly sensitive to the refraction and absorption in such ensemble.Comment: 9 pages, 6 figure
The Saffman-Taylor problem on a sphere
The Saffman-Taylor problem addresses the morphological instability of an
interface separating two immiscible, viscous fluids when they move in a narrow
gap between two flat parallel plates (Hele-Shaw cell). In this work, we extend
the classic Saffman-Taylor situation, by considering the flow between two
curved, closely spaced, concentric spheres (spherical Hele-Shaw cell). We
derive the mode-coupling differential equation for the interface perturbation
amplitudes and study both linear and nonlinear flow regimes. The effect of the
spherical cell (positive) spatial curvature on the shape of the interfacial
patterns is investigated. We show that stability properties of the fluid-fluid
interface are sensitive to the curvature of the surface. In particular, it is
found that positive spatial curvature inhibits finger tip-splitting. Hele-Shaw
flow on weakly negative, curved surfaces is briefly discussed.Comment: 26 pages, 4 figures, RevTex, accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.
Surface critical exponents at a uniaxial Lifshitz point
Using Monte Carlo techniques, the surface critical behaviour of
three-dimensional semi-infinite ANNNI models with different surface
orientations with respect to the axis of competing interactions is
investigated. Special attention is thereby paid to the surface criticality at
the bulk uniaxial Lifshitz point encountered in this model. The presented Monte
Carlo results show that the mean-field description of semi-infinite ANNNI
models is qualitatively correct. Lifshitz point surface critical exponents at
the ordinary transition are found to depend on the surface orientation. At the
special transition point, however, no clear dependency of the critical
exponents on the surface orientation is revealed. The values of the surface
critical exponents presented in this study are the first estimates available
beyond mean-field theory.Comment: 10 pages, 7 figures include
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