17,356 research outputs found
Multipole Gravitational Lensing and High-order Perturbations on the Quadrupole Lens
An arbitrary surface mass density of gravitational lens can be decomposed
into multipole components. We simulate the ray-tracing for the multipolar mass
distribution of generalized SIS (Singular Isothermal Sphere) model, based on
the deflection angles which are analytically calculated. The magnification
patterns in the source plane are then derived from inverse shooting technique.
As have been found, the caustics of odd mode lenses are composed of two
overlapping layers for some lens models. When a point source traverses such
kind of overlapping caustics, the image numbers change by \pm 4, rather than
\pm 2. There are two kinds of images for the caustics. One is the critical
curve and the other is the transition locus. It is found that the image number
of the fold is exactly the average value of image numbers on two sides of the
fold, while the image number of the cusp is equal to the smaller one. We also
focus on the magnification patterns of the quadrupole (m = 2) lenses under the
perturbations of m = 3, 4 and 5 mode components, and found that one, two, and
three butterfly or swallowtail singularities can be produced respectively. With
the increasing intensity of the high-order perturbations, the singularities
grow up to bring sixfold image regions. If these perturbations are large enough
to let two or three of the butterflies or swallowtails contact, eightfold or
tenfold image regions can be produced as well. The possible astronomical
applications are discussed.Comment: 24 pages, 6 figure
Magnification relations of quad lenses and applications on Einstein crosses
In this work, we mainly study the magnification relations of quad lens models
for cusp, fold and cross configurations. By dividing and ray-tracing in
different image regions, we numerically derive the positions and magnifications
of the four images for a point source lying inside of the astroid caustic.
Then, based on the magnifications, we calculate the signed cusp and fold
relations for the singular isothermal elliptical lenses. The signed fold
relation map has positive and negative regions, and the positive region is
usually larger than the negative region as has been confirmed before. It can
also explain that for many observed fold image pairs, the fluxes of the Fermat
minimum images are apt to be larger than those of the saddle images. We define
a new quantity cross relation which describes the magnification discrepancy
between two minimum images and two saddle images. Distance ratio is also
defined as the ratio of the distance of two saddle images to that of two
minimum images. We calculate the cross relations and distance ratios for nine
observed Einstein crosses. In theory, for most of the quad lens models, the
cross relations decrease as the distance ratios increase. In observation, the
cross relations of the nine samples do not agree with the quad lens models very
well, nevertheless, the cross relations of the nine samples do not give obvious
evidence for anomalous flux ratio as the cusp and fold types do. Then, we
discuss several reasons for the disagreement, and expect good consistencies for
more precise observations and better lens models in the future.Comment: 12 pages, 11 figures, accepted for publication in MNRA
Structure of CdTe/ZnTe superlattices
The structure of CdTe/ZnTe superlattices has been analyzed through θ/2θ x‐ray diffraction, photoluminescence, and in situ reflection high‐energy electron diffraction (RHEED) measurements. Samples are found to break away from Cd_(x)Zn_(1−x)Te buffer layers as a consequence of the 6% lattice mismatch in this system. However, defect densities in these superlattices are seen to drop dramatically away from the buffer layer interface, accounting for the intense photoluminescence and high‐average strain fields seen in each of our samples. Observed variations in residual strains suggest that growth conditions play a role in forming misfit defects. This could explain discrepancies with calculated values of critical thickness based on models which neglect growth conditions. Photoluminescence spectra reveal that layer‐to‐layer growth proceeded with single monolayer uniformity, suggesting highly reproducible growth. Our results give hope for relatively defect‐free Cd_(x)Zn_(1−x)Te/Cd_(y)Zn_(1−y)Te superlattices with the potential for applications to optoelectronics offered by intense visible light emitters
Testing of a novel web browser interface for the Chinese market
This paper compares the perspicacity, appropriateness and preference of web browser icons from leading software providers with those of a culture-specific design. This online study was conducted in Taiwan and involved 103 participants, who were given three sets of web browser icons to review, namely Microsoft Internet Explorer, Macintosh Safari, and culturally specific icons created using the Culture-Centred Design methodology. The findings of the study show that all three sets have generally high recognition rates, but that some icon functions (e.g. Go/Visit and Favourite) in all three sets have poor recognition rates and are considered inappropriate
Magnetodielectric effect of Bi6Fe2Ti3O18 film under an ultra-low magnetic field
Good quality and fine grain Bi6Fe2Ti3O18 magnetic ferroelectric films with
single-phase layered perovskite structure have been successfully prepared via
metal organic decomposition (MOD) method. Results of low-temperature
magnetocapacitance measurements reveal that an ultra-low magnetic field of 10
Oe can produce a nontrivial magnetodielectric (MD) response in
zero-field-cooling condition, and the relative variation of dielectric
constants in magnetic field is positive, i.e., MD=0.05, when T<55K, but
negative with a maximum of MD=-0.14 when 55K<T<190K. The magnetodielectric
effect appears a sign change at 55K, which is due to transition from
antiferromagnetic to weak ferromagnetic; and vanishes abruptly around 190K,
which is thought to be associated with order-disorder transition of iron ion at
B site of perovskite structures. The ultra-low-field magnetodielectric
behaviour of Bi6Fe2Ti3O18 film has been discussed in the light of
quasi-two-dimension unique nature of local spin order in ferroelectric film.
Our results allow expectation on low-cost applications of detectors and
switches for extremely weak magnetic fields in a wide temperature range
55K-190K.Comment: 10 pages 4 figures, planned to submit to J. Phys.: Condensed Matte
InterCloud: Utility-Oriented Federation of Cloud Computing Environments for Scaling of Application Services
Cloud computing providers have setup several data centers at different
geographical locations over the Internet in order to optimally serve needs of
their customers around the world. However, existing systems do not support
mechanisms and policies for dynamically coordinating load distribution among
different Cloud-based data centers in order to determine optimal location for
hosting application services to achieve reasonable QoS levels. Further, the
Cloud computing providers are unable to predict geographic distribution of
users consuming their services, hence the load coordination must happen
automatically, and distribution of services must change in response to changes
in the load. To counter this problem, we advocate creation of federated Cloud
computing environment (InterCloud) that facilitates just-in-time,
opportunistic, and scalable provisioning of application services, consistently
achieving QoS targets under variable workload, resource and network conditions.
The overall goal is to create a computing environment that supports dynamic
expansion or contraction of capabilities (VMs, services, storage, and database)
for handling sudden variations in service demands.
This paper presents vision, challenges, and architectural elements of
InterCloud for utility-oriented federation of Cloud computing environments. The
proposed InterCloud environment supports scaling of applications across
multiple vendor clouds. We have validated our approach by conducting a set of
rigorous performance evaluation study using the CloudSim toolkit. The results
demonstrate that federated Cloud computing model has immense potential as it
offers significant performance gains as regards to response time and cost
saving under dynamic workload scenarios.Comment: 20 pages, 4 figures, 3 tables, conference pape
Target recognition for coastal surveillance based on radar images and generalised Bayesian inference
For coastal surveillance, this study proposes a novel approach to identify moving vessels from radar images with the use of a generalised Bayesian inference technique, namely the evidential reasoning (ER) rule. First of all, the likelihood information about radar blips is obtained in terms of the velocity, direction, and shape attributes of the verified samples. Then, it is transformed to be multiple pieces of evidence, which are formulated as generalised belief distributions representing the probabilistic relationships between the blip's states of authenticity and the values of its attributes. Subsequently, the ER rule is used to combine these pieces of evidence, taking into account their corresponding reliabilities and weights. Furthermore, based on different objectives and verified samples, weight coefficients can be trained with a non-linear optimisation model. Finally, two field tests of identifying moving vessels from radar images have been conducted to validate the effectiveness and flexibility of the proposed approach
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