Incoherent Mollow triplet

A counterpart of the Mollow triplet (luminescence lineshape of a two-level system under coherent excitation) is obtained for the case of incoherent excitation in a cavity. Its analytical expression, in excellent agreement with numerical results, pinpoints analogies and differences between the conventional resonance fluorescence spectrum and its cavity QED analogue under incoherent excitation.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure

Non-thermal processes in bowshocks of runaway stars. Application to Zeta Oph

Runaway massive stars are O- and B-type stars with high spatial velocities with respect to the interstellar medium. These stars can produce bowshocks in the surrounding gas. Bowshocks develop as arc-shaped structures, with bows pointing to the same direction as the stellar velocity, while the star moves supersonically through the interstellar gas. The piled-up shocked matter emits thermal radiation and a population of locally accelerated relativistic particles is expected to produce non-thermal emission over a wide range of energies. We aim to model the non-thermal radiation produced in these sources. Under some assumptions, we computed the non-thermal emission produced by the relativistic particles and the thermal radiation caused by free-free interactions, for O4I and O9I stars. We applied our model to Zeta Oph (HD 149757), an intensively studied massive star seen from the northern hemisphere. This star has spectral type O9.5V and is a well-known runaway. Spectral energy distributions of massive runaways are predicted for the whole electromagnetic spectrum. We conclude that the non-thermal radiation might be detectable at various energy bands for relatively nearby runaway stars, especially at high-energy gamma rays. Inverse Compton scattering with photons from the heated dust gives the most important contribution to the high-energy spectrum. This emission approaches Fermi sensitivities in the case of Zeta Oph.Comment: 11 pages, 11 figures.- Accepted for publication in A&A

Runaway massive stars as variable gamma-ray sources

Runaway stars are ejected from their formation sites well within molecular cores in giant dark clouds. Eventually, these stars can travel through the molecular clouds, which are highly inhomogeneous. The powerful winds of massive runaway stars interact with the medium forming bowshocks. Recent observations and theoretical modelling suggest that these bowshocks emit non-thermal radiation. As the massive stars move through the inhomogeneous ambient gas the physical properties of the bowshocks are modified, producing changes in the non-thermal emission. We aim to compute the non-thermal radiation produced in the bowshocks of runaway massive stars when travelling through a molecular cloud. We calculate the non-thermal emission and absorption for two types of massive runaway stars, an O9I and an O4I, as they move through a density gradient. We present the spectral energy distributions for the runaway stars modelled. Additionally, we obtain light curves at different energy ranges. We find significant variations in the emission over timescales of $\sim$ 1 yr. We conclude that bowshocks of massive runaway stars, under some assumptions, might be variable gamma-ray sources, with variability timescales that depend on the medium density profile. These objects might constitute a population of galactic gamma-ray sources turning on and off within years.Comment: 10 pages, 13 figures, accepted for publication in Astronomy & Astrophysic

Quantitative Description of Strong-Coupling of Quantum Dots in Microcavities

We have recently developed a self-consistent theory of Strong-Coupling in the presence of an incoherent pumping [arXiv:0807.3194] and shown how it could reproduce quantitatively the experimental data [PRL 101, 083601 (2008)]. Here, we summarize our main results, provide the detailed analysis of the fitting of the experiment and discuss how the field should now evolve beyond merely qualitative expectations, that could well be erroneous even when they seem to be firmly established.Comment: Submitted to the AIP Conference Proceedings Series for the ICPS 2008 (Rio de Janeiro). 2 pages, reduced-quality figur

Computation of the equilibrium composition of reacting gas-solid mixtures with material and energy balance constraints Status report

Equilibrium composition computed for reacting- gas-solid composite materials using material and energy constraint

The Effects of Inlet Flow Modification on Cavitating Inducer Performance

This paper explores the effect of inlet flow modification on the cavitating and noncavitating performance of two cavitating inducers, one of simple helical design and the other a model of the low-pressure LOX pump in the Space Shuttle Main Engine. The modifications were generated by sections of honeycomb, both uniform and nonuniform. Significant improvement in the performance over a wide range of flow coefficients resulted from the use of either honeycomb section. Measurements of the axial and swirl velocity profiles of the flows entering the inducers were made in order to try to understand the nature of the inlet flow and the manner in which it is modified by the honeycomb sections

Lasing in Strong Coupling

An almost ideal thresholdless laser can be realized in the strong-coupling regime of light-matter interaction, with Poissonian fluctuations of the field at all pumping powers and all intensities of the field. This ideal scenario is thwarted by quantum nonlinearities when crossing from the linear to the stimulated emission regime, resulting in a universal jump in the second order coherence, which measurement could however be used to establish a standard of lasing in strong coupling.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figure

Optimization of photon correlations by frequency filtering

Photon correlations are a cornerstone of Quantum Optics. Recent works [NJP 15 025019, 033036 (2013), PRA 90 052111 (2014)] have shown that by keeping track of the frequency of the photons, rich landscapes of correlations are revealed. Stronger correlations are usually found where the system emission is weak. Here, we characterize both the strength and signal of such correlations, through the introduction of the 'frequency resolved Mandel parameter'. We study a plethora of nonlinear quantum systems, showing how one can substantially optimize correlations by combining parameters such as pumping, filtering windows and time delay.Comment: Small updates to take into account the recent experimental observation of the physics here analyze

Effective cavity pumping from weakly coupled quantum dots

We derive the effective cavity pumping and decay rates for the master equation of a quantum dot-microcavity system in presence of $N$ weakly coupled dots. We show that the in-flow of photons is not linked to the out-flow by thermal equilibrium relationships.Comment: 6 pages, 1 figure, PLMCN10 conference proceeding

A mechanism for fast radio bursts

Fast radio bursts are mysterious transient sources likely located at cosmological distances. The derived brightness temperatures exceed by many orders of magnitude the self-absorption limit of incoherent synchrotron radiation, implying the operation of a coherent emission process. We propose a radiation mechanism for fast radio bursts where the emission arises from collisionless Bremsstrahlung in strong plasma turbulence excited by relativistic electron beams. We discuss possible astrophysical scenarios in which this process might operate. The emitting region is a turbulent plasma hit by a relativistic jet, where Langmuir plasma waves produce a concentration of intense electrostatic soliton-like regions (cavitons). The resulting radiation is coherent and, under some physical conditions, can be polarised and have a power-law distribution in energy. We obtain radio luminosities in agreement with the inferred values for fast radio bursts. The timescale of the radio flare in some cases can be extremely fast, of the order of $10^{-3}$ s. The mechanism we present here can explain the main features of fast radio bursts and is plausible in different astrophysical sources, such as gamma-ray bursts and some Active Galactic Nuclei.Comment: 6 pages, 1 figure. Accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.