5,929 research outputs found
Solitonic State in Microscopic Dynamic Failures
Onset of permanent deformation in crystalline materials under a sharp
indenter tip is accompanied by nucleation and propagation of defects. By
measuring the spatio-temporal strain field nearthe indenter tip during
indentation tests, we demonstrate that the dynamic strain history at the moment
of a displacement burst carries characteristics of formation and interaction of
local excitations, or solitons. We show that dynamic propagation of multiple
solitons is followed by a short time interval where the propagating fronts can
accelerate suddenly. As a result of such abrupt local accelerations, duration
of the fast-slip phase of a failure event is shortened. Our results show that
formation and annihilation of solitons mediate the microscopic fast weakening
phase, during which extreme acceleration and collision of solitons lead to
non-Newtonian behavior and Lorentz contraction, i.e., shortening of solitons
characteristic length. The results open new horizons for understanding dynamic
material response during failure and, more generally, complexity of earthquake
sources
Electron spin resonance of RCHCOR'radicals in X‑irradiated ketone‑urea inclusion compounds
5 pagesSingle crystals of six inclusion compounds formed between aliphatic ketones and urea were x irradiated
at room temperature, and the free radicals produced were investigated by electron spin resonance. The six
ketones investigated were 2-nonanone, 6-undecanone, 3-tetradecanone, 2-undecanone, 2-dodecanone, and
3-undecanone. The long-lived free radicals observed in all of these compounds (RCHsCHCOR') are formed
by the removal of one a proton from the parent ketone. The unpaired spin density in the 2p orbital adjacent
to the carbonyl group is 0.81±0.08. A contour plot of the spin density as a function of the molecular orbital
parameters is given. In qualitative agreement with the ESR results, the molecular orbital methods predict
the position of maximum spin density to be adjacent to the carbonyl group
Rapid state purification protocols for a Cooper pair box
We propose techniques for implementing two different rapid state purification
schemes, within the constraints present in a superconducting charge qubit
system. Both schemes use a continuous measurement of charge (z) measurements,
and seek to minimize the time required to purify the conditional state. Our
methods are designed to make the purification process relatively insensitive to
rotations about the x-axis, due to the Josephson tunnelling Hamiltonian. The
first proposed method, based on the scheme of Jacobs [Phys. Rev. A 67,
030301(R) (2003)] uses the measurement results to control bias (z) pulses so as
to rotate the Bloch vector onto the x-axis of the Bloch sphere. The second
proposed method, based on the scheme of Wiseman and Ralph [New J. Phys. 8, 90
(2006)] uses a simple feedback protocol which tightly rotates the Bloch vector
about an axis almost parallel with the measurement axis. We compare the
performance of these and other techniques by a number of different measures.Comment: 14 pages, 14 figures. v2: Revised version after referee comments.
Accepted for publication by Physical Review
Interacting damage models mapped onto Ising and percolation models
We introduce a class of damage models on regular lattices with isotropic
interactions, as e.g. quasistatic fiber bundles. The system starts intact with
a surface-energy threshold required to break any cell sampled from an
uncorrelated quenched-disorder distribution. The evolution of this
heterogeneous system is ruled by Griffith's principle which states that a cell
breaks when the release in elastic energy in the system exceeds the
surface-energy barrier necessary to break the cell. By direct integration over
all possible realizations of the quenched disorder, we obtain the probability
distribution of each damage configuration at any level of the imposed external
deformation. We demonstrate an isomorphism between the distributions so
obtained and standard generalized Ising models, in which the coupling constants
and effective temperature in the Ising model are functions of the nature of the
quenched-disorder distribution and the extent of accumulated damage. In
particular, we show that damage models with global load sharing are isomorphic
to standard percolation theory, that damage models with local load sharing rule
are isomorphic to the standard Ising model, and draw consequences thereof for
the universality class and behavior of the autocorrelation length of the
breakdown transitions corresponding to these models. We also treat damage
models having more general power-law interactions, and classify the breakdown
process as a function of the power-law interaction exponent. Last, we also show
that the probability distribution over configurations is a maximum of Shannon's
entropy under some specific constraints related to the energetic balance of the
fracture process, which firmly relates this type of quenched-disorder based
damage model to standard statistical mechanics.Comment: 16 pages, 3 figure
Spectroscopy of a Cooper-Pair box in the Autler-Townes configuration
A theoretical spectroscopic analysis of a microwave driven superconducting
charge qubit (Cooper-pair box coupled) to an RLC oscillator model is performed.
By treating the oscillator as a probe through the backreaction effect of the
qubit on the oscillator circuit, we extract frequency splitting features
analogous to the Autler-Townes effect from quantum optics, thereby extending
the analogies between superconducting and quantum optical phenomenology. These
features are found in a frequency band that avoids the need for high frequency
measurement systems and therefore may be of use in qubit characterization and
coupling schemes. In addition we find this frequency band can be adjusted to
suit an experimental frequency regime by changing the oscillator frequency.Comment: 13 pages, 7 figures. v2: Revised version after referee comments.
Accepted for publication by Physical Review
A high vacuum photoelectron microscope for the study of biological specimens
8 pagesA photoelectron microscope (photoemission
electron microscope) has been designed and built
for the study of organic and biological samples.
The microscope is an oil-free stainless steel high
vacuum instrument pumped by a titanium sublimation
pump, an ion pump, and molecular sieve roughing
pumps. The electron lenses are of the electrostatic
unipotential type. The microscope is
equipped with a dewar for sample cooling, an
internal cryogenic camera, TV-image intensifier,
and vibration isolation support. Applications
include studies of biological cell surfaces, photosynthetic
membranes and aromatic chemical
carcinogens. A representative micrograph of mouse
3T3 cells is included. In some respects, photoelectron
micrographs resemble scanning electron
micrographs, but the basis for contrast is
different in these two techniques
Slatted pen floors reduce Salmonella in market swine held in abattoirs
The objective of this study was to directly compare Salmonella isolation rates from pig slaughtered after 4 hours holding on slatted or solid concrete floors. Seven truckloads (replicates) of market swine ( 120 kg) from a fully integrated farrow-to-slaughter operation were studied. At unloading, groups of pigs (15-30) were sorted to 1) no-hold (20-45 minutes waiting), 2) pens with solid concrete floors (4 hours), 3) slatted concrete floors (4 hours). Postmortem samples were cultured for Salmonella. Those pigs held in pens with slatted floors (63.6%) had significantly (P \u3c 0.05) less Salmonella in their ceca than those held on solid floors (72.7%)
Atmospheric greenhouse gases retrieved from SCIAMACHY: comparison to ground-based FTS measurements and model results
SCIAMACHY onboard ENVISAT (launched in 2002) enables the retrieval of global long-term column-averaged dry air mole fractions of the two most important anthropogenic greenhouse gases carbon dioxide and methane (denoted XCO_2 and XCH_4). In order to assess the quality of the greenhouse gas data obtained with the recently introduced v2 of the scientific retrieval algorithm WFM-DOAS, we present validations with ground-based Fourier Transform Spectrometer (FTS) measurements and comparisons with model results at eight Total Carbon Column Observing Network (TCCON) sites providing realistic error estimates of the satellite data. Such validation is a prerequisite to assess the suitability of data sets for their use in inverse modelling.
It is shown that there are generally no significant differences between the carbon dioxide annual increases of SCIAMACHY and the assimilation system CarbonTracker (2.00 ± 0.16 ppm yr^(−1) compared to 1.94 ± 0.03 ppm yr−1 on global average). The XCO_2 seasonal cycle amplitudes derived from SCIAMACHY are typically larger than those from TCCON which are in turn larger than those from CarbonTracker. The absolute values of the northern hemispheric TCCON seasonal cycle amplitudes are closer to SCIAMACHY than to CarbonTracker and the corresponding differences are not significant when compared with SCIAMACHY, whereas they can be significant for a subset of the analysed TCCON sites when compared with CarbonTracker. At Darwin we find discrepancies of the seasonal cycle derived from SCIAMACHY compared to the other data sets which can probably be ascribed to occurrences of undetected thin clouds. Based on the comparison with the reference data, we conclude that the carbon dioxide data set can be characterised by a regional relative precision (mean standard deviation of the differences) of about 2.2 ppm and a relative accuracy (standard deviation of the mean differences) of 1.1–1.2 ppm for monthly average composites within a radius of 500 km.
For methane, prior to November 2005, the regional relative precision amounts to 12 ppb and the relative accuracy is about 3 ppb for monthly composite averages within the same radius. The loss of some spectral detector pixels results in a degradation of performance thereafter in the spectral range currently used for the methane column retrieval. This leads to larger scatter and lower XCH_4 values are retrieved in the tropics for the subsequent time period degrading the relative accuracy. As a result, the overall relative precision is estimated to be 17 ppb and the relative accuracy is in the range of about 10–20 ppb for monthly averages within a radius of 500 km.
The derived estimates show that the SCIAMACHY XCH_4 data set before November 2005 is suitable for regional source/sink determination and regional-scale flux uncertainty reduction via inverse modelling worldwide. In addition, the XCO2 monthly data potentially provide valuable information in continental regions, where there is sparse sampling by surface flask measurements
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