Towards understanding two-level-systems in amorphous solids -- Insights from quantum circuits

Amorphous solids show surprisingly universal behaviour at low temperatures. The prevailing wisdom is that this can be explained by the existence of two-state defects within the material. The so-called standard tunneling model has become the established framework to explain these results, yet it still leaves the central question essentially unanswered -- what are these two-level defects? This question has recently taken on a new urgency with the rise of superconducting circuits in quantum computing, circuit quantum electrodynamics, magnetometry, electrometry and metrology. Superconducting circuits made from aluminium or niobium are fundamentally limited by losses due to two-level defects within the amorphous oxide layers encasing them. On the other hand, these circuits also provide a novel and effective method for studying the very defects which limit their operation. We can now go beyond ensemble measurements and probe individual defects -- observing the quantum nature of their dynamics and studying their formation, their behaviour as a function of applied field, strain, temperature and other properties. This article reviews the plethora of recent experimental results in this area and discusses the various theoretical models which have been used to describe the observations. In doing so, it summarises the current approaches to solving this fundamentally important problem in solid-state physics.Comment: 34 pages, 7 figures, 1 tabl

Active suspension design for a Large Space Structure ground test facility

The expected future high performance requirements for Large Space Structures (LSS) enforce technology innovations such as active vibration damping techniques e.g., by means of structure sensors and actuators. The implementation of new technologies like that requires an interactive and integrated structural and control design with an increased effort in hardware validation by ground testing. During the technology development phase generic system tests will be most important covering verification and validation aspects up to the preparation and definition of relevant space experiments. For many applications using advanced designs it is deemed necessary to improve existing testing technology by further reducing disturbances and gravity coupling effects while maintaining high performance reliability. A key issue in this context is the improvement of suspension techniques. The ideal ground test facility satisfying these requirements completely will never be found. The highest degree of reliability will always be obtained by passive suspension methods taking into account severe performance limitations such as non-zero rigid body modes, restriction of degrees of freedom of motion and frequency response limitations. Passive compensation mechanisms, e.g., zero-spring-rate mechanisms, either require large moving masses or they are limited with respect to low-frequency performance by friction, stiction or other non-linear effects. With active suspensions these limitations can be removed to a large extent thereby increasing the range of applications. Despite an additional complexity which is associated with a potential risk in reliability their development is considered promising due to the amazing improvement of real-time control technology which is still continuing

Radial Velocity Confirmation of a Binary Detected from Pulse Timings

A periodic variation in the pulse timings of the pulsating hot subdwarf B star CS 1246 was recently discovered via the O-C diagram and suggests the presence of a binary companion with an orbital period of two weeks. Fits to this phase variation, when interpreted as orbital reflex motion, imply CS 1246 orbits a barycenter 11 light-seconds away with a velocity of 16.6 km/s. Using the Goodman spectrograph on the SOAR telescope, we decided to confirm this hypothesis by obtaining radial velocity measurements of the system over several months. Our spectra reveal a velocity variation with amplitude, period, and phase in accordance with the O-C diagram predictions. This corroboration demonstrates that the rapid pulsations of hot subdwarf B stars can be adequate clocks for the discovery of binary companions via the pulse timing method.Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJ Letters; 5 pages, 2 figures, 3 tables; uses emulateap

Surface motion in the pulsating DA white dwarf G 29-38

We present time-resolved spectrophotometry of the pulsating DA white dwarf G 29-38. As in previous broad-band photometry, the light curve shows the presence of a large number of periodicities. Many of these are combination frequencies, i.e., periodicities occurring at frequencies that are sums or differences of frequencies of stronger, real modes. We identify at least six real modes, and at least five combination frequencies. We measure line-of-sight velocities for our spectra and detect periodic variations at the frequencies of five of the six real modes, with amplitudes of up to 5 km/s. We argue that these variations reflect the horizontal surface motion associated with the g-mode pulsations. No velocity signals are detected at any of the combination frequencies, confirming that the flux variations at these frequencies do not reflect physical pulsation, but rather mixing of frequencies due to a non-linear transformation in the outer layers of the star. We discuss the amplitude ratios and phase differences found for the velocity and light variations, as well as those found for the real modes and their combination frequencies, both in a model-independent way and in the context of models based on the convective-driving mechanism. In a companion paper, we use the wavelength dependence of the amplitudes of the modes to infer their spherical degree.Comment: 12 pages, 5 figures, mn.sty. Accepted for publication in MNRA

Mode identification from time-resolved spectroscopy of the pulsating white dwarf G 29-38

We have used time-resolved spectroscopy to measure the colour dependence of pulsation amplitudes in the DAV white dwarf G 29-38. Model atmospheres predict that mode amplitudes should change with wavelength in a manner that depends on the spherical harmonic degree l of the mode. This dependence arises from the convolution of mode geometry with wavelength-dependent limb darkening. Our analysis of the six largest normal modes detected in Keck observations of G 29-38 reveals one mode with a colour dependence different from the other five, permitting us to identify the l value of all six modes and to test the model predictions. The Keck observations also show pulsation amplitudes that are unexpectedly asymmetric within absorption lines. We show that these asymmetries arise from surface motions associated with the non-radial pulsations (which are discussed in detail in a companion paper). By incorporating surface velocity fields into line profile calculations, we are able to produce models that more closely resemble the observations.Comment: 10 pages, 9 figures, mn.sty. Accepted for publication in MNRA

Central Banking and the Choice of Currency Regime in Accession Countries

The subject matter of this paper is the design of appropriate Central Banking arrangements and exchange rate regimes for those former centrally planned Central and East European countries that are candidates for full membership in the European Union. We give an overview of the existing arrangements and point out to which extent monetary arrangements are restricted by conditions for entry both into the European Union and eventually into the European Monetary Union. Furthermore we investigate to which degree countries are fulfilling the accession criteria and compare their performance with the performance of earlier EU joiners like the countries of the Iberian Peninsula, Ireland and Greece.

Relaxation of a Colloidal Particle into a Nonequilibrium Steady State

We study the relaxation of a single colloidal sphere which is periodically driven between two nonequilibrium steady states. Experimentally, this is achieved by driving the particle along a toroidal trap imposed by scanned optical tweezers. We find that the relaxation time after which the probability distributions have been relaxed is identical to that obtained by a steady state measurement. In quantitative agreement with theoretical calculations the relaxation time strongly increases when driving the system further away from thermal equilibrium

A probability-conserving cross-section biasing mechanism for variance reduction in Monte Carlo particle transport calculations

In Monte Carlo particle transport codes, it is often important to adjust reaction cross sections to reduce the variance of calculations of relatively rare events, in a technique known as non-analogous Monte Carlo. We present the theory and sample code for a Geant4 process which allows the cross section of a G4VDiscreteProcess to be scaled, while adjusting track weights so as to mitigate the effects of altered primary beam depletion induced by the cross section change. This makes it possible to increase the cross section of nuclear reactions by factors exceeding 10^4 (in appropriate cases), without distorting the results of energy deposition calculations or coincidence rates. The procedure is also valid for bias factors less than unity, which is useful, for example, in problems that involve computation of particle penetration deep into a target, such as occurs in atmospheric showers or in shielding

The unusual distribution of molecular gas and star formation in Arp 140

We investigate the atomic and molecular interstellar medium and star formation of NGC 275, the late-type spiral galaxy in Arp 140, which is interacting with NGC 274, an early-type system. The atomic gas (HI) observations reveal a tidal tail from NGC 275 which extends many optical radii beyond the interacting pair. The HI morphology implies a prograde encounter between the galaxy pair approximately 1.5 x 10**8 years ago. The Halpha emission from NGC 275 indicates clumpy irregular star-formation, clumpiness which is mirrored by the underlying mass distribution as traced by the Ks-band emission. The molecular gas distribution is striking in its anti-correlation with the {HII regions. Despite the evolved nature of NGC 275's interaction and its barred potential, neither the molecular gas nor the star formation are centrally concentrated. We suggest that this structure results from stochastic star formation leading to preferential consumption of the gas in certain regions of the galaxy. In contrast to the often assumed picture of interacting galaxies, NGC 275, which appears to be close to merger, does not display enhanced or centrally concentrated star formation. If the eventual merger is to lead to a significant burst of star formation it must be preceded by a significant conversion of atomic to molecular gas as at the current rate of star formation all the molecular gas will be exhausted by the time the merger is complete.Comment: 13 paper, accepted my Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Societ