A practical technique for the generation of highly uniform LIPSS

AbstractLaser-induced periodic surface structures (LIPSS) can be reliably produced with ultrashort (<10ps) laser pulses given fluence near the ablation threshold. Neat, parallel, uniform structures are harder to reproduce. Electrodynamic models show a field at normal incidence interacts with the surface resulting in periodicity in intensity along the surface in the direction of the incident E-field producing ridges and toughs on the surface orthogonal to the E-field. A completely smooth surface offers nothing to perturb the eventual periodic feature formation but is very difficult to achieve: we have demonstrated that simply avoiding surface roughness components near the frequency and direction of the emergent features significantly improves uniform feature production. An appropriate unidirectional polishing process can be realised using an inexpensive spinning cloth wheel. By using a cylindrical lens we were also able to process stainless steel surfaces at 5mm2s−1 so indicating useful industrial potential

Extending the modeling of the anisotropic galaxy power spectrum to k=0.4 hMpc−1k = 0.4 \ h\mathrm{Mpc}^{-1}

We present a new model for the redshift-space power spectrum of galaxies and demonstrate its accuracy in modeling the monopole, quadrupole, and hexadecapole of the galaxy density field down to scales of $k = 0.4 \ h\mathrm{Mpc}^{-1}$. The model describes the clustering of galaxies in the context of a halo model and the clustering of the underlying halos in redshift space using a combination of Eulerian perturbation theory and $N$-body simulations. The modeling of redshift-space distortions is done using the so-called distribution function approach. The final model has 13 free parameters, and each parameter is physically motivated rather than a nuisance parameter, which allows the use of well-motivated priors. We account for the Finger-of-God effect from centrals and both isolated and non-isolated satellites rather than using a single velocity dispersion to describe the combined effect. We test and validate the accuracy of the model on several sets of high-fidelity $N$-body simulations, as well as realistic mock catalogs designed to simulate the BOSS DR12 CMASS data set. The suite of simulations covers a range of cosmologies and galaxy bias models, providing a rigorous test of the level of theoretical systematics present in the model. The level of bias in the recovered values of $f \sigma_8$ is found to be small. When including scales to $k = 0.4 \ h\mathrm{Mpc}^{-1}$, we find 15-30\% gains in the statistical precision of $f \sigma_8$ relative to $k = 0.2 \ h\mathrm{Mpc}^{-1}$ and a roughly 10-15\% improvement for the perpendicular Alcock-Paczynski parameter $\alpha_\perp$. Using the BOSS DR12 CMASS mocks as a benchmark for comparison, we estimate an uncertainty on $f \sigma_8$ that is $\sim$10-20\% larger than other similar Fourier-space RSD models in the literature that use $k \leq 0.2 \ h\mathrm{Mpc}^{-1}$, suggesting that these models likely have a too-limited parametrization.Comment: Submitted to JCA

Galaxy power spectrum in redshift space: combining perturbation theory with the halo model

Theoretical modeling of the redshift-space power spectrum of galaxies is crucially important to correctly extract cosmological information from redshift surveys. The task is complicated by the nonlinear biasing and redshift space distortion effects, which change with halo mass, and by the wide distribution of halo masses and their occupations by galaxies. One of the main modeling challenges is the existence of satellite galaxies that have both radial distribution and large virial velocities inside halos, a phenomenon known as the Finger-of-God effect. We present a model for the galaxy power spectrum of in which we decompose a given galaxy sample into central and satellite galaxies and relate different contributions to 1- and 2-halo terms in a halo model. Our primary goal is to ensure that any parameters that we introduce have physically meaningful values, and are not just fitting parameters. For the 2-halo terms we use the previously developed RSD modeling of halos in the context of distribution function and perturbation theory approach. This term needs to be multiplied by the effect of radial distances and velocities of satellites inside the halo. To this one needs to add the 1-halo terms, which are non-perturbative. We show that the real space 1-halo terms can be modeled as almost constant, with the finite extent of the satellites inside the halo inducing a small k^2R^2 term, where R is related to the size of the halo. We adopt a similar model for FoG in redshift space, ensuring that FoG velocity dispersion is related to the halo mass. For FoG k^2 type expansions do not work and FoG resummation must be used instead. We test several damping functions to model the velocity dispersion FoG effect. Applying the formalism to mock galaxies modeled after the "CMASS" sample of the BOSS survey, we find that our predictions for the redshift-space power spectra are accurate up to k~0.4Mpc/h.Comment: 16 pages, 9 figures, 1 table, minor changes made with respect to published versio

Imprint of DESI fiber assignment on the anisotropic power spectrum of emission line galaxies

The Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI), a multiplexed fiber-fed spectrograph, is a Stage-IV ground-based dark energy experiment aiming to measure redshifts for 29 million Emission-Line Galaxies (ELG), 4 million Luminous Red Galaxies (LRG), and 2 million Quasi-Stellar Objects (QSO). The survey design includes a pattern of tiling on the sky and the locations of the fiber positioners in the focal plane of the telescope, with the observation strategy determined by a fiber assignment algorithm that optimizes the allocation of fibers to targets. This strategy allows a given region to be covered on average five times for a five-year survey, but with coverage varying between zero and twelve, which imprints a spatially-dependent pattern on the galaxy clustering. We investigate the systematic effects of the fiber assignment coverage on the anisotropic galaxy clustering of ELGs and show that, in the absence of any corrections, it leads to discrepancies of order ten percent on large scales for the power spectrum multipoles. We introduce a method where objects in a random catalog are assigned a coverage, and the mean density is separately computed for each coverage factor. We show that this method reduces, but does not eliminate the effect. We next investigate the angular dependence of the contaminated signal, arguing that it is mostly localized to purely transverse modes. We demonstrate that the cleanest way to remove the contaminating signal is to perform an analysis of the anisotropic power spectrum $P(k,\mu)$ and remove the lowest $\mu$ bin, leaving $\mu>0$ modes accurate at the few-percent level. Here, $\mu$ is the cosine of the angle between the line-of-sight and the direction of $\vec{k}$. We also investigate two alternative definitions of the random catalog and show they are comparable but less effective than the coverage randoms method.Comment: Submitted to JCA

nbodykit: an open-source, massively parallel toolkit for large-scale structure

We present nbodykit, an open-source, massively parallel Python toolkit for analyzing large-scale structure (LSS) data. Using Python bindings of the Message Passing Interface (MPI), we provide parallel implementations of many commonly used algorithms in LSS. nbodykit is both an interactive and scalable piece of scientific software, performing well in a supercomputing environment while still taking advantage of the interactive tools provided by the Python ecosystem. Existing functionality includes estimators of the power spectrum, 2 and 3-point correlation functions, a Friends-of-Friends grouping algorithm, mock catalog creation via the halo occupation distribution technique, and approximate N-body simulations via the FastPM scheme. The package also provides a set of distributed data containers, insulated from the algorithms themselves, that enable nbodykit to provide a unified treatment of both simulation and observational data sets. nbodykit can be easily deployed in a high performance computing environment, overcoming some of the traditional difficulties of using Python on supercomputers. We provide performance benchmarks illustrating the scalability of the software. The modular, component-based approach of nbodykit allows researchers to easily build complex applications using its tools. The package is extensively documented at http://nbodykit.readthedocs.io, which also includes an interactive set of example recipes for new users to explore. As open-source software, we hope nbodykit provides a common framework for the community to use and develop in confronting the analysis challenges of future LSS surveys.Comment: 18 pages, 7 figures. Feedback very welcome. Code available at https://github.com/bccp/nbodykit and for documentation, see http://nbodykit.readthedocs.i

Laser microsculpting for the generation of robust diffractive security markings on the surface of metals

AbstractWe report the development of a laser-based process for the direct writing (‘microsculpting’) of unique security markings (reflective phase holograms) on the surface of metals. In contrast to the common approaches used for unique marking of the metal products and components, e.g., polymer holographic stickers which are attached to metals as an adhesive tape, our process enables the generation of the security markings directly onto the metal surface and thus overcomes the problems with tampering and biocompatibility which are typical drawbacks of holographic stickers. The process uses 35ns laser pulses of wavelength 355nm to generate optically-smooth deformations on the metal surface using a localised laser melting process. Security markings (holographic structures) on 304-grade stainless steel surface are fabricated, and their resulted optical performance is tested using a He–Ne laser beam of 632.8nm wavelength

Simulation and implementation of heat load shifting in a low carbon building

A predictive load shifting control system for a heat pump has been developed and installed in a low carbon test house located at the BRE Innovation Park, Motherwell, near Glasgow. The house features an exhaust-air source heat pump supplying an under floor heating system. The controller predicted the day-ahead space heating requirements for the house, based on forecast air temperatures and solar radiation levels and then automatically set the heat pump’s start and stop times for the following day. The heat pump’s operation was restricted where possible to off-peak electricity tariff periods (00:00-07:00). The controller’s operating parameters were pre-set using a calibrated building simulation model. After installation, the controller’s performance was monitored during September 2015 and analysis of test data showed that the predictive control maintained indoor air temperatures between 18-23oC for around 87% of notional occupied hours between 07:00-22:00; this was better than predicted by simulation. However, the energy performance of the heat pump was extremely poor as it did not function well under intermittent load-shifting operation, with the majority of the heat was delivered primarily by an auxiliary immersion coil rather than the heat pump itself. The paper concludes with suggestions for refinements to the controller and further work