Modulation instabilities in two-core optical fibers

Modulation instability (MI) of cw states of a two-core fiber, incorporating the effects of coupling-coefficient dispersion (CCD), is studied by solving a pair of generalized, linearly coupled nonlinear Schrödinger equations. CCD refers to the property that the coupling coefficient depends on the optical wavelength, and earlier studies of MI do not account for this physics. CCD does not seriously affect the symmetric/antisymmetric cw, but can drastically modify the MI of the asymmetric state. Generally, new MI frequency bands are produced, and CCD reduces (enhances) the original MI band in the anomalous (normal) dispersion regime. Another remarkable result is the existence of a critical value for the CCD, where the MI gain spectrum undergoes an abrupt change. In the anomalous dispersion regime, a new low-frequency MI band is generated. In the normal dispersion regime, an MI band vanishes, reappears, and then moves up in frequency on crossing this critical value. In both dispersion regimes, the relative magnitude of the low-frequency band and the high-frequency band depends strongly on the total input power.It is possibleto switch the dominantMI frequency between a low frequency and a high frequency by tuning the total input power, providing a promising scheme to manipulate MI-related nonlinear effects in two-core fibers. The MI bands are independent of the third-order dispersion, but can be shifted significantly by self-steepening at a sufficiently high total input power. The evolution of MI from a cw input is also demonstrated with a wave propagation study. © 2011 Optical Society of America.published_or_final_versio

Switching of ultrashort pulses in nonlinear high-birefringence two-core optical fibers

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Breathers and 'black' rogue waves of coupled nonlinear Schrödinger equations with dispersion and nonlinearity of opposite signs

Breathers and rogue waves of special coupled nonlinear Schrödinger systems (the Manakov equations) are studied analytically. These systems model the orthogonal polarization modes in an optical fiber with randomly varying birefringence. Studies earlier in the literature had shown that rogue waves can occur in these Manakov systems with dispersion and nonlinearity of opposite signs, and that the criterion for the existence of rogue waves correlates closely with the onset of modulation instability. In the present work the Hirota bilinear transform is employed to calculate the breathers (pulsating modes), and rogue waves are obtained as a long wave limit of such breathers. In terms of wave profiles, a ‘black’ rogue wave (intensity dropping to zero) and the transition to a four-petal configuration are elucidated analytically. Sufficiently strong modulation instabilities of the background may overwhelm or mask the development of the rogue waves, and such thresholds are correlated to actual physical properties of optical fibers. Numerical simulations on the evolution of breathers are performed to verify the prediction of the analytical formulations.postprin

Modulation instabilities in birefringent two-core optical fibers

Previous studies of the modulation instability (MI) of continuous waves (CWs) in a two-core fibre (TCF) did not consider effects caused by co-propagation of the two polarized modes in a TCF that possesses birefringence, such as cross-phase modulation (XPM), polarization-mode dispersion (PMD) and polarization-dependent coupling (PDC) between the cores. This paper reports an analysis of these effects on the MI by considering a linear-birefringence TCF and a circular-birefringence TCF, which feature different XPM coefficients. The analysis focuses on the MI of the asymmetric CW states in the TCFs, which have no counterparts in single-core fibres. We find that the asymmetric CW state exists when its total power exceeds a threshold (minimum) value, which is sensitive to the value of the XPM coefficient. We consider, in particular, a class of asymmetric CW states that admit analytical solutions. In the anomalous dispersion regime, without taking the PMD and PDC into account, the MI gain spectra of the birefringent TCF, if scaled by the threshold power, are almost identical to those of the zero-birefringence TCF. However, in the normal dispersion regime, the power-scaled MI gain spectra of the birefringent TCFs are distinctly different from their zero-birefringence counterparts, and the difference is particularly significant for the circular-birefringence TCF, which takes a larger XPM coefficient. On the other hand, the PMD and PDC only exert weak effects on the MI gain spectra. We also simulate the nonlinear evolution of the MI of the CW inputs in the TCFs and obtain good agreement with the analytical solutions.postprin

Inside-Out Evacuation of Transitional Protoplanetary Disks by the Magneto-Rotational Instability

How do T Tauri disks accrete? The magneto-rotational instability (MRI) supplies one means, but protoplanetary disk gas is typically too poorly ionized to be magnetically active. Here we show that the MRI can, in fact, explain observed accretion rates for the sub-class of T Tauri disks known as transitional systems. Transitional disks are swept clean of dust inside rim radii of ~10 AU. Stellar coronal X-rays ionize material in the disk rim, activating the MRI there. Gas flows from the rim to the star, at a rate limited by the depth to which X-rays ionize the rim wall. The wider the rim, the larger the surface area that the rim wall exposes to X-rays, and the greater the accretion rate. Interior to the rim, the MRI continues to transport gas; the MRI is sustained even at the disk midplane by super-keV X-rays that Compton scatter down from the disk surface. Accretion is therefore steady inside the rim. Blown out by radiation pressure, dust largely fails to accrete with gas. Contrary to what is usually assumed, ambipolar diffusion, not Ohmic dissipation, limits how much gas is MRI-active. We infer values for the transport parameter alpha on the order of 0.01 for GM Aur, TW Hyd, and DM Tau. Because the MRI can only afflict a finite radial column of gas at the rim, disk properties inside the rim are insensitive to those outside. Thus our picture provides one robust setting for planet-disk interaction: a protoplanet interior to the rim will interact with gas whose density, temperature, and transport properties are definite and decoupled from uncertain initial conditions. Our study also supplies half the answer to how disks dissipate: the inner disk drains from the inside out by the MRI, while the outer disk photoevaporates by stellar ultraviolet radiation.Comment: Accepted to Nature Physics June 7, 2007. The manuscript for publication is embargoed per Nature policy. This arxiv.org version contains more technical details and discussion, and is distributed with permission from the editors. 10 pages, 4 figure

ATF6 is essential for human cone photoreceptor development

Endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress and Unfolded Protein Response (UPR) signaling promote the pathology of many human diseases. Loss-of-function variants of the UPR regulator Activating Transcription Factor 6 (ATF6) cause severe congenital vision loss diseases such as achromatopsia by unclear pathomechanisms. To investigate this, we generated retinal organoids from achromatopsia patient induced pluripotent stem cells carrying ATF6 disease variants and from gene-edited ATF6 null hESCs. We found that achromatopsia patient and ATF6 null retinal organoids failed to form cone structures concomitant with loss of cone phototransduction gene expression, while rod photoreceptors developed normally. Adaptive optics retinal imaging of achromatopsia patients carrying ATF6 variants also showed absence of cone inner/outer segment structures but preserved rod structures, mirroring the defect in cone formation observed in our retinal organoids. These results establish that ATF6 is essential for human cone development. Interestingly, we find that a selective small molecule ATF6 signaling agonist restores the transcriptional activity of some ATF6 disease-causing variants and stimulates cone growth and gene expression in patient retinal organoids carrying these variants. These findings support that pharmacologic targeting of the ATF6 pathway can promote human cone development and should be further explored for blinding retinal diseases

Overfeeding, Autonomic Regulation and Metabolic Consequences

The autonomic nervous system plays an important role in the regulation of body processes in health and disease. Overfeeding and obesity (a disproportional increase of the fat mass of the body) are often accompanied by alterations in both sympathetic and parasympathetic autonomic functions. The overfeeding-induced changes in autonomic outflow occur with typical symptoms such as adiposity and hyperinsulinemia. There might be a causal relationship between autonomic disturbances and the consequences of overfeeding and obesity. Therefore studies were designed to investigate autonomic functioning in experimentally and genetically hyperphagic rats. Special emphasis was given to the processes that are involved in the regulation of peripheral energy substrate homeostasis. The data revealed that overfeeding is accompanied by increased parasympathetic outflow. Typical indices of vagal activity (such as the cephalic insulin release during food ingestion) were increased in all our rat models for hyperphagia. Overfeeding was also accompanied by increased sympathetic tone, reflected by enhanced baseline plasma norepinephrine (NE) levels in both VMH-lesioned animals and rats rendered obese by hyperalimentation. Plasma levels of NE during exercise were, however, reduced in these two groups of animals. This diminished increase in the exercise-induced NE outflow could be normalized by prior food deprivation. It was concluded from these experiments that overfeeding is associated with increased parasympathetic and sympathetic tone. In models for hyperphagia that display a continuously elevated nutrient intake such as the VMH-lesioned and the overfed rat, this increased sympathetic tone was accompanied by a diminished NE response to exercise. This attenuated outflow of NE was directly related to the size of the fat reserves, indicating that the feedback mechanism from the periphery to the central nervous system is altered in the overfed state.

Intervention planning and modification of the BUMP intervention: a digital intervention for the early detection of raised blood pressure in pregnancy

Background: Hypertensive disorders in pregnancy, particularly pre-eclampsia, pose a substantial health risk for both maternal and foetal outcomes. The BUMP (Blood Pressure Self-Monitoring in Pregnancy) interventions are being tested in a trial. They aim to facilitate the early detection of raised blood pressure through self-monitoring. This article outlines how the self-monitoring interventions in the BUMP trial were developed and modified using the person-based approach to promote engagement and adherence. Methods: Key behavioural challenges associated with blood pressure self-monitoring in pregnancy were identified through synthesising qualitative pilot data and existing evidence, which informed guiding principles for the development process. Social cognitive theory was identified as an appropriate theoretical framework. A testable logic model was developed to illustrate the hypothesised processes of change associated with the intervention. Iterative qualitative feedback from women and staff informed modifications to the participant materials. Results: The evidence synthesis suggested women face challenges integrating self-monitoring into their lives and that adherence is challenging at certain time points in pregnancy (for example, starting maternity leave). Intervention modification included strategies to address adherence but also focussed on modifying outcome expectancies, by providing messages explaining pre-eclampsia and outlining the potential benefits of self-monitoring. Conclusions: With an in-depth understanding of the target population, several methods and approaches to plan and develop interventions specifically relevant to pregnant women were successfully integrated, to address barriers to behaviour change while ensuring they are easy to engage with, persuasive and acceptable

What do γ\gamma-ray bursts look like?

There have been great and rapid progresses in the field of $\gamma$-ray bursts (denoted as GRBs) since BeppoSAX and other telescopes discovered their afterglows in 1997. Here, we will first give a brief review on the observational facts of GRBs and direct understanding from these facts, which lead to the standard fireball model. The dynamical evolution of the fireball is discussed, especially a generic model is proposed to describe the whole dynamical evolution of GRB remnant from highly radiative to adiabatic, and from ultra-relativistic to non-relativistic phase. Then, Various deviations from the standard model are discussed to give new information about GRBs and their environment. In order to relax the energy crisis, the beaming effects and their possible observational evidences are also discussed in GRB's radiations.Comment: 10 pages, Latex. Invited talk at the Pacific Rim Conference on Stellar Astrophysics, Hong Kong, China, Aug. 199