Potential contributions of noncontact atomic force microscopy for the future Casimir force measurements

Surface electric noise, i.e., the non-uniform distribution of charges and potentials on a surface, poses a great experimental challenge in modern precision force measurements. Such a challenge is encountered in a number of different experimental circumstances. The scientists employing atomic force microscopy (AFM) have long focused their efforts to understand the surface-related noise issues via variants of AFM techniques, such as Kelvin probe force microscopy or electric force microscopy. Recently, the physicists investigating quantum vacuum fluctuation phenomena between two closely-spaced objects have also begun to collect experimental evidence indicating a presence of surface effects neglected in their previous analyses. It now appears that the two seemingly disparate science communities are encountering effects rooted in the same surface phenomena. In this report, we suggest specific experimental tasks to be performed in the near future that are crucial not only for fostering needed collaborations between the two communities, but also for providing valuable data on the surface effects in order to draw the most realistic conclusion about the actual contribution of the Casimir force (or van der Waals force) between a pair of real materials.Comment: The paper appeared in the Proceedings to the 12th International Conference on Noncontact Atomic Force Microscopy (NC-AFM 2009) and Casimir 2009 Satellite Worksho

Implementation of Particle Flow Algorithm and Muon Identification

We present the implementation of the Particle Flow Algorithm and the result of the muon identification developed at the University of Iowa. We use Monte Carlo samples generated for the benchmark LOI process with the Silicon Detector design at the International Linear Collider. With the muon identification, an improved jet energy resolution, good muon efficiency and purity are achieved.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, lcws08 at Chicag

Climate change impacts on hydrology and water resources of the Upper Blue Nile River Basin, Ethiopia

Climate change / Hydrology / River basins / Runoff / Precipitation / Models / Dams / Operating policies / Water power / Drought / Analysis / Africa / Ethiopia / Egypt / Sudan / Upper Blue Nile River Basin

Monte Carlo Study of Correlations in Quantum Spin Chains at Non-Zero Temperature

Antiferromagnetic Heisenberg spin chains with various spin values ($S=1/2,1,3/2,2,5/2$) are studied numerically with the quantum Monte Carlo method. Effective spin $S$ chains are realized by ferromagnetically coupling $n=2S$ antiferromagnetic spin chains with $S=1/2$. The temperature dependence of the uniform susceptibility, the staggered susceptibility, and the static structure factor peak intensity are computed down to very low temperatures, $T/J \approx 0.01$. The correlation length at each temperature is deduced from numerical measurements of the instantaneous spin-spin correlation function. At high temperatures, very good agreement with exact results for the classical spin chain is obtained independent of the value of $S$. For $S$=2 chains which have a gap $\Delta$, the correlation length and the uniform susceptibility in the temperature range $\Delta < T < J$ are well predicted by a semi-classical theory due to Damle and Sachdev.Comment: LaTeX EPJ macr

Kinetic stabilization of Fe film on (4 by 2)-GaAs(100)

We grow Fe film on (4 by 2)-GaAs(100) at low temperature, (~ 130 K) and study their chemical structure by photoelectron spectroscopy using synchrotron radiation. We observe the effective suppression of As segregation and remarkable reduction of alloy formation near the interface between Fe and substrate. Hence, this should be a way to grow virtually pristine Fe film on GaAs(100). Further, the Fe film is found stable against As segregation even after warmed up to room temperature. There only forms very thin, ~ 8 angstrom thick interface alloy. It is speculated that the interface alloy forms via surface diffusion mediated by interface defects formed during the low temperature growth of the Fe film. Further out-diffusion of both Ga and As are suppressed because it should then proceed via inefficient bulk diffusion.Comment: 4 figure

Current and vorticity auto correlation functions in open microwave billiards

Using the equivalence between the quantum-mechanical probability density in a quantum billiard and the Poynting vector in the corresponding microwave system, current distributions were studied in a quantum dot like cavity, as well as in a Robnik billiard with lambda=0.4, and an introduced ferrite cylinder. Spatial auto correlation functions for currents and vorticity were studied and compared with predictions from the random-superposition-of-plane-waves hypothesis. In addition different types of vortex neighbour spacing distributions were determined and compared with theory.Comment: PTP-LaTeX, 10 pages with 6 figures submitted to Progress of Theoretical Physics Supplemen

Accurate determination of the scattering length of metastable Helium atoms using dark resonances between atoms and exotic molecules

We present a new measurement of the s-wave scattering length a of spin-polarized helium atoms in the 2^3S_1 metastable state. Using two-photon photoassociation spectroscopy and dark resonances we measure the energy E_{v=14}= -91.35 +/- 0.06 MHz of the least bound state v=14 in the interaction potential of the two atoms. We deduce a value of a = 7.512 +/- 0.005 nm, which is at least one hundred times more precise than the best previous determinations and is in disagreement with some of them. This experiment also demonstrates the possibility to create exotic molecules binding two metastable atoms with a lifetime of the order of 1 microsecond.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

Brane gravity, massless bulk scalar and self-tuning of the cosmological constant

We show that a self-tuning mechanism of the cosmological constant could work in 5D non-compact space-time with a $Z_2$ symmetry in the presence of a massless scalar field. The standard model matter fields live only on the 4D brane. The change of vacuum energy on the brane (brane cosmological constant) by, for instance, electroweak and QCD phase transitions, just gives rise to dynamical shifts of the profiles of the background metric and the scalar field in the extra dimension, keeping 4D space-time flat without any fine-tuning. To avoid naked singularities in the bulk, the brane cosmological constant should be negative. We introduce an additional brane-localized 4D Einstein-Hilbert term so as to provide the observed 4D gravity with the non-compact extra dimension. With a general form of brane-localized gravity term allowed by the symmetries, the low energy Einstein gravity is successfully reproduced on the brane at long distances. We show this phenomenon explicitly for the case of vanishing bulk cosmological constant.Comment: 1+15 pages, no figure, Version to appear in PR