35,818 research outputs found
Active microwave measurements of sea ice under fall conditions: The RADARSAT/FIREX fall experiment
A series of measurements of the active microwave properties of sea ice under fall growing conditions was conducted. Ice in the inland waters of Mould Bay, Crozier Channel, and intrepid inlet and ice in the Arctic Ocean near Hardinge Bay was investigated. Active microwave data were acquired using a helicopter borne scatterometer. Results show that multiyear ice frozen in grey or first year ice is easily detected under cold fall conditions. Multiyear ice returns were dynamic due to response to two of its scene constituents. Floe boundaries between thick and thin ice are well defined. Multiyear pressure ridge returns are similar in level to background ice returns. Backscatter from homogeneous first year ice is seen to be primarily due to surface scattering. Operation at 9.6 GHz is more sensitive to the detailed changes in scene roughness, while operation at 5.6 GHz seems to track roughness changes less ably
Topologically Driven Swelling of a Polymer Loop
Numerical studies of the average size of trivially knotted polymer loops with
no excluded volume are undertaken. Topology is identified by Alexander and
Vassiliev degree 2 invariants. Probability of a trivial knot, average gyration
radius, and probability density distributions as functions of gyration radius
are generated for loops of up to N=3000 segments. Gyration radii of trivially
knotted loops are found to follow a power law similar to that of self avoiding
walks consistent with earlier theoretical predictions.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures, submitted to PNAS (USA) in Feb 200
Encapsulation of phosphorus dopants in silicon for the fabrication of a quantum computer
The incorporation of phosphorus in silicon is studied by analyzing phosphorus
delta-doped layers using a combination of scanning tunneling microscopy,
secondary ion mass spectrometry and Hall effect measurements. The samples are
prepared by phosphine saturation dosing of a Si(100) surface at room
temperature, a critical annealing step to incorporate phosphorus atoms, and
subsequent epitaxial silicon overgrowth. We observe minimal dopant segregation
(5 nm), complete electrical activation at a silicon growth temperature of 250
degrees C and a high two-dimensional electron mobility of 100 cm2/Vs at a
temperature of 4.2 K. These results, along with preliminary studies aimed at
further minimizing dopant diffusion, bode well for the fabrication of
atomically precise dopant arrays in silicon such as those found in recent
solid-state quantum computer architectures.Comment: 3 pages, 4 figure
Theory of superradiant scattering of laser light from Bose-Einstein condensates
In a recent MIT experiment, a new form of superradiant Rayleigh scattering
was observed in Bose-Einstein condensates. We present a detailed theory of this
phenomena in which the directional dependence of the scattering rate and
condensate depletion lead to mode competition which is ultimately responsible
for superradiance. The nonlinear response of the system is highly sensitive to
initial quantum fluctuations which cause large run to run variations in the
observed superradiant pulses.Comment: Updated version with new figures,a numerical simulation with
realistic experimental parameters is now included. Featured in September 1999
Physics Today, in Search and Discovery sectio
Nuclear-recoil energy scale in CDMS II silicon dark-matter detectors
The Cryogenic Dark Matter Search (CDMS II) experiment aims to detect dark matter particles that elastically scatter from nuclei in semiconductor detectors. The resulting nuclear-recoil energy depositions are detected by ionization and phonon sensors. Neutrons produce a similar spectrum of low-energy nuclear recoils in such detectors, while most other backgrounds produce electron recoils. The absolute energy scale for nuclear recoils is necessary to interpret results correctly. The energy scale can be determined in CDMS II silicon detectors using neutrons incident from a broad-spectrum ^(252)Cf source, taking advantage of a prominent resonance in the neutron elastic scattering cross section of silicon at a recoil (neutron) energy near 20 (182) keV. Results indicate that the phonon collection efficiency for nuclear recoils is 4.8_(−0.9)^(+0.7)% lower than for electron recoils of the same energy. Comparisons of the ionization signals for nuclear recoils to those measured previously by other groups at higher electric fields indicate that the ionization collection efficiency for CDMS II silicon detectors operated at ∼4 V/cm is consistent with 100% for nuclear recoils below 20 keV and gradually decreases for larger energies to ∼75% at 100 keV. The impact of these measurements on previously published CDMS II silicon results is small
Optical control and entanglement of atomic Schroedinger fields
We develop a fully quantized model of a Bose-Einstein condensate driven by a
far off-resonant pump laser which interacts with a single mode of an optical
ring cavity. In the linear regime, the cavity mode exhibits spontaneous
exponential gain correlated with the appearance of two atomic field side-modes.
These side-modes and the cavity field are generated in a highly entangled
state, characterized by thermal intensity fluctuations in the individual modes,
but with two-mode correlation functions which violate certain classical
inequalities. By injecting an initial coherent field into the optical cavity
one can significantly decrease the intensity fluctuations at the expense of
reducing the correlations, thus allowing for optical control over the quantum
statistical properties of matter waves.Comment: 4 page
Methods for comparative evaluation of propulsion system designs for supersonic aircraft
The propulsion system comparative evaluation study was conducted to define a rapid, approximate method for evaluating the effects of propulsion system changes for an advanced supersonic cruise airplane, and to verify the approximate method by comparing its mission performance results with those from a more detailed analysis. A table look up computer program was developed to determine nacelle drag increments for a range of parametric nacelle shapes and sizes. Aircraft sensitivities to propulsion parameters were defined. Nacelle shapes, installed weights, and installed performance was determined for four study engines selected from the NASA supersonic cruise aircraft research (SCAR) engine studies program. Both rapid evaluation method (using sensitivities) and traditional preliminary design methods were then used to assess the four engines. The method was found to compare well with the more detailed analyses
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