9,765 research outputs found
Giant Quantum Reflection of Neon Atoms from a Ridged Silicon Surface
The specular reflectivity of slow, metastable neon atoms from a silicon
surface was found to increase markedly when the flat surface was replaced by a
grating structure with parallel narrow ridges. For a surface with ridges that
have a sufficiently narrow top, the reflectivity was found to increase more
than two orders of magnitude at the incident angle of 10 mRad from the surface.
The slope of the reflectivity vs the incident angle near zero was found to be
nearly an order of magnitude smaller than that of a flat surface. A grating
with 6.5% efficiency for the first-order diffraction was fabricated by using
the ridged surface structure.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures. To be published in J. Phys. Soc. Jp
Theory of resistor networks: The two-point resistance
The resistance between arbitrary two nodes in a resistor network is obtained
in terms of the eigenvalues and eigenfunctions of the Laplacian matrix
associated with the network. Explicit formulas for two-point resistances are
deduced for regular lattices in one, two, and three dimensions under various
boundary conditions including that of a Moebius strip and a Klein bottle. The
emphasis is on lattices of finite sizes. We also deduce summation and product
identities which can be used to analyze large-size expansions of two-and-higher
dimensional lattices.Comment: 30 pages, 5 figures now included; typos in Example 1 correcte
Large Scale Spectral Clustering Using Approximate Commute Time Embedding
Spectral clustering is a novel clustering method which can detect complex
shapes of data clusters. However, it requires the eigen decomposition of the
graph Laplacian matrix, which is proportion to and thus is not
suitable for large scale systems. Recently, many methods have been proposed to
accelerate the computational time of spectral clustering. These approximate
methods usually involve sampling techniques by which a lot information of the
original data may be lost. In this work, we propose a fast and accurate
spectral clustering approach using an approximate commute time embedding, which
is similar to the spectral embedding. The method does not require using any
sampling technique and computing any eigenvector at all. Instead it uses random
projection and a linear time solver to find the approximate embedding. The
experiments in several synthetic and real datasets show that the proposed
approach has better clustering quality and is faster than the state-of-the-art
approximate spectral clustering methods
Critical scaling in standard biased random walks
The spatial coverage produced by a single discrete-time random walk, with
asymmetric jump probability and non-uniform steps, moving on an
infinite one-dimensional lattice is investigated. Analytical calculations are
complemented with Monte Carlo simulations. We show that, for appropriate step
sizes, the model displays a critical phenomenon, at . Its scaling
properties as well as the main features of the fragmented coverage occurring in
the vicinity of the critical point are shown. In particular, in the limit , the distribution of fragment lengths is scale-free, with nontrivial
exponents. Moreover, the spatial distribution of cracks (unvisited sites)
defines a fractal set over the spanned interval. Thus, from the perspective of
the covered territory, a very rich critical phenomenology is revealed in a
simple one-dimensional standard model.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure
Upper bounds on subglacial channel development for interior regions of the Greenland Ice Sheet
AbstractWe use a simple numerical model to test whether surface water influx to the bed of the interior Greenland ice sheet has the potential to cause significant subglacial channel growth similar to that observed near the ice-sheet margin and at alpine glaciers. We examine the effects on channel growth from (1) rapid supraglacial lake drainage events and (2) sustained water input into moulins. By assuming that all drainage occurs through subglacial channels and by prescribing favorable pressure conditions at the domain inlet, the model can provide upper bounds on channel growth. Our results indicate that R-channels do not grow significantly within the limited period of high pressure associated with lake drainage events. Subsequent channel growth only occurs with sustained pressures above overburden. Rapid closure of channels at low pressures suggests channels in the interior are unlikely to draw significant quantities of water from nearby distributed networks. These results indicate that other drainage mechanisms such as turbulent sheets or linked-cavity networks are likely to be of greater importance for interior subglacial drainage than the growth of channels.</jats:p
Patterns of Individual Shopping Behavior
Much of economic theory is built on observations of aggregate, rather than
individual, behavior. Here, we present novel findings on human shopping
patterns at the resolution of a single purchase. Our results suggest that much
of our seemingly elective activity is actually driven by simple routines. While
the interleaving of shopping events creates randomness at the small scale, on
the whole consumer behavior is largely predictable. We also examine
income-dependent differences in how people shop, and find that wealthy
individuals are more likely to bundle shopping trips. These results validate
previous work on mobility from cell phone data, while describing the
unpredictability of behavior at higher resolution.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figure
Far-UV Emissions of the Sun in Time: Probing Solar Magnetic Activity and Effects on Evolution of Paleo-Planetary Atmospheres
We present and analyze FUSE observations of six solar analogs. These are
single, main-sequence G0-5 strs selected as proxies for the Sun at several
stages of its main-sequence lifetime. The emission features in the FUSE
920-1180 A wavelength range allow for a critical probe of the hot plasma over
three decades in temperature. Using the flux ratio CIII 1176/977 as
diagnostics, we investigate the dependence of the electron pressure of the
transition region as a function of the rotation period, age and magnetic
activity. The results from these solar proxies indicate that the electron
pressure of the stellar ~10^5-K plasma decreases by a factor of about 70
between the young, fast-rotating magnetically active star and the old,
slow-rotating inactive star. Also, the observations indicate that the average
surface fluxes of emission features strongly decrease with increasing stellar
age and longer rotation period. The emission flux evolution with age or
rotation period is well fitted by power laws, which become steeper from cooler
chromospheric (10^4 K) to hotter coronal (10^7 K) plasma. The relationship for
the integrated (920-1180 A) FUSE flux indicates that the solar far-ultraviolet
emissions were about twice the present value 2.5 Gyr ago and about 4 times the
present value 3.5 Gyr ago. Note also that the FUSE/FUV flux of the Zero-Age
Main Sequence Sun could have been higher by as much as 50 times. Our analysis
suggests that the strong FUV emissions of the young Sun may have played a
crucial role in the developing planetary system, in particular through the
photoionization, photochemical evolution and possible erosion of the planetary
atmospheres. (abridged)Comment: 15 pages, 8 figures, accepted for publication in Ap
A transiting companion to the eclipsing binary KIC002856960
We present an early result from an automated search of Kepler eclipsing
binary systems for circumbinary companions. An intriguing tertiary signal has
been discovered in the short period eclipsing binary KIC002856960. This third
body leads to transit-like features in the light curve occurring every 204.2
days, while the two other components of the system display eclipses on a 6.2
hour period. The variations due to the tertiary body last for a duration of
\sim1.26 days, or 4.9 binary orbital periods. During each crossing of the
binary orbit with the tertiary body, multiple individual transits are observed
as the close binary stars repeatedly move in and out of alignment with the
tertiary object. We are at this stage unable to distinguish between a planetary
companion to a close eclipsing binary, or a hierarchical triply eclipsing
system of three stars. Both possibilities are explored, and the light curves
presented.Comment: Accepted into A&A Letters (5 pages & 3 figures
Nonthermal Hard X-ray Emission and Iron Kalpha Emission from a Superflare on II Pegasi
We report on an X-ray flare detected on the active binary system II~Pegasi
with the Swift telescope. The trigger had a 10-200 keV luminosity of
2.2 erg s-- a superflare, by comparison with energies of
typical stellar flares on active binary systems. The trigger spectrum indicates
a hot thermal plasma with T180 K. X-ray spectral analysis
from 0.8--200 keV with the X-Ray Telescope and BAT in the next two orbits
reveals evidence for a thermal component (T80 K) and Fe K 6.4
keV emission. A tail of emission out to 200 keV can be fit with either an
extremely high temperature thermal plasma (TK) or power-law
emission. Based on analogies with solar flares, we attribute the excess
continuum emission to nonthermal thick-target bremsstrahlung emission from a
population of accelerated electrons. We estimate the radiated energy from
0.01--200 keV to be erg, the total radiated energy over
all wavelengths erg, the energy in nonthermal electrons above 20
keV erg, and conducted energy erg. The
nonthermal interpretation gives a reasonable value for the total energy in
electrons 20 keV when compared to the upper and lower bounds on the thermal
energy content of the flare. This marks the first occasion in which evidence
exists for nonthermal hard X-ray emission from a stellar flare. We investigate
the emission mechanism responsible for producing the 6.4 keV feature, and find
that collisional ionization from nonthermal electrons appears to be more
plausible than the photoionization mechanism usually invoked on the Sun and
pre-main sequence stars.Comment: 41 pages, 7 figures, accepted for publication in the Astrophysical
Journa
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