Dynamical Realization of Macroscopic Superposition States of Cold Bosons in a Tilted Double Well

We present exact expressions for the quantum sloshing of Bose-Einstein condensates in a tilted two-well potential. Tunneling is suppressed by a small potential difference between wells, or tilt. However, tunneling resonances occur for critical values of the tilt when the barrier is high. At resonance, tunneling times on the order of 10-100 ms are possible. Furthermore, such tilted resonances lead to a dynamical scheme for creating few-body NOON-like macroscopic superposition states which are protected by the many body wavefunction against potential fluctuations.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figures, final version, only minor changes from previous arXiv versio

Observation of a Large Atomic Parity Violation Effect in Ytterbium

Atomic parity violation has been observed in the 6s^2 1S0 - 5d6s 3D1 408-nm forbidden transition of ytterbium. The parity-violating amplitude is found to be two orders of magnitude larger than in cesium, where the most precise experiments to date have been performed. This is in accordance with theoretical predictions and constitutes the largest atomic parity-violating amplitude yet observed. This also opens the way to future measurements of neutron skins and anapole moments by comparing parity-violating amplitudes for various isotopes and hyperfine components of the transition

Measurement of dynamic Stark polarizabilities by analyzing spectral lineshapes of forbidden transitions

We present a measurement of the dynamic scalar and tensor polarizabilities of the excited state 3D1 in atomic ytterbium. The polarizabilities were measured by analyzing the spectral lineshape of the 408-nm 1S0->3D1 transition driven by a standing wave of resonant light in the presence of static electric and magnetic fields. Due to the interaction of atoms with the standing wave, the lineshape has a characteristic polarizability-dependent distortion. A theoretical model was used to simulate the lineshape and determine a combination of the polarizabilities of the ground and excited states by fitting the model to experimental data. This combination was measured with a 13% uncertainty, only 3% of which is due to uncertainty in the simulation and fitting procedure. The scalar and tensor polarizabilities of the state 3D1 were measured for the first time by comparing two different combinations of polarizabilities. We show that this technique can be applied to similar atomic systems.Comment: 13 pages, 7 figures, submitted to PR

The Metallicity of Pre-Galactic Globular Clusters: Observational consequences of the first stars

We explore a scenario where metal-poor globular clusters (GCs) are enriched by the first supernovae in the Universe. If the first stars in a 10^7 Msun dark halo were very massive (>180 Msun), then a pair instability supernova from a single massive star can produce sufficient iron to enrich 10^6 Msun of pristine, primordial gas to [Fe/H] ~ -2. In such a scenario, where a single massive star acts as a seed for halo GCs, the accurate abundance analysis of GC stars would allow a direct measurement of the Population III initial mass. Using the latest theoretical yields for zero metallicity stars in the mass range 140-260 Msun, we find that the metals expelled from a ~230 Msun star are consistent with [Si/Fe] and [Ca/Fe] observed in GC stars. However, no single star in this mass range can simultaneously explain all halo GC heavy-element abundance ratios, such as [V/Fe], [Ti/Fe] and [Ni/Fe]. These require a combination masses for the Population III stellar progenitors. The various observational consequences of this scenario are discussed.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures, accepted for publication in ApJ Lette

Variation in Seagrass-Associated Macroinvertebrate Communities Along the Gulf Coast of Peninsular Florida: An Exploration of Patterns and Ecological Consequences

Seagrasses form vast meadows of structurally complex habitat that support faunal communities with greater numbers of species and individuals than nearby unstructured habitats. The Gulf coast of peninsular Florida represents a natural laboratory ideally suited to the study of processes that shape seagrass-associated invertebrate and fish communities within meadows of a single species of seagrass, Thalassia testudinum. This suitability arises from a pronounced structural and chemical gradient that exists over ecologically relevant spatial and temporal scales, as revealed by extensive monitoring of water quality and seagrass. We hypothesized that seagrass-associated invertebrate communities would vary across five estuarine systems spread along a spatial gradient in phosphorus concentration, an important driver of seagrass and phytoplankton growth in this region. The quantitative results based on data acquired at 25 stations (75 samples, 52,086 specimens, and 161 taxa) indicated that each of the five estuarine systems were distinct with regard to species composition and differences among systems were driven by abundant or relatively common species. In addition, we found evidence to indicate food webs in seagrass meadows along this gradient may differ, especially in the relative dominance of algal grazers and predatory invertebrates. These changes in species composition and trophic roles could be driven by phosphorus directly, through increases in rates of primary production with higher concentrations of phosphorus, or indirectly, through nutrient-mediated changes in the physical structure of the seagrass canopy. Our results suggest that differences in the habitat created by T. testudinum under differing phosphorus supplies lead to ecologically significant shifts in macroinvertebrate communities

Abundance and Sizes of Bay Scallops in Heterogeneous Habitats Along the Gulf Coast of Florida

Southern bay scallops (Argopecten irradians concentricus) form the basis of a recreational fishery along Florida\u27s Gulf Coast. Recent declines in scallop abundances have led to significant harvest restrictions. As a way to gain insight into influences on scallop abundances and size, surveys of bay scallops and coastal habitats were conducted in two relatively undisturbed, shallow estuaries along the north-central Gulf Coast of Florida. Scallop abundances did not vary significantly between years or between locations kilometers apart. Shell heights did vary significantly between years at locations kilometers apart; however, these differences were not consistently related to differences in chlorophyll concentrations in the water column or distributions of benthic habitat classes. At the 100-m scale within locations, scallops were not proportionally distributed across the major habitat classes (i.e., Syringodium filiforme, Thalassia testudinum, mixed seagrass assemblage, other seagrasses, and areas of no/low seagrass cover). In general, proportionately more scallops were observed in association with S. filiforme, T. testudinum, and mixed seagrass habitats. Bay scallops collected from S. filiforme and areas of no/low grass cover were consistently 1-3 mm larger than those collected from T. testudinum and mixed seagrass assemblages. These results suggest the importance of S. filiforme and T. testudinum as habitats for bay scallops. The results also point to the need for further investigation into possible functional differences among seagrass species that may influence the ecology of bay scallops at a small spatial scale and the need for closer examination of scallop movement that may allow for active habitat selection. The work presented here, plus further efforts to elucidate the drivers of small-scale differences in scallop abundances and sizes, will benefit managers who seek to enhance scallop fisheries or protect and restore coastal habitats

A Comprehensive Radio and Optical Study of Abell 2256: Activity from an Infalling Group

Abell 2256 is a nearby (z~0.06), rich cluster of galaxies with fascinating observed properties across a range of wavelengths. Long believed to represent a cluster merger, recent X-ray and optical results have suggested that in addition to the primary cluster and subcluster there is evidence for a third, poorer system. We present wide-field, high sensitivity 1.4 GHz VLA radio observations of Abell 2256 in conjunction with optical imaging and additional spectroscopy. Over 40 cluster radio galaxies are identified, with optical spectroscopy indicating the emission source (star formation or AGN) for most of them. While the overall fraction of galaxies exhibiting radio emission is consistent with a large sample of other nearby clusters, we find an increase in the activity level of galaxies belonging to the third system (hereafter, the ``Group''). Specifically, the Group has relatively more star formation than both the primary cluster and main subcluster. The position of the Group is also coincident with the observed cluster radio relic. We suggest that the Group recently (~0.3 Gyr) merged with the primary cluster and that this merger, not the ongoing merger of the primary and the main subcluster, might be responsible for many of the unusual radio properties of Abell 2256. Furthermore, the greater star formation activity of the Group suggests that the infall of groups is an important driver of galaxy evolution in clusters.Comment: 21 pages plus 13 JPEG figures; to appear in the Astronomical Journa

Optimal algorithms for haplotype assembly from whole-genome sequence data

Motivation: Haplotype inference is an important step for many types of analyses of genetic variation in the human genome. Traditional approaches for obtaining haplotypes involve collecting genotype information from a population of individuals and then applying a haplotype inference algorithm. The development of high-throughput sequencing technologies allows for an alternative strategy to obtain haplotypes by combining sequence fragments. The problem of ‘haplotype assembly’ is the problem of assembling the two haplotypes for a chromosome given the collection of such fragments, or reads, and their locations in the haplotypes, which are pre-determined by mapping the reads to a reference genome. Errors in reads significantly increase the difficulty of the problem and it has been shown that the problem is NP-hard even for reads of length 2. Existing greedy and stochastic algorithms are not guaranteed to find the optimal solutions for the haplotype assembly problem

Lambda-N scattering length from the reaction gamma d -> K^+ Lambda n

The perspects of utilizing the strangeness-production reaction gamma d -> K^+ Lambda n for the determination of the Lambda n low-energy scattering parameters are investigated. The spin observables that need to be measured in order to isolate the Lambda n singlet (1S0) and triplet (3S1) states are identified. Possible kinematical regions where the extraction of the Lambda n scattering lengths might be feasible are discussed.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figure