How to play a disc brake

We consider a gyroscopic system under the action of small dissipative and non-conservative positional forces, which has its origin in the models of rotating bodies of revolution being in frictional contact. The spectrum of the unperturbed gyroscopic system forms a "spectral mesh" in the plane "frequency -gyroscopic parameter" with double semi-simple purely imaginary eigenvalues at zero value of the gyroscopic parameter. It is shown that dissipative forces lead to the splitting of the semi-simple eigenvalue with the creation of the so-called "bubble of instability" - a ring in the three-dimensional space of the gyroscopic parameter and real and imaginary parts of eigenvalues, which corresponds to complex eigenvalues. In case of full dissipation with a positive-definite damping matrix the eigenvalues of the ring have negative real parts making the bubble a latent source of instability because it can "emerge" to the region of eigenvalues with positive real parts due to action of both indefinite damping and non-conservative positional forces. In the paper, the instability mechanism is analytically described with the use of the perturbation theory of multiple eigenvalues. As an example stability of a rotating circular string constrained by a stationary load system is studied in detail. The theory developed seems to give a first clear explanation of the mechanism of self-excited vibrations in the rotating structures in frictional contact, that is responsible for such well-known phenomena of acoustics of friction as the squealing disc brake and the singing wine glass.Comment: 25 pages, 9 figures, Presented at BIRS 07w5068 Workshop "Geometric Mechanics: Continuous and discrete, finite and infinite dimensional", August 12-17, 2007, Banff, Canad

Phase transitions and the internal noise structure of nonlinear Schr\"odi nger equation solitons

We predict phase-transitions in the quantum noise characteristics of systems described by the quantum nonlinear Schr\"odinger equation, showing them to be related to the solitonic field transition at half the fundamental soliton amplitude. These phase-transitions are robust with respect to Raman noise and scattering losses. We also describe the rich internal quantum noise structure of the solitonic fields in the vicinity of the phase-transition. For optical coherent quantum solitons, this leads to the prediction that eliminating the peak side-band noise due to the electronic nonlinearity of silica fiber by spectral filtering leads to the optimal photon-number noise reduction of a fundamental soliton.Comment: 10 pages, 5 figure

Fourier Transform NMR Self-diffusion Studies Of A Nonaqueous Microemulsion System

Self-diffusion coefficients of the components of the microemulsion system glycerol/hexanol/sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) were determined in the presence and absence of an oil, p-xylene, and the results were compared with those from corresponding aqueous systems (i.e., glycerol replaced by water). In the aqueous system, the water in the hexanol rich isotropic liquid showed a diffusion coefficient less than 10% of that of free water, while that of hexanol was roughly 80% of that of free hexanol; such restricted motion of the water is consistent with the presence of water as discrete droplets. Partial substitution of p-xylene for hexanol did not affect the diffusion coefficient of water appreciably. In the nonaqueous three-component system, the diffusion coefficients of glycerol, SDS, and hexanol all decreased in concert as the glycerol content increased, e.g., that of hexanol goes from 1.75 x 10-10 m2 s-1 to 2.7 x 10-11 m2 s-1 as the glycerol content ranges from 10 to 80%. The diffusion coefficient of glycerol was always greater than that of neat glycerol by a factor of 5 to 45. As the diffusion coefficients of all components were within a factor of 2, the idea of segregating one or more components into disconnected domains is not supported. There is no support for glycerol droplets but these microemulsions appear to be structureless. © 1987

Comparison of Lives Saved Tool model child mortality estimates against measured data from vector control studies in sub-Saharan Africa

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Insecticide-treated mosquito nets (ITNs) and indoor-residual spraying have been scaled-up across sub-Saharan Africa as part of international efforts to control malaria. These interventions have the potential to significantly impact child survival. The Lives Saved Tool (LiST) was developed to provide national and regional estimates of cause-specific mortality based on the extent of intervention coverage scale-up. We compared the percent reduction in all-cause child mortality estimated by LiST against measured reductions in all-cause child mortality from studies assessing the impact of vector control interventions in Africa.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We performed a literature search for appropriate studies and compared reductions in all-cause child mortality estimated by LiST to 4 studies that estimated changes in all-cause child mortality following the scale-up of vector control interventions. The following key parameters measured by each study were applied to available country projections: baseline all-cause child mortality rate, proportion of mortality due to malaria, and population coverage of vector control interventions at baseline and follow-up years.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The percent reduction in all-cause child mortality estimated by the LiST model fell within the confidence intervals around the measured mortality reductions for all 4 studies. Two of the LiST estimates overestimated the mortality reductions by 6.1 and 4.2 percentage points (33% and 35% relative to the measured estimates), while two underestimated the mortality reductions by 4.7 and 6.2 percentage points (22% and 25% relative to the measured estimates).</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The LiST model did not systematically under- or overestimate the impact of ITNs on all-cause child mortality. These results show the LiST model to perform reasonably well at estimating the effect of vector control scale-up on child mortality when compared against measured data from studies across a range of malaria transmission settings. The LiST model appears to be a useful tool in estimating the potential mortality reduction achieved from scaling-up malaria control interventions.</p

Quantum limits to center-of-mass measurements

We discuss the issue of measuring the mean position (center-of-mass) of a group of bosonic or fermionic quantum particles, including particle number fluctuations. We introduce a standard quantum limit for these measurements at ultra-low temperatures, and discuss this limit in the context of both photons and ultra-cold atoms. In the case of fermions, we present evidence that the Pauli exclusion principle has a strongly beneficial effect, giving rise to a 1/N scaling in the position standard-deviation -- as opposed to a $1/\sqrt{N}$ scaling for bosons. The difference between the actual mean-position fluctuation and this limit is evidence for quantum wave-packet spreading in the center-of-mass. This macroscopic quantum effect cannot be readily observed for non-interacting particles, due to classical pulse broadening. For this reason, we also study the evolution of photonic and matter-wave solitons, where classical dispersion is suppressed. In the photonic case, we show that the intrinsic quantum diffusion of the mean position can contribute significantly to uncertainties in soliton pulse arrival times. We also discuss ways in which the relatively long lifetimes of attractive bosons in matter-wave solitons may be used to demonstrate quantum interference between massive objects composed of thousands of particles.Comment: 12 pages, 6 figures. Submitted to PRA. Revised to include more references as well as a discussion of fermionic center-of-mas

Soliton back-action evading measurement using spectral filtering

We report on a back-action evading (BAE) measurement of the photon number of fiber optical solitons operating in the quantum regime. We employ a novel detection scheme based on spectral filtering of colliding optical solitons. The measurements of the BAE criteria demonstrate significant quantum state preparation and transfer of the input signal to the signal and probe outputs exiting the apparatus, displaying the quantum-nondemolition (QND) behavior of the experiment.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figure

IRC+10216's Innermost Envelope -- The eSMA's View

We used the Extended Submillimeter Array (eSMA) in its most extended configuration to investigate the innermost (within a radius of 290 R* from the star) circumstellar envelope (CSE) of IRC+10216. We imaged the CSE using HCN and other molecular lines with a beam size of 0."22 x 0."46, deeply into the very inner edge (15 R*) of the envelope where the expansion velocity is only 3 km/s. The excitation mechanism of hot HCN and KCl maser lines is discussed. HCN maser components are spatially resolved for the first time on an astronomical object. We identified two discrete regions in the envelope: a region with a radius of . 15 R*, where molecular species have just formed and the gas has begun to be accelerated (region I) and a shell region (region II) with a radius of 23 R* and a thickness of 15 R*, whose expansion velocity has reached up to 13 km/s, nearly the terminal velocity of 15 km/s. The Si$^{34}$S line detected in region I shows a large expansion velocity of 16 km/s due to strong wing components, indicating that the emission may arise from a shock region in the innermost envelope. In region II, the P.A. of the most copious mass loss direction was found to be 120 +/- 10 degrees, which may correspond to the equatorial direction of the star. Region II contains a torus-like feature. These two regions may have emerged due to significant differences in the size distributions of the dust particles in the two regions.Comment: 26 pages, 8 figures, accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal. Please find the pdf at http://www.submm.caltech.edu/~hs/astroph/0904.0280.pdf and the ps file at http://www.submm.caltech.edu/~hs/astroph/0904.0280.p

Resolving the inner jet structure of 1924-292 with the EVENT HORIZON TELESCOPE

We present the first 1.3 mm (230 GHz) very long baseline interferometry model image of an AGN jet using closure phase techniques with a four-element array. The model image of the quasar 1924-292 was obtained with four telescopes at three observatories: the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope (JCMT) on Mauna Kea in Hawaii, the Arizona Radio Observatory's Submillimeter Telescope (SMT) in Arizona, and two telescopes of the Combined Array for Research in Millimeterwave Astronomy (CARMA) in California in April 2009. With the greatly improved resolution compared with previous observations and robust closure phase measurement, the inner jet structure of 1924-292 was spatially resolved. The inner jet extends to the northwest along a position angle of $-53^\circ$ at a distance of 0.38\,mas from the tentatively identified core, in agreement with the inner jet structure inferred from lower frequencies, and making a position angle difference of $\sim 80^{\circ}$ with respect to the cm-jet. The size of the compact core is 0.15\,pc with a brightness temperature of $1.2\times10^{11}$\,K. Compared with those measured at lower frequencies, the low brightness temperature may argue in favor of the decelerating jet model or particle-cascade models. The successful measurement of closure phase paves the way for imaging and time resolving Sgr A* and nearby AGN with the Event Horizon Telescope.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures, accepted for publication in ApJ