1,404 research outputs found
Lateral Effects in Fermion Antibunching
Lateral effects are analyzed in the antibunching of a beam of free
non-interacting fermions. The emission of particles from a source is
dynamically described in a 3D full quantum field-theoretical framework. The
size of the source and the detectors, as well as the temperature of the source
are taken into account and the behavior of the visibility is scrutinized as a
function of these parameters.Comment: 22 pages, 4 figure
Silicon epitaxy below 200°C: Towards thin crystalline solar cells
International audienceLow temperature plasma processes provide a toolbox for etching, texturing and deposition of a wide range of materials. Here we present a bottom up approach to grow epitaxial crystalline silicon films (epi-Si) by standard RF-PECVD at temperatures below 200°C. Booth structural and electronic properties of the epitaxial layers are investigated. Proof of high crystalline quality is deduced from spectroscopic ellipsometry and HRTEM measurements. Moreover, we build heterojunction solar cells with intrinsic epitaxial absorber thickness in the range of a few microns, grown at 175 °C on highly doped (100) substrates, in the wafer equivalent approach. Achievement of a fill factor as high as 80 % is a proof that excellent quality of epitaxial layers can be produced at such low temperatures. While 8.5 % conversion efficiency has already been achieved for a 3.4 ”m epitaxial silicon absorber, the possibility of reaching 15 % conversion efficiency with few microns epi-Si is discussed based on a detailed opto-electrical modeling of current devices
GREAT: the SOFIA high-frequency heterodyne instrument
We describe the design and construction of GREAT, the German REceiver for
Astronomy at Terahertz frequencies operated on the Stratospheric Observatory
for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA). GREAT is a modular dual-color heterodyne
instrument for highresolution far-infrared (FIR) spectroscopy. Selected for
SOFIA's Early Science demonstration, the instrument has successfully performed
three Short and more than a dozen Basic Science flights since first light was
recorded on its April 1, 2011 commissioning flight.
We report on the in-flight performance and operation of the receiver that -
in various flight configurations, with three different detector channels -
observed in several science-defined frequency windows between 1.25 and 2.5 THz.
The receiver optics was verified to be diffraction-limited as designed, with
nominal efficiencies; receiver sensitivities are state-of-the-art, with
excellent system stability. The modular design allows for the continuous
integration of latest technologies; we briefly discuss additional channels
under development and ongoing improvements for Cycle 1 observations.
GREAT is a principal investigator instrument, developed by a consortium of
four German research institutes, available to the SOFIA users on a
collaborative basis
Metaphors We Think With: The Role of Metaphor in Reasoning
The way we talk about complex and abstract ideas is suffused with metaphor. In five experiments, we explore how these metaphors influence the way that we reason about complex issues and forage for further information about them. We find that even the subtlest instantiation of a metaphor (via a single word) can have a powerful influence over how people attempt to solve social problems like crime and how they gather information to make âwell-informedâ decisions. Interestingly, we find that the influence of the metaphorical framing effect is covert: people do not recognize metaphors as influential in their decisions; instead they point to more âsubstantiveâ (often numerical) information as the motivation for their problem-solving decision. Metaphors in language appear to instantiate frame-consistent knowledge structures and invite structurally consistent inferences. Far from being mere rhetorical flourishes, metaphors have profound influences on how we conceptualize and act with respect to important societal issues. We find that exposure to even a single metaphor can induce substantial differences in opinion about how to solve social problems: differences that are larger, for example, than pre-existing differences in opinion between Democrats and Republicans
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When almost is not even close: Remarks on the approximability of HDTP
A growing number of researchers in Cognitive Science advocate the thesis that human cognitive capacities are constrained by computational tractability. If right, this thesis also can be expected to have far-reaching consequences for work in Artificial General Intelligence: Models and systems considered as basis for the development of general cognitive architectures with human-like performance would also have to comply with tractability constraints, making in-depth complexity theoretic analysis a necessary and important part of the standard research and development cycle already from a rather early stage. In this paper we present an application case study for such an analysis based on results from a parametrized complexity and approximation theoretic analysis of the Heuristic Driven Theory Projection (HDTP) analogy-making framework
Palm pairs and the general mass-transport principle
We consider a lcsc group G acting properly on a Borel space S and measurably
on an underlying sigma-finite measure space. Our first main result is a
transport formula connecting the Palm pairs of jointly stationary random
measures on S. A key (and new) technical result is a measurable disintegration
of the Haar measure on G along the orbits. The second main result is an
intrinsic characterization of the Palm pairs of a G-invariant random measure.
We then proceed with deriving a general version of the mass-transport principle
for possibly non-transitive and non-unimodular group operations first in a
deterministic and then in its full probabilistic form.Comment: 26 page
Metaphoric coherence: Distinguishing verbal metaphor from `anomaly\u27
Theories and computational models of metaphor comprehension generally circumvent the question of metaphor versus âanomalyâ in favor of a treatment of metaphor versus literal language. Making the distinction between metaphoric and âanomalousâ expressions is subject to wide variation in judgment, yet humans agree that some potentially metaphoric expressions are much more comprehensible than others. In the context of a program which interprets simple isolated sentences that are potential instances of crossâmodal and other verbal metaphor, I consider some possible coherence criteria which must be satisfied for an expression to be âconceivableâ metaphorically. Metaphoric constraints on object nominals are represented as abstracted or extended along with the invariant structural components of the verb meaning in a metaphor. This approach distinguishes what is preserved in metaphoric extension from that which is âviolatedâ, thus referring to both âsimilarityâ and âdissimilarityâ views of metaphor. The role and potential limits of represented abstracted properties and constraints is discussed as they relate to the recognition of incoherent semantic combinations and the rejection or adjustment of metaphoric interpretations
Using conceptual metaphor and functional grammar to explore how language used in physics affects student learning
This paper introduces a theory about the role of language in learning
physics. The theory is developed in the context of physics students' and
physicists' talking and writing about the subject of quantum mechanics. We
found that physicists' language encodes different varieties of analogical
models through the use of grammar and conceptual metaphor. We hypothesize that
students categorize concepts into ontological categories based on the
grammatical structure of physicists' language. We also hypothesize that
students over-extend and misapply conceptual metaphors in physicists' speech
and writing. Using our theory, we will show how, in some cases, we can explain
student difficulties in quantum mechanics as difficulties with language.Comment: Accepted for publication in Phys. Rev. ST:PE
Using a cognitive architecture to examine what develops
Different theories of development propose alternative mechanisms by which development occurs. Cognitive architectures can be used to examine the influence of each proposed mechanism of development while keeping all other mechanisms constant. An ACT-R computational model that matched adult behavior in solving a 21-block pyramid puzzle was created. The model was modified in three ways that corresponded to mechanisms of development proposed by developmental theories. The results showed that all the modifications (two of capacity and one of strategy choice) could approximate the behavior of 7-year-old children on the task. The strategy-choice modification provided the closest match on the two central measures of task behavior (time taken per layer, r = .99, and construction attempts per layer, r = .73). Modifying cognitive architectures is a fruitful way to compare and test potential developmental mechanisms, and can therefore help in specifying âwhat develops.
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