14,169 research outputs found
The Uncertainty of Fluxes
In the ordinary quantum Maxwell theory of a free electromagnetic field,
formulated on a curved 3-manifold, we observe that magnetic and electric fluxes
cannot be simultaneously measured. This uncertainty principle reflects torsion:
fluxes modulo torsion can be simultaneously measured. We also develop the
Hamilton theory of self-dual fields, noting that they are quantized by
Pontrjagin self-dual cohomology theories and that the quantum Hilbert space is
Z/2-graded, so typically contains both bosonic and fermionic states.
Significantly, these ideas apply to the Ramond-Ramond field in string theory,
showing that its K-theory class cannot be measured.Comment: 33 pages; minor modifications for publication in Commun. Math. Phy
EXCITATION of COUPLED STELLAR MOTIONS in the GALACTIC DISK by ORBITING SATELLITES
We use a set of high-resolution N-body simulations of the Galactic disk to study its interactions with the population of cosmologically predicted satellites. One simulation illustrates that multiple passages of massive satellites with different velocities through the disk generate a wobble, which has the appearance of rings in face-on projections of the stellar disk. They also produce flares in the outer disk parts and gradually heat the disk through bending waves. A different numerical experiment shows that an individual satellite as massive as the Sagittarius dwarf galaxy passing through the disk will drive coupled horizontal and vertical oscillations of stars in underdense regions with small associated heating. This experiment shows that vertical excursions of stars in these low-density regions can exceed 1 kpc in the Solar neighborhood, resembling the recently locally detected coherent vertical oscillations. They can also induce non-zero vertical streaming motions as large as 10-20 km s-1, which is consistent with recent observations in the Galactic disk. This phenomenon appears as a local ring with modest associated disk heating. © 2016. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved
Quantum filter reduction for measurement-feedback control via unsupervised manifold learning
We derive simple models for the dynamics of a single atom coupled to a cavity
field mode in the absorptive bistable parameter regime by projecting the time
evolution of the state of the system onto a suitably chosen nonlinear
low-dimensional manifold, which is found by use of local tangent space
alignment. The output field from the cavity is detected with a homodyne
detector allowing observation of quantum jumps of the system between states
with different average numbers of photons in the cavity. We find that the
models, which are significantly faster to integrate numerically than the full
stochastic master equation, largely reproduce the dynamics of the system, and
we demonstrate that they are sufficiently accurate to facilitate feedback
control of the state of the system based on the predictions of the models
alone.Comment: 15 pages, 6 figure
Galaxy disks do not need to survive in the L-CDM paradigm: the galaxy merger rate out to z~1.5 from morpho-kinematic data
About two-thirds of present-day, large galaxies are spirals such as the Milky
Way or Andromeda, but the way their thin rotating disks formed remains
uncertain. Observations have revealed that half of their progenitors, six
billion years ago, had peculiar morphologies and/or kinematics, which exclude
them from the Hubble sequence. Major mergers, i.e., fusions between galaxies of
similar mass, are found to be the likeliest driver for such strong
peculiarities. However, thin disks are fragile and easily destroyed by such
violent collisions, which creates a critical tension between the observed
fraction of thin disks and their survival within the L-CDM paradigm. Here we
show that the observed high occurrence of mergers amongst their progenitors is
only apparent and is resolved when using morpho-kinematic observations which
are sensitive to all the phases of the merging process. This provides an
original way of narrowing down observational estimates of the galaxy merger
rate and leads to a perfect match with predictions by state-of-the-art L-CDM
semi-empirical models with no particular fine-tuning needed. These results
imply that half of local thin disks do not survive but are actually rebuilt
after a gas-rich major merger occurring in the past nine billion years, i.e.,
two-thirds of the lifetime of the Universe. This emphasizes the need to study
how thin disks can form in halos with a more active merger history than
previously considered, and to investigate what is the origin of the gas
reservoir from which local disks would reform.Comment: 19 pages, 7 figures, 2 tables. Accepted in ApJ. V2 to match proof
corrections and added reference
Cosmic ray feedback in the FIRE simulations: constraining cosmic ray propagation with GeV gamma ray emission
We present the implementation and the first results of cosmic ray (CR)
feedback in the Feedback In Realistic Environments (FIRE) simulations. We
investigate CR feedback in non-cosmological simulations of dwarf, sub-
starburst, and galaxies with different propagation models, including
advection, isotropic and anisotropic diffusion, and streaming along field lines
with different transport coefficients. We simulate CR diffusion and streaming
simultaneously in galaxies with high resolution, using a two moment method. We
forward-model and compare to observations of -ray emission from nearby
and starburst galaxies. We reproduce the -ray observations of dwarf and
galaxies with constant isotropic diffusion coefficient . Advection-only and streaming-only
models produce order-of-magnitude too large -ray luminosities in dwarf
and galaxies. We show that in models that match the -ray
observations, most CRs escape low-gas-density galaxies (e.g.\ dwarfs) before
significant collisional losses, while starburst galaxies are CR proton
calorimeters. While adiabatic losses can be significant, they occur only after
CRs escape galaxies, so they are only of secondary importance for -ray
emissivities. Models where CRs are ``trapped'' in the star-forming disk have
lower star formation efficiency, but these models are ruled out by -ray
observations. For models with constant that match the -ray
observations, CRs form extended halos with scale heights of several kpc to
several tens of kpc.Comment: 31 pages, 26 figures, accepted for publication in MNRA
Inelastic Collapse of Three Particles
A system of three particles undergoing inelastic collisions in arbitrary
spatial dimensions is studied with the aim of establishing the domain of
``inelastic collapse''---an infinite number of collisions which take place in a
finite time. Analytic and simulation results show that for a sufficiently small
restitution coefficient, , collapse can
occur. In one dimension, such a collapse is stable against small perturbations
within this entire range. In higher dimensions, the collapse can be stable
against small variations of initial conditions, within a smaller range,
.Comment: 6 pages, figures on request, accepted by PR
Silicon web process development
A barrier crucible design which consistently maintains melt stability over long periods of time was successfully tested and used in long growth runs. The pellet feeder for melt replenishment was operated continuously for growth runs of up to 17 hours. The liquid level sensor comprising a laser/sensor system was operated, performed well, and meets the requirements for maintaining liquid level height during growth and melt replenishment. An automated feedback loop connecting the feed mechanism and the liquid level sensing system was designed and constructed and operated successfully for 3.5 hours demonstrating the feasibility of semi-automated dendritic web growth. The sensitivity of the cost of sheet, to variations in capital equipment cost and recycling dendrites was calculated and it was shown that these factors have relatively little impact on sheet cost. Dendrites from web which had gone all the way through the solar cell fabrication process, when melted and grown into web, produce crystals which show no degradation in cell efficiency. Material quality remains high and cells made from web grown at the start, during, and the end of a run from a replenished melt show comparable efficiencies
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