1,526 research outputs found
Measurement crosstalk between two phase qubits coupled by a coplanar waveguide
We analyze the measurement crosstalk between two flux-biased phase qubits
coupled by a resonant coplanar waveguide cavity. After the first qubit is
measured, the superconducting phase can undergo damped oscillations resulting
in an a.c. voltage that produces a frequency chirped noise signal whose
frequency crosses that of the cavity. We show experimentally that the coplanar
waveguide cavity acts as a bandpass filter that can significantly reduce the
crosstalk signal seen by the second qubit when its frequency is far from the
cavity's resonant frequency. We present a simple classical description of the
qubit behavior that agrees well with the experimental data. These results
suggest that measurement crosstalk between superconducting phase qubits can be
reduced by use of linear or possibly nonlinear resonant cavities as coupling
elements.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure
Stringent Constraint on Galactic Positron Production
The intense 0.511 MeV gamma-ray line emission from the Galactic Center
observed by INTEGRAL requires a large annihilation rate of nonrelativistic
positrons. If these positrons are injected at even mildly relativistic
energies, higher-energy gamma rays will also be produced. We calculate the
gamma-ray spectrum due to inflight annihilation and compare to the observed
diffuse Galactic gamma-ray data. Even in a simplified but conservative
treatment, we find that the positron injection energies must be
MeV, which strongly constrains models for Galactic positron production.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures; minor revisions, accepted for publication in PR
Thermal noise limitations to force measurements with torsion pendulums: Applications to the measurement of the Casimir force and its thermal correction
A general analysis of thermal noise in torsion pendulums is presented. The
specific case where the torsion angle is kept fixed by electronic feedback is
analyzed. This analysis is applied to a recent experiment that employed a
torsion pendulum to measure the Casimir force. The ultimate limit to the
distance at which the Casimir force can be measured to high accuracy is
discussed, and in particular the prospects for measuring the thermal correction
are elaborated upon.Comment: one figure, five pages, to be submitted to Phys Rev
Analyzing aviation safety: problems, challenges, opportunities
a b s t r a c t This paper reviews the economic literature relating to aviation safety; analyzes the safety record of commercial passenger aviation in the United States and abroad; examines aviation security as a growing dimension of aviation safety; and identifies emerging issues in airline safety and challenges for aviation safety research. Commercial airline safety has improved dramatically since the industry's birth over a century ago. Fatal accident rates for large scheduled jet airlines have fallen to the level where (along many dimensions) aviation is now the safest mode of commercial transportation. However, safety performance has not been evenly distributed across all segments of commercial aviation, nor among all countries and regions of the world. The finding that developing countries have much poorer safety records has been a persistent conclusion in aviation safety research and continues to be the case. Unfortunately, operations data are not available for many of the airlines that experience fatal accidents, so it is not possible to calculate reliable fatality rates for many segments of the worldwide aviation industry. Without more complete information, it will likely be difficult to make substantial improvements in the safety of these operations. Challenges to improving aviation security include: how much to focus on identifying the terrorists as opposed to identifying the tools they might use; determining how to respond to terrorist threats; and determining the public versus private roles in providing aviation security. The next generation of safety challenges now require development and understanding of new forms of data to improve safety in other segments of commercial aviation, and moving from a reactive, incident-based approach toward a more proactive, predictive and systems-based approach
Evolutionary Status of Dwarf ``Transition'' Galaxies
We present deep B, R and Halpha imaging of 3 dwarf galaxies: NGC3377A,
NGC4286, and IC3475. Based on previous broadband imaging and HI studies, these
mixed-morphology galaxies were proposed by Sandage & Hoffman (1991) to be,
respectively, a gas-rich low surface brightness Im dwarf, a nucleated dwarf
that has lost most of its gas and is in transition from Im to dS0,N, and the
prototypical example of a gas-poor ``huge low surface brightness'' early-type
galaxy. From the combination of our broadband and Halpha imaging with the
published information on the neutral gas content of these three galaxies, we
find that (1) NGC3377A is a dwarf spiral; (2) NGC3377A and NGC4286 have
comparable amounts of ongoing star formation, as indicated by their Halpha
emission, while IC3475 has no detected HII regions to a very low limit; (3) the
global star formation rates are at least a factor of 20 below that of 30
Doradus for NGC3377A and NGC4286; (4) while the amount of star formation is
comparable, the distribution of star forming regions is very different between
NGC3377A and NGC4286; (5) given their current star formation rates and gas
contents, both NGC3377A and NGC4286 can continue to form stars for more than a
Hubble time; (6) both NGC3377A and NGC4286 have integrated total B-R colors
that are redder than the integrated total B-R color for IC3475, and thus it is
unlikely that either galaxy will ever evolve into an IC3475 counterpart; and
(7) IC3475 is too blue to be a dE. We thus conclude that we have not identified
potential precursors to galaxies such as IC3475, and unless signifcant changes
occur in the star formation rates, neither NGC3377A nor NGC4286 will evolve
into a dwarf elliptical or dwarf spheroidal within a Hubble time.Comment: 34 pages, 6 jpg figures, 3 postscript figures, and 4 tables, uses
AASTeX, ApJ, in pres
Galactic-Centre Gamma Rays in CMSSM Dark Matter Scenarios
We study the production of gamma rays via LSP annihilations in the core of
the Galaxy as a possible experimental signature of the constrained minimal
supersymmetric extension of the Standard Model (CMSSM), in which
supersymmetry-breaking parameters are assumed to be universal at the GUT scale,
assuming also that the LSP is the lightest neutralino chi. The part of the
CMSSM parameter space that is compatible with the measured astrophysical
density of cold dark matter is known to include a stau_1 - chi coannihilation
strip, a focus-point strip where chi has an enhanced Higgsino component, and a
funnel at large tanb where the annihilation rate is enhanced by the poles of
nearby heavy MSSM Higgs bosons, A/H. We calculate the total annihilation rates,
the fractions of annihilations into different Standard Model final states and
the resulting fluxes of gamma rays for CMSSM scenarios along these strips. We
observe that typical annihilation rates are much smaller in the coannihilation
strip for tanb = 10 than along the focus-point strip or for tanb = 55, and that
the annihilation branching ratios differ greatly between the different dark
matter strips. Whereas the current Fermi-LAT data are not sensitive to any of
the CMSSM scenarios studied, and the calculated gamma-ray fluxes are probably
unobservably low along the coannihilation strip for tanb = 10, we find that
substantial portions of the focus-point strips and rapid-annihilation funnel
regions could be pressured by several more years of Fermi-LAT data, if
understanding of the astrophysical background and/or systematic uncertainties
can be improved in parallel.Comment: 33 pages, 12 figures, comments and references added, version to
appear in JCA
System and Method for Providing a Climate Data Persistence Service
A system, method and computer-readable storage devices for providing a climate data persistence service. A system configured to provide the service can include a climate data server that performs data and metadata storage and management functions for climate data objects, a compute-storage platform that provides the resources needed to support a climate data server, provisioning software that allows climate data server instances to be deployed as virtual climate data servers in a cloud computing environment, and a service interface, wherein persistence service capabilities are invoked by software applications running on a client device. The climate data objects can be in various formats, such as International Organization for Standards (ISO) Open Archival Information System (OAIS) Reference Model Submission Information Packages, Archive Information Packages, and Dissemination Information Packages. The climate data server can enable scalable, federated storage, management, discovery, and access, and can be tailored for particular use cases
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