6,600 research outputs found
Quantum weak values and logic, an uneasy couple
Quantum mechanical weak values of projection operators have been used to
answer which-way questions, e.g. to trace which arms in a multiple Mach-Zehnder
setup a particle may have traversed from a given initial to a prescribed final
state. I show that this procedure might lead to logical inconsistencies in the
sense that different methods used to answer composite questions, like Has the
particle traversed the way X or the way Y? , may result in different answers
depending on which methods are used to find the answer. I illustrate the
problem by considering some examples: the quantum pigeonhole framework of
Aharonov et al, the three-box problem, and Hardys paradox. To prepare the
ground for my main conclusion on the incompatibility in certain cases of weak
values and logic, I study the corresponding situation for strong/projective
measurements. In this case, no logical inconsistencies occur provided one is
always careful in specifying exactly to which ensemble or sample space one
refers. My results cast doubts on the utility of quantum weak values in
treating cases like the examples mentioned
An Off-line Scan of the BATSE Daily Records and a Large Uniform Sample of Gamma-Ray Bursts
During a scan of the archival BATSE daily records covering the entire 9.1
years (TJD 8369-11690) of the BATSE operation, 3906 gamma-ray bursts (GRBs)
have been detected. 2068 of these GRBs are previously known BATSE triggers
while 1838 of them are new non-triggered bursts. It is important that all
events were detected in the same type of data and were processed with the same
procedure. Therefore these 3906 GRBs constitute a uniform sample. We have
created a publically available electronic data base containing this sample. We
describe the procedures of the data reduction, the selection of the GRB
candidates, and the statistical tests for possible non-GRB contaminations. We
also describe a novel test burst method used to measure the scan efficiency and
the information obtained using the test bursts. Our scan decreases the BATSE
detection threshold to ~0.1 photons/sec/cm2. As a first result, we show that
the differential log N - log P distribution corrected for the detection
efficiency extends to low brightnesses without any indication of a turn-over.
Any reasonable extrapolation of the new log N - log P to lower brightnesses
imply a rate of several thousands of GRBs in the Universe per year.Comment: 14 pages; 23 figures; revised version accepted to ApJ; electronic
version of Table 2 is available at
ftp://ftp.astro.su.se/pub/head/grb/catalogs/etable2.txt The GRB archive is
available at http://www.astro.su.se/groups/head/grb_archive.htm
ON THE GEOMETRY OF THE X-RAY EMITTING REGION IN SEYFERT GALAXIES
For the first time, detailed radiative transfer calculations of Comptonized
X-ray and gamma-ray radiation in a hot pair plasma above a cold accretion disk
are performed using two independent codes and methods. The simulations include
both energy and pair balance as well as reprocessing of the X- and gamma-rays
by the cold disk. We study both plane-parallel coronae as well as active
dissipation regions having shapes of hemispheres and pill boxes located on the
disk surface. It is shown, contrary to earlier claims, that plane-parallel
coronae in pair balance have difficulties in selfconsistently reproducing the
ranges of 2-20 keV spectral slopes, high energy cutoffs, and compactnesses
inferred from observations of type 1 Seyfert galaxies. Instead, the
observations are consistent with the X-rays coming from a number of individual
active regions located on the surface of the disk.
A number of effects such as anisotropic Compton scattering, the reflection
hump, feedback to the soft photon source by reprocessing, and an active region
in pair equilibrium all conspire to produce the observed ranges of X-ray
slopes, high energy cutoffs, and compactnesses. The spread in spectral X-ray
slopes can be due to a spread in the properties of the active regions such as
their compactnesses and their elevations above the disk surface. Simplified
models invoking isotropic Comptonization in spherical clouds are no longer
sufficient when interpreting the data.Comment: 9 pages, 3 postscript figures, figures can be obtained from the
authors via e-mail: [email protected]
Acceptor-like deep level defects in ion-implanted ZnO
N-type ZnO samples have been implanted with MeV Zn⁺ ions at room temperature to doses between 1×10⁸ and 2×10¹⁰cm⁻², and the defect evolution has been studied by capacitance-voltage and deep level transient spectroscopy measurements. The results show a dose dependent compensation by acceptor-like defects along the implantation depth profile, and at least four ion-induced deep-level defects arise, where two levels with energy positions of 1.06 and 1.2 eV below the conduction band increase linearly with ion dose and are attributed to intrinsic defects. Moreover, a re-distribution of defects as a function of depth is observed already at temperatures below 400 K.This work was supported by the Norwegian Research
Council through the Frienergi program and the Australian
Research Council through the Discovery projects program
Effect of turbulence on collisional growth of cloud droplets
We investigate the effect of turbulence on the collisional growth of um-sized
droplets through high- resolution numerical simulations with well resolved
Kolmogorov scales, assuming a collision and coalescence efficiency of unity.
The droplet dynamics and collisions are approximated using a superparticle
approach. In the absence of gravity, we show that the time evolution of the
shape of the droplet-size distribution due to turbulence-induced collisions
depends strongly on the turbulent energy-dissipation rate, but only weakly on
the Reynolds number. This can be explained through the energy dissipation rate
dependence of the mean collision rate described by the Saffman-Turner collision
model. Consistent with the Saffman-Turner collision model and its extensions,
the collision rate increases as the square root of the energy dissipation rate
even when coalescence is invoked. The size distribution exhibits power law
behavior with a slope of -3.7 between a maximum at approximately 10 um up to
about 40 um. When gravity is invoked, turbulence is found to dominate the time
evolution of an initially monodisperse droplet distribution at early times. At
later times, however, gravity takes over and dominates the collisional growth.
We find that the formation of large droplets is very sensitive to the turbulent
energy dissipation rate. This is due to the fact that turbulence enhances the
collisional growth between similar sized droplets at the early stage of
raindrop formation. The mean collision rate grows exponentially, which is
consistent with the theoretical prediction of the continuous collisional growth
even when turbulence-generated collisions are invoked. This consistency only
reflects the mean effect of turbulence on collisional growth
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