2,701 research outputs found
Electron-beam-induced shift in the apparent position of a pinned vortex in a thin superconducting film
When an electron beam strikes a superconducting thin film near a pinned
vortex, it locally increases the temperature-dependent London penetration depth
and perturbs the circulating supercurrent, thereby distorting the vortex's
magnetic field toward the heated spot. This phenomenon has been used to
visualize vortices pinned in SQUIDs using low-temperature scanning electron
microscopy. In this paper I develop a quantitative theory to calculate the
displacement of the vortex-generated magnetic-flux distribution as a function
of the distance of the beam spot from the vortex core. The results are
calculated using four different models for the spatial distribution of the
thermal power deposited by the electron beam.Comment: 9 pages, 6 figures, resubmitted to PRB with referee-suggested
revisions, includes new paragraph on numerical evaluatio
The Pondicherry interpretation of quantum mechanics: An overview
An overview of the Pondicherry interpretation of quantum mechanics is
presented. This interpretation proceeds from the recognition that the
fundamental theoretical framework of physics is a probability algorithm, which
serves to describe an objective fuzziness (the literal meaning of Heisenberg's
term "Unschaerfe," usually mistranslated as "uncertainty") by assigning
objective probabilities to the possible outcomes of unperformed measurements.
Although it rejects attempts to construe quantum states as evolving ontological
states, it arrives at an objective description of the quantum world that owes
nothing to observers or the goings-on in physics laboratories. In fact, unless
such attempts are rejected, quantum theory's true ontological implications
cannot be seen. Among these are the radically relational nature of space, the
numerical identity of the corresponding relata, the incomplete spatiotemporal
differentiation of the physical world, and the consequent top-down structure of
reality, which defies attempts to model it from the bottom up, whether on the
basis of an intrinsically differentiated spacetime manifold or out of a
multitude of individual building blocks.Comment: 18 pages, 1 eps figure, v3: with corrections made in proo
Direct sampling of exponential phase moments of smoothed Wigner functions
We investigate exponential phase moments of the s-parametrized
quasidistributions (smoothed Wigner functions). We show that the knowledge of
these moments as functions of s provides, together with photon-number
statistics, a complete description of the quantum state. We demonstrate that
the exponential phase moments can be directly sampled from the data recorded in
balanced homodyne detection and we present simple expressions for the sampling
kernels. The phase moments are Fourier coefficients of phase distributions
obtained from the quasidistributions via integration over the radial variable
in polar coordinates. We performed Monte Carlo simulations of the homodyne
detection and we demonstrate the feasibility of direct sampling of the moments
and subsequent reconstruction of the phase distribution.Comment: RevTeX, 8 pages, 6 figures, accepted Phys. Rev.
A High Luminosity e+e- Collider to study the Higgs Boson
A strong candidate for the Standard Model Scalar boson, H(126), has been
discovered by the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) experiments. In order to study
this fundamental particle with unprecedented precision, and to perform
precision tests of the closure of the Standard Model, we investigate the
possibilities offered by An e+e- storage ring collider. We use a design
inspired by the B-factories, taking into account the performance achieved at
LEP2, and imposing a synchrotron radiation power limit of 100 MW. At the most
relevant centre-of-mass energy of 240 GeV, near-constant luminosities of 10^34
cm^{-2}s^{-1} are possible in up to four collision points for a ring of 27km
circumference. The achievable luminosity increases with the bending radius, and
for 80km circumference, a luminosity of 5 10^34 cm^{-2}s^{-1} in four collision
points appears feasible. Beamstrahlung becomes relevant at these high
luminosities, leading to a design requirement of large momentum acceptance both
in the accelerating system and in the optics. The larger machine could reach
the top quark threshold, would yield luminosities per interaction point of
10^36 cm^{-2}s^{-1} at the Z pole (91 GeV) and 2 10^35 cm^{-2}s^{-1} at the W
pair production threshold (80 GeV per beam). The energy spread is reduced in
the larger ring with respect to what is was at LEP, giving confidence that beam
polarization for energy calibration purposes should be available up to the W
pair threshold. The capabilities in term of physics performance are outlined.Comment: Submitted to the European Strategy Preparatory Group 01-04-2013 new
version as re-submitted to PRSTA
Number phase uncertainty relations: verification by homodyning
It is shown that fundamental uncertainty relations between photon number and
canonical phase of a single-mode optical field can be verified by means of
balanced homodyne measurement. All the relevant quantities can be sampled
directly from the measured phase-dependent quadrature distribution.Comment: 1 Ps figure (divided in 3 subfigures) using REVTE
Z', new fermions and flavor changing processes, constraints on E models from --> eee
We study a new class of flavor changing interactions, which can arise in
models based on extended gauge groups (rank 4) when new charged fermions are
present together with a new neutral gauge boson. We discuss the cases in which
the flavor changing couplings in the new neutral current coupled to the
are theoretically expected to be large, implying that the observed
suppression of neutral flavor changing transitions must be provided by heavy
masses together with small - mixing angles.
Concentrating on E models, we show how the tight experimental limit on implies serious constraints on the mass and mixing
angle. We conclude that if the value of the flavor changing parameters is
assumed to lie in a theoretically natural range, in most cases the presence of
a much lighter than 1 TeV is unlikely.Comment: plain tex, 22 pages + 2 pages figures in PostScript (appended after
`\bye'), UM-TH 92-1
Spectroscopy of free radicals and radical containing entrance-channel complexes in superfluid helium nano-droplets
The spectroscopy of free radicals and radical containing entrance-channel
complexes embedded in superfluid helium nano-droplets is reviewed. The
collection of dopants inside individual droplets in the beam represents a
micro-canonical ensemble, and as such each droplet may be considered an
isolated cryo-reactor. The unique properties of the droplets, namely their low
temperature (0.4 K) and fast cooling rates ( K s) provides
novel opportunities for the formation and high-resolution studies of molecular
complexes containing one or more free radicals. The production methods of
radicals are discussed in light of their applicability for embedding the
radicals in helium droplets. The spectroscopic studies performed to date on
molecular radicals and on entrance / exit-channel complexes of radicals with
stable molecules are detailed. The observed complexes provide new information
on the potential energy surfaces of several fundamental chemical reactions and
on the intermolecular interactions present in open-shell systems. Prospects of
further experiments of radicals embedded in helium droplets are discussed,
especially the possibilities to prepare and study high-energy structures and
their controlled manipulation, as well as the possibility of fundamental
physics experiments.Comment: 25 pages, 12 figures, 4 tables (RevTeX
Bounding Anomalous Gauge-Boson Couplings
In this version we have corrected some minor errors in the tables, corrected
typos, and added a reference. We have also updated our comparison with earlier
workers. Figures are now included as uuencoded compressed tar files.Comment: 32 page
A generation apart? Youth and political participation in Britain
Conventional wisdom holds that young people in Britain are alienated from politics, with some claiming that this reflects a wider crisis of legitimacy that should be met by initiatives to increase citizenship. This article addresses these areas, presenting both panel survey and focus group data from first-time voters. It concludes that, contrary to the findings from many predominantly quantitative studies of political participation, young people are interested in political matters, and do support the democratic process. However they feel a sense of anti-climax having voted for the first time, and are critical of those who have been elected to positions of political power. If they are a generation apart, this is less to do with apathy, and more to do with their engaged scepticism about ‘formal’ politics in Britain
Coupling of plasmonic nanoparticles to their environments in the context of van der Waals-Casimir interactions
We present experiments in which the interaction of a single gold nanoparticle
with glass substrates or with another gold particle can be tuned by in-situ
control of their separations using scanning probe technology. We record the
plasmon resonances of the coupled systems as a function of the polarization of
the incident field and the particle position. The distinct spectral changes of
the scattered light from the particle pair are in good agreement with the
outcome of finite difference time-domain (FDTD) calculations. We believe our
experimental technique holds promise for the investigation of the van der
Waals-Casimir type interactions between nanoscopic neutral bodies.Comment: 9 pages, 7 figure
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