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At least 1,441 records · Page 80

MISR Radiance Anomalies Induced by Stratospheric Volcanic Aerosols

The 16-year MISR monthly radiances are analyzed in this study, showing significant enhancements of anisotropic scattering at high latitudes after several major volcanic eruptions with injection heights greater than 14 km. The anomaly of deseasonalized radiance anisotropy between MISR’s DF and DA views (70.5° forward and aft) is largest in the blue band with amplitudes amounting to 5–15% of the mean radiance. The anomalous radiance anisotropy is a manifestation of the stronger forward scattering of reflected sunlight due to the direct and indirect effects of stratospheric volcanic aerosols (SVAs). The perturbations of MISR radiance anisotropy from the Kasatochi (August 2008), Sarychev (June 2009), Nabro (June 2011) and Calbuco (April 2015) eruptions are consistent with the poleward transported SVAs observed by CALIOP and OMPS-LP. In a particular scene over the Arctic Ocean, the stratospheric aerosol mid-visible optical depth can reach as high as 0.2–0.5. The enhanced global forward scattering by SVAs has important implications for the shortwave radiation budget

radiance anisotropy; volcanic aerosol direct and i↗

Geometric phases in a scattering process

The study of geometric phase in quantum mechanics has so far been confined to discrete (or continuous) spectra and trace-preserving evolutions. By considering only the transmission channel, a scattering process with internal degrees of freedom is neither a discrete spectrum problem nor a trace-preserving process. We explore the geometric phase in the scattering process by taking only the transmission process into account. We find that the geometric phase can be calculated by the same method as in unitary evolution. The interference visibility depends on the transmission amplitude. The dependence of the geometric phase on the barrier strength and the spin-spin coupling constant is also presented and discussed.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

External calibration of polarimetric radar images using distributed targets

A new technique is presented for calibrating polarimetric synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images using only the responses from natural distributed targets. The model for polarimetric radars is assumed to be X = cRST where X is the measured scattering matrix corresponding to the target scattering matrix S distorted by the system matrices T and R (in general T does not equal R(sup t)). To allow for the polarimetric calibration using only distributed targets and corner reflectors, van Zyl assumed a reciprocal polarimetric radar model with T = R(sup t); when applied for JPL SAR data, a heuristic symmetrization procedure is used by POLCAL to compensate the phase difference between the measured HV and VH responses and then take the average of both. This heuristic approach causes some non-removable cross-polarization responses for corner reflectors, which can be avoided by a rigorous symmetrization method based on reciprocity. After the radar is made reciprocal, a new algorithm based on the responses from distributed targets with reflection symmetry is developed to estimate the cross-talk parameters. The new algorithm never experiences problems in convergence and is also found to converge faster than the existing routines implemented for POLCAL. When the new technique is implemented for the JPL polarimetric data, symmetrization and cross-talk removal are performed on a line-by-line (azimuth) basis. After the cross-talks are removed from the entire image, phase and amplitude calibrations are carried out by selecting distributed targets either with azimuthal symmetry along the looking direction or with some well-known volume and surface scattering mechanisms to estimate the relative phases and amplitude responses of the horizontal and vertical channels.

Yueh, Simon H.↗

Interferometric synthetic aperture radar imagery of the Gulf Stream

The advent of interferometric synthetic aperture radar (INSAR) imagery brought to the ocean remote sensing field techniques used in radio astronomy. Whilst details of the interferometry differ between the two fields, the basic idea is the same: Use the phase information arising from positional differences of the radar receivers and/or transmitters to probe remote structures. The interferometric image is formed from two complex synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images. These two images are of the same area but separated in time. Typically the time between these images is very short -- approximately 50 msec for the L-band AIRSAR (Airborne SAR). During this short period the radar scatterers on the ocean surface do not have time to significantly decorrelate. Hence the two SAR images will have the same amplitude, since both obtain the radar backscatter from essentially the same object. Although the ocean surface structure does not significantly decorrelate in 50 msec, surface features do have time to move. It is precisely the translation of scattering features across the ocean surface which gives rise to phase differences between the two SAR images. This phase difference is directly proportional to the range velocity of surface scatterers. The constant of proportionality is dependent upon the interferometric mode of operation.

Ainsworth, T. L.↗

Ultrafast broadband spectroscopy of crystalline bismuth

Femtosecond spectroscopy in the wavelength range 0.4 - 2.3 {mu}m has been used to probe ultrafast electronic and lattice processes in bismuth. The photoresponse of a bismuth crystal is shown to comprise components with relaxation times of 1 ps, 7 ps, and {approx}1 ns. The electron-hole and electron-phonon interaction strengths in bismuth are found to depend significantly on the wave vector in the {Gamma}-T direction of the Brillouin zone. Comparison of the spectral dependences of the amplitudes of coherent E{sub g} and A{sub 1g} phonons and the corresponding dependences of the Raman scattering cross sections indicates that these phonon modes differ in generation mechanism. The generation of coherent A{sub 1g} phonons is mainly due to displacement of the equilibrium position of atoms in the crystal lattice in a nonequilibrium state. This process differs fundamentally from resonance Raman scattering responsible for the coherent excitation of low-symmetry phonon modes. (extreme light fields and their applications)

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗

Partial Wave Dispersion Relations: Application to Electron-Atom Scattering

In this Letter we propose the use of partial wave dispersion relations (DR's) as the way of solving the long-standing problem of correctly incorporating exchange in a valid DR for electron-atom scattering. In particular a method is given for effectively calculating the contribution of the discontinuity and/or poles of the partial wave amplitude which occur in the negative E plane. The method is successfully tested in three cases: (i) the analytically solvable exponential potential, (ii) the Hartree potential, and (iii) the S-wave exchange approximation for electron-hydrogen scattering.

Temkin, A.↗

Studies of 3D structure of the nucleon with CLAS at JLab

Studies of single-spin asymmetries in pions electroproduction in semi-inclusive deep-inelastic scattering of 5.776 GeV polarized electrons from an unpolarized and polarized targets, using the CEBAF Large Acceptance Spectrometer (CLAS) at the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility, are presented. A substantial sin {phi}{sub h} amplitude has been measured in the the cross section as a function of the azimuthal angle {phi}{sub h} of the produced neutral pion. The dependence of this amplitude on Bjorken x and on the pion transverse momentum has been extracted with significantly higher precision than previous data and is compared to model calculations.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

Electromagnetic Structure and Electron Acceleration in Shock–Shock Interaction

A shock–shock interaction is investigated by using a one-dimensional full particle-in-cell simulation. The simulation reproduces the collision of two symmetrical high Mach number quasi-perpendicular shocks. The basic structure of the shocks and ion dynamics is similar to that obtained by previous hybrid simulations. The new aspects obtained here are as follows. Electrons are already strongly accelerated before the two shocks collide through multiple reflection. The reflected electrons self-generate waves upstream between the two shocks before they collide. The waves far upstream are generated through the right-hand resonant instability with the anomalous Doppler effect. The waves generated near the shock are due to firehose instability and have much larger amplitudes than those due to the resonant instability. The high-energy electrons are efficiently scattered by the waves so that some of them gain large pitch angles. Those electrons can be easily reflected at the shock of the other side. The accelerated electrons form a power-law energy spectrum. Due to the accelerated electrons, the pressure of upstream electrons increases with time. This appears to cause the deceleration of the approaching shock speed. The accelerated electrons having sufficiently large Larmor radii are further accelerated through the similar mechanism working for ions when the two shocks are colliding.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Effective field theory analysis of 3 He–α scattering data

We treat low-energy 3 He–α elastic scattering in an effective field theory (EFT) that exploits the separation of scales in this reaction. We compute the amplitude up to next-to-next-to-leading order, developing a hierarchy of the effective-range parameters (ERPs) that contribute at various orders. We use the resulting formalism to analyse data for recent measurements at center-of-mass energies of 0.38–3.12 MeV using the scattering of nuclei in inverse kinematics (SONIK) gas target at TRIUMF as well as older data in this energy regime. We employ a likelihood function that incorporates the theoretical uncertainty due to truncation of the EFT and use Markov chain Monte Carlo sampling to obtain the resulting posterior probability distribution. We find that the inclusion of a small amount of data on the analysing power A y is crucial to determine the sign of the p-wave splitting in such an analysis. Here, the combination of A y and SONIK data constrains all ERPs up to O(p 4 ) in both s- and p-waves quite well. The asymptotic normalisation coefficients and s-wave scattering length are consistent with a recent EFT analysis of the capture reaction 3 He(α, γ) 7 Be.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗

Super periodic potential

Highlights: • Concept of Super Periodic (SPP) potential of arbitrary order is introduced. • Scattering coefficients for arbitrary SPP are calculated in closed form. • Symmetric Fractal potential is derived as a special case of SPP. • Generalized Cantor and Smith–Volterra–Cantor (SVC) potentials are studied as special cases of SPP. • Tunnelling amplitudes for fractal, Cantor and SVC potentials are derived. - Abstract: In this paper we introduce the concept of super periodic potential (SPP) of arbitrary order n, n∈I{sup +}, in one dimension. General theory of wave propagation through SPP of order n is presented and the reflection and transmission coefficients are derived in their closed analytical form by transfer matrix formulation. We present scattering features of super periodic rectangular potential and super periodic delta potential as special cases of SPP. It is found that the symmetric self-similarity is the special case of super periodicity. Thus by identifying a symmetric fractal potential as special cases of SPP, one can obtain the tunnelling amplitude for a particle from such fractal potential. By using the formalism of SPP we obtain the close form expression of tunnelling amplitude of a particle for general Cantor and Smith–Volterra–Cantor potentials.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

Spatiotemporal Evolution of Hanle and Zeeman Synthetic Polarization in a Chromospheric Spectral Line

Due to the quick evolution of the solar chromosphere, its magnetic field cannot be inferred reliably without accounting for the temporal variations of its polarized light. This has been broadly overlooked in the modeling and interpretation of the polarization, due to technical problems (e.g., lack of temporal resolution or of time-dependent MHD solar models) and/or because many polarization measurements can apparently be explained without dynamics. Here, we show that the temporal evolution is critical for explaining the spectral-line scattering polarization because of its sensitivity to rapidly varying physical quantities and the possibility of signal cancellations and attenuation during extended time integration. For studying the combined effect of time-varying magnetic fields and kinematics, we solved the 1.5D non-LTE problem of the second kind in time-dependent 3D R-MHD solar models and synthesized the Hanle and Zeeman polarization in forward scattering for the chromospheric λ 4227 line. We find that the quiet-Sun polarization amplitudes depend on the periodicity and spectral coherence of the signal enhancements produced by kinematics, but that substantially larger linear polarization signals should exist all over the solar disk for short integration times. The spectral morphology of the polarization is discussed as a combination of Hanle, Zeeman, partial redistribution and dynamic effects. We give physical references for observations by degrading and characterizing our slit time series in different spatiotemporal resolutions. The implications of our results for the interpretation of the second solar spectrum and for the investigation of the solar atmospheric heatings are discussed.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Coupled-channel model for K ¯ N scattering in the resonant region

Here, we present a unitary multichannel model for $\bar{K}$N scattering in the resonance region that fulfills unitarity. It has the correct analytical properties for the amplitudes once they are extended to the complex-$s$ plane and the partial waves have the right threshold behavior. In order to determine the parameters of the model, we have fitted single-energy partial waves up to J = 7/2 and up to 2.15 GeV of energy in the center-of-mass reference frame obtaining the poles of the Λ* and Σ* resonances, which are compared to previous analyses. Furthermore, we provide the most comprehensive picture of the S = –1 hyperon spectrum to date. Here, important differences are found between the available analyses making the gathering of further experimental information on $\bar{K}$N scattering mandatory to make progress in the assessment of the hyperon spectrum.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

Ab initio folding potentials for nucleon-nucleus scattering based on no-core shell-model one-body densities

Background: Calculating microscopic optical potentials for elastic nucleon-nucleus scattering has already led to large body of work in the past. For folding first-order calculations the nucleon-nucleon ( NN ) interaction and the one-body density of the nucleus were taken as input to rigorous calculations in a spectator expansion of the multiple scattering series. Purpose: Based on the Watson expansion of the multiple scattering series we employ a nonlocal translationally invariant nuclear density derived from a chiral next-to-next-to-leading order (NNLO) and the very same interaction for consistent full-folding calculation of the effective (optical) potential for nucleon-nucleus scattering for light nuclei. Methods: The first order effective (optical) folding potential is computed by integrating over the nonlocal, translationally invariant NCSM one-body density and the off-shell Wolfenstein amplitudes A and C. The resulting nonlocal potential serves as input for a momentum-space Lippmann-Schwinger equation, whose solutions are summed to obtain the nucleon-nucleus scattering observables. Results: We calculate scattering observables, such as total, reaction, and differential cross sections as well as the analyzing power and the spin-rotation parameter, for elastic scattering of protons and neutrons from 4 He, 6 He, 12 C, and 16 O, in the energy regime between 100 and 200 MeV projectile kinetic energy, and compare to available data. Conclusions: Our calculations show that the effective nucleon-nucleus potential obtained from the first-order term in the spectator expansion of the multiple scattering expansion describes experiments very well to about 60 degrees in the center-of-mass frame, which coincides roughly with the validity of the NNLO chiral interaction used to calculate both the NN amplitudes and the one-body nuclear density.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗

Pion photoproduction in a dynamical coupled-channel model

Pion photoproduction reactions are investigated in a dynamical coupled-channel approach based on the Juelich {pi}N model, which presently includes the hadronic {pi}N and {eta}N stable channels as well as the {pi}{Delta}, {sigma}N and {rho}N effective channels. This model has been quite successful in the description of {pi}N{yields}{pi}N scattering for center-of-mass energies up to 1.9 GeV. The full pion photoproduction amplitude is constructed to satisfy the generalized Ward-Takahashi identity and hence, it is fully gauge invariant. The calculated differential cross sections and photon spin asymmetries up to 1.65 GeV center-of-mass energy for the reactions {gamma}p{yields}{pi}{sup +}n, {gamma}p{yields}{pi}{sup 0}p and {gamma}n{yields}{pi}{sup -}p are in good agreement with the experimental data.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

Microscopic deformation compatibility during monotonic loading in a Mg-Gd-Y alloy

Microscopic deformation compatibility is a key in achieving high ductility in polycrystalline magnesium alloys. This paper presents a grain-level compatibility investigation of Mg-Gd-Y alloy using in-situ tension in scanning electron microscopy (SEM) combined with electron back scattered diffraction (EBSD) and digital image correlation (DIC) techniques. The results show that strain amplitudes are not always higher in grains with high Schmid factors of basal slip. Thus, the Schmid law can hardly predict the strain amplitudes at grain level. In addition, the average intergranular strains are higher than the average intragranular strain and a strong surrounding effect grain-to-grain was found. A slip-transfer parameter m′, describing the surrounding effect, was used to evaluate the deformation compatibility. It is found that a high m′ value and a high Schmid factor of certain slip system in the adjacent grains would result in a good compatibility around grain boundaries and could accommodate higher local strains, which would improve the ductility of magnesium alloys. - Highlights: •Microstructure based DIC analyses have been performed on a Mg-Gd-Y alloy. •Strain amplitudes are higher at grain boundary areas than grain interiors. •Schmid Law is not applicable for predicting the strain amplitudes. •A geometric parameter m′ can effectively evaluate strain.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Topographically Scattered Infrasound Waves Observed on Microbarometer Arrays in the Lower Stratosphere

When an acoustic wave strikes a topographic feature, some of its energy is scattered. Sensors on the ground cannot capture these scattered signals when they propagate at high angles. We report observations of upwardly-scattered acoustic waves prior to refraction back to the ground, intercepting them with a set of balloon-borne infrasound microbarometers in the lower stratosphere over northern Sweden. We show that these scattered waves generate a coda whose presence can be related to topography beneath balloons and low-altitude acoustic ducts. The inclination of the coda signals changes systematically with time, as expected from waves arriving from scatterers successively closer to receivers. The codas are present when a temperature inversion channels infrasound from a set of ground chemical explosions along the ground, but are absent following the inversion's dissipation. Since scattering partitions energy away from the main arrival, these observations imply a mechanism of amplitude loss that had previously been inaccessible to measurement. As such, these data and results allow for a better comprehension of interactions between atmospheric infrasound propagation and the solid earth

58 GEOSCIENCES↗

Phase diagram and spectroscopic signatures of a supersolid in the quantum ising magnet K 2 Co(SeO 3 ) 2

Supersolid phases are quantum-entangled states of matter exhibiting the dual characteristics of superfluidity and solidity. Theory predicts that hard-core bosons on a triangular lattice can form such phases at half filling and near complete filling. Leveraging an exact mapping between bosons and spin-$\frac{1}{2}$ degrees of freedom, here we show that these phases are realized in the triangular-lattice antiferromagnet K 2 Co(SeO 3 ) 2 . At zero field, neutron diffraction reveals the development of quasi-two-dimensional $\sqrt3$ x $\sqrt3$ magnetic order with Z 3 translational symmetry breaking (solidity), though with reduced amplitude indicating strong quantum fluctuations. These fluctuations manifest as equidistant bands of continuum neutron scattering, where the lowest-energy mode is gapless at K ($\frac{1}{3}$ $\frac{1}{3}$), consistent with broken U(1) spin rotational symmetry (superfluidity). For c-axis-oriented magnetic fields near saturation, we find a second phase consistent with a high-field supersolid. These two supersolids are separated by a pronounced 1/3 magnetization plateau phase that supports coherent spin waves, from which we determine the underlying spin Hamiltonian.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗

Detection of atomic force microscopy cantilever displacement with a transmitted electron beam

The response time of an atomic force microscopy (AFM) cantilever can be decreased by reducing cantilever size; however, the fastest AFM cantilevers are currently nearing the smallest size that can be detected with the conventional optical lever approach. Here, we demonstrate an electron beam detection scheme for measuring AFM cantilever oscillations. The oscillating AFM tip is positioned perpendicular to and in the path of a stationary focused nanometer sized electron beam. As the tip oscillates, the thickness of the material under the electron beam changes, causing a fluctuation in the number of scattered transmitted electrons that are detected. We demonstrate detection of sub-nanometer vibration amplitudes with an electron beam, providing a pathway for dynamic AFM with cantilevers that are orders of magnitude smaller and faster than the current state of the art.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗