@article{Baumgaertel2011, author = {Baumg{\"a}rtel, Hellmut}, title = {A Characteristic decay semigroup for the resonances of trace class perturbations with analyticity conditions of semibounded hamiltonians}, series = {International journal of theoretical physic}, volume = {50}, journal = {International journal of theoretical physic}, number = {7}, publisher = {Springer}, address = {New York}, issn = {0020-7748}, doi = {10.1007/s10773-010-0533-9}, pages = {2002 -- 2008}, year = {2011}, abstract = {To asymptotic complete scattering systems {M(+) + V, M(+)} on H(+) := L(2)(R(+), K, d lambda), where M(+) is the multiplication operator on H(+) and V is a trace class operator with analyticity conditions, a decay semigroup is associated such that the spectrum of the generator of this semigroup coincides with the set of all resonances (poles of the analytic continuation of the scattering matrix into the lower half plane across the positive half line), i.e. the decay semigroup yields a "time-dependent" characterization of the resonances. As a counterpart a "spectral characterization" is mentioned which is due to the "eigenvalue-like" properties of resonances.}, language = {en} } @article{AckermannAjelloAllafortetal.2011, author = {Ackermann, Margit and Ajello, M. and Allafort, A. J. and Baldini, L. and Ballet, J. and Barbiellini, G. and Bastieri, D. and Belfiore, A. and Bellazzini, R. and Berenji, B. and Blandford, R. D. and Bloom, E. D. and Bonamente, E. and Borgland, A. W. and Bottacini, E. and Brigida, M. and Bruel, P. and Buehler, R. and Buson, S. and Caliandro, G. A. and Cameron, R. A. and Caraveo, P. A. and Casandjian, J. M. and Cecchi, C. and Chekhtman, A. and Cheung, C. C. and Chiang, J. and Ciprini, S. and Claus, R. and Cohen-Tanugi, J. and de Angelis, A. and de Palma, F. and Dermer, C. D. and do Couto e Silva, E. and Drell, P. S. and Dumora, D. and Favuzzi, C. and Fegan, S. J. and Focke, W. B. and Fortin, P. and Fukazawa, Y. and Fusco, P. and Gargano, F. and Germani, S. and Giglietto, N. and Giordano, F. and Giroletti, M. and Glanzman, T. and Godfrey, G. and Grenier, I. A. and Guillemot, L. and Guiriec, S. and Hadasch, D. and Hanabata, Y. and Harding, A. K. and Hayashida, M. and Hayashi, K. and Hays, E. and Johannesson, G. and Johnson, A. S. and Kamae, T. and Katagiri, H. and Kataoka, J. and Kerr, M. and Knoedlseder, J. and Kuss, M. and Lande, J. and Latronico, L. and Lee, S. -H. and Longo, F. and Loparco, F. and Lott, B. and Lovellette, M. N. and Lubrano, P. and Martin, P. and Mazziotta, Mario Nicola and McEnery, J. E. and Mehault, J. and Michelson, P. F. and Mitthumsiri, W. and Mizuno, T. and Monte, C. and Monzani, M. E. and Morselli, A. and Moskalenko, I. V. and Murgia, S. and Naumann-Godo, M. and Nolan, P. L. and Norris, J. P. and Nuss, E. and Ohsugi, T. and Okumura, A. and Orlando, E. and Ormes, J. F. and Ozaki, M. and Paneque, D. and Parent, D. and Pesce-Rollins, M. and Pierbattista, M. and Piron, F. and Pohl, Martin and Prokhorov, D. and Raino, S. and Rando, R. and Razzano, M. and Reposeur, T. and Ritz, S. and Parkinson, P. M. Saz and Sgro, C. and Siskind, E. J. and Smith, P. D. and Spinelli, P. and Strong, A. W. and Takahashi, H. and Tanaka, T. and Thayer, J. G. and Thayer, J. B. and Thompson, D. J. and Tibaldo, L. and Torres, D. F. and Tosti, G. and Tramacere, A. and Troja, E. and Uchiyama, Y. and Vandenbroucke, J. and Vasileiou, V. and Vianello, G. and Vitale, V. and Waite, A. P. and Wang, P. and Winer, B. L. and Wood, K. S. and Yang, Z. and Zimmer, S. and Bontemps, S.}, title = {A cocoon of freshly accelerated cosmic rays detected by fermi in the cygnus superbubble}, series = {Science}, volume = {334}, journal = {Science}, number = {6059}, publisher = {American Assoc. for the Advancement of Science}, address = {Washington}, issn = {0036-8075}, doi = {10.1126/science.1210311}, pages = {1103 -- 1107}, year = {2011}, abstract = {The origin of Galactic cosmic rays is a century-long puzzle. Indirect evidence points to their acceleration by supernova shockwaves, but we know little of their escape from the shock and their evolution through the turbulent medium surrounding massive stars. Gamma rays can probe their spreading through the ambient gas and radiation fields. The Fermi Large Area Telescope (LAT) has observed the star-forming region of Cygnus X. The 1- to 100-gigaelectronvolt images reveal a 50-parsec-wide cocoon of freshly accelerated cosmic rays that flood the cavities carved by the stellar winds and ionization fronts from young stellar clusters. It provides an example to study the youth of cosmic rays in a superbubble environment before they merge into the older Galactic population.}, language = {en} } @article{FuhrmannSeehaferValorietal.2011, author = {Fuhrmann, Marcel and Seehafer, Norbert and Valori, Gherardo and Wiegelmann, Thomas}, title = {A comparison of preprocessing methods for solar force-free magnetic field extrapolation}, issn = {0004-6361}, year = {2011}, language = {en} } @article{FuhrmannSeehaferValorietal.2011, author = {Fuhrmann, Marcel and Seehafer, Norbert and Valori, Gherardo and Wiegelmann, T.}, title = {A comparison of preprocessing methods for solar force-free magnetic field extrapolation}, series = {Astronomy and astrophysics : an international weekly journal}, volume = {526}, journal = {Astronomy and astrophysics : an international weekly journal}, publisher = {EDP Sciences}, address = {Les Ulis}, issn = {0004-6361}, doi = {10.1051/0004-6361/201015453}, pages = {12}, year = {2011}, abstract = {Context. Extrapolations of solar photospheric vector magnetograms into three-dimensional magnetic fields in the chromosphere and corona are usually done under the assumption that the fields are force-free. This condition is violated in the photosphere itself and a thin layer in the lower atmosphere above. The field calculations can be improved by preprocessing the photospheric magnetograms. The intention here is to remove a non-force-free component from the data. Aims. We compare two preprocessing methods presently in use, namely the methods of Wiegelmann et al. (2006, Sol. Phys., 233, 215) and Fuhrmann et al. (2007, A\&A, 476, 349). Methods. The two preprocessing methods were applied to a vector magnetogram of the recently observed active region NOAA AR 10 953. We examine the changes in the magnetogram effected by the two preprocessing algorithms. Furthermore, the original magnetogram and the two preprocessed magnetograms were each used as input data for nonlinear force-free field extrapolations by means of two different methods, and we analyze the resulting fields. Results. Both preprocessing methods managed to significantly decrease the magnetic forces and magnetic torques that act through the magnetogram area and that can cause incompatibilities with the assumption of force-freeness in the solution domain. The force and torque decrease is stronger for the Fuhrmann et al. method. Both methods also reduced the amount of small-scale irregularities in the observed photospheric field, which can sharply worsen the quality of the solutions. For the chosen parameter set, the Wiegelmann et al. method led to greater changes in strong-field areas, leaving weak-field areas mostly unchanged, and thus providing an approximation of the magnetic field vector in the chromosphere, while the Fuhrmann et al. method weakly changed the whole magnetogram, thereby better preserving patterns present in the original magnetogram. Both preprocessing methods raised the magnetic energy content of the extrapolated fields to values above the minimum energy, corresponding to the potential field. Also, the fields calculated from the preprocessed magnetograms fulfill the solenoidal condition better than those calculated without preprocessing.}, language = {en} } @article{MasanesMueller2011, author = {Masanes, Lluis and M{\"u}ller, Markus P.}, title = {A derivation of quantum theory from physical requirements}, series = {New journal of physics : the open-access journal for physics}, volume = {13}, journal = {New journal of physics : the open-access journal for physics}, number = {1}, publisher = {IOP Publ. Ltd.}, address = {Bristol}, issn = {1367-2630}, doi = {10.1088/1367-2630/13/6/063001}, pages = {29}, year = {2011}, abstract = {Quantum theory (QT) is usually formulated in terms of abstract mathematical postulates involving Hilbert spaces, state vectors and unitary operators. In this paper, we show that the full formalism of QT can instead be derived from five simple physical requirements, based on elementary assumptions regarding preparations, transformations and measurements. This is very similar to the usual formulation of special relativity, where two simple physical requirements-the principles of relativity and light speed invariance-are used to derive the mathematical structure of Minkowski space-time. Our derivation provides insights into the physical origin of the structure of quantum state spaces (including a group-theoretic explanation of the Bloch ball and its three dimensionality) and suggests several natural possibilities to construct consistent modifications of QT.}, language = {en} } @article{BelovaShchukinGorinetal.2011, author = {Belova, Valentina and Shchukin, Dmitry G. and Gorin, Dmitry A. and Kopyshev, Alexey and Moehwald, Helmuth}, title = {A new approach to nucleation of cavitation bubbles at chemically modified surfaces}, series = {Physical chemistry, chemical physics : a journal of European Chemical Societies}, volume = {13}, journal = {Physical chemistry, chemical physics : a journal of European Chemical Societies}, number = {17}, publisher = {Royal Society of Chemistry}, address = {Cambridge}, issn = {1463-9076}, doi = {10.1039/c1cp20218a}, pages = {8015 -- 8023}, year = {2011}, abstract = {Cavitation at the solid surface normally begins with nucleation, in which defects or assembled molecules located at a liquid-solid interface act as nucleation centers and are actively involved in the evolution of cavitation bubbles. Here, we propose a simple approach to evaluate the behavior of cavitation bubbles formed under high intensity ultrasound (20 kHz, 51.3 W cm (2)) at solid surfaces, based on sonication of patterned substrates with a small roughness (less than 3 nm) and controllable surface energy. A mixture of octadecylphosphonic acid (ODTA) and octadecanethiol (ODT) was stamped on the Si wafer coated with different thicknesses of an aluminium layer (20-500 nm). We investigated the growth mechanism of cavitation bubble nuclei and the evolution of individual pits (defects) formed under sonication on the modified surface. A new activation behavior as a function of Al thickness, sonication time, ultrasonic power and temperature is reported. In this process cooperativity is introduced, as initially formed pits further reduce the energy to form bubbles. Furthermore, cavitation on the patterns is a controllable process, where up to 40-50 min of sonication time only the hydrophobic areas are active nucleation sites. This study provides a convincing proof of our theoretical approach on nucleation.}, language = {en} } @article{MannYoungFuuentesSchuller2011, author = {Mann, R. B. and Young, M. B. and Fu{\"u}ntes-Schuller, I.}, title = {A perturbative approach to inelastic collisions in a Bose-Einstein condensate}, series = {Journal of physics : B, Atomic, molecular and optical physics}, volume = {44}, journal = {Journal of physics : B, Atomic, molecular and optical physics}, number = {8}, publisher = {IOP Publ. Ltd.}, address = {Bristol}, issn = {0953-4075}, doi = {10.1088/0953-4075/44/8/085301}, pages = {17}, year = {2011}, abstract = {It has recently been discovered that for certain rates of mode-exchange collisions analytic solutions can be found for a Hamiltonian describing the two-mode Bose-Einstein condensate. We proceed to study the behaviour of the system using perturbation theory if the coupling constants only approximately match these parameter constraints. We find that the model is robust to such perturbations. We study the effects of degeneracy on the perturbations and find that the induced changes differ greatly from the non-degenerate case. We also model inelastic collisions that result in particle loss or condensate decay as external perturbations and use this formalism to examine the effects of three-body recombination and background collisions.}, language = {en} } @article{PostbergSchmidtHillieretal.2011, author = {Postberg, Frank and Schmidt, J. and Hillier, J. and Kempf, Sascha and Srama, Ralf}, title = {A salt-water reservoir as the source of a compositionally stratified plume on Enceladus}, series = {Nature : the international weekly journal of science}, volume = {474}, journal = {Nature : the international weekly journal of science}, number = {7353}, publisher = {Nature Publ. Group}, address = {London}, issn = {0028-0836}, doi = {10.1038/nature10175}, pages = {620 -- 622}, year = {2011}, abstract = {The discovery of a plume of water vapour and ice particles emerging from warm fractures ('tiger stripes') in Saturn's small, icy moon Enceladus(1-6) raised the question of whether the plume emerges from a subsurface liquid source(6-8) or from the decomposition of ice(9-12). Previous compositional analyses of particles injected by the plume into Saturn's diffuse E ring have already indicated the presence of liquid water(8), but the mechanisms driving the plume emission are still debated(13). Here we report an analysis of the composition of freshly ejected particles close to the sources. Salt-rich ice particles are found to dominate the total mass flux of ejected solids (more than 99 per cent) but they are depleted in the population escaping into Saturn's E ring. Ice grains containing organic compounds are found to be more abundant in dense parts of the plume. Whereas previous Cassini observations were compatible with a variety of plume formation mechanisms, these data eliminate or severely constrain non-liquid models and strongly imply that a salt-water reservoir with a large evaporating surface(7,8) provides nearly all of the matter in the plume.}, language = {en} } @article{BeyeFoehlisch2011, author = {Beye, Martin and F{\"o}hlisch, Alexander}, title = {A soft X-ray approach to electron-phonon interactions beyond the Born-Oppenheimer approximation}, series = {Journal of electron spectroscopy and related phenomena : the international journal on theoretical and experimental aspects of electron spectroscopy}, volume = {184}, journal = {Journal of electron spectroscopy and related phenomena : the international journal on theoretical and experimental aspects of electron spectroscopy}, number = {3-6}, publisher = {Elsevier}, address = {Amsterdam}, issn = {0368-2048}, doi = {10.1016/j.elspec.2010.12.032}, pages = {313 -- 317}, year = {2011}, abstract = {With modern soft X-ray methods, the whole field of electron-phonon interactions becomes accessible directly in the ultrafast time domain with ultrashort pulsed X-ray sources, as well as in the energy domain through modern highly resolving spectrometers. The well-known core-hole clock approach plays an intermediate role, resolving energetic and temporal features at the same time. In this perspective paper, we review several experiments to illustrate the modern advances in the selective study of electron-phonon interactions as fundamentally determining ingredients for materials properties. We present the different complementary approaches that can be taken with soft X-ray methods to conquer this field beyond the Born-Oppenheimer approximation.}, language = {en} } @article{GogolinMuellerEisert2011, author = {Gogolin, Christian and M{\"u}ller, Markus P. and Eisert, Jens}, title = {Absence of thermalization in nonintegrable systems}, series = {Physical review letters}, volume = {106}, journal = {Physical review letters}, number = {4}, publisher = {American Physical Society}, address = {College Park}, issn = {0031-9007}, doi = {10.1103/PhysRevLett.106.040401}, pages = {4}, year = {2011}, abstract = {We establish a link between unitary relaxation dynamics after a quench in closed many-body systems and the entanglement in the energy eigenbasis. We find that even if reduced states equilibrate, they can have memory on the initial conditions even in certain models that are far from integrable. We show that in such situations the equilibrium states are still described by a maximum entropy or generalized Gibbs ensemble, regardless of whether a model is integrable or not, thereby contributing to a recent debate. In addition, we discuss individual aspects of the thermalization process, comment on the role of Anderson localization, and collect and compare different notions of integrability.}, language = {en} } @article{TepperGarciaRichterSchayeetal.2011, author = {Tepper-Garcia, Thorsten and Richter, Philipp and Schaye, Joop and Booth, C. M. and Vecchia, Claudio Dalla and Theuns, Tom and Wiersma, Robert P. C.}, title = {Absorption signatures of warm-hot gas at low redshift o vi}, series = {Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society}, volume = {413}, journal = {Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society}, number = {1}, publisher = {Wiley-Blackwell}, address = {Hoboken}, issn = {0035-8711}, doi = {10.1111/j.1365-2966.2010.18123.x}, pages = {190 -- 212}, year = {2011}, abstract = {We investigate the origin and physical properties of O vi absorbers at low redshift (z = 0.25) using a subset of cosmological, hydrodynamical simulations from the OverWhelmingly Large Simulations (OWLS) project. Intervening O vi absorbers are believed to trace shock-heated gas in the warm-hot intergalactic medium (WHIM) and may thus play a key role in the search for the missing baryons in the present-day Universe. When compared to observations, the predicted distributions of the different O vi line parameters (column density, Doppler parameter, rest equivalent width W-r) from our simulations exhibit a lack of strong O vi absorbers, a discrepancy that has also been found by Oppenheimer \& Dave. This suggests that physical processes on subgrid scales (e.g. turbulence) may strongly influence the observed properties of O vi systems. We find that the intervening O vi absorption arises mainly in highly metal enriched (10-1 < Z/Z(circle dot) less than or similar to 1) gas at typical overdensities of 1 < /<<>> less than or similar to 102. One-third of the O vi absorbers in our simulation are found to trace gas at temperatures T < 105 K, while the rest arises in gas at higher temperatures, most of them around T = 105.3 +/- 0.5 K. These temperatures are much higher than inferred by Oppenheimer \& Dave, probably because that work did not take the suppression of metal-line cooling by the photoionizing background radiation into account. While the O vi resides in a similar region of (, T)-space as much of the shock-heated baryonic matter, the vast majority of this gas has a lower metal content and does not give rise to detectable O vi absorption. As a consequence of the patchy metal distribution, O vi absorbers in our simulations trace only a very small fraction of the cosmic baryons (< 2 per cent) and the cosmic metals. Instead, these systems presumably trace previously shock-heated, metal-rich material from galactic winds that is now mixing with the ambient gas and cooling. The common approach of comparing O vi and H i column densities to estimate the physical conditions in intervening absorbers from QSO observations may be misleading, as most of the H i (and most of the gas mass) is not physically connected with the high-metallicity patches that give rise to the O vi absorption.}, language = {en} } @article{JordanMcCarthySchleppleetal.2011, author = {Jordan, Grace and McCarthy, Denis N. and Schlepple, N. and Krissler, Jan and Schroeder, H. and Kofod, Guggi}, title = {Actuated micro-optical submount using a dielectric elastomer actuator}, series = {IEEE ASME transactions on mechatronics}, volume = {16}, journal = {IEEE ASME transactions on mechatronics}, number = {1}, publisher = {Inst. of Electr. and Electronics Engineers}, address = {Piscataway}, issn = {1083-4435}, doi = {10.1109/TMECH.2010.2089991}, pages = {98 -- 102}, year = {2011}, abstract = {Analysis of the operating characteristics of a dielectric elastomer actuator (DEA) submount for the high-precision positioning of optical components in one dimension is presented. Precise alignment of a single-mode fiber is demonstrated and variation of the sensitivity of the submount motion by changing the bias voltage is confirmed. A comparison of the performance of the DEA submount with a piezoelectric alignment stage is made, which demonstrates that DEAs could present a very attractive, low-cost alternative to currently used manual technologies in overcoming the hurdle of expensive packaging of single-mode optical components.}, language = {en} } @article{TownsleyBroosCorcoranetal.2011, author = {Townsley, Leisa K. and Broos, Patrick S. and Corcoran, Michael F. and Feigelson, Eric D. and Gagne, Marc and Montmerle, Thierry and Oey, M. S. and Smith, Nathan and Garmire, Gordon P. and Getman, Konstantin V. and Povich, Matthew S. and Evans, Nancy Remage and Naze, Yael and Parkin, E. R. and Preibisch, Thomas and Wang, Junfeng and Wou, Scott J. and Chu, You-Hua and Cohen, David H. and Gruendl, Robert A. and Hamaguchi, Kenji and King, Robert R. and Mac Low, Mordecai-Mark and McCaughrean, Mark J. and Moffat, Anthony F. J. and Oskinova, Lida and Pittard, Julian M. and Stassun, Keivan G. and Ud-Doula, Asif and Walborn, Nolan R. and Waldron, Wayne L. and Churchwell, Ed and Nictiols, J. S. and Owocki, Stanley P. and Schulz, Norbert S.}, title = {An introduction to the chandra carina complex project}, series = {The astrophysical journal : an international review of spectroscopy and astronomical physics ; Supplement series}, volume = {194}, journal = {The astrophysical journal : an international review of spectroscopy and astronomical physics ; Supplement series}, number = {1}, publisher = {IOP Publ. Ltd.}, address = {Bristol}, issn = {0067-0049}, doi = {10.1088/0067-0049/194/1/1}, pages = {28}, year = {2011}, abstract = {The Great Nebula in Carina provides an exceptional view into the violent massive star formation and feedback that typifies giant H II regions and starburst galaxies. We have mapped the Carina star-forming complex in X-rays, using archival Chandra data and a mosaic of 20 new 60 ks pointings using the Chandra X-ray Observatory's Advanced CCD Imaging Spectrometer, as a testbed for understanding recent and ongoing star formation and to probe Carina's regions of bright diffuse X-ray emission. This study has yielded a catalog of properties of > 14,000 X-ray point sources;> 9800 of them have multiwavelength counterparts. Using Chandra's unsurpassed X-ray spatial resolution, we have separated these point sources from the extensive, spatially-complex diffuse emission that pervades the region; X-ray properties of this diffuse emission suggest that it traces feedback from Carina's massive stars. In this introductory paper, we motivate the survey design, describe the Chandra observations, and present some simple results, providing a foundation for the 15 papers that follow in this special issue and that present detailed catalogs, methods, and science results.}, language = {en} } @article{ZakharovaKurthsVadivasovaetal.2011, author = {Zakharova, Anna and Kurths, J{\"u}rgen and Vadivasova, Tatyana and Koseska, Aneta}, title = {Analysing dynamical behavior of cellular networks via stochastic bifurcations}, series = {PLoS one}, volume = {6}, journal = {PLoS one}, number = {5}, publisher = {PLoS}, address = {San Fransisco}, issn = {1932-6203}, doi = {10.1371/journal.pone.0019696}, pages = {12}, year = {2011}, abstract = {The dynamical structure of genetic networks determines the occurrence of various biological mechanisms, such as cellular differentiation. However, the question of how cellular diversity evolves in relation to the inherent stochasticity and intercellular communication remains still to be understood. Here, we define a concept of stochastic bifurcations suitable to investigate the dynamical structure of genetic networks, and show that under stochastic influence, the expression of given proteins of interest is defined via the probability distribution of the phase variable, representing one of the genes constituting the system. Moreover, we show that under changing stochastic conditions, the probabilities of expressing certain concentration values are different, leading to different functionality of the cells, and thus to differentiation of the cells in the various types.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Mielke2011, author = {Mielke, Moritz}, title = {Atmosph{\"a}rische Prozesstudien auf der Basis von Beobachtungen und regionalen Klimamodellsimulationen in der Arktis}, address = {Potsdam}, pages = {130 S.}, year = {2011}, language = {de} } @article{LangeBlakesleyFrischetal.2011, author = {Lange, Ilja and Blakesley, James C. and Frisch, Johannes and Vollmer, Antje and Koch, Norbert and Neher, Dieter}, title = {Band bending in conjugated polymer layers}, series = {Physical review letters}, volume = {106}, journal = {Physical review letters}, number = {21}, publisher = {American Physical Society}, address = {College Park}, issn = {0031-9007}, doi = {10.1103/PhysRevLett.106.216402}, pages = {4}, year = {2011}, abstract = {We use the Kelvin probe method to study the energy-level alignment of four conjugated polymers deposited on various electrodes. Band bending is observed in all polymers when the substrate work function exceeds critical values. Through modeling, we show that the band bending is explained by charge transfer from the electrodes into a small density of states that extends several hundred meV into the band gap. The energetic spread of these states is correlated with charge-carrier mobilities, suggesting that the same states also govern charge transport in the bulk of these polymers.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Schewe2011, author = {Schewe, Jacob}, title = {Basic physical mechanisms for monsoon failure in past and future climate}, address = {Potsdam}, pages = {135 S.}, year = {2011}, language = {en} } @article{QiuWirgesGerhard2011, author = {Qiu, Xunlin and Wirges, Werner and Gerhard, Reimund}, title = {Beneficial and detrimental fatigue effects of dielectric barrier discharges on the piezoelectricity of polypropylene ferroelectrets}, series = {Journal of applied physics}, volume = {110}, journal = {Journal of applied physics}, number = {2}, publisher = {American Institute of Physics}, address = {Melville}, issn = {0021-8979}, doi = {10.1063/1.3610507}, pages = {8}, year = {2011}, abstract = {Cellular polypropylene (PP) ferroelectrets combine a large piezoelectricity with mechanical flexibility and elastic compliance. Their charging process represents a series of dielectric barrier discharges (DBDs) that generate a cold plasma with numerous active species and thus modify the inner polymer surfaces of the foam cells. Both the threshold for the onset of DBDs and the piezoelectricity of ferroelectrets are sensitive to repeated DBDs in the voids. It is found that the threshold voltage is approximately halved and the charging efficiency is clearly improved after only 10(3) DBD cycles. However, plasma modification of the inner surfaces from repeated DBDs deteriorates the chargeability of the voids, leading to a significant reduction of the piezoelectricity in ferroelectrets. After a significant waiting period, the chargeability of previously fatigued voids shows a partial recovery. The plasma modification is, however, detrimental to the stability of the deposited charges and thus also of the macroscopic dipoles and of the piezoelectricity. Fatigue from only 10(3) DBD cycles already results in significantly less stable piezoelectricity in cellular PP ferroelectrets. The fatigue rate as a function of the number of voltage cycles follows a stretched exponential. Fatigue from repeated DBDs can be avoided if most of the gas molecules inside the voids are removed via a suitable evacuation process.}, language = {en} } @article{SchiefeleHenkel2011, author = {Schiefele, Juergen and Henkel, Carsten}, title = {Bosonic enhancement of spontaneous emission near an interface}, series = {Modern physics letters : A, Particles and fields, gravitation, cosmology, nuclear physics}, volume = {375}, journal = {Modern physics letters : A, Particles and fields, gravitation, cosmology, nuclear physics}, number = {3}, publisher = {Elsevier}, address = {Amsterdam}, issn = {0375-9601}, doi = {10.1016/j.physleta.2010.11.058}, pages = {680 -- 684}, year = {2011}, abstract = {We show how the spontaneous emission rate of an excited two-level atom placed in a trapped Bose-Einstein condensate of ground-state atoms is enhanced by bosonic stimulation. This stimulation depends on the overlap of the excited matter-wave packet with the macroscopically occupied condensate wave function, and provides a probe of the spatial coherence of the Bose gas. The effect can be used to amplify the distance-dependent decay rate of an excited atom near an interface.}, language = {en} } @article{MellingerMellinger2011, author = {Mellinger, Axel and Mellinger, Olena}, title = {Breakdown threshold of dielectric barrier discharges in ferroelectrets where Paschen's law fails}, series = {IEEE transactions on dielectrics and electrical insulation}, volume = {18}, journal = {IEEE transactions on dielectrics and electrical insulation}, number = {1}, publisher = {Inst. of Electr. and Electronics Engineers}, address = {Piscataway}, issn = {1070-9878}, doi = {10.1109/TDEI.2011.5704491}, pages = {43 -- 48}, year = {2011}, abstract = {The piezoelectric activity of charged cellular foams (so-called ferroelectrets) is compared against simulations based on a multi-layer electromechanical model and Townsend's model of Paschen breakdown, with the distribution of void heights determined from scanning electron micrographs. While the calculated space charge hysteresis curves are in good agreement with experimental data, the onset of piezoelectric activity is observed at significantly higher electric fields than predicted by Paschen's law. One likely explanation is that the commonly accepted Paschen curve for electric breakdown in air poorly describes the critical electric field for dielectric barrier discharges in micrometer-size cavities.}, language = {en} }