TY - JOUR A1 - Yadavalli, Nataraja Sekhar A1 - Saphiannikova, Marina A1 - Lomadze, Nino A1 - Goldenberg, Leonid M. A1 - Santer, Svetlana T1 - Structuring of photosensitive material below diffraction limit using far field irradiation JF - Applied physics : A, Materials science & processing N2 - In this paper, we report on in-situ atomic force microscopy (AFM) studies of topographical changes in azobenzene-containing photosensitive polymer films that are irradiated with light interference patterns. We have developed an experimental setup consisting of an AFM combined with two-beam interferometry that permits us to switch between different polarization states of the two interfering beams while scanning the illuminated area of the polymer film, acquiring corresponding changes in topography in-situ. This way, we are able to analyze how the change in topography is related to the variation of the electrical field vector within the interference pattern. It is for the first time that with a rather simple experimental approach a rigorous assignment can be achieved. By performing in-situ measurements we found that for a certain polarization combination of two interfering beams [namely for the SP (a dagger center dot, a dagger") polarization pattern] the topography forms surface relief grating with only half the period of the interference patterns. Exploiting this phenomenon we are able to fabricate surface relief structures with characteristic features measuring only 140 nm, by using far field optics with a wavelength of 491 nm. We believe that this relatively simple method could be extremely valuable to, for instance, produce structural features below the diffraction limit at high-throughput, and this could significantly contribute to the search of new fabrication strategies in electronics and photonics industry. Y1 - 2013 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1007/s00339-013-7945-3 SN - 0947-8396 SN - 1432-0630 VL - 113 IS - 2 SP - 263 EP - 272 PB - Springer CY - New York ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Yadavalli, Nataraja Sekhar A1 - Santer, Svetlana T1 - In-situ atomic force microscopy study of the mechanism of surface relief grating formation in photosensitive polymer films JF - Journal of applied physics N2 - When photosensitive azobenzene-containing polymer films are irradiated with light interference patterns, topographic variations in the film develop that follow the local distribution of the electric field vector. The exact correspondence of e.g., the vector orientation in relation to the presence of local topographic minima or maxima is in general difficult to determine. Here, we report on a systematic procedure how this can be accomplished. For this, we devise a new set-up combining an atomic force microscope and two-beam interferometry. With this set-up, it is possible to track the topography change in-situ, while at the same time changing polarization and phase of the impinging interference pattern. This is the first time that an absolute correspondence between the local distribution of electric field vectors and the local topography of the relief grating could be established exhaustively. Our setup does not require a complex mathematical post-processing and its simplicity renders it interesting for characterizing photosensitive polymer films in general. Y1 - 2013 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4809640 SN - 0021-8979 SN - 1089-7550 VL - 113 IS - 22 PB - American Institute of Physics CY - Melville ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Yadavalli, Nataraja Sekhar A1 - Linde, Felix A1 - Kopyshev, Alexey A1 - Santer, Svetlana T1 - Soft matter beats hard matter - rupturing of thin metallic films induced by mass transport in photosensitive polymer films JF - ACS applied materials & interfaces N2 - The interface between thin films of metal and polymer materials play a significant role in modern flexible microelectronics viz., metal contacts on polymer substrates, printed electronics and prosthetic devices. The major emphasis in metal polymer interface is on studying how the externally applied stress in the polymer substrate leads to the deformation and cracks in metal film and vice versa. Usually, the deformation process involves strains varying over large lateral dimensions because of excessive stress at local imperfections. Here we show that the seemingly random phenomena at macroscopic scales can be rendered rather controllable at submicrometer length scales. Recently, we have created a metal polymer interface system with strains varying over periods of several hundred nanometers. This was achieved by exploiting the formation of surface relief grating (SRG) within the azobenzene containing photosensitive polymer film upon irradiation with light interference pattern. Up to a thickness of 60 nm, the adsorbed metal film adapts neatly to the forming relief, until it ultimately ruptures into an array of stripes by formation of highly regular and uniform cracks along the maxima and minima of the polymer topography. This surprising phenomenon has far-reaching implications. This is the first time a direct probe is available to estimate the forces emerging in SRG formation in glassy polymers. Furthermore, crack formation in thin metal films can be studied literally in slow motion, which could lead to substantial improvements in the design process of flexible electronics. Finally, cracks are produced uniformly and at high density, contrary to common sense. This could offer new strategies for precise nanofabrication procedures mechanical in character. KW - metal/polymer interface KW - rupturing of metal film KW - forces generated during surface relief grating formation KW - in situ atomic force microscopy KW - azobenzene KW - two beam interferometry Y1 - 2013 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1021/am4006132w SN - 1944-8244 VL - 5 IS - 16 SP - 7743 EP - 7747 PB - American Chemical Society CY - Washington ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Westendorf, Christian A1 - Negrete, Jose A1 - Bae, Albert J. A1 - Sandmann, Rabea A1 - Bodenschatz, Eberhard A1 - Beta, Carsten T1 - Actin cytoskeleton of chemotactic amoebae operates close to the onset of oscillations JF - Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America N2 - The rapid reorganization of the actin cytoskeleton in response to external stimuli is an essential property of many motile eukaryotic cells. Here, we report evidence that the actin machinery of chemotactic Dictyostelium cells operates close to an oscillatory instability. When averaging the actin response of many cells to a short pulse of the chemoattractant cAMP, we observed a transient accumulation of cortical actin reminiscent of a damped oscillation. At the single-cell level, however, the response dynamics ranged from short, strongly damped responses to slowly decaying, weakly damped oscillations. Furthermore, in a small subpopulation, we observed self-sustained oscillations in the cortical F-actin concentration. To substantiate that an oscillatory mechanism governs the actin dynamics in these cells, we systematically exposed a large number of cells to periodic pulse trains of different frequencies. Our results indicate a resonance peak at a stimulation period of around 20 s. We propose a delayed feedback model that explains our experimental findings based on a time-delay in the regulatory network of the actin system. To test the model, we performed stimulation experiments with cells that express GFP-tagged fusion proteins of Coronin and actin-interacting protein 1, as well as knockout mutants that lack Coronin and actin-interacting protein 1. These actin-binding proteins enhance the disassembly of actin filaments and thus allow us to estimate the delay time in the regulatory feedback loop. Based on this independent estimate, our model predicts an intrinsic period of 20 s, which agrees with the resonance observed in our periodic stimulation experiments. KW - Dictyostelium discoideum KW - microfluidics KW - caged cAMP KW - delay-differential equation Y1 - 2013 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1216629110 SN - 0027-8424 VL - 110 IS - 10 SP - 3853 EP - 3858 PB - National Acad. of Sciences CY - Washington ER - TY - THES A1 - Wechakama, Maneenate T1 - Multi-messenger constraints and pressure from dark matter annihilation into electron-positron pairs T1 - Multi-Messenger-Grenzen und Druck von Dunkler Materie-Annihilation in Elektron-Positron-Paaren N2 - Despite striking evidence for the existence of dark matter from astrophysical observations, dark matter has still escaped any direct or indirect detection until today. Therefore a proof for its existence and the revelation of its nature belongs to one of the most intriguing challenges of nowadays cosmology and particle physics. The present work tries to investigate the nature of dark matter through indirect signatures from dark matter annihilation into electron-positron pairs in two different ways, pressure from dark matter annihilation and multi-messenger constraints on the dark matter annihilation cross-section. We focus on dark matter annihilation into electron-positron pairs and adopt a model-independent approach, where all the electrons and positrons are injected with the same initial energy E_0 ~ m_dm*c^2. The propagation of these particles is determined by solving the diffusion-loss equation, considering inverse Compton scattering, synchrotron radiation, Coulomb collisions, bremsstrahlung, and ionization. The first part of this work, focusing on pressure from dark matter annihilation, demonstrates that dark matter annihilation into electron-positron pairs may affect the observed rotation curve by a significant amount. The injection rate of this calculation is constrained by INTEGRAL, Fermi, and H.E.S.S. data. The pressure of the relativistic electron-positron gas is computed from the energy spectrum predicted by the diffusion-loss equation. For values of the gas density and magnetic field that are representative of the Milky Way, it is estimated that the pressure gradients are strong enough to balance gravity in the central parts if E_0 < 1 GeV. The exact value depends somewhat on the astrophysical parameters, and it changes dramatically with the slope of the dark matter density profile. For very steep slopes, as those expected from adiabatic contraction, the rotation curves of spiral galaxies would be affected on kiloparsec scales for most values of E_0. By comparing the predicted rotation curves with observations of dwarf and low surface brightness galaxies, we show that the pressure from dark matter annihilation may improve the agreement between theory and observations in some cases, but it also imposes severe constraints on the model parameters (most notably, the inner slope of the halo density profile, as well as the mass and the annihilation cross-section of dark matter particles into electron-positron pairs). In the second part, upper limits on the dark matter annihilation cross-section into electron-positron pairs are obtained by combining observed data at different wavelengths (from Haslam, WMAP, and Fermi all-sky intensity maps) with recent measurements of the electron and positron spectra in the solar neighbourhood by PAMELA, Fermi, and H.E.S.S.. We consider synchrotron emission in the radio and microwave bands, as well as inverse Compton scattering and final-state radiation at gamma-ray energies. For most values of the model parameters, the tightest constraints are imposed by the local positron spectrum and synchrotron emission from the central regions of the Galaxy. According to our results, the annihilation cross-section should not be higher than the canonical value for a thermal relic if the mass of the dark matter candidate is smaller than a few GeV. In addition, we also derive a stringent upper limit on the inner logarithmic slope α of the density profile of the Milky Way dark matter halo (α < 1 if m_dm < 5 GeV, α < 1.3 if m_dm < 100 GeV and α < 1.5 if m_dm < 2 TeV) assuming a dark matter annihilation cross-section into electron-positron pairs (σv) = 3*10^−26 cm^3 s^−1, as predicted for thermal relics from the big bang. N2 - Trotz vieler Hinweise auf die Existenz von dunkler Materie durch astrophysikalische Beobachtungen hat sich die dunkle Materie bis heute einem direkten oder indirekten Nachweis entzogen. Daher gehrt der Nachweis ihrer Existenz und die Enthüllung ihrer Natur zu einem der faszinierensten Herausforderungen der heutigen Kosmologie und Teilchenphysik. Diese Arbeit versucht die Natur von dunkler Materie durch indirekte Signaturen von der Paarzerstrahlung dunkler Materie in Elektron-Positronpaare auf zwei verschiedene Weisen zu untersuchen, nämlich anhand des Drucks durch die Paarzerstrahlung dunkler Materie und durch Grenzen des Wirkungsquerschnitts für die Paarzerstrahlung dunkler Materie aus verschiedenen Beobachtungsbereichen. Wir konzentrieren uns dabei auf die Zerstrahlung dunkler Materie in Elektron-Positron-Paare und betrachten einen modellunabhängigen Fall, bei dem alle Elektronen und Positronen mit der gleichen Anfangsenergie E_0 ~ m_dm*c^2 injiziert werden. Die Fortbewegung dieser Teilchen wird dabei bestimmt durch die Lösung der Diffusions-Verlust-Gleichung unter Berücksichtigung von inverser Compton-Streuung, Synchrotronstrahlung, Coulomb-Streuung, Bremsstrahlung und Ionisation. Der erste Teil dieser Arbeit zeigt, dass die Zerstrahlung dunkler Materie in Elektron-Positron-Paare die gemessene Rotationskurve signifikant beeinflussen kann. Die Produktionsrate ist dabei durch Daten von INTEGRAL, Fermi und H.E.S.S. begrenzt. Der Druck des relativistischen Elektron-Positron Gases wird aus dem Energiespektrum errechnet, welches durch die Diffusions-Verlust-Gleichung bestimmt ist. Für Werte der Gasdichte und des magnetischen Feldes, welche für unsere Galaxie repräsentativ sind, lässt sich abschätzen, dass für E_0 < 1 GeV die Druckgradienten stark genug sind, um Gravitationskräfte auszugleichen. Die genauen Werte hängen von den verwendeten astrophysikalischen Parametern ab, und sie ändern sich stark mit dem Anstieg des dunklen Materie-Profils. Für sehr große Anstiege, wie sie für adiabatische Kontraktion erwartet werden, werden die Rotationskurven von Spiralgalaxien auf Skalen von einegen Kiloparsek für die meisten Werte von E_0 beeinflusst. Durch Vergleich der erwarteten Rotationskurven mit Beobachtungen von Zwerggalaxien und Galaxien geringer Oberflächentemperatur zeigen wir, dass der Druck von Zerstrahlung dunkler Materie die Übereinstimmung von Theorie und Beobachtung in einigen Fällen verbessern kann. Aber daraus resultieren auch starke Grenzen für die Modellparameter - vor allem für den inneren Anstieg des Halo-Dichteprofils, sowie die Masse und den Wirkungsquerschnitt der dunklen Materie-Teilchen. Im zweiten Teil werden obere Grenzen für die Wirkungsquerschnitte der Zerstrahlung der dunkler Materie in Elektron-Positron-Paare erhalten, indem die beobachteten Daten bei unterschiedlichen Wellenlängen (von Haslam, WMAP und Fermi) mit aktuellen Messungen von Elektron-Positron Spektren in der solaren Nachbarschaft durch PAMELA, Fermi und H.E.S.S. kombiniert werden. Wir betrachten Synchrotronemission bei Radiound Mikrowellenfrequenzen, sowie inverse Compton-Streuung und Final-State-Strahlung bei Energien im Bereich der Gamma-Strahlung. Für die meisten Werte der Modellparameter werden die stärksten Schranken durch das lokale Positron-Spektrum und die Synchrotronemission im Zentrum unser Galaxie bestimmt. Nach diesen Ergebnissen sollte der Wirkungsquerschnitt für die Paarzerstrahlung nicht größer als der kanonische Wert für thermische Relikte sein, wenn die Masse der dunklen Materie-Kandidaten kleiner als einige GeV ist. Zusätzlich leiten wir eine obere Grenze für den inneren logarithmische Anstieg α des Dichteprofiles des dunklen Materie Halos unserer Galaxie ab. KW - dunkle Materie KW - Astroteilchenphysik KW - Strahlung Mechanismen KW - Galaxy Struktur KW - Rotationskurven KW - dark matter KW - astroparticle physics KW - radiation mechanisms KW - galaxy structure KW - rotation curves Y1 - 2013 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-67401 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Vlasov, Vladimir A1 - Pikovskij, Arkadij T1 - Synchronization of a Josephson junction array in terms of global variables JF - Physical review : E, Statistical, nonlinear and soft matter physics N2 - We consider an array of Josephson junctions with a common LCR load. Application of the Watanabe-Strogatz approach [Physica D 74, 197 (1994)] allows us to formulate the dynamics of the array via the global variables only. For identical junctions this is a finite set of equations, analysis of which reveals the regions of bistability of the synchronous and asynchronous states. For disordered arrays with distributed parameters of the junctions, the problem is formulated as an integro-differential equation for the global variables; here stability of the asynchronous states and the properties of the transition synchrony-asynchrony are established numerically. Y1 - 2013 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevE.88.022908 SN - 1539-3755 VL - 88 IS - 2 PB - American Physical Society CY - College Park ER - TY - THES A1 - Verma, Meetu T1 - The evolution and decay of sunspots : a hight-resolution study of flows and magnetic fields in and around sunspots Y1 - 2013 CY - Potsdam ER - TY - JOUR A1 - van Loon, J. Th. A1 - Bailey, M. A1 - Tatton, B. L. A1 - Apellaniz, Jesus Maiz A1 - Crowther, P. A. A1 - de Koter, A. A1 - Evans, C. J. A1 - Henault-Brunet, V. A1 - Howarth, I. D. A1 - Richter, Philipp A1 - Sana, Hugues A1 - Simon Díaz, Sergio A1 - Taylor, W. A1 - Walborn, N. R. T1 - The VLT-FLAMES tarantula survey IX. - the interstellar medium seen through diffuse interstellar bands and neutral sodium JF - Astronomy and astrophysics : an international weekly journal N2 - Context. The Tarantula Nebula (a.k.a. 30 Dor) is a spectacular star-forming region in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), seen through gas in the Galactic disc and halo. Diffuse interstellar bands (DIBs) offer a unique probe of the diffuse, cool-warm gas in these regions. Aims. The aim is to use DIBs as diagnostics of the local interstellar conditions, whilst at the same time deriving properties of the yet-unknown carriers of these enigmatic spectral features. Methods. Spectra of over 800 early-type stars from the Very Large Telescope Flames Tarantula Survey (VFTS) were analysed. Maps were created, separately, for the Galactic and LMC absorption in the DIBs at 4428 and 6614 angstrom and - in a smaller region near the central cluster R 136 - neutral sodium (the Na ID doublet); we also measured the DIBs at 5780 and 5797 angstrom. Results. The maps show strong 4428 and 6614 angstrom DIBs in the quiescent cloud complex to the south of 30 Dor but weak absorption in the harsher environments to the north (bubbles) and near the OB associations. The Na maps show at least five kinematic components in the LMC and a shell-like structure surrounding R 136, and small-scale structure in the Milky Way. The strengths of the 4428, 5780, 5797 and 6614 angstrom DIBs are correlated, also with Na absorption and visual extinction. The strong 4428 angstrom DIB is present already at low Na column density but the 6614, 5780 and 5797 angstrom DIBs start to be detectable at subsequently larger Na column densities. Conclusions. The carriers of the 4428, 6614, 5780 and 5797 angstrom DIBs are increasingly prone to removal from irradiated gas. The relative strength of the 5780 and 5797 angstrom DIBs clearly confirm the Tarantula Nebula as well as Galactic high-latitude gas to represent a harsh radiation environment. The resilience of the 4428 angstrom DIB suggests its carrier is large, compact and neutral. Structure is detected in the distribution of cool-warm gas on scales between one and > 100 pc in the LMC and as little as 0.01 pc in the Sun's vicinity. Stellar winds from the central cluster R 136 have created an expanding shell; some infalling gas is also detected, reminiscent of a galactic "fountain". KW - ISM: individual objects: Tarantula Nebula (30 Doradus Nebula) KW - ISM: molecules KW - ISM: kinematics and dynamics KW - ISM: lines and bands KW - ISM: structure KW - local insterstellar matter Y1 - 2013 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/201220210 SN - 0004-6361 VL - 550 IS - 9 PB - EDP Sciences CY - Les Ulis ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Valori, Gherarod A1 - Demoulin, Pascal A1 - Pariat, E. A1 - Masson, S. T1 - Accuracy of magnetic energy computations JF - Astronomy and astrophysics : an international weekly journal N2 - Context. For magnetically driven events, the magnetic energy of the system is the prime energy reservoir that fuels the dynamical evolution. In the solar context, the free energy (i.e., the energy in excess of the potential field energy) is one of the main indicators used in space weather forecasts to predict the eruptivity of active regions. A trustworthy estimation of the magnetic energy is therefore needed in three-dimensional (3D) models of the solar atmosphere, e. g., in coronal fields reconstructions or numerical simulations. Aims. The expression of the energy of a system as the sum of its potential energy and its free energy (Thomson's theorem) is strictly valid when the magnetic field is exactly solenoidal. For numerical realizations on a discrete grid, this property may be only approximately fulfilled. We show that the imperfect solenoidality induces terms in the energy that can lead to misinterpreting the amount of free energy present in a magnetic configuration. Methods. We consider a decomposition of the energy in solenoidal and nonsolenoidal parts which allows the unambiguous estimation of the nonsolenoidal contribution to the energy. We apply this decomposition to six typical cases broadly used in solar physics. We quantify to what extent the Thomson theorem is not satisfied when approximately solenoidal fields are used. Results. The quantified errors on energy vary from negligible to significant errors, depending on the extent of the nonsolenoidal component of the field. We identify the main source of errors and analyze the implications of adding a variable amount of divergence to various solenoidal fields. Finally, we present pathological unphysical situations where the estimated free energy would appear to be negative, as found in some previous works, and we identify the source of this error to be the presence of a finite divergence. Conclusions. We provide a method of quantifying the effect of a finite divergence in numerical fields, together with detailed diagnostics of its sources. We also compare the efficiency of two divergence-cleaning techniques. These results are applicable to a broad range of numerical realizations of magnetic fields. KW - magnetic fields KW - methods: numerical KW - Sun: surface magnetism KW - Sun: corona Y1 - 2013 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/201220982 SN - 0004-6361 VL - 553 IS - 2 PB - EDP Sciences CY - Les Ulis ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Vahabi, Mahsa A1 - Schulz, Johannes H. P. A1 - Shokri, Babak A1 - Metzler, Ralf T1 - Area coverage of radial Levy flights with periodic boundary conditions JF - Physical review : E, Statistical, nonlinear and soft matter physics N2 - We consider the area coverage of radial Levy flights in a finite square area with periodic boundary conditions. From simulations we show how the fractal path dimension d(f) and thus the degree of area coverage depends on the number of steps of the trajectory, the size of the area, and the resolution of the applied box counting algorithm. For sufficiently long trajectories and not too high resolution, the fractal dimension returned by the box counting method equals two, and in that sense the Levy flight fully covers the area. Otherwise, the determined fractal dimension equals the stable index of the distribution of jump lengths of the Levy flight. We provide mathematical expressions for the turnover between these two scaling regimes. As complementary methods to analyze confined Levy flights we investigate fractional order moments of the position for which we also provide scaling arguments. Finally, we study the time evolution of the probability density function and the first passage time density of Levy flights in a square area. Our findings are of interest for a general understanding of Levy flights as well as for the analysis of recorded trajectories of animals searching for food or for human motion patterns. Y1 - 2013 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevE.87.042136 SN - 1539-3755 VL - 87 IS - 4 PB - American Physical Society CY - College Park ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Tu, Rui A1 - Zhang, Hongping A1 - Ge, Maorong A1 - Huang, Guanwen T1 - A real-time ionospheric model based on GNSS Precise Point Positioning JF - Advances in space research N2 - This paper proposes a method of real-time monitoring and modeling the ionospheric Total Electron Content (TEC) by Precise Point Positioning (PPP). Firstly, the ionospheric TEC and receiver's Differential Code Biases (DCB) are estimated with the undifferenced raw observation in real-time, then the ionospheric TEC model is established based on the Single Layer Model (SLM) assumption and the recovered ionospheric TEC. In this study, phase observations with high precision are directly used instead of phase smoothed code observations. In addition, the DCB estimation is separated from the establishment of the ionospheric model which will limit the impacts of the SLM assumption impacts. The ionospheric model is established at every epoch for real time application. The method is validated with three different GNSS networks on a local, regional, and global basis. The results show that the method is feasible and effective, the real-time ionosphere and DCB results are very consistent with the IGS final products, with a bias of 1-2 TECU and 0.4 ns respectively. KW - Ionospheric monitoring and modeling KW - Precise Point Positioning (PPP) KW - Real time KW - Total Electron Content (TEC) KW - Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) KW - Differential Code Biases (DCB) Y1 - 2013 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.asr.2013.06.015 SN - 0273-1177 SN - 1879-1948 VL - 52 IS - 6 SP - 1125 EP - 1134 PB - Elsevier CY - Oxford ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Trinh, Christopher Q. A1 - Ellis, Simon C. A1 - Bland-Hawthorn, Joss A1 - Lawrence, Jon S. A1 - Horton, Anthony J. A1 - Leon-Saval, Sergio G. A1 - Shortridge, Keith A1 - Bryant, Julia A1 - Case, Scott A1 - Colless, Matthew A1 - Couch, Warrick A1 - Freeman, Kenneth A1 - Löhmannsröben, Hans-Gerd A1 - Gers, Luke A1 - Glazebrook, Karl A1 - Haynes, Roger A1 - Lee, Steve A1 - O'Byrne, John A1 - Miziarski, Stan A1 - Roth, Martin M. A1 - Schmidt, Brian A1 - Tinney, Christopher G. A1 - Zheng, Jessica T1 - Gnosis - the first instrument to use fiber bragg gratings for OH suppression JF - The astronomical journal N2 - The near-infrared is an important part of the spectrum in astronomy, especially in cosmology because the light from objects in the early universe is redshifted to these wavelengths. However, deep near-infrared observations are extremely difficult to make from ground-based telescopes due to the bright background from the atmosphere. Nearly all of this background comes from the bright and narrow emission lines of atmospheric hydroxyl (OH) molecules. The atmospheric background cannot be easily removed from data because the brightness fluctuates unpredictably on short timescales. The sensitivity of ground-based optical astronomy far exceeds that of near-infrared astronomy because of this long-standing problem. GNOSIS is a prototype astrophotonic instrument that utilizes "OH suppression fibers" consisting of fiber Bragg gratings and photonic lanterns to suppress the 103 brightest atmospheric emission doublets between 1.47 and 1.7 mu m. GNOSIS was commissioned at the 3.9 m Anglo-Australian Telescope with the IRIS2 spectrograph to demonstrate the potential of OH suppression fibers, but may be potentially used with any telescope and spectrograph combination. Unlike previous atmospheric suppression techniques GNOSIS suppresses the lines before dispersion and in a manner that depends purely on wavelength. We present the instrument design and report the results of laboratory and on-sky tests from commissioning. While these tests demonstrated high throughput (approximate to 60%) and excellent suppression of the skylines by the OH suppression fibers, surprisingly GNOSIS produced no significant reduction in the interline background and the sensitivity of GNOSIS+IRIS2 is about the same as IRIS2. It is unclear whether the lack of reduction in the interline background is due to physical sources or systematic errors as the observations are detector noise dominated. OH suppression fibers could potentially impact ground-based astronomy at the level of adaptive optics or greater. However, until a clear reduction in the interline background and the corresponding increasing in sensitivity is demonstrated optimized OH suppression fibers paired with a fiber-fed spectrograph will at least provide a real benefit at low resolving powers. KW - atmospheric effects KW - infrared: diffuse background KW - instrumentation: miscellaneous Y1 - 2013 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1088/0004-6256/145/2/51 SN - 0004-6256 VL - 145 IS - 2 PB - IOP Publ. Ltd. CY - Bristol ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Toenjes, Ralf A1 - Sokolov, Igor M. A1 - Postnikov, E. B. T1 - Non-spectral relaxation in one dimensional Ornstein-Uhlenbeck processes JF - Physical review letters N2 - The relaxation of a dissipative system to its equilibrium state often shows a multiexponential pattern with relaxation rates, which are typically considered to be independent of the initial condition. The rates follow from the spectrum of a Hermitian operator obtained by a similarity transformation of the initial Fokker-Planck operator. However, some initial conditions are mapped by this similarity transformation to functions which growat infinity. These cannot be expanded in terms of the eigenfunctions of a Hermitian operator, and show different relaxation patterns. Considering the exactly solvable examples of Gaussian and generalized Levy Ornstein-Uhlenbeck processes (OUPs) we show that the relaxation rates belong to the Hermitian spectrum only if the initial condition belongs to the domain of attraction of the stable distribution defining the noise. While for an ordinary OUP initial conditions leading to nonspectral relaxation can be considered exotic, for generalized OUPs driven by Levy noise, such initial conditions are the rule. DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.110.150602 Y1 - 2013 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.110.150602 SN - 0031-9007 VL - 110 IS - 15 PB - American Physical Society CY - College Park ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Todt, Helge Tobias A1 - Kniazev, A. Y. A1 - Gvaramadze, V. V. A1 - Hamann, Wolf-Rainer A1 - Buckley, D. A1 - Crause, L. A1 - Crawford, S. M. A1 - Gulbis, A. A. S. A1 - Hettlage, C. A1 - Hooper, E. A1 - Husser, T. -O. A1 - Kotze, P. A1 - Loaring, N. A1 - Nordsieck, K. H. A1 - O'Donoghue, D. A1 - Pickering, T. A1 - Potter, S. A1 - Romero-Colmenero, E. A1 - Vaisanen, P. A1 - Williams, T. A1 - Wolf, M. T1 - Abell 48-a rare WN-type central star of a planetary nebula JF - Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society N2 - A considerable fraction of the central stars of planetary nebulae (CSPNe) are hydrogen-deficient. Almost all of these H-deficient central stars (CSs) display spectra with strong carbon and helium lines. Most of them exhibit emission-line spectra resembling those of massive WC stars. Therefore these stars are classed as CSPNe of spectral type [WC]. Recently, quantitative spectral analysis of two emission-line CSs, PB 8 and IC 4663, revealed that these stars do not belong to the [WC] class. Instead PB 8 has been classified as [WN/WC] type and IC 4663 as [WN] type. In this work we report the spectroscopic identification of another rare [WN] star, the CS of Abell 48. We performed a spectral analysis of Abell 48 with the Potsdam Wolf-Rayet (PoWR) models for expanding atmospheres. We find that the expanding atmosphere of Abell 48 is mainly composed of helium (85 per cent by mass), hydrogen (10 per cent) and nitrogen (5 per cent). The residual hydrogen and the enhanced nitrogen abundance make this object different from the other [WN] star IC 4663. We discuss the possible origin of this atmospheric composition. KW - stars: abundances KW - stars: AGB and post-AGB KW - stars: mass-loss KW - stars: Wolf-Rayet KW - planetary nebulae: general KW - planetary nebulae: individual: PN G029.0+00.4 Y1 - 2013 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stt056 SN - 0035-8711 SN - 1365-2966 VL - 430 IS - 3 SP - 2302 EP - 2312 PB - Oxford Univ. Press CY - Oxford ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Tiscareno, Matthew S. A1 - Mitchell, Colin J. A1 - Murray, Carl D. A1 - Di Nino, Daiana A1 - Hedman, Matthew M. A1 - Schmidt, Jürgen A1 - Burns, Joseph A. A1 - Cuzzi, Jeffrey N. A1 - Porco, Carolyn C. A1 - Beurle, Kevin A1 - Evans, Michael W. T1 - Observations of Ejecta clouds produced by impacts onto Saturn's rings JF - Science N2 - We report observations of dusty clouds in Saturn's rings, which we interpret as resulting from impacts onto the rings that occurred between 1 and 50 hours before the clouds were observed. The largest of these clouds was observed twice; its brightness and cant angle evolved in a manner consistent with this hypothesis. Several arguments suggest that these clouds cannot be due to the primary impact of one solid meteoroid onto the rings, but rather are due to the impact of a compact stream of Saturn-orbiting material derived from previous breakup of a meteoroid. The responsible interplanetary meteoroids were initially between 1 centimeter and several meters in size, and their influx rate is consistent with the sparse prior knowledge of smaller meteoroids in the outer solar system. Y1 - 2013 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1233524 SN - 0036-8075 VL - 340 IS - 6131 SP - 460 EP - 464 PB - American Assoc. for the Advancement of Science CY - Washington ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Thomas, Philipp A1 - Matuschek, Hannes A1 - Grima, Ramon T1 - How reliable is the linear noise approximation of gene regulatory networks? JF - BMC genomics N2 - Background: The linear noise approximation (LNA) is commonly used to predict how noise is regulated and exploited at the cellular level. These predictions are exact for reaction networks composed exclusively of first order reactions or for networks involving bimolecular reactions and large numbers of molecules. It is however well known that gene regulation involves bimolecular interactions with molecule numbers as small as a single copy of a particular gene. It is therefore questionable how reliable are the LNA predictions for these systems. Results: We implement in the software package intrinsic Noise Analyzer (iNA), a system size expansion based method which calculates the mean concentrations and the variances of the fluctuations to an order of accuracy higher than the LNA. We then use iNA to explore the parametric dependence of the Fano factors and of the coefficients of variation of the mRNA and protein fluctuations in models of genetic networks involving nonlinear protein degradation, post-transcriptional, post-translational and negative feedback regulation. We find that the LNA can significantly underestimate the amplitude and period of noise-induced oscillations in genetic oscillators. We also identify cases where the LNA predicts that noise levels can be optimized by tuning a bimolecular rate constant whereas our method shows that no such regulation is possible. All our results are confirmed by stochastic simulations. Conclusion: The software iNA allows the investigation of parameter regimes where the LNA fares well and where it does not. We have shown that the parametric dependence of the coefficients of variation and Fano factors for common gene regulatory networks is better described by including terms of higher order than LNA in the system size expansion. This analysis is considerably faster than stochastic simulations due to the extensive ensemble averaging needed to obtain statistically meaningful results. Hence iNA is well suited for performing computationally efficient and quantitative studies of intrinsic noise in gene regulatory networks. Y1 - 2013 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2164-14-S4-S5 SN - 1471-2164 VL - 14 IS - 4 PB - BioMed Central CY - London ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Theves, Matthias A1 - Taktikos, Johannes A1 - Zaburdaev, Vasily A1 - Stark, Holger A1 - Beta, Carsten T1 - A bacterial swimmer with two alternating speeds of propagation JF - Biophysical journal N2 - We recorded large data sets of swimming trajectories of the soil bacterium Pseudomonas putida. Like other prokaryotic swimmers, P. putida exhibits a motion pattern dominated by persistent runs that are interrupted by turning events. An in-depth analysis of their swimming trajectories revealed that the majority of the turning events is characterized by an angle of phi(1) = 180 degrees (reversals). To a lesser extent, turning angles of phi(2 Sigma Sigma Sigma Sigma) = 00 are also found. Remarkably, we observed that, upon a reversal, the swimming speed changes by a factor of two on average a prominent feature of the motion pattern that, to our knowledge, has not been reported before. A theoretical model, based on the experimental values for the average run time and the rotational diffusion, recovers the mean-square displacement of P. putida if the two distinct swimming speeds are taken into account. Compared to a swimmer that moves with a constant intermediate speed, the mean-square displacement is strongly enhanced. We furthermore observed a negative dip in the directional autocorrelation at intermediate times, a feature that is only recovered in an extended model, where the nonexponential shape of the run-time distribution is taken into account. Y1 - 2013 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bpj.2013.08.047 SN - 0006-3495 SN - 1542-0086 VL - 105 IS - 8 SP - 1915 EP - 1924 PB - Cell Press CY - Cambridge ER - TY - THES A1 - Theves, Matthias T1 - Bacterial motility and growth in open and confined environments T1 - Bacterial motility and growth in open and confined environments N2 - In the presence of a solid-liquid or liquid-air interface, bacteria can choose between a planktonic and a sessile lifestyle. Depending on environmental conditions, cells swimming in close proximity to the interface can irreversibly attach to the surface and grow into three-dimensional aggregates where the majority of cells is sessile and embedded in an extracellular polymer matrix (biofilm). We used microfluidic tools and time lapse microscopy to perform experiments with the polarly flagellated soil bacterium Pseudomonas putida (P. putida), a bacterial species that is able to form biofilms. We analyzed individual trajectories of swimming cells, both in the bulk fluid and in close proximity to a glass-liquid interface. Additionally, surface related growth during the early phase of biofilm formation was investigated. In the bulk fluid, P.putida shows a typical bacterial swimming pattern of alternating periods of persistent displacement along a line (runs) and fast reorientation events (turns) and cells swim with an average speed around 24 micrometer per second. We found that the distribution of turning angles is bimodal with a dominating peak around 180 degrees. In approximately six out of ten turning events, the cell reverses its swimming direction. In addition, our analysis revealed that upon a reversal, the cell systematically changes its swimming speed by a factor of two on average. Based on the experimentally observed values of mean runtime and rotational diffusion, we presented a model to describe the spreading of a population of cells by a run-reverse random walker with alternating speeds. We successfully recover the mean square displacement and, by an extended version of the model, also the negative dip in the directional autocorrelation function as observed in the experiments. The analytical solution of the model demonstrates that alternating speeds enhance a cells ability to explore its environment as compared to a bacterium moving at a constant intermediate speed. As compared to the bulk fluid, for cells swimming near a solid boundary we observed an increase in swimming speed at distances below d= 5 micrometer and an increase in average angular velocity at distances below d= 4 micrometer. While the average speed was maximal with an increase around 15% at a distance of d= 3 micrometer, the angular velocity was highest in closest proximity to the boundary at d=1 micrometer with an increase around 90% as compared to the bulk fluid. To investigate the swimming behavior in a confinement between two solid boundaries, we developed an experimental setup to acquire three-dimensional trajectories using a piezo driven objective mount coupled to a high speed camera. Results on speed and angular velocity were consistent with motility statistics in the presence of a single boundary. Additionally, an analysis of the probability density revealed that a majority of cells accumulated near the upper and lower boundaries of the microchannel. The increase in angular velocity is consistent with previous studies, where bacteria near a solid boundary were shown to swim on circular trajectories, an effect which can be attributed to a wall induced torque. The increase in speed at a distance of several times the size of the cell body, however, cannot be explained by existing theories which either consider the drag increase on cell body and flagellum near a boundary (resistive force theory) or model the swimming microorganism by a multipole expansion to account for the flow field interaction between cell and boundary. An accumulation of swimming bacteria near solid boundaries has been observed in similar experiments. Our results confirm that collisions with the surface play an important role and hydrodynamic interactions alone cannot explain the steady-state accumulation of cells near the channel walls. Furthermore, we monitored the number growth of cells in the microchannel under medium rich conditions. We observed that, after a lag time, initially isolated cells at the surface started to grow by division into colonies of increasing size, while coexisting with a comparable smaller number of swimming cells. After 5:50 hours, we observed a sudden jump in the number of swimming cells, which was accompanied by a breakup of bigger clusters on the surface. After approximately 30 minutes where planktonic cells dominated in the microchannel, individual swimming cells reattached to the surface. We interpret this process as an emigration and recolonization event. A number of complementary experiments were performed to investigate the influence of collective effects or a depletion of the growth medium on the transition. Similar to earlier observations on another bacterium from the same family we found that the release of cells to the swimming phase is most likely the result of an individual adaption process, where syntheses of proteins for flagellar motility are upregulated after a number of division cycles at the surface. N2 - Bakterien sind einzellige Mikroorganismen, die sich in flüssigem Medium mit Hilfe von rotierenden Flagellen, länglichen Fasern aus Proteinen, schwimmend fortbewegen. In Gegenwart einer Grenzfläche und unter günstigen Umweltbedingungen siedeln sich Bakterien an der Oberfläche an und gehen in eine sesshafte Wachstumsphase über. Die Wachstumsphase an der Oberfläche ist gekennzeichnet durch das Absondern von klebrigen, nährstoffreichen extrazellulären Substanzen, welche die Verbindung der Bakterien untereinander und mit der Oberfläche verstärken. Die entstehenden Aggregate aus extrazellulärer Matrix und Bakterien werden als Biofilm bezeichnet. In der vorliegenden Arbeit untersuchten wir ein Bodenbakterium, Pseudomonas putida (P. putida), welches in wässriger Umgebung an festen Oberflächen Biofilme ausbildet. Wir benutzten photolithographisch hergestellte Mikrokanäle und Hochgeschwindigkeits-Videomikroskopie um die Bewegung schwimmender Zellen in verschiedenen Abständen zu einer Glasoberfläche aufzunehmen. Zusätzlich wurden Daten über das parallel stattfindende Wachstum der sesshaften Zellen an der Oberfläche aufgezeichnet. Die Analyse von Trajektorien frei schwimmender Zellen zeigte, dass sich Liniensegmente, entlang derer sich die Zellen in eine konstante Richtung bewegen, mit scharfen Kehrtwendungen mit einem Winkel von 180 Grad abwechseln. Dabei änderte sich die Schwimmgeschwindigket von einem zum nächsten Segment im Mittel um einen Faktor von 2. Unsere experimentellen Daten waren die Grundlage für ein mathematisches Modell zur Beschreibung der Zellbewegung mit alternierender Geschwindigkeit. Die analytische Lösung des Modells zeigt elegant, dass eine Population von Bakterien, welche zwischen zwei Geschwindigkeiten wechseln, signifikant schneller expandiert als eine Referenzpopulation mit Bakterien konstanter Schwimmgeschwindkeit. Im Vergleich zu frei schwimmenden Bakterien beobachteten wir in der Nähe der Oberfläche eine um 15% erhöhte Schwimmgeschwindigkeit der Zellen und eine um 90 % erhöhte Winkel-geschwindigkeit. Außerdem wurde eine signifikant höhere Zelldichte in der Nähe der Grenzfläche gemessen. Während sich der Anstieg in der Winkelgeschwindigkeit durch ein Drehmoment erklären lässt, welches in Oberflächennähe auf den rotierenden Zellkörper und die rotierenden Flagellen wirkt, kann die Beschleunigung und Akkumulation der Zellen bei dem beobachteten Abstand nicht durch existierende Theorien erklärt werden. Unsere Ergebnisse lassen vermuten, dass neben hydrodynamischen Effekten auch Kollisionen mit der Oberfläche eine wichtige Rolle spielen und sich die Rotationsgeschwindigkeit der Flagellenmotoren in der Nähe einer festen Oberfläche grundsätzlich verändert. Unsere Experimente zum Zellwachstum an Oberflächen zeigten, dass sich etwa sechs Stunden nach Beginn des Experiments größere Kolonien an der Kanaloberfläche auflösen und Zellen für ca. 30 Minuten zurück in die schwimmende Phase wechseln. Ergebnisse von mehreren Vergleichsexperimenten deuten darauf hin, dass dieser Übergang nach einer festen Anzahl von Zellteilungen an der Oberfläche erfolgt und nicht durch den Verbrauch des Wachstumsmediums bedingt wird. KW - Pseudomonas putida KW - Motilität KW - Flagellenbewegung KW - Random-Walk-Theorie KW - Schwimmende Mikroorganismen KW - pseudomonas putida KW - motility KW - flagellar filaments KW - random walk KW - cell tracking Y1 - 2013 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-70313 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Tepper-Garcia, Thor A1 - Richter, Philipp A1 - Schaye, Joop T1 - Absorption signatures of warm-hot gas at low redshift - ne viii JF - Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society N2 - At z < 1 a large fraction of the baryons is thought to reside in diffuse gas that has been shock-heated to high temperatures (10 (5)-10 (6) K). Absorption by the 770.41, 780.32 A doublet of Ne viii in quasar spectra represents a unique tool to study this elusive warm-hot phase. We have developed an analytic model for the properties of Ne viii absorbers that allows for an inhomogeneous metal distribution. Our model agrees with the predictions of a simulation from the OverWhelmingly Large Simulations project indicating that the average line-of-sight metal-filling fraction within the absorbing gas is low (c(L) similar to 0.1). Most of the Ne viii in our model is produced in low-density, collisionally ionized gas (n(H) = 10(-6)-10(-4) cm(-3), T = 10 (5)-10 (6) K). Strong Ne viii absorbers (log(10)(N-NeVIII/cm(-2))14), like those recently detected by Hubble Space Telescope/Cosmic Origins Spectrograph, are found to arise in higher density gas (n(H) greater than or similar to 10(-4) cm(-3), T approximate to 5 x 10 (5) K). Ne viii cloudlets harbour only 1 per cent of the cosmic baryon budget. The baryon content of the surrounding gas (which has similar densities and temperatures as the Ne viii cloudlets) is a factor c(-1)L higher. We conclude that Ne viii absorbers are robust probes of shock-heated diffuse gas, but that spectra with signal-to-noise ratios S/N > 100 would be required to detect the bulk of the baryons in warm-hot gas. KW - methods: analytical KW - methods: numerical KW - galaxies: formation KW - intergalactic medium KW - quasars: absorption lines KW - cosmology: theory Y1 - 2013 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stt1712 SN - 0035-8711 SN - 1365-2966 VL - 436 IS - 3 SP - 2063 EP - 2081 PB - Oxford Univ. Press CY - Oxford ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Temirbayev, Amirkhan A. A1 - Nalibayev, Yerkebulan D. A1 - Zhanabaev, Zeinulla Zh. A1 - Ponomarenko, Vladimir I. A1 - Rosenblum, Michael T1 - Autonomous and forced dynamics of oscillator ensembles with global nonlinear coupling an experimental study JF - Physical review : E, Statistical, nonlinear and soft matter physics N2 - We perform experiments with 72 electronic limit-cycle oscillators, globally coupled via a linear or nonlinear feedback loop. While in the linear case we observe a standard Kuramoto-like synchronization transition, in the nonlinear case, with increase of the coupling strength, we first observe a transition to full synchrony and then a desynchronization transition to a quasiperiodic state. However, in this state the ensemble remains coherent so that the amplitude of the mean field is nonzero, but the frequency of the mean field is larger than frequencies of all oscillators. Next, we analyze effects of common periodic forcing of the linearly or nonlinearly coupled ensemble and demonstrate regimes when the mean field is entrained by the force whereas the oscillators are not. Y1 - 2013 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevE.87.062917 SN - 1539-3755 SN - 1550-2376 VL - 87 IS - 6 PB - American Physical Society CY - College Park ER -