A Cosmology-Independent Calibration of Gamma-Ray Burst Luminosity Relations and the Hubble Diagram

An important concern in the application of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) to cosmology is that the calibration of GRB luminosity/energy relations depends on the cosmological model, due to the lack of a sufficient low-redshift GRB sample. In this paper, we present a new method to calibrate GRB relations in a cosmology-independent way. Since objects at the same redshift should have the same luminosity distance and since the distance moduli of Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) obtained directly from observations are completely cosmology independent, we obtain the distance modulus of a GRB at a given redshift by interpolating from the Hubble diagram of SNe Ia. Then we calibrate seven GRB relations without assuming a particular cosmological model and construct a GRB Hubble diagram to constrain cosmological parameters. From the 42 GRBs at $1.4<z\le6.6$, we obtain $\Omega_{\rm M}=0.25_{-0.05}^{+0.04}$, $\Omega_{\Lambda}=0.75_{-0.04}^{+0.05}$ for the flat $\Lambda$CDM model, and for the dark energy model with a constant equation of state $w_0=-1.05_{-0.40}^{+0.27}$, which is consistent with the concordance model in a 1-$\sigma$ confidence region.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figures, 1 table, now matches the editorially revised version; accepted for publication in ApJ (vol 685)

Magic wavelengths for the np-ns transitions in alkali-metal atoms

Extensive calculations of the electric-dipole matrix elements in alkali-metal atoms are conducted using the relativistic all-order method. This approach is a linearized version of the coupled-cluster method, which sums infinite sets of many-body perturbation theory terms. All allowed transitions between the lowest ns, np_1/2, np_3/2 states and a large number of excited states are considered in these calculations and their accuracy is evaluated. The resulting electric-dipole matrix elements are used for the high-precision calculation of frequency-dependent polarizabilities of the excited states of alkali-metal atoms. We find magic wavelengths in alkali-metal atoms for which the ns and np_1/2 and np_3/2 atomic levels have the same ac Stark shifts, which facilitates state-insensitive optical cooling and trapping.Comment: 12 pages, 8 figure

Changes in the measured image separation of the gravitational lens system, PKS 1830-211

We present eight epochs of 43 GHz, dual-polarisation VLBA observations of the gravitational lens system PKS 1830-211, made over fourteen weeks. A bright, compact ``core'' and a faint extended ``jet'' are clearly seen in maps of both lensed images at all eight epochs. The relative separation of the radio centroid of the cores (as measured on the sky) changes by up to 87 micro arcsec between subsequent epochs. A comparison with the previous 43 GHz VLBA observations (Garrett et al. 1997) made 8 months earlier show even larger deviations in the separation of up to 201 micro arcsec. The measured changes are most likely produced by changes in the brightness distribution of the background source, enhanced by the magnification of the lens. A relative magnification matrix that is applicable on the milliarcsecond scale has been determined by relating two vectors (the ``core-jet'' separations and the offsets of the polarised and total intensity emission) in the two lensed images. The determinant of this matrix, -1.13 +/-0.61, is in good agreement with the measured flux density ratio of the two images. The matrix predicts that the 10 mas long jet, that is clearly seen in previous 15 and 8.4 GHz VLBA observations (Garrett et al. 1997, Guirado et al. 1999), should correspond to a 4 mas long jet trailing to the south-east of the SW image. The clear non-detection of this trailing jet is a strong evidence for sub-structure in the lens and may require more realistic lens models to be invoked, e.g. Nair & Garrett (2000).Comment: 8 pages, 5 figure

Anisotropic charge transport in non-polar GaN QW: polarization induced charge and interface roughness scattering

Charge transport in GaN quantum well (QW) devices grown in non-polar direction has been theoretically investigated . Emergence of anisotropic line charge scattering mechanism originating as a result of anisotropic rough surface morphology in conjunction with in-plane built-in polarization has been proposed. It has shown that in-plane growth anisotropy leads to large anisotropic carrier transport at low temperatures. At high temperatures, this anisotropy in charge transport is partially washed out by strong isotropic optical phonon scattering in GaN QW.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

Magnetic and dielectric properties of multiferroic Eu0.5Ba0.25Sr0.25TiO3 ceramics

Dielectric and magnetic properties of Eu0.5Ba0.25Sr0.25TiO3 are investigated between 10 K and 300 K in the frequency range from 10 Hz to 100 THz. A peak in permittivity revealed near 130 K and observed ferroelectric hysteresis loops prove the ferroelectric order below thistemperature. The peak in permittivity is given mainly by softening of the lowest frequency polar phonon (soft mode revealed in THz and IR spectra) that demonstrates displacive character of the phase transition. Room-temperature X-ray diffraction analysis reveals cubic structure, but the IR reflectivity spectra give evidence of a lower crystal structure, presumably tetragonal I4/mcm with tilted oxygen octahedra as it has been observed in EuTiO3. The magnetic measurements show that the antiferromagnetic order occurs below 1.8 K. Eu0.5Ba0.25Sr0.25TiO3 has three times lower coercive field than Eu0.5Ba0.5TiO3, therefore we propose this system for measurements of electric dipole moment of electron.Comment: Phase Transitions, in pres

Calibration of GRB Luminosity Relations with Cosmography

For the use of Gamma-Ray Bursts (GRBs) to probe cosmology in a cosmology-independent way, a new method has been proposed to obtain luminosity distances of GRBs by interpolating directly from the Hubble diagram of SNe Ia, and then calibrating GRB relations at high redshift. In this paper, following the basic assumption in the interpolation method that objects at the same redshift should have the same luminosity distance, we propose another approach to calibrate GRB luminosity relations with cosmographic fitting directly from SN Ia data. In cosmography, there is a well-known fitting formula which can reflect the Hubble relation between luminosity distance and redshift with cosmographic parameters which can be fitted from observation data. Using the Cosmographic fitting results from the Union set of SNe Ia, we calibrate five GRB relations using GRB sample at $z\leq1.4$ and deduce distance moduli of GRBs at $1.4< z \leq 6.6$ by generalizing above calibrated relations at high redshift. Finally, we constrain the dark energy parameterization models of the Chevallier-Polarski-Linder (CPL) model, the Jassal-Bagla-Padmanabhan (JBP) model and the Alam model with GRB data at high redshift, as well as with the Cosmic Microwave Background radiation (CMB) and the baryonic acoustic oscillation (BAO) observations, and we find the $\Lambda$CDM model is consistent with the current data in 1-$\sigma$ confidence region.Comment: 15 pages, 4 figures, 2 tables; accepted for publication in IJMP

Cross-Correlation Detection of Point Sources in WMAP First Year Data

We apply a Cross-correlation (CC) method developed previously for detecting gamma-ray point sources to the WMAP first year data by using the Point-Spread Function of WMAP and obtain a full sky CC coefficient map. Analyzing this map, we find that the CC method is a powerful tool to examine the WMAP foreground residuals which can be further cleaned accordingly. Evident foreground signals are found in WMAP foreground cleaned maps and Tegmark cleaned map. In this process 101 point-sources are detected, and 26 of them are new sources besides the originally listed WMAP 208 sources. We estimate the flux of these new sources and verify them by another method. As a result, a revised mask file based on the WMAP first year data is produced by including these new sources.Comment: 14 pages, 10 figures; accepted for publication by ChJA

Phase Change Observed in Ultrathin Ba0.5Sr0.5TiO3 Films by in-situ Resonant Photoemission Spectroscopy

Epitaxial Ba0.5Sr0.5TiO3 thin films were prepared on Nb-doped SrTiO3 (100)substrates by the pulsed laser deposition technique, and were studied by measuring the Ti 2p - 3d resonant photoemission spectra in the valence-band region as a function of film thickness, both at room temperature and low temperature. Our results demonstrated an abrupt variation in the spectral structures between 2.8 nm (~7 monolayers) and 2.0 nm (~5 monolayers) Ba0.5Sr0.5TiO3 films, suggesting that there exists a critical thickness for phase change in the range of 2.0 nm to 2.8 nm. This may be ascribed mainly to the intrinsic size effects.Comment: 13 pages, 4 figure