6,666 research outputs found

    Technical note: Absorption aerosol optical depth components from AERONET observations of mixed dust plumes

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    © Author(s) 2019.Absorption aerosol optical depth (AAOD) as obtained from sun–sky photometer measurements provides a measure of the light-absorbing properties of the columnar aerosol loading. However, it is not an unambiguous aerosol-type-specific parameter, particularly if several types of absorbing aerosols, for instance black carbon (BC) and mineral dust, are present in a mixed aerosol plume. The contribution of mineral dust to total aerosol light absorption is particularly important at UV wavelengths. In this study we refine a lidar-based technique applied to the separation of dust and non-dust aerosol types for the use with Aerosol Robotic Network (AERONET) direct sun and inversion products. We extend the methodology to retrieve AAOD related to non-dust aerosol (AAODnd) and BC (AAODBC). We test the method at selected AERONET sites that are frequently affected by aerosol plumes that contain a mixture of Saharan or Asian mineral dust and biomass-burning smoke or anthropogenic pollution, respectively. We find that aerosol optical depth (AOD) related to mineral dust as obtained with our methodology is frequently smaller than coarse-mode AOD. This suggests that the latter is not an ideal proxy for estimating the contribution of mineral dust to mixed dust plumes. We present the results of the AAODBC retrieval for the selected AERONET sites and compare them to coincident values provided in the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring System aerosol reanalysis.We find that modelled and AERONET AAODBC are most consistent for Asian sites or at Saharan sites with strong local anthropogenic sources.Peer reviewe

    Counterfactual Quantum Cryptography

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    Quantum cryptography allows one to distribute a secret key between two remote parties using the fundamental principles of quantum mechanics. The well-known established paradigm for the quantum key distribution relies on the actual transmission of signal particle through a quantum channel. This paper shows that the task of a secret key distribution can be accomplished even though a particle carrying secret information is not in fact transmitted through the quantum channel. The proposed protocols can be implemented with current technologies and provide practical security advantages by eliminating the possibility that an eavesdropper can directly access the entire quantum system of each signal particle.Comment: 19 pages, 1 figure; a little ambiguity in the version 1 removed; abstract, text, references, and appendix revised; suggestions and comments are highly appreciate

    Finite-size scaling theory for explosive percolation transitions

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    The finite-size scaling (FSS) theory for continuous phase transitions has been useful in determining the critical behavior from the size dependent behaviors of thermodynamic quantities. When the phase transition is discontinuous, however, FSS approach has not been well established yet. Here, we develop a FSS theory for the explosive percolation transition arising in the Erd\H{o}s and R\'enyi model under the Achlioptas process. A scaling function is derived based on the observed fact that the derivative of the curve of the order parameter at the critical point tct_c diverges with system size in a power-law manner, which is different from the conventional one based on the divergence of the correlation length at tct_c. We show that the susceptibility is also described in the same scaling form. Numerical simulation data for different system sizes are well collapsed on the respective scaling functions.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figure

    Direct sampling of the Susskind-Glogower phase distributions

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    Coarse-grained phase distributions are introduced that approximate to the Susskind--Glogower cosine and sine phase distributions. The integral relations between the phase distributions and the phase-parametrized field-strength distributions observable in balanced homodyning are derived and the integral kernels are analyzed. It is shown that the phase distributions can be directly sampled from the field-strength distributions which offers the possibility of measuring the Susskind--Glogower cosine and sine phase distributions with sufficiently well accuracy. Numerical simulations are performed to demonstrate the applicability of the method.Comment: 10 figures using a4.st

    Percolation transition in networks with degree-degree correlation

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    We introduce an exponential random graph model for networks with a fixed degree distribution and with a tunable degree-degree correlation. We then investigate the nature of a percolation transition in the correlated network with the Poisson degree distribution. It is found that negative correlation is irrelevant in that the percolation transition in the disassortative network belongs to the same universality class of the uncorrelated network. Positive correlation turns out to be relevant. The percolation transition in the assortative network is characterized by the non-diverging mean size of finite clusters and power-law scalings of the density of the largest cluster and the cluster size distribution in the non-percolating phase as well as at the critical point. Our results suggest that the unusual type percolation transition in the growing network models reported recently may be inherited from the assortative degree-degree correlation.Comment: 7 pages, 11 figur

    Preroughening transitions in a model for Si and Ge (001) type crystal surfaces

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    The uniaxial structure of Si and Ge (001) facets leads to nontrivial topological properties of steps and hence to interesting equilibrium phase transitions. The disordered flat phase and the preroughening transition can be stabilized without the need for step-step interactions. A model describing this is studied numerically by transfer matrix type finite-size-scaling of interface free energies. Its phase diagram contains a flat, rough, and disordered flat phase, separated by roughening and preroughening transition lines. Our estimate for the location of the multicritical point where the preroughening line merges with the roughening line, predicts that Si and Ge (001) undergo preroughening induced simultaneous deconstruction transitions.Comment: 13 pages, RevTex, 7 Postscript Figures, submitted to J. Phys.

    Fine Details of the Nodal Electronic Excitations in Bi2_2Sr2_2CaCu2_2O8+δ_{8+\delta}

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    Very high energy resolution photoemission experiments on high quality samples of optimally doped Bi2_2Sr2_2CaCu2_2O8+δ_{8+\delta} show new features in the low-energy electronic excitations. A marked change in the binding energy and temperature dependence of the near-nodal scattering rates is observed near the superconducting transition temperature, TCT_C. The temperature slope of the scattering rate measured at low energy shows a discontinuity at ~TCT_C. In the superconducting state, coherent excitations are found with the scattering rates showing a cubic dependence on frequency and temperature. The superconducting gap has a d-wave magnitude with negligible contribution from higher harmonics. Further, the bi-layer splitting has been found to be finite at the nodal point.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure
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