Variability of the Pulsed Radio Emission from the Large Magellanic Cloud Pulsar PSR J0529-6652

We have studied the variability of PSR J0529-6652, a radio pulsar in the LMC, using observations conducted at 1390 MHz with the Parkes 64-m telescope. PSR J0529-6652 is detectable as a single pulse emitter, with amplitudes that classify the pulses as giant pulses. This makes PSR J0529-6652 the second known giant pulse emitter in the LMC, after PSR B0540-69. The fraction of the emitted pulses detectable from PSR J0529-6652 at this frequency is roughly two orders of magnitude greater than it is for either PSR B0540-69 or the Crab pulsar (if the latter were located in the LMC). We have measured a pulse nulling fraction of 83.3 \pm 1.5% and an intrinsic modulation index of 4.07 \pm 0.29 for PSR J0529-6652. The modulation index is significantly larger than values previously measured for typical radio pulsars but is comparable to values reported for members of several other neutron star classes. The large modulation index, giant pulses, and large nulling fraction suggest that this pulsar is phenomenologically more similar to these other, more variable sources, despite having spin and physical characteristics that are typical of the unrecycled radio pulsar population. The large modulation index also does not appear to be consistent with the small value predicted for this pulsar by a model of polar cap emission outlined by Gil & Sendyk (2000). This conclusion depends to some extent on the assumption that PSR J0529-6652 is exhibiting core emission, as suggested by its simple profile morphology, narrow profile width, and previously measured profile polarization characteristics.Comment: 24 pages, including 7 figures and 2 tables. Accepted to the Astrophysical Journa

Performance analysis of a parallel, multi-node pipeline for DNA sequencing

Post-sequencing DNA analysis typically consists of read mapping followed by variant calling and is very time-consuming, even on a multi-core machine. Recently, we proposed Halvade, a parallel, multi-node implementation of a DNA sequencing pipeline according to the GATK Best Practices recommendations. The MapReduce programming model is used to distribute the workload among different workers. In this paper, we study the impact of different hardware configurations on the performance of Halvade. Benchmarks indicate that especially the lack of good multithreading capabilities in the existing tools (BWA, SAMtools, Picard, GATK) cause suboptimal scaling behavior. We demonstrate that it is possible to circumvent this bottleneck by using multiprocessing on high-memory machines rather than using multithreading. Using a 15-node cluster with 360 CPU cores in total, this results in a runtime of 1 h 31 min. Compared to a single-threaded runtime of similar to 12 days, this corresponds to an overall parallel efficiency of 53%

Concept Validation for Selective Heating and Press Hardening of Automotive Safety Components with Tailored Properties

© (2014) Trans Tech Publications, Switzerland.A new strategy termed selective heating and press hardening, for hot stamping of boron steel parts with tailored properties is proposed in this paper. Feasibility studies were carried out through a specially designed experimental programme. The main aim was to validate the strategy and demonstrate its potential for structural optimisation. In the work, a lab-scale demonstrator part was designed, and relevant manufacturing and property-assessment processes were defined. A heating technique and selective-heating rigs were designed to enable certain microstructural distributions in blanks to be obtained. A hot stamping tool set was designed for forming and quenching the parts. Demonstrator parts of full martensite phase, full initial phase, and differentially graded microstructures have been formed with high dimensional quality. Hardness testing and three point bending tests were conducted to assess the microstructure distribution and load bearing performance of the as-formed parts, respectively. The feasibility of the concept has been validated by the testing results

Precision benchmark calculations for four particles at unitarity

The unitarity limit describes interacting particles where the range of the interaction is zero and the scattering length is infinite. We present precision benchmark calculations for two-component fermions at unitarity using three different ab initio methods: Hamiltonian lattice formalism using iterated eigenvector methods, Euclidean lattice formalism with auxiliary-field projection Monte Carlo, and continuum diffusion Monte Carlo with fixed and released nodes. We have calculated the ground state energy of the unpolarized four-particle system in a periodic cube as a dimensionless fraction of the ground state energy for the non-interacting system. We obtain values 0.211(2) and 0.210(2) using two different Hamiltonian lattice representations, 0.206(9) using Euclidean lattice, and an upper bound of 0.212(2) from fixed-node diffusion Monte Carlo. Released-node calculations starting from the fixed-node result yield a decrease of less than 0.002 over a propagation of 0.4/E_F in Euclidean time, where E_F is the Fermi energy. We find good agreement among all three ab initio methods.Comment: 23 pages, 7 figures, final version to appear in Phys. Rev.

Time fractals and discrete scale invariance with trapped ions

We show that a one-dimensional chain of trapped ions can be engineered to produce a quantum mechanical system with discrete scale invariance and fractal-like time dependence. By discrete scale invariance we mean a system that replicates itself under a rescaling of distance for some scale factor, and a time fractal is a signal that is invariant under the rescaling of time. These features are reminiscent of the Efimov effect, which has been predicted and observed in bound states of three-body systems. We demonstrate that discrete scale invariance in the trapped ion system can be controlled with two independently tunable parameters. We also discuss the extension to n-body states where the discrete scaling symmetry has an exotic heterogeneous structure. The results we present can be realized using currently available technologies developed for trapped ion quantum systems.Comment: 4 + 5 pages (main + supplemental materials), 2 + 3 figures (main + supplemental materials), version to appear in Physical Review A Rapid Communication

Evidence for pairing states of composite fermions in double-layer graphene

Pairing interaction between fermionic particles leads to composite Bosons that condense at low temperature. Such condensate gives rise to long range order and phase coherence in superconductivity, superfluidity, and other exotic states of matter in the quantum limit. In graphene double-layers separated by an ultra-thin insulator, strong interlayer Coulomb interaction introduces electron-hole pairing across the two layers, resulting in a unique superfluid phase of interlayer excitons. In this work, we report a series of emergent fractional quantum Hall ground states in a graphene double-layer structure, which is compared to an expanded composite fermion model with two-component correlation. The ground state hierarchy from bulk conductance measurement and Hall resistance plateau from Coulomb drag measurement provide strong experimental evidence for a sequence of effective integer quantum Hall effect states for the novel two-component composite fermions (CFs), where CFs fill integer number of effective LLs (Lambda-level). Most remarkably, a sequence of incompressible states with interlayer correlation are observed at half-filled Lambda-levels, which represents a new type of order involving pairing states of CFs that is unique to graphene double-layer structure and beyond the conventional CF model.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures. v2 added supplementary materia

Plasmonic color filters as dual-state nanopixels for high-density microimage encoding

Plasmonic color filtering has provided a range of new techniques for “printing” images at resolutions beyond the diffraction-limit, significantly improving upon what can be achieved using traditional, dye-based filtering methods. Here, a new approach to high-density data encoding is demonstrated using full color, dual-state plasmonic nanopixels, doubling the amount of information that can be stored in a unit-area. This technique is used to encode two data sets into a single set of pixels for the first time, generating vivid, near-full sRGB (standard Red Green Blue color space)color images and codes with polarization-switchable information states. Using a standard optical microscope, the smallest “unit” that can be read relates to 2 × 2 nanopixels (370 nm × 370 nm). As a result, dual-state nanopixels may prove significant for long-term, high-resolution optical image encoding, and counterfeit-prevention measures

Neutron-proton scattering at next-to-next-to-leading order in Nuclear Lattice Effective Field Theory

We present a systematic study of neutron-proton scattering in Nuclear Lattice Effective Field Theory (NLEFT), in terms of the computationally efficient radial Hamiltonian method. Our leading-order (LO) interaction consists of smeared, local contact terms and static one-pion exchange. We show results for a fully non-perturbative analysis up to next-to-next-to-leading order (NNLO), followed by a perturbative treatment of contributions beyond LO. The latter analysis anticipates practical Monte Carlo simulations of heavier nuclei. We explore how our results depend on the lattice spacing a, and estimate sources of uncertainty in the determination of the low-energy constants of the next-to-leading-order (NLO) two-nucleon force. We give results for lattice spacings ranging from a = 1.97 fm down to a = 0.98 fm, and discuss the effects of lattice artifacts on the scattering observables. At a = 0.98 fm, lattice artifacts appear small, and our NNLO results agree well with the Nijmegen partial-wave analysis for S-wave and P-wave channels. We expect the peripheral partial waves to be equally well described once the lattice momenta in the pion-nucleon coupling are taken to coincide with the continuum dispersion relation, and higher-order (N3LO) contributions are included. We stress that for center-of-mass momenta below 100 MeV, the physics of the two-nucleon system is independent of the lattice spacing.Comment: 22 pages, 8 figure