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At least 163 records · Page 9

L'CO/LFIR Relations with CO Rotational Ladders of Galaxies Across the Herschel SPIRE Archive

We present a catalog of all CO (carbon monoxide) (J (total angular momentum quantum number) equals 1-0 through J equals 13-12), [CI], and [NII] lines available from extragalactic spectra from the Herschel SPIRE (Spectral and Photometric Imaging Receiver) Fourier Transform Spectrometer (FTS) archive combined with observations of the low-J CO lines from the literature and from the Arizona Radio Observatory. This work examines the relationships between L (sub FIR (Far Infra Red)), L prime (sub CO), and L (sub CO) / L (sub CO, 1-0). We also present a new method for estimating probability distribution functions (PDFs) from marginal signal-to-noise ratio Herschel FTS spectra, which takes into account the instrumental "ringing" and the resulting highly correlated nature of the spectra. The slopes of Log (L (sub FIR)) versus Log (L prime (sub CO)) are linear for all mid- to high-J CO lines. The mid- to high-J CO luminosity relative to CO J equals 1-0 increases with increasing L (sub FIR), indicating higher excitement of the molecular gas, though these ratios do not exceed approximately 100. The luminosities relative to CO J equals 1-0 remain relatively at from J equals 6-5 through J equals13-2, across many orders of magnitude of L (sub FIR). Qualitative comparisons to current theoretical models do not match these flat SLED (spectral line energy distributions) shapes, indicating the need for more comprehensive modeling of the excitation processes of warm molecular gas in nearby galaxies.

Submillimeter Data↗

Fano-like resonance emerging from magnetic and electric plasmon mode coupling in small arrays of gold particles

In this work we theoretically and experimentally analyze the resonant behavior of individual 3 × 3 gold particle oligomers illuminated under normal and oblique incidence. While this structure hosts both dipolar and quadrupolar electric and magnetic delocalized modes, only dipolar electric and quadrupolar magnetic modes remain at normal incidence. These modes couple into a strongly asymmetric spectral response typical of a Fano-like resonance. In the basis of the coupled mode theory, an analytical representation of the optical extinction in terms of singular functions is used to identify the hybrid modes emerging from the electric and magnetic mode coupling and to interpret the asymmetric line profiles. Especially, we demonstrate that the characteristic Fano line shape results from the spectral interference of a broad hybrid mode with a sharp one. This structure presents a special feature in which the electric field intensity is confined on different lines of the oligomer depending on the illumination wavelength relative to the Fano dip. This Fano-type resonance is experimentally observed performing extinction cross section measurements on arrays of gold nano-disks. The vanishing of the Fano dip when increasing the incidence angle is also experimentally observed in accordance with numerical simulations.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Refined Telluric Absorption Correction for Low-resolution Ground-based Spectroscopy: Resolution and Radial Velocity Effects in the O{sub 2}A-band for Exoplanets and K i Emission Lines

Telluric correction of spectroscopic observations is either performed via standard stars that are observed close in time and airmass along with the science target, or recently growing in importance, by theoretical telluric absorption modeling. Both approaches work fine when the telluric lines are resolved, i.e., at a spectral resolving power larger than about 10,000, and it is sufficient to facilitate the detection of spectral features at lower resolution. However, a meaningful quantitative analysis also requires the reliable recovery of line strengths. Here, we show for the Fraunhofer A-band of molecular O{sub 2} that the standard telluric correction approach fails in this at lower spectral resolutions, as an example for the general problem. Doppler-shift-dependent errors of the restored flux may arise, which can amount to more than 50% in extreme cases, depending on the line shapes of the target spectral features. Two applications are discussed: the recovery of the O{sub 2} band in the reflected light of an Earth analog atmosphere, as facilitated potentially in the future using an orbiting starshade and a ground-based extremely large telescope; and the recovery of the intrinsic ratio of the K i lines in the post-nova V4332 Sgr tracing the optical depth of the emitting region, to exemplify the relevance using present-day instrumentation. We show how one should derive correction functions for the compensation of the error in dependence of radial velocity shift, spectral resolution, and target line-profile function by use of high-resolution atmospheric transmission modeling, which has to be solved for the individual case.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗

Emission-line diagnostics for the existence of thermal accretion disks in active galactic nuclei

The use of the relative strengths of optical and UV emission lines to infer information about the EUV continuum shape is demonstrated. The FeII/H-beta line ratio is strongly dependent on spectral shape, making it a good indicator of the UV spectrum. It is shown how the gravitational influence of a massive black hole may be seen in the nature of gas streaming motions and the orbits of gas clouds in the region where the black hole potential is comparable to the stellar galactic potential.

Krolik, J. H.↗

Report of the 1988 2-D Intercomparison Workshop, chapter 3

Several factors contribute to the errors encountered. With the exception of the line-by-line model, all of the models employ simplifying assumptions that place fundamental limits on their accuracy and range of validity. For example, all 2-D modeling groups use the diffusivity factor approximation. This approximation produces little error in tropospheric H2O and CO2 cooling rates, but can produce significant errors in CO2 and O3 cooling rates at the stratopause. All models suffer from fundamental uncertainties in shapes and strengths of spectral lines. Thermal flux algorithms being used in 2-D tracer tranport models produce cooling rates that differ by as much as 40 percent for the same input model atmosphere. Disagreements of this magnitude are important since the thermal cooling rates must be subtracted from the almost-equal solar heating rates to derive the net radiative heating rates and the 2-D model diabatic circulation. For much of the annual cycle, the net radiative heating rates are comparable in magnitude to the cooling rate differences described. Many of the models underestimate the cooling rates in the middle and lower stratosphere. The consequences of these errors for the net heating rates and the diabatic circulation will depend on their meridional structure, which was not tested here. Other models underestimate the cooling near 1 mbar. Suchs errors pose potential problems for future interactive ozone assessment studies, since they could produce artificially-high temperatures and increased O3 destruction at these levels. These concerns suggest that a great deal of work is needed to improve the performance of thermal cooling rate algorithms used in the 2-D tracer transport models.

Jackman, Charles H.↗

Spectral diagnostics based on Doppler-broadened H{sub α} line shape in a single element of a matrix source

The study is on optical emission spectroscopy diagnostics of a single element of a matrix source of negative hydrogen ions. The method developed for description of the hydrogen atoms behaviour is based on analysis of the Balmer H{sub α} line profile, and it can be readily applied to various low pressure hydrogen discharges. The present observations reveal the existence of thermal as well as of non-thermal fast hydrogen atoms in the discharge. For processing of the experimental data a line shape model, which accounts for details of the plasma kinetics and the fine structure of the Balmer lines is developed. The fit of this model to the recorded at different experimental conditions line shapes results in the temperature of the thermal atoms, the mean energy of the fast atoms, the ratio between the densities of these two group of atoms and the relative populations of the fine structure components of the n = 3 hydrogen state. The present study indicates that the reactions leading to production of fast atoms and the process of energy exchange between thermal and fast atoms may be important for the correct modeling of the plasma kinetics.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

Simultaneous observation of nascent plasma and bubble induced by laser ablation in water with various pulse durations

We investigate the effects of pulse duration on the dynamics of the nascent plasma and bubble induced by laser ablation in water. To examine the relationship between the nascent plasma and the bubble without disturbed by shot-to-shot fluctuation, we observe the images of the plasma and the bubble simultaneously by using two intensified charge coupled device detectors. We successfully observe the images of the plasma and bubble during the pulsed-irradiation, when the bubble size is as small as 20 μm. The light-emitting region of the plasma during the laser irradiation seems to exceed the bubble boundary in the case of the short-pulse (30-ns pulse) irradiation, while the size of the plasma is significantly smaller than that of the bubble in the case of the long-pulse (100-ns pulse) irradiation. The results suggest that the extent of the plasma quenching in the initial stage significantly depends on the pulse duration. Also, we investigate how the plasma-bubble relationship in the very early stage affects the shape of the atomic spectral lines observed at the later delay time of 600 ns. The present work gives important information to obtain high quality spectra in the application of underwater laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy, as well as to clarify the mechanism of liquid-phase laser ablation.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

Decoherence dynamics in molecular qubits: Exponential, Gaussian and beyond

In this article, we examine how the structure of system–bath interactions can determine commonly encountered temporal decoherence patterns, such as Gaussian and exponential decay, in molecular and other qubits coupled to a thermal bosonic bath. The analysis, based on a pure dephasing picture that admits analytical treatment, shows that decoherence, in general, is neither purely Gaussian nor exponential but rather the exponential of oscillatory functions, with periods determined by the bath’s frequencies. For initially unentangled qubit-bath states, Gaussian decay is always present at early times. It becomes increasingly dominant with increasing temperature, qubit–bath interaction strength, and bath correlation time. Initial system–bath entanglement that arises due to displacement in the position of the bath states preserves the Gaussian decay. By contrast, strict exponential decay arises only in very specific models that we isolate. However, it becomes dominant for times longer than the bath correlation time or for early times when there is initial entanglement due to momentum displacement of the bath states. For molecular electronic decoherence, the long-time exponential regime plays a limited role as it emerges after most coherence is lost. Thus, the Gaussian decay provides a more suitable (albeit imperfect) model of such decoherence. Furthermore, we discuss the connection between electronic decoherence dynamics and electronic spectroscopic line shape theory, where Gaussian spectral peaks correspond to Gaussian coherence decay and Lorentzian peaks correspond to exponential coherence decay. We find that Gaussian spectral peaks, usually associated with inhomogeneous broadening, can emerge from the entangling unitary system–bath dynamics even when there is no inhomogeneity in the initial conditions.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

Enhancement of the sensitivity of the light-induced drift effect to interatomic interaction potentials using a mixture of two buffer gases

Based on five different nonempirical (calculated ab initio) interaction potentials for pairs of colliding Li – Ne particles and three different interaction potentials for pairs of colliding Li – Ar particles, we have theoretically investigated the spectral features of the light-induced drift (LID) rate of Li atoms in the buffer Ne gas in a mixture of buffer Ne + Ar gases. The calculations of LID of Li atoms in the buffer Ne gas for two interaction potentials predict anomalous LID and, as a result, strong sensitivity of the spectral shape of the LID lines to the differences in these potentials. For three other potentials (out of the five in question), the shape of the LID line of Li atoms in Ne is insensitive to the shape of the potential, since calculations with these potentials predict a normal LID effect. In this case, as it turned out, by adding a small fraction (approximately 10 %) of Ar to Ne, one can go from normal LID to anomalous LID and thereby radically increase the sensitivity of the LID line shape of Li atoms to the difference in these interaction potentials. The results obtained enable high-precision testing of the interatomic interaction potentials in experiments on anomalous LID. (nonlinear optical phenomena)

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

SOLAR FLARE CHROMOSPHERIC LINE EMISSION: COMPARISON BETWEEN IBIS HIGH-RESOLUTION OBSERVATIONS AND RADIATIVE HYDRODYNAMIC SIMULATIONS

Solar flares involve impulsive energy release, which results in enhanced radiation over a broad spectral range and a wide range of heights. In particular, line emission from the chromosphere can provide critical diagnostics of plasma heating processes. Thus, a direct comparison between high-resolution spectroscopic observations and advanced numerical modeling results could be extremely valuable, but has not yet been attempted. In this paper, we present such a self-consistent investigation of an M3.0 flare observed by the Dunn Solar Telescope’s Interferometric Bi-dimensional Spectrometer (IBIS) on 2011 September 24 which we have modeled using the radiative hydrodynamic code RADYN. We obtained images and spectra of the flaring region with IBIS in Hα 6563 Å and Ca ii 8542 Å, and with RHESSI in X-rays. The latter observations were used to infer the non-thermal electron population, which was passed to RADYN to simulate the atmospheric response to electron collisional heating. We then synthesized spectral lines and compared their shapes and intensities to those observed by IBIS and found a general agreement. In particular, the synthetic Ca ii 8542 Å profile fits well to the observed profile, while the synthetic Hα profile is fainter in the core than for the observation. This indicates that Hα emission is more responsive to the non-thermal electron flux than the Ca ii 8542 Å emission. We suggest that it is necessary to refine the energy input and other processes to resolve this discrepancy.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

X-ray Absorption Spectral Signature of Quantum Nuclei in Liquid Water

Based on electron-hole excitation theory, we investigate the X-ray absorption spectral signature of nuclear quantum effect in liquid water, whose molecular structure is simulated by path-integral molecular dynamics using the MB-pol model. Compared to spectra generated from classically modeled water structure, quantum nuclei has important effect on spectra in terms of both the spectral energies and their line shapes. At the short-range ordering of H-bond network, the delocalized protons increase the fluctuations on the intramolecular covalency and broaden the pre-edge of the spectra. For intermediate-range and long-range orderings, the observed red and blue shifts of the main-edge and post-edge are attributed to the so-called competing quantum effects, under which both the weak and well-formed H-bonds are promoted. The theoretical spectra are in nearly quantitative agreement with the available experimental data.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

The next generation microwave sounder for weather satellites

Microwave sounders are multichannel microwave radiometers for measuring atmospheric temperature (or humidity) profiles. These devices are also known as microwave spectrometers because a sounder typically has a number of channels measuring the spectral shape of an absorption line. Each channel of the sounder responds essentially to a given layer of the atmosphere. The characteristics of currently employed microwave sounders on satellites are briefly examined, and new features expected in connection with the introduction of the next generation sounders are discussed. There will probably be an increase in the number of oxygen channels with the objective to extend the weighting function height coverage into the stratosphere and to improve the temperature retrieval accuracy. Other features are to be related to better surface resolution, auxiliary channels, and water vapor sounding.

Shiue, J. C.↗

Frequency domain assurance criterion for defect detection in additively manufactured parts

Additive manufacturing (AM) is a very desirable manufacturing method for industries such as aerospace and automotive due to its ability to create internal features and complex geometries, however, these characteristics also present challenges for nondestructive evaluation (NDE) and defect detection. Dynamic analysis and modal analysis have shown promise for NDE and identifying flaws in AM parts. Frequency Domain Assurance Criterion (FDAC) is a method of dynamic evaluation that represents the degree of correlation between two sets of operational deflection shapes (ODS) at each spectral line. Using colormaps to display the results allows for quick and easy interpretation of parts’ similarities and differences. This method appears to show promise in identifying parts with minor defects and can be used to differentiate nominal and defective parts. This paper explores the use of FDAC on various AM parts with and without intentional defects.

Deonarain, G↗

High resolution, high signal-to-noise crystal spectrometer for measurements of line shifts in high-density plasmas

The Orion high-resolution x-ray (OHREX) spectrometer has been a successful tool for measuring the shapes of density-broadened spectral lines produced in short-pulse heated plasmas at the Orion laser facility. We have recently outfitted the instrument with a charge-couple device (CCD) camera, which greatly increased the accuracy with which we can perform line-shift measurements. Because OHREX is located on the outside of the Orion target chamber, no provisions for the shielding of electromagnetic pulses are required. With the CCD, we obtained a higher signal-to-noise ratio than we previously obtained with an image-plate detector. As a result, this allowed us to observe structure in the image produced by the diffraction from the two OHREX crystals, which was highly reproducible from shot to shot. This structure will ultimately limit the accuracy of our spectroscopic measurements

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗

Line Coupling in Atmospheric Spectra

The theoretical modeling of atmospheric spectra is important for a number of different applications: for instance, in the determination of minor atmospheric constituents such as ozone, carbon dioxide, CFC's etc.; in monitoring the temperature profile for climate studies; and in measuring the incoming and outgoing radiation to input into global climate models. In order to accomplish the above mentioned goal, one needs to know the spectral parameters characterizing the individual spectral lines (frequency, width, strength, and shape) as well as the physical parameters of the atmosphere (temperature, abundances, and pressure). When all these parameters are known, it is usually assumed that the resultant spectra and concomitant absorption coefficient can then be calculated by a superposition of individual profiles of appropriate frequency, strength and shape. However, this is not true if the lines are 'coupled'. Line coupling is a subtle effect that takes place when lines of a particular molecule overlap in frequency. In this case when the initial states and the final states of two transitions are connected by collisions, there is a quantum interference resulting in perturbed shapes. In general, this results in the narrowing of Q-branches (those in which the rotational quantum number does not change), and vibration-rotational R- and P branches (those in which the rotational quantum number changes by +/- 1), and in the spectral region beyond band heads (regions where the spectral lines pile up due to centrifugal distortion). Because these features and spectral regions are often those of interest in the determination of the abundances and pressure-temperature profiles, one must take this effect into account in atmospheric models.

Tipping, R. H.↗

Bimodality in Arrays of In{sub 0.4}Ga{sub 0.6}As Hybrid Quantum-Confined Heterostructures Grown on GaAs Substrates

Hybrid quantum-confined heterostructures grown by metal-organic vapor-phase epitaxy (MOVPE) via the deposition of In{sub 0.4}Ga{sub 0.6}As layers with various nominal thicknesses onto vicinal GaAs substrates are studied by photoluminescence spectroscopy and transmission electron microscopy. The photoluminescence spectra of these structures show the superposition of two spectral lines, which is indicative of the bimodal distribution of the size and/or shape of light-emitting objects in an array. The dominant spectral line is attributed to the luminescence of hybrid “quantum well–dot” nanostructures in the form of a dense array of relatively small quantum dots (QDs) with weak electron and hole localization. The second, lower intensity line is attributed to luminescence from a less dense array of comparatively larger QDs. Analysis of the behavior of the spectral line intensities at various temperatures showed that the density of larger QDs grows with increasing thickness of the InGaAs layer.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Simulation of UV atomic radiation for application in exhaust plume spectrometry

Quantitative analysis of exhaust plume spectral data has long been a goal of developers of advanced engine health monitoring systems which incorporate optical measurements of rocket exhaust constituents. Discussed herein is the status of present efforts to model and predict atomic radiation spectra and infer free-atom densities from emission/absorption measurements as part of the Optical Plume Anomaly Detection (OPAD) program at Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC). A brief examination of the mathematical formalism is provided in the context of predicting radiation from the Mach disk region of the SSME exhaust flow at nominal conditions during ground level testing at MSFC. Computational results are provided for Chromium and Copper at selected transitions which indicate a strong dependence upon broadening parameter values determining the absorption-emission line shape. Representative plots of recent spectral data from the Stennis Space Center (SSC) Diagnostic Test Facility (DTF) rocket engine are presented and compared to numerical results from the present self-absorbing model; a comprehensive quantitative analysis will be reported at a later date.

Wallace, T. L.↗