ALBERT

Description: Author(s): Mahua Biswas, Yun Suk Jung, Hong Koo Kim, Kumarappan Kumar, Gregory J. Hughes, S. Newcomb, Martin O. Henry, and Enda McGlynn We report photoluminescence (PL) studies of the surface exciton peak in ZnO nanostructures at ~3.367 eV aimed at elucidation of the nature and origin of the emission and its relationship to the nanostructure morphology. PL spectra in conjunction with localized voltage application in high vacuum and ... [Phys. Rev. B 83, 235320] Published Mon Jun 13, 2011

Description: Author(s): Philip Trøst Kristensen, Jesper Mørk, Peter Lodahl, and Stephen Hughes We theoretically investigate the influence of radiative coupling on light emission in a photonic crystal slab structure. The calculation method is based on a formalism that combines the photon Green's tensor with a self-consistent Dyson equation approach and is applicable to a wide range of problems... [Phys. Rev. B 83, 075305] Published Mon Feb 14, 2011

Description: Author(s): P. K. Pathak and S. Hughes We present a scheme to realize a deterministic solid-state source of time-bin entangled photon pairs using cavity-assisted piecewise adiabatic passage in a single quantum dot. The quantum dot is embedded inside a semiconductor microcavity, and the interaction of a coherent superposition of two tempo... [Phys. Rev. B 83, 245301] Published Fri Jun 03, 2011

Description: Author(s): S. Hughes, P. Yao, F. Milde, A. Knorr, D. Dalacu, K. Mnaymneh, V. Sazonova, P. J. Poole, G. C. Aers, J. Lapointe, R. Cheriton, and R. L. Williams We present a quantum optics approach to describe the influence of electron-acoustic phonon coupling on the emission spectra of a strongly coupled quantum-dot cavity system. Using a canonical Hamiltonian for light quantization and a photon Green function formalism, phonons are included to all orders ... [Phys. Rev. B 83, 165313] Published Thu Apr 21, 2011

Description: Author(s): C. Roy and S. Hughes We present a comprehensive theoretical study of the resonance fluorescence spectra of an coherently-driven quantum dot (QD) placed inside a high- Q semiconductor cavity and interacting with an acoustic-phonon bath. We derive a quantum master equation (ME) in the polaron frame, which includes exciton-... [Phys. Rev. B 85, 115309] Published Fri Mar 16, 2012

Description: Author(s): C. Van Vlack, Philip Trøst Kristensen, and S. Hughes We investigate the quantum optical properties of a quantum-dot dipole emitter coupled to a finite-size metal nanoparticle using a photon Green-function technique that rigorously quantizes the electromagnetic fields. We first obtain pronounced Purcell factors and photonic Lamb shifts for both a 7- an... [Phys. Rev. B 85, 075303] Published Fri Feb 03, 2012

Description: Author(s): Lee A. Walsh, Greg Hughes, Jun Lin, Paul K. Hurley, Terrance P. O’Regan, Eric Cockayne, and Joseph C. Woicik Hard x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (HAXPES) has been used to study metal-oxide-semiconductor (MOS) structures fabricated with both high (Ni) and low (Al) work-function metals on 8-nm thick Al 2 O 3 dielectric layers, deposited on sulfur passivated n - and p -doped GaAs substrates. A binding energy dif... [Phys. Rev. B 88, 045322] Published Tue Jul 30, 2013

Description: The future space-based gravitational wave detector LISA will be able to measure parameters of coalescing massive black hole binaries, often to extremely high accuracy. Previous work has demonstrated that the black hole spins can have a strong impact on the accuracy of parameter measurement. Relativistic spin-induced precession modulates the waveform in a manner which can break degeneracies between parameters, in principle significantly improving how well they are measured. Recent studies have indicated, however, that spin precession may be weak for an important subset of astrophysical binary black holes: those in which the spins are aligned due to interactions with gas. In this paper, we examine how well a binary's parameters can be measured when its spins are partially aligned and compare results using waveforms that include higher post-Newtonian harmonics to those that are truncated at leading quadrupole order. We find that the weakened precession can substantially degrade parameter estimation, particularly for the "extrinsic" parameters sky position and distance. Absent higher harmonics, LISA typically localizes the sky position of a nearly aligned binary about an order of magnitude less accurately than one for which the spin orientations are random. Our knowledge of a source's sky position will thus be worst for the gas-rich systems which are most likely to produce electromagnetic counterparts. Fortunately, higher harmonics of the waveform can make up for this degradation. By including harmonics beyond the quadrupole in our waveform model, we find that the accuracy with which most of the binary's parameters are measured can be substantially improved. In some cases, the improvement is such that they are measured almost as well as when the binary spins are randomly aligned.

Description: The 30 Myr old A3-type star HD 21997 is one of the two known debris dust disks having a measurable amount of cold molecular gas. With the goal of understanding the physical state, origin, and evolution of the gas in young debris disks, we obtained CO line observations with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA). Here, we report on the detection of (12)CO and (13)CO in the J = 2-1 and J = 3-2 transitions and C(18)O in the J = 2-1 line. The gas exhibits a Keplerian velocity curve, one of the few direct measurements of Keplerian rotation in young debris disks. The measured CO brightness distribution could be reproduced by a simple star+disk system, whose parameters are r(sub in) 〈 26 AU, r(sub out) = 138 +/- 20 AU, Stellar M = 1.8 +0.5/0.2 Solar M, and i = 32. Deg. 6 +/- 3 deg..1. The total CO mass, as calculated from the optically thin C(18)O line, is about (4-8) 10(exp 2 ) Solar M, while the CO line ratios suggest a radiation temperature on the order of 6-9 K. Comparing our results with those obtained for the dust component of the HD 21997 disk from ALMA continuum observations by Moor et al., we conclude that comparable amounts of CO gas and dust are present in the disk. Interestingly, the gas and dust in the HD 21997 system are not colocated, indicating a dust-free inner gas disk within 55 AU of the star. We explore two possible scenarios for the origin of the gas. A secondary origin, which involves gas production from colliding or active planetesimals, would require unreasonably high gas production rates and would not explain why the gas and dust are not colocated. We propose that HD 21997 is a hybrid system where secondary debris dust and primordial gas coexist. HD 21997, whose age exceeds both the model predictions for disk clearing and the ages of the oldest T Tauri-like or transitional gas disks in the literature, may be a key object linking the primordial and the debris phases of disk evolution.

Description: Observations of radio halos and relics in galaxy clusters indicate efficient electron acceleration. Protons should likewise be accelerated and, on account of weak energy losses, can accumulate, suggesting that clusters may also be sources of very high energy (VHE; E greater than100 GeV) gamma-ray emission. We report here on VHE gamma-ray observations of the Coma galaxy cluster with the VERITAS array of imaging Cerenkov telescopes, with complementing Fermi Large Area Telescope observations at GeV energies. No significant gamma-ray emission from the Coma Cluster was detected. Integral flux upper limits at the 99 confidence level were measured to be on the order of (2-5) x 10(sup -8) photons m(sup -2) s(sup -1) (VERITAS,greater than 220 GeV) and approximately 2 x 10(sup -6) photons m(sup -2) s(sup -1) (Fermi, 1-3 GeV), respectively. We use the gamma-ray upper limits to constrain cosmic rays (CRs) and magnetic fields in Coma. Using an analytical approach, the CR-to-thermal pressure ratio is constrained to be less than 16% from VERITAS data and less than 1.7% from Fermi data (averaged within the virial radius). These upper limits are starting to constrain the CR physics in self-consistent cosmological cluster simulations and cap the maximum CR acceleration efficiency at structure formation shocks to be 50. Alternatively, this may argue for non-negligible CR transport processes such as CR streaming and diffusion into the outer cluster regions. Assuming that the radio-emitting electrons of the Coma halo result from hadronic CR interactions, the observations imply a lower limit on the central magnetic field in Coma of approximately (2-5.5)microG, depending on the radial magnetic field profile and on the gamma-ray spectral index. Since these values are below those inferred by Faraday rotation measurements in Coma (for most of the parameter space), this renders the hadronic model a very plausible explanation of the Coma radio halo. Finally, since galaxy clusters are dark matter (DM) dominated, the VERITAS upper limits have been used to place constraints on the thermally averaged product of the total self-annihilation cross section and the relative velocity of the DM particles, (sigma upsilon)