Pure Vacuum Research Articles

Circular orbits around higher dimensional Einstein and pure Gauss–Bonnet rotating black holes

In this paper we study circular orbits around higher dimensional rotating Myers–Perry and pure Gauss–Bonnet (GB) black holes. It turns out that for the former there occurs no potential well to harbour bound and thereby stable circular orbits. The only circular orbits that could occur are all unstable and their radius is bounded from the below by that of the photon circular orbit. On the other hand bound and stable circular orbits do exist for pure GB/Lovelock rotating black holes (the metric is though not an exact solution of pure Lovelock vacuum equation but it satisfies the equation in the leading order and has all the desired properties) in dimensions, 2 N + 2 ≤ D ≤ 4 N (for N = 2 pure GB in D = 6 , 7 , 8 ) where N is the degree of Lovelock polynomial. Thus bound and stable circular orbits could exist around higher dimensional rotating black holes only for pure GB/Lovelock gravity. This property is a nice discriminator between Myers–Perry and pure GB/Lovelock rotating black holes.

Ultimate precision of joint parameter estimation under noisy Gaussian environment

The major problem of multiparameter quantum estimation theory is to find an ultimate measurement scheme to go beyond the standard quantum limits that each quasi-classical estimation measurement is limited by. Although, in some specifics quantum protocols without environmental noise, the ultimate sensitivity of a multiparameter quantum estimation can beat the standard quantum limit. However, the presence of noise imposes limitations on the enhancement of precision due to the inevitable existence of environmental fluctuations. Here, we address the motivation behind the usage of Gaussian quantum resources and their advantages in reaching the standard quantum limits under realistic noise. In this context, our work aims to explore the ultimate limits of precision for the simultaneous estimation of a pair of parameters that characterize the displacement channel acting on Gaussian probes and subjected to open dynamics. More precisely, we focus on a general two-mode mixed squeezed displaced thermal state, after reducing it to various Gaussian probes states, like; a two-mode pure squeezed vacuum, two-mode pure displaced vacuum, two-mode mixed displaced thermal, two-mode mixed squeezed thermal. To study the ultimate estimation precision, we evaluate the upper and bottom bound of HCRB in various cases. We find that when the entangled states, two-mode pure squeezed vacuum and two-mode mixed squeezed thermal, are employed as probes states, the upper and bottom bound of HCRB beats the standard quantum limit in the presence of a noisy environment.

Cathode erosion in a gas arc discharge at the threshold currents

The results of experimental studies of the erosion rate of high-purity tungsten cathodes after pulsed arc discharges in a pure oil-free ultrahigh vacuum and in gases of various purities are reported. The erosion rate in high-purity argon does not change compared to the rate of erosion of electrodes in a pure oil-free vacuum. The rate of erosion in "technical" argon is 10-20% less than the rate of erosion of electrodes in an oil-free vacuum. The rate of erosion in "technical" nitrogen is 15-35% less than the rate of erosion of electrodes in vacuum. Particle sizes formed in gas arcs are smaller than those formed in vacuum arcs. Keywords: arc in gas, erosion rate, ecton mechanism, particles, electron microscopy

Mechanical Thrombectomy of Pulmonary Emboli With Use of the Indigo System and Lightning 12 Intelligent Aspiration

Mechanical Thrombectomy of Pulmonary Emboli With Use of the Indigo System and Lightning 12 Intelligent Aspiration

Towards pair production in the non-perturbative regime

The interaction of light with the quantum-vacuum is predicted to give rise to some of the most fundamental and exotic processes in modern physics, which remain untested in the laboratory to date. Electron–positron pair production from a pure vacuum target, which has yet to be observed experimentally, is possibly the most iconic. The advent of ultra-intense lasers and laser accelerated GeV electron beams provide an ideal platform for the experimental realisation. Collisions of high energy γ-ray photons derived from the GeV electrons and intense laser fields result in detectable pair production rates at field strengths that approach and exceed the Schwinger limit in the centre-of-momentum frame. A detailed experiment has been designed to be implemented at the ATLAS laser at the centre of advanced laser applications. We show full calculations of the expected backgrounds and beam parameters which suggest that single pair events can be reliably generated and detected.

QCD phase diagram in a magnetized medium from the chiral symmetry perspective: the linear sigma model with quarks and the Nambu–Jona-Lasinio model effective descriptions

We review the main features of the QCD phase diagram description, at finite temperature, baryon density and in the presence of a magnetic field, from the point of view of effective models, whose main ingredient is chiral symmetry. We concentrate our attention on two of these models: The linear sigma model with quarks and the Nambu--Jona-Lasinio model. We show that a main ingredient to understand the characteristics of the phase transitions is the inclusion of plasma screening effects that capture the physics of collective, long-wave modes, and thus describe a prime property of plasmas near transition lines, namely, long distance correlations. Inclusion of plasma screening makes possible to understand the inverse magnetic catalysis phenomenon even without the need to consider magnetic field-dependent coupling constants. Screening is also responsible for the emergence of a critical end point in the phase diagram even for small magnetic field strengths. Although versatile, the NJL model is also a more limited approach since, being a non-renormalizable model, a clear separation between pure vacuum and medium effects is not always possible. The model cannot describe inverse magnetic catalysis unless a magnetic field dependent coupling is included. The location of the critical end point strongly depends on the choice of the type of interaction and on the magnetic field dependence of the corresponding coupling. Overall, both models provide sensible tools to explore the properties of magnetized, strongly interacting matter. However, a cross talk among them as well as a consistent physical approach to determine the model parameters is much needed.

Standard model baryon number violation seeded by black holes

We show that black holes with a Schwarzschild radius of the order of the electroweak scale may act as seeds for the baryon number violation within the Standard model via sphaleron transitions. The corresponding rate is faster than the one in the pure vacuum and baryon number violation around black holes can take place during the evolution of the universe after the electroweak phase transition. We show however that this does not pose any threat for a pre-existing baryon asymmetry in the universe.

The cosmological effect of N-entangled state in multiverse

We investigate the effect of quantum entanglement betwen N-causally disconnected universes by calculated the power spectrum of quantum fluctuation. To investigate it the general from of N-quantum state and specific N-entangled state(GHZ and W state) are used. We found that the power spectrum has the maximum value when the state is near to pure one particle state. For the specific N-entangled state, the power spectrum of W state is equal to pure vacuum state when the amount of N-causally disconnected universes is near to infinite and for GHZ state the power spectrum has same value for every N-causally disconnected universes.

A Model of Catalytic Cracking: Product Distribution and Catalyst Deactivation Depending on Saturates, Aromatics and Resins Content in Feed

The problems of catalyst deactivation and optimization of the mixed feedstock become more relevant when the residues are involved as a catalytic cracking feedstock. Through numerical and experimental studies of catalytic cracking, we optimized the composition of the mixed feedstock in order to minimize the catalyst deactivation by coke. A pure vacuum gasoil increases the yields of the wet gas and the gasoline (56.1 and 24.9 wt%). An increase in the ratio of residues up to 50% reduces the gasoline yield due to the catalyst deactivation by 19.9%. However, this provides a rise in the RON of gasoline and the light gasoil yield by 1.9 units and 1.7 wt% Moreover, the ratio of residue may be less than 50%, since the conversion is limited by the regenerator coke burning ability.

Эрозия катода в газовом дуговом разряде в области пороговых токов

The results of experimental studies of the erosion rate of high-purity tungsten cathodes after pulsed arc discharges in a pure oil-free ultrahigh vacuum and in gases of various purities are reported. The erosion rate in high-purity argon does not change compared to the rate of erosion of electrodes in a pure oil-free vacuum. The rate of erosion in "technical" argon is 10% less than the rate of erosion of electrodes in an oil-free vacuum. The rate of erosion in "technical" nitrogen is 15-35% less than the rate of erosion of electrodes in vacuum. Particle sizes formed in gas arcs are smaller than those formed in vacuum arcs.

Predicting Drying Performance of Osmotically Treated Heat Sensitive Products Using Artificial Intelligence

The main goal of this research is to develop and apply a robust Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) model for predicting the characteristics of the osmotically drying treated potato and apple samples as a model heat-sensitive product in vacuum contact dryer. Concentrated salt and sugar solutions were used as the osmotic solutions at 27C. Series of experiments were performed at various temperatures of 35C, 40C, and 55C for conduction heat input under vacuum ( −760 mm Hg) condition. Some experiments were also performed in a pure vacuum without heat addition. Dimensionless moisture content (DMC), effective moisture diffusivity, and mass flux were considered as the performance parameters in this study. Results revealed that the osmotic dehydration using a concentrated sugar solution shows a higher reduction in the initial moisture loss of 19.87% compared to 5.3% in the salt solution. Furthermore, a significant enhancement of drying performance of about 27% in DMC was observed for both samples at vacuum and 40C compared to pure vacuum drying conditions. Using the experimental data, a robust artificial neural network (ANN) was proposed to describe the osmotic dehydration’s behavior on the drying process. The ANN model outputs are the dimensionless moisture contents (DMC), the diffusivity, and the mass flux. Whereas the ANN inputs were the drying time, the percent of sugar solution, and the percent of salt solution. For the ANN apple’s model, the minimum root mean square error (RMSE) values were 0.0261, 0.0349 and 0.0406, for DMC, diffusivity, and mass flux, respectively. Whereas the best correlation coefficients of the above three parameters’ determination values were 0.9909, 0.9867 and 0.9744, respectively. For the ANN potato’s model, the minimum RMSE values were 0.0124, 0.0140 and 0.0333, for DMC, diffusivity, and mass flux, respectively. And the best correlation coefficients of the parameters’ values were found 0.9969, 0.9968 and 0.9736, respectively. Accordingly, the ANN model’s prediction has a perfect agreement with the experimental dataset, which confirmed the ANN model’s accuracy.

Using Electron Paramagnetic Resonance Spectroscopy to Determine the Role of Free‐Radical Protection in Tardigrade Survival Mechanisms

As aeronautic technology advances, so does the possibility of long‐term space travel and exploration. However, in order to make significant strides, it is first necessary to determine how to survive the antagonistic space environment, including temperature extremes, UVC radiation, and vacuum pressures, among others. Tardigrades are microscopic invertebrates that possess the ability to adapt to extreme environments through the formation of a tun, a dormant structure resulting from the downregulation of metabolism. This ability to survive under extreme conditions, including arctic temperatures, extreme heat, and a pure vacuum, makes tardigrades a useful model organism for space survival. By increasing our understanding of their survival mechanisms on a fundamental level, we may be able to generate technologies that protect humans in space from diseases caused by ROS and the damaging effects of oxidative stress.Previous research has examined the physiological response of tardigrades subjected to freezes and irradiation that model outer Earth conditions. In these studies, tardigrades were shown to enter tun formation through cryptobiosis, especially in response to physical stressors causing desiccation. Another study assessed tardigrades’ intergalactic survival capability by sending a culture into the vacuum of space, after which the cultures showed no loss of viability. We hypothesize that tardigrades have a specific, protective mechanism to respond to oxidative stress through the increased expression of superoxide dismutases (SODs) to break down potentially harmful ROS, which is supported by previous studies showing both the formation of superoxide radicals as well as an increase in SODs in desiccated animals.In this study, X‐band continuous wave electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectroscopy was used to measure the presence of superoxide radicals in the tardigrade Hypsibius exemplaris before and after exposure to environmental stressors. Tardigrades were subjected to a combination of UVA and UVB irradiation before the addition of a spin probe, and the resulting EPR spectrum was compared to a nonirradiated H. exemplaris control. Results show that the tardigrades generated less ROS following environmental stress exposure, supporting the hypothesis of a protective mechanism to mediate radical production when subject to harsh conditions. Studies concerning other physical and chemical stressors, as well as examining radical production in tardigrades upon inducing tun formation, are ongoing. Further experiments also include determining specific activities of proteinaceous antioxidants like SOD before and after these exposures.Support or Funding InformationJ.R.C was supported the SURE Program funded through the West Virginia Research Challenge Fund, and administered by the West Virginia HEPC, DSR, Award Number DSR.17.09,the WV NASA Space Grant Consortium's NASA WV Space Grant Undergraduate Fellowship Program and from a Marshall University Creative Discover & Undergraduate Research Award.D.R.J.K. and A.L.S. were supported by the National Science Foundation under Cooperative Agreement No. OIA‐1458952.

A single spark model for PSR J2144−3933

ABSTRACT The partially screened vacuum gap model (PSG) for the inner acceleration region in normal radio pulsars, a variant of the pure vacuum gap model, attempts to account for the observed thermal X-ray emission from polar caps and the subpulse drifting time-scales. We have used this model to explain the presence of death lines and extreme location of PSR J2144−3933 in the $P{-}\dot{P}$ diagram. This model requires maintaining the polar cap near a critical temperature and the presence of non-dipolar surface magnetic field to form the inner acceleration region. In the PSG model, thermostatic regulation is achieved by sparking discharges, which are a feature of all vacuum gap models. We demonstrate that non-dipolar surface magnetic field reduces polar cap area in PSR J2144−3933 such that only one spark can be produced and is sufficient to sustain the critical temperature. This pulsar has a single-component profile over a wide frequency range. Single-pulse polarimetric observations and the rotating vector model confirm that the observer’s line of sight traverses the emission beam centrally. These observations are consistent with a single spark operating within framework of the PSG model leading to single-component emission. Additionally, single-pulse modulations of this pulsar, including lack of subpulse drifting, presence of single-period nulls and microstructure, are compatible with a single spark either in PSG or in general vacuum gap models.

Efficient Simulation of Finite-Temperature Open Quantum Systems.

Chain-mapping techniques in combination with the time-dependent density matrix renormalization group are a powerful tool for the simulation of open-system quantum dynamics. For finite-temperature environments, however, this approach suffers from an unfavorable algorithmic scaling with increasing temperature. We prove that the system dynamics under thermal environments can be nonperturbatively described by temperature-dependent system-environmental couplings with the initial environment state being in its pure vacuum state, instead of a mixed thermal state. As a consequence, as long as the initial system state is pure, the global system-environment state remains pure at all times. The resulting speed-up and relaxed memory requirements of this approach enable the efficient simulation of open quantum systems interacting with highly structured environments in any temperature range, with applications extending from quantum thermodynamics to quantum effects in mesoscopic systems.

General structure of the neutral ρ meson self-energy and its spectral properties in a hot and dense magnetized medium

The one loop self energy of the neutral $\rho$ meson is obtained for the effective $\rho\pi\pi$ and $\rho NN$ interaction at finite temperature and density in the presence of a constant background magnetic field of arbitrary strength. In our approach, the eB-dependent vacuum part of the self energy is extracted by means of dimensional regularization where the ultraviolet divergences corresponding to the pure vacuum self energy manifest as the pole singularities of gamma as well as Hurwitz zeta functions. This improved regularization procedure consistently reproduces the expected results in the vanishing magnetic field limit and can be used quite generally in other self energy calculations dealing with arbitrary magnetic field strength. In presence of the external magnetic field, the general Lorentz structure for the in-medium vector boson self energy is derived which can also be implemented in case of the gauge bosons such as photons and gluons. It has been shown that with vanishing perpendicular momentum of the external particle, essentially two form factors are sufficient to describe the self energy completely. Consequently, two distinct modes are observed in the study of the effective mass, dispersion relations and the spectral function of $\rho^0$ where one of the modes possesses two fold degeneracy. For large baryonic chemical potential, it is observed that the critical magnetic field required to block the $\rho^0\rightarrow\pi^+\pi^-$ decay channel increases significantly with temperature. However, in case of smaller values reaching down to vanishing chemical potential, the critical field follows the opposite trend.

Dark matter Sommerfeld-enhanced annihilation and bound-state decay at finite temperature

Traditional computations of the dark matter (DM) relic abundance, for models where attractive self-interactions are mediated by light force-carriers and bound states exist, rely on the solution of a coupled system of classical on-shell Boltzmann equations. This idealized description misses important thermal effects caused by the tight coupling among force-carriers and other charged relativistic species potentially present during the chemical decoupling process. We develop for the first time a comprehensive ab initio derivation for the description of DM long-range interactions in the presence of a hot and dense plasma background directly from nonequilibrium quantum field theory. Our results clarify a few conceptional aspects of the derivation and show that under certain conditions the finite temperature effects can lead to sizable modifications of DM Sommerfeld-enhanced annihilation and bound-state decay rates. In particular, the scattering and bound states get strongly mixed in the thermal plasma environment, representing a characteristic difference from a pure vacuum theory computation. The main result of this work is a novel differential equation for the DM number density, written down in a form which is manifestly independent under the choice of what one would interpret as a bound or a scattering state at finite temperature. The collision term, unifying the description of annihilation and bound-state decay, turns out to have in general a nonquadratic dependence on the DM number density. This generalizes the form of the conventional Lee-Weinberg equation which is typically adopted to describe the freeze-out process. We prove that our number density equation is consistent with previous literature results under certain limits. In the limit of vanishing finite temperature corrections our central equation is fully compatible with the classical on-shell Boltzmann equation treatment. So far, finite temperature corrected annihilation rates for long-range force systems have been estimated from a method relying on linear response theory. We prove consistency between the latter and our method in the linear regime close to chemical equilibrium.

Black hole formation from the collision of plane-fronted gravitational waves

This paper introduces a new effort to study the collision of plane-fronted gravitational waves in four dimensional, asymptotically flat spacetime, using numerical solutions of the Einstein equations. The pure vacuum problem requires singular, Aichelburg-Sexl type sources to achieve finite energy solutions, which are problematic to treat both mathematically and numerically. Instead then, we use null (massless) particles to source non-trivial geometry within the initial wave fronts. The main purposes of this paper are to (a) motivate the problem, (b) introduce methods for numerically solving the Einstein equations coupled to distributions of collisionless massless or massive particles, and (c) present a first result on the formation of black holes in the head-on collision of axisymmetric distributions of null particles. Regarding the last-named, initial conditions are chosen so that a black hole forms promptly, with essentially no matter escaping the collision. This can be interpreted as approaching the ultra-relativistic collision problem from within an infinite boost limit, but where the matter distribution is spread out, and thus non-singular. We find results that are consistent with earlier perturbative calculations of the collision of Aichelburg-Sexl singularities, as well as numerical studies of the high-speed collision of boson stars, black holes, and fluid stars: a black hole is formed containing most of the energy of the spacetime, with the remaining $15\pm1\%$ of the initial energy radiated away as gravitational waves. The methods developed here could be relevant for other problems in strong field gravity and cosmology that involve particle distributions of matter.

Stable lattice Boltzmann model for Maxwell equations in media.

38, 1710 (2014)AMMODL0307-904X10.1016/j.apm.2013.09.009] and apply an extension that treats the effects of polarization and magnetization separately. We show simulations of simple examples in which EM waves travel into media to quantify error scaling, stability, accuracy, and time scaling. For conductive media, we use the Strang splitting and check the simulations accuracy at the example of the skin effect. Like pure EM propagation, the error for the static limits, which are constructed with a current density added in a first-order scheme, can be less than 1%. The presented method is an easily implemented alternative for the stabilization of simulation for EM waves propagating in spatially complex structured media properties and arbitrary transitions.

Oxidation investigation of cladding specimens for regular and accident tolerant fuel rods under LOCA conditions

The high-temperature oxidation tests were carried out for the regular fuel rod claddings specimens made of sponge-based zirconium alloy (E110G) and for the accident tolerant fuel (ATF) ones – pure vacuum melted molybdenum (VCPM) and niobium alloy (Nb-1%Zr). The tests were carried out under the ambient pressure p ∼ 0.1 MPa in pure water steam. The experimental data on the oxidation characteristics were obtained for E110G specimens in the temperature range T = 1100 − 1500 °C, that for VCPM and Nb-1%Zr are investigated under extended temperature-duration range (more than 1 hour). The thermal effects of molybdenum (QSMR) and niobium (QSNR) interactions with steam were defined and the derived oxidation rate constants for refractory metals were compared with the known ones. Based on the computations performed with PARAM-TG code the high-temperature oxidation characteristics of model fuel assemblies of large-scale facilities under LOCA conditions with regular and ATF claddings were compared. It was shown that Zr-steam interaction of fuel rod cladding (QSZR) is more intensive compared with VCPM and Nb-1%Zr ones under investigated conditions.

Quantum dynamics of intracavity third-subharmonic generation

The quantum dynamics of the mean number of photons and quantum entropy of interacting modes, as well as the Wigner function of the stationary state of the fundamental mode and the third subharmonic mode has been investigated for the intracavity third-subharmonic generation. It is shown that the quantum dynamics of the system depends strongly on the nonlinear coupling coefficient between the modes. It is also demonstrated that, in the steady-state limit, depending on the intermodal coupling coefficient, the fundamental mode can be either in a pure coherent state, or in a squeezed state, or in a pure vacuum state. The third subharmonic mode in the subthreshold regime of generation of this mode is in the vacuum state. The Wigner function is squeezed over three sides of an equilateral triangle (squeezed vacuum). The quantum entropy of this state is nonzero. It is also shown that the third subharmonic mode, depending on the nonlinear coupling coefficient in the steady-state limit, can be localized in the three-component state with the same probability of detecting a field in each coherent component of the state and with the presence of quantummechanical interference between the state components. The mean number of photons in this state is smaller than unity. Depending on the nonlinear coupling coefficient, the third subharmonic mode can also be localized in the three-component state, which is a statistical mixture of three squeezed states.