arXiv subjects

Kai Wang

Publications and source records attributed to Kai Wang.

At least 829 records · Page 46Linked to original sources

arXiv2016

Statistical imprints of CMB B-type polarization leakage in an incomplete sky survey analysis

One of the main goals of modern cosmology is to search for primordial gravitational waves by looking on their imprints in the B-type polarization in the cosmic microwave background radiation. However, this signal is contaminated by various sources, including cosmic weak lensing, foreground radiations, instrumental noises, as well as the E-to-B leakage caused by the partial sky surveys, which should be well understood to avoid the misinterpretation of the observed data. In this paper, we adopt the E/B decomposition method suggested by Smith in 2006, and study the imprints of E-to-B leakage residuals in the constructed B-type polarization maps, $\mathcal{B}(\hat{n})$, by employing various statistical tools. We find that the effects of E-to-B leakage are negligible for the $\mathcal{B}$-mode power spectrum, as well as the skewness and kurtosis analyses of $\mathcal{B}$-maps. However, if employing the morphological statistical tools, including Minkowski functionals and/or Betti numbers, we find the effect of leakage can be detected at very high confidence level, which shows that in the morphological analysis, the leakage can play a significant role as a contaminant for measuring the primordial B-mode signal and must be taken into account for a correct explanation of the data.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2016

Surface Plasmonic Lattice Solitons in Semi-infinite Graphene Sheet Arrays

We investigate the surface plasmonic lattice solitons (PLSs) in semi-infinite graphene sheet arrays. The surface soliton is formed as the SPPs tunneling is inhibited by the graphene nonlinearity, and meanwhile the incident power should be above a threshold value. Thanks to the strong confinement of surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) on graphene, the effective width of surface PLSs can be squeezed into deep-subwavelength scale of ~ 0.001λ. Based on the stable propagation of surface PLSs, we find that the light propagation can be switched from the array boundary to the inner graphene sheets by reducing the incident power or increasing the chemical potential of graphene. The study may find promising application in optical switches on deep-subwavelength scale.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2016

Extended relativistic configuration interaction and many-body perturbation calculations of spectroscopic data for the $n \leq 6$ configurationsin ne-like ions between Cr XV and Kr XXVII

Level energies, wavelengths, electric dipole, magnetic dipole, electric quadrupole, and magnetic quadrupole transition rates, oscillator strengths, and line strengths from combined relativistic configuration interaction and many-body perturbation calculations are reported for the 201 fine-structure states of the $2s^2 2p^6$, $2s^2 2p^5 3l$, $2s 2p^6 3l$, $2s^2 2p^5 4l$, $2s 2p^6 4l$, $2s^2 2p^5 5l$, and $2s^2 2p^5 6l$ configurations in all Ne-like ions between Cr XV and Kr XXVII. Calculated level energies and transition data are compared with experiments from the NIST and CHIANTI databases, and other recent benchmark calculations. The mean energy difference with the NIST experiments is only 0.05%. The present calculations significantly increase the amount of accurate spectroscopic data for the $n >3$ states in a number of Ne-like ions of astrophysics interest. A complete dataset should be helpful in analyzing new observations from the solar and other astrophysical sources, and is also likely to be useful for modeling and diagnosing a variety of plasmas including astronomical and fusion plasma.

physics.atom-ph↗

arXiv2016

Detailed study of the column-based priority logic readout of Topmetal-II- CMOS pixel direct charge sensor

We present the detailed study of the digital readout of Topmetal-II- CMOS pixel direct charge sensor. Topmetal-II- is an integrated sensor with an array of 72X72 pixels each capable of directly collecting external charge through exposed metal electrodes in the topmost metal layer. In addition to the time-shared multiplexing readout of the analog output from Charge Sensitive Amplifiers in each pixel, hits are also generated through comparators with individually DAC settable thresholds in each pixel. The hits are read out via a column-based priority logic structure, retaining both hit location and time information. The in-array column-based priority logic is fully combinational hence there is no clock distributed in the pixel array. Sequential logic and clock are placed on the peripheral of the array. We studied the detailed working behavior and performance of this readout, and demonstrated its potential in imaging applications.

physics.ins-det↗

arXiv2016

Dynamical co-existence of excitons and free carriers in perovskite probed by density-resolved fluorescent spectroscopic method

Using transient fluorescent spectra at time-zero, we develop a density-resolved fluorescent spectroscopic method for investigating photoproducts in CH3NH3PbI3 perovskite and related photophysics. The density dependent dynamical co-existence of excitons and free carriers over a wide density range is experimentally observed for the first time. The exciton binding energy (EB) and the effective mass of electron-hole pair can be estimated based on such co-existence. No ionic polarization is found contributing to photophysical behavior. It also solves the conflict between the large experimentally measured EB and the small predicted values. The spectroscopic method also helps to detect the true free carrier density under continuous illumination without the interference of ionic conductivity. Our methods and results profoundly enrich the study and understanding of the photophysics in perovskite materials for photovoltaic applications.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2016

Exceptional Points and Asymmetric Mode Switching in Plasmonic Waveguides

We investigate the exceptional points (EPs) in a non-Hermitian system composed of a pair of graphene sheets with different losses. There are two surface plasmon polaritons (SPP) modes in the graphene waveguide. By varying the distance between two graphene sheets and chemical potential of graphene, the EPs appear as the eigenvalues, that is, the wave vectors of the two modes coalesce. The cross conversion of eigenmodes and variation of geometric phase can be observed by encircling the EP in the parametric space formed by the geometric parameters and chemical potential of graphene. At the same time, a certain input SPP mode may lead to completely different output. The study paves a way to the development of nanoscale sensitive optical switches and sensors.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2016

Reverberation Mapping of the Broad-line Region in NGC 5548: Evidence for Radiation Pressure?

NGC 5548 is the best-observed reverberation-mapped active galactic nucleus with long-term, intensive monitoring. Here we report results from a new observational campaign between January and July, 2015. We measure the centroid time lag of the broad H$β$ emission line with respect to the 5100 Åcontinuum and obtain $τ_{\rm cent} = 7.20^{+1.33}_{-0.35}$ days in the rest frame. This yields a black hole mass of $M_{\bullet}=8.71^{+3.21}_{-2.61} $x$ 10^{7}M_{\odot}$ using a broad H$β$ line dispersion of $3124\pm302$ km s$^{-1}$ and a virial factor of $f_{_{\rm BLR}}=6.3\pm1.5$ for the broad-line region (BLR), consistent with the mass measurements from previous H$β$ campaigns. The high-quality data allow us to construct a velocity-binned delay map for the broad H$β$ line, which shows a symmetric response pattern around the line center, a plausible kinematic signature of virialized motion of the BLR. Combining all the available measurements of H$β$ time lags and the associated mean 5100 Å luminosities over 18 campaigns between 1989 and 2015, we find that the H$β$ BLR size varies with the mean optical luminosity, but, interestingly, with a possible delay of $2.35_{-1.25}^{+3.47}$ yrs. This delay coincides with the typical BLR dynamical timescale of NGC 5548, indicating that the BLR undergoes dynamical changes, possibly driven by radiation pressure.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2016

Probing the statistical properties of CMB $B$-mode polarization through Minkowski Functionals

The detection of the magnetic type $B$-mode polarization is the main goal of future cosmic microwave background (CMB) experiments. In the standard model, the $B$-mode map is a strongly non-gaussian field due to the lensed component. Besides the two-point correlation function, the other statistics are also very important to dig the information of the polarization map. In this paper, we employ the Minkowski functionals to study the morphological properties of the lensed $B$-mode maps. We find that the deviations from Gaussianity are very significant for both full and partial-sky surveys. As an application of the analysis, we investigate the morphological imprints of the foreground residuals in the $B$-mode map. We find that even for very tiny foreground residuals, the effects on the map can be detected by the Minkowski functional analysis. Therefore, it provides a complementary way to investigate the foreground contaminations in the CMB studies.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2016

Test of \textit{Topmetal-${II}^-$} In Liquid Nitrogen For Cryogenic Temperature TPCs

\textit{Topmetal-${II}^-$} is a highly pixelated direct charge sensor that contains a 72${\times}$72 pixel array of 83$μ$m pitch size. The key feature of \textit{Topmetal-${II}^-$} is that it can directly collect charges via metal nodes of each pixel to form two-dimensional images of charge cloud distributions. \textit{Topmetal-${II}^-$} was proved to measure charged particles without amplification at room temperature. To measure its performance at cryogenic temperature, a \textit{Topmetal-${II}^-$} sensor is embedded into a liquid nitrogen dewar. The results presented in this paper show that \textit{Topmetal-${II}^-$} can also operate well at this low temperature with a noise (ENC) of 12 e$^-$ lower than that at room temperature (13 e$^-$). From the noise perspective, \textit{Topmetal-${II}^-$} is a promising candidate for the next generation readout of liquid argon and xenon Time Projection Chamber (TPC) used in experiments searching for neutrinoless double beta decay and dark matter.

physics.ins-det↗

arXiv2016

Supermassive Black Holes with High Accretion Rates in Active Galactic Nuclei. V. A New Size-Luminosity Scaling Relation for the Broad-Line Region

This paper reports results of the third-year campaign of monitoring super-Eddington accreting massive black holes (SEAMBHs) in active galactic nuclei (AGNs) between 2014-2015. Ten new targets were selected from quasar sample of Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS), which are generally more luminous than the SEAMBH candidates in last two years. H$β$ lags ($τ_{_{\rm Hβ}}$) in five of the 10 quasars have been successfully measured in this monitoring season. We find that the lags are generally shorter, by large factors, than those of objects with same optical luminosity, in light of the well-known $R_{_{\rm Hβ}}-L_{5100}$ relation. The five quasars have dimensionless accretion rates of $\dot{\mathscr{M}}=10-10^3$. Combining measurements of the previous SEAMBHs, we find that the reduction of H$β$ lags tightly depends on accretion rates, $τ_{_{\rm Hβ}}/τ_{_{R-L}}\propto\dot{\mathscr{M}}^{-0.42}$, where $τ_{_{R-L}}$ is the H$β$ lag from the normal $R_{_{\rm Hβ}}-L_{5100}$ relation. Fitting 63 mapped AGNs, we present a new scaling relation for the broad-line region: $R_{_{\rm Hβ}}=α_1\ell_{44}^{β_1}\,\min\left[1,\left(\dot{\mathscr{M}}/\dot{\mathscr{M}}_c\right)^{-γ_1}\right]$, where $\ell_{44}=L_{5100}/10^{44}\,\rm erg~s^{-1}$ is 5100 Å continuum luminosity, and coefficients of $α_1=(29.6_{-2.8}^{+2.7})$ lt-d, $β_1=0.56_{-0.03}^{+0.03}$, $γ_1=0.52_{-0.16}^{+0.33}$ and $\dot{\mathscr{M}}_c=11.19_{-6.22}^{+2.29}$. This relation is applicable to AGNs over a wide range of accretion rates, from $10^{-3}$ to $10^3$. Implications of this new relation are briefly discussed.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2016

Squarkonium, diquarkonium and octetonium at the LHC and their di-photon decays

Motivated by the recent di-photon excess by both ATLAS and CMS collaborations at the LHC, we systematically investigate the production and di-photon decay of onia formed by pair of all possible color exotic scalars in minimal extension. When such scalar massive meta-stable colored and charged (MMCC) particles are produced in pair near threshold, $η$ onium can be formed and decay into di-photon through annihilation as $pp\to η\to γγ$. Squarkonium is formed by meta-stable squarks in supersymmetric models such as stoponium. Diquarkonium is formed by meta-stable color sextet diquarks which may be realized in the Pati-Salam model. Octetonium is formed by color octet scalars bosons as in the Manohar-Wise model. Stoponium prediction is much smaller than the required signal to account for the di-photon excess. Due to the enhancement factor from color and electric charge, predictions of diquarkonium and octetonium are of $\cal O$(10 fb) which are significantly greater than the stoponium prediction. Since the color enhancement also results in large production at the colliders, such light color exotic states of $\cal O$(375 GeV) suffer from severe direct search constraints. On the other hand, if their dominant decay mode involve top quark, they may be buried in the $t\bar{t}$ plus jets samples and can potentially be searched via $t+j$ resonance.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2016

Leveraging Crowd for Game-based Learning: A Case Study of Privacy Education Game Design and Evaluation by Crowdsourcing

As the Internet grows in importance, it is vital to develop methods and techniques for educating end-users to improve their awareness of online privacy. Web-based education tools have been proven effective in many domains and have been increasingly adopted by many online professional and educational services. However, the design and development of Web-based education tools for online privacy is still in the early stage. The traditional solutions always involve privacy experts who have sophisticated expertise. Such involvement can make the tool development costly. Furthermore, it is not clear how inspiring and effective these education tools are to general users of varying backgrounds, specially to novice users who have rarely dealt with online privacy issues before. In this paper, we design, develop, and evaluate a game-based privacy learning system by leveraging the wisdom of a crowd of non-experts on Amazon Mechanic Turk. Empirical study demonstrates that the crowd can provide high-quality ideas of designing and developing a practical, educational privacy learning game.

cs.CY↗

arXiv2016

Utility of potential energy span as an approximate free energy proxy

Free energy calculation is critical in predictive tasks such as protein folding, docking and design. However, rigorous calculation of free energy change is prohibitively expensive in these practical applications. The minimum potential energy is therefore widely utilized to approximate free energy. In this study, based on analysis of extensive molecular dynamics (MD) simulation trajectories of a few native globular proteins, we found that change of minimum and corresponding maximum potential energy terms exhibit similar level of correlation with change of free energy. More importantly, we demonstrated that change of span (maximum - minimum) of potential energy terms, which engender negligible additional computational cost, exhibit considerably stronger correlations with change of free energy than the corresponding change of minimum and maximum potential energy terms. Therefore, potential energy span may serve as an alternative efficient approximate free energy proxy.

q-bio.BM↗

arXiv2016

Spectroscopic Indication for a Centi-parsec Supermassive Black Hole Binary in the Galactic Center of NGC 5548

As a natural consequence of cosmological hierarchical structure formation, sub-parsec supermassive black hole binaries (SMBHBs) should be common in galaxies but thus far have eluded spectroscopic identification. Based on four decades of optical spectroscopic monitoring, we report that the nucleus of NGC 5548, a nearby Seyfert galaxy long suspected to have experienced a major merger about one billion years ago, exhibits long-term variability with a period of 14 years in the optical continuum and broad Hbeta emission line. Remarkably, the double-peaked profile of Hbeta shows systematic velocity changes with a similar period. These pieces of observations plausibly indicate that a SMBHB resides in the center of NGC 5548. The complex, secular variations in the line profiles can be explained by orbital motion of a binary with equal mass and a semi-major axis of 22 light-days (corresponding to 18 milli-parsec). At a distance of 75 Mpc, NGC 5548 is one of the nearest sub-parsec SMBHB candidates that offers an ideal laboratory for gravitational wave detection.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2016

Light-effect transistor (LET) with multiple independent gating controls for optical logic gates and optical amplification

Modern electronics are developing electronic-optical integrated circuits, while their electronic backbone, e.g. field-effect transistors (FETs), remains the same. However, further FET down scaling is facing physical and technical challenges. A light-effect transistor (LET) offers electronic-optical hybridization at the component level, which can continue Moore's law to the quantum region without requiring a FET's fabrication complexity, e.g. a physical gate and doping, by employing optical gating and photoconductivity. Multiple independent gates are therefore readily realized to achieve unique functionalities without increasing chip space. Here we report LET device characteristics and novel digital and analog applications, such as optical logic gates and optical amplification. Prototype CdSe-nanowire-based LETs show output and transfer characteristics resembling advanced FETs, e.g. on/off ratios up to ~1.0x10^6 with a source-drain voltage of ~1.43 V, gate-power of ~260 nW, and subthreshold swing of ~0.3 nW/decade (excluding losses). Our work offers new electronic-optical integration strategies and electronic and optical computing approaches.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2015

A Low-Noise CMOS Pixel Direct Charge Sensor, Topmetal-II-

We report the design and characterization of a CMOS pixel direct charge sensor, Topmetal-II-, fabricated in a standard 0.35um CMOS Integrated Circuit process. The sensor utilizes exposed metal patches on top of each pixel to directly collect charge. Each pixel contains a low-noise charge-sensitive preamplifier to establish the analog signal and a discriminator with tunable threshold to generate hits. The analog signal from each pixel is accessible through time-shared multiplexing over the entire array. Hits are read out digitally through a column-based priority logic structure. Tests show that the sensor achieved a <15e- analog noise and a 200e- minimum threshold for digital readout per pixel. The sensor is capable of detecting both electrons and ions drifting in gas. These characteristics enable its use as the charge readout device in future Time Projection Chambers without gaseous gain mechanism, which has unique advantages in low background and low rate-density experiments.

physics.ins-det↗

arXiv2015

Highly-sensitive detection of the lattice distortion in single bent ZnO nanowires by second-harmonic generation microscopy

Nanogenerators based on ZnO nanowires (NWs) realize the energy conversion at nanoscale, which are ascribed to the piezoelectric property caused by the lattice distortion of the ZnO NWs. The lattice distortion can significantly tune the electronic and optical properties, and requires a sensitive and convenient measurement. However, high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) technique provides a limited sensitivity of 0.01 nm on the variation of the lattice spacing and requires vacuum conditions. Here we demonstrate a highly-sensitive detection of the lattice distortion in single bent ZnO NWs by second-harmonic generation (SHG) microscopy. As the curvature of the single bent ZnO NW increases to 21 mm-1 (<4% bending distortion), it shows a significant decrease (~70%) in the SHG intensity ratio between perpendicular and parallel excitation polarization with respect to c-axis of ZnO NWs. Importantly, the extraordinary non-axisymmetrical SHG polarimetric patterns are also observed, indicating the twisting distortion around c-axis of ZnO NWs. Thus, SHG microscopy provides a sensitive all-optical and non-invasive method for in situ detecting the lattice distortion under various circumstances.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2015

Light Higgsino from $A_t$ Dilemma in Rare $B$-decays

In the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model (MSSM), large chiral symmetry breaking term $A_t$, which plays an important role in Higgs mass, may significantly contribute in flavor changing neutral current (FCNC) processes $B\to X_{s}γ$ and $B_{s}\to μ^{+}μ^{-}$. Though the above processes can both be categorized as $b\to s$ transitions, the two rare decays behave completely different in MSSM. With an on-shell photon in the final state, helicity of initial state $b$-quark and final state $s$-quark must be flipped in $B\to X_{s}γ$, which corresponds to the simultaneous breaking of chiral symmetry and electroweak symmetry. The common feature is shared by fermion mass generation. Same as radiative mass generation in MSSM, Peccei-Quinn and $R$ symmetry breaking contributions, for example from a Higgsino-stop loop when $μA_t<0$, may significantly cancel the contribution from charged Higgs and reduce the prediction of $B\to X_{s}γ$. For the latter process, including Babu-Kolda FCNC proportional to $μA_t$, $B_{s}\to μ^{+}μ^{-}$ is mediated by a scalar $H_d$ boson which corresponds to chiral symmetry breaking. In addition, as a result of interference among the Higgs extension sector and $Z$ contributions, in the region of $μA_t <0$ which is favored by $B\to X_{s}γ$, there may simultaneously exist large enhancement in $B_{s}\to μ^{+}μ^{-}$. However, we still find viable parameter region with light Higgsino of a few hundreds GeV when charged Higgs contribution is not negligible with $M_A$ of 400 GeV.

hep-ph↗