arXiv subjects

M. Huber

Publications and source records attributed to M. Huber.

53 records · Page 3Linked to original sources

arXiv2008

Spectral Identification of an Ancient Supernova using Light Echoes in the LMC

We report the successful identification of the type of the supernova responsible for the supernova remnant SNR 0509-675 in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) using Gemini spectra of surrounding light echoes. The ability to classify outbursts associated with centuries-old remnants provides a new window into several aspects of supernova research and is likely to be successful in providing new constraints on additional LMC supernovae as well as their historical counterparts in the Milky Way Galaxy (MWG). The combined spectrum of echo light from SNR 0509-675 shows broad emission and absorption lines consistent with a supernova (SN) spectrum. We create a spectral library consisting of 26 SNe Ia and 6 SN Ib/c that are time-integrated, dust-scattered by LMC dust, and reddened by the LMC and MWG. We fit these SN templates to the observed light echo spectrum using $χ^2$ minimization as well as correlation techniques, and we find that overluminous 91T-like SNe Ia with $\dm15<0.9$ match the observed spectrum best.

astro-ph↗

arXiv2007

Spin dynamics in a superconductor / ferromagnet proximity system

The ferromagnetic resonance of thin sputtered Ni80Fe20 films grown on Nb is measured. By varying the temperature and thickness of the Nb the role of the superconductivity on the whole ferromagnetic layer in these heterostructures is explored. The change in the spin transport properties below the superconducting transition of the Nb is found to manifest itself in the Ni80Fe20 layer by a sharpening in the resonance of the ferromagnet, or a decrease in the effective Gilbert damping co-efficient. This dynamic proximity effect is in contrast to low frequency studies in these systems, where the effect of the superconductor is confined to a small region in the ferromagnet. We interpret this in terms of the spin pumping model.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2006

Perturbative Implementation of the Furry Picture

Recently the block-diagonalization of Dirac-operators was investigated from a mathematical point of view in the one-particle case. We extend this result to the $N$-particle case. This leads to a perturbative realization of the Furry picture in the $N$-particle two-spinor space.

math-ph↗

arXiv2005

Echoes from Ancient Supernovae in the Large Magellanic Cloud

In principle, the light from historical supernovae could still be visible as scattered-light echoes even centuries later. However, while echoes have been discovered around some nearby extragalactic supernovae well after the explosion, targeted searches have not recovered any echoes in the regions of historical Galactic supernovae. The discovery of echoes can allow us to pinpoint the supernova event both in position and age and, most importantly, allow us to acquire spectra of the echo light to type the supernova centuries after the direct light from the explosion first reached the Earth. Here we report on the discovery of three faint new variable surface brightness complexes with high apparent proper motion pointing back to well-defined positions in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC). These positions correspond to three of the six smallest (and likely youngest) previously catalogued supernova remnants, and are believed to be due to thermonuclear (Type Ia) supernovae. Using the distance and proper motions of these echo arcs, we estimate ages of 610 and 410 yr for the echoes #2 and #3.

astro-ph↗

arXiv2005

Measuring the Neutron's Mean Square Charge Radius Using Neutron Interferometry

The neutron is electrically neutral, but its substructure consists of charged quarks so it may have an internal charge distribution. In fact it is known to have a negative mean square charge radius (MSCR), the second moment of the radial charge density. In other words the neutron has a positive core and negative skin. In the first Born approximation the neutron MSCR can be simply related to the neutron-electron scattering length b_ne. In the past this important quantity has been extracted from the energy dependence of the total transmission cross-section of neutrons on high-Z targets, a very difficult and complicated process. A few years ago S.A. Werner proposed a novel approach to measuring b_ne from the neutron's dynamical phase shift in a perfect crystal close to the Bragg condition. We are conducting an experiment based on this method at the NIST neutron interferometer which may lead to a five-fold improvement in precision of b_ne and hence the neutron MSCR.

nucl-ex↗

arXiv2005

Testing LMC Microlensing Scenarios: The Discrimination Power of the SuperMACHO Microlensing Survey

Characterizing the nature and spatial distribution of the lensing objects that produce the previously measured microlensing optical depth toward the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) remains an open problem. We present an appraisal of the ability of the SuperMACHO Project, a next-generation microlensing survey directed toward the LMC, to discriminate between various proposed lensing populations. We consider two scenarios: lensing by a uniform foreground screen of objects and self-lensing by LMC stars. We have carried out extensive simulations, based upon data obtained during the first year of the project, to assess the SuperMACHO survey's ability to discriminate between these two scenarios. We find that the event rate itself shows significant sensitivity to the choice of the LMC luminosity function, limiting the conclusions which can be drawn from the absolute rate. If instead we determine the differential event rate across the LMC, we will decrease the impact of these systematic biases and render our conclusions more robust. With this approach the SuperMACHO Project should be able to distinguish between the two categories of lens populations. This will provide important constraints on the nature of the lensing objects and their contributions to the Galactic dark matter halo.

astro-ph↗

arXiv2004

Corner overgrowth: Bending a high mobility two-dimensional electron system by 90 degrees

Introducing an epitaxial growth technique called corner overgrowth, we fabricate a quantum confinement structure consisting of a high-mobility GaAs/AlGaAs heterojunction overgrown on top of an ex-situ cleaved substrate corner. The resulting corner-junction quantum-well heterostructure effectively bends a two-dimensional electron system (2DES) at an atomically sharp $90^{\rm o}$ angle. The high-mobility 2DES demonstrates fractional quantum Hall effect on both facets. Lossless edge-channel conduction over the corner confirms a continuum of 2D electrons across the junction, consistent with Schroedinger-Poisson calculations of the electron distribution. This growth technique differs distinctly from cleaved-edge overgrowth and enables a complementary class of new embedded quantum heterostructures.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2004

The structure of a single sharp quantum Hall edge probed by momentum-resolved tunneling

Momentum resolved magneto-tunnelling spectroscopy is performed at a single sharp quantum Hall edge. We directly probe the structure of individual integer quantum Hall (QH) edge modes, and find that an epitaxially overgrown cleaved edge realizes the sharp edge limit, where the Chklovskii picture relevant for soft etched or gated edges is no longer valid. The Fermi wavevector in the probe quantum well probes the real-space position of the QH edge modes, and reveals inter-channel distances smaller than both the magnetic length and the Bohr radius. We quantitatively describe the lineshape of principal conductance peaks and deduce an edge filling factor from their position consistent with the bulk value. We observe features in the dispersion which are attributed to fluctuations in the ground energy of the quantum Hall system.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2004

Tetravalent Colloids by Nematic Wetting

In an elegant paper, D. Nelson suggested a method to produce tetravalent colloids based on a tetrahedral configuration created on the surface of a spherical particle. It emerges from a two-dimensional nematic liquid crystal placed on a sphere due to the presence of four 1/2 disclinations, i.e., topological defects in the orientational order. In this paper we show that such a tetrahedral configuration also occurs in the wetting layers which form around spheres dispersed in a liquid crystal above the nematic-isotropic phase transition. Nematic wetting therefore offers an alternative route towards tetravalent colloids.

cond-mat.soft↗

arXiv2003

Study on Neutron-induced Background in the CRESST Experiment

CRESST II is an experiment for direct WIMP search, using cryogenic detectors. The ratio of the two signals (temperature rise and scintillation light) measured for each interaction is an excellent parameter for discrimination of radioactive background. The main remaining background is the neutron flux present at the experimental site, since neutrons produce the same signals as WIMPs do. Based on Monte Carlo simulations the present work shows how neutrons from different origins affect CRESST and which measures have to be taken into account to reach the goal sensitivity.

hep-ex↗

arXiv2003

Probing the Electrostatics of Integer Quantum Hall Edges with Momentum-Resolved Tunnel Spectroscopy

We present measurements of momentum-resolved magneto-tunneling from a perpendicular two-dimensional (2D) contact into integer quantum Hall (QH) edges at a sharp edge potential created by cleaved edge overgrowth. Resonances in the tunnel conductance correspond to coincidences of electronic states of the QH edge and the 2D contact in energy-momentum space. With this dispersion relation reflecting the potential distribution at the edge we can directly measure the band bending at our cleaved edge under the influence of an external voltage bias. At finite bias we observe significant deviations from the flat-band condition in agreement with self-consistent calculations of the edge potential.

cond-mat↗

arXiv2002

Discovery of Two New Faint Cataclysmic Variables

We report on the discovery of two new faint cataclysmic variables. The objects were selected as candidates from two different imaging surveys aimed at the discovery of such faint systems. One survey used color and variability while the other used color and H$_α$ emission as selection criteria. We present our spectra of the two new variables and discuss their properties. A discussion of the implication of these discoveries on the space density of faint cataclysmic variables is presented.

astro-ph↗

arXiv2002

Analysing Large Scale Structure: I. Weighted Scaling Indices and Constrained Randomisation

The method of constrained randomisation is applied to three-dimensional simulated galaxy distributions. With this technique we generate for a given data set surrogate data sets which have the same linear properties as the original data whereas higher order or nonlinear correlations are not preserved. The analysis of the original and surrogate data sets with measures, which are sensitive to nonlinearities, yields information about the existence of nonlinear correlations in the data. We demonstrate how to generate surrogate data sets from a given point distribution, which have the same linear properties (power spectrum) as well as the same density amplitude distribution. We propose weighted scaling indices as a nonlinear statistical measure to quantify local morphological elements in large scale structure. Using surrogates is is shown that the data sets with the same 2-point correlation functions have slightly different void probability functions and especially a different set of weighted scaling indices. Thus a refined analysis of the large scale structure becomes possible by calculating local scaling properties whereby the method of constrained randomisation yields a vital tool for testing the performance of statistical measures in terms of sensitivity to different topological features and discriminative power.

astro-ph↗

arXiv2001

A gobal fit to the anomalous magnetic moment, Higgs limit and b->s gamma in the constrained MSSM

New data on the anomalous magnetic moment of the muon together with the b->s gamma decay rate and Higgs limits are considered within the supergravity inspired constrained minimal supersymmetric model. We perform a global statistical chi2 analysis of these data and show that the allowed region of parameter space is bounded from below by the Higgs limit, which depends on the trilinear coupling and from above by the anomalous magnetic moment.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2001

A gobal fit to the anomalous magnetic moment, b->s gamma and Higgs limits in the constrained MSSM

New data on the anomalous magnetic moment a_mu of the muon together with the b->s gamma decay rate are considered within the supergravity inspired constrained minimal supersymmetric model. We perform a global statistical chi^2 analysis of these data and show that the allowed region of parameter space is bounded from below by the Higgs limit, which depends on the trilinear coupling and from above by the anomalous magnetic moment a_mu. The newest b->s gamma data deviate 1.7 sigma from recent SM calculations and prefer a similar parameter region as the 2.6 sigma deviation from a_mu.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2001

The b->sgamma rate and Higgs boson limits in the Constrained Minimal Supersymmetric Model

New NLO b->sgamma calculations have become available using resummed radiative corrections. Using these calculations we perform a global fit of the supergravity inspired constrained minimal supersymmetric model (CMSSM). We find that the resummed calculations show similar constraints as the LO calculations, namely that only with a relatively heavy supersymmetric mass spectrum of the order of 1 TeV the b-τYukawa unification and the b->sgamma rate can coexist in the large tanb scenario. The resummed b->sgamma calculations are found to reduce the renormalization scale uncertainty considerably. The low tanb scenario is excluded by the present Higgs limits from LEP II. The constraint from the Higgs limit in the $m_0,m_{1/2}$ plane is severe, if the trilinear coupling A_0 at the GUT scale is fixed to zero, but is considerably reduced for $A_0\le -2m_0$. The relatively heavy SUSY spectrum required by \besg corresponds to a Higgs mass of $m_h=119\pm 1~ (stop masses)}\pm 2~(theory)~\pm~3 (top mass) GeV $ in the CMSSM.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2000

The b->sgamma decay rate in NLO, Higgs boson limits, and LSP masses in the CMSSM

New NLO b->sgamma calculations have become available. We observe that at large tanbeta the dominant NLO term of the chargino amplitude, which is proportional to mu.tanbeta^2, changes the sign of this amplitude in a large region of the CMSSM parameter space, so that the preferred sign of the Higgs mixing parameter mu now agrees with the preferred sign of b-tau unification. We find that the b->sgamma rate does not constrain the CMSSM anymore, if the higher order contributions and its uncertainties from the incomplete calculations are taken into account. The Higgs boson mass in the CMSSM is found to be between 110 and 120 GeV for a top mass of 175 GeV, if the Higgs mass limit of 107.9 GeV from LEP, which implies tanbeta>3.3, is taken into account The mean Higgs boson mass value and its dominant errors are: m_h=115\pm 3(stop mass) \pm 1.5(stop mixing) \pm 2(theory) \pm 5(top mass) GeV. This Higgs mass range is valid for all tanbeta values above 20 and decreases for lower tanbeta. If the presently claimed evidence for dark matter by the DAMA Collaboration is interpreted as the Lightest Supersymmetric Particle (LSP) of the CMSSM, then it is at the edge of the parameter space allowed by the present Higgs limit of 107.9 GeV from LEP.

hep-ph↗