arXiv subjects

T. Liu

Publications and source records attributed to T. Liu.

At least 127 records · Page 7Linked to original sources

arXiv2020

Dust polarized emission observations of NGC 6334; BISTRO reveals the details of the complex but organized magnetic field structure of the high-mass star-forming hub-filament network

[Abridged] Filaments and hubs have received special attention recently thanks to studies showing their role in star formation. While the column density and velocity structures of both filaments and hubs have been studied, their magnetic fields (B-field) are not yet characterized. We aim to understand the role of the B-field in the dynamical evolution of the NGC 6334 hub-filament network. We present new observations of the dust polarized emission at 850$μ$m towards NGC 6334 obtained with the JCMT/POL-2. We study the distribution and dispersion of the polarized intensity ($PI$), the polarization fraction ($PF$), and the B-field angle ($θ_{B}$). We derive the power spectrum of the intensity and $θ_{B}$ along the ridge crest. Our analyses show a complex B-field structure when observed over the whole region ($\sim10$ pc), however, at smaller scales ($\sim1$ pc), $θ_{B}$ varies coherently along the filaments. The observed power spectrum of $θ_{B}$ can be well represented with a power law function with a slope $-1.33\pm0.23$, which is $\sim20\%$ shallower than that of $I$. This result is compatible with the properties of simulated filaments and may indicate the processes at play in the formation of filaments. $θ_{B}$ rotates from being mostly perpendicular to the filament crests to mostly parallel as they merge with the hubs. This variation of $θ_{B}$ may be tracing local velocity flows of matter in-falling onto the hubs. Our analysis suggests a variation of the energy balance along the crests of these filaments, from magnetically critical/supercritical at their far ends to magnetically subcritical near the hubs. We detect an increase of $PF$ towards the high-column density star cluster-forming hubs that may result from the increase of grain alignment efficiency due to stellar radiation from the newborn stars.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2020

Revisiting $^{129}$Xe electric dipole moment measurements applying a new global phase fitting approach

By measuring the nuclear magnetic spin precession frequencies of polarized $^{129}$Xe and $^{3}$He, a new upper limit on the $^{129}$Xe atomic electric dipole moment (EDM) $ d_\mathrm{A} (^{129}\mathrm{Xe})$ was reported in Phys. Rev. Lett. 123, 143003 (2019). Here, we propose a new evaluation method based on global phase fitting (GPF) for analyzing the continuous phase development of the $^{3}$He-$^{129}$Xe comagnetometer signal. The Cramer-Rao Lower Bound on the $^{129}$Xe EDM for the GPF method is theoretically derived and shows the potential benefit of our new approach. The robustness of the GPF method is verified with Monte-Carlo studies. By optimizing the analysis parameters and adding data that could not be analyzed with the former method, we obtain a result of $d_\mathrm{A} (^{129}\mathrm{Xe}) = 1.1 \pm 3.6~\mathrm{(stat)} \pm 2.0~\mathrm{(syst)} \times 10^{-28}~ e~\mathrm{cm}$ in an unblinded analysis. For the systematic uncertainty analyses, we adopted all methods from the aforementioned PRL publication except the comagnetometer phase drift, which can be omitted using the GPF method. The updated null result can be interpreted as a new upper limit of $| d_\mathrm{A} (^{129}\mathrm{Xe}) | < 8.3 \times 10^{-28}~e~\mathrm{cm}$ at the 95\% C.L.

physics.atom-ph↗

arXiv2020

A novel quad-channel 10 Gbps CMOS VCSEL array driver with integrated charge pumps

We present a novel design and the test results of a 4-channel driver for an array of Vertical-Cavity Surface-Emitting Lasers (VCSELs). This ASIC, named cpVLAD and fabricated in a 65 nm CMOS technology, has on-chip charge pumps and is for data rates up to 10 Gbps per channel. The charge pumps are implemented to address the issue of voltage margin of the VCSEL driving stage in the applications under low temperature and harsh radiation environment. Test results indicate that cpVLAD is capable of driving VCSELs with forward voltages of up to 2.8 V using 1.2 V and 2.5 V power supplies with a power consumption of 94 mW/channel.

physics.ins-det↗

arXiv2020

The eROSITA X-ray telescope on SRG

eROSITA (extended ROentgen Survey with an Imaging Telescope Array) is the primary instrument on the Spectrum-Roentgen-Gamma (SRG) mission, which was successfully launched on July 13, 2019, from the Baikonour cosmodrome. After the commissioning of the instrument and a subsequent calibration and performance verification phase, eROSITA started a survey of the entire sky on December 13, 2019. By the end of 2023, eight complete scans of the celestial sphere will have been performed, each lasting six months. At the end of this program, the eROSITA all-sky survey in the soft X-ray band (0.2--2.3\,keV) will be about 25 times more sensitive than the ROSAT All-Sky Survey, while in the hard band (2.3--8\,keV) it will provide the first ever true imaging survey of the sky. The eROSITA design driving science is the detection of large samples of galaxy clusters up to redshifts $z>1$ in order to study the large-scale structure of the universe and test cosmological models including Dark Energy. In addition, eROSITA is expected to yield a sample of a few million AGNs, including obscured objects, revolutionizing our view of the evolution of supermassive black holes. The survey will also provide new insights into a wide range of astrophysical phenomena, including X-ray binaries, active stars, and diffuse emission within the Galaxy. Results from early observations, some of which are presented here, confirm that the performance of the instrument is able to fulfil its scientific promise. With this paper, we aim to give a concise description of the instrument, its performance as measured on ground, its operation in space, and also the first results from in-orbit measurements.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2020

The chemical structure of young high-mass star-forming clumps: (II) parsec-scale CO depletion and deuterium fraction of $\rm HCO^+$

The physical and chemical properties of cold and dense molecular clouds are key to understanding how stars form. Using the IRAM 30 m and NRO 45 m telescopes, we carried out a Multiwavelength line-Imaging survey of the 70 $μ$m dark and bright clOuds (MIAO). At a linear resolution of 0.1--0.5 pc, this work presents a detailed study of parsec-scale CO depletion and $\rm HCO^+$ deuterium (D-) fractionation toward four sources (G11.38+0.81, G15.22-0.43, G14.49-0.13, and G34.74-0.12) included in our full sample. In each source with $\rm T<20$ K and $n_{\rm H}\rm\sim10^4$--$\rm 10^5 cm^{-3}$, we compared pairs of neighboring 70 $μ$m bright and dark clumps and found that (1) the $\rm H_2$ column density and dust temperature of each source show strong spatial anticorrelation; (2) the spatial distribution of CO isotopologue lines and dense gas tracers, such as 1--0 lines of $\rm H^{13}CO^+$ and $\rm DCO^+$, are anticorrelated; (3) the abundance ratio between $\rm C^{18}O$ and $\rm DCO^+$ shows a strong correlation with the source temperature; (4) both the $\rm C^{18}O$ depletion factor and D-fraction of $\rm HCO^+$ show a robust decrease from younger clumps to more evolved clumps by a factor of more than 3; and (5) preliminary chemical modeling indicates chemical ages of our sources are ${\sim}8\times10^4$ yr, which is comparable to their free-fall timescales and smaller than their contraction timescales, indicating that our sources are likely dynamically and chemically young.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2020

Optical transceivers for event triggers in the ATLAS phase-I upgrade

The ATLAS phase-I upgrade aims to enhance event trigger performance in the Liquid Argon (LAr) calorimeter and the forward muon spectrometer. The trigger signals are transmitted by optical transceivers at 5.12 Gbps per channel in a radiation field. We report the design, quality control in production and ageing test of the transceivers fabricated with the LOCld laser driver and multi-mode 850 nm vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL). The modules are packaged in miniature formats of dual-channel transmitter (MTx) and transceiver (MTRx) for the LAr. The transmitters are also packaged in small form-factor pluggable (SFP) for the muon spectrometer. In production, the LOCld chips and VCSELs in TOSA package were examined before assembly. All of the modules were tested and selected during production for quality control based on the eye-diagram parameters measured at 5.12 Gbps. The yield is 98 % for both the MTx and MTRx on a total 4.7k modules. The uniformity of transmitter channels of a MTx was assured by choosing the TOSA components with approximately equal light powers. The ageing effect is monitored in burn-in of a small batch of transmitter modules with bit-error test and eye-diagrams measured periodically. The observables are stable with the light power degradation within 5 % over a period of more than 6k hours.

physics.ins-det↗

arXiv2020

A gigabit transceiver for the ATLAS inner tracker pixel detector readout upgrade

This paper presents the design and simulation results of a gigabit transceiver Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) called GBCR for the ATLAS Inner Tracker (ITk) Pixel detector readout upgrade. GBCR has four upstream receiver channels and a downstream transmitter channel. Each upstream channel operates at 5.12 Gbps, while the downstream channel operates at 2.56 Gbps. In each upstream channel, GBCR equalizes a signal received through a 5-meter 34-American Wire Gauge (AWG) twin-axial cable, retimes the data with a recovered clock, and drives an optical transmitter. In the downstream channel, GBCR receives the data from an optical receiver and drives the same type of cable as the upstream channels. The output jitter of an upstream channel is 26.5 ps and the jitter of the downstream channel after the cable is 33.5 ps. Each upstream channel consumes 78 mW and each downstream channel consumes 27 mW. Simulation results of the upstream test channel suggest that a significant jitter reduction could be achieved with minimally increased power consumption by using a Feed Forward Equalizer (FFE) + Decision Feedback Equalization (DFE) in addition to the linear equalization of the baseline channel. GBCR is designed in a 65-nm CMOS technology.

physics.ins-det↗

arXiv2020

A 4-Channel 10-Gbps/ch CMOS VCSEL Array Driver with on-chip Charge-pumps

We present the design and test results of a 4-channel 10-Gbps/ch Vertical-Cavity Surface-Emitting Laser array driver, the cpVLAD. With on-chip charge-pumps to extend the biasing headroom for the VCSELs needed for low temperature operation and mitigation of the radiation effects. The cpVLAD was fabricated in a 65-nm CMOS technology. The test results show that the cpVLAD is capable of driving VCSELs with forward bias voltages as high as 2.8 V from a 2.5 V power supply. The power consumption of the cpVLAD is 94 mW/ch.

physics.ins-det↗

arXiv2020

CHIMPS2: Survey description and $^{12}$CO emission in the Galactic Centre

The latest generation of Galactic-plane surveys is enhancing our ability to study the effects of galactic environment upon the process of star formation. We present the first data from CO Heterodyne Inner Milky Way Plane Survey 2 (CHIMPS2). CHIMPS2 is a survey that will observe the Inner Galaxy, the Central Molecular Zone (CMZ), and a section of the Outer Galaxy in $^{12}$CO, $^{13}$CO, and C$^{18}$O $(J = 3\rightarrow2)$ emission with the Heterodyne Array Receiver Program on the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope (JCMT). The first CHIMPS2 data presented here are a first look towards the CMZ in $^{12}$CO J = 3$\rightarrow$2 and cover $-3^{\circ}\leq\,\ell\,\leq\,5^{\circ}$ and $\mid$b$\mid \leq 0.5^{\circ}$ with angular resolution of 15 arcsec, velocity resolution of 1 km s$^{-1}$, and rms $ΔT_A ^\ast =$ 0.58 K at these resolutions. Such high-resolution observations of the CMZ will be a valuable data set for future studies, whilst complementing the existing Galactic Plane surveys, such as SEDIGISM, the Herschel infrared Galactic Plane Survey, and ATLASGAL. In this paper, we discuss the survey plan, the current observations and data, as well as presenting position-position maps of the region. The position-velocity maps detect foreground spiral arms in both absorption and emission.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2020

A TOSA/ROSA-Based Optical Transmitter (MTx+)/Transceiver (MTRx+) for High-Energy Physics Experiments

We present a dual-channel optical transmitter (MTx+)/transceiver (MTRx+) for the front-end readout electronics of high-energy physics experiments. MTx+ utilizes two Transmitter Optical Sub-Assemblies (TOSAs) and MTRx+ utilizes a TOSA and a Receiver Optical Sub-Assemblies (ROSA). Both MTx+ and MTRx+ receive multimode fibers with standard Lucent Connectors (LCs) as the optical interface and can be panel or board mounted to a motherboard with a standard Enhanced Small Form-factor Pluggable (SFP+) connector as the electrical interface. MTx+ and MTRx+ employ a dual-channel Vertical-Cavity Surface-Emitting Laser (VCSEL) driver ASIC called LOCld65, which brings the transmitting data rate up to 14 Gbps per channel. MTx+ and MTRx+ have been tested to survive 4.9 kGy(SiO2).

physics.ins-det↗

arXiv2020

Characterization of a gigabit transceiver for the ATLAS inner tracker pixel detector readout upgrade

We present a gigabit transceiver prototype Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), GBCR, for the ATLAS Inner Tracker (ITk) Pixel detector readout upgrade. GBCR is designed in a 65-nm CMOS technology and consists of four upstream receiver channels, a downstream transmitter channel, and an Inter-Integrated Circuit (I2C) slave. The upstream channels receive the data at 5.12 Gbps passing through 5-meter 34-American Wire Gauge (AWG) Twin-axial (Twinax) cables, equalize them, retime them with a recovered clock, and then drive an optical transmitter. The downstream channel receives the data at 2.56 Gbps from an optical receiver and drives the cable as same as the upstream channels. The jitter of the upstream channel output is measured to be 35 ps (peak-peak) when the Clock-Data Recovery (CDR) module is turned on and the jitter of the downstream channel output after the cable is 138 ps (peak-peak). The power consumption of each upstream channel is 72 mW when the CDR module is turned on and the downstream channel consumes 27 mW. GBCR survives the total ionizing dose of 200 kGy.

physics.ins-det↗

arXiv2020

Design and hardware evaluation of the optical-link system for the ATLAS Liquid Argon Calorimeter Phase-II Upgrade

An optical link system is being developed for the ATLAS Liquid Argon Calorimeter Phase-II upgrade. The optical link system is responsible for transmit the data of over 182 thousand detector channels from 1524 Front-End Boards (FEBs) through 26 optical fibers per FEB over 150 meters to the counting room and brings clocks, bunch crossing reset signals and slow control/monitoring signals back to the FEBs. The optical link system is based on the Low-Power GigaBit Transceivers (lpGBTs) and the Versatile optical Transceiver (VTRx+) modules, which both are being developed for the High-Luminosity LHC upgrade. An evaluation board is designed and the major functions of the optical link system are being evaluated. The design of the optical link system and the evaluation of major functions are presented in the paper.

physics.ins-det↗

arXiv2020

Prototyping of a 25 Gbps optical transmitter for applications in high-energy physics experiments

Development of optical links with 850 nm multi-mode vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs) has advanced to 25 Gbps in speed. For applications in high-energy experiments, the transceivers are required to be tolerant in radiation and particle fields. We report on prototyping of a miniature transmitter named MTx+, which is developed for high speed transmission with the dual-channel laser driver LOCld65 and 850 nm VCSELs packaged in TOSA format. The LOCld65 is fabricated in the TSMC 65 nm process and is packaged in the QFN-40 for assembly. The MTx+ modules and test kits were first made with PCB and components qualified for 10 Gbps applications, and were tested for achieving 14 Gbps. The data transfer rate of the MTx+ module is investigated further for the speed of up to 25 Gbps. The LOCld65 is examined with post-layout simulation and the module design upgraded with components including the TOSA qualified for 25 Gbps applications. The PCB material is replaced by the Panasonic MEGTRON6. The revised MTx+ is tested at 25 Gbps and the eye-diagram shows a mask margin of 22 %.

physics.ins-det↗

arXiv2020

JINGLE -- IV. Dust, HI gas and metal scaling laws in the local Universe

Scaling laws of dust, HI gas and metal mass with stellar mass, specific star formation rate and metallicity are crucial to our understanding of the buildup of galaxies through their enrichment with metals and dust. In this work, we analyse how the dust and metal content varies with specific gas mass ($M_{\text{HI}}$/$M_{\star}$) across a diverse sample of 423 nearby galaxies. The observed trends are interpreted with a set of Dust and Element evolUtion modelS (DEUS) - incluidng stellar dust production, grain growth, and dust destruction - within a Bayesian framework to enable a rigorous search of the multi-dimensional parameter space. We find that these scaling laws for galaxies with $-1.0\lesssim \log M_{\text{HI}}$/$M_{\star}\lesssim0$ can be reproduced using closed-box models with high fractions (37-89$\%$) of supernova dust surviving a reverse shock, relatively low grain growth efficiencies ($ε$=30-40), and long dus lifetimes (1-2\,Gyr). The models have present-day dust masses with similar contributions from stellar sources (50-80\,$\%$) and grain growth (20-50\,$\%$). Over the entire lifetime of these galaxies, the contribution from stardust ($>$90\,$\%$) outweighs the fraction of dust grown in the interstellar medium ($<$10$\%$). Our results provide an alternative for the chemical evolution models that require extremely low supernova dust production efficiencies and short grain growth timescales to reproduce local scaling laws, and could help solving the conundrum on whether or not grains can grow efficiently in the interstellar medium.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2020

White Paper: ARIANNA-200 high energy neutrino telescope

The proposed ARIANNA-200 neutrino detector, located at sea-level on the Ross Ice Shelf, Antarctica, consists of 200 autonomous and independent detector stations separated by 1 kilometer in a uniform triangular mesh, and serves as a pathfinder mission for the future IceCube-Gen2 project. The primary science mission of ARIANNA-200 is to search for sources of neutrinos with energies greater than 10^17 eV, complementing the reach of IceCube. An ARIANNA observation of a neutrino source would provide strong insight into the enigmatic sources of cosmic rays. ARIANNA observes the radio emission from high energy neutrino interactions in the Antarctic ice. Among radio based concepts under current investigation, ARIANNA-200 would uniquely survey the vast majority of the southern sky at any instant in time, and an important region of the northern sky, by virtue of its location on the surface of the Ross Ice Shelf in Antarctica. The broad sky coverage is specific to the Moore's Bay site, and makes ARIANNA-200 ideally suited to contribute to the multi-messenger thrust by the US National Science Foundation, Windows on the Universe - Multi-Messenger Astrophysics, providing capabilities to observe explosive sources from unknown directions. The ARIANNA architecture is designed to measure the angular direction to within 3 degrees for every neutrino candidate, which too plays an important role in the pursuit of multi-messenger observations of astrophysical sources.

astro-ph.IM↗

arXiv2020

The final SDSS-IV/SPIDERS X-ray point source spectroscopic catalogue

We look to provide a detailed description of the SPectroscopic IDentification of ERosita Sources (SPIDERS) survey, an SDSS-IV programme aimed at obtaining spectroscopic classification and redshift measurements for complete samples of sufficiently bright X-ray sources. We describe the SPIDERS X-ray Point Source Spectroscopic Catalogue, considering its store of 11,092 observed spectra drawn from a parent sample of 14,759 ROSAT and XMM sources over an area of 5,129 deg$^2$ covered in SDSS-IV by the eBOSS survey. This programme represents the largest systematic spectroscopic observation of an X-ray selected sample. A total of 10,970 (98.9\%) of the observed objects are classified and 10,849 (97.8\%) have secure redshifts. The majority of the spectra (10,070 objects) are active galactic nuclei (AGN), 522 are cluster galaxies, and 294 are stars. The observed AGN redshift distribution is in good agreement with simulations based on empirical models for AGN activation and duty cycle. Forming composite spectra of type 1 AGN as a function of the mass and accretion rate of their black holes reveals systematic differences in the H-beta emission line profiles. This study paves the way for systematic spectroscopic observations of sources that are potentially to be discovered in the upcoming eROSITA survey over a large section of the sky.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2019

Formation and Eruption of a Mini-sigmoid Originating in Coronal Hole

In this paper, we study in detail the evolution of a mini-sigmiod originating in a cross-equatorial coronal hole, where the magnetic field is mostly open and seriously distinct from the closed background field above active-region sigmoids. The source region first appeared as a bipole, which subsequently experienced a rapid emergence followed by a long-term decay. Correspondingly, the coronal structure initially appeared as arc-like loops, then gradually sheared and transformed into continuously sigmoidal loops, mainly owing to flux cancellation near the polarity inversion line. The temperature of J-shaped and sigmoidal loops is estimated to be about $2.0\times10^{6}$ K, greater than that of the background coronal hole. Using the flux-rope insertion method, we further reconstruct the nonlinear force-free fields that well reproduces the transformation of the potential field into a sigmoidal field. The fact that the sheared and sigmoidal loops are mainly concentrated at around the high-Q region implies that the reconnection most likely takes place there to form the sigmoidal field and heat the plasma. Moreover, the twist of sigmoidal field lines is estimated to be around 0.8, less than the values derived for the sigmoids from active regions. However, the sigmoidal flux may quickly enter an unstable regime at the very low corona ($<10\ Mm$) due to the open background field. The results suggest that the mini-sigmoid, at least the one in our study, has the same formation and eruption process as the large-scale one, but is significantly influenced by the overlying flux.

astro-ph.SR↗

arXiv2019

New Limit on the Permanent Electric Dipole Moment of $^{129}$Xe using $^{3}$He Comagnetometry and SQUID Detection

We report results of a new technique to measure the electric dipole moment of $^{129}$Xe with $^3$He comagnetometry. Both species are polarized using spin-exchange optical pumping, transferred to a measurement cell, and transported into a magnetically shielded room, where SQUID magnetometers detect free precession in applied electric and magnetic fields. The result from a one week measurement campaign in 2017 and a 2.5 week campaign in 2018, combined with detailed study of systematic effects, is $d_A(^{129}\mathrm{Xe}) = (1.4 \pm 6.6_\mathrm{stat} \pm 2.0_\mathrm{syst})\times10^{-28}~e\,\mathrm{cm}$. This corresponds to an upper limit of $|d_A(^{129}\mathrm{Xe})| < 1.4 \times 10^{-27} ~e\,\mathrm{cm}~(95\%~\mathrm{CL})$, a factor of five more sensitive than the limit set in 2001.

physics.atom-ph↗