分类: 天文学 >> 天文学 提交时间: 2023-02-19
摘要: We describe a search for gravitational waves from compact binaries with at least one component with mass 0.2 $M_\odot$ -- $1.0 M_\odot$ and mass ratio $q \geq 0.1$ in Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo data collected between 1 November 2019, 15:00 UTC and 27 March 2020, 17:00 UTC. No signals were detected. The most significant candidate has a false alarm rate of 0.2 $\mathrm{yr}^{-1}$. We estimate the sensitivity of our search over the entirety of Advanced LIGO's and Advanced Virgo's third observing run, and present the most stringent limits to date on the merger rate of binary black holes with at least one subsolar-mass component. We use the upper limits to constrain two fiducial scenarios that could produce subsolar-mass black holes: primordial black holes (PBH) and a model of dissipative dark matter. The PBH model uses recent prescriptions for the merger rate of PBH binaries that include a rate suppression factor to effectively account for PBH early binary disruptions. If the PBHs are monochromatically distributed, we can exclude a dark matter fraction in PBHs $f_\mathrm{PBH} \gtrsim 0.6$ (at 90% confidence) in the probed subsolar-mass range. However, if we allow for broad PBH mass distributions we are unable to rule out $f_\mathrm{PBH} = 1$. For the dissipative model, where the dark matter has chemistry that allows a small fraction to cool and collapse into black holes, we find an upper bound $f_{\mathrm{DBH}} < 10^{-5}$ on the fraction of atomic dark matter collapsed into black holes.
分类: 天文学 >> 天文学 提交时间: 2023-02-19
摘要: The Scintillating Bubble Chamber (SBC) Collaboration is developing liquid-noble bubble chambers for the quasi-background-free detection of low-mass (GeV-scale) dark matter and coherent scattering of low-energy (MeV-scale) neutrinos (CE$\nu$NS). The first physics-scale demonstrator of this technique, a 10-kg liquid argon bubble chamber dubbed SBC-LAr10, is now being commissioned at Fermilab. This device will calibrate the background discrimination power and sensitivity of superheated argon to nuclear recoils at energies down to 100 eV. A second functionally-identical detector with a focus on radiopure construction is being built for SBC's first dark matter search at SNOLAB. The projected spin-independent sensitivity of this search is approximately $10^{-43}$ cm$^2$ at 1 GeV$/c^2$ dark matter particle mass. The scalability and background discrimination power of the liquid-noble bubble chamber make this technique a compelling candidate for future dark matter searches to the solar neutrino fog at 1 GeV$/c^2$ particle mass (requiring a $\sim$ton-year exposure with non-neutrino backgrounds sub-dominant to the solar CE$\nu$NS signal) and for high-statistics CE$\nu$NS studies at nuclear reactors.
分类: 天文学 >> 天文学 提交时间: 2023-02-19
摘要: The LUX-ZEPLIN (LZ) experiment is a dark matter detector centered on a dual-phase xenon time projection chamber operating at the Sanford Underground Research Facility in Lead, South Dakota, USA. This Letter reports results from LZ's first search for Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs) with an exposure of 60 live days using a fiducial mass of 5.5 t. A profile-likelihood ratio analysis shows the data to be consistent with a background-only hypothesis, setting new limits on spin-independent WIMP-nucleon, spin-dependent WIMP-neutron, and spin-dependent WIMP-proton cross-sections for WIMP masses above 9 GeV/c$^2$. The most stringent limit is set at 30 GeV/c$^2$, excluding cross sections above 6.5$\times 10^{-48}$ cm$^2$ at the 90\% confidence level.
分类: 光学 >> 量子光学 提交时间: 2023-02-19
摘要: Mode-locked lasers, which produce ultrashort pulses in the picosecond and femtosecond range, have enabled some of the most precise measurements. However, despite significant recent progress, resolving the temporal behavior of their short pulses is still a challenge. State-of-the-art oscilloscopes with tens of picosecond resolution prevent time-resolved observations in mode-locked lasers and limit the real-time pulse evolution tracking of ultrafast lasers. Here, using the time-lens technique with a Raman amplifier, we implement an ultrafast single-shot time-microscope (TM) with a high temporal magnification factor of 355 and a time measurement window of 1 millisecond that contains ~1.8*10^4 consecutive pulses. We use this TM to characterize the temporal evolution of mode-locked lasers and reveal a temporal sideway oscillation (winding) behavior, a previously unobserved feature of lasers in both theory and experiment. Our experimental observations confirm that the winding behavior is an essential feature in the operation of mode-locked lasers. We theoretically and experimentally found that the winding characteristic evolution originates from gain-induced fluctuations for relatively high gain energies, while Q-switched modulations being the main cause for lower energies. Our findings based on advanced real-time measurements open up new insights into ultrafast and transient optics and may impact future laser designs, modern ultrafast diagnostics, and influence progress in nonlinear optics in general.
分类: 材料科学 >> 材料科学(综合) 分类: 材料科学 >> 金属与冶金 提交时间: 2020-01-07
摘要: Nano-crystalline metals (NCs) exhibit radiation-tolerance due to the sink of grain boundaries (GBs) for radiation-induced defects such as self-interstitial atoms (SIAs) and vacancies (Vs). However, the relevant mechanisms for the radiation damage accumulation and GB structural relaxation under high radiation field in NCs are still not well understood due to the lack of self-consistent across-scale techniques for simulating radiation-induced microstructures evolution. In this article, by combining coarse-grained and atomistic simulations, we proposed a coupling method to investigate the evolution of the microstructure and SIA/V-GB interaction under cumulative irradiation in NC iron. The SIA overloaded effect was revealed in iron GBs at a high radiation dose rate and/or low temperature. Two types of GB structural response were observed to cumulative irradiation. With the SIA accumulated at the GB, the new GB phase formed and then a critical concentration of the SIA at the GB transited to the small quantity of the V during the GB structural recovery, accompanied by the local GB motion. Consequently, the GB’s role for Vs nearby alternated between the trapping and annihilation center with radiation dose. Alternatively, GB developed to a disordered structure after trapping abundant SIAs. The GB response pattern to cumulative irradiation that is related to the SIA formation energy at the GB or the GB thermal stability is well manifested in the cumulative distribution function of the defects formation energy and its energy level density. The present work reveals the dynamic healing picture for radiation damage near the GB under cumulative irradiation.