E.U. Condon: Science, Religion, and the Politics of World Peace

I set forth and discuss E.U. Condon’s views on science and society, focusing specifically on Condon’s views on science and religion, science and government, and the necessity for world peace. Even disregarding his contributions to theoretical physics, Condon proves an interesting case study for several reasons. He had extensive experience in academia, industry, and government, and was a scientist who easily crossed the insider-outsider divide between scientists in Cold War America. Moreover, Condon was a person of the Progressive Left advocating World Government as necessary for peace and warning of the dangers of the militarization of American society as well as of science itself. Known for being outspoken, he became an inviting target for the forces of anticommunism in Cold War America. In March 1948, the House Un-American Activities Committee charged that Condon was “one of the weakest links in our atomic security.” Michael A. Day is Professor of Physics at Lebanon Valley College. He holds doctorates in both physics and philosophy.     

The cooperation between NASA and ASI on the Cassini mission

Summary The updated status of the cooperation between NASA and ASI on the Cassini mission is here presented. This outstanding scientific mission is devoted to study the Saturnian system with a NASA orbiter and a ESA probe. The Italian involvement, managed by the Agenzia Spaziale Italiana (ASI), concerns the design and development of important Cassini Orbiter subsystems. Promotion of the Italian science community's interests and of the national industry's technological capabilities are the rationales for the cooperation. This is an updated version of the contribution presented at San Miniato.     

I.I. Rabi: The Two Cultures and the Universal Culture of Science

I set forth and discuss I.I. Rabis views on the nature of science and society, focusing specifically on Rabis views on science and government, science and education, and science and religion. I also explore the influence of Rabi and C.P. Snow on each other. In the 1960s, Rabi set forth his mature and boldest positions, advocating science as the center of education and science as the replacement for religion. His positions culminate in science as the universal culture. I highlight Rabi not only as a scientist and public servant, but also as a public intellectual actively engaged with and connected to major issues of his time.Michael A. Day is Professor of Physics at Lebanon Valley College. He holds doctorates in both physics and philosophy.     

Research and development at rist

Abstract

The Research Institute for Solvothermal Technology (RIST) opened in September, 1997 to carry out research related to high-temperature and high-pressure fluid technology. The RIST is unique institute specialized high pressure science and technology in Japan, and probably in the world. According to government, the institute is defined as the core facility of a West-Japan creative economic development base zone.

Nowadays, RIST has developed new technologies using supercritical fluids, especially carbon dioxide and water, in areas related to the environment, such as the treatment of organic waste, the production of new materials, such as “new-carbon” substances, materials for batteries and electromagnetic wave absorption, and in the area of energy and resources, such as the conversion or the recycling of industrial plastic waste.

A review will be given on the research and development activities at RIST. It is focused on several essential results obtained in recent investigations. Progressive joint research projects with the cooperation of enterprises, universities and government will be described.     

Perpendicular magnetic recording—Its development and realization

Development of perpendicular magnetic recording is summarized along with learning from the research study. The early stage of perpendicular recording was conducted with the research philosophy of complementarity between perpendicular and horizontal recordings. Although present production of the perpendicular recording HDDs exceeds 600 million per year, development of perpendicular recording experienced the valley of death in the 1990s. The difficult period was overcome by the collaboration system of industrial and academic communities. The research on perpendicular recording brought about development of new research model as well as the historical view of the development of technology and innovation. The huge influence of perpendicular recording on society also taught us the relationship between science and technology with culture and civilization.     

Clusters and islands on oxides: from catalysis via electronics and magnetism to optics

The study of metal deposits on oxides represents a field of wide interest with respect to applications as well as to basic science. The state of the art of the field is reviewed on the basis of examples from various research groups. An attempt is made to define and discuss a series of new experiments that could be undertaken to answer some key questions in the field.     

Control of the optical multistability in a three-level ladder-type quantum well system

We theoretically investigated a hybrid absorptive-dispersive optical multistability (OM) behavior in a three-level ladder-type quantum well system inside a unidirectional ring cavity. We find that the frequency detuning of the control field and the electronic cooperation parameter as well as the total decay rates can affect the optical multistability behavior dramatically, which can be used to manipulate efficiently the threshold intensity and the hysteresis loop. The effect of the intensity of the control field on the OM is also studied. Our study is much more practical than its atomic counterpart due to its flexible design and the wide adjustable parameters. Thus it may provide some new possibilities for technological applications in optoelectronics and solid-state quantum information science.     

Phase-dependent optical bistability and multistability in a semiconductor quantum well system

We theoretically investigate the hybrid absorptive-dispersive optical bistability and multistability in a four-level inverted-Y quantum well system inside a unidirectional ring cavity. We find that the coupling field, the pumping field as well as the cycling field can affect the optical bistability and multistability dramatically, which can be used to manipulate efficiently the threshold intensity and the hysteresis loop. The effects of the relative phase and the electronic cooperation parameter on the OB and OM are also studied. Our study is much more practical than its atomic counterpart due to its flexible design and the wide adjustable parameters. Thus, it may provide some new possibilities for technological applications in optoelectronics and solid-state quantum information science.     

空间光学的发展与波前传感技术

摘要：进入21世纪，国际上一些发达国家和有关部门都已制定了空间发展战略规划，如美国航空航天局（NASA）、欧洲空间局（ESA）和俄罗斯政府相关部门等都提出空间发展战略规划，这些规划提出了今后一段时间内空间科学要解决的问题和发展的方向，而解决这些问题并推进空间技术的发展很大程度上依赖于先进的光学和无线电望远镜及仪器设备。因此，本文介绍本世纪初国际上空间科学应用的大型天文望远镜的发展情况，重点描述了大口径光学望远镜的光学系统以及实现这类天文望远镜的关键技术之一一波前传感技术。     

Fourier could be a data scientist: From graph Fourier transform to signal processing on graphs

The legacy of Joseph Fourier in science is vast, especially thanks to the essential tool that the Fourier transform is. The flexibility of this analysis, its computational efficiency and the physical interpretation it offers makes it a cornerstone in many scientific domains. With the explosion of digital data, both in quantity and diversity, the generalization of the tools based on Fourier transform is mandatory. In data science, new problems arose for the processing of irregular data such as social networks, biological networks or other data on networks. Graph signal processing is a promising approach to deal with those. The present text is an overview of the state of the art in graph signal processing, focusing on how to define a Fourier transform for data on graphs, how to interpret it and how to use it to process such data. It closes showing some examples of use. Along the way, the review reveals how Fourier's work remains modern and universal, and how his concepts, coming from physics and blended with mathematics, computer science, and signal processing, play a key role in answering the modern challenges in data science.     

Status of the hard X‐ray microprobe beamline ID22 of the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility

The ESRF synchrotron beamline ID22, dedicated to hard X‐ray microanalysis and consisting of the combination of X‐ray fluorescence, X‐ray absorption spectroscopy, diffraction and 2D/3D X‐ray imaging techniques, is one of the most versatile instruments in hard X‐ray microscopy science. This paper describes the present beamline characteristics, recent technical developments, as well as a few scientific examples from recent years of the beamline operation. The upgrade plans to adapt the beamline to the growing needs of the user community are briefly discussed.     

Stochastic radiative transfer in Markovian mixtures: Past, present, and future

The Markovian approach, originally suggested in the early 1900s, has widespread practical use in many of our present-day studies and allows one to build bridges between diverse research areas such as statistical physics, astronomy, and computational science. This overview takes a broad sweep of several important examples with the emphasis on the stochastic radiative transfer in a cloudy atmosphere. In particular, the overview (i) highlights important contributions made by Pomraning and Titov to the neutron and radiation transport theory in a stochastic medium with homogeneous statistics and (ii) illustrates that ideas and tools introduced by these two distinguished scientists are gaining increasing impact and recognition in the atmospheric science.     

Networks behind the morphology and structural design of living systems

Technological advances in imaging techniques and biometric data acquisition have enabled us to apply methods of network science to study the morphology and structural design of organelles, organs, and tissues, as well as the coordinated interactions among them that yield a healthy physiology at the level of whole organisms. We here review research dedicated to these advances, in particular focusing on networks between cells, the topology of multicellular structures, neural interactions, fluid transportation networks, and anatomical networks. The percolation of blood vessels, structural connectivity within the brain, the porous structure of bones, and relations between different anatomical parts of the human body are just some of the examples that we explore in detail. We argue and show that the models, methods, and algorithms developed in the realm of network science are ushering in a new era of network-based inquiry into the morphology and structural design of living systems in the broadest possible terms. We also emphasize that the need and applicability of this research is likely to increase significantly in the years to come due to the rapid progress made in the development of bioartificial substitutes and tissue engineering.     

21世纪的激光·光学技术

德国在工业应用领域的激光技术十分先进,这受益于德国政府的长期大力支持。在 21 世纪的今天,德国政府更是制订若干投资计划,加大激光·光学技术的投资力度,促进企业界和科学界的合作,以保持和提高德国工业在世界上的竞争力。     

空间光学的发展与波前传感技术

进入21世纪,国际上一些发达国家和有关部门都已制定了空间发展战略规划,如美国航空航天局(NASA)、欧洲空间局(ESA)和俄罗斯政府相关部门等都提出空间发展战略规划,这些规划提出了今后一段时间内空间科学要解决的问题和发展的方向,而解决这些问题并推进空间技术的发展很大程度上依赖于先进的光学和无线电望远镜及仪器设备。因此,本文介绍本世纪初国际上空间科学应用的大型天文望远镜的发展情况,重点描述了大口径光学望远镜的光学系统以及实现这类天文望远镜的关键技术之一—波前传感技术。     

中子散射技术及其应用

热中子的波长和凝聚态物质的原子／分子间距具有相同的量级，而其能量又和原子／分子的热运动能量相近．因此，利用热中子的弹性和非弹性散射效应，可以从微观层次上获取物质的结构和动力学知识。目前，中子散射技术在物理、化学、化工、生物和材料科学等研究领域的应用已经获得了许多用其他方法无法得到的知识，文章介绍了中子散射的基本原理和特点，并列举了中子散射技术在相关研究领域中的典型应用     

Cooperation under institutional incentives with perfect and imperfect observation

Understanding the evolution of cooperation is a challenging topic in various realms. Increasing attention has been paid to exploring the effects of incentives on the emergence of cooperation. Most of the extant studies have implicitly assumed that the cost of incentives is fixed and independent of the individual's payoff. In human societies, taxation is one important source of funds for supporting the government of individuals and nearly involves everyone. Inspired by this phenomenon, we institute an analytic model where the incentives are established based on the tax regime. Individuals play the prisoner's dilemma game and the ones whose payoffs are greater than zero have to contribute a part as taxes to establish an institution to monitor individuals' behaviors and execute incentives. We investigate the emergence of cooperation under the institutional incentives and make a comparative analysis between reward and punishment subject to the perfect and imperfect environment.     

Entanglement for the masses

Circular electron accelerators are extensively used as wide spectrum sources of photons for research in several fields of science. The basic principles and methods underlying the applications of synchrotron radiation are outlined, and its unique potential illustrated with selected examples.     

Rogue waves and solitons on a cnoidal background

Solutions of the nonlinear Schrödinger equation, appearing as rogue waves on a spatially-periodic background envelope, are obtained using the Darboux transformation scheme. Several particular examples are illustrated numerically. These include soliton and breather solutions on a periodic background as well as higher-order structures. The results enrich our knowledge of possible analytic solutions that describe the appearance of rogue waves in a variety of situations. This work is prepared on the occasion of Prof. Helmut Brand's 60th birthday. He has made significant contributions to the science of solitons and his ideas have inspired our research into localised formations in various physical contexts.     

A cross-disciplinary introduction to quantum annealing-based algorithms

A central goal in quantum computing is the development of quantum hardware and quantum algorithms in order to analyse challenging scientific and engineering problems. Research in quantum computation involves contributions from both physics and computer science; hence this article presents a concise introduction to basic concepts from both fields that are used in annealing-based quantum computation, an alternative to the more familiar quantum gate model. We introduce some concepts from computer science required to define difficult computational problems and to realise the potential relevance of quantum algorithms to find novel solutions to those problems. We introduce the structure of quantum annealing-based algorithms as well as two examples of this kind of algorithms for solving instances of the max-SAT and Minimum Multicut problems. An overview of the quantum annealing systems manufactured by D-Wave Systems is also presented.