A new approach to impedance atomic spectroscopy

Resonant laser-induced changes of the dielectric constant of atomic or molecular gases are detected as deviations in the oscillation frequency of a circuit including the sample itself as a component. Heterodyne detection allows high sensitivity. The new non-intrusive technique is demonstrated in the spectroscopic investigation of neon and sodium atoms.Work partially supported by ENEL under contract n. U 815     

Sulla propagazione di onde elettromagnetiche in una colonna di plasma cilindrica circolare indefinita,soggetta ad agitazione termica elettronica e a un campo magnetico assiale uniforme

Summary A study is made about the ways of propagation of electromagnetic waves in a cylindrical plasma column subject to termic and electronic agitation and to an axial uniform field; and it is put in evidence the possibility for four ways of propagation of waves according to the cylinder's axis. Then it is examined a particular case in which the ways of waves propagation are reduced to two.

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A Bruno Finzi nel suo 70^mo compleanno.

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Lavoro svolto nell'ambito del Gruppo di ricerca n. 3 del Comitato per la Matematica del C.N.R.

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Entrata in Redazione il 26 gennaio 1970.     

Single-beam optical bottle for cold atoms using a conical lens

We report a new method to generate an optical dipole potential with a null intensity region surrounded in all directions by light walls. This is achieved with a simple scheme based on a conical lens. Applications to optical trapping of neutral atoms are discussed. Received 4 September 2000 and Received in final form 21 January 2001     

N-Widths and ε-Dimensions for High-Dimensional Approximations

In this paper, we study linear trigonometric hyperbolic cross approximations, Kolmogorov n-widths d _n (W,H ^γ ), and ε-dimensions n _ε (W,H ^γ ) of periodic d-variate function classes W with anisotropic smoothness, where d may be large. We are interested in finding the accurate dependence of d _n (W,H ^γ ) and n _ε (W,H ^γ ) as a function of two variables n, d and ε, d, respectively. Recall that n, the dimension of the approximating subspace, is the main parameter in the study of convergence rates with respect to n going to infinity. However, the parameter d may seriously affect this rate when d is large. We construct linear approximations of functions from W by trigonometric polynomials with frequencies from hyperbolic crosses and prove upper bounds for the error measured in isotropic Sobolev spaces H ^γ . Furthermore, in order to show the optimality of the proposed approximation, we prove upper and lower bounds of the corresponding n-widths d _n (W,H ^γ ) and ε-dimensions n _ε (W,H ^γ ). Some of the received results imply that the curse of dimensionality can be broken in some relevant situations.     

Tics are caused by alterations in prefrontal areas, thalamus and putamen, while changes in the cingulate gyrus reflect secondary compensatory mechanisms

Background

Despite strong evidence that the pathophysiology of Tourette syndrome (TS) involves structural and functional disturbances of the basal ganglia and cortical frontal areas, findings from in vivo imaging studies have provided conflicting results. In this study we used whole brain diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) to investigate the microstructural integrity of white matter pathways and brain tissue in 19 unmedicated, adult, male patients with TS “only” (without comorbid psychiatric disorders) and 20 age- and sex-matched control subjects.

Results

Compared to normal controls, TS patients showed a decrease in the fractional anisotropy index (FA) bilaterally in the medial frontal gyrus, the pars opercularis of the left inferior frontal gyrus, the middle occipital gyrus, the right cingulate gyrus, and the medial premotor cortex. Increased apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) maps were detected in the left cingulate gyrus, prefrontal areas, left precentral gyrus, and left putamen. There was a negative correlation between tic severity and FA values in the left superior frontal gyrus, medial frontal gyrus bilaterally, cingulate gyrus bilaterally, and ventral posterior lateral nucleus of the right thalamus, and a positive correlation in the body of the corpus callosum, left thalamus, right superior temporal gyrus, and left parahippocampal gyrus. There was also a positive correlation between regional ADC values and tic severity in the left cingulate gyrus, putamen bilaterally, medial frontal gyrus bilaterally, left precentral gyrus, and ventral anterior nucleus of the left thalamus.

Conclusions

Our results confirm prior studies suggesting that tics are caused by alterations in prefrontal areas, thalamus and putamen, while changes in the cingulate gyrus seem to reflect secondary compensatory mechanisms. Due to the study design, influences from comorbidities, gender, medication and age can be excluded.     

A high-order enrichment strategy for the finite cell method

Thanks to the application of the immersed boundary approach in the finite cell method, the mesh can be defined independently from the geometry. Although this leads to a significant simplification of the mesh generation, it might cause difficulties in the solution. One of the possible difficulties will occur if the exact solution of the underlying problem exhibits a kink inside an element, for instance at material interfaces. In such a case, the solution turns out less smooth – and the convergence rate is deteriorated if no further measures are taken into account. In this paper, we explore a remedy by considering the partition of unity method. The proposed approach allows to define enrichment functions with the help of a high-order implicit representation of the material interface. (© 2015 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

135 W average-power femtosecond pulses at 520 nm from a frequency-doubled fiber laser system

We present a high-average-power femtosecond laser system at 520 nm central wavelength. The laser system delivers sub-500 fs pulses with 135 W average power at a pulse repetition rate of 5.25 MHz. Excellent beam quality is provided by high power fiber amplifiers and maintained during frequency doubling, resulting in a beam quality factor of M2<1.2. To our knowledge, the system presented here is the highest average power green laser source generating femtosecond pulses with diffraction-limited beam quality.     

High-resolution diode-laser spectroscopy of calcium

Saturated-absorption signals on the calcium 657 nm transition are observed by direct absorption using diode lasers and a high flux atomic-beam cell. Line-widths as narrow as 65 kHz are observed with a high signal-to-noise ratio. Prospects for using this system as a compact wavelength/frequency reference are considered.