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Xi Zhang

Publications and source records attributed to Xi Zhang.

At least 397 records · Page 22Linked to original sources
arXiv2014

Synergistic Laser Wakefield/Direct Laser Acceleration in the Plasma Bubble Regime

The concept of a hybrid laser wakefield/direct laser plasma accelerator is proposed. Relativistic electrons undergoing resonant betatron oscillations inside the plasma bubble created by a laser pulse are accelerated by gaining energy directly from the laser pulse and from its plasma wake. The resulting bifurcated phase space of self-injected plasma electrons contains a population that experiences wakefield acceleration beyond the standard one-dimensional limit because of the multi-dimensional nature of its motion that reduces the phase slippage between the electrons and the wake.

physics.plasm-ph↗
arXiv2014

Atmospheric Circulation of Brown Dwarfs: Jets, Vortices, and Time Variability

A variety of observational evidence demonstrates that brown dwarfs exhibit active atmospheric circulations. In this study we use a shallow-water model to investigate the global atmospheric dynamics in the stratified layer overlying the convective zone on these rapidly rotating objects. We show that the existence and properties of the atmospheric circulation crucially depend on key parameters including the energy injection rate and radiative timescale. Under conditions of strong internal heat flux and weak radiative dissipation, a banded flow pattern comprising east-west jet streams spontaneously emerges from the interaction of atmospheric turbulence with the planetary rotation. In contrast, when the internal heat flux is weak and/or radiative dissipation is strong, turbulence injected into the atmosphere damps before it can self-organize into jets, leading to a flow dominated by transient eddies and isotropic turbulence instead. The simulation results are not very sensitive to the form of the forcing. Based on the location of the transition between jet-dominated and eddy-dominated regimes, we suggest that many brown dwarfs may exhibit atmospheric circulations dominated by eddies and turbulence (rather than jets) due to the strong radiative damping on these worlds, but a jet structure is also possible under some realistic conditions. Our simulated light curves capture important features from observed infrared lightcurves of brown dwarfs, including amplitude variations of a few percent and shapes that fluctuate between single-peak and multi-peak structures. More broadly, our work shows that the shallow-water system provides a useful tool to illuminate fundamental aspects of the dynamics on these worlds.

astro-ph.EP↗
arXiv2014

A Supersolid Skin Covering both Water and Ice

The mysterious nature and functionality of water and ice skins remain baffling to the community since 1859 when Farady firstly proposed liquid skin lubricating ice. Here we show the presence of supersolid phase that covers both water and ice using Raman spectroscopy measurements and quantum calculations. In the skin of two molecular layers thick, molecular undercoordination shortens the H-O bond by ~16% and lengthens the OH nonbond by ~25% through repulsion between electron pairs on adjacent O atoms, which depresses the density from 0.92 for bulk ice to 0.75 gcm-3. The O:H-O cooperative relaxation stiffens the H-O stretching phonon from 3200/3150 cm-1 to the same value of 3450 cm-1 and raises the melting temperature of both skins by up to ~310 K. Numerical derivatives on the viscosity and charge accumulation suggests that the elastic, polarized, and thermally stable supersolid phase makes the ice frictionless and water skin hydrophobic and ice like at room temperature.

cond-mat.soft↗
arXiv2013

Bimodal Distribution of Sulfuric Acid Aerosols in the Upper Haze of Venus

The upper haze (UH) of Venus is variable on the order of days and it is populated by two particle modes. We use a 1D microphysics and vertical transport model based on the Community Aerosol and Radiation Model for Atmospheres to evaluate whether interaction of upwelled cloud particles and sulfuric acid particles nucleated in situ on meteoric dust are able to generate the two size modes and whether their observed variability are due to cloud top vertical transient winds. Nucleation of photochemically produced sulfuric acid onto polysulfur condensation nuclei generates mode 1 cloud droplets that then diffuse upwards into the UH. Droplets generated in the UH from nucleation of sulfuric acid onto meteoric dust coagulate with the upwelled cloud particles and cannot reproduce the observed bimodal size distribution. The mass transport enabled by cloud top transient winds are able to generate a bimodal size distribution in a time scale consistent with observations. Sedimentation and convection in the middle and lower clouds causes the formation of large mode 2 and mode 3 particles. Evaporation of these particles below the clouds creates a local sulfuric acid vapor maximum that causes upwelling of sulfuric acid back into the clouds. If the polysulfur condensation nuclei are small and their production rate is high, coagulation of small droplets onto larger droplets in the middle cloud may result in sulfuric acid "rain" below the clouds once every few Earth months. Reduction of the polysulfur condensation nuclei production rate destroys this oscillation and reduces the mode 1 particle abundance in the middle cloud by two orders of magnitude, though it better reproduces the sulfur-to-sulfuric-acid mass ratio in the cloud and haze droplets. In general we find satisfactory agreement between our results and observations, though improvements could be made by incorporating sulfur microphysics.

astro-ph.EP↗
arXiv2013

Mpemba Paradox Revisited -- Numerical Reinforcement

Inspired by responses to the work (arXiv:1310.6514), we solved the one-dimensional, nonlinear Fourier initial and boundary condition problem using the finite element method. Examination of all possible parameters reveals the following: 1. Hydrogen bond has memory effect to emit energy at a rate, or with a relaxation time, depending on initial energy storage. 2. Skin super-solidity creates gradients in thermal diffusion coefficient for heat conduction in liquid with the optimal skin-bulk ratio of 1.48. 3. Convection alone produces no such effect. 4. Mpemba effect happens only in the highly non-diabetic source-path-drain cycling system.

physics.chem-ph↗
arXiv2013

O:H-O Bond Anomalous Relaxation Resolving Mpemba Paradox

We demonstrate that the Mpemba paradox arises intrinsically from the release rate of energy initially stored in the covalent H-O part of the O:H-O bond in water albeit experimental conditions. Generally, heating raises the energy of a substance by lengthening and softening all bonds involved. However, the O:H nonbond in water follows actively the general rule of thermal expansion and drives the H-O covalent bond to relax oppositely in length and energy because of the inter-electron-electron pair coupling [J Phys Chem Lett 4, 2565 (2013); ibid 4, 3238 (2013)]. Heating stores energy into the H-O bond by shortening and stiffening it. Cooling the water as the source in a refrigerator as a drain, the H-O bond releases its energy at a rate that depends exponentially on the initially storage of energy, and therefore, Mpemba effect happens. This effect is formulated in terms of the relaxation time tau to represent all possible processes of energy loss. Consistency between predictions and measurements revealed that the tau drops exponentially intrinsically with the initial temperature of the water being cooled.

physics.chem-ph↗
arXiv2013

Mechano-freezing of the ambient water

Raman spectroscopy examination of the 25 deg-C water freezing under compression revealed transition from 1.35 GPa to 0.86 GPa upon ice being formed at continued volume change. The transition is associated with a slight blue shift of the high-frequency phonon (omiga_H ~ 3120 cm-1) and creation of the low-frequency phonons (Omiga_L ~ 200 cm-1). In the liquid and in the solid phase, the increased pressure softens the Omiga_H and stiffens the Omida_L, which indicates the presence of the inter-electron-pair repulsion in both liquid and solid water.

physics.chem-ph↗
arXiv2013

Skin supersolidity slipperizing ice

Consistency between theory predictions and measurements and calculations revealed that the skin of ice, containing water molecules with fewer than four neighbours, forms a supersolid phase that is highly polarized, elastic, hydrophobic, with ultra-low density and high thermal stability. The supersolidity of skin sliperizes ice.

cond-mat.soft↗
arXiv2013

Mediation of hydrogen-bond coupling interactions by programmable heating and salting

We show that programmable heating and salting share the same effect on the frequency shift of the O:H and the H-O stretching phonons of the O:H-O hydrogen bond, which revealed that both heating and salting lengthens and softens the O:H bond and shortens and stiffens the H-O bond due to the weakening of the Coulomb repulsion between electron pairs of adjacent oxygen atoms. Understanding provides possible mechanism for the Hofmeister series and the detergent effect on cloth cleaning.

cond-mat.soft↗
arXiv2013

Enhancing Secrecy with Multi-Antenna Transmission in Wireless Ad Hoc Networks

We study physical-layer security in wireless ad hoc networks and investigate two types of multi-antenna transmission schemes for providing secrecy enhancements. To establish secure transmission against malicious eavesdroppers, we consider the generation of artificial noise with either sectoring or beamforming. For both approaches, we provide a statistical characterization and tradeoff analysis of the outage performance of the legitimate communication and the eavesdropping links. We then investigate the networkwide secrecy throughput performance of both schemes in terms of the secrecy transmission capacity, and study the optimal power allocation between the information signal and the artificial noise. Our analysis indicates that, under transmit power optimization, the beamforming scheme outperforms the sectoring scheme, except for the case where the number of transmit antennas are sufficiently large. Our study also reveals some interesting differences between the optimal power allocation for the sectoring and beamforming schemes.

cs.IT↗
arXiv2013

A Systematic Retrieval Analysis of Secondary Eclipse Spectra I: A Comparison of Atmospheric Retrieval Techniques

Spectra of exoplanet atmospheres provide us the opportunity to improve our understanding of these objects just as remote sensing in our own solar system has increased our understanding of the solar system bodies. The challenge is to quantitatively determine the range of temperatures and species abundances allowed by the data. This challenge is often difficult given the low information content of most exoplanet spectra which commonly leads to degeneracies in the interpretation. A variety of temperature and abundance retrieval approaches have been applied to exoplanet spectra, but no previous investigations have sought to compare these approaches. In this investigation we compare three different retrieval methods: Optimal Estimation, Differential Evolution Markov Chain Monte Carlo, and Bootstrap Monte Carlo. We call our suite of retrieval algorithms the Caltech Inverse Modeling and Retrieval Algorithms (CHIMERA). We discuss what we can expect in terms of uncertainties in abundances and temperatures given current observations as well as potential future observations and what conclusions can be drawn given those uncertainties. In general we find that the three approaches agree for high quality spectra expected to come from potential future spaceborne missions, but disagree for low quality spectra representative of current observations. We also show that the Gaussian posterior probability distribution assumption made in the Optimal Estimation approach is valid for high quality spectral data. We also discuss the implications of our models for the inferred C to O ratios of exoplanetary atmospheres, which of course are important for understanding formation environments. More specifically we show that in the observational limit of a few photometric points, the retrieved C/O is biased towards values near solar and near one simply due to the assumption of uninformative priors.

astro-ph.EP↗
arXiv2013

On the Design of Artificial-Noise-Aided Secure Multi-Antenna Transmission in Slow Fading Channels

In this paper, we investigate the design of artificial-noise-aided secure multi-antenna transmission in slow fading channels. The primary design concerns include the transmit power allocation and the rate parameters of the wiretap code. We consider two scenarios with different complexity levels: i) the design parameters are chosen to be fixed for all transmissions, ii) they are adaptively adjusted based on the instantaneous channel feedback from the intended receiver. In both scenarios, we provide explicit design solutions for achieving the maximal throughput subject to a secrecy constraint, given by a maximum allowable secrecy outage probability. We then derive accurate approximations for the maximal throughput in both scenarios in the high signal-to-noise ratio region, and give new insights into the additional power cost for achieving a higher security level, whilst maintaining a specified target throughput. In the end, the throughput gain of adaptive transmission over non-adaptive transmission is also quantified and analyzed.

cs.IT↗
arXiv2012

Hidden force opposing ice compression

Coulomb repulsion between the unevenly-bound bonding and nonbonding electron pairs in the O:H-O hydrogen-bond is shown to originate the anomalies of ice under compression. Consistency between experimental observations, density functional theory and molecular dynamics calculations confirmed that the resultant force of the compression, the repulsion, and the recovery of electron-pair dislocations differentiates ice from other materials in response to pressure. The compression shortens and strengthens the longer-and-softer intermolecular O:H lone-pair virtual-bond; the repulsion pushes the bonding electron pair away from the H+/p and hence lengthens and weakens the intramolecular H-O real-bond. The virtual-bond compression and the real-bond elongation symmetrize the O:H-O as observed at ~60 GPa and result in the abnormally low compressibility of ice. The virtual-bond stretching phonons (< 400 cm-1) are thus stiffened and the real-bond stretching phonons (> 3000 cm-1) softened upon compression. The cohesive energy of the real-bond dominates and its loss lowers the critical temperature for the VIII-VII phase transition. The polarization of the lone electron pairs and the entrapment of the bonding electron pairs by compression expand the band gap consequently. Findings should form striking impact to understanding the physical anomalies of H2O.

physics.chem-ph↗
arXiv2011

Hydrogen bond relaxation dynamics and the associated symmetric, volumetric, vibronic, and phase transitional anomalies of frozen H2O under compression

Coulomb repulsion between the unevenly-bounded bonding "-" and nonbonding ":" electron pairs in the "O2- : H+/p-O2-" hydrogen-bond is found to originate the anomalies of low-compressibility, phonon relaxation dynamics, proton symmetrization in the hydrogen-bond, and the change of the critical temperature for the VIII-VII phase transition of ice under compression. The resultant force of the compression, the repulsion, and the uneven binding strength of the electron pairs make the softer intermolecular "O2- : H+/p" nonbonding lone pair be highly compressed and stiffened but the stiffer intramolecular "H+/p-O2-" bond be elongated and softened. Consequently, the softer nonbond phonons (< 400 cm-1) are stiffened and the stiffer bond phonons (> 3000 cm-1) are softened upon compression. The nonbond compression and the real bond elongation results in the O2--H+/p : O2- symmetrization and the low compressibility of ice. Findings should form the starting point to unveil the physical anomalies of H2O under various stimuli.

cond-mat.other↗
arXiv2011

Hydrogen bond relaxation dynamics and the associated vibronic and volumetric anomalies of H2O upon frozen

A combination of the extended Ice Rule of Pauling, Raman spectroscopy, and molecular dynamics calculations has enabled us to clarify the bonding origin of the anomalous volume expansion, Raman phonon relaxation, and the stiffness and fragility of H2O upon frozen. We found that the initially shorter-and-stronger intramolecular "H+/p-O2-" bond follows the regular rule of cooling-contraction while the initially longer-and-weaker intermolecular "O2- : H+/p" nonbond turns to be even longer yet stiffer in the "O2- : H+/p-O2-" hydrogen-bond of H2O upon frozen, as a consequence of the polarization and Coulomb repulsion between the unevenly-bounded bonding and nonbonding electron pairs. The elongation of the nonbond and the polarization of the nonbonding lone pair are responsible, respectively, for the volume expansion and the stiffness and the fragility of ice. Findings should form important impact to the understanding of the physical anomalies of H2O under other stimuli such as pressure and confinement.

cond-mat.other↗
arXiv2011

Zone-resolved photoelectronic scoping of the local bonding and electronic dynamics at the graphite skin with and without atomic vacancy and the associated graphene edge states

A zone-resolved photoelectron spectroscopy (ZPS) has enabled us to gain the local and quantitative information and hence confirm our theoretical expectations on the bonding and electronic dynamics at graphite skin with and without atomic vacancy defects. The ZPS study has revealed: i) the 1s energy level of an isolated carbon atom is located at 282.57 eV, which shifts by 1.32 eV deeper upon diamond bulk formation; ii) the graphite surface bonds contract by 18% with 165% gain in energy compared with the C-C bond in the bulk diamond; the surface C 1s energy shifts 2.08 eV deeper from the 1s level of an isolated carbon atom; and iii) the defect bonds are ~26% shorter and 215% stronger with the binding energy shift of ~2.85 eV. An additional polarization peak centered at 1.28 eV below the C 1s level presents when the vacancy is formed. Associated with the scanning tunneling microscopy/spectroscopy observations and density functional theory calculations, the ZPS measurements clarify, for the first time, that the graphitic Dirac-Fermi polarons at atomic vacancy or graphene zigzag edge arise from the polarization of the unpaired dangling-bond electrons by the undercoordination-induced local densification and quantum entrapment of the bonding electrons.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗
arXiv2011

Stochastic parallel gradient descent based adaptive optics used for high contrast imaging coronagraph

An adaptive optics (AO) system based on stochastic parallel gradient descent (SPGD) algorithm is proposed to reduce the speckle noises in the optical system of stellar coronagraph in order to further improve the contrast. The principle of SPGD algorithm is described briefly and a metric suitable for point source imaging optimization is given. The feasibility and good performance of SPGD algorithm is demonstrated by experimental system featured with a 140-actuators deformable mirror (DM) and a Hartmann- Shark wavefront sensor. Then the SPGD based AO is applied to a liquid crystal array (LCA) based coronagraph. The LCA can modulate the incoming light to generate a pupil apodization mask in any pattern. A circular stepped pattern is used in our preliminary experiment and the image contrast shows improvement from 10^-3 to 10^-4.5 at angular distance of 2λ/D after corrected by SPGD based AO.

astro-ph.IM↗