Search

Recent experiments have employed rapidly expanding toroidal Bose-Einstein condensates (BECs) to mimic the inflationary expansion in the early universe. One expected signature of the expansion in such experiments is spontaneous particle creation (of phonons) which is observable in density-density correlations. We study entanglement of these particles, which are known to result in a two-mode squeezed state. Using techniques for Gaussian states of continuous variable systems, we quantify the entanglement generated in this system, including effects such as decoherence and the use of an initially squeezed state, which can suppress and enhance entanglement, respectively. We also describe a protocol to experimentally measure the correlations entering the covariance matrix, allowing an experimental quantification of the entanglement properties of the inflationary BEC., Comment: 20 pages, 11 figures

Craters are amongst the most important morphological features in planetary exploration. To that extent, detecting, mapping and counting craters is a mainstream process in planetary science, done primarily manually, which is a very laborious and time-consuming process. Recently, machine learning (ML) and computer vision have been successfully applied for both detecting craters and estimating their size. Existing ML approaches for automated crater detection have been trained in specific types of data e.g. digital elevation model (DEM), images and associated metadata for orbiters such as the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera (LROC) etc.. Due to that, each of the resulting ML schemes is applicable and reliable only to the type of data used during the training process. Data from different sources, angles and setups can compromise the reliability of these ML schemes. In this paper we present a universal crater detection scheme that is based on the recently proposed Segment Anything Model (SAM) from META AI. SAM is a prompt-able segmentation system with zero-shot generalization to unfamiliar objects and images without the need for additional training. Using SAM we can successfully identify crater-looking objects in any type of data (e,g, raw satellite images Level-1 and 2 products, DEMs etc.) for different setups (e.g. Lunar, Mars) and different capturing angles. Moreover, using shape indexes, we only keep the segmentation masks of crater-like features. These masks are subsequently fitted with an ellipse, recovering both the location and the size/geometry of the detected craters., Comment: 11 pages, 7 Figures, preprint of a submitted paper in Icarus (under review)

Contemporary sea level rise (SLR) research seldom considers enabling effective geovisualisation for the communities. This lack of knowledge transfer impedes raising awareness on climate change and its impacts. The goal of this study is to produce an online SLR map accessible to the public that allows them to interact with evolving high-resolution geospatial data and techniques. The study area was the North Shore of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. While typically coarser resolution (10m+/pixel) Digital Elevation Models have been used by previous studies, we explored an open access airborne 1 metre LiDAR which has a higher resolution and vertical accuracy and can penetrate tree cover at a higher degree than most satellite imagery. A bathtub method model with hydrologic connectivity was used to delineate the inundation zones for various SLR scenarios which allows for a not overly complex model and process using standard tools such as ArcGIS and QGIS with similar levels of accuracy as more complex models, especially with the high-resolution data. Deep Learning and 3D visualizations were used to create past, present, and modelled future Land Use/Land Cover and 3D flyovers. Analysis of the possible impacts of 1m, 2m, 3m, and 4m SLR over the unique coastline, terrain and land use was detailed. The generated interactive online map helps local communities visualise and understand the future of their coastlines. We have provided a detailed methodology and the methods and results are easily reproducible for other regions. Such initiatives can help popularise community-focused geovisualisation to raise awareness about SLR., Comment: 29 pages, 10 figures, 8 tables

We present a theoretical study of how a spatially-varying quasiparticle velocity in honeycomb lattices, achievable using strained graphene or in engineered cold-atom optical lattices that have a spatial dependence to the local tunneling amplitude, can yield the Rindler Hamiltonian embodying an observer accelerating in Minkowski spacetime. Within this setup, a sudden switch-on of the spatially-varying tunneling (or strain) yields a spontaneous production of electron-hole pairs, an analogue version of the Unruh effect characterized by the Unruh temperature. We discuss how this thermal behavior, along with Takagi's statistics inversion, can manifest themselves in photo-emission and scanning tunneling microscopy experiments. We also calculate the average electronic conductivity and find that it grows linearly with frequency $\omega$. Finally, we find that the total system energy at zero environment temperature looks like Planck's blackbody result for photons due to the aforementioned statistics inversion, whereas for an initial thermally excited state of fermions, the total internal energy undergoes stimulated particle reduction., Comment: 25 pages, 5 figures

Martian subsurface habitability and astrobiology can be evaluated via a lava tube cave, without drilling. MACIE addresses two key goals of the Decadal Survey (2013-2022) and three MEPAG goals. New advances in robotic architectures, autonomous navigation, target sample selection, and analysis will enable MACIE to explore the Martian subsurface., Comment: This paper was submitted to the Planetary and Astrobiology Decadal Survey in August 2020

We present a theoretical study of the dynamics of a Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) trapped inside an expanding toroid that can realize an analogue inflationary universe. As the system expands, we find that phonons in the BEC undergo redshift and damping due to quantum pressure effects, owing to the thinness of the ring. We predict that rapidly expanding toroidal BEC's can exhibit spontaneous particle creation, and study this phenomenon in the context of an initial coherent state wavefunction. We show how particle creation would be revealed in the atom density and density correlations, and discuss connections to the cosmological theory of inflation., Comment: 15 pages, 7 figures

We develop a consistent analytic approach to determine the conditions under which slow roll inflation can arise when the inflaton is the same scalar field that is responsible for the bounce in Loop Quantum Cosmology (LQC). We find that the requirement that the energy density of the field is fixed at the bounce having to match a critical density has important consequences for its future evolution. For a generic potential with a minimum, we find different scenarios depending on the initial velocity of the field and whether it begins life in a kinetic or potential energy dominated regime. For chaotic potentials that start in a kinetic dominated regime, we find an initial phase of superinflation independent of the shape of the potential followed by a damping phase which slows the inflaton down, forcing it to turnaround and naturally enter a phase of slow-roll inflation. If we begin in a potential energy dominated regime, then the field undergoes a period where the corrections present in LQC damp its evolution once again forcing it to turnaround and enter a phase of slow roll inflation. On the other hand we show for the Starobinsky potential that inflation never occurs when we begin in a potential dominated regime. In fact traditional Starobinsky inflation has to start in a kinetic energy dominated regime, with corresponding tighter constraints on the initial value of the field for successful inflation than in the conventional case. Comparing our analytic results to published numerical ones, we find remarkable agreement especially when we consider the different epochs that are involved. In particular the values of key observables obtained from the two approaches are in excellent agreement, opening up the possibility of obtaining analytic results for the evolution of the density perturbations in these models., Comment: 18 pages, 6 tables. v2: updates to match published version