La constante de Rydberg $\ R_\infty = \alpha^2 m_{ e} c^2/2hc \$ est déduite d'une comparaison théorie - expérience très précise sur l'atome d'hydrogène. Les derniers calculs d'électrodynamique quantique menés de différentes façons donnent des résultats similaires validant ainsi l'exactitude des termes calculés. Les écarts entre niveaux de l'atome d'hydrogène sont maintenant très bien connus grâce aux mesures faites en unité de fréquence. Ainsi la constante de Rydberg fait partie des constantes fondamentales les mieux déterminées $\Delta R_\infty / R_\infty = 6.6 10^{-12}$. Cependant pour que la comparaison soit complète, il faut connaître indépendamment la valeur de la distribution de charge du proton. Ceci peut être réalisé via une expérience sur l'hydrogène muonique (dans cet atome exotique, l'électron est remplacé par un muon). Après une introduction sur la comparaison théorie - expérience pour l'atome d'hydrogène, les derniers développements de l'expérience sur l'hydrogène muonique sont présentés.<br /><br />La mesure du recul induit par un photon sur un atome de masse M conduit à une détermination pertinente de la constante de structure fine $\alpha$ en utilisant la constante de Rydberg, et les rapports des masses de l'électron, du proton, de l'atome considéré. Dans cet optique, nous avons développé une nouvelle expérience d'oscillations de Bloch avec des atomes de rubidium ultra-froids. Le principe de l'expérience est exposé brièvement tout en insistant sur l'originalité de notre approche. Les premiers résultats métrologiques obtenus très récemment sont présentés.

January of 2010 brought record-breaking cold temperatures to Florida. Such freeze events can upset vulnerable populations of marine life and other species that rely on stable water temperatures. Sea turtles are one group of species that are particularly susceptible to abrupt drops in water temperature. When water temperatures drop below 10°C, a mass hypothermic stunning, or cold-stunning, event for sea turtles can be expected, with many debilitated turtles washing onshore with a very limited time window to be rehabilitated (Foley et al. 2007). The species of sea turtle that appears to cold-stun with the most frequency is the green turtle, especially juveniles. The green turtle represented the vast majority of marine turtles that were rescued during the 2010 cold-stun event. Therefore, accurate weather pattern recognition of marine cold snaps, or freezes, can alert sea turtle rescue groups and rehabilitation facilities in advance of any event, improving their readiness and response times, and ultimately preventing population declines. The proposed research fills this need by providing a qualitative analysis of select years for comparable atmospheric processes that could result in moderate to severe hypothermic stunning events. The 2010 event, along with other significant events, were examined using in situ air temperature, water temperature and wind data near two locations in Florida where hypothermic stunning events occurred: St. Joseph Bay and Mosquito Lagoon. These atmospheric parameters were represented graphically, depicting how each variable contributed to shaping an event. Cold stunning events were found to be primarily driven by frigid air temperatures and a subsequent decrease in water temperatures. Differences between the two event classifications, moderate and severe, are contingent upon the duration of the cold spell, not necessarily how quickly the water temperature dropped below the 10°C threshold value. Results suggest that repeated, quick exposure to cold air temperatures may influence the severity of a hypothermic stunning event. This research could be utilized in the formation of a forecasting model or strategy to efficiently alert the Florida Sea Turtle Stranding and Salvage Network (STSSN) to a potential sharp drop in water temperatures and, consequently, many debilitated sea turtles.

The El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) dominates global interannual climate variability. However, the imprint of anthropogenic climate change hinders understanding of natural ENSO variability. Model predictions of the response of future ENSO variability to anthropogenic forcing are highly uncertain. A better understanding of how ENSO operates during different mean climate states may improve predictions of its future behavior. This study develops a technique to quantify the response of tropical Pacific sea surface temperature and salinity to ENSO variations. This analysis defines expected regional relationships between ENSO forcing and the tropical Pacific climate response. For example, the western tropical Pacific records El Niño events with greater skill than La Niña events; whereas the oceans near the South Pacific Convergence Zone (SPCZ) preferentially record La Niña events. This baseline understanding of regional skill calibrates interpretations of both modern and pre-instrumental coral geochemical climate proxy records. A suite of monthly resolved 18O variations in a fossil corals (Porites spp.) from the tropical western Pacific (Papua New Guinea) and the SPCZ (Vanuatu) are used to develop case studies of ENSO variability under external forcing conditions that differ from the modern climate. A record from Misima, Papua New Guinea (1411-1644 CE) spans a period of reduced solar forcing that coincides with the initiation of the Little Ice Age. This record indicates that the surface ocean in this region experienced a small change in hydrologic balance with no change in temperature, extended periods of quiescence in El Niño activity, reduced mean El Niño event amplitudes, and fewer large amplitude El Niño events relative to signals captured in regional modern records. Several multidecadal (~30-50 year) coral records from Tasmaloum, Vanuatu during the Medieval Climate Anomaly (~900-1300 CE), a period of increased solar forcing, depict ENSO variability that is generally lower than modern times. However, these records often cannot be distinguished from 20th century ENSO variability due to ENSO variability uncertainty associated with record lengths. Neither record can be tied to concurrent changes in solar or volcanic forcing, calling into question the paradigm of ENSO variability being predominantly mediated by external forcing changes on multidecadal time scales. / text

We discuss two ways of measuring angular diameter distances in the Universe: (i) Baryon Acoustic Oscillation (BAO) , and (ii) strong gravitational lensing. For (i), we study the effects of survey geometry and selection functions on the 2-point correlation function of Lyman- alpha emitters in 1.9 < z < 3.5 for Hobby-Eberly Telescope Dark Energy Experiment (HETDEX). We develop a method to extract the BAO scale (hence a volume-averaged angular diameter distance D_V, which is a combination of the angular diameter distance and the Hubble expansion rate, i.e., [cz〖(1+z)〗^2 〖D_A〗^2 H^(-1) ]^(1/3)) from a spherically averaged 1-d correlation function. We quantify the statistical errors on such measurements. By using log-normal realizations of the HETDEX dataset, we show that we can determine DV from HETDEX at 2% accuracy using the 2-point correlation function. This study is complementary to the on-going effort to characterize the power spectrum using HETDEX. For (ii), a previous study (Para ficz and Hjorth 2009) looked at the case of a spherical lens following a singular isothermal distribution of matter and an isotropic velocity distribution, and found that combining measurements of the Einstein ring radius with the time delay of a strong lens system directly leads to a measurement of the angular diameter distance, D_A. Since this is a very new method, it requires more careful investigations of various real-world eff ects such as a realistic matter density pro file, an anisotropic velocity distribution, and external convergence. In more realistic lens confi gurations we find that the velocity dispersion is the dominant source of the uncertainty ; in order for this method to achieve competitive precision on measurements of DA, we need to constrain the velocity dispersion, down to the percent level. On the other hand, external convergence and velocity dispersion anisotropy have negligible e ect on our result. However, we also claim that the dominant source of the uncertainty depends largely on the image con figuration of the system, which leads us to the conclusion that studying the angular dependence of the lens mass distribution is a necessary component. / text

The Madden-Julian Oscillation (MJO) and the Convectively Coupled Equatorial Waves (CCEW) are coherent structures of convection and various large-scale fields. These phenomena are not well understood, despite their importance to the tropical climate. A toy model of the CCEW consisting of a pair of shallow water wave modes coupled by a simple convective parameterization is considered. The linear behavior of the system is analyzed, showing a growth spectrum that is similar to the spectrum that is observed. To explore the processes involved in propagation and maintenance of the MJO disturbance, we analyze the MSE budget of the disturbance within a numerical model. In an idealized experiment, the column-integrated long-wave heating is the only significant source of column-integrated MSE acting to maintain the MJO-like anomaly balanced against the combination of column-integrated horizontal and vertical advection of MSE and Latent Heat Flux. Eastward propagation of the MJO-like disturbance is associated with MSE generated by both column-integrated horizontal and vertical advection of MSE, with the column long-wave heating generating MSE that retards the propagation. The contribution to the eastward propagation by the column-integrated horizontal advection term is dominated by meridional advection of MSE by anomalous synoptic eddies caused by the suppression of eddy activity ahead of the MJO convection. This suppression is linked to the barotropic conversion mechanism; with the gradients of the low frequency wind experienced by the synoptic eddies within the MJO envelope acting to modulate the Eddy Kinetic Energy. The meridional eddy advection’s contribution to poleward propagation is dominated by the mean state’s (meridionally varying) eddy activity acting on the anomalous MSE gradients associated with the MJO. In a follow-up experiment, the variations in the propagation speed of MJO with variations in the imposed SST distribution are seen to be driven by the variations in meridional advection of the mean MSE profile by the MJO-related winds, which are in turn dominated by the variations in the mean MSE profile due to the variations of the SST. A brief investigation of the MSE budget for a more realistic case shows an increase in the MSE sink due to meridional advection as the MJO progresses from genesis over the Indian Ocean to decay in the central Pacific. The increase in this sink appears to be the cause of MJO’s demise. / Physics

This thesis considers atmospheric superrotation, a state of westerly equatorial winds which must be maintained by up-gradient eddy momentum fluxes. Superrotation has appeared in simulations of warm climates that generate enhanced Madden-Julian Oscillation (MJO)-like variability. This led to hypotheses that the warmer atmospheres of the early Pliocene and Eocene may have been superrotating, and that the phenomenon may be relevant to future climate projections. / Earth and Planetary Sciences

The Neutrinos at the Main Injector (NuMI) facility at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (FNAL) produces an intense muon neutrino beam used by the Main Injector Neutrino Oscillation Search (MINOS), a neutrino oscillation experiment, and the Main INjector ExpeRiment [nu]-A, (MINER[nu]A), a neutrino interaction experiment. Absolute neutrino cross sections are determined via [mathematical equation], where the numerator is the measured number of neutrino interactions in the MINOS Detector and the denominator is the flux of incident neutrinos. Many past neutrino experiments have measured relative cross sections due to a lack of precise measurements of the incident neutrino flux, normalizing to better established reaction processes, such as quasielastic neutrino-nucleon scattering. But recent measurements of neutrino interactions on nuclear targets have brought to light questions about our understanding of nuclear effects in neutrino interactions. In this thesis the [nu subscript mu] inclusive charged current cross section on iron is measured using the MINOS Detector. The MINOS detector consists of alternating planes of steel and scintillator. The MINOS detector is optimized to measure muons produced in charged current [nu subscript mu] interactions. Along with muons, these interactions produce hadronic showers. The neutrino energy is measured from the total energy the particles deposit in the detector. The incident neutrino flux is measured using the muons produced alongside the neutrinos in meson decay. Three ionization chamber monitors located in the downstream portion of the NuMI beamline are used to measure the muon flux and thereby infer the neutrino flux by relation to the underlying pion and kaon meson flux. This thesis describes the muon flux instrumentation in the NuMI beam, its operation over the two year duration of this measurement, and the techniques used to derive the neutrino flux. / text

When an electronic system is confined in one or more dimensions to a length scale comparable to the de Broglie wavelength, quantum confinement occurs. In metallic quantum thin films grown on semiconductor substrates, such confinement occurs between the vacuum-solid and the solid-solid interfaces, which results in the formation of distinctive quantum well states (QWS). Due to this confinement, many physical phenomena occurring in the thin metal system are totally different from the bulk system, which makes the study of quantum thin films interesting and important. In this thesis, quantum thin film studies, mainly based on the Pb/Si(111) system, were performed utilizing low-temperature scanning tunneling microscopy/spectroscopy (STM/STS) with a focus on three main aspects: phase relationship, surface reactivity, and coherent coupling. The Pb/Si(111) system is chosen due to its unique phase matching between the Fermi wavelength and the lattice spacing along [111], leading to a bi-layer quantum oscillation in many physical properties, including the surface energy and the work function. Surprisingly, STM/STS measurement revealed that quantum oscillations of work function and surface energy have identical phase, in contrast to a theoretically predicted 1/4 wavelength phase shift in the phase relationship. Here, a new solution to this puzzle is provided. Furthermore, it is found out that the oxidation rate of Pb/Si(111) system is greatly enhanced in the presence of atomic scale catalyst -- Cs substitutional atoms, while the reactivity to CO is saturated after the initial enhanced nucleation. Finally, by inserting thin Ag layers in between Pb/Si(111) system, the coherent coupling of double quantum wells (a Pb quantum well and a Ag quantum well) are probed, where combined QWS features are observed by STS measurement. The growth mechanism of these heterostructures -- Pb/Ag/Si(111) -- is also investigated. / text

Στην παρούσα διατριβή διερευνήθηκε η δυνατότητα του GPS-RTS στη μελέτη ταλαντώσεων ως προς την ακρίβεια προσδιορισμού του εύρους και της συχνότητας ταλάντωσης και το διάστημα των συχνοτήτων που μπορούν να καταγραφούν, με βάση συσκευή παραγωγής ελεγχόμενων εξαναγκασμένων ταλαντώσεων και ακολουθήθηκε στατιστική ανάλυση δεδομένων. Τα πειράματα βασίστηκαν στην σύγκριση των καταγραφών ταλαντώσεων γνωστών χαρακτηριστικών που δημιούργησε η συσκευή και την σύγχρονη καταγραφή τους με τα όργανα GPS και RTS και εν μέρη άμεση οπτική παρατήρηση. Κατά την φάση των πειραμάτων αντιμετωπίστηκαν προβλήματα απώλειας των μετρήσεων τα οποία εκτιμάται ότι μπορούν να αντιμετωπιστούν με κατάλληλη συνδεσμολογία για το GPS και κατάλληλο λογισμικό για το RTS Οι χρονοσειρές που προέκυψαν από περισσότερα από 100 πειράματα αναλύθηκαν με συμβατικές στατιστικές μεθόδους (π.χ. έλεγχο χονδροειδών σφαλμάτων) και φασματική ανάλυση με βάση τις μεθόδους: FFT, το περιοδόγραμμα Lomb και την Φασματική Ανάλυση Ελαχίστων Τετραγώνων (LSSA). Με βάση τις προτεινόμενες μεθόδους αναλύσεων προέκυψαν τα παρακάτω: • το GPS μπορεί να καταγράψει με ακρίβεια ταλαντώσεις με συνολικό εύρος ≥4cm για συχνότητες διέγερσης ≤4 Hz ενώ μπορεί να προσδιορίσει την συχνότητα ταλάντωσης ακόμα για διέγερση των 4 Hz και • το RTS μπορεί να καταγράψει με ακρίβεια ταλάντωσης με συνολικό εύρος ταλάντωσης της τάξης του 1 cm και μπορεί να προσδιορίσει με ακρίβεια την συχνότητα διέγερσης για χαμηλόσυχνές ταλαντώσεις (μέχρι και 1 Hz). Συμπερασματικά, οι μέθοδοι επίγειων αλλά και δορυφορικών μεθόδων μπορούν να χρησιμοποιηθούν για την παρακολούθηση των ταλαντώσεων/μετακινήσεων των εύκαμπτων κατασκευών, ενώ με βελτίωση των διατάξεών τους και των λογισμικών τους με στόχο να αντιμετωπιστούν τα προβλήματα που παρουσιάστηκαν, αναμένεται ακόμα καλύτερη ακρίβεια. / At the present study, the ability of GPS-RTS was examined for the oscillation monitoring.At the present thesis, the performance of the modern geodetic methods, GPS and RTS, for the oscillation monitoring was examined. In order to assess the performance of the two methods the study was based on known oscillations which were produced by a special oscillation device and the records of GPS and RTS which were monitoring the oscillations. The estimate of the performance was based on the comparison of the known oscillation characteristics (displacement and frequency) and those which were arose by the analysis of the GPS-RTS records. During the oscillation experiments many problems were faced and especially with interruptions at the GPS and RTS records, which can be solved by a more appropriate connection between the antenna and the receiver of the GPS system and the use of a more advanced software for the RTS. Time series, based on the GPS-RTS records of more than 100 oscillations experiments, were analysed with compatible statistical and frequency domain analysis methods: FFT, LSSA (Least Square Spectrum Analysis) and Lomb. According to the analysis: • GPS can define accurately the total oscillation displacement when it is ≥4cm and the frequency when it is ≤4 Hz and • RTS can define accurately the total oscillation displacement when it is ≥1cm and the frequency when it is ≤1 Hz. According to the analysis, the two geodetic methods proved to be very accurate for the oscillation monitoring of flexible structures and their performance can be improved with the use of more sophisticated software for the RTS and connections for the GPS.

The idea of effective field theory (EFT) was developed decades ago in low-energy strong-interaction - hadronic and nuclear - physics. After introducing chiral perturbation theory (ChPT), we focus in this dissertation on three non-perturbative cases that standard ChPT cannot deal with by itself. First, we investigate pion-nucleon (πN) scattering around the delta resonance, which is an important non-perturbative feature of low-energy nuclear physics. We show that in order to describe πN scattering around the delta peak, a power counting is necessary that goes beyond the power counting of ChPT. Using this new power counting, we calculate the phase shifts in the spin-3/2 P-wave channel up to next-to-next-to-leading order (NNLO). Second, in order to clarify the issue of renormalization and power counting of nucleon-nucleon potentials, we use a toy model to illustrate how to build effective theories for singular potentials, which some nuclear potentials belong to. We consider a central attractive 1/r² potential perturbed by a 1/r⁴ correction. We show that leading-order counterterms are needed in all partial waves where the potential overcomes the centrifugal barrier, and that the additional counterterms at next-to-leading order are the ones expected on the basis of dimensional analysis. Finally, we illustrate how non-perturbative EFT can be used to study neutron-antineutron oscillation inside the deuteron. We build an EFT for a model-independent, systematic study of two-unit baryon-number (|ΔB| = 2) violation in the context of nuclear physics. To cope with the non-perturbative deuteron structure, we apply the pionless version of this EFT to calculate deuteron decay. The decay width is obtained up to next-to-leading order. We show that the contribution of direct two-nucleon annihilation to the deuteron decay appears only at NNLO.