The mid infrared polarisation properties of four Ultraluminous Infrared Galaxies (ULIRGs) have been investigated by broad band filter observations with the ISOCAM instrument on board the Infrared Space Observatory (ISO). The wavelength region from 5 to 18μm was selected where the emission from the putative torus peaks. We report detection of polarisation for all ULIRGs studied. The fractional p...

The polarisation conversion of a linear polarized electromagnetic wave incident onto a two-dimensional (2D) electron system at an angle θ is theoretically studied. We consider the 2D system located at the interface between two dielectric media with different dielectric constants. An external dc magnetic field is assumed to be directed along the normal to the 2D electron layer. In such a configu...

In the age of information and globalisation, secure communication as well as the protection of sensitive data against unauthorised access are of utmost importance. Quantum cryptography currently provides the only way to exchange a cryptographic key between two parties in an unconditionally secure fashion. Owing to losses and noise of today’s optical fibre and detector technology, at present qua...

An air-core holey fibre design that supports a single-polarisation circularly symmetric mode is presented. The mechanism that isolates the single polarisation, the advantages of the design and fabrication efforts to date will be discussed.

Context. The Hinode mission has revealed copious amounts of horizontal flux covering the quiet Sun. Local dynamo action has been proposed to explain the presence of this flux. Aims. We sought to test whether the quiet Sun flux detected by Hinode is due to a local or the global dynamo by studying long-term variations in the polarisation signals detectable at the disc centre of the quiet Sun betw...

We present new medium-resolution spectropolarimetric observations of HD 45677 in the B and R-bands. A change in polarisation is detected across Hα, Hβ and Hγ confirming that the ionised region around the star is aspherical. (Q,U) points associated with these emission lines occur away from the continuum, defining a polarisation vector which points in the same direction for each of the lines at a...

Humans are fascinated by the colour vision, colour signals and ‘dress codes’ of other animals as we can see colour. This property of light may be useful for increasing the contrast of objects during foraging, defence, camouflage and sexual communication. New research, largely from the last decade, now suggests that polarisation is a quality of light also used in signalling and may contain infor...

adhesion proteins implicated in integrin activation, including integrin-linked kinase and the filamin-binding protein, migfilin (Figure 1). However, whether these interactions are important for activation or for kindlin-mediated integrin signaling, focal adhesion formation, and cell spreading is unclear and elucidation of the mechanisms of kindlin function will likely require detailed knowledge...

It is shown, that the new phenomena of the T-violating photon polarization plane and neutron spin rotation appear under diffraction in a noncentrosymmetrical diffraction grating. The equations describing the T-violating photon scattering by a diffraction grating and neutron interaction with noncentrosymmetrical crystal have been obtained. These phenomena may be used for time-violating interacti...