Electronic structure and magnetic properties of few-layer Cr2_2Ge2_2Te6_6: the key role of nonlocal electron-electron interaction effects

Atomically-thin magnetic crystals have been recently isolated experimentally, greatly expanding the family of two-dimensional materials. In this Article we present an extensive comparative analysis of the electronic and magnetic properties of ${\rm Cr}_2{\rm Ge}_2{\rm Te}_6$, based on density functional theory (DFT). We first show that the often-used ${\rm DFT}+U$ approaches fail in predicting the ground-state properties of this material in both its monolayer and bilayer forms, and even more spectacularly in its bulk form. In the latter case, the fundamental gap {\it decreases} by increasing the Hubbard-$U$ parameter, eventually leading to a metallic ground state for physically relevant values of $U$, in stark contrast with experimental data. On the contrary, the use of hybrid functionals, which naturally take into account nonlocal exchange interactions between all orbitals, yields good account of the available ARPES experimental data. We then calculate all the relevant exchange couplings (and the magneto-crystalline anisotropy energy) for monolayer, bilayer, and bulk ${\rm Cr}_2{\rm Ge}_2{\rm Te}_6$ with a hybrid functional, with super-cells containing up to $270$ atoms, commenting on existing calculations with much smaller super-cell sizes. In the case of bilayer ${\rm Cr}_2{\rm Ge}_2{\rm Te}_6$, we show that two distinct intra-layer second-neighbor exchange couplings emerge, a result which, to the best of our knowledge, has not been noticed in the literature.Comment: 13 pages, 6 figures, 3 table

To develop an efficient variable speed compressor motor system

This research presents a proposed new method of improving the energy efficiency of a Variable Speed Drive (VSD) for induction motors. The principles of VSD are reviewed with emphasis on the efficiency and power losses associated with the operation of the variable speed compressor motor drive, particularly at low speed operation.The efficiency of induction motor when operated at rated speed and load torque is high. However at low load operation, application of the induction motor at rated flux will cause the iron losses to increase excessively, hence its efficiency will reduce dramatically. To improve this efficiency, it is essential to obtain the flux level that minimizes the total motor losses. This technique is known as an efficiency or energy optimization control method. In practice, typical of the compressor load does not require high dynamic response, therefore improvement of the efficiency optimization control that is proposed in this research is based on scalar control model.In this research, development of a new neural network controller for efficiency optimization control is proposed. The controller is designed to generate both voltage and frequency reference signals imultaneously. To achieve a robust controller from variation of motor parameters, a real-time or on-line learning algorithm based on a second order optimization Levenberg-Marquardt is employed. The simulation of the proposed controller for variable speed compressor is presented. The results obtained clearly show that the efficiency at low speed is significant increased. Besides that the speed of the motor can be maintained. Furthermore, the controller is also robust to the motor parameters variation. The simulation results are also verified by experiment

A highly optimized vectorized code for Monte Carlo simulations of SU(3) lattice gauge theories

New methods are introduced for improving the performance of the vectorized Monte Carlo SU(3) lattice gauge theory algorithm using the CDC CYBER 205. Structure, algorithm and programming considerations are discussed. The performance achieved for a 16(4) lattice on a 2-pipe system may be phrased in terms of the link update time or overall MFLOPS rates. For 32-bit arithmetic, it is 36.3 microsecond/link for 8 hits per iteration (40.9 microsecond for 10 hits) or 101.5 MFLOPS

On the consistency of the N=1 SYM spectra from wrapped five-branes

We discuss the existence of glueball states for N=1 SYM within the Maldacena-Nunez model. We find that for this model the existence of an area law in the Wilson loop operator does not imply the existence of a discrete glueball spectrum. We suggest that implementing the model with an upper hard cut-off can amend the lack of spectrum. As a result the model can be only interpreted in the infra-red region. A direct comparison with the lattice data allows us to fix the scale up to where the model is sensible to describe low-energy observables. Nevertheless, taking for granted the lattice results, the resulting spectrum does not follow the general trends found in other supergravity backgrounds. We further discuss the decoupling of the non-singlet Kaluza-Klein states by analysing the associated supergravity equation of motion. The inclusion of non-commutative effects is also analysed and we find that leads to an enhancement on the value of the masses.Comment: 30 pages, late

Transient behavior of wind towers grounding systems under lightning strikes

Wind turbines, because of their height and localization, are frequently subject to direct lightning strikes. Thus, the investigation on the performance of their grounding system is of paramount interest for the prediction of the potential threats either for people working in (or animals passing through) the wind farm area and for the power and control units installed in close proximity of the turbine towers. In this paper,we perform a comprensive study of the transient behavior of the earthing systems of wind turbines. The analysis is conducted in the frequency domain and an hybrid approach, based on circuit theory and Method of Moments, is adopted to fully account for resistive, inductive and capacitive couplings between elements of the ground system. The actual transient behavior is obtained by means of an Inverse Fourier Transform. The results, computed considering a typical wind turbine grounding system configuration, provide more insight on the nature of the early-time transient response of grounding systems and allow to draw up useful design guidelines