9,363 research outputs found
Magnetic flux locking in two weakly coupled superconducting rings
We have analyzed the quantum interference effects in the macroscopic
''superconducting molecule''. The composite system consists of two massive
superconducting rings, each interrupted by a Josephson junction, which are at
the same time weakly coupled with one another. The special case of coupling via
the Josephson four-terminal junction is considered. The structure of the
macroscopic quantum states in an applied magnetic field is calculated. It is
shown, that depending on the values of the magnetic fluxes through each ring,
the system displays two groups of states, the ''orthostates'' with both induced
currents going in the same direction, and the ''parastates'' with the opposite
currents and with the total induced flux locked to zero value. The transition
to the flux locked state with changing of the total applied flux is sudden and
is preserved in a certain interval which is determined by the difference of the
fluxes applied through each ring. It makes the system sensitive to small
gradients of the external magnetic field.Comment: 8 pages in Latex, 3 figures (eps
Diffuse polarized emission associated with the Perseus cluster
We report on full-polarization radio observations of the Perseus cluster
(Abell 426) using the Westerbork Synthesis Radio Telescope (WSRT) at
wavelengths from 81-95 cm. We have employed a novel technique, Rotation Measure
synthesis (Brentjens and de Bruyn, 2005) to unravel the polarization properties
of the emission across the full field of view and detect polarized emission
over a wide range of RM from about 0 to 90 rad m^-2. The low RM emission is
associated with our Galaxy, while the high RM emission is associated with the
Perseus cluster. The latter reaches typical surface brightness levels of 0.5-1
mJy per beam and must be rather highly polarized. Most of the peripheral
polarized emission appears too bright, by about 1-2 orders of magnitude, to be
explainable as Thomson scattered emission of the central radio source off the
thermal electrons in the cluster. The bulk of the emission associated with the
Perseus cluster is probably related to buoyant bubbles of relativistic plasma,
probably relics from still active or now dormant AGN within the cluster. A
lenticular shaped structure measuring 0.5-1 Mpc is strikingly similar to the
structures predicted by Ensslin et al. (1998). At the western edge of the
cluster, we detect very long, linear structures that may be related to shocks
caused by infall of gas into the Perseus cluster.Comment: 18 pages, 17 figures, accepted by A&A, corrected small typo, added
referenc
Structure in the local Galactic ISM on scales down to 1 pc, from multi-band radio polarization observations
We discuss observations of the linearly polarized component of the diffuse
galactic radio background. These observations, with an angular resolution of
4', were made with the Westerbork Synthesis Radio Telescope (WSRT) in 5
frequency bands in the range 341-375 MHz. The linearly polarized intensity P
(with polarized brightness temperature going up to 10K) shows a `cloudy'
structure, with characteristic scales of 15'-30', which contains relatively
long, but very narrow `canals' (essentially unresolved) in which P is only a
small fraction of that in the neighbouring beams.
These `canals' are generally seen in more than one frequency band, although
their appearance changes between bands. They are probably due to depolarization
within the synthesized beam, because the change in polarization angle across
the deepest `canals' is in general close to 90 degrees (or 270 etc.). These
very abrupt changes in polarization angle, which are seen only across the
`canals', seem to be accompanied by abrupt changes in the Rotation Measure
(RM), which may have the right magnitude to create the difference of close to
90 degrees in polarization angle, and thereby the `canals'.
The structure in the polarization maps is most likely due to Faraday rotation
modulation of the probably smooth polarized radiation emitted in the halo of
our Galaxy by the fairly local ISM (up to 500 pc). Therefore, the abrupt
changes of RM across the `canals' provide evidence for very thin (about 1 pc),
and relatively long transition regions in the ISM, across which the RM changes
by as much as 100%. Such drastic RM changes may well be due primarily to abrupt
changes in the magnetic field.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, to be published in A&A Letter
Micro & strong lensing with the Square Kilometer Array: The mass--function of compact objects in high--redshift galaxies
We present the results from recent VLA 8.5-GHz and WSRT 1.4 and 4.9-GHz
monitoring campaigns of the CLASS gravitational lens B1600+434 and show how the
observed variations argue strongly in favor of microlensing by MACHOs in the
halo of a dark-matter dominated edge-on disk galaxy at z=0.4. The population of
flat-spectrum radio sources with micro-Jy flux-densities detected with the
Square-Kilometer-Array is expected to have dimensions of micro-arcsec. They
will therefore vary rapidly as a result of Galactic scintillation (diffractive
and refractive). However, when positioned behind distant galaxies they will
also show variations due to microlensing, even more strongly than in the case
of B1600+434. Relativistic or superluminal motion in these background sources
typically leads to temporal variations on time scales of days to weeks.
Scintillation and microlensing can be distinguished, and separated, by their
different characteristic time scales and the frequency dependence of their
modulations. Monitoring studies with Square-Kilometer-Array at GHz frequencies
will thus probe both microscopic and macroscopic properties of dark matter and
its mass-function as a function of redshift, information very hard to obtain by
any other method.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figures, to appear in Perspectives in Radio Astronomy:
Scientific Imperatives at cm and m Wavelengths (Dwingeloo: NFRA), Edited by:
M.P. van Haarlem & J.M. van der Huls
Parsec-scale structure in the warm ISM from polarized galactic radio background observations
We present multi-frequency polarization observations of the diffuse radio
synchrotron background modulated by Faraday rotation, in two directions of
positive latitude. No extended total intensity I is observed, which implies
that total intensity has no structure on scales smaller than approximately a
degree. Polarized intensity and polarization angle, however, show abundant
small-scale structure on scales from arcminutes to degrees. Rotation Measure
(RM) maps show coherent structure over many synthesized beams, but also abrupt
large changes over one beam. RM's from polarized extragalactic point sources
are correlated over the field in each of the two fields, indicating a galactic
component to the RM, but show no correlation with the RM map of the diffuse
radiation. The upper limit in structure in I puts constraints on the random and
regular components of the magnetic field in the galactic interstellar medium
and halo. The emission is partly depolarized so that the observed polarization
mostly originates from a nearby part of the medium. This explains the lack of
correlation between RM from diffuse emission and from extragalactic point
sources as the latter is built up over the entire path length through the
medium.Comment: To appear in "Astrophysical Polarized Backgrounds", Conference
Proceedings, eds S. Cecchini, S. Cortiglioni, R. Sault and C. Sbarra, in
pres
HI and OH absorption at z=0.89
We report on WSRT observations of HI and OH absorption at z=0.885 towards the
radio lens PKS 1830-21, mm wave transitions of several molecular species have
already been observed at this redshift. At mm wavelengths the source structure
is dominated by two extremely compact components, the northeast (NE) and
southwest (SW) components. At lower frequencies the continuum emission is much
more extended and there is also a broad Einstein ring connecting the NE and SW
components. This means that the HI and OH spectra sample a much larger region
of the absorber than the mm wave spectra.
The HI spectrum that we obtain is asymmetric, with a peak at -147 km/s with
respect to the main molecular line redshift of z=0.88582. Weak mm wave
molecular absorption has also been detected towards the NE component at this
same velocity. The HI absorption, however, covers a total velocity width of 300
km/sec, i.e. including velocities well to the red of molecular features
suggesting that it is spatially widespread. In OH we detect both the 1667 and
the 1665 MHz transitions. The OH spectrum has a velocity width comparable to
that of the HI spectrum, suggesting that it too is widespread in the absorber.
The lack of a prominent HI peak in the spectrum at the velocity corresponding
to the SW component, suggests that the galaxy responsible for the absorption at
z=0.885 has a central molecular disk many kpc in size, and that HI is deficient
in this central region. Our observations are sensitive to the large scale
kinematics of the absorber, and to first order the implied dynamical mass is
consistent with the lens models of Nair et. al. (1993).Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure
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