169 research outputs found
Green consumer markets in the fight against climate change
Climate change has become one of the greatest threats to environmental security, as attested by the growing frequency of severe flooding and storms, extreme temperatures and droughts. Accordingly, the European Union’s (EU) 6th Environment Action Programme (2010) lists tackling climate change as its first priority. A key aim of the EU has been to cut CO2 emissions, a major factor in climate change, by 8% until 2012 and 20% until 2020. The European Commission has proposed the encouragement of private consumer market for green products and services as one of several solutions to this problem. However, existing research suggests that the market share of these products has been only 3%, although 30% of individuals favour environmental and ethical goods. This article uses Public Goods Theory to explain why the contribution of the green consumer market to fighting climate change has been and possibly may remain limited without further public intervention
Reflection of electrons from a domain wall in magnetic nanojunctions
Electronic transport through thin and laterally constrained domain walls in
ferromagnetic nanojunctions is analyzed theoretically. The description is
formulated in the basis of scattering states. The resistance of the domain wall
is calculated in the regime of strong electron reflection from the wall. It is
shown that the corresponding magnetoresistance can be large, which is in a
qualitative agreement with recent experimental observations. We also calculate
the spin current flowing through the wall and the spin polarization of electron
gas due to reflections from the domain wall.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figure
Carbon clusters near the crossover to fullerene stability
The thermodynamic stability of structural isomers of ,
, and , including
fullerenes, is studied using density functional and quantum Monte Carlo
methods. The energetic ordering of the different isomers depends sensitively on
the treatment of electron correlation. Fixed-node diffusion quantum Monte Carlo
calculations predict that a isomer is the smallest stable
graphitic fragment and that the smallest stable fullerenes are the
and clusters with and
symmetry, respectively. These results support proposals that a
solid could be synthesized by cluster deposition.Comment: 4 pages, includes 4 figures. For additional graphics, online paper
and related information see http://www.tcm.phy.cam.ac.uk/~prck
Angular dependence of domain wall resistivity in SrRuO films
is a 4d itinerant ferromagnet (T 150 K) with
stripe domain structure. Using high-quality thin films of SrRuO we study
the resistivity induced by its very narrow ( nm) Bloch domain walls,
(DWR), at temperatures between 2 K and T as a function of the
angle, , between the electric current and the ferromagnetic domains
walls. We find that which provides the first experimental
indication that the angular dependence of spin accumulation contribution to DWR
is . We expect magnetic multilayers to exhibit a similar
behavior.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figure
Ballistic electron transport through magnetic domain walls
Electron transport limited by the rotating exchange-potential of domain walls
is calculated in the ballistic limit for the itinerant ferromagnets Fe, Co, and
Ni. When realistic band structures are used, the domain wall magnetoresistance
is enhanced by orders of magnitude compared to the results for previously
studied two-band models. Increasing the pitch of a domain wall by confinement
in a nano-structured point contact is predicted to give rise to a strongly
enhanced magnetoresistance.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures; to appear in PRB as a brief repor
Photon-assisted tunneling in a Fe8 Single-Molecule Magnet
The low temperature spin dynamics of a Fe8 Single-Molecule Magnet was studied
under circularly polarized electromagnetic radiation allowing us to establish
clearly photon-assisted tunneling. This effect, while linear at low power,
becomes highly non-linear above a relatively low power threshold. This
non-linearity is attributed to the nature of the coupling of the sample to the
thermostat.These results are of great importance if such systems are to be used
as quantum computers.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure
Spin dynamics of Mn12-acetate in the thermally-activated tunneling regime: ac-susceptibility and magnetization relaxation
In this work, we study the spin dynamics of Mn12-acetate molecules in the
regime of thermally assisted tunneling. In particular, we describe the system
in the presence of a strong transverse magnetic field. Similar to recent
experiments, the relaxation time/rate is found to display a series of
resonances; their Lorentzian shape is found to stem from the tunneling. The
dynamic susceptibility is calculated starting from the microscopic
Hamiltonian and the resonant structure manifests itself also in .
Similar to recent results reported on another molecular magnet, Fe8, we find
oscillations of the relaxation rate as a function of the transverse magnetic
field when the field is directed along a hard axis of the molecules. This
phenomenon is attributed to the interference of the geometrical or Berry phase.
We propose susceptibility experiments to be carried out for strong transverse
magnetic fields to study of these oscillations and for a better resolution of
the sharp satellite peaks in the relaxation rates.Comment: 22 pages, 23 figures; submitted to Phys. Rev. B; citations/references
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Tunneling with dissipation and decoherence for a large spin
We present rigorous solution of problems of tunneling with dissipation and
decoherence for a spin of an atom or a molecule in an isotropic solid matrix.
Our approach is based upon switching to a rotating coordinate system coupled to
the local crystal field. We show that the spin of a molecule can be used in a
qubit only if the molecule is strongly coupled with its atomic environment.
This condition is a consequence of the conservation of the total angular
momentum (spin + matrix), that has been largely ignored in previous studies of
spin tunneling.Comment: 4 page
Intracoronary gamma-radiation therapy after angioplasty inhibits recurrence in patients with in-stent restenosis
BACKGROUND: Treatment of in-stent restenosis presents a critical
limitation of intracoronary stent implantation. Ionizing radiation has
been shown to decrease neointimal formation within stents in animal models
and in initial clinical trials. We studied the effects of intracoronary
gamma-radiation therapy versus placebo on the clinical and angiographic
outcomes of patients with in-stent restenosis. METHODS AND RESULTS: One
hundred thirty patients with in-stent restenosis underwent successful
coronary intervention and were then blindly randomized to receive either
intracoronary gamma-radiation with (192)Ir (15 Gy) or placebo. Four
independent core laboratories blinded to the treatment protocol analyzed
the angiographic and intravascular ultrasound end points of restenosis.
Procedural success and in-hospital and 30-day complications were similar
among the groups. At 6 months, patients assigned to radiation therapy
required less target lesion revascularization and target vessel
revascularization (9 [13.8%] and 17 [26.2%], respectively) compared with
patients assigned to placebo (41 [63.1%, P=0.0001] and 44 [67.7%,
P=0.0001], respectively). Binary angiographic restenosis was lower in the
irradiated group (19% versus 58% for placebo, P=0.001). Freedom from major
cardiac events was lower in the radiation group (29.2% versus 67.7% for
placebo, P<0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Intracoronary gamma-radiation used as
adjunct therapy for patients with in-stent restenosis significantly
reduces both angiographic and clinical restenosis
Dislocation-induced spin tunneling in Mn-12 acetate
Comprehensive theory of quantum spin relaxation in Mn-12 acetate crystals is
developed, that takes into account imperfections of the crystal structure and
is based upon the generalization of the Landau-Zener effect for incoherent
tunneling from excited energy levels. It is shown that linear dislocations at
plausible concentrations provide the transverse anisotropy which is the main
source of tunneling in Mn-12. Local rotations of the easy axis due to
dislocations result in a transverse magnetic field generated by the field
applied along the c-axis of the crystal, which explains the presence of odd
tunneling resonances. Long-range deformations due to dislocations produce a
broad distribution of tunnel splittings. The theory predicts that at subkelvin
temperatures the relaxation curves for different tunneling resonances can be
scaled onto a single master curve. The magnetic relaxation in the thermally
activated regime follows the stretched-exponential law with the exponent
depending on the field, temperature, and concentration of defects.Comment: 17 pages, 14 figures, 1 table, submitted to PR
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