Salvaging the Thompson-Chandrasekhar criterion: A tribute to S. Chandrasekhar

AbstractThe sole surviving challenge in the linear theory of magnetothermoconvection, which emerges from an unsuccessful attempt of S. Chandrasekhar (Philos. Mag. 743 (1952)) and demands a mathematical proof of the existence of overstable motions when the boundaries are dynamically free and thermally and electrically perfectly conducting, is overcome herewith. As a consequence the linear theory, which prior to 1985 was mostly ridden with conjectures and controversies, is brought to a state of perfection where it is free from any such anomalies and a successful nonlinear investigation of magnetothermoconvection is a distinct possibility

Chemical extraction and optimization of intracellular β-galactosidase production from the bacterium Arthrobacter oxydans using Box-Behnken design of response surface methodology

Present study demonstrated the isolation of most promising β-galactosidase producing bacterial strain SB from soil. Morphological, biochemical, and 16s rRNA sequence analysis identified the bacterial strain as Arthrobacter oxydans. Several chemicals, including SDS, Triton X-100, Tween 20, isoamyl alcohol, and toluene-acetone mixture, were applied for extraction of intracellular β-galactosidase from the bacterial strain Arthrobacter oxydans. Among these, Tween 20 was recorded to be most effective. Role of pH, temperature, and shaker speed on production of β-galactosidase was evaluated using Box-Behnken design of response surface methodology. According to Box-Behnken analysis, optimum production of β-galactosidase (21.38 U (mg–1 protein)) is predicted at pH 6.76, temperature 36.1 °C, and shaker speed 121.37 r.p.m. The parameters are validated with the nearest value

Enhancement of Jc by Hf -Doping in the Superconductor MgB2: A Hyperfine Interaction Study

Measurements of the critical current density (Jc) by magnetization and the upper critical field (Hc2) by magnetoresistance have been performed for hafnium-doped MgB2. There has been a remarkable enhancement of Jc as compared to that by ion irradiation without any appreciable decrease in Tc, which is beneficial from the point of view of applications. The irreversibility line extracted from Jc shows an upward shift. In addition, there has been an increase in the upper critical field which indicates that Hf partially substitutes for Mg. Hyperfine interaction parameters obtained from time differential perturbed angular correlation (TDPAC) measurements revealed the formation of HfB and HfB2 phases along with the substitution of Hf. A possible explanation is given for the role of these species in the enhancement of Jc in MgB2 superconductor

Glassy Phase Transition and Stability in Black Holes

Black hole thermodynamics, confined to the semi-classical regime, cannot address the thermodynamic stability of a black hole in flat space. Here we show that inclusion of correction beyond the semi-classical approximation makes a black hole thermodynamically stable. This stability is reached through a phase transition. By using Ehrenfest's scheme we further prove that this is a glassy phase transition with a Prigogine-Defay ratio close to 3. This value is well placed within the desired bound (2 to 5) for a glassy phase transition. Thus our analysis indicates a very close connection between the phase transition phenomena of a black hole and glass forming systems. Finally, we discuss the robustness of our results by considering different normalisations for the correction term.Comment: v3, minor changes over v2, references added, LaTeX-2e, 18 pages, 3 ps figures, to appear in Eour. Phys. Jour.

Anomaly analysis of Hawking radiation from Kaluza-Klein black hole with squashed horizon

Considering gravitational and gauge anomalies at the horizon, a new method that to derive Hawking radiations from black holes has been developed by Wilczek et al. In this paper, we apply this method to non-rotating and rotating Kaluza-Klein black holes with squashed horizon, respectively. For the rotating case, we found that, after the dimensional reduction, an effective U(1) gauge field is generated by an angular isometry. The results show that the gauge current and energy-momentum tensor fluxes are exactly equivalent to Hawking radiation from the event horizon.Comment: 15 pages, no figures, the improved version, accepted by Eur. Phys. J.

On spin-1 massive particles coupled to a Chern-Simons field

We study spin one particles interacting through a Chern-Simons field. In the Born approximation, we calculate the two body scattering amplitude considering three possible ways to introduce the interaction: (a) a Proca like model minimally coupled to a Chern-Simons field, (b) the model obtained from (a) by replacing the Proca's mass by a Chern-Simons term and (c) a complex Maxwell-Chern-Simons model minimally coupled to a Chern-Simons field. In the low energy regime the results show similarities with the Aharonov-Bohm scattering for spin 1/2 particles. We discuss the one loop renormalization program for the Proca's model. In spite of the bad ultraviolet behavior of the matter field propagator, we show that, up to one loop the model is power counting renormalizable thanks to the Ward identities satisfied by the interaction vertices.Comment: 14 pages, 5 figures, revte

Electron Electric Dipole Moment from Lepton Flavor Violation

The general Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model introduces new sources for Lepton Flavor Violation (LFV) as well as CP-violation. In this paper, we show that when both sources are present, the electric dipole moment of the electron, $d_e$, receives a contribution from the phase of the trilinear $A$-term of staus, $\phi_{A_\tau}$. For $\phi_{A_\tau}=\pi/2$, the value of $d_e$, depending on the ratios of the LFV mass elements, can range between zero and three orders of magnitude above the present bound. We show that the present bound on $d_e$ rules out a large portion of the CP-violating and the LFV parameter space which is consistent with the bounds on the LFV rare decays. We show that studying the correlation between $d_e$ and the P-odd asymmetry in $\tau \to e\gamma$ helps us to derive a more conclusive bound on $\phi_{A_\tau}$ We also discuss the possibility of cancelation among the contributions of different CP-violating phases to $d_e$.Comment: 35 pages, 9 figure

Defects induced ferromagnetism in Mn doped ZnO

Single phase Mn doped (2 at %) ZnO samples have been synthesized by solid-state reaction technique. Before the final sintering at 500 C, the mixed powders have been milled for different milling periods (6, 24, 48 and 96 hours). The grain sizes of the samples are very close to each other (~ 32 \pm 4 nm). However, the defective state of the samples is different from each other as manifested from the variation of magnetic properties and electrical resistivity with milling time. All the samples have been found to be ferromagnetic with clear hysteresis loops at room temperature. The maximum value for saturation magnetization (0.11 {\mu}_B / Mn atom) was achieved for 96 hours milled sample. Electrical resistivity has been found to increase with increasing milling time. The most resistive sample bears the largest saturation magnetization. Variation of average positron lifetime with milling time bears a close similarity with that of the saturation magnetization. This indicates the key role played by open volume vacancy defects, presumably zinc vacancies near grain surfaces, in inducing ferromagnetic order in Mn doped ZnO. To attain optimum defect configuration favorable for ferromagnetism in this kind of samples proper choice of milling period and annealing conditions is required.Comment: Accepted in Journal of Magnetism and Magnetic Material

PyCOOL - a Cosmological Object-Oriented Lattice code written in Python

There are a number of different phenomena in the early universe that have to be studied numerically with lattice simulations. This paper presents a graphics processing unit (GPU) accelerated Python program called PyCOOL that solves the evolution of scalar fields in a lattice with very precise symplectic integrators. The program has been written with the intention to hit a sweet spot of speed, accuracy and user friendliness. This has been achieved by using the Python language with the PyCUDA interface to make a program that is easy to adapt to different scalar field models. In this paper we derive the symplectic dynamics that govern the evolution of the system and then present the implementation of the program in Python and PyCUDA. The functionality of the program is tested in a chaotic inflation preheating model, a single field oscillon case and in a supersymmetric curvaton model which leads to Q-ball production. We have also compared the performance of a consumer graphics card to a professional Tesla compute card in these simulations. We find that the program is not only accurate but also very fast. To further increase the usefulness of the program we have equipped it with numerous post-processing functions that provide useful information about the cosmological model. These include various spectra and statistics of the fields. The program can be additionally used to calculate the generated curvature perturbation. The program is publicly available under GNU General Public License at https://github.com/jtksai/PyCOOL . Some additional information can be found from http://www.physics.utu.fi/tiedostot/theory/particlecosmology/pycool/ .Comment: 23 pages, 12 figures; some typos correcte