1,389 research outputs found
Superconducting properties of RuSr2GdCu2O8 studied by SQUID magnetometry
For polycrystalline RuSr2GdCu2O8 (Ru-1212), distinct peaks have been reported
in d.c. magnetization in the superconducting state of the sample. Sr2GdRuO6
(Sr-2116), the precursor for the preparation of Ru-1212, shows similar peaks in
the same temperature regime. Based on measurements performed on both bulk and
powdered samples of Ru-1212 and Sr-2116, we exclude the possibility, that the
observed behavior of the magnetization of Ru-1212 is due to Sr-2116 impurities.
The effect is related to the superconductivity of Ru-1212, but it is not an
intrinsic property of this compound. We provide evidence that the observation
of magnetization peaks in the superconducting state of Ru-1212 is due to flux
motion generated by the movement of the sample in an inhomogeneous field,
during the measurement in the SQUID magnetometer. We propose several tests,
that help to decide, whether the features observed in a SQUID magnetization
measurement of Ru-1212 represent a property of the compound or not.Comment: 22 pages, 9 figure
The Cosmic Infrared Background Experiment (CIBER): Instrumentation and First Results
Ultraviolet emission from the first generation of stars in the Universe ionized the intergalactic medium in a process which was completed by z similar to 6; the wavelength of these photons has been redshifted by (1 + z) into the near infrared today and can be measured using instruments situated above the Earth's atmosphere. First flying in February 2009, the Cosmic Infrared Background ExpeRiment (CIBER) comprises four instruments housed in a single reusable sounding rocket borne payload. CIBER will measure spatial anisotropies in the extragalactic IR background caused by cosmological structure from the epoch of reionization using two broadband imaging instruments, make a detailed characterization of the spectral shape of the IR background using a low resolution spectrometer, and measure the absolute brightness of the Zodiacal light foreground with a high resolution spectrometer in each of our six science fields. The scientific motivation for CIBER and details of its first and second flight instrumentation will be discussed. First flight results on the color of the zodiacal light around 1 mu m and plans for the future will also be presented
Observations of the Near-infrared Spectrum of the Zodiacal Light with CIBER
Interplanetary dust (IPD) scatters solar radiation which results in the zodiacal light that dominates the celestial diffuse brightness at optical and near-infrared wavelengths. Both asteroid collisions and cometary ejections produce the IPD, but the relative contribution from these two sources is still unknown. The low resolution spectrometer (LRS) onboard the Cosmic Infrared Background ExpeRiment (CIBER) observed the astrophysical sky spectrum between 0.75 and 2.1 μm over a wide range of ecliptic latitude. The resulting zodiacal light spectrum is redder than the solar spectrum, and shows a broad absorption feature, previously unreported, at approximately 0.9 μm, suggesting the existence of silicates in the IPD material. The spectral shape of the zodiacal light is isotropic at all ecliptic latitudes within the measurement error. The zodiacal light spectrum, including the extended wavelength range to 2.5 μm using Infrared Telescope in Space (IRTS) data, is qualitatively similar to the reflectance of S-type asteroids. This result can be explained by the proximity of S-type asteroidal dust to Earth's orbit, and the relatively high albedo of asteroidal dust compared with cometary dust
Properties of the ferrimagnetic double-perovskite A_{2}FeReO_{6} (A=Ba and Ca)
Ceramics of A_{2}FeReO_{6} double-perovskite have been prepared and studied
for A=Ba and Ca. Ba_{2}FeReO_{6} has a cubic structure (Fm3m) with 8.0854(1) \AA whereas Ca_{2}FeReO_{6} has a distorted monoclinic symmetry with
and
. The barium compound is metallic from 5 K to 385
K, i.e. no metal-insulator transition has been seen up to 385 K, and the
calcium compound is semiconducting from 5 K to 385 K. Magnetization
measurements show a ferrimagnetic behavior for both materials, with T_{c}=315 K
for Ba_{2}FeReO_{6} and above 385 K for Ca_{2}FeReO_{6}. A specific heat
measurement on the barium compound gave an electron density of states at the
Fermi level, N(E_{F}) equal to 6.1. At 5 K, we
observed a negative magnetoresistance of 10 % in a magnetic field of 5 T, but
only for Ba_{2}FeReO_{6}. Electrical, thermal and magnetic properties are
discussed and compared to the analogous compounds Sr_{2}Fe(Mo,Re)O_{6}.Comment: 5 pages REVTeX, 7 figures included, submitted to PR
The Cosmic Infrared Background Experiment (CIBER): A Sounding Rocket Payload to Study the Near Infrared Extragalactic Background Light
The Cosmic Infrared Background Experiment (CIBER) is a suite of four instruments designed to study the near infrared (IR) background light from above the Earth's atmosphere. The instrument package comprises two imaging telescopes designed to characterize spatial anisotropy in the extragalactic IR background caused by cosmological structure during the epoch of reionization, a low resolution spectrometer to measure the absolute spectrum of the extragalactic IR background, and a narrow band spectrometer optimized to measure the absolute brightness of the Zodiacal light foreground. In this paper we describe the design and characterization of the CIBER payload. The detailed mechanical, cryogenic, and electrical design of the system are presented, including all system components common to the four instruments. We present the methods and equipment used to characterize the instruments before and after flight, and give a detailed description of CIBER's flight profile and configurations. CIBER is designed to be recoverable and has flown twice, with modifications to the payload having been informed by analysis of the first flight data. All four instruments performed to specifications during the second flight, and the scientific data from this flight are currently being analyzed
Spin and orbital ordering in double-layered manganites
We study theoretically the phase diagram of the double-layered perovskite
manganites taking into account the orbital degeneracy, the strong Coulombic
repulsion, and the coupling with the lattice deformation. Observed spin
structural changes as the increased doping are explained in terms of the
orbital ordering and the bond-length dependence of the hopping integral along
-axis. Temperature dependence of the neutron diffraction peak corresponding
to the canting structure is also explained. Comparison with the 3D cubic system
is made.Comment: 7 figure
Motif Discovery through Predictive Modeling of Gene Regulation
We present MEDUSA, an integrative method for learning motif models of
transcription factor binding sites by incorporating promoter sequence and gene
expression data. We use a modern large-margin machine learning approach, based
on boosting, to enable feature selection from the high-dimensional search space
of candidate binding sequences while avoiding overfitting. At each iteration of
the algorithm, MEDUSA builds a motif model whose presence in the promoter
region of a gene, coupled with activity of a regulator in an experiment, is
predictive of differential expression. In this way, we learn motifs that are
functional and predictive of regulatory response rather than motifs that are
simply overrepresented in promoter sequences. Moreover, MEDUSA produces a model
of the transcriptional control logic that can predict the expression of any
gene in the organism, given the sequence of the promoter region of the target
gene and the expression state of a set of known or putative transcription
factors and signaling molecules. Each motif model is either a -length
sequence, a dimer, or a PSSM that is built by agglomerative probabilistic
clustering of sequences with similar boosting loss. By applying MEDUSA to a set
of environmental stress response expression data in yeast, we learn motifs
whose ability to predict differential expression of target genes outperforms
motifs from the TRANSFAC dataset and from a previously published candidate set
of PSSMs. We also show that MEDUSA retrieves many experimentally confirmed
binding sites associated with environmental stress response from the
literature.Comment: RECOMB 200
Relation between crystal and magnetic structures of the layered manganites La2-2xSr1+2xMn2O7 (0.30 =< x =< 0.50)
Comprehensive neutron-powder diffraction and Rietveld analyses were carried
out to clarify the relation between the crystal and magnetic structures of
La2-2xSr1+2xMn2O7 (0.30 =< x =< 0.50). The Jahn-Teller (JT) distortion of Mn-O6
octahedra, i.e., the ratio of the averaged apical Mn-O bond length to the
equatorial Mn-O bond length, is Delta_JT=1.042(5) at x=0.30, where the magnetic
easy-axis at low temperature is parallel to the c axis. As the JT distortion
becomes suppressed with increasing x, a planar ferromagnetic structure appears
at x =< 0.32, which is followed by a canted antiferromagnetic (AFM) structure
at x =< 0.39. The canting angle between neighboring planes continuously
increases from 0 deg (planar ferromagnet: 0.32 =< x < 0.39) to 180 deg (A-type
AFM: x=0.48 where Delta_JT=1.013(5)). Dominance of the A-type AF structure with
decrease of JT distortion can be ascribed to the change in the eg orbital state
from d3z^2-r^2 to dx^2-y^2
Controls on the movement and composition of firn air at the West Antarctic Ice Sheet Divide
We sampled interstitial air from the perennial snowpack (firn) at a site near the West Antarctic Ice Sheet Divide (WAIS-D) and analyzed the air samples for a wide variety of gas species and their isotopes. We find limited convective influence (1.4–5.2 m, depending on detection method) in the shallow firn, gravitational enrichment of heavy species throughout the diffusive column in general agreement with theoretical expectations, a ~10 m thick lock-in zone beginning at ~67 m, and a total firn thickness consistent with predictions of Kaspers et al. (2004). Our modeling work shows that the air has an age spread (spectral width) of 4.8 yr for CO<sub>2</sub> at the firn-ice transition. We also find that advection of firn air due to the 22 cm yr<sup>&minus;1</sup> ice-equivalent accumulation rate has a minor impact on firn air composition, causing changes that are comparable to other modeling uncertainties and intrinsic sample variability. Furthermore, estimates of &Delta;age (the gas age/ice age difference) at WAIS-D appear to be largely unaffected by bubble closure above the lock-in zone. Within the lock-in zone, small gas species and their isotopes show evidence of size-dependent fractionation due to permeation through the ice lattice with a size threshold of 0.36 nm, as at other sites. We also see an unequivocal and unprecedented signal of oxygen isotope fractionation within the lock-in zone, which we interpret as the mass-dependent expression of a size-dependent fractionation process
Metallic and nonmetallic double perovskites: A case study of AFeReO (A= Ca, Sr, Ba)
We have investigated the structure and electronic properties of ferrimagnetic
double perovskites, A2FeReO6 (A= Ca, Sr, Ba). The A=Ba phase is cubic (Fm3m)
and metallic, while the A=Ca phase is monoclinic (P21/n) and nonmetallic.
57Fe Mossbauer spectroscopy shows that iron is present mainly in the
high-spin (S=5/2) Fe3+ state in the Ca compound, while it occurs in an
intermediate state between high-spin Fe2+ and Fe3+ in the Ba compound. It is
argued that a direct Re t2g - Re t2g interaction is the main cause for the
metallic character of the Ba compound; the high covalency of Ca-O bonds and the
monoclinic distortion (which lifts the degeneracy of t2g states) seem to
disrupt the Re-Re interaction in the case of the Ca compound, making it
non-metallic for the same electron count.Comment: 1 eps fil
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