8,236 research outputs found
Microwave Scattering and Noise Emission from Afterglow Plasmas in a Magnetic Field
The microwave reflection and noise emission (extraordinary mode) from cylindrical rare‐gas (He, Ne, Ar) afterglow plasmas in an axial magnetic field is described. Reflection and noise emission are measured as a function of magnetic field near electron cyclotron resonance (ω ≈ ω_c) with electron density as a parameter (ω_p < ω). A broad peak, which shifts to lower values of ω_c/ω) as electron density increases, is observed for (ω_c/ω) ≤ 1. For all values of electron density a second sharp peak is found very close to cyclotron resonance in reflection measurements. This peak does not occur in the emission data. Calculations of reflection and emission using a theoretical model consisting of a one‐dimensional, cold plasma slab with nonuniform electron density yield results in qualitative agreement with the observations. Both the experimental and theoretical results suggest that the broad, density‐dependent peak involves resonance effects at the upper hybrid frequency ((ω_h)^2 = (ω_c)^2 + (ω_p)^2) of the plasma
End states, ladder compounds, and domain wall fermions
A magnetic field applied to a cross linked ladder compound can generate
isolated electronic states bound to the ends of the chain. After exploring the
interference phenomena responsible, I discuss a connection to the domain wall
approach to chiral fermions in lattice gauge theory. The robust nature of the
states under small variations of the bond strengths is tied to chiral symmetry
and the multiplicative renormalization of fermion masses.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figures; final version for Phys. Rev. Let
Ion observations from geosynchronous orbit as a proxy for ion cyclotron wave growth during storm times
[1] There is still much to be understood about the processes contributing to relativistic electron enhancements and losses in the radiation belts. Wave particle interactions with both whistler and electromagnetic ion cyclotron (EMIC) waves may precipitate or accelerate these electrons. This study examines the relation between EMIC waves and resulting relativistic electron flux levels after geomagnetic storms. A proxy for enhanced EMIC waves is developed using Los Alamos National Laboratory Magnetospheric Plasma Analyzer plasma data from geosynchronous orbit in conjunction with linear theory. In a statistical study using superposed epoch analysis, it is found that for storms resulting in net relativistic electron losses, there is a greater occurrence of enhanced EMIC waves. This is consistent with the hypothesis that EMIC waves are a primary mechanism for the scattering of relativistic electrons and thus cause losses of such particles from the magnetosphere
The Functional Derivation of Master Equations
Master equations describe the quantum dynamics of open systems interacting
with an environment. They play an increasingly important role in understanding
the emergence of semiclassical behavior and the generation of entropy, both
being related to quantum decoherence. Presently we derive the exact master
equation for a homogeneous scalar Higgs or inflaton like field coupled to an
environment field represented by an infinite set of harmonic oscillators. Our
aim is to demonstrate a derivation directly from the path integral
representation of the density matrix propagator. Applications and
generalizations of this result are discussed.Comment: 10 pages; LaTex. - Contribution to the workshop Hadron Physics VI,
March 1998, Florianopolis (Brazil); proceedings, E. Ferreira et al., eds.
(World Scientific). Replaced by slightly modified published versio
Breaking through: The effects of a velocity distribution on barriers to dust growth
It is unknown how far dust growth can proceed by coagulation. Obstacles to
collisional growth are the fragmentation and bouncing barriers. However, in all
previous simulations of the dust-size evolution in protoplanetary disks, only
the mean collision velocity has been considered, neglecting that a small but
possibly important fraction of the collisions will occur at both much lower and
higher velocities. We study the effect of the probability distribution of
impact velocities on the collisional dust growth barriers. Assuming a
Maxwellian velocity distribution for colliding particles to determine the
fraction of sticking, bouncing, and fragmentation, we implement this in a
dust-size evolution code. We also calculate the probability of growing through
the barriers and the growth timescale in these regimes. We find that the
collisional growth barriers are not as sharp as previously thought. With the
existence of low-velocity collisions, a small fraction of the particles manage
to grow to masses orders of magnitude above the main population. A particle
velocity distribution softens the fragmentation barrier and removes the
bouncing barrier. It broadens the size distribution in a natural way, allowing
the largest particles to become the first seeds that initiate sweep-up growth
towards planetesimal sizes.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures. Accepted for publication as a Letter in Astronomy
and Astrophysic
The four-populations model: a new classification scheme for pre-planetesimal collisions
Within the collision growth scenario for planetesimal formation, the growth
step from centimetre sized pre-planetesimals to kilometre sized planetesimals
is still unclear. The formation of larger objects from the highly porous
pre-planetesimals may be halted by a combination of fragmentation in disruptive
collisions and mutual rebound with compaction. However, the right amount of
fragmentation is necessary to explain the observed dust features in late T
Tauri discs. Therefore, detailed data on the outcome of pre-planetesimal
collisions is required and has to be presented in a suitable and precise
format. We propose and apply a new classification scheme for pre-planetesimal
collisions based on the quantitative aspects of four fragment populations: the
largest and second largest fragment, a power-law population, and a
sub-resolution population. For the simulations of pre-planetesimal collisions,
we adopt the SPH numerical scheme with extensions for the simulation of porous
solid bodies. By means of laboratory benchmark experiments, this model was
previously calibrated and tested for the correct simulation of the compaction,
bouncing, and fragmentation behaviour of macroscopic highly porous silica dust
aggregates. It is shown that previous attempts to map collision data were much
too oriented on qualitatively categorising into sticking, bouncing, and
fragmentation events. We show that the four-populations model encompasses all
previous categorisations and in addition allows for transitions. This is
because it is based on quantitative characteristic attributes of each
population such as the mass, kinetic energy, and filling factor. As a
demonstration of the applicability and the power of the four-populations model,
we utilise it to present the results of a study on the influence of collision
velocity in head-on collisions of intermediate porosity aggregates.Comment: 14 pages, 11 figures, 5 tables, to be published in Astronomy and
Astrophysic
Local electronic structure of the peptide bond probed by resonant inelastic soft X-ray scattering.
The local valence orbital structure of solid glycine, diglycine, and triglycine is studied using soft X-ray emission spectroscopy (XES), resonant inelastic soft X-ray scattering (RIXS) maps, and spectra calculations based on density-functional theory. Using a building block approach, the contributions of the different functional groups of the peptides are separated. Cuts through the RIXS maps furthermore allow monitoring selective excitations of the amino and peptide functional units, leading to a modification of the currently established assignment of spectral contributions. The results thus paint a new-and-improved picture of the peptide bond, enhance the understanding of larger molecules with peptide bonds, and simplify the investigation of such molecules in aqueous environment
Statistical mechanics of Floquet systems: the pervasive problem of near degeneracies
The statistical mechanics of periodically driven ("Floquet") systems in
contact with a heat bath exhibits some radical differences from the traditional
statistical mechanics of undriven systems. In Floquet systems all quasienergies
can be placed in a finite frequency interval, and the number of near
degeneracies in this interval grows without limit as the dimension N of the
Hilbert space increases. This leads to pathologies, including drastic changes
in the Floquet states, as N increases. In earlier work these difficulties were
put aside by fixing N, while taking the coupling to the bath to be smaller than
any quasienergy difference. This led to a simple explicit theory for the
reduced density matrix, but with some major differences from the usual time
independent statistical mechanics. We show that, for weak but finite coupling
between system and heat bath, the accuracy of a calculation within the
truncated Hilbert space spanned by the N lowest energy eigenstates of the
undriven system is limited, as N increases indefinitely, only by the usual
neglect of bath memory effects within the Born and Markov approximations. As we
seek higher accuracy by increasing N, we inevitably encounter quasienergy
differences smaller than the system-bath coupling. We therefore derive the
steady state reduced density matrix without restriction on the size of
quasienergy splittings. In general, it is no longer diagonal in the Floquet
states. We analyze, in particular, the behavior near a weakly avoided crossing,
where quasienergy near degeneracies routinely appear. The explicit form of our
results for the denisty matrix gives a consistent prescription for the
statistical mechanics for many periodically driven systems with N infinite, in
spite of the Floquet state pathologies.Comment: 31 pages, 3 figure
A Supersymmetric D4 Model for mu-tau Symmetry
We construct a supersymmeterized version of the model presented by Grimus and
Lavoura (GL) in [1] which predicts theta_{23} maximal and theta_{13}=0 in the
lepton sector. For this purpose, we extend the flavor group, which is D4 x
Z2^{(aux)} in the original model, to D4 x Z5. An additional difference is the
absence of right-handed neutrinos. Despite these changes the model is the same
as the GL model, since theta_{23} maximal and theta_{13}=0 arise through the
same mismatch of D4 subgroups, D2 in the charged lepton and Z2 in the neutrino
sector. In our setup D4 is solely broken by gauge singlets, the flavons. We
show that their vacuum structure, which leads to the prediction of theta_{13}
and theta_{23}, is a natural result of the scalar potential. We find that the
neutrino mass matrix only allows for inverted hierarchy, if we assume a certain
form of spontaneous CP violation. The quantity |m_{ee}|, measured in
neutrinoless double beta decay, is nearly equal to the lightest neutrino mass
m3. The Majorana phases phi1 and phi2 are restricted to a certain range for m3
< 0.06 eV. We discuss the next-to-leading order corrections which give rise to
shifts in the vacuum expectation values of the flavons. These induce deviations
from maximal atmospheric mixing and vanishing theta_{13}. It turns out that
these deviations are smaller for theta_{23} than for theta_{13}.Comment: 19 pages, 4 figure
Mutual independence of critical temperature and superfluid density under pressure in optimally electron-doped superconducting LaFeAsOF
The superconducting properties of LaFeAsOF in conditions of
optimal electron-doping are investigated upon the application of external
pressure up to kbar. Measurements of muon-spin spectroscopy and dc
magnetometry evidence a clear mutual independence between the critical
temperature and the low-temperature saturation value for the ratio
(superfluid density over effective band mass of Cooper pairs).
Remarkably, a dramatic increase of % is reported for at
the maximum pressure value while is substantially unaffected in the
whole accessed experimental window. We argue and demonstrate that the
explanation for the observed results must take the effect of non-magnetic
impurities on multi-band superconductivity into account. In particular, the
unique possibility to modify the ratio between intra-band and inter-bands
scattering rates by acting on structural parameters while keeping the amount of
chemical disorder constant is a striking result of our proposed model.Comment: 8 pages (Main text: 5 pages. Paper merged with supplemental
information), 5 figure
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