792 research outputs found
How the Belgian wind farm business made us discover the challenging environment of marine sand dunes
During the last decade, it has become clear that sand dunes are important features in the Belgian wind farm concession area. Because they influence not only the design seabed levels, but also the hydrodynamic forcings and installation methods for both cable and foundations, the study of the seabed morphodynamics is essential for all wind farm projects. This paper starts with an overview of the geographic and morphological setting of the Belgian wind farm concession areas and presents an overview of the key features of the bedforms in the different concessions. Next the importance and impact of the sand dunes during the design and development of these wind farms is illustrated by exploring the different types of studies and investigations which have been performed in relation to seabed & morphology, the hydrodynamic loadings, the installation methods and the environmental impact assessments
Metastability and paramagnetism in superconducting mesoscopic disks
A projected order parameter is used to calculate, not only local minima of
the Ginzburg-Landau energy functional, but also saddle points or energy
barriers responsible for the metastabilities observed in superconducting
mesoscopic disks (Geim et al. Nature {\bf 396}, 144 (1998)). We calculate the
local minima magnetization and find the energetic instability points between
vortex configurations with different vorticity. We also find that, for any
vorticity, the supercurrent can reverse its flow direction on decreasing the
magnetic field before one vortex can escape.Comment: Modified version as to appear in Phys. Rev. Let
Report of the Horse Mackerel Exchange and Workshop 2006
Following a recommendation from PGCCDBS, a workshop on age calibration of horse mackerel was carried out. The workshop was preceded by an exchange. The objectives were: to improve the quality of horse mackerel readings by international calibration. In particular, attempt to resolve the observed differences between countries. Estimate the accuracy and precision of the age readings before and after the intercalibration. Take into account differences between areas and methods. Training of new horse mackerel readers
Structure of Flux Line Lattices with Weak Disorder at Large Length Scales
Dislocation-free decoration images containing up to 80,000 vortices have been
obtained on high quality BiSrCaCuO superconducting
single crystals. The observed flux line lattices are in the random manifold
regime with a roughening exponent of 0.44 for length scales up to 80-100
lattice constants. At larger length scales, the data exhibit nonequilibrium
features that persist for different cooling rates and field histories.Comment: 4 pages, 3 gif images, to appear in PRB rapid communicatio
Observation of Individual Josephson Vortices in YBCO Bicrystal Grain-boundary Junctions
The response of YBCO bicrystal grain-boundary junctions to small dc magnetic
fields (0 - 10 Oe) has been probed with a low-power microwave (rf) signal of
4.4 GHz in a microwave-resonator setup. Peaks in the microwave loss at certain
dc magnetic fields are observed that result from individual Josephson vortices
penetrating into the grain-boundary junctions under study. The system is
modeled as a long Josephson junction described by the sine-Gordon equation with
the appropriate boundary conditions. Excellent quantitative agreement between
the experimental data and the model has been obtained. Hysteresis effect of dc
magnetic field is also studied and the results of measurement and calculation
are compared.Comment: 11 pages, 4 figure
A Formal Study of the Privacy Concerns in Biometric-Based Remote Authentication Schemes
With their increasing popularity in cryptosystems, biometrics have attracted more and more attention from the information security community. However, how to handle the relevant privacy concerns remains to be troublesome. In this paper, we propose a novel security model to formalize the privacy concerns in biometric-based remote authentication schemes. Our security model covers a number of practical privacy concerns such as identity privacy and transaction anonymity, which have not been formally considered in the literature. In addition, we propose a general biometric-based remote authentication scheme and prove its security in our security model
Orientation of Vortices in a Superconducting Thin-Film: Quantitative Comparison of Spin-Polarized Neutron Reflectivity and Magnetization
We present a quantitative comparison of the magnetization measured by
spin-polarized neutron reflectivity (SPNR) and DC magnetometry on a 1370 \AA\
-thick Nb superconducting film. As a function of magnetic field applied in the
film plane, SPNR exhibits reversible behavior whereas the DC magnetization
shows substantial hysteresis. The difference between these measurements is
attributed to a rotation of vortex magnetic field out of the film plane as the
applied field is reduced. Since SPNR measures only the magnetization parallel
to the film plane whereas DC magnetization is strongly influenced by the
perpendicular component of magnetization when there is a slight sample tilt,
combining the two techniques allows one to distinguish two components of
magnetization in a thin film.Comment: 12 pages, 8 figures, It will be printed in PRB, Oct. 200
Elasticity-driven interaction between vortices in type-II superconductors
The contribution to the vortex lattice energy which is due to the
vortex-induced strains is calculated covering all the magnetic field range
which defines the vortex state. This contribution is compared with previously
reported ones what shows that, in the most part of the vortex state, it has
been notably underestimated until now. The reason of such underestimation is
the assumption that only the vortex cores induce strains. In contrast to what
is generally assumed, both core and non-core regions are important sources of
strains in high- superconductors.Comment: 10 pages, 1 figure, revtex
Vortex Matter Transition in BiSrCaCuO under Tilted Fields
Vortex phase diagram under tilted fields from the axis in
BiSrCaCuO is studied by local magnetization
hysteresis measurements using Hall probes. When the field is applied at large
angles from the axis, an anomaly () other than the well-known
peak effect () are found at fields below . The angular dependence of
the field is nonmonotonic and clearly different from that of
and depends on the oxygen content of the crystal. The results suggest existence
of a vortex matter transition under tilted fields. Possible mechanisms of the
transition are discussed.Comment: Revtex, 4 pages, some corrections are adde
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