879 research outputs found
Spherical magnetic nanoparticles: magnetic structure and interparticle interaction
The interaction between spherical magnetic nanoparticles is investigated from
micromagnetic simulations and ananlysed in terms of the leading dipolar
interaction energy between magnetic dipoles. We focus mainly on the case where
the particles present a vortex structure. In a first step the local magnetic
structure in the isolated particle is revisited. For particles bearing a
uniaxial magnetocrystaline anisotropy, it is shown that the vortex core
orientation relative to the easy axis depends on both the particle size and the
anisotropy constant. When the particles magnetization present a vortex
structure, it is shown that the polarization of the particles by the dipolar
field of the other one must be taken into account in the interaction. An
analytic form is deduced for the interaction which involves the vortex core
magnetization and the magnetic susceptibility which are obtained from the
magnetic properties of the isolated particle.Comment: 20 pages, 10 figures Published in Journal of Applied Physics. To be
found at: http://link.aip.org/link/?jap/105/07391
Field-induced structure transformation in electrorheological solids
We have computed the local electric field in a body-centered tetragonal (BCT)
lattice of point dipoles via the Ewald-Kornfeld formulation, in an attempt to
examine the effects of a structure transformation on the local field strength.
For the ground state of an electrorheological solid of hard spheres, we
identified a novel structure transformation from the BCT to the face-centered
cubic (FCC) lattices by changing the uniaxial lattice constant c under the hard
sphere constraint. In contrast to the previous results, the local field
exhibits a non-monotonic transition from BCT to FCC. As c increases from the
BCT ground state, the local field initially decreases rapidly towards the
isotropic value at the body-centered cubic lattice, decreases further, reaching
a minimum value and increases, passing through the isotropic value again at an
intermediate lattice, reaches a maximum value and finally decreases to the FCC
value. An experimental realization of the structure transformation is
suggested. Moreover, the change in the local field can lead to a generalized
Clausius-Mossotti equation for the BCT lattices.Comment: Submitted to Phys. Rev.
Effects of geometric anisotropy on local field distribution: Ewald-Kornfeld formulation
We have applied the Ewald-Kornfeld formulation to a tetragonal lattice of
point dipoles, in an attempt to examine the effects of geometric anisotropy on
the local field distribution. The various problems encountered in the
computation of the conditionally convergent summation of the near field are
addressed and the methods of overcoming them are discussed. The results show
that the geometric anisotropy has a significant impact on the local field
distribution. The change in the local field can lead to a generalized
Clausius-Mossotti equation for the anisotropic case.Comment: Accepted for publications, Journal of Physics: Condensed Matte
Polarizable molecular interactions in condensed phase and their equivalent nonpolarizable models
Earlier, using phenomenological approach, we showed that in some cases
polarizable models of condensed phase systems can be reduced to nonpolarizable
equivalent models with scaled charges. Examples of such systems include ionic
liquids, TIPnP-type models of water, protein force fields, and others, where
interactions and dynamics of inherently polarizable species can be accurately
described by nonpolarizable models. To describe electrostatic interactions, the
effective charges of simple ionic liquids are obtained by scaling the actual
charges of ions by a factor of 1/sqrt(eps_el), which is due to electronic
polarization screening effect; the scaling factor of neutral species is more
complicated. Here, using several theoretical models, we examine how exactly the
scaling factors appear in theory, and how, and under what conditions,
polarizable Hamiltonians are reduced to nonpolarizable ones. These models allow
one to trace the origin of the scaling factors, determine their values, and
obtain important insights on the nature of polarizable interactions in
condensed matter systems.Comment: 43 pages, 3 figure
Lattice-gas model for alkali-metal fullerides: face-centered-cubic structure
A lattice-gas model is suggested for describing the ordering phenomena in
alkali-metal fullerides of face-centered-cubic structure assuming the electric
charge of alkali ions residing in either octahedral or tetrahedral interstitial
sites is completely screened by the first-neighbor C_60 molecules. This
approximation allows us to derive an effective ion-ion interaction. The van der
Waals interaction between the ion and C_60 molecule is characterized by
introducing an additional energy at the tetrahedral sites. This model is
investigated by using a three-sublattice mean-field approximation and a simple
cluster-variation method. The analysis shows a large variety of phase diagrams
when changing the site energy parameter.Comment: 10 twocolumn pages (REVTEX) including 12 PS figure
Multi-band optical-NIR variability of blazars on diverse timescales
To search for optical variability on a wide range of timescales, we have
carried out photometric monitoring of two flat spectrum radio quasars, 3C 454.3
and 3C 279, plus one BL Lac, S5 0716+714, all of which have been exhibiting
remarkably high activity and pronounced variability at all wavelengths. CCD
magnitudes in B, V, R and I pass-bands were determined for 7000 new
optical observations from 114 nights made during 2011 - 2014, with an average
length of 4 h each, at seven optical telescopes: four in Bulgaria, one
in Greece, and two in India. We measured multiband optical flux and colour
variations on diverse timescales. Discrete correlation functions were computed
among B, V, R, and I observations, to search for any time delays. We found weak
correlations in some cases with no significant time lags. The structure
function method was used to estimate any characteristic time-scales of
variability. We also investigated the spectral energy distribution of the three
blazars using B, V, R, I, J and K pass-band data. We found that the sources
almost always follows a bluer-when-brighter trend. We discuss possible physical
causes of the observed spectral variability.Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRAS, 16 pages, 11 figures, 5 tables,
plus supplementary material containing additional figures and tables (please
contact authors for it
The prompt X-ray emission of GRB011211: possible evidence of a transient absorption feature
We report on observation results of the prompt X- and gamma-ray emission from
GRB011211. This event was detected with the Gamma-Ray Burst Monitor and one of
the Wide Field Cameras aboard the BeppoSAX satellite. The optical counterpart
to the GRB was soon identified and its redshift determined (z = 2.140), while
with the XMM-Newton satellite, the X-ray afterglow emission was detected.
Evidence of soft X-ray emission lines was reported by Reeves et al. (2002), but
not confirmed by other authors. In investigating the spectral evolution of the
prompt emission we find the possible evidence of a transient absorption feature
at 6.9^{+0.6}_{-0.5} keV during the rise of the primary event. The significance
of the feature is derived with non parametric tests and numerical simulations,
finding a chance probability which ranges from 3x10^{-3} down to 4x10^{-4}. The
feature shows a Gaussian profile and an equivalent width of 1.2^{+0.5}_{-0.6}
keV. We discuss our results and their possible interpretation.Comment: 23 pages, 3 Tables, 6 Figures. Accepted for publication in
Astrophysical Journa
The X-ray afterglow of the Gamma-ray burst of May 8, 1997: spectral variability and possible evidence of an iron line
We report the possible detection (99.3% of statistical significance) of
redshifted Fe iron line emission in the X-ray afterglow of Gamma-ray burst
GRB970508 observed by BeppoSAX. Its energy is consistent with the redshift of
the putative host galaxy determined from optical spectroscopy. The line
disappeared about 1 day after the burst. We have also analyzed the spectral
variability during the outburst event that characterizes the X-ray afterglow of
this GRB. The spectrum gets harder during the flare, turning to steep when the
flux decreases. The variability, intensity and width of the line indicate that
the emitting region should have a mass approximately greater than 0.5 solar
masses (assuming the iron abundance similar to its solar value), a size of
about 3 times 10^15 cm, be distributed anisotropically, and be moving with
sub-relativistic speed. In contrast to the fairly clean environment expected in
the merging of two neutron stars, the observed line properties would imply that
the site of the burst is embedded in a large mass of material, consistent with
pre-explosion ejecta of a very massive star. This material could be related
with the outburst observed in the afterglow 1 day after the GRB and with the
spectral variations measured during this phase.Comment: To appear in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, AASTEX LateX, 2
PostScript figure
The Temperature Distribution in Turbulent Interstellar Gas
We discuss the temperature distribution in a two-dimensional, thermally
unstable numerical simulation of the warm and cold gas in the Galactic disk,
including the magnetic field, self-gravity, the Coriolis force, stellar energy
injection and a realistic cooling function. We find that ~50% of the turbulent
gas mass has temperatures in what would be the thermally unstable range if
thermal instability were to be considered alone. This appears to be a
consequence of there being many other forces at play than just thermal
pressure. We also point out that a bimodal temperature pdf is a simple
consequence of the form of the interstellar cooling function and is not
necessarily a signature of discontinuous phase transitions.Comment: video address has been update
Spin-boson models for quantum decoherence of electronic excitations of biomolecules and quantum dots in a solvent
We give a theoretical treatment of the interaction of electronic excitations
(excitons) in biomolecules and quantum dots with the surrounding polar solvent.
Significant quantum decoherence occurs due to the interaction of the electric
dipole moment of the solute with the fluctuating electric dipole moments of the
individual molecules in the solvent. We introduce spin boson models which could
be used to describe the effects of decoherence on the quantum dynamics of
biomolecules which undergo light-induced conformational change and on
biomolecules or quantum dots which are coupled by Forster resonant energy
transfer.Comment: More extended version, to appear in Journal of Physics: Condensed
Matter. 13 pages, 3 figure
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