15,895 research outputs found
Experimental demonstration of Aharonov-Casher interference in a Josephson junction circuit
A neutral quantum particle with magnetic moment encircling a static electric
charge acquires a quantum mechanical phase (Aharonov-Casher effect). In
superconducting electronics the neutral particle becomes a fluxon that moves
around superconducting islands connected by Josephson junctions. The full
understanding of this effect in systems of many junctions is crucial for the
design of novel quantum circuits. Here we present measurements and quantitative
analysis of fluxon interference patterns in a six Josephson junction chain. In
this multi-junction circuit the fluxon can encircle any combination of charges
on five superconducting islands, resulting in a complex pattern. We compare the
experimental results with predictions of a simplified model that treats fluxons
as independent excitations and with the results of the full diagonalization of
the quantum problem. Our results demonstrate the accuracy of the fluxon
interference description and the quantum coherence of these arrays
Dynamics of domain walls in magnetic nanostrips
We express dynamics of domain walls in ferromagnetic nanowires in terms of
collective coordinates generalizing Thiele's steady-state results. For weak
external perturbations the dynamics is dominated by a few soft modes. The
general approach is illustrated on the example of a vortex wall relevant to
recent experiments with flat nanowires. A two-mode approximation gives a
quantitatively accurate description of both the steady viscous motion of the
wall in weak magnetic fields and its oscillatory behavior in moderately high
fields above the Walker breakdown.Comment: 4 pages, update to published versio
Minimizing Black Bear Problems at New York State Public Campgrounds
The black bear\u27s omnivorous foraging behavior has been both beneficial and detrimental to its coexistence with modern humans. The ability to feed on a variety of animal and vegetable matter, alive or dead, has been advantageous to the black bear\u27s survival as its range has diminished. Although black bears have an innate aversion to people, many have learned to tolerate humans to acquire easily obtainable high energy concentrated artificial foods. Human carelessness in the storage and disposal of foods within or near bear habit at has resulted in conflicts between campers and wild bears. Forest Preserve public campgrounds create a unique situation by concentrating people and food in remote forested environments frequented by black bears. The failure to effectively deal with this situation resulted in chronic bear-human problems at approximately one-third of New York\u27s Forest Preserve public campgrounds. In addition to loss of food, some people suffered property damage and a few sustained physical injuries. Alleviation of bear nuisance activity typically included attempts to capture and relocate bothersome bears. The high cost and ultimate failure of this approach led to the destruction of many bears while little long-term improvement was achieved
Fluctuations and transport in a stirred fluid with a mean gradient
The effective thermal diffusivity D* and the probability distribution of temperature fluctuations are measured in a stirred fluid across which a temperature gradient is maintained. A distinct mixing transition is observed for D* as a function of Reynolds number R. Above the transitions, the distribution is strongly non-Gaussian and approaches an exponential exp(-‖δT‖/βξ), where β is the local temperature gradient and ξ the correlation length
Josephson charge-phase qubit with radio frequency readout: coupling and decoherence
The charge-phase Josephson qubit based on a superconducting single charge
transistor inserted in a low-inductance superconducting loop is considered. The
loop is inductively coupled to a radio-frequency driven tank circuit enabling
the readout of the qubit states by measuring the effective Josephson inductance
of the transistor. The effect of qubit dephasing and relaxation due to electric
and magnetic control lines as well as the measuring system is evaluated.
Recommendations for operation of the qubit in magic points producing minimum
decoherence are given.Comment: 11 pages incl. 6 fig
New results on pushdown module checking with imperfect information
Model checking of open pushdown systems (OPD) w.r.t. standard branching
temporal logics (pushdown module checking or PMC) has been recently
investigated in the literature, both in the context of environments with
perfect and imperfect information about the system (in the last case, the
environment has only a partial view of the system's control states and stack
content). For standard CTL, PMC with imperfect information is known to be
undecidable. If the stack content is assumed to be visible, then the problem is
decidable and 2EXPTIME-complete (matching the complexity of PMC with perfect
information against CTL). The decidability status of PMC with imperfect
information against CTL restricted to the case where the depth of the stack
content is visible is open. In this paper, we show that with this restriction,
PMC with imperfect information against CTL remains undecidable. On the other
hand, we individuate an interesting subclass of OPDS with visible stack content
depth such that PMC with imperfect information against the existential fragment
of CTL is decidable and in 2EXPTIME. Moreover, we show that the program
complexity of PMC with imperfect information and visible stack content against
CTL is 2EXPTIME-complete (hence, exponentially harder than the program
complexity of PMC with perfect information, which is known to be
EXPTIME-complete).Comment: In Proceedings GandALF 2011, arXiv:1106.081
Acausality in Gowdy spacetimes
We present a parametrization of and Gowdy cosmological
models which allows us to study both types of topologies simultaneously. We
show that there exists a coordinate system in which the general solution of the
linear polarized special case (with both topologies) has exactly the same
functional dependence. This unified parametrization is used to investigate the
existence of Cauchy horizons at the cosmological singularities, leading to a
violation of the strong cosmic censorship conjecture. Our results indicate that
the only acausal spacetimes are described by the Kantowski-Sachs and the
Kerr-Gowdy metrics.Comment: Typos corrected, 10 pages. Dedicated to Michael P. Ryan on the
occasion of his 60-th birthda
The effect of screening long-range Coulomb interactions on the metallic behavior in two-dimensional hole systems
We have developed a technique utilizing a double quantum well heterostructure
that allows us to study the effect of a nearby ground-plane on the metallic
behavior in a GaAs two-dimensional hole system (2DHS) in a single sample and
measurement cool-down, thereby maintaining a constant disorder potential. In
contrast to recent measurements of the effect of ground-plane screening of the
long-range Coulomb interaction in the insulating regime, we find surprisingly
little effect on the metallic behavior when we change the distance between the
2DHS and the nearby ground-plane.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, accepted for publication in PR
X-ray and Radio Interactions in the Cores of Cooling Flow Clusters
We present high resolution ROSAT x-ray and radio observations of three
cooling flow clusters containing steep spectrum radio sources at their cores.
All three systems exhibit strong signs of interaction between the radio plasma
and the hot intracluster medium. Two clusters, A133 and A2626, show enhanced
x-ray emission spatially coincident with the radio source whereas the third
cluster, A2052, exhibits a large region of x-ray excess surrounding much of the
radio source. Using 3-D numerical simulations, we show that a perturbed jet
propagating through a cooling flow atmosphere can give rise to amorphous radio
morphologies, particularly in the case where the jet was ``turned off'' and
allowed to age passively. In addition, the simulated x-ray surface brightness
produced both excesses and deficits as seen observationally.Comment: 25 pages, 10 figures, accepted for publication in A
Condensation of magnons and spinons in a frustrated ladder
Motivated by the ever-increasing experimental effort devoted to the
properties of frustrated quantum magnets in a magnetic field, we present a
careful and detailed theoretical analysis of a one-dimensional version of this
problem, a frustrated ladder with a magnetization plateau at m=1/2. We show
that even for purely isotropic Heisenberg interactions, the magnetization curve
exhibits a rather complex behavior that can be fully accounted for in terms of
simple elementary excitations. The introduction of anisotropic interactions
(e.g., Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interactions) modifies significantly the picture
and reveals an essential difference between integer and fractional plateaux. In
particular, anisotropic interactions generically open a gap in the region
between the plateaux, but we show that this gap closes upon entering fractional
plateaux. All of these conclusions, based on analytical arguments, are
supported by extensive Density Matrix Renormalization Group calculations.Comment: 15 pages, 15 figures. minor changes in tex
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