12,460 research outputs found
Vortex Softening: Origin of the second peak effect in BiSrCaCuO
Transverse ac permeability measurements in BiSrCaCuO single crystals at low fields and temperatures in a vortex configuration
free of external forces show that the decrease of the critical current as
measured by magnetization loops at the second peak effect is an artifact due to
creep. On the other hand, the increase of critical current at the second peak
is due to a genuine softening of the tilting elastic properties of vortices in
the individual pinning regime that precedes the transition to a disorder state.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figures, RevTex, two column versio
Negative-energy perturbations in cylindrical equilibria with a radial electric field
The impact of an equilibrium radial electric field on negative-energy
perturbations (NEPs) (which are potentially dangerous because they can lead to
either linear or nonlinear explosive instabilities) in cylindrical equilibria
of magnetically confined plasmas is investigated within the framework of
Maxwell-drift kinetic theory. It turns out that for wave vectors with a
non-vanishing component parallel to the magnetic field the conditions for the
existence of NEPs in equilibria with E=0 [G. N. Throumoulopoulos and D.
Pfirsch, Phys. Rev. E 53, 2767 (1996)] remain valid, while the condition for
the existence of perpendicular NEPs, which are found to be the most important
perturbations, is modified. For ( is the
electrostatic potential) and ( is
the total plasma pressure), a case which is of operational interest in magnetic
confinement systems, the existence of perpendicular NEPs depends on ,
where is the charge of the particle species . In this case the
electric field can reduce the NEPs activity in the edge region of tokamaklike
and stellaratorlike equilibria with identical parabolic pressure profiles, the
reduction of electron NEPs being more pronounced than that of ion NEPs.Comment: 30 pages, late
Technology adoption and the investment climate : firm-level evidence for Eastern Europe and Central Asia
The international diffusion of technology presents an opportunity for developing economies distant from the world technological frontier to reduce their income gap relative to advanced economies. It is therefore crucial to understand why, when faced with similar technological alternatives different firms in different countries choose to adopt different vintages of capital. This paper examines technology adoption across firms in Eastern Europe and Central Asia. The findings show that access to complementary inputs - managerial capacity, skilled labor, finance, and good infrastructure - and to international knowledge - through foreign direct investment or exports - is an important correlate of technology adoption. The link between market incentives and technology adoption is more nuanced. Although consumer pressure results in technology adoption, competitor pressure does not, suggesting that only firms with rents are able to adopt technology given substantial resource constraints. Privatized firms exhibit better technology adoption outcomes but only when a clear private owner with a profit incentive is present. Better governance is associated with technology adoption only in the countries that joined the European Union in 2004. Future increases in technology adoption by firms in the region will require complementary reforms of the investment climate.E-Business,Technology Industry,ICT Policy and Strategies,Microfinance,
Analytical Multi-kinks in smooth potentials
In this work we present an approach which can be systematically used to
construct nonlinear systems possessing analytical multi-kink profile
configurations. In contrast with previous approaches to the problem, we are
able to do it by using field potentials which are considerably smoother than
the ones of Doubly Quadratic family of potentials. This is done without losing
the capacity of writing exact analytical solutions. The resulting field
configurations can be applied to the study of problems from condensed matter to
brane world scenarios
Negative-Energy Perturbations in Circularly Cylindrical Equilibria within the Framework of Maxwell-Drift Kinetic Theory
The conditions for the existence of negative-energy perturbations (which
could be nonlinearly unstable and cause anomalous transport) are investigated
in the framework of linearized collisionless Maxwell-drift kinetic theory for
the case of equilibria of magnetically confined, circularly cylindrical plasmas
and vanishing initial field perturbations. For wave vectors with a
non-vanishing component parallel to the magnetic field, the plane equilibrium
conditions (derived by Throumoulopoulos and Pfirsch [Phys Rev. E {\bf 49}, 3290
(1994)]) are shown to remain valid, while the condition for perpendicular
perturbations (which are found to be the most important modes) is modified.
Consequently, besides the tokamak equilibrium regime in which the existence of
negative-energy perturbations is related to the threshold value of 2/3 of the
quantity , a new
regime appears, not present in plane equilibria, in which negative-energy
perturbations exist for {\em any} value of . For various analytic
cold-ion tokamak equilibria a substantial fraction of thermal electrons are
associated with negative-energy perturbations (active particles). In
particular, for linearly stable equilibria of a paramagnetic plasma with flat
electron temperature profile (), the entire velocity space is
occupied by active electrons. The part of the velocity space occupied by active
particles increases from the center to the plasma edge and is larger in a
paramagnetic plasma than in a diamagnetic plasma with the same pressure
profile. It is also shown that, unlike in plane equilibria, negative-energy
perturbations exist in force-free reversed-field pinch equilibria with a
substantial fraction of active particles.Comment: 31 pages, late
Particle-vortex dynamics in noncommutative space
We study the problem of a charged particle in the presence of a uniform
magnetic field plus a vortex in noncommutative planar space considering the two
possible non-commutative extensions of the corresponding Hamiltonian, namely
the ``fundamental'' and the ``antifundamental'' representations. Using a Fock
space formalism we construct eigenfunctions and eigenvalues finding in each
case half of the states existing in the ordinary space case. In the limit of
we recover the two classes of states found in ordinary space,
relevant for the study of anyon physics.Comment: 13 pages, no figures, plain LaTeX. References adde
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