4,129 research outputs found
The interaction between transpolar arcs and cusp spots
Transpolar arcs and cusp spots are both auroral phenomena which occur when
the interplanetary magnetic field is northward. Transpolar arcs are associated
with magnetic reconnection in the magnetotail, which closes magnetic flux and
results in a "wedge" of closed flux which remains trapped, embedded in the
magnetotail lobe. The cusp spot is an indicator of lobe reconnection at the
high-latitude magnetopause; in its simplest case, lobe reconnection
redistributes open flux without resulting in any net change in the open flux
content of the magnetosphere. We present observations of the two phenomena
interacting--i.e., a transpolar arc intersecting a cusp spot during part of its
lifetime. The significance of this observation is that lobe reconnection can
have the effect of opening closed magnetotail flux. We argue that such events
should not be rare
Temperature Evolution of the Quantum Gap in CsNiCl3
Neutron scattering measurements on the one-dimensional gapped S=1
antiferromagnet, CsNiCl3, have shown that the excitation corresponding to the
Haldane mass gap Delta at low temperatures persists as a resonant feature to
high temperatures. We find that the strong upward renormalisation of the gap
excitation, by a factor of three between 5 and 70K, is more than enough to
overcome its decreasing lifetime. We find that the gap lifetime is
substantially shorter than that predicted by the scaling theory of Damle and
Sachdev in its low temperature range of validity. The upward gap
renormalisation agrees with the non-linear sigma model at low temperatures and
even up to T of order 2Delta provided an upper mass cutoff is included.Comment: Latex, 3 figures, accepted by Pysical Review
Magnetic excitations of spin and orbital moments in cobalt oxide
Magnetic and phonon excitations in the antiferromagnet CoO with an unquenched
orbital angular momentum are studied by neutron scattering. Results of energy
scans in several Brillouin zones in the (HHL) plane for energy transfers up to
16 THz are presented. The measurements were performed in the antiferromagnetic
ordered state at 6 K (well below TN~290 K) as well as in the paramagnetic state
at 450 K. Several magnetic excitation modes are identified from the dependence
of their intensity on wavevector and temperature. Within a Hund's rule model
the excitations correspond to fluctuations of coupled orbital and spin degrees
of freedom whose bandwidth is controlled by interionic superexchange. The
different ordering domains give rise to several magnetic peaks at each
wavevector transfer.Comment: Accepted for publication in Canadian Journal of Physic
Model of two-fluid reconnection
A theoretical model of quasi-stationary, two-dimensional magnetic
reconnection is presented in the framework of incompressible two-fluid
magnetohydrodynamics (MHD). The results are compared with recent numerical
simulations and experiment.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figure, accepted to Physical Review Letter
Two and Three Dimensional Incommensurate Modulation in Optimally-Doped BiSrCaCuO
X-ray scattering measurements on optimally-doped single crystal samples of
the high temperature superconductor BiSrCaCuO reveal
the presence of three distinct incommensurate charge modulations, each
involving a roughly fivefold increase in the unit cell dimension along the {\bf
b}-direction. The strongest scattering comes from the well known (H, K
0.21, L) modulation and its harmonics. However, we also observe broad
diffraction which peak up at the L values complementary to those which
characterize the known modulated structure. These diffraction features
correspond to correlation lengths of roughly a unit cell dimension,
20 in the {\bf c} direction, and of 185
parallel to the incommensurate wavevector. We interpret these features as
arising from three dimensional incommensurate domains and the interfaces
between them, respectively. In addition we investigate the recently discovered
incommensuate modulations which peak up at (1/2, K 0.21, L) and related
wavevectors. Here we explicitly study the L-dependence of this scattering and
see that these charge modulations are two dimensional in nature with weak
correlations on the scale of a bilayer thickness, and that they correspond to
short range, isotropic correlation lengths within the basal plane. We relate
these new incommensurate modulations to the electronic nanostructure observed
in BiSrCaCuO using STM topography.Comment: 8 pages, 8 figure
Gyrokinetic simulation of entropy cascade in two-dimensional electrostatic turbulence
Two-dimensional electrostatic turbulence in magnetized weakly-collisional
plasmas exhibits a cascade of entropy in phase space [Phys. Rev. Lett. 103,
015003 (2009)]. At scales smaller than the gyroradius, this cascade is
characterized by the dimensionless ratio D of the collision time to the eddy
turnover time measured at the scale of the thermal Larmor radius. When D >> 1,
a broad spectrum of fluctuations at sub-Larmor scales is found in both position
and velocity space. The distribution function develops structure as a function
of v_{perp}, the velocity coordinate perpendicular to the local magnetic field.
The cascade shows a local-scale nonlinear interaction in both position and
velocity spaces, and Kolmogorov's scaling theory can be extended into phase
space.Comment: 8 pages, 10 figures, Conference paper presented at 2009 Asia-Pacific
Plasma Theory Conference. Ver.2 includes corrected typos & updated reference
AX J0049.4-7323 - a close look at a neutron star interacting with a circumstellar disk
Detailed evidence on the system AX J0049.4-7323 is presented here to show how
the passage of the neutron star in the binary system disrupts the circumstellar
disk of the mass donor Be star. A similar effect is noted in three other
Be/X-ray binary systems. Together the observational data should provide
valuable tools for modelling these complex interactions.Comment: 4 pages, accepted for publication in MNRA
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