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Fine Grid Asteroseismology Of G117-B15A And R548
We now have a good measurement of the cooling rate of G117-B15A. In the near future, we will have equally well determined cooling rates for other pulsating white dwarfs, including R548. The ability to measure their cooling rates offers us a unique way to study weakly interacting particles that would contribute to their cooling. Working toward that goal, we perform a careful asteroseismological analysis of G117-B15A and R548. We study them side by side because they have similar observed properties. We carry out a systematic, fine grid search for best-fit models to the observed period spectra of those stars. We freely vary four parameters: the effective temperature, the stellar mass, the helium layer mass, and the hydrogen layer mass. We identify and quantify a number of uncertainties associated with our models. Based on the results of that analysis and fits to the periods observed in R548 and G117-B15A, we clearly define the regions of the four-dimensional parameter space occupied by the best-fit models.NSF AST 05-07639Astronom
Raman spectroscopy on etched graphene nanoribbons
We investigate etched single-layer graphene nanoribbons with different widths
ranging from 30 to 130 nm by confocal Raman spectroscopy. We show that the
D-line intensity only depends on the edge-region of the nanoribbon and that
consequently the fabrication process does not introduce bulk defects. In
contrast, the G- and the 2D-lines scale linearly with the irradiated area and
therefore with the width of the ribbons. We further give indications that the
D- to G-line ratio can be used to gain information about the crystallographic
orientation of the underlying graphene. Finally, we perform polarization angle
dependent measurements to analyze the nanoribbon edge-regions
A New Timescale for Period Change in the Pulsating DA White Dwarf WD 0111+0018
We report the most rapid rate of period change measured to date for a
pulsating DA (hydrogen atmosphere) white dwarf (WD), observed in the 292.9 s
mode of WD 0111+0018. The observed period change, faster than 10^{-12} s/s,
exceeds by more than two orders of magnitude the expected rate from cooling
alone for this class of slow and simply evolving pulsating WDs. This result
indicates the presence of an additional timescale for period evolution in these
pulsating objects. We also measure the rates of period change of nonlinear
combination frequencies and show that they share the evolutionary
characteristics of their parent modes, confirming that these combination
frequencies are not independent modes but rather artifacts of some nonlinear
distortion in the outer layers of the star.Comment: 10 pages, 6 figures, accepted for publication in The Astrophysical
Journa
Basin structure of optimization based state and parameter estimation
Most data based state and parameter estimation methods require suitable
initial values or guesses to achieve convergence to the desired solution, which
typically is a global minimum of some cost function. Unfortunately, however,
other stable solutions (e.g., local minima) may exist and provide suboptimal or
even wrong estimates. Here we demonstrate for a 9-dimensional Lorenz-96 model
how to characterize the basin size of the global minimum when applying some
particular optimization based estimation algorithm. We compare three different
strategies for generating suitable initial guesses and we investigate the
dependence of the solution on the given trajectory segment (underlying the
measured time series). To address the question of how many state variables have
to be measured for optimal performance, different types of multivariate time
series are considered consisting of 1, 2, or 3 variables. Based on these time
series the local observability of state variables and parameters of the
Lorenz-96 model is investigated and confirmed using delay coordinates. This
result is in good agreement with the observation that correct state and
parameter estimation results are obtained if the optimization algorithm is
initialized with initial guesses close to the true solution. In contrast,
initialization with other exact solutions of the model equations (different
from the true solution used to generate the time series) typically fails, i.e.
the optimization procedure ends up in local minima different from the true
solution. Initialization using random values in a box around the attractor
exhibits success rates depending on the number of observables and the available
time series (trajectory segment).Comment: 15 pages, 2 figure
Optically probing symmetry breaking in the chiral magnet Cu2OSeO3
We report on the linear optical properties of the chiral magnet Cu2OSeO3,
specifically associated with the absence of inversion symmetry, the chiral
crystallographic structure, and magnetic order. Through spectroscopic
ellipsometry, we observe local crystal-field excitations below the
charge-transfer gap. These crystal-field excitations are optically allowed due
to the lack of inversion symmetry at the Cu sites. Optical polarization
rotation measurements were used to study the structural chirality and magnetic
order. The temperature dependence of the natural optical rotation, originating
in the chiral crystal structure, provides evidence for a finite
magneto-electric effect in the helimagnetic phase. We find a large
magneto-optical susceptibility on the order of V(540nm)~10^4 rad/(T*m) in the
helimagnetic phase and a maximum Faraday rotation of ~165deg/mm in the
ferrimagnetic phase. The large value of V can be explained by considering spin
cluster formation and the relative ease of domain reorientation in this
metamagnetic material. The magneto-optical activity allows us to map the
magnetic phase diagram, including the skyrmion lattice phase. In addition to
this, we probe and discuss the nature of the various magnetic phase transitions
in Cu2OSeO3.Comment: 9 pages, 10 figure
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