TEC enhancement due to energetic electrons above Taiwan and the West Pacific

The energetic electrons of the inner radiation belt during a geomagnetic disturbance can penetrate in the forbidden range of drift shells located at the heights of the topside equatorial ionosphere (<1000 km). A good correlation was previously revealed between positive ionospheric storms and intense fluxes of quasi-trapped 30-keV electrons at ~900 km height in the forbidden zone. In the present work, we use statistics to validate an assumption that the intense electron fluxes in the topside equatorial ionosphere can be an important source of the ionization in the low-latitude ionosphere. The data on the energetic electrons were obtained from polar orbiting satellites over the periods of the 62 strong geomagnetic storms from 1999 to 2006. Ionospheric response to the selected storms was determined using global ionospheric maps of vertical total electron content (VTEC). A case-event study of a major storm on 9 November 2004 provided experimental evidence in support to the substantial ionization effect of energetic electrons during positive ionospheric storms at the low latitudes. Statistical analysis of nine magnetic storms indicated that the VTEC increases coincided with and coexisted with intense 30-keV electron fluxes irrespective of local time and phase of geomagnetic storm. We concluded that extremely intense fluxes of the 30-keV electrons in the topside low-latitude ionosphere can contribute ~ 10 - 30 TECU to the localized positive ionospheric storms.Comment: 15 pages, 4 figures, 1 table accepted for publication in Terrestrial, Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences (TAO), Dec. 2012 A special issue on "Connection of solar and heliospheric activities with near-Earth space weather: Sun-Earth connection

AC Josephson properties of phase slip lines in wide tin films

Current steps in the current-voltage characteristics of wide superconducting Sn films exposed to a microwave irradiation were observed in the resistive state with phase slip lines. The behaviour of the magnitude of the steps on the applied irradiation power was found to be similar to that for the current steps in narrow superconducting channels with phase slip centers and, to some extent, for the Shapiro steps in Josephson junctions. This provides evidence for the Josephson properties of the phase slip lines in wide superconducting films and supports the assumption about similarity between the processes of phase slip in wide and narrow films.Comment: 7 pages, 2 figures, to be published in Supercond. Sci. Techno

Quantum conductivity corrections in two dimensional long-range disordered systems with strong spin-orbit splitting of electron spectrum

We study quantum corrections to conductivity in a 2D system with a smooth random potential and strong spin-orbit splitting of the spectrum. We show that the interference correction is positive and down to the very low temperature can exceed the negative correction related to electron-electron interactions. We discuss this result in the context of the problem of the metal-insulator transition in Si-MOSFET structures.Comment: 8 pages, no figure

Compressibility of a 2D electron gas under microwave radiation

Microwave irradiation of a two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG) produces a non-equilibrium distribution of electrons, and leads to oscillations in the dissipative part of the conductivity. We show that the same non-equilibrium electron distribution induces strong oscillations in the 2DEG compressibility measured by local probes. Local measurements of the compressibility are expected to provide information about the domain structure of the zero resistance state of a 2DEG under microwave radiation.Comment: v2: analysis of the wave-vector dependence of the compressibility added; discussion of the Hall conductivity removed (shifted to cond-mat/0409590 in a revised form

Quantum interference in the classically forbidden region: a parametric oscillator

We study tunneling between period two states of a parametrically modulated oscillator. The tunneling matrix element is shown to oscillate with the varying frequency of the modulating field. The effect is due to spatial oscillations of the wave function and the related interference in the classically forbidden region. The oscillations emerge already in the ground state of the oscillator Hamiltonian in the rotating frame, which is quartic in the momentum.Comment: Submitted to PR

Exploring the nuclear pion dispersion relation through the anomalous coupling of photon to photon and neutral pion

We investigate the possibility of measuring the pion dispersion relation in nuclear matter through the anomalous coupling in the reaction \gamma - \gamma' \pi_0. It is shown that this reaction permits the study of pionic modes for space-like momenta. If the pion is softened in nuclear matter due to mixing with the delta-hole state, significant strength for this reaction is expected to move into the space-like region. Competing background processes are evaluated, and it is concluded that useful insight can be obtained experimentally, but only through a difficult exclusive measurement