843 research outputs found
Non-integer flux quanta for a spherical superconductor
A thin film superconductor shaped into a spherical shell at whose center lies
the end of long thin solenoid in which there is an integer flux has
been previously extensively studied numerically as a model of a two-dimensional
superconductor. The emergent flux from the solenoid produces a radial B-field
at the superconducting shell and vortices in the superconducting film. We
study here the effects of including a second solenoid (carrying a flux )
which is inserted inside the first solenoid but passing right across the
sphere. This Aharonov-Bohm (AB) flux does not have to be quantized to make the
order parameter single valued. The Ginzburg-Landau (GL) free energy is
minimized at fixed as a function of and it is found that the minimum is
usually achieved when the AB flux is half a flux quantum, but depending on
the minimum may be at or values which are not obvious rational
fractions.Comment: 6 pages, RevTeX, 5 figures include
Phase Transitions in Isolated Vortex Chains
In very anisotropic layered superconductors (e.g. BiSrCaCuO)
a tilted magnetic field can penetrate as two co-existing lattices of vortices
parallel and perpendicular to the layers. At low out-of-plane fields the
perpendicular vortices form a set of isolated vortex chains, which have
recently been observed in detail with scanning Hall-probe measurements. We
present calculations that show a very delicate stability of this isolated-chain
state. As the vortex density increases along the chain there is a first-order
transition to a buckled chain, and then the chain will expel vortices in a
continuous transition to a composite-chain state. At low densities there is an
instability towards clustering, due to a long-range attraction between the
vortices on the chain, and at very low densities it becomes energetically
favorable to form a tilted chain, which may explain the sudden disappearance of
vortices along the chains seen in recent experiments.Comment: 9 pages, 10 figure
A novel filtration system for point of care washing of cellular therapy products
The cell therapy industry would greatly benefit from a simple point of care solution to remove Dimethyl Sulfoxide (DMSO) from small volume thawed cell suspensions prior to injection. We have designed and validated a novel dead-end filtration device, which takes advantage of the higher density of thawed cell suspensions to remove the DMSO and protein impurities from the cell suspension without fouling the filter membrane. The filter was designed to avoid fluid circuits and minimize the surface area that is contacted by the cell suspension, thus reducing cell losses by design. The filtration process was established through optimization of the fluid flow configuration, backflush cycles and filter geometry. Overall, this novel filtration device allows for a 1 mL of thawed cryopreserved cell suspensions, containing 107 cells of a foetal lung fibroblast cell line (MRC-5), to be washed in less than 30 minutes. More than 95% of the DMSO and up to 94% of the Albumin- Fluorescein-Isothiocyanate content can be removed while the viable cell recovery is higher than 80%. We have also demonstrated that this system can be used for bone marrow-derived human mesenchymal stem cells with more than 73% cell recovery and 85% DMSO reduction. This is the first time that a dead end (normal) filtration process has been used to successfully wash high density human cell suspensions. In practice, this novel solid-liquid separation technology fills the need for small volume washing in closed processing systems for cellular therapies
Cosmic cookery : making a stereoscopic 3D animated movie.
This paper describes our experience making a short stereoscopic movie visualizing the development of structure in
the universe during the 13.7 billion years from the Big Bang to the present day. Aimed at a general audience for
the Royal Society's 2005 Summer Science Exhibition, the movie illustrates how the latest cosmological theories
based on dark matter and dark energy are capable of producing structures as complex as spiral galaxies and
allows the viewer to directly compare observations from the real universe with theoretical results. 3D is an
inherent feature of the cosmology data sets and stereoscopic visualization provides a natural way to present the
images to the viewer, in addition to allowing researchers to visualize these vast, complex data sets.
The presentation of the movie used passive, linearly polarized projection onto a 2m wide screen but it was
also required to playback on a Sharp RD3D display and in anaglyph projection at venues without dedicated
stereoscopic display equipment. Additionally lenticular prints were made from key images in the movie. We
discuss the following technical challenges during the stereoscopic production process; 1) Controlling the depth
presentation, 2) Editing the stereoscopic sequences, 3) Generating compressed movies in display speciÂŻc formats.
We conclude that the generation of high quality stereoscopic movie content using desktop tools and equipment
is feasible. This does require careful quality control and manual intervention but we believe these overheads
are worthwhile when presenting inherently 3D data as the result is signiÂŻcantly increased impact and better
understanding of complex 3D scenes
Disorder Induced Transitions in Layered Coulomb Gases and Superconductors
A 3D layered system of charges with logarithmic interaction parallel to the
layers and random dipoles is studied via a novel variational method and an
energy rationale which reproduce the known phase diagram for a single layer.
Increasing interlayer coupling leads to successive transitions in which charge
rods correlated in N>1 neighboring layers are nucleated by weaker disorder. For
layered superconductors in the limit of only magnetic interlayer coupling, the
method predicts and locates a disorder-induced defect-unbinding transition in
the flux lattice. While N=1 charges dominate there, N>1 disorder induced defect
rods are predicted for multi-layer superconductors.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, RevTe
Vortices in a Thin Film Superconductor with a Spherical Geometry
We report results from Monte Carlo simulations of a thin film superconductor
in a spherical geometry within the lowest Landau level approximation. We
observe the absence of a phase transition to a low temperature vortex solid
phase with these boundary conditions; the system remains in the vortex liquid
phase for all accessible temperatures. The correlation lengths are measured for
phase coherence and density modulation. Both lengths display identical
temperature dependences, with an asymptotic scaling form consistent with a
continuous zero temperature transition. This contrasts with the first order
freezing transition which is seen in the alternative quasi-periodic boundary
conditions. The high temperature perturbation theory and the ground states of
the spherical system suggest that the thermodynamic limit of the spherical
geometry is the same as that on the flat plane. We discuss the advantages and
drawbacks of simulations with different geometries, and compare with current
experimental conclusions. The effect of having a large scale inhomogeneity in
the applied field is also considered.Comment: This replacment contains substantial revisions: the new article is
twice as long with new and different results on the thermodynamic limit on
the sphere plus a full discussion on the alternative boundary conditions used
in simulations in the LLL approximation. 19 pages, 12 encapsulated PostScript
figures, 1 JPEG figure, uses RevTeX (with epsf
Absence of a Finite-Temperature Melting Transition in the Classical Two-Dimensional One-Component Plasma
Vortices in thin-film superconductors are often modelled as a system of
particles interacting via a repulsive logarithmic potential. Arguments are
presented to show that the hypothetical (Abrikosov) crystalline state for such
particles is unstable at any finite temperature against proliferation of
screened disclinations. The correlation length of crystalline order is
predicted to grow as as the temperature is reduced to zero, in
excellent agreement with our simulations of this two-dimensional system.Comment: 3 figure
Vortex Collisions: Crossing or Recombination?
We investigate the collision of two vortex lines moving with viscous dynamics
and driven towards each other by an applied current. Using London theory in the
approach phase we observe a non-trivial vortex conformation producing
anti-parallel segments; their attractive interaction triggers a violent
collision. The collision region is analyzed using the time-dependent
Ginzburg-Landau equation. While we find vortices will always recombine through
exchange of segments, a crossing channel appears naturally through a double
collision process.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure
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