Spin-transfer mechanism of ferromagnetism in polymerized fullerenes: AbinitioAb initio calculations

A mechanism of the high temperature ferromagnetism in polymerized fullerenes is suggested. It is assumed that some of the C$_{60}$ molecules in the crystal become magnetically active due to spin and charge transfer from the paramagnetic impurities (atoms or groups), such as hydrogen, fluorine, hydroxyl group OH, amino group NH$_2$, or methyl group CH$_3$, dispersed in the fullerene matrix. The exchange interaction between the spins localized on the magnetically active fullerenes is evaluated using \textit{ab initio} calculations. The nearest neighbour and next nearest neighbour exchange interaction is found to be in the range $0.1\div 0.3$ eV, that is, high enough to account for the room temperature ferromagnetism.Comment: typos corrected, 8 pages, 3 figures, LaTe

Gradients of metallicity and age of stars in the dwarf spheroidal galaxies KKs3 and ESO269-66

We compare the properties of the stellar populations of the globular clusters and field stars in two dwarf spheroidal galaxies (dSphs): ESO269-66, a near neighbor of the giant S0 galaxy NGC 5128, and KKs3, one of the few extremely isolated dSphs within 10 Mpc. The histories of star formation in these galaxies are known from previous work on deep stellar photometry using images from the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). The age and metal content for the nuclear globular clusters in KKs3 and ESO269-66 are known from literature spectroscopic studies: T=12.6 billion years, [Fe/H]=-1.5 and -1.55 dex. We use the Sersic function to construct and analyze the profiles of the surface density of the stars with high and low metallicities (red and blue) in KKs3 and ESO269-66, and show that (1) the profiles of the density of red stars are steeper than those of blue stars, which is indicative of gradients of metallicity and age in the galaxies, and (2) the globular clusters in KKs3 and ESO269-66 contain roughly 4 and 40%, respectively, of all the old stars in the galaxies with metallicities [Fe/H]~-1.5 to -1.6 dex and ages of 12-14 billion years. The globular clusters are, therefore, relicts of the first, most powerful bursts of star formation in the central regions of these objects. It is probable that, because of its isolation, KKs3 has lost a smaller fraction of old low-metallicity stars than ESO269-66.Comment: 7 pages, 2 figures, 3 table

Associations of Dwarf Galaxies

Hubble Space Telescope Advanced Cameras for Surveys has been used to determine accurate distances for 20 galaxies from measurements of the luminosity of the brightest red giant branch stars. Five associations of dwarf galaxies that had originally been identified based on strong correlations on the plane of the sky and in velocity are shown to be equally well correlated in distance. Two more associations with similar properties have been discovered. Another association is identified that is suggested to be unbound through tidal disruption. The associations have the spatial and kinematic properties expected of bound structures with 1 - 10 x 10^11 solar mass. However, these entities have little light with the consequence that mass-to-light ratios are in the range 100 - 1000 in solar units. Within a well surveyed volume extending to 3 Mpc, all but one known galaxy lies within one of the groups or associations that have been identified.Comment: 50 pages, 2 tables, 15 encapsulated figures, 1 (3 part) jpg figure. Submitted to Astronomical Journa

Observation of Magnetic Edge State and Dangling Bond State on Nanographene in Activated Carbon Fibers

The electronic structure of nanographene in pristine and fluorinated activated carbon fibers (ACFs) have been investigated with near-edge x-ray absorption fine structure (NEXAFS) and compared with magnetic properties we reported on previously. In pristine ACFs in which magnetic properties are governed by non-bonding edge states of the \pi-electron, a pre-peak assigned to the edge state was observed below the conduction electron {\pi}* peak close to the Fermi level in NEXAFS. Via the fluorination of the ACFs, an extra peak, which was assigned to the \sigma-dangling bond state, was observed between the pre-peak of the edge state and the {\pi}* peak in the NEXAFS profile. The intensities of the extra peak correlate closely with the spin concentration created upon fluorination. The combination of the NEXAFS and magnetic measurement results confirms the coexistence of the magnetic edge states of \pi-electrons and dangling bond states of \sigma-electrons on fluorinated nanographene sheets.Comment: 4 figures, to appear in Phys. Rev.

Tidal dwarfs in the M81 group: the second generation?

We derive quantitative star formation histories of the four suspected tidal dwarf galaxies in the M81 group, HolmbergIX, BK3N, Arp-loop (A0952+69), and Garland, using Hubble Space Telescope/Wide Field Planetary Camera2 images in F606W and F814W obtained as part of a Snapshot survey of dwarf galaxies in the Local Universe. We consider the spatial distribution and ages of resolved stellar populations in these dwarf irregular galaxies. We use synthetic color-magnitude diagrams to derive the ages of the major star formation episodes, star formation rates, and approximate metallicity ranges. All the galaxies show evidence of continuous star formation between about 20 and 200 Myr ago with star formation rates in the range 7.5*10^(-3)- 7.6*10^(-4) M(sun)/yr. The metallicity of the detected stars spans a wide range, and have lower than solar abundance. A possible scenario is that all four dwarf galaxies were formed from material in the metal-poor outer part of the giant spiral galaxy M81 after the tidal interaction between M81, M82, and NGC3077 about 200 Myr ago. While we do not directly detect pronounced old stellar populations, the photometric limits of our data are such that the presence of such a population is not entirely ruled out

Surface photometry of new nearby dwarf galaxies

We present CCD surface photometry of 16 nearby dwarf galaxies, many of which were only recently discovered. Our sample comprises both isolated galaxies and galaxies that are members of nearby galaxy groups. The observations were obtained in the Johnson B and V bands (and in some cases in Kron-Cousins I). We derive surface brightness profiles, total magnitudes, and integrated colors. For the 11 galaxies in our sample with distance estimates the absolute B magnitudes lie in the range of -10>Mb>-13. The central surface brightness ranges from 22.5 to 27.0 mag/sq.arcsec. Most of the dwarf galaxies show exponential light profiles with or without a central light depression. Integrated radial color gradients, where present, appear to indicate a more centrally concentrated younger population and a more extended older population.Comment: accepted by A&

Kramers-Kronig constrained variational analysis of optical spectra

A universal method of extraction of the complex dielectric function $\epsilon(\omega)=\epsilon_{1}(\omega)+i\epsilon_{2}(\omega)$ from experimentally accessible optical quantities is developed. The central idea is that $\epsilon_{2}(\omega)$ is parameterized independently at each node of a properly chosen anchor frequency mesh, while $\epsilon_{1}(\omega)$ is dynamically coupled to $\epsilon_{2}(\omega)$ by the Kramers-Kronig (KK) transformation. This approach can be regarded as a limiting case of the multi-oscillator fitting of spectra, when the number of oscillators is of the order of the number of experimental points. In the case of the normal-incidence reflectivity from a semi-infinite isotropic sample the new method gives essentially the same result as the conventional KK transformation of reflectivity. In contrast to the conventional approaches, the proposed technique is applicable, without readaptation, to virtually all types of linear-response optical measurements, or arbitrary combinations of measurements, such as reflectivity, transmission, ellipsometry {\it etc.}, done on different types of samples, including thin films and anisotropic crystals.Comment: 10 pages, 7 figure