The Anomalous Hall effect in re-entrant AuFe alloys and the real space Berry phase

The Hall effect has been studied in a series of AuFe samples in the re-entrant concentration range, as well as in the spin glass range. The data demonstrate that the degree of canting of the local spins strongly modifies the anomalous Hall effect, in agreement with theoretical predictions associating canting, chirality and a real space Berry phase. The canonical parametrization of the Hall signal for magnetic conductors becomes inappropriate when local spins are canted.Comment: 4 pages, 1 eps figur

Density perturbations in an Universe dominated by the Chaplygin gas

We study the fate of density perturbations in an Universe dominate by the Chaplygin gas, which exhibit negative pressure. We show that it is possible to obtain the value for the density contrast observed in large scale structure of the Universe by fixing a free parameter in the equation of state of this gas. The negative character of pressure must be significant only very recently.Comment: Latex file, 5 page

A generic test for the similarity of spatial data

Two spatial data sets are considered to be similar if they originate from the same stochastic process in terms of their spatial structure. Many tests have been developed over recent years to test the similarity of certain types of spatial data, such as spatial point patterns, geostatistical data and images. This research proposes a generic spatial similarity test able to handle various types of spatial data, for example images (modelled spatially), point patterns, marked point patterns, geostatistical data and lattice patterns. A simulation study is done in order to test the method for each spatial data set. After the simulation study, it was concluded that the proposed spatial similarity test is not sensitive to the user-defined resolution of the pixel image representation. From the simulation study, the proposed spatial similarity test performs well on lattice data, some of the unmarked point patterns and the marked point patterns with discrete marks. We illustrate this test on property prices in the City of Cape Town and the City of Johannesburg, South Africa

Power spectrum in the Chaplygin gas model: tachyonic, fluid and scalar field representations

The Chaplygin gas model, characterized by an equation of state of the type $p = - \frac{A}{\rho}$ emerges naturally from the Nambu-Goto action of string theory. This fluid representation can be recast under the form of a tachyonic field given by a Born-Infeld type Lagrangian. At the same time, the Chaplygin gas equation of state can be obtained from a self-interacting scalar field. We show that, from the point of view of the supernova type Ia data, the three representations (fluid, tachyonic, scalar field) lead to the same results. However, concerning the matter power spectra, while the fluid and tachyonic descriptions lead to exactly the same results, the self-interacting scalar field representation implies different statistical estimations for the parameters. In particular, the estimation for the dark matter density parameter in the fluid representation favors a universe dominated almost completely by dark matter, while in the self-interacting scalar field representation the prediction is very closed to that obtained in the $\Lambda$CDM model.Comment: Latex file, 10 pages, 18 figures in EPS forma

About Starobinsky inflation

It is believed that soon after the Planck era, space time should have a semi-classical nature. According to this, the escape from General Relativity theory is unavoidable. Two geometric counter-terms are needed to regularize the divergences which come from the expected value. These counter-terms are responsible for a higher derivative metric gravitation. Starobinsky idea was that these higher derivatives could mimic a cosmological constant. In this work it is considered numerical solutions for general Bianchi I anisotropic space-times in this higher derivative theory. The approach is ``experimental'' in the sense that there is no attempt to an analytical investigation of the results. It is shown that for zero cosmological constant $\Lambda=0$, there are sets of initial conditions which form basins of attraction that asymptote Minkowski space. The complement of this set of initial conditions form basins which are attracted to some singular solutions. It is also shown, for a cosmological constant $\Lambda> 0$ that there are basins of attraction to a specific de Sitter solution. This result is consistent with Starobinsky's initial idea. The complement of this set also forms basins that are attracted to some type of singular solution. Because the singularity is characterized by curvature scalars, it must be stressed that the basin structure obtained is a topological invariant, i.e., coordinate independent.Comment: Version accepted for publication in PRD. More references added, a few modifications and minor correction

Quantifying and Optimizing Photocurrent via Optical Modeling of Gold Nanostar-, Nanorod-, and Dimer-decorated MoS2 and MoTe2

Finite element simulations through COMSOL Multiphysics were used to optically model systems composed of Mo dichalcogenide lay- ers (MoTe2 and MoS2) and Au nanoparticles (spherical dimers, nanorods, and nanostars) to understand how their fundamental material properties as well as their interactions affect the photocurrent response. The absorption cross sections of the various Au nanoparticles linearly increase with respect to their increasing dimensions, hence being ideal tunable systems for the enhancement of the electric field in the dichalcogenide layers under visible and near infrared. The photocurrent through the MoTe2 and MoS2 substrates was enhanced by the addition of Au nanoparticles when the plasmonic response was localized in the area of the particle in contact with the substrate. Based on these findings, the use of Au nanoparticles can greatly improve the unique photocurrent properties of Mo dichalcogenides; how- ever, nanoparticle orientation and size must be considered to tune the enhancement at the specific wavelengths. This computational work provides useful design rules for the use of plasmonic nanomaterials in photocatalytic and photocurrent enhancement of transition metal dichalcogenides