10,048 research outputs found
Laser induced magnetization switching in films with perpendicular anisotropy: a comparison between measurements and a multi-macrospin model
Thermally-assisted ultra-fast magnetization reversal in a DC magnetic field
for magnetic multilayer thin films with perpendicular anisotropy has been
investigated in the time domain using femtosecond laser heating. The experiment
is set-up as an optically pumped stroboscopic Time Resolved Magneto-Optical
Kerr Effect magnetometer. It is observed that a modest laser fluence of about
0.3 mJ/square-cm induces switching of the magnetization in an applied field
much less than the DC coercivity (0.8 T) on the sub-nanosecond time-scale. This
switching was thermally-assisted by the energy from the femtosecond pump-pulse.
The experimental results are compared with a model based on the Landau
Lifschitz Bloch equation. The comparison supports a description of the reversal
process as an ultra-fast demagnetization and partial recovery followed by
slower thermally activated switching due to the spin system remaining at an
elevated temperature after the heating pulse.Comment: 8 pages, 10 figures, to be submitted to PR
Invariant expectations and vanishing of bounded cohomology for exact groups
We study exactness of groups and establish a characterization of exact groups
in terms of the existence of a continuous linear operator, called an invariant
expectation, whose properties make it a weak counterpart of an invariant mean
on a group. We apply this operator to show that exactness of a finitely
generated group implies the vanishing of the bounded cohomology of with
coefficients in a new class of modules, which are defined using the Hopf
algebra structure of .Comment: Final version, to appear in the Journal of Topology and Analysi
Paradoxical diffusion: Discriminating between normal and anomalous random walks
Commonly, normal diffusive behavior is characterized by a linear dependence
of the second central moment on time, , while anomalous
behavior is expected to show a different time dependence, with for
superdiffusive motions. Here we demonstrate that this kind of qualification, if
applied straightforwardly, may be misleading: There are anomalous transport
motions revealing perfectly "normal" diffusive character (), yet being non-Markov and non-Gaussian in nature. We use recently developed
framework \cite[Phys. Rev. E \textbf{75}, 056702 (2007)]{magdziarz2007b} of
Monte Carlo simulations which incorporates anomalous diffusion statistics in
time and space and creates trajectories of such an extended random walk. For
special choice of stability indices describing statistics of waiting times and
jump lengths, the ensemble analysis of paradoxical diffusion is shown to hide
temporal memory effects which can be properly detected only by examination of
formal criteria of Markovianity (fulfillment of the Chapman-Kolmogorov
equation).Comment: 8 pages, 7 figure
Detection of sodium in the atmosphere of WASP-69b
Transit spectroscopy is one of the most commonly used methods to characterize
exoplanets atmospheres. From the ground, these observations are very
challenging due to the terrestrial atmosphere and its intrinsic variations, but
high-spectral resolution observations overcome this difficulty by resolving the
spectral lines and taking advantage of the different Doppler velocities of the
Earth, the host star and the exoplanet. We analyze the transmission spectrum
around the Na I doublet at 589 nm of the exoplanet WASP-69b, a hot Jupiter
orbiting a K-type star with a period of 3.868 days, and compare the analysis to
that of the well-know hot Jupiter HD 189733b. We also present the analysis of
the Rossiter-McLaughlin effect for WASP-69b. Two transits of WASP-69b were
observed with the HARPS-North spectrograph (R = 115 000) at the TNG telescope.
We perform a telluric contamination subtraction based on the comparison between
the observed spectra and a telluric water model. Then, the common steps of the
differential spectroscopy are followed to extract the transmission spectrum.
The method is tested with archival transit data of the extensively studied
exoplanet HD 189733b, obtained with the HARPS-South spectrograph at ESO 3.6m
telescope, and then applied to WASP-69b data. For HD 189733b, we spectrally
resolve the Na I doublet and measure line contrasts of (D2) and
(D1), and FWHMs of {\AA} (D2) and
{\AA} (D1), in agreement with previously published results. A net
blueshift of {\AA} is measured. For WASP-69b only the contrast of
the D2 line is measured (). Even if this corresponds to a
detection at the -level of excess absorption of in a
passband of {\AA}, more transits are needed to fully characterize the
lines profiles and retrieve accurate atmospheric properties.Comment: 15 pages, 14 figure
The GTC exoplanet transit spectroscopy survey. VII. An optical transmission spectrum of WASP-48b
We obtained long-slit optical spectroscopy of one transit of WASP-48b with
the Optical System for Imaging and low-Intermediate-Resolution Integrated
Spectroscopy (OSIRIS) spectrograph at the 10.4 m Gran Telescopio Canarias
(GTC). We integrated the spectrum of WASP-48 and one reference star in several
channels with different wavelength ranges, creating numerous color light curves
of the transit. We fit analytic transit curves to the data taking into account
the systematic effects present in the time series in an effort to measure the
change of the planet-to-star radius ratio () across wavelength. After
removing the transit model and systematic trends to the curves we reached
precisions between 261 ppm and 455-755 ppm for the white and spectroscopic
light curves, respectively. We obtained uncertainty values between
and for all the curves analyzed in
this work. The measured transit depth for the curves made by integrating the
wavelength range between 530 nm and 905 nm is in agreement with previous
studies. We report a relatively flat transmission spectrum for WASP-48b with no
statistical significant detection of atmospheric species, although the
theoretical models that fit the data more closely include of TiO and VO.Comment: 8 pages, 8 figures. Accepted for publication in Astronomy and
Astrophysic
Universality class of the depinning transition in the two-dimensional Ising model with quenched disorder
With Monte Carlo methods, we investigate the universality class of the
depinning transition in the two-dimensional Ising model with quenched random
fields. Based on the short-time dynamic approach, we accurately determine the
depinning transition field and both static and dynamic critical exponents. The
critical exponents vary significantly with the form and strength of the random
fields, but exhibit independence on the updating schemes of the Monte Carlo
algorithm. From the roughness exponents and , one
may judge that the depinning transition of the random-field Ising model belongs
to the new dynamic universality class with
and . The crossover from the second-order phase transition
to the first-order one is observed for the uniform distribution of the random
fields, but it is not present for the Gaussian distribution.Comment: 16 pages, 16 figures, 3 table
Gaussian approximations for stochastic systems with delay: chemical Langevin equation and application to a Brusselator system
We present a heuristic derivation of Gaussian approximations for stochastic
chemical reaction systems with distributed delay. In particular we derive the
corresponding chemical Langevin equation. Due to the non-Markovian character of
the underlying dynamics these equations are integro-differential equations, and
the noise in the Gaussian approximation is coloured. Following on from the
chemical Langevin equation a further reduction leads to the linear-noise
approximation. We apply the formalism to a delay variant of the celebrated
Brusselator model, and show how it can be used to characterise noise-driven
quasi-cycles, as well as noise-triggered spiking. We find surprisingly
intricate dependence of the typical frequency of quasi-cycles on the delay
period.Comment: 14 pages, 9 figure
Lord of the Rings: A Kinematic Distance to Circinus X-1 from a Giant X-Ray Light Echo
Circinus X-1 exhibited a bright X-ray flare in late 2013. Follow-up
observations with Chandra and XMM-Newton from 40 to 80 days after the flare
reveal a bright X-ray light echo in the form of four well-defined rings with
radii from 5 to 13 arcminutes, growing in radius with time. The large fluence
of the flare and the large column density of interstellar dust towards Circinus
X-1 make this the largest and brightest set of rings from an X-ray light echo
observed to date. By deconvolving the radial intensity profile of the echo with
the MAXI X-ray lightcurve of the flare we reconstruct the dust distribution
towards Circinus X-1 into four distinct dust concentrations. By comparing the
peak in scattering intensity with the peak intensity in CO maps of molecular
clouds from the Mopra Southern Galactic Plane CO Survey we identify the two
innermost rings with clouds at radial velocity ~ -74 km/s and ~ -81 km/s,
respectively. We identify a prominent band of foreground photoelectric
absorption with a lane of CO gas at ~ -32 km/s. From the association of the
rings with individual CO clouds we determine the kinematic distance to Circinus
X-1 to be kpc. This distance rules out
earlier claims of a distance around 4 kpc, implies that Circinus X-1 is a
frequent super-Eddington source, and places a lower limit of on the Lorentz factor and an upper limit of on the jet viewing angle.Comment: 20 pages, 21 figures, Astrophysical Journal, in prin
A feature-rich transmission spectrum for WASP-127b
WASP-127b is one of the lowest density planets discovered to date. With a
sub-Saturn mass () and super-Jupiter radius
(), it orbits a bright G5 star, which is about to
leave the main-sequence. We aim to explore WASP-127b's atmosphere in order to
retrieve its main atmospheric components, and to find hints for its intriguing
inflation and evolutionary history. We used the ALFOSC spectrograph at the NOT
telescope to observe a low resolution (, seeing limited) long-slit
spectroscopic time series during a planetary transit, and present here the
first transmission spectrum for WASP-127b. We find the presence of a strong
Rayleigh slope at blue wavelengths and a hint of Na absorption, although the
quality of the data does not allow us to claim a detection. At redder
wavelengths the absorption features of TiO and VO are the best explanation to
fit the data. Although higher signal-to-noise ratio observations are needed to
conclusively confirm the absorption features, WASP-127b seems to posses a
cloud-free atmosphere and is one of the best targets to perform further
characterization studies in the near future.Comment: Accepted for Publication A&A Letters, May 22nd, 201
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