Cooperative Jahn-Teller Distortion in PrO2

We report neutron diffraction data on single crystal PrO2 which reveal a cooperative Jahn-Teller distortion at TD = 120 +/- 2 K. Below this temperature an internal distortion of the oxygen sublattice causes the unit cell of the crystallographic structure to become doubled along one crystal axis. We discuss several possible models for this structure. The antiferromagnetic structure below TN = 13.5 K is found to consist of two components, one of which shares the same doubled unit cell as the distorted crystallographic structure. We also present measurements of the magnetic susceptibility, the specific heat capacity and the electrical conductivity of PrO2. The susceptibility data show an anomaly at a temperature close to TD. From the specific heat capacity data we deduce that the ground state is doubly degenerate, consistent with a distortion of the cubic local symmetry. We discuss possible mechanisms for this. The conductivity shows an activated behaviour with an activation energy Ea = 0.262 +/- 0.003 eV.Comment: 12 pages, 14 figures, 2 tables. Additional suggested structure in v

Measurement of the spatial extent of inverse proximity in a Py/Nb/Py superconducting trilayer using low-energy muon-spin rotation

The authors acknowledge the financial support of the EPSRC (Grant No. EP/J01060X).Muon-spin rotation has been used to observe directly the spatial variation of the magnetic flux density near the ferromagnetic-superconducting interface in a permalloy-niobium trilayer. Above the superconducting transition temperature Tc the profile of the induced magnetic flux density within the niobium layer has been determined. Below Tc there is a significant reduction of the induced flux density, predominantly near the ferromagnetic-superconducting interfaces. We are uniquely able to determine the magnitude and spatial variation of this reduction in induced magnetization due to the presence of the Cooper pairs, yielding the magnitude and length scale associated with this phenomenon. Both are inconsistent with a simple Meissner screening and indicate the existence of another mechanism, the influence of which is localized within the vicinity of the ferromagnetic interface.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

The connection between the radio jet and the gamma-ray emission in the radio galaxy 3C 120

We present the analysis of the radio jet evolution of the radio galaxy 3C 120 during a period of prolonged gamma-ray activity detected by the Fermi satellite between December 2012 and October 2014. We find a clear connection between the gamma-ray and radio emission, such that every period of gamma-ray activity is accompanied by the flaring of the mm-VLBI core and subsequent ejection of a new superluminal component. However, not all ejections of components are associated with gamma-ray events detectable by Fermi. Clear gamma-ray detections are obtained only when components are moving in a direction closer to our line of sight.This suggests that the observed gamma-ray emission depends not only on the interaction of moving components with the mm-VLBI core, but also on their orientation with respect to the observer. Timing of the gamma-ray detections and ejection of superluminal components locate the gamma-ray production to within almost 0.13 pc from the mm-VLBI core, which was previously estimated to lie about 0.24 pc from the central black hole. This corresponds to about twice the estimated extension of the broad line region, limiting the external photon field and therefore suggesting synchrotron self Compton as the most probable mechanism for the production of the gamma-ray emission. Alternatively, the interaction of components with the jet sheath can provide the necessary photon field to produced the observed gamma-rays by Compton scattering.Comment: Already accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journa

Geological aspects of Banda Sea ecosystems and how they shape the oceanographical profile

The Banda Sea is a collage of young oceanic basins and fragmented Australian continental crust located at the heart of the Australia–SE Asia collision zone where Australian and Asian biogeographic regions converge. The formation of the sea was governed by the southeastward rollback of the Banda Slab since c. 16 Ma, which in its wake opened new oceanic basins and extended and fragmented Australian crust. These Australian crustal fragments are today either stranded within the Banda Sea where they form the prominent submarine 'Banda Ridges', or now reside as thrust-sheets on the NW Australian shelf after being transported all the way to the southern Banda Arc. The deepest part of the Banda Sea, the 7.2 km Weber Deep, was formed by extreme lithospheric extension that occured in the latter stages of Banda Slab rollback. This extension was accommodated by the vast low-angle 'Banda Detachment', which operated above the subducted fringes of the Australian continental margin

Avoiding spurious breaks in binned luminosity functions

We show that using either the method of Page & Carrera or the well-known $1/V_a$ method to construct the binned luminosity function (LF) of a flux limited sample of Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) can produce an artificial flattening (or steepening in the case of negative evolution) of the binned LF for bins intersected by the flux cutoff of the sample. This effect is more pronounced for samples with steep and strongly evolving parent LFs but is still present even for non-evolving LFs. As a result of this distortion of the true LF, fitting a model LF to binned data may lead to errors in the estimation of the parameters and may even prompt the erroneous use of broken power law functions. We compute the expected positions of apparent breaks in the binned LF. We show that these spurious breaks in the binned LFs can be avoided if the binning is done in the flux--redshift plane instead of the typically used luminosity--redshift plane. Binning in the flux--redshift plane can be used in conjunction with the binning in the luminosity--redshift plane to test for real breaks in the binned LFs and to identify the features that are the result of binning biases. We illustrate this effect for most typical forms of luminosity dependence and redshift evolution and show how the proposed method helps address this problem. We also apply this method to the MOJAVE AGN sample and show that it eliminates an apparent break in the binned LF.Comment: 7 pages and 7 figures. Accepted for publication in Ap

Triple Products and Yang-Baxter Equation (II): Orthogonal and Symplectic Ternary Systems

We generalize the result of the preceeding paper and solve the Yang-Baxter equation in terms of triple systems called orthogonal and symplectic ternary systems. In this way, we found several other new solutions.Comment: 38 page

Phonon Dispersion Relations in PrBa2Cu3O6+x (x ~ 0.2)

We report measurements of the phonon dispersion relations in non-superconducting, oxygen-deficient PrBa2Cu3O6+x (x ~ 0.2) by inelastic neutron scattering. The data are compared with a model of the lattice dynamics based on a common interaction potential. Good agreement is achieved for all but two phonon branches, which are significantly softer than predicted. These modes are found to arise predominantly from motion of the oxygen ions in the CuO2 planes. Analogous modes in YBa2Cu3O6 are well described by the common interaction potential model.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures. Minor changes following referees' comment