2,749 research outputs found
Neutron Irradiation of Mg11B2 : From the Enhancement to the Suppression of Superconducting Properties
In this letter we present the effect of neutron irradiation up to fluences of
3.9 1019 n/cm2 on the superconducting properties of MgB2. In order to obtain a
disorder structure homogeneously distributed, the experiment was carried out on
bulk samples prepared with the 11B isotope. Up to fluences of 1018 n/cm2 the
critical temperature is slightly diminished (36 K) and the superconducting
properties are significantly improved; the upper critical field is increased
from 13.5 T to 20.3 T at 12 K and the irreversibility field is doubled at 5 K.
For larger neutron fluences the critical temperature is suppressed down to 12 K
and the superconducting properties come out strongly degraded.Comment: 13 pages, 4 figures. Submitted to Appl.Phys.Let
Enhanced flux pinning in neutron irradiated MgB2
We study the effect of neutron irradiation on the critical current density Jc
of isotopically pure polycrystalline Mg11B2 samples. For fluences in the range
1017-1018 cm-2, Jc is enhanced and its dependence on magnetic field is
significantly improved: we demonstrate that, in this regime, point-like pinning
centers are effectively introduced in the system proportionally to the neutron
fluence. Instead, for larger fluences, a strong suppression of the critical
temperature accompanied by a decrease of both the upper critical field Bc2 and
Jc is found.Comment: 13 pages, 3 igure
Axion search with a quantum-limited ferromagnetic haloscope
A ferromagnetic axion haloscope searches for Dark Matter in the form of
axions by exploiting their interaction with electronic spins. It is composed of
an axion-to-electromagnetic field transducer coupled to a sensitive rf
detector. The former is a photon-magnon hybrid system, and the latter is based
on a quantum-limited Josephson parametric amplifier. The hybrid system consists
of ten 2.1 mm diameter YIG spheres coupled to a single microwave cavity mode by
means of a static magnetic field. Our setup is the most sensitive rf
spin-magnetometer ever realized. The minimum detectable field is
T with 9 h integration time, corresponding to a limit on
the axion-electron coupling constant at 95% CL.
The scientific run of our haloscope resulted in the best limit on DM-axions to
electron coupling constant in a frequency span of about 120 MHz, corresponding
to the axion mass range -eV. This is also the first apparatus
to perform an axion mass scanning by changing the static magnetic field.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure
Searching for galactic axions through magnetized media: QUAX status report
The current status of the QUAX R\&D program is presented. QUAX is a
feasibility study for a detection of axion as dark matter based on the coupling
to the electrons. The relevant signal is a magnetization change of a magnetic
material placed inside a resonant microwave cavity and polarized with a static
magnetic field.Comment: Contributed to the 13th Patras Workshop on Axions, WIMPs and WISPs,
Thessaloniki, May 15 to 19, 201
Quantum Imaging
We provide a brief overview of the newly born field of quantum imaging, and
discuss some concepts that lie at the root of this field.Comment: 8 pages, 19 figure
The Future of Neutrino Mass Measurements: Terrestrial, Astrophysical, and Cosmological Measurements in the Next Decade. Highlights of the NuMass 2013 Workshop. Milano, Italy, February 4 - 7, 2013
The third Workshop of the NuMass series ("The Future of Neutrino Mass
Measurements: Terrestrial, Astrophysical, and Cosmological Measurements in the
Next Decade: NuMass 2013") was held at Dipartimento di Fisica "G. Occhialini,
University of Milano-Bicocca in Milano, Italy, on 4-7 February 2013. The goal
of this international workshop was to review the status and future of direct
and indirect neutrino mass measurements in the laboratory as well as from
astrophysical and cosmological observations. This paper collects most of the
contributions presented during the Workshop
Dark Energy Survey Year 3 results: Curved-sky weak lensing mass map reconstruction
We present reconstructed convergence maps, mass maps, from the Dark Energy Survey (DES) third year (Y3) weak gravitational lensing data set. The mass maps are weighted projections of the density field (primarily dark matter) in the foreground of the observed galaxies. We use four reconstruction methods, each is a maximum a posteriori estimate with a different model for the prior probability of the map: Kaiser-Squires, null B-mode prior, Gaussian prior, and a sparsity prior. All methods are implemented on the celestial sphere to accommodate the large sky coverage of the DES Y3 data. We compare the methods using realistic Lambda CDM simulations with mock data that are closely matched to the DES Y3 data. We quantify the performance of the methods at the map level and then apply the reconstruction methods to the DES Y3 data, performing tests for systematic error effects. The maps are compared with optical foreground cosmic-web structures and are used to evaluate the lensing signal from cosmic-void profiles. The recovered dark matter map covers the largest sky fraction of any galaxy weak lensing map to date
Systematic study of disorder induced by neutron irradiation in MgB2 thin films
The effects of neutron irradiation on normal state and superconducting
properties of epitaxial magnesium diboride thin films are studied up to
fluences of 1020 cm-2. All the properties of the films change systematically
upon irradiation. Critical temperature is suppressed and, at the highest
fluence, no superconducting transition is observed down to 1.8 K. Residual
resistivity progressively increases from 1 to 190 microohmcm; c axis expands
and then saturates at the highest damage level. We discuss the mechanism of
damage through the comparison with other damage procedures. The normal state
magnetoresistivity of selected samples measured up to high fields (28 and 45T)
allows to determine unambiguously the scattering rates in each band; the
crossover between the clean and dirty limit in each sample can be monitored.
This set of samples, with controlled amount of disorder, is suitable to study
the puzzling problem of critical field in magnesium diboride thin films. The
measured critical field values are extremely high (of the order of 50T in the
parallel direction at low fluences) and turns out to be rather independent on
the experimental resistivity, at least at low fluences. A simple model to
explain this phenomenology is presented.Comment: 29 pages, 6 figures, accepted for publication on J. of Applied
Physic
Independent Eigenstates of Angular Momentum in a Quantum N-body System
The global rotational degrees of freedom in the Schr\"{o}dinger equation for
an -body system are completely separated from the internal ones. After
removing the motion of center of mass, we find a complete set of
independent base functions with the angular momentum . These are
homogeneous polynomials in the components of the coordinate vectors and the
solutions of the Laplace equation, where the Euler angles do not appear
explicitly. Any function with given angular momentum and given parity in the
system can be expanded with respect to the base functions, where the
coefficients are the functions of the internal variables. With the right choice
of the base functions and the internal variables, we explicitly establish the
equations for those functions. Only (3N-6) internal variables are involved both
in the functions and in the equations. The permutation symmetry of the wave
functions for identical particles is discussed.Comment: 24 pages, no figure, one Table, RevTex, Will be published in Phys.
Rev. A 64, 0421xx (Oct. 2001
Isoprene and monoterpene fluxes from central amazonian rainforest inferred from tower-based and airborne measurements, and implications on the atmospheric chemistry and the local carbon budget
We estimated the isoprene and monoterpene source strengths of a pristine tropical forest north of Manaus in the central Amazon Basin using three different micrometeorological flux measurement approaches. During the early dry season campaign of the Cooperative LBA Airborne Regional Experiment (LBA-CLAIRE-2001), a tower-based surface layer gradient (SLG) technique was applied simultaneously with a relaxed eddy accumulation (REA) system. Airborne measurements of vertical profiles within and above the convective boundary layer (CBL) were used to estimate fluxes on a landscape scale by application of the mixed layer gradient (MLG) technique. The mean daytime fluxes of organic carbon measured by REA were 2.1 mg C m^−2 h^−1 for isoprene, 0.20 mg C m^−2 h^−1 for α-pinene, and 0.39 mg C m^−2 h^−1 for the sum of monoterpenes. These values are in reasonable agreement with fluxes determined with the SLG approach, which exhibited a higher scatter, as expected for the complex terrain investigated. The observed VOC fluxes are in good agreement with simulations using a single-column chemistry and climate model (SCM).\ud
\ud
In contrast, the model-derived mixing ratios of VOCs were by far higher than observed, indicating that chemical processes may not be adequately represented in the model. The observed vertical gradients of isoprene and its primary degradation products methyl vinyl ketone (MVK) and methacrolein (MACR) suggest that the oxidation capacity in the tropical CBL is much higher than previously assumed. A simple chemical kinetics model was used to infer OH radical concentrations from the vertical gradients of (MVK+MACR)/isoprene. The estimated range of OH concentrations during the daytime was 3–8×10^6 molecules cm^−3, i.e., an order of magnitude higher than is estimated for the tropical CBL by current state-of-the-art atmospheric chemistry and transport models. The remarkably high OH concentrations were also supported by results of a simple budget analysis, based on the flux-to-lifetime relationship of isoprene within the CBL. Furthermore, VOC fluxes determined with the airborne MLG approach were only in reasonable agreement with those of the tower-based REA and SLG approaches after correction for chemical decay by OH radicals, applying a best estimate OH concentration of 5.5×10^6 molecules cm^−3. The SCM model calculations support relatively high OH concentration estimates after specifically being constrained by the mixing ratios of chemical constituents observed during the campaign.\ud
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The relevance of the VOC fluxes for the local carbon budget of the tropical rainforest site during the measurements campaign was assessed by comparison with the concurrent CO2 fluxes, estimated by three different methods (eddy correlation, Lagrangian dispersion, and mass budget approach). Depending on the CO2 flux estimate, 1–6% or more of the carbon gained by net ecosystem productivity appeared to be re-emitted through VOC emissions
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