9,038 research outputs found
Control of dissipation in superconducting films by magnetic stray fields
Hybrid superconducting/magnetic nanostructures on Si substrates have been
built with identical physical dimensions but different magnetic configurations.
By constructing arrays based on Co-dots with in-plane, out-of-plane, and vortex
state magnetic configurations, the stray fields are systematically tuned.
Dissipation in the mixed state of superconductors can be decreased (increased)
by several orders of magnitude by decreasing (increasing) the stray magnetic
fields. Furthermore, ordering of the stray fields over the entire array helps
to suppress dissipation and enhance commensurability effects increasing the
number of dissipation minima.Comment: 16 pages including 4 figures; accepted in Applied Physics Letter
Exact solutions of an elliptic Calogero--Sutherland model
A model describing N particles on a line interacting pairwise via an elliptic
function potential in the presence of an external field is partially solved in
the quantum case in a totally algebraic way. As an example, the ground state
and the lowest excitations are calculated explicitly for N=2.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, typeset with RevTeX 4b3 and AMS-LaTe
Li-rich RGB stars in the Galactic Bulge
We present Lithium abundance determination for a sample of K giant stars in
the galactic bulge. The stars presented here are the only 13 stars with
detectable Lithium line (6767.18 A) among ~400 stars for which we have spectra
in this wavelength range, half of them in Baade's Window (b=-4) and half in a
field at b=-6. The stars were observed with the GIRAFFE spectrograph of
FLAMES@VLT, with a spectral resolution of R~20,000. Abundances were derived via
spectral synthesis and the results are compared with those for stars with
similar parameters, but no detectable Li line. We find 13 stars with a
detectable Li line, among which 2 have abundances A(Li)>2.7. No clear
correlations were found between the Li abundance and those of other elements.
With the exception of the two most Li rich stars, the others follow a fairly
tight A(Li)-T_eff correlation. It would seems that there must be a Li
production phase during the red giant branch (RGB), acting either on a very
short timescale, or selectively only in some stars. The proposed Li production
phase associated with the RGB bump cannot be excluded, although our targets are
significantly brighter than the predicted RGB bump magnitude for a population
at 8 kpcComment: 8 pages, 9 figures, accepted for publication in A&
Direct exoplanet detection and characterization using the ANDROMEDA method: Performance on VLT/NaCo data
Context. The direct detection of exoplanets with high-contrast imaging
requires advanced data processing methods to disentangle potential planetary
signals from bright quasi-static speckles. Among them, angular differential
imaging (ADI) permits potential planetary signals with a known rotation rate to
be separated from instrumental speckles that are either statics or slowly
variable. The method presented in this paper, called ANDROMEDA for ANgular
Differential OptiMal Exoplanet Detection Algorithm is based on a maximum
likelihood approach to ADI and is used to estimate the position and the flux of
any point source present in the field of view. Aims. In order to optimize and
experimentally validate this previously proposed method, we applied ANDROMEDA
to real VLT/NaCo data. In addition to its pure detection capability, we
investigated the possibility of defining simple and efficient criteria for
automatic point source extraction able to support the processing of large
surveys. Methods. To assess the performance of the method, we applied ANDROMEDA
on VLT/NaCo data of TYC-8979-1683-1 which is surrounded by numerous bright
stars and on which we added synthetic planets of known position and flux in the
field. In order to accommodate the real data properties, it was necessary to
develop additional pre-processing and post-processing steps to the initially
proposed algorithm. We then investigated its skill in the challenging case of a
well-known target, Pictoris, whose companion is close to the detection
limit and we compared our results to those obtained by another method based on
principal component analysis (PCA). Results. Application on VLT/NaCo data
demonstrates the ability of ANDROMEDA to automatically detect and characterize
point sources present in the image field. We end up with a robust method
bringing consistent results with a sensitivity similar to the recently
published algorithms, with only two parameters to be fine tuned. Moreover, the
companion flux estimates are not biased by the algorithm parameters and do not
require a posteriori corrections. Conclusions. ANDROMEDA is an attractive
alternative to current standard image processing methods that can be readily
applied to on-sky data
Low-rank plus sparse decomposition for exoplanet detection in direct-imaging ADI sequences. The LLSG algorithm
Context. Data processing constitutes a critical component of high-contrast exoplanet imaging. Its role is almost as important as the choice of a coronagraph or a wavefront control system, and it is intertwined with the chosen observing strategy. Among the data processing techniques for angular differential imaging (ADI), the most recent is the family of principal component analysis (PCA) based algorithms. It is a widely used statistical tool developed during the first half of the past century. PCA serves, in this case, as a subspace projection technique for constructing a reference point spread function (PSF) that can be subtracted from the science data for boosting the detectability of potential companions present in the data. Unfortunately, when building this reference PSF from the science data itself, PCA comes with certain limitations such as the sensitivity of the lower dimensional orthogonal subspace to non-Gaussian noise.
Aims. Inspired by recent advances in machine learning algorithms such as robust PCA, we aim to propose a localized subspace projection technique that surpasses current PCA-based post-processing algorithms in terms of the detectability of companions at near real-time speed, a quality that will be useful for future direct imaging surveys.
Methods. We used randomized low-rank approximation methods recently proposed in the machine learning literature, coupled with entry-wise thresholding to decompose an ADI image sequence locally into low-rank, sparse, and Gaussian noise components (LLSG). This local three-term decomposition separates the starlight and the associated speckle noise from the planetary signal, which mostly remains in the sparse term. We tested the performance of our new algorithm on a long ADI sequence obtained on β Pictoris with VLT/NACO.
Results. Compared to a standard PCA approach, LLSG decomposition reaches a higher signal-to-noise ratio and has an overall better performance in the receiver operating characteristic space. This three-term decomposition brings a detectability boost compared to the full-frame standard PCA approach, especially in the small inner working angle region where complex speckle noise prevents PCA from discerning true companions from noise
Experimental realization of smectic phase in vortex matter induced by symmetric potentials arranged in two-fold symmetry arrays
Smectic order has been generated in superconducting Nb films with two-fold
symmetry arrays of symmetric pinning centers. Magnetic fields applied
perpendicularly to the films develop a vortex matter smectic phase that is
easily detected when the vortices commensurate with the pinning center array.
The smectic phase can be turned on and off with external parameters.Comment: 15 pages, 5 figure
Nuclear parton distributions at next to leading order
We perform a next to leading order QCD global analysis of nuclear deep
inelastic scattering and Drell-Yan data using the convolution approach to
parameterize nuclear parton densities. We find both a significant improvement
in the agreement with data compared to previous extractions, and substantial
differences in the scale dependence of nuclear effects compared to leading
order analyses.Comment: 9 pages, 10 figure
Magnetic order and disorder in nanomagnets probed by superconducting vortices
We have studied two nanomagnet systems with strong (Co/Pd multilayers) and
weak (NdCo alloy films) stray magnetic fields by probing the out-of-plane
magnetic states with superconducting vortices. The hybrid samples are made of
array of nanomagnets embedded in superconducting Nb thin films. The vortex
motion detects relevant magnetic state features, since superconducting vortices
are able to discriminate between different magnetic stray field strengths and
directions. The usual matching effect between the superconducting vortex
lattice and the periodic pinning array can be quenched by means of disorder
magnetic potentials with strong stray fields at random. Ordered stray fields
retrieve the matching effect and yield asymmetry and shift in the vortex
dissipation signal. Furthermore vortices can discriminate the sizes of the
nanomagnet magnetic domains, detecting magnetic domain sizes as small as 70 nm.
In addition, we observe that the vortex cores play the crucial role instead of
the supercurrents around the vortex.Comment: 22 pages, 8 figure
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