10,025 research outputs found
Investigating the interstellar dust through the Fe K-edge
The chemical and physical properties of interstellar dust in the densest
regions of the Galaxy are still not well understood. X-rays provide a powerful
probe since they can penetrate gas and dust over a wide range of column
densities (up to ). The interaction (scattering and
absorption) with the medium imprints spectral signatures that reflect the
individual atoms which constitute the gas, molecule, or solid. In this work we
investigate the ability of high resolution X-ray spectroscopy to probe the
properties of cosmic grains containing iron. Although iron is heavily depleted
into interstellar dust, the nature of the Fe-bearing grains is still largely
uncertain. In our analysis we use iron K-edge synchrotron data of minerals
likely present in the ISM dust taken at the European Synchrotron Radiation
Facility. We explore the prospects of determining the chemical composition and
the size of astrophysical dust in the Galactic centre and in molecular clouds
with future X-ray missions. The energy resolution and the effective area of the
present X-ray telescopes are not sufficient to detect and study the Fe K-edge,
even for bright X-ray sources. From the analysis of the extinction cross
sections of our dust models implemented in the spectral fitting program SPEX,
the Fe K-edge is promising for investigating both the chemistry and the size
distribution of the interstellar dust. We find that the chemical composition
regulates the X-ray absorption fine structures in the post edge region, whereas
the scattering feature in the pre-edge is sensitive to the mean grain size.
Finally, we note that the Fe K-edge is insensitive to other dust properties,
such as the porosity and the geometry of the dust.Comment: 11 pages, 10 figures. Accepted for publication in Astronomy and
Astrophysic
Fluctuation-Dissipation theorems and entropy production in relaxational systems
We show that for stochastic dynamical systems out of equilibrium the
violation of the fluctuation-dissipation equality is bounded by a function of
the entropy production. The result applies to a much wider situation than `near
equilibrium', comprising diffusion as well as glasses and other macroscopic
systems far from equilibrium. For aging systems this bounds the age-frequency
regimes in which the susceptibilities satisfy FDT in terms of the rate of decay
of the H-function, a question intimately related to the reading of a
thermometer placed in contact with the system.Comment: 4 pages, RevTex; formula and reference added plus various minor
changes in the tex
Moment evolution across the ferromagnetic phase transition of giant magnetocaloric (Mn,Fe)2(P,Si,B) compounds
A strong electronic reconstruction resulting in a quenching of the Fe
magnetic moments has recently been predicted to be at the origin of the giant
magnetocaloric effect displayed by Fe2Pbased materials. To verify this
scenario, X-ray Magnetic Circular Dichroism experiments have been carried out
at the L edges of Mn and Fe for two typical compositions of the
(Mn,Fe)2(P,Si,B) system. The dichroic absorption spectra of Mn and Fe have been
measured element specific in the vicinity of the first-order ferromagnetic
transition. The experimental spectra are compared with first-principle
calculations and charge-transfer multiplet simulations in order to derive the
magnetic moments. Even though signatures of a metamagnetic behaviour are
observed either as a function of the temperature or the magnetic field, the
similarity of the Mn and Fe moment evolution suggests that the quenching of the
Fe moment is weaker than previously predicted
Energy and entropy of relativistic diffusing particles
We discuss energy-momentum tensor and the second law of thermodynamics for a
system of relativistic diffusing particles. We calculate the energy and entropy
flow in this system. We obtain an exact time dependence of energy, entropy and
free energy of a beam of photons in a reservoir of a fixed temperature.Comment: 14 pages,some formulas correcte
A first--order irreversible thermodynamic approach to a simple energy converter
Several authors have shown that dissipative thermal cycle models based on
Finite-Time Thermodynamics exhibit loop-shaped curves of power output versus
efficiency, such as it occurs with actual dissipative thermal engines. Within
the context of First-Order Irreversible Thermodynamics (FOIT), in this work we
show that for an energy converter consisting of two coupled fluxes it is also
possible to find loop-shaped curves of both power output and the so-called
ecological function against efficiency. In a previous work Stucki [J.W. Stucki,
Eur. J. Biochem. vol. 109, 269 (1980)] used a FOIT-approach to describe the
modes of thermodynamic performance of oxidative phosphorylation involved in
ATP-synthesis within mithochondrias. In that work the author did not use the
mentioned loop-shaped curves and he proposed that oxidative phosphorylation
operates in a steady state simultaneously at minimum entropy production and
maximum efficiency, by means of a conductance matching condition between
extreme states of zero and infinite conductances respectively. In the present
work we show that all Stucki's results about the oxidative phosphorylation
energetics can be obtained without the so-called conductance matching
condition. On the other hand, we also show that the minimum entropy production
state implies both null power output and efficiency and therefore this state is
not fulfilled by the oxidative phosphorylation performance. Our results suggest
that actual efficiency values of oxidative phosphorylation performance are
better described by a mode of operation consisting in the simultaneous
maximization of the so-called ecological function and the efficiency.Comment: 20 pages, 7 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev.
Effective description of brane terms in extra dimensions
We study how theories defined in (extra-dimensional) spaces with localized
defects can be described perturbatively by effective field theories in which
the width of the defects vanishes. These effective theories must incorporate a
``classical'' renormalization, and we propose a renormalization prescription a
la dimensional regularization for codimension 1, which can be easily used in
phenomenological applications. As a check of the validity of this setting, we
compare some general predictions of the renormalized effective theory with
those obtained in a particular ultraviolet completion based on deconstruction.Comment: 28 page
Expert chess memory: Revisiting the chunking hypothesis
After reviewing the relevant theory on chess expertise, this paper re-examines experimentally the finding of Chase and Simon (1973a) that the differences in ability of chess players at different skill levels to copy and to recall positions are attributable to the experts' storage of thousands of chunks (patterned clusters of pieces) in long-term memory. Despite important differences in the experimental apparatus, the data of the present experiments regarding latencies and chess relations between successively placed pieces are highly correlated with those of Chase and Simon. We conclude that the 2-second inter-chunk interval used to define chunk boundaries is robust, and that chunks have psychological reality. We discuss the possible reasons why Masters in our new study used substantially larger chunks than the Master of the 1973 study, and extend the chunking theory to take account of the evidence for large retrieval structures (templates) in long-term memory
Doping Dependence of the Electronic Structure of Ba_{1-x}K_{x}BiO_{3} Studied by X-Ray Absorption Spectroscopy
We have performed x-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) and x-ray photoemission
spectroscopy (XPS) studies of single crystal Ba_{1-x}K_{x}BiO_{3} (BKBO)
covering the whole composition range . Several features in
the oxygen 1\textit{s} core XAS spectra show systematic changes with .
Spectral weight around the absorption threshold increases with hole doping and
shows a finite jump between and 0.40, which signals the
metal-insulator transition. We have compared the obtained results with
band-structure calculations. Comparison with the XAS results of
BaPb_{1-x}Bi_{x}O_{3} has revealed quite different doping dependences between
BKBO and BPBO. We have also observed systematic core-level shifts in the XPS
spectra as well as in the XAS threshold as functions of , which can be
attributed to a chemical potential shift accompanying the hole doping. The
observed chemical potential shift is found to be slower than that predicted by
the rigid band model based on the band-structure calculations.Comment: 8 pages, 8 figures include
Violation of particle number conservation in the it GW approximation
We present a nontrivial model system of interacting electrons that can be solved analytically in the GW approximation. We obtain the particle number from the GW Green's function strictly analytically, and prove that there is a genuine violation of particle number conservation if the self-energy is calculated non-self-consistently from a zeroth order Green's function, as done in virtually all practical implementations. We also show that a simple shift of the self-energy that partially restores self-consistency reduces the numerical deviation significantly
Galilean limit of equilibrium relativistic mass distribution for indistinguishable events
The relativistic distribution for indistinguishable events is considered in
the mass-shell limit where is a given intrinsic property of
the events. The characteristic thermodynamic quantities are calculated and
subject to the zero-mass and the high-temperature limits. The results are shown
to be in agreement with the corresponding expressions of an on-mass-shell
relativistic kinetic theory. The Galilean limit which
coincides in form with the low-temperature limit, is considered. The theory is
shown to pass over to a nonrelativistic statistical mechanics of
indistinguishable particles.Comment: Report TAUP-2136-9
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