A basic lock-in amplifier experiment for the undergraduate laboratory

We describe a basic experiment for the undergraduate laboratory that demonstrates aspects of both, the science and the art of precision electronic measurements. The essence of the experiment is to measure the resistance of a small length of brass-wire to high accuracy using a simple voltage divider and a lock-in amplifier. By performing the measurement at different frequencies and different drive currents, one observes various random noise sources and systematic measurement effects

Focused-ion-beam-induced deposition of superconducting nanowires

Superconducting nanowires, with a critical temperature of 5.2 K, have been synthesized using an ion-beam-induced deposition, with a Gallium focused ion beam and Tungsten Carboxyl, W(CO)6, as precursor. The films are amorphous, with atomic concentrations of about 40, 40, and 20 % for W, C, and Ga, respectively. Zero Kelvin values of the upper critical field and coherence length of 9.5 T and 5.9 nm, respectively, are deduced from the resistivity data at different applied magnetic fields. The critical current density is Jc= 1.5 10^5 A/cm2 at 3 K. This technique can be used as a template-free fabrication method for superconducting devices.Comment: Accepted for publication in Applied Physics Letter

The solar neutrino problem after three hundred days of data at SuperKamiokande

We present an updated analysis of the solar neutrino problem in terms of both Mikheyev-Smirnov-Wolfenstein (MSW) and vacuum neutrino oscillations, with the inclusion of the preliminary data collected by the SuperKamiokande experiment during 306.3 days of operation. In particular, the observed energy spectrum of the recoil electrons from 8B neutrino scattering is discussed in detail and is used to constrain the mass-mixing parameter space. It is shown that: 1) the small mixing MSW solution is preferred over the large mixing one; 2) the vacuum oscillation solutions are strongly constrained by the energy spectrum measurement; and 3) the detection of a possible semiannual modulation of the 8B \nu flux due to vacuum oscillations should require at least one more year of operation of SuperKamiokande.Comment: 15 pages (RevTeX) + 8 figures (postscript). Requires epsfig.st

Hydrogen Recombination with Multilevel atoms

Hydrogen recombination is one of the most important atomic processes in many astrophysical objects such as Type II supernova (SN~II) atmospheres, the high redshift universe during the cosmological recombination era, and H II regions in the interstellar medium. Accurate predictions of the ionization fraction can be quite different from those given by a simple solution if one takes into account many angular momentum sub-states, non-resonant processes, and calculates the rates of all atomic processes from the solution of the radiative transfer equation instead of using a Planck function under the assumption of thermal equilibrium. We use the general purpose model atmosphere code PHOENIX 1D to compare how the fundamental probabilities such as the photo-ionization probability, the escape probability, and the collisional de-excitation probability are affected by the presence of other metals in the environment, multiple angular momentum sub-states, and non-resonant processes. Our comparisons are based on a model of SN 1999em, a SNe Type II, 20 days after its explosion.Comment: 29 pages, 12 figures, MNRAS, in pres

Nuclear Photoabsorption at Photon Energies between 300 and 850 Mev

We construct the formula for the photonuclear total absorption cross section using the projection method and the unitarity relation. Our treatment is very effective when interference effects in the absorption processes on a nucleon are strong. The disappearance of the peak around the position of the $D_{13}$ resonance in the nuclear photoabsorption can be explained with the cooperative effect of the interference in two-pion production processes,the Fermi motion, the collision broadenings of $\Delta$ and $N^*$, and the pion distortion in the nuclear medium. The change of the interference effect by the medium plays an important role.Comment: 22pages,7figures,revtex

Ultra-Transparent Antarctic Ice as a Supernova Detector

We have simulated the response of a high energy neutrino telescope in deep Antarctic ice to the stream of low energy neutrinos produced by a supernova. The passage of a large flux of MeV-energy neutrinos during a period of seconds will be detected as an excess of single counting rates in all individual optical modules. We update here a previous estimate of the performance of such an instrument taking into account the recent discovery of absorption lengths of several hundred meters for near-UV photons in natural deep ice. The existing AMANDA detector can, even by the most conservative estimates, act as a galactic supernova watch.Comment: 9 pages, Revtex file, no figures. Postscript file also available from http://phenom.physics.wisc.edu/pub/preprints/1995/madph-95-888.ps.Z or from ftp://phenom.physics.wisc.edu/pub/preprints/1995/madph-95-888.ps.

Site-site memory equation approach in study of density/pressure dependence of translational diffusion coefficient and rotational relaxation time of polar molecular solutions: acetonitrile in water, methanol in water, and methanol in acetonitrile

We present results of theoretical study and numerical calculation of the dynamics of molecular liquids based on combination of the memory equation formalism and the reference interaction site model - RISM. Memory equations for the site-site intermediate scattering functions are studied in the mode-coupling approximation for the first order memory kernels, while equilibrium properties such as site-site static structure factors are deduced from RISM. The results include the temperature-density(pressure) dependence of translational diffusion coefficients D and orientational relaxation times t for acetonitrile in water, methanol in water and methanol in acetonitrile, all in the limit of infinite dilution. Calculations are performed over the range of temperatures and densities employing the SPC/E model for water and optimized site-site potentials for acetonitrile and methanol. The theory is able to reproduce qualitatively all main features of temperature and density dependences of D and t observed in real and computer experiments. In particular, anomalous behavior, i.e. the increase in mobility with density, is observed for D and t of methanol in water, while acetonitrile in water and methanol in acetonitrile do not show deviations from the ordinary behavior. The variety exhibited by the different solute-solvent systems in the density dependence of the mobility is interpreted in terms of the two competing origins of friction, which interplay with each other as density increases: the collisional and dielectric frictions which, respectively, increase and decrease with increasing density.Comment: 13 pages, 8 eps-figures, 3 tables, RevTeX4-forma