Shot noise in diffusive ferromagnetic metals

We show that shot noise in a diffusive ferromagnetic wire connected by tunnel contacts to two ferromagnetic electrodes can probe the intrinsic density of states and the extrinsic impurity scattering spin-polarization contributions in the polarization of the wire conductivity. The effect is more pronounced when the electrodes are perfectly polarized in opposite directions. While in this case the shot noise has a weak dependence on the impurity scattering polarization, it is strongly affected by the polarization of the density of states. For a finite spin-flip scattering rate the shot noise increases well above the normal state value and can reach the full Poissonian value when the density of states tends to be perfectly polarized. For the parallel configuration we find that the shot noise depends on the relative sign of the intrinsic and the extrinsic polarizations.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure

Critical loads for nutrient nitrogen for soil-vegetation systems

Members of the UK Critical Loads Advisory Group (CLAG) have calculated critical loads for nutrient nitrogen to produce maps for Great Britain. The results of three methods, based upon the conclusions from the Lokeberg workshop are described below. Two of these methods use the empirical approachand the other the steady state equation ("mass balance") for nitrogen saturation

Semirelativistic stability of N-boson systems bound by 1/r pair potentials

We analyze a system of self-gravitating identical bosons by means of a semirelativistic Hamiltonian comprising the relativistic kinetic energies of the involved particles and added (instantaneous) Newtonian gravitational pair potentials. With the help of an improved lower bound to the bottom of the spectrum of this Hamiltonian, we are able to enlarge the known region for relativistic stability for such boson systems against gravitational collapse and to sharpen the predictions for their maximum stable mass.Comment: 11 pages, considerably enlarged introduction and motivation, remainder of the paper unchange

Semiclassical energy formulas for power-law and log potentials in quantum mechanics

We study a single particle which obeys non-relativistic quantum mechanics in R^N and has Hamiltonian H = -Delta + V(r), where V(r) = sgn(q)r^q. If N \geq 2, then q > -2, and if N = 1, then q > -1. The discrete eigenvalues E_{n\ell} may be represented exactly by the semiclassical expression E_{n\ell}(q) = min_{r>0}\{P_{n\ell}(q)^2/r^2+ V(r)}. The case q = 0 corresponds to V(r) = ln(r). By writing one power as a smooth transformation of another, and using envelope theory, it has earlier been proved that the P_{n\ell}(q) functions are monotone increasing. Recent refinements to the comparison theorem of QM in which comparison potentials can cross over, allow us to prove for n = 1 that Q(q)=Z(q)P(q) is monotone increasing, even though the factor Z(q)=(1+q/N)^{1/q} is monotone decreasing. Thus P(q) cannot increase too slowly. This result yields some sharper estimates for power-potential eigenvlaues at the bottom of each angular-momentum subspace.Comment: 20 pages, 5 figure

Quark mass effects in high energy neutrino nucleon scattering

We evaluate the neutrino nucleon charged current cross section at next-to-leading order in quantum chromodynamic corrections in the variable flavor number scheme and the fixed flavor number scheme, taking into account quark masses. The number scheme dependence is largest at the highest energies considered here, $10^{12}$ GeV, where the cross sections differ by approximately 15 percent. We illustrate the numerical implications of the inconsistent application of the fixed flavor number scheme.Comment: 8 pages, 8 figures, v2: updated pdfs, version accepted for publicatio

Coulomb plus power-law potentials in quantum mechanics

We study the discrete spectrum of the Hamiltonian H = -Delta + V(r) for the Coulomb plus power-law potential V(r)=-1/r+ beta sgn(q)r^q, where beta > 0, q > -2 and q \ne 0. We show by envelope theory that the discrete eigenvalues E_{n\ell} of H may be approximated by the semiclassical expression E_{n\ell}(q) \approx min_{r>0}\{1/r^2-1/(mu r)+ sgn(q) beta(nu r)^q}. Values of mu and nu are prescribed which yield upper and lower bounds. Accurate upper bounds are also obtained by use of a trial function of the form, psi(r)= r^{\ell+1}e^{-(xr)^{q}}. We give detailed results for V(r) = -1/r + beta r^q, q = 0.5, 1, 2 for n=1, \ell=0,1,2, along with comparison eigenvalues found by direct numerical methods.Comment: 11 pages, 3 figure