Static electricity of polymers reduced by treatment with iodine

Treating organic polymers with iodine improves the electrical conductivity. Diffusion enables products of desired properties to be custom formulated. This eliminates a buildup of static electricity and the need for fillers or bound metal salts

Plate tectonics: When ancient continents collide

The geological record preserves scant evidence for early plate tectonics. Analysis of eclogites — metamorphic rocks formed in subduction zones — in the Trans-Hudson mountain belt suggests modern-style subduction may have operated 1,800 million years ago

Effect of disorder on the thermal transport and elastic properties in thermoelectric Zn4Sb3

Zn4Sb3 undergoes a phase transition from alpha to beta phase at T1[approximate]250 K. The high temperature beta-Zn4Sb3 phase has been widely investigated as a potential state-of-the-art thermoelectric (TE) material, due to its remarkably low thermal conductivity. We have performed electronic and thermal transport measurements exploring the structural phase transition at 250 K. The alpha to beta phase transition manifests itself by anomalies in the resistivity, thermopower, and specific heat at 250 K as well as by a reduction in the thermal conductivity as Zn4Sb3 changes phase from the ordered alpha to the disordered beta-phase. Moreover, measurements of the elastic constants using resonant ultrasound spectroscopy (RUS) reveal a dramatic softening at the order-disorder transition upon warming. These measurements provide further evidence that the remarkable thermoelectric properties of beta-Zn4Sb3 are tied to the disorder in the crystal structure

Thermodynamic of Distorted Reissner-Nordstr\"om Black Holes in Five-dimensions

In this paper, we study mechanics and thermodynamics of distorted, five-dimensional, electrically charged (non-extremal) black holes on the example of a static and "axisymmetric" black hole distorted by external, electrically neutral matter. Such a black hole is represented by the derived here solution of the Einstein-Maxwell equations which admits an $\mathbb{R}^1\times U(1)\times U(1)$ isometry group. We study the properties of this distorted black hole.Comment: 7 pages, submitted for the proceedings of the First Karl Schwarzschild Meeting (Frankfurt, 2013

Geometrical classification of Killing tensors on bidimensional flat manifolds

Valence two Killing tensors in the Euclidean and Minkowski planes are classified under the action of the group which preserves the type of the corresponding Killing web. The classification is based on an analysis of the system of determining partial differential equations for the group invariants and is entirely algebraic. The approach allows to classify both characteristic and non characteristic Killing tensors.Comment: 27 pages, 20 figures, pictures format changed to .eps, typos correcte

Possible mechanism for achieving glass-like thermal conductivities in crystals with off-center atoms

In the filled Ga/Ge clathrate, Eu and Sr are off-center in site 2 but Ba is on-center. All three filler atoms (Ba,Eu,Sr) have low temperature Einstein modes; yet only for the Eu and Sr systems is there a large dip in the thermal conductivity, attributed to the Einstein modes. No dip is observed for Ba. Here we argue that it is the off-center displacement that is crucial for understanding this unexplained difference in behavior. It enhances the coupling between the "rattler" motion and the lattice phonons for the Eu and Sr systems, and turns on/off another scattering mechanism (for 1K < T < 20K) produced by the presence/absence of off-center sites. The random occupation of different off-center sites produces a high density of symmetry-breaking defects which scatters phonons. It may also be important for improving our understanding of other glassy systems.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figure (2 parts) -- v2: intro broadened; strengthened arguments regarding need for additional phonon scattering mechanis

Coherent and Incoherent Vortex Flow States in Crossed Channels

We examine vortex flow states in periodic square pinning arrays with one row and one column of pinning sites removed to create an easy flow crossed channel geometry. When a drive is simultaneously applied along both major symmetry axes of the pinning array such that vortices move in both channels, a series of coherent flow states develop in the channel intersection at rational ratios of the drive components in each symmetry direction when the vortices can cross the intersection without local collisions. The coherent flow states are correlated with a series of anomalies in the velocity force curves, and in some cases can produce negative differential conductivity. The same general behavior could also be realized in other systems including colloids, particle traffic in microfluidic devices, or Wigner crystals in crossed one-dimensional channels.Comment: 5 pages, 4 postscript figure

Superconductivity and magnetism on flux grown single crystals of NiBi3

We present resistivity, magnetization and specific heat measurements on flux grown single crystals of NiBi3. We find typical behavior of a type-II superconductor, with, however, a sizable magnetic signal in the superconducting phase. There is a hysteretic magnetization characteristic of a ferromagnetic compound. By following the magnetization as a function of temperature, we find a drop at temperatures corresponding to the Curie temperature of ferromagnetic amorphous Ni. Thus, we assign the magnetism in NiBi$_3$ crystals to amorphous Ni impurities

Thermodynamics of phantom black holes in Einstein-Maxwell-Dilaton theory

A thermodynamic analysis of the black hole solutions coming from the Einstein-Maxwell-Dilaton theory (EMD) in 4D is done. By consider the canonical and grand-canonical ensemble, we apply standard method as well as a recent method known as Geometrothermodynamics (GTD). We are particularly interested in the characteristics of the so called phantom black hole solutions. We will analyze the thermodynamics of these solutions, the points of phase transition and their extremal limit. Also the thermodynamic stability is analyzed. We obtain a mismatch of the between the results of the GTD method when compared with the ones obtained by the specific heat, revealing a weakness of the method, as well as possible limitations of its applicability to very pathological thermodynamic systems. We also found that normal and phantom solutions are locally and globally unstable, unless for certain values of the coupled constant of the EMD action. We also shown that the anti-Reissner-Nordstrom solution does not posses extremal limit nor phase transition points, contrary to the Reissner-Nordstrom case.Comment: 23 pages, version accepted for publication in Physical Review