Superconductivity in Pseudo-Binary Silicide SrNixSi2-x with AlB2-Type Structure

We demonstrate the emergence of superconductivity in pseudo-binary silicide SrNixSi2-x. The compound exhibits a structural phase transition from the cubic SrSi2-type structure (P4132) to the hexagonal AlB2-type structure (P6/mmm) upon substituting Ni for Si at approximately x = 0.1. The hexagonal structure is stabilized in the range of 0.1 < x < 0.7. The superconducting phase appears in the vicinity of the structural phase boundary. Ni acts as a nonmagnetic dopant, as confirmed by the Pauli paramagnetic behavior.Comment: 12 pages, 5 figure

Analysis of patterns formed by two-component diffusion limited aggregation

We consider diffusion limited aggregation of particles of two different kinds. It is assumed that a particle of one kind may adhere only to another particle of the same kind. The particles aggregate on a linear substrate which consists of periodically or randomly placed particles of different kinds. We analyze the influence of initial patterns on the structure of growing clusters. It is shown that at small distances from the substrate, the cluster structures repeat initial patterns. However, starting from a critical distance the initial periodicity is abruptly lost, and the particle distribution tends to a random one. An approach describing the evolution of the number of branches is proposed. Our calculations show that the initial patter can be detected only at the distance which is not larger than approximately one and a half of the characteristic pattern size.Comment: Accepted for publication in Physical Review

^{63}Cu, ^{35}Cl, and ^{1}H NMR in the S=1/2 Kagom\'e Lattice ZnCu_{3}(OH)_{6}Cl_{2}

ZnCu$_{3}$(OH)$_{6}$Cl$_{2}$ ($S=1/2$) is a promising new candidate for an ideal Kagom\'e Heisenberg antiferromagnet, because there is no magnetic phase transition down to $\sim$50 mK. We investigated its local magnetic and lattice environments with NMR techniques. We demonstrate that the intrinsic local spin susceptibility {\it decreases} toward T=0, but that slow freezing of the lattice near $\sim$50 K, presumably associated with OH bonds, contributes to a large increase of local spin susceptibility and its distribution. Spin dynamics near T=0 obey a power-law behavior in high magnetic fields.Comment: Phys. Rev. Lett. (in press

Electrons and phonons in the ternary alloy CaAl2−x_{2-x}Six_x} as a function of composition

We report a detailed first-principles study of the structural, electronic and vibrational properties of the superconducting C$_{32}$ phase of the ternary alloy CaAl$_{2-x}$Si$_x$, both in the experimental range $0.6 \leq x \leq 1.2$, for which the alloy has been synthesised, and in the theoretical limits of high aluminium and high silicon concentration. Our results indicate that, in the experimental range, the dependence of the electronic bands on composition is well described by a rigid-band model, which breaks down outside this range. Such a breakdown, in the (theoretical) limit of high aluminium concentration, is connected to the appearance of vibrational instabilities, and results in important differences between CaAl$_2$ and MgB$_2$. Unlike MgB$_2$, the interlayer band and the out-of-plane phonons play a major role on the stability and superconductivity of CaAlSi and related C$_{32}$ intermetallic compounds

Conditional sampling for barrier option pricing under the LT method

We develop a conditional sampling scheme for pricing knock-out barrier options under the Linear Transformations (LT) algorithm from Imai and Tan (2006). We compare our new method to an existing conditional Monte Carlo scheme from Glasserman and Staum (2001), and show that a substantial variance reduction is achieved. We extend the method to allow pricing knock-in barrier options and introduce a root-finding method to obtain a further variance reduction. The effectiveness of the new method is supported by numerical results

Magnetic excitations in weakly coupled spin dimers and chains material Cu2Fe2Ge4O13

Magnetic excitations in a weakly coupled spin dimers and chains compound Cu2Fe2Ge4O13 are measured by inelastic neutron scattering. Both structure factors and dispersion of low energy excitations up to 10 meV energy transfer are well described by a semiclassical spin wave theory involving interacting Fe$^{3+}$ ($S = 5/2$) chains. Additional dispersionless excitations are observed at higher energies, at $\hbar \omega = 24$ meV, and associated with singlet-triplet transitions within Cu$^{2+}$-dimers. Both types of excitations can be understood by treating weak interactions between the Cu$^{2+}$ and Fe$^{3+}$ subsystems at the level of the Mean Field/ Random Phase Approximation. However, this simple model fails to account for the measured temperature dependence of the 24 meV mode.Comment: 9 pages, 11 figure

The 3-D kinematics of water masers around the semiregular variable RT Virginis

We report observations of water masers around the semiregular variable RT Virginis (RT Vir), which have been made with the Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA) of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) at five epochs, each separated by three weeks of time. We detected about 60 maser features at each epoch. Overall, 61 features, detected at least twice, were tracked by their radial velocities and proper motions. The 3-D maser kinematics exhibited a circumstellar envelope that is expanding roughly spherically with a velocity of about 8 km/s. Asymmetries in both the spatial and velocity distributions of the maser features were found in the envelope, but less significant than that found in other semiregular variables. Systematic radial-velocity drifts of individual maser features were found with amplitudes of <= 2 km/s/yr. For one maser feature, we found a quadratic position shift with time along a straight line on the sky. This apparent motion indicates an acceleration with an amplitude of 33 km/s/yr, implying the passage of a shock wave driven by the stellar pulsation of RT Vir. The acceleration motion is likely seen only on the sky plane because of a large velocity gradient formed in the accelerating maser region. We estimated the distance to RT Vir to be about 220 pc on the basis of both the statistical parallax and model-fitting methods for the maser kinematics.Comment: 18 pages, 8 figures. Accepted to appear in the Astrophysical Journa

Cooperative ordering of gapped and gapless spin networks in Cu2_2Fe2_2Ge4_4O13_{13}

The unusual magnetic properties of a novel low-dimensional quantum ferrimagnet Cu$_2$Fe$_2$Ge$_4$O$_{13}$ are studied using bulk methods, neutron diffraction and inelastic neutron scattering. It is shown that this material can be described in terms of two low-dimensional quantum spin subsystems, one gapped and the other gapless, characterized by two distinct energy scales. Long-range magnetic ordering observed at low temperatures is a cooperative phenomenon caused by weak coupling of these two spin networks.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure