2,471 research outputs found
Periodic Pattern in the Residual-Velocity Field of OB Associations
An analysis of the residual-velocity field of OB associations within 3 kpc of
the Sun has revealed periodic variations in the radial residual velocities
along the Galactic radius vector with a typical scale length of
lambda=2.0(+/-0.2) kpc and a mean amplitude of fR=7(+/-1) km/s. The fact that
the radial residual velocities of almost all OB-associations in rich
stellar-gas complexes are directed toward the Galactic center suggests that the
solar neighborhood under consideration is within the corotation radius. The
azimuthal-velocity field exhibits a distinct periodic pattern in the region
0<l<180 degrees, where the mean azimuthal-velocity amplitude is ft=6(+/-2)
km/s. There is no periodic pattern of the azimuthal-velocity field in the
region 180<l<360 degrees. The locations of the Cygnus arm, as well as the
Perseus arm, inferred from an analysis of the radial- and azimuthal-velocity
fields coincide. The periodic patterns of the residual-velocity fields of
Cepheids and OB associations share many common features.Comment: 21 page
Tunneling Spectroscopy of Two-level Systems Inside Josephson Junction
We consider a two-level (TL) system with energy level separation Omega_0
inside a Josephson junction. The junction is shunted by a resistor R and is
current I (or voltage V = RI) biased. If the TL system modulates the Josephson
energy and/or is optically active, it is Rabi driven by the Josephson
oscillations in the running phase regime near the resonance 2eV = Omega_0. The
Rabi oscillations, in turn, translate into oscillations of current and voltage
which can be detected in noise measurements. This effect provides an option to
fully characterize the TL systems and to find the TL's contribution to the
decoherence when the junction is used as a qubit.Comment: 4 page
Identification of Coulomb blockade and macroscopic quantum tunneling by noise
The effects of Macroscopic Quantum Tunneling (MQT) and Coulomb Blockade (CB)
in Josephson junctions are of considerable significance both for the
manifestations of quantum mechanics on the macroscopic scale and potential
technological applications. These two complementary effects are shown to be
clearly distinguishable from the associated noise spectra. The current noise is
determined exactly and a rather sharp crossover between flux noise in the MQT
and charge noise in the CB regions is found as the applied voltage is changed.
Related results hold for the voltage noise in current-biased junctions.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures, epl.cls include
Macroscopic quantum tunneling in globally coupled series arrays of Josephson junctions
We present a quantitative analysis of an escape rate for switching from the
superconducting state to a resistive one in series arrays of globally coupled
Josephson junctions. A global coupling is provided by an external shunting
impedance. Such an impedance can strongly suppress both the crossover
temperature from the thermal fluctuation to quantum regimes, and the
macroscopic quantum tunneling (MQT) in short Josephson junction series arrays.
However, in large series arrays we obtain an enhancement of the crossover
temperature, and a giant increase of the MQT escape rate. The effect is
explained by excitation of a {\it spatial-temporal charge instanton}
distributed over a whole structure. The model gives a possible explanation of
recently published experimental results on an enhancement of the MQT in single
crystals of high- superconductors.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure
Measuring non-Gaussian fluctuations through incoherent Cooper pair current
We study a Josephson junction (JJ) in the regime of incoherent Cooper pair
tunneling, capacitively coupled to a nonequilibrium noise source. The
current-voltage (I-V) characteristics of the JJ are sensitive to the excess
voltage fluctuations in the source, and can thus be used for wide-band noise
detection. Under weak driving, the odd part of the I-V can be related to the
second cumulant of noise, whereas the even part is due to the third cumulant.
After calibration, one can measure the Fano factors for the noise source, and
get information about the frequency dependence of the noise.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure
Inverse proximity effect in superconductors near ferromagnetic material
We study the electronic density of states in a mesoscopic superconductor near
a transparent interface with a ferromagnetic metal. In our tunnel spectroscopy
experiment, a substantial density of states is observed at sub-gap energies
close to a ferromagnet. We compare our data with detailed calculations based on
the Usadel equation, where the effect of the ferromagnet is treated as an
effective boundary condition. We achieve an excellent agreement with theory
when non-ideal quality of the interface is taken into account.Comment: revised, 7 pages, 3 figure
Weber blockade theory of magnetoresistance oscillations in superconducting strips
Recent experiments on the conductance of thin, narrow superconducting strips
have found periodic fluctuations, as a function of the perpendicular magnetic
field, with a period corresponding to approximately two flux quanta per strip
area [A. Johansson et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. {\bf 95}, 116805 (2005)]. We argue
that the low-energy degrees of freedom responsible for dissipation correspond
to vortex motion. Using vortex/charge duality, we show that the superconducting
strip behaves as the dual of a quantum dot, with the vortices, magnetic field,
and bias current respectively playing the roles of the electrons, gate voltage
and source-drain voltage. In the bias-current vs. magnetic-field plane, the
strip conductance displays what we term `Weber blockade' diamonds, with vortex
conductance maxima (i.e., electrical resistance maxima) that, at small
bias-currents, correspond to the fields at which strip states of and
vortices have equal energy.Comment: 4+a bit pages, 3 figures, 1 tabl
Density of states in a superconductor carrying a supercurrent
We have measured the tunneling density of states (DOS) in a superconductor
carrying a supercurrent or exposed to an external magnetic field. The pair
correlations are weakened by the supercurrent, leading to a modification of the
DOS and to a reduction of the gap. As predicted by the theory of
superconductivity in diffusive metals, we find that this effect is similar to
that of an external magnetic field.Comment: To be published in Physical Review Letter
Coulomb charging energy for arbitrary tunneling strength
The Coulomb energy of a small metallic island coupled to an electrode by a
tunnel junction is investigated. We employ Monte Carlo simulations to determine
the effective charging energy for arbitrary tunneling strength. For small
tunneling conductance, the data agree with analytical results based on a
perturbative treatment of electron tunneling, while for very strong tunneling
recent semiclassical results for large conductance are approached. The data
allow for an identification of the range of validity of various analytical
predictions.Comment: 4 pages REVTeX, incl 3 figures, to appear in Europhys.Let
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