1,183 research outputs found
Stellar Chemical Abundances: In Pursuit of the Highest Achievable Precision
The achievable level of precision on photospheric abundances of stars is a
major limiting factor on investigations of exoplanet host star characteristics,
the chemical histories of star clusters, and the evolution of the Milky Way and
other galaxies. While model-induced errors can be minimized through the
differential analysis of spectrally similar stars, the maximum achievable
precision of this technique has been debated. As a test, we derive differential
abundances of 19 elements from high-quality asteroid-reflected solar spectra
taken using a variety of instruments and conditions. We treat the solar spectra
as being from unknown stars and use the resulting differential abundances,
which are expected to be zero, as a diagnostic of the error in our
measurements. Our results indicate that the relative resolution of the target
and reference spectra is a major consideration, with use of different
instruments to obtain the two spectra leading to errors up to 0.04 dex. Use of
the same instrument at different epochs for the two spectra has a much smaller
effect (~0.007 dex). The asteroid used to obtain the solar standard also has a
negligible effect (~0.006 dex). Assuming that systematic errors from the
stellar model atmospheres have been minimized, as in the case of solar twins,
we confirm that differential chemical abundances can be obtained at sub-0.01
dex precision with due care in the observations, data reduction and abundance
analysis.Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJ; 13 pages, 6 figures, 7 table
Quantum fluctuation driven first order phase transition in weak ferromagnetic metals
In a local Fermi liquid (LFL), we show that there is a line of weak first
order phase transitions between the ferromagnetic and paramagnetic phases due
to purely quantum fluctuations. We predict that an instability towards
superconductivity is only possible in the ferromagnetic state. At T=0 we find a
point on the phase diagram where all three phases meet and we call this a
quantum triple point (QTP). A simple application of the Gibbs phase rule shows
that only these three phases can meet at the QTP. This provides a natural
explanation of the absence of superconductivity at this point coming from the
paramagnetic side of the phase diagram, as observed in the recently discovered
ferromagnetic superconductor, .Comment: 5 pages, 5 figure
Pairing symmetry signatures of T1 in superconducting ferromagnets
We study the nuclear relaxation rate 1/T1 as a function of temperature for a
superconducting-ferromagnetic coexistent system using a p-wave triplet model
for the superconducting pairing symmetry. This calculation is contrasted with a
singlet s-wave one done previously, and we see for the s-wave case that there
is a Hebel-Slichter peak, albeit reduced due to the magnetization, and no peak
for the p-wave case. We then compare these results to a nuclear relaxation rate
experiment on UGe2 to determine the possible pairing symmetry signatures in
that material. It is seen that the experimental data is inconclusive to rule
out the possibility of s-wave pairing in .Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure
Physical properties of ferromagnetic-superconducting coexistent system
We studied the nuclear relaxation rate 1/T1 of a
ferromagnetic-superconducting system from the mean field model proposed in
Ref.14. This model predicts the existence of a set of gapless excitations in
the energy spectrum which will affect the properties studied here, such as the
density of states and, hence, 1/T1. The study of the temperature variation of
1/T1(for T<Tc) shows that the usual Hebel-Slichter peak exists, but will be
reduced because of the dominant role of the gapless fermions and the background
magnetic behavior. We have also presented the temperature dependence of
ultrasonic attenuation and the frequency dependence of electromagnetic
absorption within this model. We are successful in explaining certain
experimental results.Comment: 10 Pages, 9 figute
Acoustic attenuation probe for fermion superfluidity in ultracold atom gases
Dilute gas Bose-Einstein condensates (BEC's), currently used to cool
fermionic atoms in atom traps, can also probe the superfluidity of these
fermions. The damping rate of BEC-acoustic excitations (phonon modes), measured
in the middle of the trap as a function of the phonon momentum, yields an
unambiguous signature of BCS-like superfluidity, provides a measurement of the
superfluid gap parameter and gives an estimate of the size of the Cooper-pairs
in the BEC-BCS crossover regime. We also predict kinks in the momentum
dependence of the damping rate which can reveal detailed information about the
fermion quasi-particle dispersion relation.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures. Revised versio
- …