Comparison of Standard Length, Fork Length, and Total Length for Measuring West Coast Marine Fishes

Measurements of adult marine fishes on the U.S. west coast are usually made using one of three methods: standard length, fork length, or total length. Each method has advantages and disadvantages. In this paper we attempt to determine whether one method is faster and/or more reliable than the other methods. We found that all three methods were comparable. There was no appreciable difference in the time it took to measure fish using the different methods. Fork length had the most reproducible results; however, it had the highest level of bias between researchers. We therefore suggest that selection of measurement type be based on what other researchers have used for the species under study. The best improvement in measurement reliability probably occurs by adequate training of personnel and not type of measurement used

Surface spin flip probability of mesoscopic Ag wires

Spin relaxation in mesoscopic Ag wires in the diffusive transport regime is studied via nonlocal spin valve and Hanle effect measurements performed on permalloy/Ag lateral spin valves. The ratio between momentum and spin relaxation times is not constant at low temperatures. This can be explained with the Elliott-Yafet spin relaxation mechanism by considering the momentum surface relaxation time as being temperature dependent. We present a model to separately determine spin flip probabilities for phonon, impurity and surface scattering and find that the spin flip probability is highest for surface scattering.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure

Evidence of Vortex Jamming in Abrikosov Vortex Flux Flow Regime

We report on dynamics of non-local Abrikosov vortex flow in mesoscopic superconducting Nb channels. Magnetic field dependence of the non-local voltage induced by the flux flow shows that vortices form ordered vortex chains. Voltage asymmetry (rectification) with respect to the direction of vortex flow is evidence that vortex jamming strongly moderates vortex dynamics in mesoscopic geometries. The findings can be applied to superconducting devices exploiting vortex dynamics and vortex manipulation, including superconducting wires with engineered pinning centers.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figure

Effects of jamming on non-equilibrium transport times in nano-channels

Many biological channels perform highly selective transport without direct input of metabolic energy and without transitions from a 'closed' to an 'open' state during transport. Mechanisms of selectivity of such channels serve as an inspiration for creation of artificial nano-molecular sorting devices and bio-sensors. To elucidate the transport mechanisms, it is important to understand the transport on the single molecule level in the experimentally relevant regime when multiple particles are crowded in the channel. In this paper we analyze the effects of inter-particle crowding on the non-equilibrium transport times through a finite-length channel by means of analytical theory and computer simulations

Unanticipated proximity behavior in ferromagnet-superconductor heterostructures with controlled magnetic noncollinearity

Magnetization noncollinearity in ferromagnet-superconductor (F/S) heterostructures is expected to enhance the superconducting transition temperature (Tc) according to the domain-wall superconductivity theory, or to suppress Tc when spin-triplet Cooper pairs are explicitly considered. We study the proximity effect in F/S structures where the F layer is a Sm-Co/Py exchange-spring bilayer and the S layer is Nb. The exchange-spring contains a single, controllable and quantifiable domain wall in the Py layer. We observe an enhancement of superconductivity that is nonmonotonic as the Py domain wall is increasingly twisted via rotating a magnetic field, different from theoretical predictions. We have excluded magnetic fields and vortex motion as the source of the nonmonotonic behavior. This unanticipated proximity behavior suggests that new physics is yet to be captured in the theoretical treatments of F/S systems containing noncollinear magnetization.Comment: 17 pages, 4 figures. Physical Review Letters in pres

Detection and quantification of inverse spin Hall effect from spin pumping in permalloy/normal metal bilayers

Spin pumping is a mechanism that generates spin currents from ferromagnetic resonance (FMR) over macroscopic interfacial areas, thereby enabling sensitive detection of the inverse spin Hall effect that transforms spin into charge currents in non-magnetic conductors. Here we study the spin-pumping-induced voltages due to the inverse spin Hall effect in permalloy/normal metal bilayers integrated into coplanar waveguides for different normal metals and as a function of angle of the applied magnetic field direction, as well as microwave frequency and power. We find good agreement between experimental data and a theoretical model that includes contributions from anisotropic magnetoresistance (AMR) and inverse spin Hall effect (ISHE). The analysis provides consistent results over a wide range of experimental conditions as long as the precise magnetization trajectory is taken into account. The spin Hall angles for Pt, Pd, Au and Mo were determined with high precision to be $0.013\pm0.002$, $0.0064\pm0.001$, $0.0035\pm0.0003$ and $-0.0005\pm0.0001$, respectively.Comment: 11 page

A shrinking Compact Symmetric Object: J11584+2450?

We present multi-frequency multi-epoch Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA) observations of J11584+2450. These observations clearly show this source, previously classified as a core-jet, to be a compact symmetric object (CSO). Comparisons between these new data and data taken over the last 9 years shows the edge brightened hot spots retreating towards the core (and slightly to the west) at approximately 0.3c. Whether this motion is strictly apparent or actually physical in nature is discussed, as well as possible explanations, and what implications a physical contraction of J11584+2450 would have for current CSO models.Comment: 16 pages, 6 figures, 5 tables. Accepted for publication in Ap