641 research outputs found
Calibration of the Langley 16-foot transonic tunnel with test section air removal
The Langley 16-foot transonic tunnel with test section air removal (plenum suction) was calibrated to a Mach number of 1.3. The results of the calibration, including the effects of slot shape modifications, test section wall divergence, and water vapor condensation, are presented. A complete description of the wind tunnel and its auxiliary equipment is included
Signatures of superconducting gap inhomogeneities in optical properties
Scanning tunneling spectroscopy applied to the high- cuprates has
revealed significant spatial inhomogeneity on the nanoscale. Regions on the
order of a coherence length in size show variations of the magnitude of the
superconducting gap of order or more. An important unresolved question
is whether or not these variations are also present in the bulk, and how they
influence superconducting properties. As many theories and data analyses for
high- superconductivity assume spatial homogeneity of the gap magnitude,
this is a pressing question. We consider the far-infrared optical conductivity
and evaluate, within an effective medium approximation, what signatures of
spatial variations in gap magnitude are present in various optical quantities.
In addition to the case of d-wave superconductivity, relevant to the high-
cuprates, we have also considered s-wave gap symmetry in order to provide
expected signatures of inhomogeneities for superconductors in general. While
signatures of gap inhomogeneities can be strongly manifested in s-wave
superconductors, we find that the far-infrared optical conductivity in d-wave
is robust against such inhomogeneity.Comment: 8 pages, 7 figure
Models for Enhanced Absorption in Inhomogeneous Superconductors
We discuss the low-frequency absorption arising from quenched inhomogeneity
in the superfluid density rho_s of a model superconductor. Such inhomogeneities
may arise in a high-T_c superconductor from a wide variety of sources,
including quenched random disorder and static charge density waves such as
stripes. Using standard classical methods for treating randomly inhomogeneous
media, we show that both mechanisms produce additional absorption at finite
frequencies. For a two-fluid model with weak mean-square fluctuations <(d
rho_s)^2 > in rho_s and a frequency-independent quasiparticle conductivity, the
extra absorption has oscillator strength proportional to the quantity <(d
rho_s)^2>/rho_s, as observed in some experiments. Similar behavior is found in
a two-fluid model with anticorrelated fluctuations in the superfluid and normal
fluid densities. The extra absorption typically occurs as a Lorentzian centered
at zero frequency. We present simple model calculations for this extra
absorption under conditions of both weak and strong fluctuations. The relation
between our results and other model calculations is briefly discussed
Cooperative localization-delocalization in the high Tc cuprates
The intrinsic metastable crystal structure of the cuprates results in local
dynamical lattice instabilities, strongly coupled to the density fluctuations
of the charge carriers. They acquire in this way simultaneously both,
delocalized and localized features. It is responsible for a partial fractioning
of the Fermi surface, i.e., the Fermi surface gets hidden in a region around
the anti-nodal points, because of the opening of a pseudogap in the normal
state, arising from a partial charge localization. The high energy localized
single-particle features are a result of a segregation of the homogeneous
crystal structure into checker-board local nano-size structures, which breaks
the local translational and rotational symmetry. The pairing in such a system
is dynamical rather than static, whereby charge carriers get momentarily
trapped into pairs in a deformable dynamically fluctuating ligand environment.
We conclude that the intrinsically heterogeneous structure of the cuprates must
play an important role in this type of superconductivity.Comment: 14 pages, 8 figures, Proceedings of the "International Conference on
Condensed Matter Theories", Quito, 2009 Int. J. Mod. Phys. B 2010 (Accepted
Conductivity Due to Classical Phase Fluctuations in a Model For High-T_c Superconductors
We consider the real part of the conductivity, \sigma_1(\omega), arising from
classical phase fluctuations in a model for high-T_c superconductors. We show
that the frequency integral of that conductivity, \int_0^\infty \sigma_1
d\omega, is non-zero below the superconducting transition temperature ,
provided there is some quenched disorder in the system. Furthermore, for a
fixed amount of quenched disorder, this integral at low temperatures is
proportional to the zero-temperature superfluid density, in agreement with
experiment. We calculate \sigma_1(\omega) explicitly for a model of overdamped
phase fluctuations.Comment: 4pages, 2figures, submitted to Phys.Rev.
A Comparison of the Ovulation Method With the CUE Ovulation Predictor in Determining the Fertile Period
The purpose of this study was to compare the CUE Ovulation Predictor with the ovulation method in determining the fertile period. Eleven regularly ovulating women measured their salivary and vaginal electrical resistance (ER) with the CUE, observed their cervical-vaginal mucus, and measured their urine for a luteinizing hormone (LH) surge on a daily basis. Data from 21 menstrual cycles showed no statistical difference (T= 0.33, p= 0.63) between the CUE fertile period, which ranged from 5 to 10 days (mean = 6.7 days, SD = 1.6), and the fertile period of the ovulation method, which ranged from 4 to 9 days (mean = 6.5 days, SD = 2.0). The CUE has potential as an adjunctive device in the learning and use of natural family planning methods
Residual absorption at zero temperature in d-wave superconductors
In a d-wave superconductor with elastic impurity scattering, not all the
available optical spectral weight goes into the condensate at zero temperature,
and this leads to residual absorption. We find that for a range of impurity
parameters in the intermediate coupling regime between Born (weak) and unitary
(strong) limit, significant oscillator strength remains which exhibits a cusp
like behavior of the real part of the optical conductivity with upward
curvature as a function of frequency, as well as a quasilinear temperature
dependence of the superfluid density. The calculations offer an explanation of
recent data on ortho-II YBaCuO which has been considered
anomalous.Comment: Accepted for publication by Phys. Rev. B 7 Pages and 4 Figure
Antiferromagnetism from phase disordering of a d-wave superconductor
The unbinding of vortex defects in the superconducting condensate with d-wave
symmetry at T=0 is shown to lead to the insulator with incommensurate
spin-density-wave order. The transition is similar to the spontaneous
generation of the "chiral" mass in the three dimensional quantum
electrodynamics, at which the global chiral symmetry one can define in the
superconducting state is spontaneously broken. Other symmetry related states
and possible relations to recent experiments on uderdoped cuprates are briefly
discussed.Comment: RevTex, 4 pages, one ps figure; comments on confinement in the SDW
added, references updated; final versio
Quantifying loopy network architectures
Biology presents many examples of planar distribution and structural networks
having dense sets of closed loops. An archetype of this form of network
organization is the vasculature of dicotyledonous leaves, which showcases a
hierarchically-nested architecture containing closed loops at many different
levels. Although a number of methods have been proposed to measure aspects of
the structure of such networks, a robust metric to quantify their hierarchical
organization is still lacking. We present an algorithmic framework, the
hierarchical loop decomposition, that allows mapping loopy networks to binary
trees, preserving in the connectivity of the trees the architecture of the
original graph. We apply this framework to investigate computer generated
graphs, such as artificial models and optimal distribution networks, as well as
natural graphs extracted from digitized images of dicotyledonous leaves and
vasculature of rat cerebral neocortex. We calculate various metrics based on
the Asymmetry, the cumulative size distribution and the Strahler bifurcation
ratios of the corresponding trees and discuss the relationship of these
quantities to the architectural organization of the original graphs. This
algorithmic framework decouples the geometric information (exact location of
edges and nodes) from the metric topology (connectivity and edge weight) and it
ultimately allows us to perform a quantitative statistical comparison between
predictions of theoretical models and naturally occurring loopy graphs.Comment: 17 pages, 8 figures. During preparation of this manuscript the
authors became aware of the work of Mileyko at al., concurrently submitted
for publicatio
Transport properties of heterogeneous materials derived from Gaussian random fields: Bounds and Simulation
We investigate the effective conductivity () of a class of
amorphous media defined by the level-cut of a Gaussian random field. The three
point solid-solid correlation function is derived and utilised in the
evaluation of the Beran-Milton bounds. Simulations are used to calculate
for a variety of fields and volume fractions at several different
conductivity contrasts. Relatively large differences in are observed
between the Gaussian media and the identical overlapping sphere model used
previously as a `model' amorphous medium. In contrast shows little
variability between different Gaussian media.Comment: 15 pages, 14 figure
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