38,144 research outputs found
Selectivity and specificity: pros and cons in sensing
Sensing using specific and selective receptors
provides two very different but complementary strategies. This
Sensor Issues article will discuss the merits and challenges of
specific sensors, and selective sensors based on synthetic
arrays. We will examine where each has been successfully
applied to a sensing challenge, and then look at how a
combined approach could take elements of both to provide
new sensor platforms
Aging, rejuvenation and memory effects in re-entrant ferromagnets
We have studied the slow dynamics of the ferromagnetic phases of the
re-entrant CdCr_{2x}In_{2-2x}S_4 system for 0.85<x<=1 by means of low frequency
ac susceptibility and magnetization measurements. Experimental procedures
widely used in the investigation of the out-of-equilibrium dynamics of spin
glasses (such as the x=0.85 compound) have been applied to search for aging,
rejuvenation and memory effects, and to test their dependence on the disorder
introduced by dilution of the magnetic ions. Whereas the rejuvenation effect is
found in all studied samples, the memory effect is clearly enhanced for
increasing dilutions. The results support a description of aging in both
ferromagnetic and re-entrant spin-glass phases in terms of hierarchical
reconformations of domain walls pinned by the disorder.Comment: Service de Physique de l'Etat Condense, DRECAM, DSM, CEA Saclay,91191
Gif sur Yvette Cedex, France, 9 pages, including 7 figures, To appear in Eur.
Phys. J. B (2002
Aging phenomena in spin glass and ferromagnetic phases: domain growth and wall dynamics
We compare aging in a disordered ferromagnet and in a spin glass, by studying
the different phases of a reentrant system. We have measured the relaxation of
the low-frequency ac susceptibility, in both the ferromagnetic and spin-glass
phases of a CdCr_{1.9}In_{0.1}S_4 sample. A restart of aging processes when the
temperature is lowered (`chaos-like' effect) is observed in both phases. The
memory of previous aging at a higher temperature can be retrieved upon
re-heating, but in the ferromagnetic phase it can rapidly be erased by the
growth of ferromagnetic domains. We interpret the behaviour observed in the
ferromagnetic phase in terms of a combination of domain growth and pinned wall
reconformations, and suggest that aging in spin glasses is dominated by such
wall reconformation processes.Comment: SPEC, CEA Saclay, 91191 Gif sur Yvette Cedex, France, to appear in
Europhys. Lett. (2000
Ageing and relaxation times in disordered insulators
We focus on the slow relaxations observed in the conductance of disordered
insulators at low temperature (especially granular aluminum films). They
manifest themselves as a temporal logarithmic decrease of the conductance after
a quench from high temperatures and the concomitant appearance of a field
effect anomaly centered on the gate voltage maintained. We are first interested
in ageing effects, i.e. the age dependence of the dynamical properties of the
system. We stress that the formation of a second field effect anomaly at a
different gate voltage is not a "history free" logarithmic (lnt) process, but
departs from lnt in a way which encodes the system's age. The apparent
relaxation time distribution extracted from the observed relaxations is thus
not "constant" but evolves with time. We discuss what defines the age of the
system and what external perturbation out of equilibrium does or does not
rejuvenate it. We further discuss the problem of relaxation times and comment
on the commonly used "two dip" experimental protocol aimed at extracting
"characteristic times" for the glassy systems (granular aluminum, doped indium
oxide...). We show that it is inoperable for systems like granular Al and
probably highly doped InOx where it provides a trivial value only determined by
the experimental protocol. But in cases where different values are obtained
like in lightly doped InOx or some ultra thin metal films, potentially
interesting information can be obtained, possibly about the "short time"
dynamics of the different systems. Present ideas about the effect of doping on
the glassiness of disordered insulators may also have to be reconsidered.Comment: to appear in the proceedings of the 14th International Conference on
Transport and Interactions in Disordered Systems (TIDS14
Swarm behavior of self-propelled rods and swimming flagella
Systems of self-propelled particles are known for their tendency to aggregate
and to display swarm behavior. We investigate two model systems, self-propelled
rods interacting via volume exclusion, and sinusoidally-beating flagella
embedded in a fluid with hydrodynamic interactions. In the flagella system,
beating frequencies are Gaussian distributed with a non-zero average. These
systems are studied by Brownian-dynamics simulations and by mesoscale
hydrodynamics simulations, respectively. The clustering behavior is analyzed as
the particle density and the environmental or internal noise are varied. By
distinguishing three types of cluster-size probability density functions, we
obtain a phase diagram of different swarm behaviors. The properties of
clusters, such as their configuration, lifetime and average size are analyzed.
We find that the swarm behavior of the two systems, characterized by several
effective power laws, is very similar. However, a more careful analysis reveals
several differences. Clusters of self-propelled rods form due to partially
blocked forward motion, and are therefore typically wedge-shaped. At higher rod
density and low noise, a giant mobile cluster appears, in which most rods are
mostly oriented towards the center. In contrast, flagella become
hydrodynamically synchronized and attract each other; their clusters are
therefore more elongated. Furthermore, the lifetime of flagella clusters decays
more quickly with cluster size than of rod clusters
Leptons from Dark Matter Annihilation in Milky Way Subhalos
Numerical simulations of dark matter collapse and structure formation show
that in addition to a large halo surrounding the baryonic component of our
galaxy, there also exists a significant number of subhalos that extend hundreds
of kiloparsecs beyond the edge of the observable Milky Way. We find that for
dark matter (DM) annihilation models, galactic subhalos can significantly
modify the spectrum of electrons and positrons as measured at our galactic
position. Using data from the recent Via Lactea II simulation we include the
subhalo contribution of electrons and positrons as boundary source terms for
simulations of high energy cosmic ray propagation with a modified version of
the publicly available GALPROP code. Focusing on the DM DM -> 4e annihilation
channel, we show that including subhalos leads to a better fit to both the
Fermi and PAMELA data. The best fit gives a dark matter particle mass of 1.2
TeV, for boost factors of 90 in the main halo and 1950-3800 in the subhalos
(depending on assumptions about the background), in contrast to the 0.85 TeV
mass that gives the best fit in the main halo-only scenario. These fits suggest
that at least a third of the observed electron cosmic rays from DM annihilation
could come from subhalos, opening up the possibility of a relaxation of recent
stringent constraints from inverse Compton gamma rays originating from the
high-energy leptons.Comment: 8 pages, 13 figures; added referenc
Magnitude estimation of perceived distance over various distance ranges
Magnitude estimation judgments of perceived distance for stationary space vehicle under conditions simulating outer spac
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