13,353 research outputs found
Tethered balloon-based measurements of meteorological variables and aerosols
Tethered balloon based measurements of the vertical distributions of temperature, humidity, wind speed, and aerosol concentrations were taken over a 4-hour period beginning at sunrise on June 29, 1976, at Wallops Island, Virginia. Twelve consecutive profiles of each variable were obtained from ground to about 500 meters. These measurements were in conjuction with a noise propagation study on remotely arrayed acoustic range (ROMAAR) at Wallops Flight Center. An organized listing of these vertical soundings is presented. The tethered balloon system configuration utilized for these measurements is described
Dynamic rotor mode in antiferromagnetic nanoparticles
We present experimental, numerical, and theoretical evidence for a new mode
of antiferromagnetic dynamics in nanoparticles. Elastic neutron scattering
experiments on 8 nm particles of hematite display a loss of diffraction
intensity with temperature, the intensity vanishing around 150 K. However, the
signal from inelastic neutron scattering remains above that temperature,
indicating a magnetic system in constant motion. In addition, the precession
frequency of the inelastic magnetic signal shows an increase above 100 K.
Numerical Langevin simulations of spin dynamics reproduce all measured neutron
data and reveal that thermally activated spin canting gives rise to a new type
of coherent magnetic precession mode. This "rotor" mode can be seen as a
high-temperature version of superparamagnetism and is driven by exchange
interactions between the two magnetic sublattices. The frequency of the rotor
mode behaves in fair agreement with a simple analytical model, based on a high
temperature approximation of the generally accepted Hamiltonian of the system.
The extracted model parameters, as the magnetic interaction and the axial
anisotropy, are in excellent agreement with results from Mossbauer
spectroscopy
Rate theory for correlated processes: Double-jumps in adatom diffusion
We study the rate of activated motion over multiple barriers, in particular
the correlated double-jump of an adatom diffusing on a missing-row
reconstructed Platinum (110) surface. We develop a Transition Path Theory,
showing that the activation energy is given by the minimum-energy trajectory
which succeeds in the double-jump. We explicitly calculate this trajectory
within an effective-medium molecular dynamics simulation. A cusp in the
acceptance region leads to a sqrt{T} prefactor for the activated rate of
double-jumps. Theory and numerical results agree
Low-loss photonic crystal fibers for transmission systems and their dispersion properties
We report on a single-mode photonic crystal fiber with attenuation and
effective area at 1550 nm of 0.48 dB/km and 130 square-micron, respectively.
This is, to our knowledge, the lowest loss reported for a PCF not made from VAD
prepared silica and at the same time the largest effective area for a low-loss
(< 1 dB/km) PCF. We briefly discuss the future applications of PCFs for data
transmission and show for the first time, both numerically and experimentally,
how the group velocity dispersion is related to the mode field diameterComment: 5 pages including 3 figures + 1 table. Accepted for Opt. Expres
A real-space grid implementation of the Projector Augmented Wave method
A grid-based real-space implementation of the Projector Augmented Wave (PAW)
method of P. E. Blochl [Phys. Rev. B 50, 17953 (1994)] for Density Functional
Theory (DFT) calculations is presented. The use of uniform 3D real-space grids
for representing wave functions, densities and potentials allows for flexible
boundary conditions, efficient multigrid algorithms for solving Poisson and
Kohn-Sham equations, and efficient parallelization using simple real-space
domain-decomposition. We use the PAW method to perform all-electron
calculations in the frozen core approximation, with smooth valence wave
functions that can be represented on relatively coarse grids. We demonstrate
the accuracy of the method by calculating the atomization energies of twenty
small molecules, and the bulk modulus and lattice constants of bulk aluminum.
We show that the approach in terms of computational efficiency is comparable to
standard plane-wave methods, but the memory requirements are higher.Comment: 13 pages, 3 figures, accepted for publication in Physical Review
Critical manifold of the kagome-lattice Potts model
Any two-dimensional infinite regular lattice G can be produced by tiling the
plane with a finite subgraph B of G; we call B a basis of G. We introduce a
two-parameter graph polynomial P_B(q,v) that depends on B and its embedding in
G. The algebraic curve P_B(q,v) = 0 is shown to provide an approximation to the
critical manifold of the q-state Potts model, with coupling v = exp(K)-1,
defined on G. This curve predicts the phase diagram both in the ferromagnetic
(v>0) and antiferromagnetic (v<0) regions. For larger bases B the
approximations become increasingly accurate, and we conjecture that P_B(q,v) =
0 provides the exact critical manifold in the limit of infinite B. Furthermore,
for some lattices G, or for the Ising model (q=2) on any G, P_B(q,v) factorises
for any choice of B: the zero set of the recurrent factor then provides the
exact critical manifold. In this sense, the computation of P_B(q,v) can be used
to detect exact solvability of the Potts model on G.
We illustrate the method for the square lattice, where the Potts model has
been exactly solved, and the kagome lattice, where it has not. For the square
lattice we correctly reproduce the known phase diagram, including the
antiferromagnetic transition and the singularities in the Berker-Kadanoff
phase. For the kagome lattice, taking the smallest basis with six edges we
recover a well-known (but now refuted) conjecture of F.Y. Wu. Larger bases
provide successive improvements on this formula, giving a natural extension of
Wu's approach. The polynomial predictions are in excellent agreement with
numerical computations. For v>0 the accuracy of the predicted critical coupling
v_c is of the order 10^{-4} or 10^{-5} for the 6-edge basis, and improves to
10^{-6} or 10^{-7} for the largest basis studied (with 36 edges).Comment: 31 pages, 12 figure
Critical behavior of loops and biconnected clusters on fractals of dimension d < 2
We solve the O(n) model, defined in terms of self- and mutually avoiding
loops coexisting with voids, on a 3-simplex fractal lattice, using an exact
real space renormalization group technique. As the density of voids is
decreased, the model shows a critical point, and for even lower densities of
voids, there is a dense phase showing power-law correlations, with critical
exponents that depend on n, but are independent of density. At n=-2 on the
dilute branch, a trivalent vertex defect acts as a marginal perturbation. We
define a model of biconnected clusters which allows for a finite density of
such vertices. As n is varied, we get a line of critical points of this
generalized model, emanating from the point of marginality in the original loop
model. We also study another perturbation of adding local bending rigidity to
the loop model, and find that it does not affect the universality class.Comment: 14 pages,10 figure
Computational Design of Chemical Nanosensors: Metal Doped Carbon Nanotubes
We use computational screening to systematically investigate the use of
transition metal doped carbon nanotubes for chemical gas sensing. For a set of
relevant target molecules (CO, NH3, H2S) and the main components of air (N2,
O2, H2O), we calculate the binding energy and change in conductance upon
adsorption on a metal atom occupying a vacancy of a (6,6) carbon nanotube.
Based on these descriptors, we identify the most promising dopant candidates
for detection of a given target molecule. From the fractional coverage of the
metal sites in thermal equilibrium with air, we estimate the change in the
nanotube resistance per doping site as a function of the target molecule
concentration assuming charge transport in the diffusive regime. Our analysis
points to Ni-doped nanotubes as candidates for CO sensors working under typical
atmospheric conditions
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