19,402 research outputs found
Laser net - A concept for monitoring wingtip vortices on runways
Network of laser beams passes over runway to photodetectors on opposite side, magnitude of beam deflection indicates magnitude of density gradient encountered. Visual display of beam deflections affects go, no-go decision for takeoff and landing
A van der Waals density functional theory study of poly(vinylidene difluoride) crystalline phases
Ferroelectric polymers, such as poly(vinylidene difluoride) (PVDF), have many potential applications in flexible electronic devices. PVDF has six experimentally observed polymorphs, three of which are ferroelectric. In this work we use density functional theory to investigate the structural properties, energetics and polarisation of the stable α-phase, its ferroelectric analogue, the δ-phase, and the β-phase, which has the best ferroelectric properties. The results from a variety of exchange and correlation functionals were compared and it was found that van der Waals (vdW) interactions have an important effect on the calculated crystal structures and energetics, with the vdW-DF functional giving the best agreement with experimental lattice parameters. The spontaneous polarisation was found to strongly correlate with the unit cell volumes, which depend on the functional used. While the relative phase energies were not strongly dependent on the functional, the cohesive energies were significantly underestimated using the PBE functional. The inclusion of vdW interactions is, therefore, important to obtain the correct lattice structures, polarisation and energetics of PVDF polymorphs
Thermodynamic Geometry of the Born-Infeld-anti-de Sitter black holes
Thermodynamic geometry is applied to the Born-Infeld-anti-de Sitter black
hole (BIAdS) in the four dimensions, which is a nonlinear generalization of the
Reissner-Norstr\"Aom-AdS black hole (RNAdS). We compute the Weinhold as well as
the Ruppeiner scalar curvature and find that the singular points are not the
same with the ones obtained using the heat capacity. Legendre-invariant metric
proposed by Quevedo and the metric obtained by using the free energy as the
thermodynamic potential are obtained and the corresponding scalar curvatures
diverge at the Davies points.Comment: Latex,19 pages,14 figure
Astronomy using basic Mark 2 very long baseline interferometry
Two experiments were performed in April and September 1976 to determine precise positions of radio sources using conventional Mark 2 VLBI techniques. Four stations in the continental United States observed at a wavelength of 18 cm. The recording bandwidth was 2 MHz. The preliminary results using analyses of fringe rate and delay are discussed and the source positions compared with the results of other measurements
Orbital Separation Amplification in Fragile Binaries with Evolved Components
The secular stellar mass-loss causes an amplification of the orbital separation in fragile, common proper motion, binary systems with separations of the order of 1000 A.U. In these systems, companions evolve as two independent coeval stars as they experience negligible mutual tidal interactions or mass transfer. We present models for how post-main sequence mass-loss statistically distorts the frequency distribution of separations in fragile binaries. These models demonstrate the expected increase in orbital seapration resulting from stellar mass-loss, as well as a perturbation of associated orbital parameters. Comparisons between our models and observations resulting from the Luyten survey of wide visual binaries, specifically those containing MS and white-dwarf pairs, demonstrate a good agreement between the calculated and the observed angular separation distribution functions
Structure determination from powder data : Mogul and CASTEP
When solving the crystal structure of complex molecules from powder data, accurately locating the global minimum can be challenging, particularly where the number of internal degrees of freedom is large. The program Mogul provides a convenient means to access typical torsion angle ranges for fragments related to the molecule of interest. The impact that the application of modal torsion angle constraints has on the structure determination process of two structure solution attempts using DASH is presented. Once solved, accurate refinement of a molecular structure against powder data can also present challenges. Geometry optimisation using density functional theory in CASTEP is shown to be an effective means to locate hydrogen atom positions reliably and return a more accurate description of molecular conformation and intermolecular interactions than global optimisation and Rietveld refinement alone
Physical Properties of Metallic Antiferromagnetic CaCo{1.86}As2 Single Crystals
We report studies of CaCo{1.86}As2 single crystals. The electronic structure
is probed by angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES) measurements of
CaCo{1.86}As2 and by full-potential linearized augmented-plane-wave
calculations for the supercell Ca8Co15As16 (CaCo{1.88}As2). Our XRD crystal
structure refinement is consistent with the previous combined refinement of
x-ray and neutron powder diffraction data showing a collapsed-tetragonal
ThCr2Si2-type structure with 7(1)% vacancies on the Co sites corresponding to
the composition CaCo{1.86}As2 [D. G. Quirinale et al., Phys. Rev. B 88, 174420
(2013)]. The anisotropic magnetic susceptibility chi(T) data are consistent
with the magnetic neutron diffraction data of Quirianale et al. that
demonstrate the presence of A-type collinear antiferromagnetic order below the
Neel temperature TN = 52(1) K with the easy axis being the tetragonal c axis.
However, no clear evidence from the resistivity rho(T) and heat capacity Cp(T)
data for a magnetic transition at TN is observed. A metallic ground state is
demonstrated from band calculations and the rho(T), Cp(T) and ARPES data, and
spin-polarized calculations indicate a competition between the A-type AFM and
FM ground states. The Cp(T) data exhibit a large Sommerfield electronic
coefficient reflecting a large density of states at the Fermi energy D(EF),
consistent with the band structure calculations which also indicate a large
D(EF) arising from Co 3d bands. At 1.8 K the M(H) data for H|| c exhibit a
well-defined first-order spin-flop transition at an applied field of 3.5 T. The
small ordered moment of 0.3 muB/Co obtained from the M(H) data at low T, the
large exchange enhancement of chi and the lack of a self-consistent
interpretation of the chi(T) and M(H,T) data in terms of a local moment
Heisenberg model together indicate that the magnetism of CaCo{1.86}As2 is
itinerant.Comment: 18 pages, 15 figures, 4 tables, 61 references; v2: extended the fits
of experimental data by additional electronic structure calculations;
published versio
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