25,465 research outputs found
Determinants of poverty in Kenya : a household level analysis
poverty;statistical analysis;measurement;Kenya;household surveys
Dynamics of the molecular orientation field coupled to ions in two-dimensional ferroelectric liquid crystals
Molecular orientation fluctuations in ferroelectric smectic liquid crystals
produce space charges, due to the divergence of the spontaneous polarization.
These space charges interact with mobile ions, so that one must consider the
coupled dynamics of the orientation and ionic degrees of freedom. Previous
theory and light scattering experiments on thin free-standing films of
ferroelectric liquid crystals have not included this coupling, possibly
invalidating their quantitative conclusions. We consider the most important
case of very slow ionic dynamics, compared to rapid orientational fluctuations,
and focus on the use of a short electric field pulse to quench orientational
fluctuations. We find that the resulting change in scattered light intensity
must include a term due to the quasistatic ionic configuration, which has
previously been ignored. In addition to developing the general theory, we
present a simple model to demonstrate the role of this added term
Charge transport in nanoscale vertical organic semiconductor pillar devices
We report charge transport measurements in nanoscale vertical pillar
structures incorporating ultrathin layers of the organic semiconductor
poly(3-hexylthiophene)(P3HT). P3HT layers with thickness down to 5 nm are
gently top-contacted using wedging transfer, yielding highly reproducible,
robust nanoscale junctions carrying high current densities (up to
A/m). Current-voltage data modeling demonstrates excellent hole injection.
This work opens up the pathway towards nanoscale, ultrashort-channel organic
transistors for high-frequency and high-current-density operation.Comment: 30 pages, 8 figures, 1 tabl
A new catalog of photometric redshifts in the Hubble Deep Field
Using the newly available infrared images of the Hubble Deep Field in the J,
H, and K bands and an optimal photometric method, we have refined a technique
to estimate the redshifts of 1067 galaxies. A detailed comparison of our
results with the spectroscopic redshifts in those cases where the latter are
available shows that this technique gives very good results for bright enough
objects (AB(8140) < 26.0). From a study of the distribution of residuals
(Dz(rms)/(1+z) ~ 0.1 at all redshifts) we conclude that the observed errors are
mainly due to cosmic variance. This very important result allows for the
assessment of errors in quantities to be directly or indirectly measured from
the catalog. We present some of the statistical properties of the ensemble of
galaxies in the catalog, and finish by presenting a list of bright
high-redshift (z ~ 5) candidates extracted from our catalog, together with
recent spectroscopic redshift determinations confirming that two of them are at
z=5.34 and z=5.60.Comment: 28 pages, 12PS+4JPEG figures, aaspp style. Accepted for publication
in The Astrophysical Journal. The catalog, together with a clickable map of
the HDF, Tables 4 and 5 (HTML, LaTeX or ASCII format), and the figures, are
available at http://bat.phys.unsw.edu.au/~fsoto/hdfcat.htm
Cooling Flow Star Formation and the Apparent Stellar Ages of Elliptical Galaxies
Observational constraints and theoretical arguments indicate that cooled
interstellar gas in bright elliptical galaxies forms into a young stellar
population throughout the region within the half-light radius. The young
population has a bottom-heavy, but optically luminous IMF extending to 1 - 2
M_sun. When the colors and spectral features of this young population are
combined with those of the underlying old stellar population, the apparent ages
are significantly reduced, similar to the relatively young apparent ages
observed in many ellipticals. Galactic mergers are not required to resupply
young stars. The sensitivity of continuous star formation to L_B and L_x/L_B is
likely to account for the observed spread in apparent ages among elliptical
galaxies. Local star formation is accompanied by enhanced stellar H_beta
equivalent widths, stronger optical emission lines, enhanced thermal X-ray
emission and lower apparent temperatures in the hot gas. The young stars should
cause M/L to vary with galactic radius, perturbing the fundamental plane
occupied by the old stars.Comment: 6 pages with 2 figures; accepted by Astrophysical Journal Letter
Role of electrostatics in the texture of islands in free standing ferroelectric liquid crystal films
Curved textures of ferroelectric smectic C* liquid crystals produce space
charge when they involve divergence of the spontaneous polarization field.
Impurity ions can partially screen this space charge, reducing long range
interactions to local ones. Through studies of the textures of islands on very
thin free-standing smectic films, we see evidence of this effect, in which
materials with a large spontaneous polarization have static structures
described by a large effective bend elastic constant. To address this issue, we
calculated the electrostatic free energy of a free standing film of
ferroelectric liquid crystal, showing how the screened coulomb interaction
contributes a term to the effective bend elastic constant, in the static long
wavelength limit. We report experiments which support the main features of this
model
Transport properties of a molecule embedded in an Aharonov-Bohm interferometer
We theoretically investigate the transport properties of a molecule embedded
in one arm of a mesoscopic Aharonov-Bohm interferometer. Due to the presence of
phonons the molecule level position () and the electron-electron
interaction () undergo a \emph{polaronic shift} which affects dramatically
the electronic transport through the molecular junction. When the
electron-phonon interaction is weak the linear conductance presents Fano-line
shapes as long as the direct channel between the electrodes is opened. The
observed Fano resonances in the linear conductance are originated from the
interference between the spin Kondo state and the direct path. For strong
enough electron-phonon interaction, the electron-electron interaction is
renormalized towards negative values, {\it i.e.} becomes effectively
attractive. This scenario favors fluctuations between the empty and doubly
occupied charge states and therefore promotes a charge Kondo effect. However,
the direct path between the contacts breaks the electron-hole symmetry which
can efficiently suppress this charge Kondo effect. Nevertheless, we show that a
proper tuning of the gate voltage is able to revive the Kondo resonance. Our
results are obtained by using the Numerical Renormalization approximation to
compute the electronic spectral function and the linear conductance.Comment: 17 pages, 12 figure
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