The Nature of Interstellar Gas toward the Pleiades Revealed in Absorption Lines

We present high-resolution, high signal to noise absorption-line observations of CN, Ca II, Ca I, CH^+, and CH along twenty lines of sight toward members of the Pleiades. The acquired data enable the most detailed study to date of the interaction between cluster stars and the surrounding interstellar gas. Total equivalent widths are consistent with previous investigations except where weaker features are detected owing to our greater sensitivity. Mean b-values for the molecular species indicate that toward most of the Pleiades CH is associated with the production of CH^+ rather than CN. An analysis of radial velocities reveals a kinematic distinction between ionized atomic gas and molecular and neutral gas. Molecular components are found with velocities in the local standard of rest of either ~ +7 km s^-1 or ~ +9.5 km s^-1, with the higher-velocity components associated with the strongest absorption. Atomic gas traced by Ca II shows a strong central component at v_LSR ~ +7 km s^-1 exhibiting velocity gradients indicative of cloud-cluster interactions. Gas density estimates derived from measured CH/CH^+ column density ratios show good agreement with those inferred from H_2 rotational populations, yielding typical values of n ~ 50 cm^-3. Our models do not include the important time-dependent effects on CH^+ formation which may ultimately be needed to extract physical conditions in these clouds.Comment: 18 pages, 10 figures, emulateapj style, Accepted for publication in Ap

Yearling Beef Cattle Grazing Diverse Summer Annual Swards

Utilizing summer annuals is often regarded as “a breakeven proposition at best” due to high establishment costs. This study investigated using botanical diversity to increase forage yield or animal performance to improve the economic feasibility of grazing summer annual forages in western Kentucky, USA. Sorghum-sudangrass (Sorghum bicolor x S. bicolor spp. drummondii)-based treatments included a monoculture, a three-species mixture (two grasses, one legume), and a 12-species mixture (five grasses, four legumes, two brassicas, and one forb). Angus-cross yearling beef calves (329, 366, and 297 kg in 2017, 2018, and 2019, respectively) grazed summer annuals in 2017-2019 for an average of 40 days each year without supplementation. Pastures were stocked when forage was approximately 1 m tall and calves were removed when forage was 2-2.5 m tall (seedheads present). In all years, forage dry matter yield was not different between treatments (p \u3e 0.85) and both mixtures were dominated by sorghum-sudangrass. In 2017 (p \u3c 0.03) and 2019 (p \u3c 0.03), calves grazing the 12-species mixture had lower average daily gains (ADG) than the monoculture and 3-species mixture, while there was no difference in 2018 (p \u3e 0.3). Average daily gains were suboptimal for stocker calves in all years (0.75, 0.01, 0.54 kg day-1 in 2017, 2018, and 2019). The extremely low ADG in 2018 was likely a result of stocking pastures late in the season when grasses were at physiological maturity. Additional species increased seed cost but did not contribute significantly to forage production and did not result in increased animal production. Unless greater forage yield or livestock gains are attained, planting mixtures may not provide any economic benefit. However, adjusting seeding rates to favor less dominant species may provide a more accurate representation of species diversity manipulation effects on forage and livestock production

Quantum Interference on the Kagom\'e Lattice

We study quantum interference effects due to electron motion on the Kagom\'e lattice in a perpendicular magnetic field. These effects arise from the interference between phase factors associated with different electron closed-paths. From these we compute, analytically and numerically, the superconducting-normal phase boundary for Kagom\'e superconducting wire networks and Josephson junction arrays. We use an analytical approach to analyze the relationship between the interference and the complex structure present in the phase boundary, including the origin of the overall and fine structure. Our results are obtained by exactly summing over one thousand billion billions ($\sim 10^{21}$) closed paths, each one weighted by its corresponding phase factor representing the net flux enclosed by each path. We expect our computed mean-field phase diagrams to compare well with several proposed experiments.Comment: 9 pages, Revtex, 3 figures upon reques

Geometrical frustration induced (semi-)metal to insulator transition

We study the low-energy properties of the geometrically frustrated Hubbard model on a three-dimensional pyrochlore lattice and a two-dimensional checkerboard lattice on the basis of the renormalization group method and mean field analysis. It is found that in the half-filling case, a (semi-)metal to insulator transition (MIT) occurs. Also, in the insulating phase, which has a spin gap, the spin rotational symmetry is not broken, while charge ordering exists. The results are applied to the description of the MIT observed in the pyrochlore system ${\rm Tl_2Ru_2O_7}$.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figure

Aging in a topological spin glass

We have examined the nonconventional spin glass phase of the 2-dimensional kagome antiferromagnet (H_3 O) Fe_3 (SO_4)_2 (OH)_6 by means of ac and dc magnetic measurements. The frequency dependence of the ac susceptibility peak is characteristic of a critical slowing down at Tg ~ 18K. At fixed temperature below Tg, aging effects are found which obey the same scaling law as in spin glasses or polymers. However, in clear contrast with conventional spin glasses, aging is remarkably insensitive to temperature changes. This particular type of dynamics is discussed in relation with theoretical predictions for highly frustrated non-disordered systems.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

Long range Neel order in the triangular Heisenberg model

We have studied the Heisenberg model on the triangular lattice using several Quantum Monte Carlo (QMC) techniques (up to 144 sites), and exact diagonalization (ED) (up to 36 sites). By studying the spin gap as a function of the system size we have obtained a robust evidence for a gapless spectrum, confirming the existence of long range Neel order. Our best estimate is that in the thermodynamic limit the order parameter m= 0.41 +/- 0.02 is reduced by about 59% from its classical value and the ground state energy per site is e0=-0.5458 +/- 0.0001 in unit of the exchange coupling. We have identified the important ground state correlations at short distance.Comment: 4 pages, RevTeX + 4 encapsulated postscript figure

Spin chirality on a two-dimensional frustrated lattice

The collective behavior of interacting magnetic moments can be strongly influenced by the topology of the underlying lattice. In geometrically frustrated spin systems, interesting chiral correlations may develop that are related to the spin arrangement on triangular plaquettes. We report a study of the spin chirality on a two-dimensional geometrically frustrated lattice. Our new chemical synthesis methods allow us to produce large single crystal samples of KFe3(OH)6(SO4)2, an ideal Kagome lattice antiferromagnet. Combined thermodynamic and neutron scattering measurements reveal that the phase transition to the ordered ground-state is unusual. At low temperatures, application of a magnetic field induces a transition between states with different non-trivial spin-textures.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figure

Superfluids and Supersolids on Frustrated 2D Lattices

We study the ground state of hard-core bosons with nearest-neighbor hopping and nearest-neighbor interactions on the triangular and Kagom\'e lattices by mapping to a system of spins ($S={1\over2}$), which we analyze using spin-wave theory. We find that the both lattices display superfluid and supersolid (a coexistence of superfluid and solid) order as the parameters and filling are varied. Quantum fluctuations seem large enough in the Kagom\'e system to raise the interesting possibility of a disordered ground state.Comment: Latex format, 24 figures available by email upon request. Submitted to Physical Review