Hydrogen molecule in a magnetic field: The lowest states of the Pi manifold and the global ground state of the parallel configuration

The electronic structure of the hydrogen molecule in a magnetic field is investigated for parallel internuclear and magnetic field axes. The lowest states of the $\Pi$ manifold are studied for spin singlet and triplet$(M_s = -1)$ as well as gerade and ungerade parity for a broad range of field strengths $0 \leq B \leq 100 a.u.$ For both states with gerade parity we observe a monotonous decrease in the dissociation energy with increasing field strength up to $B = 0.1 a.u.$ and metastable states with respect to the dissociation into two H atoms occur for a certain range of field strengths. For both states with ungerade parity we observe a strong increase in the dissociation energy with increasing field strength above some critical field strength $B_c$. As a major result we determine the transition field strengths for the crossings among the lowest $^1\Sigma_g$, $^3\Sigma_u$ and $^3\Pi_u$ states. The global ground state for $B \lesssim 0.18 a.u.$ is the strongly bound $^1\Sigma_g$ state. The crossings of the $^1\Sigma_g$ with the $^3\Sigma_u$ and $^3\Pi_u$ state occur at $B \approx 0.18$ and $B \approx0.39 a.u.$, respectively. The transition between the $^3\Sigma_u$ and $^3\Pi_u$ state occurs at $B \approx 12.3 a.u.$ Therefore, the global ground state of the hydrogen molecule for the parallel configuration is the unbound $^3\Sigma_u$ state for $0.18 \lesssim B \lesssim 12.3 a.u.$ The ground state for $B \gtrsim 12.3 a.u.$ is the strongly bound $^3\Pi_u$ state. This result is of great relevance to the chemistry in the atmospheres of magnetic white dwarfs and neutron stars.Comment: submitted to Physical Review

Exchange and correlation energies of ground states of atoms and molecules in strong magnetic fields

Using a Hartree-Fock mesh method and a configuration interaction approach based on a generalized Gaussian basis set we investigate the behaviour of the exchange and correlation energies of small atoms and molecules, namely th e helium and lithium atom as well as the hydrogen molecule, in the presence of a magnetic field covering the regime B=0-100a.u. In general the importance of the exchange energy to the binding properties of at oms or molecules increases strongly with increasing field strength. This is due to the spin-flip transitions and in particular due to the contributions of the tightly bound hydrogenic state s which are involved in the corresponding ground states of different symmetries. In contrast to the exchange energy the correlation energy becomes less relevant with increasing field strength. This holds for the individual configurations constituting the ground state and for the crossovers of the global ground state.Comment: 4 Figures acc.f.publ.in Phys.Rev.

Advanced modulation technology development for earth station demodulator applications. Coded modulation system development

A jointly optimized coded modulation system is described which was designed, built, and tested by COMSAT Laboratories for NASA LeRC which provides a bandwidth efficiency of 2 bits/s/Hz at an information rate of 160 Mbit/s. A high speed rate 8/9 encoder with a Viterbi decoder and an Octal PSK modem are used to achieve this. The BER performance is approximately 1 dB from the theoretically calculated value for this system at a BER of 5 E-7 under nominal conditions. The system operates in burst mode for downlink applications and tests have demonstrated very little degradation in performance with frequency and level offset. Unique word miss rate measurements were conducted which demonstrate reliable acquisition at low values of Eb/No. Codec self tests have verified the performance of this subsystem in a stand alone mode. The codec is capable of operation at a 200 Mbit/s information rate as demonstrated using a codec test set which introduces noise digitally. The measured performance is within 0.2 dB of the computer simulated predictions. A gate array implementation of the most time critical element of the high speed Viterbi decoder was completed. This gate array add-compare-select chip significantly reduces the power consumption and improves the manufacturability of the decoder. This chip has general application in the implementation of high speed Viterbi decoders

KM3NeT:a large underwater neutrino telescope in the Mediterranean Sea

High energy neutrinos produced in astrophysical processes will allow for a new way of studying the universe. In order to detect the expected flux of high energy neutrinos from specific astrophysical sources, neutrino telescopes of a scale of a km^3 of water will be needed. A Northern Hemisphere detector is being proposed to be sited in a deep area of the Mediterranean Sea. This detector will provide complimentary sky coverage to the IceCube detector being built at the South Pole. The three neutrino telescope projects in the Mediterranean (ANTARES, NEMO and NESTOR) are partners in an effort to design, and build such a km^3 size neutrino telescope, the KM3NeT. The EU is funding a 3-year Design Study; the status of the Design Study is presented and some technical issues are discussed.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, Prepared for the 10th International Conference on Astroparticle and Underground Physics (TAUP 2007), Sendai, Japan, 11-15 Sep 200

Helium in superstrong magnetic fields

We investigate the helium atom embedded in a superstrong magnetic field gamma=100-10000 au. All effects due to the finite nuclear mass for vanishing pseudomomentum are taken into account. The influence and the magnitude of the different finite mass effects are analyzed and discussed. Within our full configuration interaction approach calculations are performed for the magnetic quantum numbers M=0,-1,-2,-3, singlet and triplet states, as well as positive and negative z parities. Up to six excited states for each symmetry are studied. With increasing field strength the number of bound states decreases rapidly and we remain with a comparatively small number of bound states for gamma=10^4 au within the symmetries investigated here.Comment: 16 pages, including 14 eps figures, submitted to Phys. Rev.

Normal origamis of Mumford curves

An origami (also known as square-tiled surface) is a Riemann surface covering a torus with at most one branch point. Lifting two generators of the fundamental group of the punctured torus decomposes the surface into finitely many unit squares. By varying the complex structure of the torus one obtains easily accessible examples of Teichm\"uller curves in the moduli space of Riemann surfaces. The p-adic analogues of Riemann surfaces are Mumford curves. A p-adic origami is defined as a covering of Mumford curves with at most one branch point, where the bottom curve has genus one. A classification of all normal non-trivial p-adic origamis is presented and used to calculate some invariants. These can be used to describe p-adic origamis in terms of glueing squares.Comment: 21 pages, to appear in manuscripta mathematica (Springer

Electromagnetic transitions of the helium atom in superstrong magnetic fields

We investigate the electromagnetic transition probabilities for the helium atom embedded in a superstrong magnetic field taking into account the finite nuclear mass. We address the regime \gamma=100-10000 a.u. studying several excited states for each symmetry, i.e. for the magnetic quantum numbers 0,-1,-2,-3, positive and negative z parity and singlet and triplet symmetry. The oscillator strengths as a function of the magnetic field, and in particular the influence of the finite nuclear mass on the oscillator strengths are shown and analyzed.Comment: 10 pages, 8 figure