Sound modes in composite incommensurate crystals

We propose a simple phenomenological model describing composite crystals, constructed from two parallel sets of periodic inter-penetrating chains. In the harmonic approximation and neglecting thermal fluctuations we find the eigenmodes of the system. It is shown that at high frequencies there are two longitudinal sound modes with standard attenuation, while in the low frequency region there is one propagating sound mode and an over-damped phase mode. The crossover between these two regions is analyzed numerically and the dynamical structure factor is calculated. It is shown that the qualitative features of the experimentally observed spectra can be consistently described by our model.Comment: 12 pages, 2 eps figures, Revtex, accepted to European Physics Journal B, (2002

Efficiency and spectrum of internal gamma-ray burst shocks

We present an analysis of the Internal Shock Model of GRBs, where gamma-rays are produced by internal shocks within a relativistic wind. We show that observed GRB characteristics impose stringent constraints on wind and source parameters. We find that a significant fraction, of order 20 %, of the wind kinetic energy can be converted to radiation, provided the distribution of Lorentz factors within the wind has a large variance and provided the minimum Lorentz factor is higher than 10^(2.5)L_(52)^(2/9), where L=10^(52)L_(52)erg/s is the wind luminosity. For a high, >10 %, efficiency wind, spectral energy breaks in the 0.1 to 1 MeV range are obtained for sources with dynamical time R/c < 1 ms, suggesting a possible explanation for the observed clustering of spectral break energies in this range. The lower limit to wind Lorenz factor and the upper limit, around (R/10^7 cm)^(-5/6) MeV to observed break energies are set by Thomson optical depth due to electron positron pairs produced by synchrotron photons. Natural consequences of the model are absence of bursts with peak emission energy significantly exceeding 1 MeV, and existence of low luminosity bursts with low, 1 keV to 10 keV, break energies.Comment: 10 pages, 5 ps-figures. Expanded discussion of magnetic field and electron energy fraction. Accepted for publication in Astrophysical Journa

Resonance effects due to the excitation of surface Josephson plasma waves in layered superconductors

We analytically examine the excitation of surface Josephson plasma waves (SJPWs) in periodically-modulated layered superconductors. We show that the absorption of the incident electromagnetic wave can be substantially increased, for certain incident angles, due to the resonance excitation of SJPWs. The absorption increase is accompanied by the decrease of the specular reflection. Moreover, we find the physical conditions guaranteeing the total absorption (and total suppression of the specular reflection). These conditions can be realized for Bi2212 superconductor films.Comment: 17 pages, 3 figure

Paramagnetic anisotropic magnetoresistance in thin films of SrRuO3

SrRuO3 is an itinerant ferromagnet and in its thin film form when grown on miscut SrTiO3 it has Tc of ~ 150 K and strong uniaxial anisotropy. We measured both the Hall effect and the magnetoresistance (MR) of the films as a function of the angle between the applied field and the normal to the films at temperatures above Tc. We extracted the extraordinary Hall effect that is proportional to the perpendicular component of the magnetization and thus the MR for each angle of the applied field could be correlated with the magnitude and orientation of the induced magnetization. We successfully fit the MR data with a second order magnetization expansion, which indicates large anisotropic MR in the paramagnetic state. The extremum values of resistivity are not obtained for currents parallel or perpendicular to the magnetization, probably due to the crystal symmetry.Comment: 3 pages, 3 figure

Dynamic Fluctuation Phenomena in Double Membrane Films

Dynamics of double membrane films is investigated in the long-wavelength limit including the overdamped squeezing mode. We demonstrate that thermal fluctuations essentially modify the character of the mode due to its nonlinear coupling to the transversal shear hydrodynamic mode. The corresponding Green function acquires as a function of the frequency a cut along the imaginary semi-axis. Fluctuations lead to increasing the attenuation of the squeezing mode it becomes larger than the `bare' value.Comment: 7 pages, Revte