Compact and Broadband Microstrip-Line-Fed Modified Rhombus Slot Antenna

The printed microstrip-line-fed broadband rhombus slot antenna is investigated in this paper. With the use of the offset microstrip feed line and the corner-truncated protruded ground plane, the bandwidth enhancement and the slot size reduction for the proposed slot antenna can be obtained. The experimental results demonstrate that the impedance bandwidth for 10 dB return loss reaches 5210 MHz (108.2%, 2210-7420 MHz), which is about 2.67 times of a conventional microstrip-line-fed rhombus slot antenna. This bandwidth can provide with the wireless communication services operating in wireless local area network (WLAN) and worldwide interoperability for microwave access (WiMAX) bands. Under the use of the protruded ground plane, the slot size can be reduced by about 52%. Details of simulated and measured results are presented and discussed

Crystal growth and in-plane optical properties of Tl2_2Ba2_2Can−1_{n-1}Cun_nOx_x (n=1,2,3) superconductors

Single crystals of thallium-based cuprates with the general formula Tl$_{2}$Ba$_{2}$Ca$_{n-1}$Cu$_{n}$O$_{x}$(n=1,2,3) have been grown by the flux method. The superconducting transition temperatures determined by the ac magnetic susceptibility are 92 K, 109 K, and 119 K for n=1,2,3 respectively. X-ray diffraction measurements and EDX compositional analysis were described. We measured in-plane optical reflectance from room temperature down to 10 K, placing emphasis on Tl-2223. The reflectance roughly has a linear-frequency dependence above superconducting transition temperature, but displays a pronounced knee structure together with a dip-like feature at higher frequency below T$_c$. Correspondingly, the ratio of the reflectances below and above T$_{c}$ displays a maximum and a minimum near those feature frequencies. In particular, those features in Tl2223 appear at higher energy scale than Tl2212, and Tl2201. The optical data are analyzed in terms of spectral function. We discussed the physical consequences of the data in terms of both clean and dirty limit.Comment: 8 pages, 13 figures, to be published in Phys. Rev.

The asymmetric structure of the Galactic halo

Using the stellar photometry catalogue based on the latest data release (DR4) of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS), a study of the Galactic structure using star counts is carried out for selected areas of the sky. The sample areas are selected along a circle at a Galactic latitude of +60$^\circ$, and 10 strips of high Galactic latitude along different longitudes. Direct statistics of the data show that the surface densities of $\ell$ from $180^{\circ}$ to $360^{\circ}$ are systematically higher than those of $\ell$ from $0^{\circ}$ to $180^{\circ}$, defining a region of overdensity (in the direction of Virgo) and another one of underdensity (in the direction of Ursa Major) with respect to an axisymmetric model. It is shown by comparing the results from star counts in the $(g-r)$ colour that the density deviations are due to an asymmetry of the stellar density in the halo. Theoretical models for the surface density profile are built and star counts are performed using a triaxial halo of which the parameters are constrained by observational data. Two possible reasons for the asymmetric structure are discussed.Comment: 17 pages, 7 figures, 5 tables, MNRAS accepte

Isobaric yield ratio difference between the 140 AA MeV 58,64^{58, 64}Ni + 9^{9}Be reactions studied by antisymmetric molecular dynamics model

\item[Background] The isobaric yield ratio difference (IBD) method is found to be sensitive to the density difference of neutron-rich nucleus induced reaction around the Fermi energy. \item[Purpose] An investigation is performed to study the IBD results in the transport model. \item[Methods] The antisymmetric molecular dynamics (AMD) model plus the sequential decay model GEMINI are adopted to simulate the 140$A$ MeV $^{58, 64}$Ni + $^{9}$Be reactions. A relative small coalescence radius R$_c =$ 2.5 fm is used for the phase space at $t =$ 500 fm/c to form the hot fragment. Two limitations on the impact parameter ($b1 = 0 - 2$ fm and $b2 = 0 - 9$ fm) are used to study the effect of central collisions in IBD. \item[Results] The isobaric yield ratios (IYRs) for the large--$A$ fragments are found to be suppressed in the symmetric reaction. The IBD results for fragments with neutron-excess $I =$ 0 and 1 are obtained. A small difference is found in the IBDs with the $b1$ and $b2$ limitations in the AMD simulated reactions. The IBD with $b1$ and $b2$ are quite similar in the AMD + GEMINI simulated reactions. \item[Conclusions] The IBDs for the $I =$ 0 and 1 chains are mainly determined by the central collisions, which reflects the nuclear density in the core region of the reaction system. The increasing part of the IBD distribution is found due to the difference between the densities in the peripheral collisions of the reactions. The sequential decay process influences the IBD results. The AMD + GEMINI simulation can better reproduce the experimental IBDs than the AMD simulation.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figure

Universal scaling of the pion, kaon and proton pTp_{\rm{T}} spectra in Pb-Pb collisions at 2.76 TeV

With the experimental data collected by the ALICE collaboration in Pb-Pb collisions at a center-of-mass energy per nucleon pair 2.76 TeV for six different centralities (0-5$\%$, 5-10$\%$, 10-20$\%$, 20-40$\%$, 40-60$\%$ and 60-80$\%$), we investigate the scaling property of the pion, kaon and proton transverse momentum ($p_{\rm{T}}$) spectra at these centralities. We show that in the low $p_{\rm{T}}$ region with $p_{\rm T} \leq$ 2.75 (3.10 and 2.35) GeV/c the pion (kaon and proton) spectra exhibit a scaling behaviour independent of the centrality of the collisions. This scaling behaviour arises when these spectra are presented in terms of a suitable variable, $z=p_{\rm{T}}/K$. The scaling parameter $K$ is determined by the quality factor method and is parameterized by $a \langle N_{\rm{part}}\rangle^{b}$, where $\langle N_{\rm{part}}\rangle$ is the average value of the number of participating nucleons, $a$ and $b$ are free parameters, $b$ characterizes the rate at which $\textrm{ln} K$ changes with $\textrm{ln} \langle N_{\rm{part}}\rangle$. The values of $b$ for pions and kaons are consistent within uncertainties, while they are smaller than that for protons. In the high $p_{\rm{T}}$ region, due to the suppression of the spectra, a violation of the proposed scaling is observed going from central to peripheral collisions. The more peripheral the collisions are, the more clearly violated the proposed scaling becomes. In the framework of the colour string percolation model, we argue that the pions, kaons and protons originate from the fragmentation of clusters which are formed by strings overlapping and the cluster's fragmentation functions are different for different hadrons. The scaling behaviour of the pion, kaon and proton spectra in the low $p_{\rm T}$ region can be simultaneously explained by the colour string percolation model in a qualitative way.Comment: 15 pages, 6 figures, accepted by Nucl. Phys.

Detection of X-ray periodicity from a new eclipsing polar candidate XGPS-I J183251-100106

We report the results from a detailed analysis of an archival XMM-Newton observation of the X-ray source XGPS-I J183251-100106, which has been suggested as a promising magnetic cataclysmic variable candidate based on its optical properties. A single periodic signal of 1.5 hrs is detected from all EPIC cameras on board XMM-Newton. The phase-averaged X-ray spectrum can be well-modeled with a thermal bremsstrahlung of a temperature kT~50 keV. Both X-ray spectral and temporal behavior of this system suggest it as a eclipsing cataclysmic variable of AM Herculis (or polar) type.Comment: 15 pages, 6 figures, accepted for publication in Ap

Majorana Fermions and Non-Abelian Statistics in Three Dimensions

We show that three dimensional superconductors, described within a Bogoliubov de Gennes framework can have zero energy bound states associated with pointlike topological defects. The Majorana fermions associated with these modes have non-Abelian exchange statistics, despite the fact that the braid group is trivial in three dimensions. This can occur because the defects are associated with an orientation that can undergo topologically nontrivial rotations. A new feature of three dimensional systems is that there are "braidless" operations in which it is possible to manipulate the groundstate associated with a set of defects without moving or measuring them. To illustrate these effects we analyze specific architectures involving topological insulators and superconductors.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, published versio