Josephson junction between anisotropic superconductors

The sin-Gordon equation for Josephson junctions with arbitrary misaligned anisotropic banks is derived. As an application, the problem of Josephson vortices at twin planes of a YBCO-like material is considered. It is shown that for an arbitrary orientation of these vortices relative to the crystal axes of the banks, the junctions should experience a mechanical torque which is evaluated. This torque and its angular dependence may, in principle, be measured in small fields, since the flux penetration into twinned crystals begins with nucleation of Josephson vortices at twin planes.Comment: 6 page

Modular Invariant Gaugino Condensation in the Presence of an Anomalous U(1)

Starting from the previously constructed effective supergravity theory below the scale of U(1) breaking in orbifold compactifications of the weakly coupled heterotic string, we study the effective theory below the scale of supersymmetry breaking by gaugino and matter condensation in a hidden sector. Issues we address include vacuum stability, soft supersymmetry-breaking masses in the observable sector, and the masses of the various moduli fields, including those associated with flat directions at the U(1)-breaking scale, and of their fermionic superpartners. The consistent treatment of U(1) breaking together with condensation yields qualitatively new results.Comment: 73 pages, full postscript also available from http://phyweb.lbl.gov/theorygroup/papers/53960.p

Self-Organized Criticality Effect on Stability: Magneto-Thermal Oscillations in a Granular YBCO Superconductor

We show that the self-organized criticality of the Bean's state in each of the grains of a granular superconductor results in magneto-thermal oscillations preceding a series of subsequent flux jumps. We find that the frequency of these oscillations is proportional to the external magnetic field sweep rate and is inversely proportional to the square root of the heat capacity. We demonstrate experimentally and theoretically the universality of this dependence that is mainly influenced by the granularity of the superconductor.Comment: submitted to Physical Review Letters, 4 pages, RevTeX, 4 figures available as uufile

Decoding the matrix: Coincident membranes on the plane wave

At the core of nonperturbative theories of quantum gravity lies the holographic encoding of bulk data in large matrices. At present this mapping is poorly understood. The plane wave matrix model provides a laboratory for isolating aspects of this problem in a controlled setting. At large boosts, configurations of concentric membranes become superselection sectors, whose exact spectra are known. From the bulk point of view one expects product states of individual membranes to be contained within the full spectrum. However, for non-BPS states this inclusion relation is obscured by Gauss law constraints. Its validity rests on nontrivial relations in representation theory, which we identify and verify by explicit computation.Comment: 43 pages, 2 figure

Holography and entropy bounds in the plane wave matrix model

As a quantum theory of gravity, Matrix theory should provide a realization of the holographic principle, in the sense that a holographic theory should contain one binary degree of freedom per Planck area. We present evidence that Bekenstein's entropy bound, which is related to area differences, is manifest in the plane wave matrix model. If holography is implemented in this way, we predict crossover behavior at strong coupling when the energy exceeds N^2 in units of the mass scale.Comment: 19 pages; v2: references adde

Flux Creep and Flux Jumping

We consider the flux jump instability of the Bean's critical state arising in the flux creep regime in type-II superconductors. We find the flux jump field, $B_j$, that determines the superconducting state stability criterion. We calculate the dependence of $B_j$ on the external magnetic field ramp rate, $\dot B_e$. We demonstrate that under the conditions typical for most of the magnetization experiments the slope of the current-voltage curve in the flux creep regime determines the stability of the Bean's critical state, {\it i.e.}, the value of $B_j$. We show that a flux jump can be preceded by the magneto-thermal oscillations and find the frequency of these oscillations as a function of $\dot B_e$.Comment: 7 pages, ReVTeX, 2 figures attached as postscript file

Flux Jumps Driven by a Pulsed Magnetic Field

The understanding of flux jumps in the high temperature superconductors is of importance since the occurrence of these jumps may limit the perspectives of the practical use of these materials. In this work we present the experimental study of the role of heavy ion irradiation in stabilizing the HTSC against flux jumps by comparing un-irradiated and 7.5 10^10 Kr-ion/cm2 irradiated (YxTm1-x)Ba2Cu3O7 single crystals. Using pulsed field magnetization measurements, we have applied a broad range of field sweep rates from 0.1T/s up to 1800 T/s to investigate the behavior of the flux jumps. The observed flux jumps, which may be attributed to thermal instabilities, are incomplete and have different amplitudes. The flux jumps strongly depend on the magnetic field, on the magneto-thermal history of the sample, on the magnetic field sweep rate, on the critical current density jc, on the temperature and on the thermal contact with the bath in which the sample is immersed.Comment: 5 pages, PDF-fil

Buckling instability in type-II superconductors with strong pinning

We predict a novel buckling instability in the critical state of thin type-II superconductors with strong pinning. This elastic instability appears in high perpendicular magnetic fields and may cause an almost periodic series of flux jumps visible in the magnetization curve. As an illustration we apply the obtained criteria to a long rectangular strip.Comment: Submitted to Phys. Rev. Let

Semantics and Proof Theory of the Epsilon Calculus

The epsilon operator is a term-forming operator which replaces quantifiers in ordinary predicate logic. The application of this undervalued formalism has been hampered by the absence of well-behaved proof systems on the one hand, and accessible presentations of its theory on the other. One significant early result for the original axiomatic proof system for the epsilon-calculus is the first epsilon theorem, for which a proof is sketched. The system itself is discussed, also relative to possible semantic interpretations. The problems facing the development of proof-theoretically well-behaved systems are outlined.Comment: arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:1411.362