392 research outputs found
Proximity effect in planar TiN-Silicon junctions
We measured the low temperature subgap resistance of titanium nitride
(superconductor, Tc=4.6K)/highly doped silicon (degenerated semiconductor) SIN
junctions, where I stands for the Schottky barrier. At low energies, the subgap
conductance is enhanced due to coherent backscattering of the electrons towards
the interface by disorder in the silicon (''reflectionless tunneling''). This
Zero Bias Anomaly (ZBA) is destroyed by the temperature or the magnetic field
above 250mK or 0.04T respectively. The overall differential resistance behavior
(vs temperature and voltage) is compared to existing theories and values for
the depairing rate and the barrier transmittance are extracted. Such an
analysis leads us to introduce an effective temperature for the electrons and
to discuss heat dissipation through the SIN interface.Comment: 23 pages, 6 figures, added references and minor corrections. Accepted
to Journal of Low Temperature Physic
Doubled Full Shot Noise in Quantum Coherent Superconductor - Semiconductor Junctions
We performed low temperature shot noise measurements in Superconductor (TiN)
- strongly disordered normal metal (heavily doped Si) weakly transparent
junctions. We show that the conductance has a maximum due to coherent multiple
reflections at low energy and that shot noise is then twice the Poisson noise
(S=4eI). The shot noise changes to the normal value (S=2eI) due to a large
quasiparticle contribution.Comment: published in Physical Review Letter
Ballistic effects in a proximity induced superconducting diffusive metal
Using a Scanning Tunneling Microscope (STM), we investigate the Local Density
of States (LDOS) of artificially fabricated normal metal nano-structures in
contact with a superconductor. Very low temperature local spectroscopic
measurements (100 mK) reveal the presence of well defined subgap peaks at
energy |E|<Delta in the LDOS at various positions of the STM tip. Although no
clear correlations between the LDOS and the shape of the samples have emerged,
some of the peak features suggest they originate from quasi-particle bound
states within the normal metal structures (De Gennes St James states).
Refocusing of electronic trajectories induced by the granular srtucture of the
samples can explain the observation of spatially uncorrelated interference
effects in a non-ballistic medium.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure
Gas phase formation of the prebiotic molecule formamide: insights from new quantum computations
New insights into the formation of interstellar formamide, a species of great
relevance in prebiotic chemistry, are provided by electronic structure and
kinetic calculations for the reaction NH2 + H2CO -> NH2CHO + H. Contrarily to
what previously suggested, this reaction is essentially barrierless and can,
therefore, occur under the low temperature conditions of interstellar objects
thus providing a facile formation route of formamide. The rate coefficient
parameters for the reaction channel leading to NH2CHO + H have been calculated
to be A = 2.6x10^{-12} cm^3 s^{-1}, beta = -2.1 and gamma = 26.9 K in the range
of temperatures 10-300 K. Including these new kinetic data in a refined
astrochemical model, we show that the proposed mechanism can well reproduce the
abundances of formamide observed in two very different interstellar objects:
the cold envelope of the Sun-like protostar IRAS16293-2422 and the molecular
shock L1157-B2. Therefore, the major conclusion of this Letter is that there is
no need to invoke grain-surface chemistry to explain the presence of formamide
provided that its precursors, NH2 and H2CO, are available in the gas-phase.Comment: MNRAS Letters, in pres
Disks around Hot Stars in the Trifid Nebula
We report on mid-IR observations of the central region in the Trifid nebula,
carried out with ISOCAM in several broad-band infrared filters and in the low
resolution spectroscopic mode provided by the circular variable filter.
Analysis of the emission indicates the presence of a hot dust component (500 to
1000 K) and a warm dust component at lower temperatures (150-200 K) around
several members of the cluster exciting the HII region, and other stars
undetected at optical wavelengths. Complementary VLA observations suggest that
the mid-IR emission could arise from a dust cocoon or a circumstellar disk,
evaporated under the ionization of the central source and the exciting star of
the nebula. In several sources the silicate band is seen in
emission. One young stellar source shows indications of crystalline silicates
in the circumstellar dust.Comment: 4 pages with 1 figur
High spectral resolution observations of HNC3 and HCCNC in the L1544 prestellar core
HCCNC and HNC3 are less commonly found isomers of cyanoacetylene, HC3N, a
molecule that is widely found in diverse astronomical sources. We want to know
if HNC3 is present in sources other than the dark cloud TMC-1 and how its
abundance is relative to that of related molecules. We used the ASAI unbiased
spectral survey at IRAM 30m towards the prototypical prestellar core L1544 to
search for HNC3 and HCCNC which are by-product of the HC3NH+ recombination,
previously detected in this source. We performed a combined analysis of
published HNC3 microwave rest frequencies with thus far unpublished millimeter
data because of issues with available rest frequency predictions. We determined
new spectroscopic parameters for HNC3, produced new predictions and detected it
towards L1544. We used a gas-grain chemical modelling to predict the abundances
of N-species and compare with the observations. The modelled abundances are
consistent with the observations, considering a late stage of the evolution of
the prestellar core. However the calculated abundance of HNC3 was found 5-10
times higher than the observed one. The HC3N, HNC3 and HCCNC versus HC3NH+
ratios are compared in the TMC-1 dark cloud and the L1544 prestellar core.Comment: Accepted in MNRAS letters. 5 pages plus 2 additional pages for the
on-line materia
The CHESS spectral survey of star forming regions: Peering into the protostellar shock L1157-B1 - II. Shock dynamics
Context. The outflow driven by the low-mass class 0 protostar L1157 is the prototype of the so-called chemically active outflows. The bright bowshock B1 in the southern outflow lobe is a privileged testbed of magneto-hydrodynamical (MHD) shock models, for which dynamical and chemical processes are strongly interdependent.
Aims. We present the first results of the unbiased spectral survey of the L1157-B1 bowshock, obtained in the framework of the key program âChemical HErschel Surveys of star forming regionsâ (CHESS). The main aim is to trace the warm and chemically enriched gas and to infer the excitation conditions in the shock region.
Methods. The CO 5-4 and o-H2_O 1_(10)â1_(01) lines have been detected at high-spectral resolution in the unbiased spectral survey of the HIFI-band 1b spectral window (555â636 GHz), presented by Codella et al. in this volume. Complementary ground-based observations in the submm window help establish the origin of the emission detected in the main-beam of HIFI and the physical conditions in the shock.
Results. Both lines exhibit broad wings, which extend to velocities much higher than reported up to now. We find that the molecular emission arises from two regions with distinct physical conditions : an extended, warm (100 K), dense (3 Ă 10^5 cm^(-3)) component at low-velocity, which dominates the water line flux in Band 1; a secondary component in a small region of B1 (a few arcsec) associated with high-velocity, hot (>400 K) gas of moderate density ((1.0â3.0) Ă 10^4 cm^(-3)), which appears to dominate the flux of the water line at 179ÎŒm observed with PACS. The water abundance is enhanced by two orders of magnitude between the low- and the high-velocity component, from 8 Ă 10^(-7) up to 8 Ă 10^(-5). The properties of the high-velocity component agree well with the predictions of steady-state C-shock models
Windows through the Dusty Disks Surrounding the Youngest Low Mass Protostellar Objects
The formation and evolution of young low mass stars are characterized by
important processes of mass loss and accretion ocurring in the innermost
regions of their placentary circumstellar disks. Because of the large
obscuration of these disks at optical and infrared wavelengths in the early
protostellar stages (Class 0 Sources), they were previously detected only at
radio wavelengths using interferometric techniques. We have detected with the
Infrared Space Observatory (ISO) the mid-infrared emission associated with the
Class 0 protostar VLA1 in the HH1-2 region located in the Orion nebula. The
emission arises in the three wavelength windows at 5.3, 6.6 and 7.5 micras
where the absorption due to ices and silicates has a local minimum that exposes
the central parts of the youngest protostellar systems to mid-infrared
investigations. The mid-infrared emission arises from a central source with 4
AU diameter at an averaged temperature of 700 K, deeply embedded in a dense
region with a visual extinction of Av=80-100mag.Comment: The article is here and on pres
A global foliation of Einstein-Euler spacetimes with Gowdy-symmetry on T3
We investigate the initial value problem for the Einstein-Euler equations of
general relativity under the assumption of Gowdy symmetry on T3, and we
construct matter spacetimes with low regularity. These spacetimes admit, both,
impulsive gravitational waves in the metric (for instance, Dirac mass curvature
singularities propagating at light speed) and shock waves in the fluid (i.e.,
discontinuities propagating at about the sound speed). Given an initial data
set, we establish the existence of a future development and we provide a global
foliation in terms of a globally and geometrically defined time-function,
closely related to the area of the orbits of the symmetry group. The main
difficulty lies in the low regularity assumed on the initial data set which
requires a distributional formulation of the Einstein-Euler equations.Comment: 24 page
Formation of Pillars at the Boundaries between H II Regions and Molecular Clouds
We investigate numerically the hydrodynamic instability of an ionization
front (IF) accelerating into a molecular cloud, with imposed initial
perturbations of different amplitudes. When the initial amplitude is small, the
imposed perturbation is completely stabilized and does not grow. When the
initial perturbation amplitude is large enough, roughly the ratio of the
initial amplitude to wavelength is greater than 0.02, portions of the IF
temporarily separate from the molecular cloud surface, locally decreasing the
ablation pressure. This causes the appearance of a large, warm HI region and
triggers nonlinear dynamics of the IF. The local difference of the ablation
pressure and acceleration enhances the appearance and growth of a multimode
perturbation. The stabilization usually seen at the IF in the linear regimes
does not work due to the mismatch of the modes of the perturbations at the
cloud surface and in density in HII region above the cloud surface. Molecular
pillars are observed in the late stages of the large amplitude perturbation
case. The velocity gradient in the pillars is in reasonably good agreement with
that observed in the Eagle Nebula. The initial perturbation is imposed in three
different ways: in density, in incident photon number flux, and in the surface
shape. All cases show both stabilization for a small initial perturbation and
large growth of the second harmonic by increasing amplitude of the initial
perturbation above a critical value.Comment: 21 pages, 8 figures, accepted for publication in ApJ. high resolution
figures available upon reques
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