Detection of circumstellar CH2CHCN, CH2CN, CH3CCH and H2CS

We report on the detection of vinyl cyanide (CH2CHCN), cyanomethyl radical (CH2CN), methylacetylene (CH3CCH) and thioformaldehyde (H2CS) in the C-rich star IRC +10216. These species, which are all known to exist in dark clouds, are detected for the first time in the circumstellar envelope around an AGB star. The four molecules have been detected trough pure rotational transitions in the course of a 3 mm line survey carried out with the IRAM 30-m telescope. The molecular column densities are derived by constructing rotational temperature diagrams. A detailed chemical model of the circumstellar envelope is used to analyze the formation of these molecular species. We have found column densities in the range 5 x 10^(12)- 2 x 10^(13) cm^(-2), which translates to abundances relative to H2 of several 10^(-9). The chemical model is reasonably successful in explaining the derived abundances through gas phase synthesis in the cold outer envelope. We also find that some of these molecules, CH2CHCN and CH2CN, are most probably excited trough infrared pumping to excited vibrational states. The detection of these species stresses the similarity between the molecular content of cold dark clouds and C-rich circumstellar envelopes. However, some differences in the chemistry are indicated by the fact that in IRC +10216 partially saturated carbon chains are present at a lower level than those which are highly unsaturated, while in TMC-1 both types of species have comparable abundances.Comment: 9 pages, 5 figures; accepted for publication in A&

Theoretical and experimental study of AC loss in HTS single pancake coils

The electromagnetic properties of a pancake coil in AC regime as a function of the number of turns is studied theoretically and experimentally. Specifically, the AC loss, the coil critical current and the voltage signal are discussed. The coils are made of Bi2Sr2Ca2Cu3O10/Ag (BiSCCO) tape, although the main qualitative results are also applicable to other kinds of superconducting tapes, such as coated conductors. The AC loss and the voltage signal are electrically measured using different pick up coils with the help of a transformer. One of them avoids dealing with the huge coil inductance. Besides, the critical current of the coils is experimentally determined by conventional DC measurements. Furthermore, the critical current, the AC loss and the voltage signal are simulated, showing a good agreement with the experiments. For all simulations, the field dependent critical current density inferred from DC measurements on a short tape sample is taken into account.Comment: 22 pages, 15 figures; contents extended (sections 3.2 and 4); one new figure (figure 5) and two figures replaced (figures 3 and 8); typos corrected; title change

Magnetic structure and orbital ordering in BaCoO3 from first-principles calculations

Ab initio calculations using the APW+lo method as implemented in the WIEN2k code have been used to describe the electronic structure of the quasi-one-dimensional system BaCoO3. Both, GGA and LDA+U approximations were employed to study different orbital and magnetic orderings. GGA predicts a metallic ground state whereas LDA+U calculations yield an insulating and ferromagnetic ground state (in a low-spin state) with an alternating orbital ordering along the Co-Co chains, consistent with the available experimental data.Comment: 8 pages, 9 figure

3D Modeling of the Magnetization of Superconducting Rectangular-Based Bulks and Tape Stacks

In recent years, numerical models have become popular and powerful tools to investigate the electromagnetic behavior of superconductors. One domain where this advances are most necessary is the 3D modeling of the electromagnetic behavior of superconductors. For this purpose, a benchmark problem consisting of superconducting cube subjected to an AC magnetic field perpendicular to one of its faces has been recently defined and successfully solved. In this work, a situation more relevant for applications is investigated: a superconducting parallelepiped bulk with the magnetic field parallel to two of its faces and making an angle with the other one without and with a further constraint on the possible directions of the current. The latter constraint can be used to model the magnetization of a stack of high-temperature superconductor tapes, which are electrically insulated in one direction. For the present study three different numerical approaches are used: the Minimum Electro-Magnetic Entropy Production (MEMEP) method, the $H$-formulation of Maxwell's equations and the Volume Integral Method (VIM) for 3D eddy currents computation. The results in terms of current density profiles and energy dissipation are compared, and the differences in the two situations of unconstrained and constrained current flow are pointed out. In addition, various technical issues related to the 3D modeling of superconductors are discussed and information about the computational effort required by each model is provided. This works constitutes a concrete result of the collaborative effort taking place within the HTS numerical modeling community and will hopefully serve as a stepping stone for future joint investigations

The abundances of polyacetylenes towards CRL618

We present a mid-infrared high spectral resolution spectrum of CRL618 in the frequency ranges 778-784 and 1227-1249 cm^-1 (8.01-8.15 and 12.75-12.85 um) taken with the Texas Echelon-cross-Echelle Spectrograph (TEXES) and the Infrared Telescope Facility (IRTF). We have identified more than 170 ro-vibrational lines arising from C2H2, HCN, C4H2, and C6H2. We have found no unmistakable trace of C8H2. The line profiles display a complex structure suggesting the presence of polyacetylenes in several components of the circumstellar envelope (CSE). We derive total column densities of 2.5 10^17, 3.1 10^17, 2.1 10^17, 9.3 10^16 cm^-2, and < 5 10^16 cm^-2 for HCN, C2H2, C4H2, C6H2, and C8H2, respectively. The observations indicate that both the rotational and vibrational temperatures in the innermost CSE depend on the molecule, varying from 100 to 350 K for the rotational temperatures and 100 to 500 K for the vibrational temperatures. Our results support a chemistry in the innermost CSE based on radical-neutral reactions triggered by the intense UV radiation field.Comment: 9 pages, 4 figures, 1 table; accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journa

High-J v=0 SiS Maser Emission in IRC+10216: A New Case of Infrared Overlaps

We report on the first detection of maser emission in the J=11-10, J=14-13 and J=15-14 transitions of the v=0 vibrational state of SiS toward the C-rich star IRC+10216. These masers seem to be produced in the very inhomogeneous region between the star and the inner dust formation zone, placed at 5-7 R*, with expansion velocities below 10 km/s. We interpret the pumping mechanism as due to overlaps between v=1-0 ro-vibrational lines of SiS and mid-IR lines of C2H2, HCN and their 13C isotopologues. The large number of overlaps found suggests the existence of strong masers for high-J v=0 and v=1 SiS transitions, located in the submillimeter range. In addition, it could be possible to find several rotational lines of the SiS isotopologues displaying maser emission.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figure, published in the ApJ Letter

Unified modeling language description of the object-oriented multi-scale adaptive finite element method for step-and-flash imprint lithography simulations

In the first part of the paper we present the multi-scale simulation of the Step-and-Flash Imprint Lithography (SFIL), a modern patterning process. The simulation utilizes the hp adaptive Finite Element Method (hp-FEM) coupled with Molecular Statics (MS) model. Thus, we consider the multi-scale problem, with molecular statics applied in the areas of the mesh where the highest accuracy is required, and the continuous linear elasticity with thermal expansion coefficient applied in the remaining part of the domain. The degrees of freedom from macro-scale element's nodes located on the macro-scale side of the interface have been identified with particles from nano-scale elements located on the nano-scale side of the interface. In the second part of the paper we present Unified Modeling Language (UML) description of the resulting multi-scale application (hp-FEM coupled with MS). We investigated classical, procedural codes from the point of view of the object-oriented (O-O) programming paradigm. The discovered hierarchical structure of classes and algorithms makes the UML project as independent on the spatial dimension of the problem as possible. The O-O UML project was defined at an abstract level, independent on the programming language used

Robust parameter estimation of the log-logistic distribution based on density power divergence estimators

Robust inferential methods based on divergences measures have shown an appealing trade-off between efficiency and robustness in many different statistical models. In this paper, minimum density power divergence estimators (MDPDEs) for the scale and shape parameters of the log-logistic distribution are considered. The log-logistic is a versatile distribution modeling lifetime data which is commonly adopted in survival analysis and reliability engineering studies when the hazard rate is initially increasing but then it decreases after some point. Further, it is shown that the classical estimators based on maximum likelihood (MLE) are included as a particular case of the MDPDE family. Moreover, the corresponding influence function of the MDPDE is obtained, and its boundlessness is proved, thus leading to robust estimators. A simulation study is carried out to illustrate the slight loss in efficiency of MDPDE with respect to MLE and, at besides, the considerable gain in robustness