5,485 research outputs found
A sol-gel method for growing superconducting MgB2 films
In this paper we report a new sol-gel method for the fabrication of MgB2
films. Polycrystalline MgB2 films were prepared by spin-coating a precursor
solution of Mg(BH_4)_2 diethyl ether on (001)Al2O3 substrates followed with
annealing in Mg vapor. In comparison with the MgB2 films grown by other
techniques, our films show medium qualities including a superconducting
transition temperature of Tc ~ 37 K, a critical current density of Jc(5 K, 0 T)
~ 5 {\times} 10^6 A cm^{-2}, and a critical field of H_{c2}(0) ~ 19 T. Such a
sol-gel technique shows potential in the commercial fabrication of practically
used MgB2 films as well as MgB2 wires and tapes.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figure
Application of the finite-temperature Lanczos method for the evaluation of magnetocaloric properties of large magnetic molecules
We discuss the magnetocaloric properties of gadolinium containing magnetic
molecules which potentially could be used for sub-Kelvin cooling. We show that
a degeneracy of a singlet ground state could be advantageous in order to
support adiabatic processes to low temperatures and simultaneously minimize
disturbing dipolar interactions. Since the Hilbert spaces of such spin systems
assume very large dimensions we evaluate the necessary thermodynamic
observables by means of the Finite-Temperature Lanczos Method.Comment: 7 pages, 10 figures, invited for the special issue of EPJB on "New
trends in magnetism and magnetic materials
Spectrum of the Relativistic Particles in Various Potentials
We extend the notion of Dirac oscillator in two dimensions, to construct a
set of potentials. These potentials becomes exactly and quasi-exactly solvable
potentials of non-relativistic quantum mechanics when they are transformed into
a Schr\"{o}dinger-like equation. For the exactly solvable potentials,
eigenvalues are calculated and eigenfunctions are given by confluent
hypergeometric functions. It is shown that, our formulation also leads to the
study of those potentials in the framework of the supersymmetric quantum
mechanics
Mammalian Adaptation of an Avian Influenza A Virus Involves Stepwise Changes in NS1
Influenza A viruses (IAVs) are common pathogens of birds that occasionally establish endemic infections in mammals. The processes and mechanisms that result in IAV mammalian adaptation are poorly understood. The viral non-structural 1 (NS1) protein counteracts the interferon (IFN) response, a central component of the host-species barrier.
We characterised the NS1 proteins of equine influenza virus (EIV), a mammalian IAV lineage of avian origin. We showed that evolutionary distinct NS1s counteract the IFN response using different and mutually exclusive mechanisms: while the NS1s of early EIVs block general gene expression by binding to the cellular polyadenylation specific factor 30 (CPSF30), NS1s from more evolved EIVs specifically block the induction of IFN-stimulated genes by interfering with the JAK/STAT pathway. These contrasting anti-IFN strategies are associated with two mutations that appeared sequentially and became rapidly selected during EIV evolution, highlighting the importance of evolutionary processes on immune evasion mechanisms during IAV adaptation
A simple theorem to generate exact black hole solutions
Under certain conditions imposed on the energy-momentum tensor, a theorem
that characterizes a two-parameter family of static and spherically symmetric
solutions to Einstein's field equations (black holes), is proved. A discussion
on the asymptotics, regularity, and the energy conditions is provided. Examples
that include the best known exact solutions within these symmetries are
considered. A trivial extension of the theorem includes the cosmological
constant {\it ab-initio}, providing then a three-parameter family of solutions.Comment: 14 pages; RevTex; no figures; typos corrected; references adde
Finite-Size and surface effects in maghemite nanoparticles: Monte Carlo simulations
Finite-size and surface effects in fine particle systems are investigated by
Monte Carlo simulation of a model of a -FeO (maghemite) single
particle. Periodic boundary conditions have been used to simulate the bulk
properties and the results compared with those for a spherical shaped particle
with free boundaries to evidence the role played by the surface on the
anomalous magnetic properties displayed by these systems at low temperatures.
Several outcomes of the model are in qualitative agreement with the
experimental findings. A reduction of the magnetic ordering temperature,
spontaneous magnetization, and coercive field is observed as the particle size
is decreased. Moreover, the hysteresis loops become elongated with high values
of the differential susceptibility, resembling those from frustrated or
disordered systems. These facts are consequence of the formation of a surface
layer with higher degree of magnetic disorder than the core, which, for small
sizes, dominates the magnetization processes of the particle. However, in
contradiction with the assumptions of some authors, our model does not predict
the freezing of the surface layer into a spin-glass-like state. The results
indicate that magnetic disorder at the surface simply facilitates the thermal
demagnetization of the particle at zero field, while the magnetization is
increased at moderate fields, since surface disorder diminishes ferrimagnetic
correlations within the particle. The change in shape of the hysteresis loops
with the particle size demonstrates that the reversal mode is strongly
influenced by the reduced atomic coordination and disorder at the surface.Comment: Twocolumn RevTex format. 19 pages, 15 Figures included. Submitted to
Phys. Rev.
Impurity effects on s+g-wave superconductivity in borocarbides Y(Lu)Ni_2B_2C
Recently a hybrid s+g-wave pairing is proposed to describe the experimental
observation for a nodal structure of the superconducting gap in borocarbide
YNiBC and possibly LuNiBC. In this paper the impurity effects
on the s+g-wave superconductivity are studied in both Born and unitarity limit.
The quasiparticle density of states and thermodynamics are calculated. It is
found that the nodal excitations in the clean system are immediately prohibited
by impurity scattering and a finite energy gap increases quickly with the
impurity scattering rate. This leads to an activated behavior in the
temperature dependence of the specific heat. Qualitative agreement with the
experimental results is shown. Comparison with d-wave and some anisotropic
s-wave studied previously is also made.Comment: 6 pages, 6 eps figure
Dynamics of multipartite quantum correlations under decoherence
Quantum discord is an optimal resource for the quantification of classical
and non-classical correlations as compared to other related measures. Geometric
measure of quantum discord is another measure of quantum correlations.
Recently, the geometric quantum discord for multipartite states has been
introduced by Jianwei Xu [arxiv:quant/ph.1205.0330]. Motivated from the recent
study [Ann. Phys. 327 (2012) 851] for the bipartite systems, I have
investigated global quantum discord (QD) and geometric quantum discord (GQD)
under the influence of external environments for different multipartite states.
Werner-GHZ type three-qubit and six-qubit states are considered in inertial and
non-inertial settings. The dynamics of QD and GQD is investigated under
amplitude damping, phase damping, depolarizing and flipping channels. It is
seen that the quantum discord vanishes for p>0.75 in case of three-qubit GHZ
states and for p>0.5 for six qubit GHZ states. This implies that multipartite
states are more fragile to decoherence for higher values of N. Surprisingly, a
rapid sudden death of discord occurs in case of phase flip channel. However,
for bit flip channel, no sudden death happens for the six-qubit states. On the
other hand, depolarizing channel heavily influences the QD and GQD as compared
to the amplitude damping channel. It means that the depolarizing channel has
the most destructive influence on the discords for multipartite states. From
the perspective of accelerated observers, it is seen that effect of environment
on QD and GQD is much stronger than that of the acceleration of non-inertial
frames. The degradation of QD and GQD happens due to Unruh effect. Furthermore,
QD exhibits more robustness than GQD when the multipartite systems are exposed
to environment.Comment: 15 pages, 4 figures, 4 table
Tunable anisotropy in inverse opals and emerging optical properties
Using self-assembly, nanoscale materials can be fabricated from the bottom up. Opals and inverse opals are examples of self-assembled nanomaterials made from crystallizing colloidal particles. As self-assembly requires a high level of control, it is challenging to use building blocks with anisotropic geometry to form complex opals, which limits the realizable structures. Typically, spherical colloids are employed as building blocks, leading to symmetric, isotropic superstructures. However, a significantly richer palette of directionally dependent properties are expected if less symmetric, anisotropic structures can be created, especially originating from the assembly of regular, spherical particles. Here we show a simple method to introduce anisotropy into inverse opals by subjecting them to a post-assembly thermal treatment that results in directional shrinkage of the silica matrix caused by condensation of partially hydrated sol-gel silica structures. In this way, we can tailor the shape of the pores, and the anisotropy of the final inverse opal preserves the order and uniformity of the self-assembled structure, while completely avoiding the need to synthesize complex oval-shaped particles and crystallize them into such target geometries. Detailed X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and infrared (IR) spectroscopy studies clearly identify increasing degrees of sol-gel condensation in confinement as a mechanism for the structure change. A computer simulation of structure changes resulting from the condensation-induced shrinkage further confirmed this mechanism. As an example of property changes induced by the introduction of anisotropy, we characterized the optical spectra of the anisotropic inverse opals and found that the optical properties can be controlled in a precise way using calcination temperature
Size and dimensionality effects in superconducting Mo thin films
Molybdenum is a low Tc, type I superconductor whose fundamental properties are poorly known. Its importance as an essential constituent of new high performance radiation detectors, the so-called transition edge sensors (TESs) calls for better characterization of this superconductor, especially in thin film form. Here we report on a study of the basic superconducting features of Mo thin films as a function of their thickness. The resistivity is found to rise and the critical temperature decreases on decreasing film thickness, as expected. More relevant, the critical fields along and perpendicular to the film plane are markedly different, thickness dependent and much larger than the thermodynamic critical field of Mo bulk. These results are consistent with a picture of type II 2D superconducting films, and allow estimates of the fundamental superconducting lengths of Mo. The role of morphology in determining the 2D and type II character of the otherwise type I molybdenum is discussed. The possible consequences of this behaviour on the performance of radiation detectors are also addresse
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