Ongoing Mass Transfer in the Interacting Galaxy Pair NGC 1409/10

I present two-band HST STIS imaging, and WIYN spectral mapping, of ongoing mass transfer in the interacting galaxy pair NGC 1409/10 (where NGC 1410 is the Seyfert galaxy also catalogued as III Zw 55). Archival snapshot WFPC2 imaging from the survey by Malkan et al. showed a dust feature stretching between the galaxies, apparently being captured by NGC 1409. The new images allow estimates of the mass being transferred and rate of transfer. An absorption lane typically 0.25" (100 pc) wide with a representative optical depth tau_B = 0.2 cuts across the spiral structure of NGC 1410, crosses the 7-kpc projected space between the nuclei, wraps in front of and, at the limits of detection, behind NGC 1409, and becomes a denser (tau_B = 0.4) polar feature around the core of NGC 1409. Combination of extinction data in two passbands allows a crude three-dimensional recovery of the dust structure, supporting the front/back geometry derived from colors and extinction estimates. The whole feature contains of order $10^6$ solar masses in dust, implying about 2x10^7 solar masses of gas, requiring a mass transfer rate averaging ~1 solar mass per year unless we are particularly unlucky in viewing angle. Curiously, this demonstrable case of mass transfer seems to be independent of the occurrence of a Seyfert nucleus, since the Seyfert galaxy in this pair is the donor of the material. Likewise, the recipient shows no signs of recent star formation from incoming gas, although NGC 1410 has numerous luminous young star clusters and widespread H-alpha emission.Comment: 27 pages, 9 figures. Accepted for the Astronomical Journal, March 200

Electronic Phase Separation Transition as the Origin of the Superconductivity and the Pseudogap Phase of Cuprates

We propose a new phase of matter, an electronic phase separation transition that starts near the upper pseudogap and segregates the holes into high and low density domains. The Cahn-Hilliard approach is used to follow quantitatively this second order transition. The resulting grain boundary potential confines the charge in domains and favors the development of intragrain superconducting amplitudes. The zero resistivity transition arises only when the intergrain Josephson coupling $E_J$ is of the order of the thermal energy and phase locking among the superconducting grains takes place. We show that this approach explains the pseudogap and superconducting phases in a natural way and reproduces some recent scanning tunneling microscopy dataComment: 4 pages and 5 eps fig

Econometric analysis of Australian emissions markets and electricity prices

© 2014 Elsevier Ltd. Emissions trading schemes aim to reduce the emissions in certain pollutants using a market based scheme where participants can buy and sell permits for these emissions. This paper analyses the efficiency of the two largest schemes in Australia, the NSW Greenhouse Gas Abatement Scheme and the Mandatory Renewable Energy Trading Scheme, through their effect on the electricity prices from 2004 to 2010. We use a long run structural modelling technique for thefirst time on this market. It provides a practical long-run approach to structural relationships which enable the determination of the effectiveness of the theoretical expectations of these schemes. The generalised forecast error variance decomposition analysisfinds that both schemes' emissions prices have little effect on electricity prices. Generalised impulse response function analysis support thisfinding indicating that when shocks are applied to electricity by the two schemes it returns to equilibrium very quickly. This indicates that these schemes are not having the effect anticipated in their legislation

Measurements and analysis of the upper critical field Hc2H_{c2} on an underdoped and overdoped La2−xSrxCuO4La_{2-x}Sr_xCuO_4 compounds

The upper critical field $H_{c2}$ is one of the many non conventional properties of high-$T_c$ cuprates. It is possible that the $H_{c2}(T)$ anomalies are due to the presence of inhomogeneities in the local charge carrier density $\rho$ of the $CuO_2$ planes. In order to study this point, we have prepared good quality samples of polycrystalline $La_{2-x}Sr_xCuO_{4}$ using the wet-chemical method, which has demonstrated to produce samples with a better cation distribution. In particular, we have studied the temperature dependence of the second critical field, $H_{c2}(T)$, through the magnetization measurements on two samples with opposite average carrier concentration ($\rho_m=x$) and nearly the same critical temperature, namely $\rho_m = 0.08$ (underdoped) and $\rho_m = 0.25$ (overdoped). The results close to $T_c$ do not follow the usual Ginzburg-Landau theory and are interpreted by a theory which takes into account the influence of the inhomogeneities.Comment: Published versio

Probing the eigenfunction fractality with a stop watch

We study numerically the distribution of scattering phases ${\cal P}(\Phi)$ and of Wigner delay times ${\cal P}(\tau_W)$ for the power-law banded random matrix (PBRM) model at criticality with one channel attached to it. We find that ${\cal P}(\Phi)$ is insensitive to the position of the channel and undergoes a transition towards uniformity as the bandwidth $b$ of the PBRM model increases. The inverse moments of Wigner delay times scale as $\sim L^{- q D_{q+1}}$, where $D_q$ are the multifractal dimensions of the eigenfunctions of the corresponding closed system and $L$ is the system size. The latter scaling law is sensitive to the position of the channel.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure

Equivalence of Fokker-Planck approach and non-linear σ\sigma-model for disordered wires in the unitary symmetry class

The exact solution of the Dorokhov-Mello-Pereyra-Kumar-equation for quasi one-dimensional disordered conductors in the unitary symmetry class is employed to calculate all $m$-point correlation functions by a generalization of the method of orthogonal polynomials. We obtain closed expressions for the first two conductance moments which are valid for the whole range of length scales from the metallic regime ($L\ll Nl$) to the insulating regime ($L\gg Nl$) and for arbitrary channel number. In the limit $N\to\infty$ (with $L/(Nl)=const.$) our expressions agree exactly with those of the non-linear $\sigma$-model derived from microscopic Hamiltonians.Comment: 9 pages, Revtex, one postscript figur

Phase transitions in simplified models with long-range interactions

We study the origin of phase transitions in some simplified models with long range interactions. For the ring model, we show that a possible new phase transition predicted in a recent paper by Nardini and Casetti from an energy landscape analysis does not occur. Instead of such phase transitions we observe a sharp, although without any non-analiticity, change from a core-halo to an only core configuration in the spatial distribution functions for low energies. By introducing a new class of solvable simplified models without any critical points in the potential energy, we show that a similar behaviour to the ring model is obtained, with a first order phase transition from an almost homogeneous high energy phase to a clustered phase, and the same core-halo to core configuration transition at lower energies. We discuss the origin of these features of the simplified models, and show that the first order phase transition comes from the maximization of the entropy of the system as a function of energy an an order parameter, as previously discussed by Kastner, which seems to be the main mechanism causing phase transitions in long-range interacting systems