130 research outputs found
A new neutron study of the short range order inversion in FeCr
We have performed new neutron diffuse scattering measurements in
FeCr solid solutions, in a concentration range 0x0.15, where
the atomic distribution shows an inversion of the short range order. By
optimizing the signal-background ratio, we obtain an accurate determination of
the concentration of inversion x =0.110(5). We determine the near neighbor
atomic short range order parameters and pair potentials, which change sign at
x. The experimental results are compared with previous first principle
calculations and atomistic simulations.Comment: 6 pages; 6 figure
Spin dynamics in the ordered spin ice TbSnO
Geometrical frustration is a central challenge in contemporary condensed
matter physics, a crucible favourable to the emergence of novel physics. The
pyrochlore magnets, with rare earth magnetic moments localized at the vertices
of corner-sharing tetrahedra, play a prominent role in this field, with a rich
variety of exotic ground states ranging from the "spin ices" \hoti\ and \dyti\
to the "spin liquid" and "ordered spin ice" ground states in \tbti\ and \tbsn.
Inelastic neutron scattering provides valuable information for understanding
the nature of these ground states, shedding light on the crystal electric field
(CEF) level scheme and on the interactions between magnetic moments. We have
performed such measurements with unprecedented neutron flux and energy
resolution, in the "ordered spin ice" \tbsn. We argue that a new interaction,
which involves the spin lattice coupling through a low temperature distortion
of the trigonal crystal field, is necessary to account for the data
Single-crystal growth and magnetic properties of the metallic molybdate pyrochlore Sm2Mo2O7
We have successfully grown cm3-size single crystals of the
metallic-ferromagnet Sm2Mo2O7 by the floating-zone method using an infrared-red
image furnace. The growth difficulties and the remedies found using a 2-mirror
image furnace are discussed. Magnetization studies along the three crystalline
axes of the compound are presented and discussed based on our recent proposal
of an ordered spin-ice ground state for this compoun
Sub-Riemannian Fast Marching in SE(2)
We propose a Fast Marching based implementation for computing sub-Riemanninan
(SR) geodesics in the roto-translation group SE(2), with a metric depending on
a cost induced by the image data. The key ingredient is a Riemannian
approximation of the SR-metric. Then, a state of the art Fast Marching solver
that is able to deal with extreme anisotropies is used to compute a SR-distance
map as the solution of a corresponding eikonal equation. Subsequent
backtracking on the distance map gives the geodesics. To validate the method,
we consider the uniform cost case in which exact formulas for SR-geodesics are
known and we show remarkable accuracy of the numerically computed SR-spheres.
We also show a dramatic decrease in computational time with respect to a
previous PDE-based iterative approach. Regarding image analysis applications,
we show the potential of considering these data adaptive geodesics for a fully
automated retinal vessel tree segmentation.Comment: CIARP 201
Low temperature structural effects in the (TMTSF)PF and AsF Bechgaard salts
We present a detailed low-temperature investigation of the statics and
dynamics of the anions and methyl groups in the organic conductors
(TMTSF)PF and (TMTSF)AsF (TMTSF :
tetramethyl-tetraselenafulvalene). The 4 K neutron scattering structure
refinement of the fully deuterated (TMTSF)PF-D12 salt allows locating
precisely the methyl groups at 4 K. This structure is compared to the one of
the fully hydrogenated (TMTSF)PF-H12 salt previously determined at the
same temperature. Surprisingly it is found that deuteration corresponds to the
application of a negative pressure of 5 x 10 MPa to the H12 salt. Accurate
measurements of the Bragg intensity show anomalous thermal variations at low
temperature both in the deuterated PF and AsF salts. Two different
thermal behaviors have been distinguished. Low-Bragg-angle measurements reflect
the presence of low-frequency modes at characteristic energies {\theta} =
8.3 K and {\theta} = 6.7 K for the PF-D12 and AsF-D12 salts,
respectively. These modes correspond to the low-temperature methyl group
motion. Large-Bragg-angle measurements evidence an unexpected structural change
around 55 K which probably corresponds to the linkage of the anions to the
methyl groups via the formation of F...D-CD2 bonds observed in the 4 K
structural refinement. Finally we show that the thermal expansion coefficient
of (TMTSF)PF is dominated by the librational motion of the PF
units. We quantitatively analyze the low-temperature variation of the lattice
expansion via the contribution of Einstein oscillators, which allows us to
determine for the first time the characteristic frequency of the PF6
librations: {\theta} = 50 K and {\theta} = 76 K for the PF-D12 and
PF-H12 salts, respectively
Optimally Adapted Meshes for Finite Elements of Arbitrary Order and W1p Norms
Given a function f defined on a bidimensional bounded domain and a positive
integer N, we study the properties of the triangulation that minimizes the
distance between f and its interpolation on the associated finite element
space, over all triangulations of at most N elements. The error is studied in
the W1p norm and we consider Lagrange finite elements of arbitrary polynomial
order m-1. We establish sharp asymptotic error estimates as N tends to infinity
when the optimal anisotropic triangulation is used. A similar problem has been
studied earlier, but with the error measured in the Lp norm. The extension of
this analysis to the W1p norm is crucial in order to match more closely the
needs of numerical PDE analysis, and it is not straightforward. In particular,
the meshes which satisfy the optimal error estimate are characterized by a
metric describing the local aspect ratio of each triangle and by a geometric
constraint on their maximal angle, a second feature that does not appear for
the Lp error norm. Our analysis also provides with practical strategies for
designing meshes such that the interpolation error satisfies the optimal
estimate up to a fixed multiplicative constant. We discuss the extension of our
results to finite elements on simplicial partitions of a domain of arbitrary
dimension, and we provide with some numerical illustration in two dimensions.Comment: 37 pages, 6 figure
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