18,368 research outputs found
Neutron background at the Canfranc Underground Laboratory and its contribution to the IGEX-DM dark matter experiment
A quantitative study of the neutron environment in the Canfranc Underground
Laboratory has been performed. The analysis is based on a complete set of
simulations and, particularly, it is focused on the IGEX-DM dark matter
experiment. The simulations are compared to the IGEX-DM low energy data
obtained with different shielding conditions. The results of the study allow us
to conclude, with respect to the IGEX-DM background, that the main neutron
population, coming from radioactivity from the surrounding rock, is practically
eliminated after the implementation of a suitable neutron shielding. The
remaining neutron background (muon-induced neutrons in the shielding and in the
rock) is substantially below the present background level thanks to the muon
veto system. In addition, the present analysis gives us a further insight on
the effect of neutrons in other current and future experiments at the Canfranc
Underground Laboratory. The comparison of simulations with the body of data
available has allowed to set the flux of neutrons from radioactivity of the
Canfranc rock, (3.82 +- 0.44) x 10^{-6} cm^{-2} s^{-1}, as well as the flux of
muon-induced neutrons in the rock, (1.73 +- 0.22(stat) \+- 0.69(syst)) x
10^{-9} cm^{-2} s^{-1}, or the rate of neutron production by muons in the lead
shielding, (4.8 +- 0.6 (stat) +- 1.9 (syst)) x 10^{-9} cm^{-3} s^{-1}.Comment: 17 pages, 8 figures, elsart document class; final version to appear
in Astroparticle Physic
Ratchet behavior in nonlinear Klein-Gordon systems with point-like inhomogeneities
We investigate the ratchet dynamics of nonlinear Klein-Gordon kinks in a
periodic, asymmetric lattice of point-like inhomogeneities. We explain the
underlying rectification mechanism within a collective coordinate framework,
which shows that such system behaves as a rocking ratchet for point particles.
Careful attention is given to the kink width dynamics and its role in the
transport. We also analyze the robustness of our kink rocking ratchet in the
presence of noise. We show that the noise activates unidirectional motion in a
parameter range where such motion is not observed in the noiseless case. This
is subsequently corroborated by the collective variable theory. An explanation
for this new phenomenom is given
Fermi surface instabilities in CeRh2Si2 at high magnetic field and pressure
We present thermoelectric power (TEP) studies under pressure and high
magnetic field in the antiferromagnet CeRh2Si2 at low temperature. Under
magnetic field, large quantum oscillations are observed in the TEP, S(H), in
the antiferromagnetic phase. They suddenly disappear when entering in the
polarized paramagnetic (PPM) state at Hc pointing out an important
reconstruction of the Fermi surface (FS). Under pressure, S/T increases
strongly of at low temperature near the critical pressure Pc, where the AF
order is suppressed, implying the interplay of a FS change and low energy
excitations driven by spin and valence fluctuations. The difference between the
TEP signal in the PPM state above Hc and in the paramagnetic state (PM) above
Pc can be explained by different FS. Band structure calculations at P = 0
stress that in the AF phase the 4f contribution at the Fermi level (EF) is weak
while it is the main contribution in the PM domain. By analogy to previous work
on CeRu2Si2, in the PPM phase of CeRh2Si2 the 4f contribution at EF will drop.Comment: 10 pages, 13 figure
A multi-wavelength view of magnetic flaring from PMS stars
Flares from the Sun and other stars are most prominently observed in the soft
X-ray band. Most of the radiated energy, however, is released at optical/UV
wavelengths. In spite of decades of investigation, the physics of flares is not
fully understood. Even less is known about the powerful flares routinely
observed from pre-main sequence stars, which might significantly influence the
evolution of circumstellar disks. Observations of the NGC2264 star forming
region were obtained in Dec. 2011, simultaneously with three telescopes,
Chandra (X-rays), CoRoT (optical), and Spitzer (mIR), as part of the
"Coordinated Synoptic Investigation of NGC2264" (CSI-NGC2264). Shorter Chandra
and CoRoT observations were also obtained in March 2008. We analyzed the
lightcurves to detect X-ray flares with an optical and/or mIR counterpart.
Basic flare properties from the three datasets, such as emitted energies and
peak luminosities, were then compared to constrain the spectral energy
distribution of the flaring emission and the physical conditions of the
emitting regions. Flares from stars with and without circumstellar disks were
also compared to establish any difference that might be attributed to the
presence of disks. Seventy-eight X-ray flares with an optical and/or mIR
counterpart were detected. Their optical emission is found to correlate well
with, and to be significantly larger than, the X-ray emission. The slopes of
the correlations suggest that the difference becomes smaller for the most
powerful flares. The mIR flare emission seems to be strongly affected by the
presence of a circumstellar disk: flares from stars with disks have a stronger
mIR emission with respect to stars without disks. This might be attributed to
the reprocessing of the optical (and X-ray) flare emission by the inner
circumstellar disk, providing evidence for flare-induced disk heating.Comment: 16 pages (36 including appendixes), 8 figures (main text), accepted
for publication by Astronomy & Astrophysics (section 8
Optimization of soliton ratchets in inhomogeneous sine-Gordon systems
Unidirectional motion of solitons can take place, although the applied force
has zero average in time, when the spatial symmetry is broken by introducing a
potential , which consists of periodically repeated cells with each cell
containing an asymmetric array of strongly localized inhomogeneities at
positions . A collective coordinate approach shows that the positions,
heights and widths of the inhomogeneities (in that order) are the crucial
parameters so as to obtain an optimal effective potential that yields
a maximal average soliton velocity. essentially exhibits two
features: double peaks consisting of a positive and a negative peak, and long
flat regions between the double peaks. Such a potential can be obtained by
choosing inhomogeneities with opposite signs (e.g., microresistors and
microshorts in the case of long Josephson junctions) that are positioned close
to each other, while the distance between each peak pair is rather large. These
results of the collective variables theory are confirmed by full simulations
for the inhomogeneous sine-Gordon system
Using Wavelets to reject background in Dark Matter experiments
A method based on wavelet techniques has been developed and applied to
background rejection in the data of the IGEX dark matter experiment. The method
is presented and described in some detail to show how it efficiently rejects
events coming from noise and microphonism through a mathematical inspection of
their recorded pulse shape. The result of the application of the method to the
last data of IGEX is presented.Comment: 14 pages, 8 figures. Submitted to Astrop. Phy
Darboux points and integrability of homogeneous Hamiltonian systems with three and more degrees of freedom
We consider natural complex Hamiltonian systems with degrees of freedom
given by a Hamiltonian function which is a sum of the standard kinetic energy
and a homogeneous polynomial potential of degree . The well known
Morales-Ramis theorem gives the strongest known necessary conditions for the
Liouville integrability of such systems. It states that for each there
exists an explicitly known infinite set \scM_k\subset\Q such that if the
system is integrable, then all eigenvalues of the Hessian matrix V''(\vd)
calculated at a non-zero \vd\in\C^n satisfying V'(\vd)=\vd, belong to
\scM_k. The aim of this paper is, among others, to sharpen this result. Under
certain genericity assumption concerning we prove the following fact. For
each and there exists a finite set \scI_{n,k}\subset\scM_k such that
if the system is integrable, then all eigenvalues of the Hessian matrix
V''(\vd) belong to \scI_{n,k}. We give an algorithm which allows to find
sets \scI_{n,k}. We applied this results for the case and we found
all integrable potentials satisfying the genericity assumption. Among them
several are new and they are integrable in a highly non-trivial way. We found
three potentials for which the additional first integrals are of degree 4 and 6
with respect to the momenta.Comment: 54 pages, 1 figur
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