10,753 research outputs found
The high-pressure behavior of CaMoO4
We report a high-pressure study of tetragonal scheelite-type CaMoO4 up to 29
GPa. In order to characterize its high-pressure behavior, we have combined
Raman and optical-absorption measurements with density-functional theory
calculations. We have found evidence of a pressure-induced phase transition
near 15 GPa. Experiments and calculations agree in assigning the high-pressure
phase to a monoclinic fergusonite-type structure. The reported results are
consistent with previous powder x-ray-diffraction experiments, but are in
contradiction with the conclusions obtained from earlier Raman measurements,
which support the existence of more than one phase transition in the pressure
range covered by our studies. The observed scheelite-fergusonite transition
induces significant changes in the electronic band gap and phonon spectrum of
CaMoO4. We have determined the pressure evolution of the band gap for the low-
and high-pressure phases as well as the frequencies and pressure dependences of
the Raman-active and infrared-active modes. In addition, based upon
calculations of the phonon dispersion of the scheelite phase, carried out at a
pressure higher than the transition pressure, we propose a possible mechanism
for the reported phase transition. Furthermore, from the calculations we
determined the pressure dependence of the unit-cell parameters and atomic
positions of the different phases and their room-temperature equations of
state. These results are compared with previous experiments showing a very good
agreement. Finally, information on bond compressibility is reported and
correlated with the macroscopic compressibility of CaMoO4. The reported results
are of interest for the many technological applications of this oxide.Comment: 36 pages, 10 figures, 8 table
Modelling and Nonlinear Model Predictive Control of a Twin Screw Feeder
In this work, a dynamic model of a twin screw feeder, for continuous tablet manufacturing, has been developed. In particular, a First Order Plus Dead Time (FOPDT) model has been suggested. The delayed dynamics depends on operating conditions, equipment design and physical properties of the bulk solid. Model parameters are estimated by fitting the model to experimental data. Due to the nonlinear input-output relationships and the time delays involved, a Nonlinear Model Predictive Control (NMPC) is investigated to maintain an accurate mass flow rate, with the ultimate goal to improve product homogeneity in an inherently complex process. The performance of the designed control system is found to be satisfactory in a wide operating range and its potential use in a continuous manufacturing process is worth being investigated in the future
Critical Behavior of a Three-State Potts Model on a Voronoi Lattice
We use the single-histogram technique to study the critical behavior of the
three-state Potts model on a (random) Voronoi-Delaunay lattice with size
ranging from 250 to 8000 sites. We consider the effect of an exponential decay
of the interactions with the distance,, with , and
observe that this system seems to have critical exponents and
which are different from the respective exponents of the three-state Potts
model on a regular square lattice. However, the ratio remains
essentially the same. We find numerical evidences (although not conclusive, due
to the small range of system size) that the specific heat on this random system
behaves as a power-law for and as a logarithmic divergence for
and Comment: 3 pages, 5 figure
Fifteen years of XMM-Newton and Chandra monitoring of Sgr A*: Evidence for a recent increase in the bright flaring rate
We present a study of the X-ray flaring activity of Sgr A* during all the 150
XMM-Newton and Chandra observations pointed at the Milky Way center over the
last 15 years. This includes the latest XMM-Newton and Chandra campaigns
devoted to monitoring the closest approach of the very red Br-Gamma emitting
object called G2. The entire dataset analysed extends from September 1999
through November 2014. We employed a Bayesian block analysis to investigate any
possible variations in the characteristics (frequency, energetics, peak
intensity, duration) of the flaring events that Sgr A* has exhibited since
their discovery in 2001. We observe that the total bright-or-very bright flare
luminosity of Sgr A* increased between 2013-2014 by a factor of 2-3 (~3.5 sigma
significance). We also observe an increase (~99.9% significance) from
0.27+-0.04 to 2.5+-1.0 day^-1 of the bright-or-very bright flaring rate of Sgr
A*, starting in late summer 2014, which happens to be about six months after
G2's peri-center passage. This might indicate that clustering is a general
property of bright flares and that it is associated with a stationary noise
process producing flares not uniformly distributed in time (similar to what is
observed in other quiescent black holes). If so, the variation in flaring
properties would be revealed only now because of the increased monitoring
frequency. Alternatively, this may be the first sign of an excess accretion
activity induced by the close passage of G2. More observations are necessary to
distinguish between these two hypotheses.Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRA
Projected single-spin flip dynamics in the Ising Model
We study transition matrices for projected dynamics in the
energy-magnetization space, magnetization space and energy space. Several
single spin flip dynamics are considered such as the Glauber and Metropolis
canonical ensemble dynamics and the Metropolis dynamics for three
multicanonical ensembles: the flat energy-magnetization histogram, the flat
energy histogram and the flat magnetization histogram. From the numerical
diagonalization of the matrices for the projected dynamics we obtain the
sub-dominant eigenvalue and the largest relaxation times for systems of varying
size. Although, the projected dynamics is an approximation to the full state
space dynamics comparison with some available results, obtained by other
authors, shows that projection in the magnetization space is a reasonably
accurate method to study the scaling of relaxation times with system size. The
transition matrices for arbitrary single-spin flip dynamics are obtained from a
single Monte-Carlo estimate of the infinite temperature transition-matrix, for
each system size, which makes the method an efficient tool to evaluate the
relative performance of any arbitrary local spin-flip dynamics. We also present
new results for appropriately defined average tunnelling times of magnetization
and compute their finite-size scaling exponents that we compare with results of
energy tunnelling exponents available for the flat energy histogram
multicanonical ensemble.Comment: 23 pages and 6 figure
The Primeval Populations of the Ultra-Faint Dwarf Galaxies
We present new constraints on the star formation histories of the ultra-faint
dwarf (UFD) galaxies, using deep photometry obtained with the Hubble Space
Telescope (HST). A galaxy class recently discovered in the Sloan Digital Sky
Survey, the UFDs appear to be an extension of the classical dwarf spheroidals
to low luminosities, offering a new front in efforts to understand the missing
satellite problem. They are the least luminous, most dark-matter dominated, and
least chemically-evolved galaxies known. Our HST survey of six UFDs seeks to
determine if these galaxies are true fossils from the early universe. We
present here the preliminary analysis of three UFD galaxies: Hercules, Leo IV,
and Ursa Major I. Classical dwarf spheroidals of the Local Group exhibit
extended star formation histories, but these three Milky Way satellites are at
least as old as the ancient globular cluster M92, with no evidence for
intermediate-age populations. Their ages also appear to be synchronized to
within ~1 Gyr of each other, as might be expected if their star formation was
truncated by a global event, such as reionization.Comment: Accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal Letters. Latex,
5 pages, 2 color figures, 1 tabl
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