7,035 research outputs found
Optical spectroscopy study of Nd(O,F)BiS2 single crystals
We present an optical spectroscopy study on F-substituted NdOBiS
superconducting single crystals grown using KCl/LiCl flux method. The
measurement reveals a simple metallic response with a relatively low screened
plasma edge near 5000 \cm. The plasma frequency is estimated to be 2.1 eV,
which is much smaller than the value expected from the first-principles
calculations for an electron doping level of x=0.5, but very close to the value
based on a doping level of 7 of itinerant electrons per Bi site as
determined by ARPES experiment. The energy scales of the interband transitions
are also well reproduced by the first-principles calculations. The results
suggest an absence of correlation effect in the compound, which essentially
rules out the exotic pairing mechanism for superconductivity or scenario based
on the strong electronic correlation effect. The study also reveals that the
system is far from a CDW instability as being widely discussed for a doping
level of x=0.5.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figure
Genomic variability in Potato virus M and the development of RT-PCR and RFLP procedures for the detection of this virus in seed potatoes
Potato virus M (PVM, Carlavirus) is considered to be one of the most common potato viruses distributed worldwide. Sequences of the coat protein (CP) gene of several Canadian PVM isolates were determined. Phylogenetic analysis indicated that all known PVM isolates fell into two distinct groups and the isolates from Canada and the US clustered in the same group. The Canadian PVM isolates could be further divided into two sub-groups. Two molecular procedures, reverse transcription - polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) were developed in this study for the detection and identification of PVM in potato tubers. RT-PCR was highly specific and only amplified PVM RNA from potato samples. PVM RNAs were easily detected in composite samples of 400 to 800 potato leaves or 200 to 400 dormant tubers. Restriction analysis of PCR amplicons with MscI was a simple method for the confirmation of PCR tests. Thus, RT-PCR followed by RFLP analysis may be a useful approach for screening potato samples on a large scale for the presence of PVM
Cross-Correlation Detection of Point Sources in WMAP First Year Data
We apply a Cross-correlation (CC) method developed previously for detecting
gamma-ray point sources to the WMAP first year data by using the Point-Spread
Function of WMAP and obtain a full sky CC coefficient map. Analyzing this map,
we find that the CC method is a powerful tool to examine the WMAP foreground
residuals which can be further cleaned accordingly. Evident foreground signals
are found in WMAP foreground cleaned maps and Tegmark cleaned map. In this
process 101 point-sources are detected, and 26 of them are new sources besides
the originally listed WMAP 208 sources. We estimate the flux of these new
sources and verify them by another method. As a result, a revised mask file
based on the WMAP first year data is produced by including these new sources.Comment: 14 pages, 10 figures; accepted for publication by ChJA
Hybrid Algorithms Based on Integer Programming for the Search of Prioritized Test Data in Software Product Lines
In Software Product Lines (SPLs) it is not possible, in general, to test all products of the family. The number of products denoted by a SPL is very high due to the combinatorial explosion of features. For this reason, some coverage criteria have been proposed which try to test at least all feature interactions without the necessity to test all products, e.g., all pairs of features (pairwise coverage). In addition, it is desirable to first test products composed by a set of priority features. This problem is known as the Prioritized Pairwise Test Data Generation Problem. In this work we propose two hybrid algorithms using Integer Programming (IP) to generate a prioritized test suite. The first one is based on an integer linear formulation and the second one is based on a integer quadratic (nonlinear) formulation. We compare these techniques with two state-of-the-art algorithms, the Parallel Prioritized Genetic Solver (PPGS) and a greedy algorithm called prioritized-ICPL. Our study reveals that our hybrid nonlinear approach is clearly the best in both, solution quality and computation time. Moreover, the nonlinear variant (the fastest one) is 27 and 42 times faster than PPGS in the two groups of instances analyzed in this work.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech. Partially funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness and FEDER under contract TIN2014-57341-R, the University of Málaga, Andalucía Tech and the Spanish Network TIN2015-71841-REDT (SEBASENet)
Macroscopic Quantum Phase Interference in Antiferromagnetic Particles
The tunnel splitting in biaxial antiferromagnetic particles is studied with a
magnetic field applied along the hard anisotropy axis. We observe the
oscillation of tunnel splitting as a function of the magnetic field due to the
quantum phase interference of two tunneling paths of opposite windings. The
oscillation is similar to the recent experimental result with Fe}\textrm{\
molecular clusters.}Comment: 8 pages, 2 postscript figures, to appear in J. Phys.: Condes. Matte
Investigation of the Spin Density Wave in NaxCoO2
Magnetic susceptibility, transport and heat capacity measurements of single
crystal NaxCoO2 (x=0.71) are reported. A transition to a spin density wave
(SDW) state at Tmag = 22 K is observable in all measurements, except chi(ac)
data in which a cusp is observed at 4 K and attributed to a low temperature
glassy phase. M(H) loops are hysteretic below 15 K. Both the SDW transition and
low temperature hysteresis are only visible along the c-axis. The system also
exhibits a substantial (~40%) positive magnetoresistance below this
temperature. Calculations of the electronic heat capacity gamma above and below
Tmag and the size of the jump in C indicate that the onset of the SDW brings
about the opening of gap and the removal of part of the Fermi surface. Reduced
in-plane electron-electron scattering counteracts the loss of carriers below
the transition and as a result we see a net reduction in resistivity below
Tmag. Sodium ordering transitions at higher temperatures are observable as
peaks in the heat capacity with a corresponding increase in resistivity.Comment: 14 pages, 6 figure
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