320 research outputs found
The 'Brazilian Test' as an indicator of workability for paddy soils in Vietnam
Farmers in Mekong delta prefer to till their soil in dry conditions when possible. They claim that crops establish and yield better when the field have been ploughed when dry compared to the wet preparation by puddling. Experiments were carried out to investigate the optimum workabilty range for the soils (heavy clay soils without any sand) in the area. A simple laboratory test procedure to serve as an alternative to field testing was developed. The test assesses the behaviour of soil under compressive forces. Soil aggregates from 5 different soils in the area were compressed into small discs at various mosture content levels and aggregate size classes. After drying, the tensile strength of the discs was determined using the “Brazilian test”. It was found that the strength of the discs was strongly dependent on moisture content at compaction, aggregate size and compressive force, but also the organic matter content of the soils played an important role. The Brazilian test provided useful information with respect to soil behaviour under tillage, in addition to the field tests
Order in extremal trajectories
Given a chaotic dynamical system and a time interval in which some quantity
takes an unusually large average value, what can we say of the trajectory that
yields this deviation? As an example, we study the trajectories of the
archetypical chaotic system, the baker's map. We show that, out of all
irregular trajectories, a large-deviation requirement selects (isolated) orbits
that are periodic or quasiperiodic. We discuss what the relevance of this
calculation may be for dynamical systems and for glasses
Magnetoresistance and dephasing in a two-dimensional electron gas at intermediate conductances
We study, both theoretically and experimentally, the negative
magnetoresistance (MR) of a two-dimensional (2D) electron gas in a weak
transverse magnetic field . The analysis is carried out in a wide range of
zero- conductances (measured in units of ), including the range
of intermediate conductances, . Interpretation of the experimental
results obtained for a 2D electron gas in GaAs/InGaAs/GaAs single
quantum well structures is based on the theory which takes into account terms
of higher orders in , stemming from both the interference contribution and
the mutual effect of weak localization (WL) and Coulomb interaction. We
demonstrate that at intermediate conductances the negative MR is described by
the standard WL "digamma-functions" expression, but with a reduced prefactor
. We also show that at not very high the second-loop corrections
dominate over the contribution of the interaction in the Cooper channel, and
therefore appear to be the main source of the lowering of the prefactor,
. We further analyze the regime of a "weak insulator",
when the zero- conductance is low due to the localization at low
, whereas the Drude conductance is high, In this regime, while the
MR still can be fitted by the digamma-functions formula, the experimentally
obtained value of the dephasing rate has nothing to do with the true one. The
corresponding fitting parameter in the low- limit is determined by the
localization length and may therefore saturate at , even though the
true dephasing rate vanishes.Comment: 36 pages, 16 figure
Non-Linear I-V Characteristics of Double Schottky Barriers and Polycrystalline Semiconductors
An attempt to determine theoretically the highly non-linear current-voltage
(I-V) characteristics of polycrystalline semiconductors, such as ZnO-based
varistors, is made from the electrical properties of individual grain
boundaries under dc bias. The role played by the fluctuations of double
Schottky barrier heights at grain interfaces on driving electrical breakdown
phenomena of macroscopic samples is pointed out in terms of a binary mixture
model. An alternative trial form for the double Schottky barrier height is
introduced to reproduce the breakdown voltage as well as the high non-linear
coefficient alpha, where I propto V^{alpha}. -------------
Copies upon request to: [email protected]: CM-ICTP/92/1
The Ginzburg regime and its effects on topological defect formation
The Ginzburg temperature has historically been proposed as the energy scale
of formation of topological defects at a second order symmetry breaking phase
transition. More recently alternative proposals which compute the time of
formation of defects from the critical dynamics of the system, have been
gaining both theoretical and experimental support. We investigate, using a
canonical model for string formation, how these two pictures compare. In
particular we show that prolonged exposure of a critical field configuration to
the Ginzburg regime results in no substantial suppression of the final density
of defects formed. These results dismiss the recently proposed role of the
Ginzburg regime in explaining the absence of topological defects in 4He
pressure quench experiments.Comment: 8 pages, 5 ps figure
Analytical results on quantum interference and magnetoconductance for strongly localized electrons in a magnetic field: Exact summation of forward-scattering paths
We study quantum interference effects on the transition strength for strongly
localized electrons hopping on 2D square and 3D cubic lattices in the presence
of a magnetic field B. These effects arise from the interference between phase
factors associated with different electron paths connecting two distinct sites.
For electrons confined on a square lattice, with and without disorder, we
obtain closed-form expressions for the tunneling probability, which determines
the conductivity, between two arbitrary sites by exactly summing the
corresponding phase factors of all forward-scattering paths connecting them. An
analytic field-dependent expression, valid in any dimension, for the
magnetoconductance (MC) is derived. A positive MC is clearly observed when
turning on the magnetic field. In 2D, when the strength of B reaches a certain
value, which is inversely proportional to twice the hopping length, the MC is
increased by a factor of two compared to that at zero field. We also
investigate transport on the much less-studied and experimentally important 3D
cubic lattice case, where it is shown how the interference patterns and the
small-field behavior of the MC vary according to the orientation of B. The
effect on the low-flux MC due to the randomness of the angles between the
hopping direction and the orientation of B is also examined analytically.Comment: 24 pages, RevTeX, 8 figures include
The Frequency Dependent Conductivity of Electron Glasses
Results of DC and frequency dependent conductivity in the quantum limit, i.e.
hw > kT, for a broad range of dopant concentrations in nominally uncompensated,
crystalline phosphorous doped silicon and amorphous niobium-silicon alloys are
reported. These materials fall under the general category of disordered
insulating systems, which are referred to as electron glasses. Using microwave
resonant cavities and quasi-optical millimeter wave spectroscopy we are able to
study the frequency dependent response on the insulating side of the
metal-insulator transition. We identify a quantum critical regime, a Fermi
glass regime and a Coulomb glass regime. Our phenomenological results lead to a
phase diagram description, or taxonomy, of the electrodynamic response of
electron glass systems
Low Q^2 Jet Production at HERA and Virtual Photon Structure
The transition between photoproduction and deep-inelastic scattering is
investigated in jet production at the HERA ep collider, using data collected by
the H1 experiment. Measurements of the differential inclusive jet
cross-sections dsigep/dEt* and dsigmep/deta*, where Et* and eta* are the
transverse energy and the pseudorapidity of the jets in the virtual
photon-proton centre of mass frame, are presented for 0 < Q2 < 49 GeV2 and 0.3
< y < 0.6. The interpretation of the results in terms of the structure of the
virtual photon is discussed. The data are best described by QCD calculations
which include a partonic structure of the virtual photon that evolves with Q2.Comment: 20 pages, 5 Figure
Dilepton mass spectra in p+p collisions at sqrt(s)= 200 GeV and the contribution from open charm
The PHENIX experiement has measured the electron-positron pair mass spectrum
from 0 to 8 GeV/c^2 in p+p collisions at sqrt(s)=200 GeV. The contributions
from light meson decays to e^+e^- pairs have been determined based on
measurements of hadron production cross sections by PHENIX. They account for
nearly all e^+e^- pairs in the mass region below 1 GeV/c^2. The e^+e^- pair
yield remaining after subtracting these contributions is dominated by
semileptonic decays of charmed hadrons correlated through flavor conservation.
Using the spectral shape predicted by PYTHIA, we estimate the charm production
cross section to be 544 +/- 39(stat) +/- 142(syst) +/- 200(model) \mu b, which
is consistent with QCD calculations and measurements of single leptons by
PHENIX.Comment: 375 authors from 57 institutions, 18 pages, 4 figures, 2 tables.
Submitted to Physics Letters B. v2 fixes technical errors in matching authors
to institutions. Plain text data tables for the points plotted in figures for
this and previous PHENIX publications are (or will be) publicly available at
http://www.phenix.bnl.gov/papers.htm
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