Identification of the white dwarf companion to millisecond pulsar J2317+1439

We report identification of the optical counterpart to the companion of the millisecond pulsar J2317+1439. At the timing position of the pulsar, we find an object with $g=22.96\pm0.05$, $r=22.86\pm0.04$ and $i=22.82\pm0.05$. The magnitudes and colors of the object are consistent with it being a white dwarf. By comparing with white dwarf cooling models, we estimate that it has a mass of $0.39^{+0.13}_{-0.10}$ M$_{\odot}$, an effective temperature of $8077^{+550}_{-470}$ K and a cooling age of $10.9\pm0.3$ Gyr. Combining our results with published constraints on the orbital parameters obtained through pulsar timing, we estimate the pulsar mass to be $3.4^{+1.4}_{-1.1}$ M$_{\odot}$. Although the constraint on the pulsar mass is still weak, there is a significant possibility that the pulsar could be more massive than two solar mass.Comment: 7 pages, 6 figures, accepted for publication in Ap

D_s spectrum and leptonic decays with Fermilab heavy quarks and improved staggered light quarks

We present preliminary results for the D_s meson spectrum and decay constants in unquenched lattice QCD. Simulations are carried out with 2+1 dynamical quarks using gauge configurations generated by the MILC collaboration. We use the ``asqtad'' a^2 improved staggered action for the light quarks, and the clover heavy quark action with the Fermilab interpretation. We compare our spectrum results with the newly discovered 0+ and 1+ states in the D_s system.Comment: 3pp. Presented at 21st International Symposium on Lattice Field Theory (LATTICE 2003), Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan, 15-19 Jul 200

Strong mass effect on ion beam mixing in metal bilayers

Molecular dynamics simulations have been used to study the mechanism of ion beam mixing in metal bilayers. We are able to explain the ion induced low-temperature phase stability and melting behavior of bilayers using only a simple ballistic picture up to 10 keV ion energies. The atomic mass ratio of the overlayer and the substrate constituents seems to be a key quantity in understanding atomic mixing. The critical bilayer mass ratio of $\delta < 0.33$ is required for the occurrence of a thermal spike (local melting) with a lifetime of $\tau > 0.3$ ps at low-energy ion irradiation (1 keV) due to a ballistic mechanism. The existing experimental data follow the same trend as the simulated values.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, preprin

Magnetic properties of exactly solvable doubly decorated Ising-Heisenberg planar models

Applying the decoration-iteration procedure, we introduce a class of exactly solvable doubly decorated planar models consisting both of the Ising- and Heisenberg-type atoms. Exact solutions for the ground state, phase diagrams and basic physical quantities are derived and discussed. The detailed analysis of the relevant quantities suggests the existence of an interesting quantum antiferromagnetic phase in the system.Comment: 9 pages, 9 figures, submitted to Physical Review

Properties of charmonium in lattice QCD with 2+1 flavors of improved staggered sea quarks

We use the dynamical gluon configurations provided by the MILC collaboration in a study of the charmonium spectrum and psi leptonic width. We examine sea quark effects on mass splitting and on the leptonic decay matrix element for light masses as low as m_s/5, while keeping the strange quark mass fixed and the lattice spacing nearly constant.Comment: Lattice2003(heavy

Semileptonic decays of DD mesons in unquenched lattice QCD

We present our preliminary results for semileptonic form factors of $D$ mesons in unquenched lattice QCD. Simulations are carried out with $n_f=2+1$ dynamical quarks using gauge configurations generated by the MILC collaboration. For the valence quarks, we adopt an improved staggered light quark action and the clover heavy quark action. Our results for $D \to K$ and $D \to \pi$ form factors at $q^2=0$ are in agreement with the experimental values.Comment: Lattice2003(heavy), 3 page

On the use of balking for estimation of the blocking probability for OBS routers with FDL lines

Trabajo presentado en la International Conference on Information Networking (ICOIN) 2006, Sendai (Japón), 16-19 de enero de 2006This paper deals with estimation of blocking probabilities for OBS switches with Fiber Delay Lines (FDLs) and full wavelength conversion. An incoming burst that finds the wavelengths occupied is temporarily stored in a FDL. Hence, contention will be sorted out successfully if the residual life of the system is smaller than the maximum FDL delay. In order to derive the blocking probability, the most accurate methodology to date is the use of balking systems [1–4]. Even though the approach is accurate for very short lengths of the FDLs we identify the cases in which inaccuracy is detected. This happens precisely when the system works with low loss probabilities. Mainly for large number of wavelengths on the fibers and values of the FDL length at least in the vicinity of the burst service time.This work was funded by Spanish MEC (project CAPITAL subproject code: TEC2004-05622-C04-04 and project PINTA

Continuous metal-insulator transition of the antiferromagnetic perovskite NaOsO3

Newly synthesized perovskite NaOsO3 shows Curie-Weiss metallic nature at high temperature and suddenly goes into an antiferromagnetically insulating state at 410 K on cooling. Electronic specific heat at the low temperature limit is absent, indicating that the band gap fully opens. In situ observation in electron microscopy undetected any lattice anomalies in the vicinity of the transition temperature. It is most likely that the antiferromagnetic correlation plays an essential role of the gap opening.Comment: 13 pages, 5 figures, PHYS. REV. B 80, 161104(R),(2009