Vortex glass transition in a frustrated 3D XY model with disorder

The anisotropic frustrated three dimensional (3D) XY model with disorder in the coupling constants is simulated as a model of a point disordered superconductor in an applied magnetic field. From a finite size scaling analysis of the helicity modulus it is concluded that the data is consistent with a finite temperature transition with isotropic scaling and the correlation length exponent is found to be \nu=1.50+/-0.12, consistent with 3D gauge glass universality.Comment: For additional information, see http://www.tp.umu.se/~olsson/VortexGlass.htm

Simulating the Martian Chemical Enivronment

We report on new analogue materials to simulate Martian rocks and soils, especially under realistic redox conditions

The Physio-Chemical Properties for the Interior of Enceladus

We have reviewed the current physical and chemical conditions of the Enceladus sub-surface environment, including the composition, temperature, pH and pressure. Here we have defined some of these parameters and, through the aid of modelling, will define and refine the remaining parameters needed for our experimental work. Simulations of the chemical reactions occurring within Enceladus can then be carried out to advance our understanding of the internal environment of Enceladus and help evaluate its potential habitability. Once a better understanding of the chemical reactions occurring at the rock-water interface has been carried out, then potential analogues on Earth can be evaluated and known microbial life can be tested to see if it could survive the conditions of Enceladus

Nonlinear Optics Studies on the MAX IV Storage Rings

The MAX IV Laboratory in Lund, Sweden, houses two electron storage rings operating at the energies 1.5, and 3 GeV. Both of these produce high-brilliance synchrotron radiation for beamline users. While the 1.5 GeV storage ring is a conventional third generation storage ring, employing a double-bend achromat structure, the MAX IV 3 GeV ring is the first realised fourth generation synchrotron. This ring employs a 7-bend achromat lattice structure to achieve a horizontal emittance of a few hundred pmrad. The multi-bend achromat design is the basis for many fourth generation synchrotron light sources. These lattice designs often require strong non-linear magnets in order to achieve their desired performance in terms of momentum acceptance and dynamic aperture, which in turn is needed to achieve the requirements in terms of beam lifetime and injection efficiency. The MAX IV 3 GeV storage ring itself is no exception, as it has a large number of chromatic sextupoles designed to minimize quadratic chromaticity. It also employs largely harmonic octupoles to minimise the amplitude-dependent tune shifts. Because of the high requirements of the fourth generation storage rings' non-linear magnets, it is of general interest to find schemes which allow for accurate tuning of these elements, as well as the characterisation of the non-linear optics of the accelerator. Schemes of these types are already well established when dealing with the linear optics of a storage ring, and need now be developed further for the non-linear case. This thesis presents schemes and results regarding the characterisation, correction, and optimisation of the non-linear optics of the MAX IV storage rings. These studies are mainly focussed on the MAX IV 3 GeV ring, but are aimed to be general enough that they can be applied on most fourth or third generation storage rings. This thesis also presents a specific case of the non-linear dynamics of a storage ring, where its properties are used to achieve pseudo single bunch through transverse resonance island buckets

Two phase transitions in the fully frustrated XYXY model

The fully frustrated $XY$ model on a square lattice is studied by means of Monte Carlo simulations. A Kosterlitz-Thouless transition is found at $T_{\rm KT} \approx 0.446$, followed by an ordinary Ising transition at a slightly higher temperature, $T_c \approx 0.452$. The non-Ising exponents reported by others, are explained as a failure of finite size scaling due to the screening length associated with the nearby Kosterlitz-Thouless transition.Comment: REVTEX file, 8 pages, 5 figures in uuencoded postscrip

New, efficient, and accurate high order derivative and dissipation operators satisfying summation by parts, and applications in three-dimensional multi-block evolutions

We construct new, efficient, and accurate high-order finite differencing operators which satisfy summation by parts. Since these operators are not uniquely defined, we consider several optimization criteria: minimizing the bandwidth, the truncation error on the boundary points, the spectral radius, or a combination of these. We examine in detail a set of operators that are up to tenth order accurate in the interior, and we surprisingly find that a combination of these optimizations can improve the operators' spectral radius and accuracy by orders of magnitude in certain cases. We also construct high-order dissipation operators that are compatible with these new finite difference operators and which are semi-definite with respect to the appropriate summation by parts scalar product. We test the stability and accuracy of these new difference and dissipation operators by evolving a three-dimensional scalar wave equation on a spherical domain consisting of seven blocks, each discretized with a structured grid, and connected through penalty boundary conditions.Comment: 16 pages, 9 figures. The files with the coefficients for the derivative and dissipation operators can be accessed by downloading the source code for the document. The files are located in the "coeffs" subdirector

Polarization effects in tau production by neutrino

We studied polarization effects in tau production by neutrino-nucleon scattering. Quasi-elastic scattering, $Delta$ resonance production and deep inelastic scattering processes are taken into account for the CERN-to-Gran Sasso projects. We show that the tau produced by neutrino has high degree of polarization, and its spin direction depends non-trivially on the energy and the scattering angle of tau in the laboratory frame.Comment: 6 pages, 5 eps figures, espcrc2.sty; Proceedings of the 3rd International Workshop on Neutrino-Nucleus Interactions in the Few GeV Region (NuInt04), March 17-21, 2004, Gran Sasso, Italy; minor changes, typos in Eq. (6) correcte

In Search of the Vortex Loop Blowout Transition for a type-II Superconductor in a Finite Magnetic Field

The 3D uniformly frustrated XY model is simulated to search for a predicted "vortex loop blowout" transition within the vortex line liquid phase of a strongly type-II superconductor in an applied magnetic field. Results are shown to strongly depend on the precise scheme used to trace out vortex line paths. While we find evidence for a transverse vortex path percolation transition, no signal of this transition is found in the specific heat.Comment: 11 pages, 17 figure

The Microbial Community of a Terrestrial Anoxic Inter-Tidal Zone: A Model for Laboratory-Based Studies of Potentially Habitable Ancient Lacustrine Systems on Mars

Evidence indicates that Gale crater on Mars harboured a fluvio-lacustrine environment that was subjected to physio-chemical variations such as changes in redox conditions and evaporation with salinity changes, over time. Microbial communities from terrestrial environmental analogues sites are important for studying such potential habitability environments on early Mars, especially in laboratory-based simulation experiments. Traditionally, such studies have predominantly focused on microorganisms from extreme terrestrial environments. These are applicable to a range of Martian environments; however, they lack relevance to the lacustrine systems. In this study, we characterise an anoxic inter-tidal zone as a terrestrial analogue for the Gale crater lake system according to its chemical and physical properties, and its microbiological community. The sub-surface inter-tidal environment of the River Dee estuary, United Kingdom (53°21'015.40" N, 3°10'024.95" W) was selected and compared with available data from Early Hesperian-time Gale crater, and temperature, redox, and pH were similar. Compared to subsurface ‘groundwater’-type fluids invoked for the Gale subsurface, salinity was higher at the River Dee site, which are more comparable to increases in salinity that likely occurred as the Gale crater lake evolved. Similarities in clay abundance indicated similar access to, specifically, the bio-essential elements Mg, Fe and K. The River Dee microbial community consisted of taxa that were known to have members that could utilise chemolithoautotrophic and chemoorganoheterotrophic metabolism and such a mixed metabolic capability would potentially have been feasible on Mars. Microorganisms isolated from the site were able to grow under environment conditions that, based on mineralogical data, were similar to that of the Gale crater’s aqueous environment at Yellowknife Bay. Thus, the results from this study suggest that the microbial community from an anoxic inter-tidal zone is a plausible terrestrial analogue for studying habitability of fluvio-lacustrine systems on early Mars, using laboratory-based simulation experiments