A two component jet model for the X-ray afterglow flat segment in short GRB 051221A

In the double neutron star merger or neutron star-black hole merger model for short GRBs, the outflow launched might be mildly magnetized and neutron rich. The magnetized neutron-rich outflow will be accelerated by the magnetic and thermal pressure and may form a two component jet finally, as suggested by Vlahakis, Peng & K\"{o}nigl (2003). We show in this work that such a two component jet model could well reproduce the multi-wavelength afterglow lightcurves, in particular the X-ray flat segment, of short GRB 051221A. In this model, the central engine need not to be active much longer than the prompt $\gamma-$ray emission.Comment: 11 pages, 2 figure; Accepted for publication by ApJ

Ultrasonic metal sheet thickness measurement without prior wave speed calibration

Conventional ultrasonic mensuration of sample thickness from one side only requires the bulk wave reverberation time and a calibration speed. This speed changes with temperature, stress, and microstructure, limiting thickness measurement accuracy. Often, only one side of a sample is accessible, making in situ calibration impossible. Non-contact ultrasound can generate multiple shear horizontal guided wave modes on one side of a metal plate. Measuring propagation times of each mode at different transducer separations, allows sheet thickness to be calculated to better than 1% accuracy for sheets of at least 1.5 mm thickness, without any calibration

Diffusion of a liquid nanoparticle on a disordered substrate

We perform molecular dynamic simulations of liquid nanoparticles deposited on a disordered substrate. The motion of the nanoparticle is characterised by a 'stick and roll' diffusive process. Long simulation times ($\simeq \mu s$), analysis of mean square displacements and stacking time distribution functions demonstrate that the nanoparticle undergoes a normal diffusion in spite of long sticking times. We propose a phenomenological model for the size and temperature dependence of the diffusion coefficient in which the activation energy scales as $N^{1/3}$.Comment: Accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.

Probing annihilations and decays of low-mass galactic dark matter in IceCube DeepCore array: Track events

The deployment of DeepCore array significantly lowers IceCube's energy threshold to about 10 GeV and enhances the sensitivity of detecting neutrinos from annihilations and decays of light dark matter. To match this experimental development, we calculate the track event rate in DeepCore array due to neutrino flux produced by annihilations and decays of galactic dark matter. We also calculate the background event rate due to atmospheric neutrino flux for evaluating the sensitivity of DeepCore array to galactic dark matter signatures. Unlike previous approaches, which set the energy threshold for track events at around 50 GeV (this choice avoids the necessity of including oscillation effect in the estimation of atmospheric background event rate), we have set the energy threshold at 10 GeV to take the full advantage of DeepCore array. We compare our calculated sensitivity with those obtained by setting the threshold energy at 50 GeV. We conclude that our proposed threshold energy significantly improves the sensitivity of DeepCore array to the dark matter signature for $m_{\chi}< 100$ GeV in the annihilation scenario and $m_{\chi}<300$ GeV in the decay scenario.Comment: 19 pages, 5 figures; match the published versio

Effects of topological edge states on the thermoelectric properties of Bi nanoribbons

Using first-principles calculations combined with Boltzmann transport theory, we investigate the effects of topological edge states on the thermoelectric properties of Bi nanoribbons. It is found that there is a competition between the edge and bulk contributions to the Seebeck coefficients. However, the electronic transport of the system is dominated by the edge states because of its much larger electrical conductivity. As a consequence, a room temperature value exceeding 3.0 could be achieved for both p- and n-type systems when the relaxation time ratio between the edge and the bulk states is tuned to be 1000. Our theoretical study suggests that the utilization of topological edge states might be a promising approach to cross the threshold of the industrial application of thermoelectricity