523 research outputs found
Probing the Protosolar Disk Using Dust Filtering at Gaps in the Early Solar System
Jupiter and Saturn formed early, before the gas disk dispersed. The presence
of gap-opening planets affects the dynamics of the gas and embedded solids and
halts the inward drift of grains above a certain size. A drift barrier can
explain the absence of calcium aluminium rich inclusions (CAIs) in chondrites
originating from parent bodies that accreted in the inner solar system.
Employing an interdisciplinary approach, we use a -X-Ray-fluorescence
scanner to search for large CAIs and a scanning electron microscope to search
for small CAIs in the ordinary chondrite NWA 5697. We carry out long-term,
two-dimensional simulations including gas, dust, and planets to characterize
the transport of grains within the viscous -disk framework exploring
the scenarios of a stand-alone Jupiter, Jupiter and Saturn \textit{in situ}, or
Jupiter and Saturn in a 3:2 resonance. In each case, we find a critical grain
size above which drift is halted as a function of the physical conditions in
the disk. From the laboratory search we find four CAIs with a largest size of
200m. \Combining models and data, we provide an estimate for
the upper limit of the -viscosity and the surface density at the
location of Jupiter, using reasonable assumptions about the stellar accretion
rate during inward transport of CAIs, and assuming angular momentum transport
to happen exclusively through viscous effects. Moreover, we find that the
compound gap structure in the presence of Saturn in a 3:2 resonance favors
inward transport of grains larger than CAIs currently detected in ordinary
chondrites.Comment: 16 pages, 10 figures, updated to match published version in
Astrophysical Journa
Electron- and phonon transport in silicon nanowires: an atomistic approach to thermoelectric properties
We compute both electron- and phonon transmissions in thin disordered silicon
nanowires. Our atomistic approach is based on tight-binding and empirical
potential descriptions of the electronic and phononic systems, respectively.
Surface disorder is modeled by including surface silicon vacancies. It is shown
that the average phonon- and electron transmissions through long SiNWs
containing many vacancies can be accurately estimated from the scattering
properties of the isolated vacancies using a recently proposed averaging method
[Phys. Rev. Lett. 99, 076803 (2007)]. We apply this averaging method to surface
disordered SiNWs in the diameter range 1-3 nm to compute the thermoelectric
figure of merit, ZT. It is found that the phonon transmission is affected more
by the vacancies than the electronic transmission leading to an increased
thermoelectric performance of disordered wires, in qualitative agreement with
recent experiments. The largest ZT>3 is found in strongly disordered
oriented wires with a diameter of 2 nm.Comment: 8 pages, 8 figure
Control and femtosecond time-resolved imaging of torsion in a chiral molecule
We study how the combination of long and short laser pulses, can be used to
induce torsion in an axially chiral biphenyl derivative
(3,5-difluoro-3',5'-dibromo-4'-cyanobiphenyl). A long, with respect to the
molecular rotational periods, elliptically polarized laser pulse produces 3D
alignment of the molecules, and a linearly polarized short pulse initiates
torsion about the stereogenic axis. The torsional motion is monitored in
real-time by measuring the dihedral angle using femtosecond time-resolved
Coulomb explosion imaging. Within the first 4 picoseconds, torsion occurs with
a period of 1.25 picoseconds and an amplitude of 3 degrees in excellent
agreement with theoretical calculations. At larger times the quantum states of
the molecules describing the torsional motion dephase and an almost isotropic
distribution of the dihedral angle is measured. We demonstrate an original
application of covariance analysis of two-dimensional ion images to reveal
strong correlations between specific ejected ionic fragments from Coulomb
explosion. This technique strengthens our interpretation of the experimental
data.Comment: 11 pages, 9 figure
- âŚ