Properties of dwarf stars in Cygnus OB2

We present the results of investigation of five stars, originally classified as dwarfs, belonging to Cyg OB2 association, their stellar and wind properties. Using both TLUSTY and CMFGEN codes we derived effective temperatures, surface gravities, chemical abundances, mass-loss rates and projected rotation velocities. Due to the fact that distance to the stars is well known, we were able to estimate their luminosities. Using evolutionary models we estimated the ages of these sample stars and find that lower mass ones - MT282 and MT343 - belong to older population of the association. Their ages are greater than 10 Myr. The ages of three other stars - MT317, MT299, MT259 - are between 4-6 Myr.Comment: 16 pages, 10 figures, accepted for publication in PAS

Disorder-driven transition to tubular phase in anisotropic two-dimensional materials

We develop a theory of anomalous elasticity in disordered two-dimensional flexible materials with orthorhombic crystal symmetry. Similar to the clean case, we predict existence of infinitely many flat phases with anisotropic bending rigidity and Young's modulus showing power-law scaling with momentum controlled by a single universal exponent the very same as in the clean isotropic case. With increase of temperature or disorder these flat phases undergo crumpling transition. Remarkably, in contrast to the isotropic materials where crumpling occurs in all spatial directions simultaneously, the anisotropic materials crumple into tubular phase. In distinction to clean case in which crumpling transition happens at unphysically high temperatures, a disorder-induced tubular crumpled phase can exist even at room-temperature conditions. Our results are applied to anisotropic atomic single layers doped by adatoms or disordered by heavy ions bombarding.Comment: 18 LaTex pages, 6 figure

Neutrino Emission from Magnetized Proto-Neutron Stars in Relativistic Mean Field Theory

We make a perturbative calculation of neutrino scattering and absorption in hot and dense hyperonic neutron-star matter in the presence of a strong magnetic field. We find that the absorption cross-sections show a remarkable angular dependence in that the neutrino absorption strength is reduced in a direction parallel to the magnetic field and enhanced in the opposite direction. This asymmetry in the neutrino absorbtion can be as much as 2.2 % of the entire neutrino momentum for an interior magnetic field of \sim 2 x 10^{17} G. We estimate the pulsar kick velocities associated with this asymmetry in a fully relativistic mean-field theory formulation. We show that the kick velocities calculated here are comparable to observed pulsar velocities.Comment: arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:1009.097

Germination of pine seed in weightlessness (investigation in Kosmos 782)

An investigation was made of the orientation of aboveground and underground organs of pine plants grown from seed in weightlessness. Orientation was found to be caused by the position of the seeds relative to the substrate surface. Normal growth was manifest only for the plants grown from seed oriented with embryo toward the substrate. Differences were noted between experiment and control as to the quantitative content of nucleoli in the meristematic cells of the rootlets and the shape of cells in the cotyledonous leaflets. No complete agreement was found between data obtained in weightlessness and when gravity was compensated (clinostat treatment with horizontal rotation)

Pine seed germination under weightlessness (a study of the Kosmos 782 satellite)

Orientation of the above and underground organs of pine plants, grown from seeds under weightlessness, was found to be determined by seed position on the substrate. Normal plant growth was observed only if the seed embryos were oriented toward the substrate. Some differences were noted between the experimental and control plants concerning the amount of nucleoli in the root meristematic cells and the cell shape in cotyledonous leaves. No complete similarity was found in experimental results obtained with plants under weightlessness and under compensated gravity. The seeds were obtained from Pinus silvestris, considered to be particularly suitable for this experiment

Thermoelectric performance of weakly coupled granular materials

We study thermoelectric properties of inhomogeneous nanogranular materials for weak tunneling conductance between the grains, g_t < 1. We calculate the thermopower and figure of merit taking into account the shift of the chemical potential and the asymmetry of the density of states in the vicinity of the Fermi surface. We show that the weak coupling between the grains leads to a high thermopower and low thermal conductivity resulting in relatively high values of the figure of merit on the order of one. We estimate the temperature at which the figure of merit has its maximum value for two- and three-dimensional samples. Our results are applicable for many emerging materials, including artificially self-assembled nanoparticle arrays.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure

Effect of synthesis temperature on the transport properties of copper ferrites

Copper ferrites were prepared from equimolar oxide mixtures at different temperatures, and their electrical conductivity and thermoelectric power were measured. The transport properties of the ferrites were found to vary systematically with the synthesis temperature. A model for charge transport in copper ferrite spinels was proposed. The conductivity and thermoelectric power data, together with earlier Mössbauer results, were used to assess the cation distribution in the ferrites

Thermoelectric performance of granular semiconductors

We study thermoelectric properties of granular semiconductors with weak tunneling conductance between the grains, g_t < 1. We calculate the thermopower and figure of merit taking into account the shift of the chemical potential and the asymmetry of the density of states in the vicinity of the Fermi surface due to n- or p-type doping in the Efros-Shklovskii regime for temperatures less than the charging energy. We show that for weakly coupled semiconducting grains the figure of merit is optimized for grain sizes of order 5nm for typical materials and its values can be larger than one. We also study the case of compensated granular semiconductors and show that in this case the thermopower can be still finite, although two to three orders of magnitude smaller than in the uncompensated regime.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure