Search for Spatial Structures at Scales Z~1. III. The Effect of Lensing on QSO ?

We carried out a search for peak inhomogeneities in the distribution of matter - namely clumps and voids, within the range Z ~ 1-3. We used a new method, based on the lensing of quasars by a combination of lenses, belonging to the above sought inhomogeneities in the matter distribution. This work confirms the evidence of the existence of inhomogeneities found by us earlier - of a clump (superattractor N.1), and of a void (supervoid). Besides, the existence of a new gigantic clump (superattractor N.2) was also discovered at Z ~ 3. These clumps could well serve as centers of the Bose-condensation in the early Universe; in particular - as Anselm's arion condensate, which leads to the formation of quasiperiodic structures with a period p ~ 100-200 Mpc.Comment: 22 pages, 2 figures, 6 tables. submitted to Astrophys.& Space Sc

Tkachenko polarons in vortex lattices

We analyze the properties of impurities immersed in a vortex lattice formed by ultracold bosons in the mean field quantum Hall regime. In addition to the effects of a periodic lattice potential, the impurity is dressed by collective modes with parabolic dispersion (Tkachenko modes). We derive the effective polaron model, which contains a marginal impurity-phonon interaction. The polaron spectral function exhibits a Lorentzian broadening for arbitrarily small wave vectors even at zero temperature, in contrast with the result for optical or acoustic phonons. The anomalous damping of Tkachenko polarons could be detected experimentally using momentum-resolved spectroscopy.Comment: 10 pages, 2 figure

Alfvenic Heating of Protostellar Accretion Disks

We investigate the effects of heating generated by damping of Alfven waves on protostellar accretion disks. Two mechanisms of damping are investigated, nonlinear and turbulent, which were previously studied in stellar winds (Jatenco-Pereira & Opher 1989a, b). For the nominal values studied, f=delta v/v_{A}=0.002 and F=varpi/Omega_{i}=0.1, where delta v, v_{A} and varpi are the amplitude, velocity and average frequency of the Alfven wave, respectively, and Omega_{i} is the ion cyclotron frequency, we find that viscous heating is more important than Alfven heating for small radii. When the radius is greater than 0.5 AU, Alfvenic heating is more important than viscous heating. Thus, even for the relatively small value of f=0.002, Alfvenic heating can be an important source of energy for ionizing protostellar disks, enabling angular momentum transport to occur by the Balbus-Hawley instability.Comment: 21 pages, 9 figures. Accepted for publication in Ap

InGaN epilayer characterization by microfocused x-ray reciprocal space mapping

We report the use of microfocused three-dimensional x-ray reciprocal space mapping to study InGaN epilayers with average InN content 20%-22%. Analysis of the full volume of reciprocal space, while probing samples on the microscale with a focused x-ray beam, allowed us to gain valuable information about the nanostructure of InN-rich InGaN epilayers. It is found that “seed” InGaN mosaic nanocrystallites are twisted with respect to the ensemble average and strain-free. The initial stages of InGaN-on-GaN epitaxial growth, therefore, conform to the Volmer-Weber growth mechanism with “seeds” nucleated on strain fields generated by the a-type edge dislocations

Electrostatically confined Quantum Rings in bilayer Graphene

We propose a new system where electron and hole states are electrostatically confined into a quantum ring in bilayer graphene. These structures can be created by tuning the gap of the graphene bilayer using nanostructured gates or by position-dependent doping. The energy levels have a magnetic field ($B_{0}$) dependence that is strikingly distinct from that of usual semiconductor quantum rings. In particular, the eigenvalues are not invariant under a $B_0 \to -B_0$ transformation and, for a fixed total angular momentum index $m$, their field dependence is not parabolic, but displays two minima separated by a saddle point. The spectra also display several anti-crossings, which arise due to the overlap of gate-confined and magnetically-confined states.Comment: 5 pages, 6 figures, to appear in Nano Letter

Density functional investigations of defect induced mid-gap states in graphane

We have carried out ab initio electronic structure calculations on graphane (hydrogenated graphene) with single and double vacancy defects. Our analysis of the density of states reveal that such vacancies induce the mid gap states and modify the band gap. The induced states are due to the unpaired electrons on carbon atoms. Interestingly the placement and the number of such states is found to be sensitive to the distance between the vacancies. Furthermore we also found that in most of the cases the vacancies induce a local magnetic moment.Comment: 15 page