May 12 1997 Cme Event: I. a Simplified Model of the Pre-Eruptive Magnetic Structure

A simple model of the coronal magnetic field prior to the CME eruption on May 12 1997 is developed. First, the magnetic field is constructed by superimposing a large-scale background field and a localized bipolar field to model the active region (AR) in the current-free approximation. Second, this potential configuration is quasi-statically sheared by photospheric vortex motions applied to two flux concentrations of the AR. Third, the resulting force-free field is then evolved by canceling the photospheric magnetic flux with the help of an appropriate tangential electric field applied to the central part of the AR. To understand the structure of the modeled configuration, we use the field line mapping technique by generalizing it to spherical geometry. It is demonstrated that the initial potential configuration contains a hyperbolic flux tube (HFT) which is a union of two intersecting quasi-separatrix layers. This HFT provides a partition of the closed magnetic flux between the AR and the global solar magnetic field. The vortex motions applied to the AR interlock the field lines in the coronal volume to form additionally two new HFTs pinched into thin current layers. Reconnection in these current layers helps to redistribute the magnetic flux and current within the AR in the flux-cancellation phase. In this phase, a magnetic flux rope is formed together with a bald patch separatrix surface wrapping around the rope. Other important implications of the identified structural features of the modeled configuration are also discussed.Comment: 25 pages, 11 figures, to appear in ApJ 200

A Model for the Sources of the Slow Solar Wind

Models for the origin of the slow solar wind must account for two seemingly contradictory observations: The slow wind has the composition of the closed field corona, implying that it originates from the continuous opening and closing of flux at the boundary between open and closed field. On the other hand, the slow wind also has large angular width, up to ~ 60{\circ}, suggesting that its source extends far from the open-closed boundary. We propose a model that can explain both observations. The key idea is that the source of the slow wind at the Sun is a network of narrow (possibly singular) open-field corridors that map to a web of separatrices and quasi-separatrix layers in the heliosphere. We compute analytically the topology of an open-field corridor and show that it produces a quasi-separatrix layer in the heliosphere that extends to angles far from the heliospheric current sheet. We then use an MHD code and MDI/SOHO observations of the photospheric magnetic field to calculate numerically, with high spatial resolution, the quasi-steady solar wind and magnetic field for a time period preceding the August 1, 2008 total solar eclipse. Our numerical results imply that, at least for this time period, a web of separatrices (which we term an S-web) forms with sufficient density and extent in the heliosphere to account for the observed properties of the slow wind. We discuss the implications of our S-web model for the structure and dynamics of the corona and heliosphere, and propose further tests of the model

Ballistic charge transport in chiral-symmetric few-layer graphene

A transfer matrix approach to study ballistic charge transport in few-layer graphene with chiral-symmetric stacking configurations is developed. We demonstrate that the chiral symmetry justifies a non-Abelian gauge transformation at the spectral degeneracy point (zero energy). This transformation proves the equivalence of zero-energy transport properties of the multilayer to those of the system of uncoupled monolayers. Similar transformation can be applied in order to gauge away an arbitrary magnetic field, weak strain, and hopping disorder in the bulk of the sample. Finally, we calculate the full-counting statistics at arbitrary energy for different stacking configurations. The predicted gate-voltage dependence of conductance and noise can be measured in clean multilayer samples with generic metallic leads.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figures; EPL published versio

Towards the electron EDM search: Theoretical study of HfF+

We report first ab initio relativistic correlation calculations of potential curves for ten low-lying electronic states, effective electric field on the electron and hyperfine constants for the ^3\Delta_1 state of cation of a heavy transition metal fluoride, HfF^+, that is suggested to be used as the working state in experiments to search for the electric dipole moment of the electron. It is shown that HfF^+ has deeply bound ^1\Sigma^+ ground state, its dissociation energy is D_e=6.4 eV. The ^3\Delta_1 state is obtained to be the relatively long-lived first excited state lying about 0.2 eV higher. The calculated effective electric field E_eff=W_d|\Omega| acting on an electron in this state is 5.84*10^{24}Hz/(e*cm)Comment: 4 page

The γγ\gamma \gamma decay of the f0(1370)f_0(1370) and f2(1270)f_2(1270) resonances in the hidden gauge formalism

Using recent results obtained within the hidden gauge formalism for vector mesons, in which the $f_0(1370)$ and $f_2(1270)$ resonances are dynamically generated resonances from the $\rho \rho$ interaction, we evaluate the radiative decay of these resonances into $\gamma \gamma$. We obtain results for the width in good agreement with the experimental data for the $f_2(1270)$ state and a width about a factor five smaller for the $f_0(1370)$ resonance, which would agree with preliminary results from the Belle collaboration, hinting at an order of magnitude smaller width for this resonance than for the $f_2(1270)$.Comment: 7 pages, 9 figures, proof of gauge invariance adde

Slip-Squashing Factors as a Measure of Three-Dimensional Magnetic Reconnection

A general method for describing magnetic reconnection in arbitrary three-dimensional magnetic configurations is proposed. The method is based on the field-line mapping technique previously used only for the analysis of magnetic structure at a given time. This technique is extended here so as to analyze the evolution of magnetic structure. Such a generalization is made with the help of new dimensionless quantities called "slip-squashing factors". Their large values define the surfaces that border the reconnected or to-be-reconnected magnetic flux tubes for a given period of time during the magnetic evolution. The proposed method is universal, since it assumes only that the time sequence of evolving magnetic field and the tangential boundary flows are known. The application of the method is illustrated for simple examples, one of which was considered previously by Hesse and coworkers in the framework of the general magnetic reconnection theory. The examples help us to compare these two approaches; they reveal also that, just as for magnetic null points, hyperbolic and cusp minimum points of a magnetic field may serve as favorable sites for magnetic reconnection. The new method admits a straightforward numerical implementation and provides a powerful tool for the diagnostics of magnetic reconnection in numerical models of solar-flare-like phenomena in space and laboratory plasmas.Comment: 39 pages, 9 figures, corrected typos, to appear in ApJ, March 200

Quantum Hall criticality and localization in graphene with short-range impurities at the Dirac point

We explore the longitudinal conductivity of graphene at the Dirac point in a strong magnetic field with two types of short-range scatterers: adatoms that mix the valleys and "scalar" impurities that do not mix them. A scattering theory for the Dirac equation is employed to express the conductance of a graphene sample as a function of impurity coordinates; an averaging over impurity positions is then performed numerically. The conductivity $\sigma$ is equal to the ballistic value $4e^2/\pi h$ for each disorder realization provided the number of flux quanta considerably exceeds the number of impurities. For weaker fields, the conductivity in the presence of scalar impurities scales to the quantum-Hall critical point with $\sigma \simeq 4 \times 0.4 e^2/h$ at half filling or to zero away from half filling due to the onset of Anderson localization. For adatoms, the localization behavior is obtained also at half filling due to splitting of the critical energy by intervalley scattering. Our results reveal a complex scaling flow governed by fixed points of different symmetry classes: remarkably, all key manifestations of Anderson localization and criticality in two dimensions are observed numerically in a single setup.Comment: 17 pages, 4 figure