682 research outputs found
Thermal-Mechanical Properties of Polyurethane-Clay Shape Memory Polymer Nanocomposites
Shape memory nanocomposites of polyurethane (PU)-clay were fabricated by melt mixing of PU and nano-clay. Based on nano-indentation and microhardness tests, the strength of the nanocomposites increased dramatically as a function of clay content, which is attributed to the enhanced nanoclay–polymer interactions. Thermal mechanical experiments demonstrated good mechanical and shape memory effects of the nanocomposites. Full shape memory recovery was displayed by both the pure PU and PU-clay nanocomposites.
Relaxation kinetics in two-dimensional structures
We have studied the approach to equilibrium of islands and pores in two
dimensions. The two-regime scenario observed when islands evolve according to a
set of particular rules, namely relaxation by steps at low temperature and
smooth at high temperature, is generalized to a wide class of kinetic models
and the two kinds of structures. Scaling laws for equilibration times are
analytically derived and confirmed by kinetic Monte Carlo simulations.Comment: 6 pages, 7 figures, 1 tabl
The Transition to a Giant Vortex Phase in a Fast Rotating Bose-Einstein Condensate
We study the Gross-Pitaevskii (GP) energy functional for a fast rotating
Bose-Einstein condensate on the unit disc in two dimensions. Writing the
coupling parameter as 1 / \eps^2 we consider the asymptotic regime \eps
\to 0 with the angular velocity proportional to
(\eps^2|\log\eps|)^{-1} . We prove that if \Omega = \Omega_0
(\eps^2|\log\eps|)^{-1} and then a minimizer of
the GP energy functional has no zeros in an annulus at the boundary of the disc
that contains the bulk of the mass. The vorticity resides in a complementary
`hole' around the center where the density is vanishingly small. Moreover, we
prove a lower bound to the ground state energy that matches, up to small
errors, the upper bound obtained from an optimal giant vortex trial function,
and also that the winding number of a GP minimizer around the disc is in accord
with the phase of this trial function.Comment: 52 pages, PDFLaTex. Minor corrections, sign convention modified. To
be published in Commun. Math. Phy
Structural and Magnetic Properties of Trigonal Iron
First principles calculations of the electronic structure of trigonal iron
were performed using density function theory. The results are used to predict
lattice spacings, magnetic moments and elastic properties; these are in good
agreement with experiment for both the bcc and fcc structures. We find however,
that in extracting these quantities great care must be taken in interpreting
numerical fits to the calculated total energies. In addition, the results for
bulk iron give insight into the properties of thin iron films. Thin films grown
on substrates with mismatched lattice constants often have non-cubic symmetry.
If they are thicker than a few monolayers their electronic structure is similar
to a bulk material with an appropriately distorted geometry, as in our trigonal
calculations. We recast our bulk results in terms of an iron film grown on the
(111) surface of an fcc substrate, and find the predicted strain energies and
moments accurately reflect the trends for iron growth on a variety of
substrates.Comment: 11 pages, RevTeX,4 tar'd,compressed, uuencoded Postscript figure
Static hybrid quarkonium potential with improved staggered quarks
We are studying the effects of light dynamical quarks on the excitation
energies of a flux tube between a static quark and antiquark. We report
preliminary results of an analysis of the ground state potential and the
and potentials. We have measured these potentials
on closely matched ensembles of gauge configurations, generated in the quenched
approximation and with 2+1 flavors of Asqtad improved staggered quarks.Comment: Lattice2002(heavyquark
A gamma- and X-ray detector for cryogenic, high magnetic field applications
As part of an experiment to measure the spectrum of photons emitted in
beta-decay of the free neutron, we developed and operated a detector consisting
of 12 bismuth germanate (BGO) crystals coupled to avalanche photodiodes (APDs).
The detector was operated near liquid nitrogen temperature in the bore of a
superconducting magnet and registered photons with energies from 5 keV to 1000
keV. To enlarge the detection range, we also directly detected soft X-rays with
energies between 0.2 keV and 20 keV with three large area APDs. The
construction and operation of the detector is presented, as well as information
on operation of APDs at cryogenic temperatures
Multi-timescale Solar Cycles and the Possible Implications
Based on analysis of the annual averaged relative sunspot number (ASN) during
1700 -- 2009, 3 kinds of solar cycles are confirmed: the well-known 11-yr cycle
(Schwabe cycle), 103-yr secular cycle (numbered as G1, G2, G3, and G4,
respectively since 1700); and 51.5-yr Cycle. From similarities, an
extrapolation of forthcoming solar cycles is made, and found that the solar
cycle 24 will be a relative long and weak Schwabe cycle, which may reach to its
apex around 2012-2014 in the vale between G3 and G4. Additionally, most Schwabe
cycles are asymmetric with rapidly rising-phases and slowly decay-phases. The
comparisons between ASN and the annual flare numbers with different GOES
classes (C-class, M-class, X-class, and super-flare, here super-flare is
defined as X10.0) and the annal averaged radio flux at frequency of 2.84
GHz indicate that solar flares have a tendency: the more powerful of the flare,
the later it takes place after the onset of the Schwabe cycle, and most
powerful flares take place in the decay phase of Schwabe cycle. Some
discussions on the origin of solar cycles are presented.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figure
Vortex Rings in Fast Rotating Bose-Einstein Condensates
When Bose-Eintein condensates are rotated sufficiently fast, a giant vortex
phase appears, that is the condensate becomes annular with no vortices in the
bulk but a macroscopic phase circulation around the central hole. In a former
paper [M. Correggi, N. Rougerie, J. Yngvason, {\it arXiv:1005.0686}] we have
studied this phenomenon by minimizing the two dimensional Gross-Pitaevskii
energy on the unit disc. In particular we computed an upper bound to the
critical speed for the transition to the giant vortex phase. In this paper we
confirm that this upper bound is optimal by proving that if the rotation speed
is taken slightly below the threshold there are vortices in the condensate. We
prove that they gather along a particular circle on which they are evenly
distributed. This is done by providing new upper and lower bounds to the GP
energy.Comment: to appear in Archive of Rational Mechanics and Analysi
Radiative β decay of the free neutron
The theory of quantum electrodynamics predicts that the β decay of the neutron into a proton, electron, and antineutrino is accompanied by a continuous spectrum of emitted photons described as inner bremsstrahlung. While this phenomenon has been observed in nuclear β decay and electron-capture decay for many years, it has only been recently observed in free-neutron decay. We present a detailed discussion of an experiment in which the radiative decay mode of the free neutron was observed. In this experiment, the branching ratio for this rare decay was determined by recording photons that were correlated with both the electron and proton emitted in neutron decay. We determined the branching ratio for photons with energy between 15 and 340 keV to be (3.09±0.32)×10-3 (68% level of confidence), where the uncertainty is dominated by systematic effects. This value for the branching ratio is consistent with theoretical predictions. The characteristic energy spectrum of the radiated photons, which differs from the uncorrelated background spectrum, is also consistent with the theoretical spectrum
Coherent states for exactly solvable potentials
A general algebraic procedure for constructing coherent states of a wide
class of exactly solvable potentials e.g., Morse and P{\"o}schl-Teller, is
given. The method, {\it a priori}, is potential independent and connects with
earlier developed ones, including the oscillator based approaches for coherent
states and their generalizations. This approach can be straightforwardly
extended to construct more general coherent states for the quantum mechanical
potential problems, like the nonlinear coherent states for the oscillators. The
time evolution properties of some of these coherent states, show revival and
fractional revival, as manifested in the autocorrelation functions, as well as,
in the quantum carpet structures.Comment: 11 pages, 4 eps figures, uses graphicx packag
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