The Bean model of the critical state in a magnetically shielded superconductor filament

We study the magnetization of a cylindrical type-II superconductor filament covered by a coaxial soft-magnet sheath and exposed to an applied transverse magnetic field. Examining penetration of magnetic flux into the superconductor core of the filament on the basis of the Bean model of the critical state, we find that the presence of a non-hysteretic magnetic sheath can strongly enhance the field of full penetration of magnetic flux. The average magnetization of the superconductor/magnet heterostructure under consideration and hysteresis AC losses in the core of the filament are calculated as well.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures; Proceedings of the 7th European Conference on Applied Superconductivity, Vienna, Austria, September 11-15, 200

The Bean-Livingston barrier at a superconductor/magnet interface

The Bean-Livingston barrier at the interface of type-II superconductor/soft-magnet heterostructures is studied on the basis of the classical London approach. This shows a characteristic dependence on the geometry of the particular structure and its interface as well as on the relative permeability of the involved magnetic constituent. The modification of the barrier by the presence of the magnet can be significant, as demonstrated for a cylindrical superconducting filament covered with a coaxial magnetic sheath. Using typical values of the relative permeability, the critical field of first penetration of magnetic flux is predicted to be strongly enhanced, whereas the variation of the average critical current density with the external field is strongly depressed, in accord with the observations of recent experiments.Comment: RevTeX 4; revised version; accepted in Journal of Physics: Condensed Matte

Direct detection and characterization of foot-and-mouth disease virus in East Africa using a field-ready real-time PCR platform

Effective control and monitoring of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) relies upon rapid and accurate disease confirmation. Currently, clinical samples are usually tested in reference laboratories using standardized assays recommended by The World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE). However, the requirements for prompt and serotype-specific diagnosis during FMD outbreaks, and the need to establish robust laboratory testing capacity in FMD-endemic countries have motivated the development of simple diagnostic platforms to support local decision-making. Using a portable thermocycler, the T-COR™ 8, this study describes the laboratory and field evaluation of a commercially available, lyophilized pan-serotype-specific real-time RT-PCR (rRT-PCR) assay and a newly available FMD virus (FMDV) typing assay (East Africa-specific for serotypes: O, A, Southern African Territories [SAT] 1 and 2). Analytical sensitivity, diagnostic sensitivity and specificity of the pan-serotype-specific lyophilized assay were comparable to that of an OIE-recommended laboratory-based rRT-PCR (determined using a panel of 57 FMDV-positive samples and six non-FMDV vesicular disease samples for differential diagnosis). The FMDV-typing assay was able to correctly identify the serotype of 33/36 FMDV-positive samples (no cross-reactivity between serotypes was evident). Furthermore, the assays were able to accurately detect and type FMDV RNA in multiple sample types, including epithelial tissue suspensions, serum, oesophageal–pharyngeal (OP) fluid and oral swabs, both with and without the use of nucleic acid extraction. When deployed in laboratory and field settings in Tanzania, Kenya and Ethiopia, both assays reliably detected and serotyped FMDV RNA in samples (n = 144) collected from pre-clinical, clinical and clinically recovered cattle. These data support the use of field-ready rRT-PCR platforms in endemic settings for simple, highly sensitive and rapid detection and/or characterization of FMDV

Fractal Stability Border in Plane Couette Flow

We study the dynamics of localised perturbations in plane Couette flow with periodic lateral boundary conditions. For small Reynolds number and small amplitude of the initial state the perturbation decays on a viscous time scale $t \propto Re$. For Reynolds number larger than about 200, chaotic transients appear with life times longer than the viscous one. Depending on the type of the perturbation isolated initial conditions with infinite life time appear for Reynolds numbers larger than about 270--320. In this third regime, the life time as a function of Reynolds number and amplitude is fractal. These results suggest that in the transition region the turbulent dynamics is characterised by a chaotic repeller rather than an attractor.Comment: 4 pages, Latex, 4 eps-figures, submitted to Phys. Rev. Le

Hall conductance of Bloch electrons in a magnetic field

We study the energy spectrum and the quantized Hall conductance of electrons in a two-dimensional periodic potential with perpendicular magnetic field WITHOUT neglecting the coupling of the Landau bands. Remarkably, even for weak Landau band coupling significant changes in the Hall conductance compared to the one-band approximation of Hofstadter's butterfly are found. The principal deviations are the rearrangement of subbands and unexpected subband contributions to the Hall conductance.Comment: to appear in PRB; Revtex, 9 pages, 5 postscript figures; figures with better resolution may be obtained from http://www.chaos.gwdg.d

Hyperon weak radiative decays in chiral perturbation theory

We investigate the leading-order amplitudes for weak radiative decays of hyperons in chiral perturbation theory. We consistently include contributions from the next-to-leading order weak-interaction Lagrangian. It is shown that due to these terms Hara's theorem is violated. The data for the decays of charged hyperons can be easily accounted for. However, at this order in the chiral expansion, the four amplitudes for the decays of neutral hyperons satisfy relations which are in disagreement with the data. The asymmetry parameters for all the decays can not be accounted for without higher-order terms. We shortly comment on the effect of the 27-plet part of the weak interaction.Comment: 8 pages of REVTeX and using macro-package "feynman.tex" (available at http://xxx.lanl.gov/ftp/hep-ph/papers/macros) for the 2 figure

Detailed study of N,N'-(diisopropylphenyl)- terrylene-3,4:11,12-bis(dicarboximide) as electron acceptor for solar cells application

We report on terrylene-3,4:11,12-bis(dicarboximide) (TDI) as electron acceptor for bulk-heterojunction solar cells using poly(3-hexyl thiophene) (P3HT) as complementary donor component. Enhanced absorption was observed in the blend compared to pure P3HT. As shown by the very efficient photoluminescence (PL) quenching, the generated excitons are collected at the interface between the donor and acceptor, where they separate into charges which we detect by photoinduced absorption and electron-spin resonance (ESR). Time-of-flight (TOF) photoconductivity measurements reveal a good electron mobility of 10-3 cm2 V-1 s-1 in the blend. Nevertheless, the photocurrent in solar cells was found to be surprisingly low. Supported by the external quantum efficiency (EQE) spectrum as well as morphological studies by way of X-ray diffraction and atomic force microscopy, we explain our observation by the formation of a TDI hole blocking layer at the anode interface which prevents the efficiently generated charges to be extracted.Comment: Original research article, 9 pages, 10 figures, 1 tabl