8 research outputs found
Josephson junction between anisotropic superconductors
The sin-Gordon equation for Josephson junctions with arbitrary misaligned
anisotropic banks is derived. As an application, the problem of Josephson
vortices at twin planes of a YBCO-like material is considered. It is shown that
for an arbitrary orientation of these vortices relative to the crystal axes of
the banks, the junctions should experience a mechanical torque which is
evaluated. This torque and its angular dependence may, in principle, be
measured in small fields, since the flux penetration into twinned crystals
begins with nucleation of Josephson vortices at twin planes.Comment: 6 page
Collapse of the critical state in superconducting niobium
Giant abrupt changes in the magnetic flux distribution in niobium foils were
studied by using magneto-optical visualization, thermal and magnetic
measurements. Uniform flux jumps and sometimes almost total catastrophic
collapse of the critical state are reported. Results are discussed in terms of
thermomagnetic instability mechanism with different development scenarios.Comment: arXiv.org produced artifacts in color images (three versions were
attempts to make better images). Download clean PDF and watch video-figures
at: "http://cmp.ameslab.gov/supermaglab/video/Nb.html
Vortices in magnetically coupled superconducting layered systems
Pancake vortices in stacks of thin superconducting films or layers are
considered. It is stressed that in the absence of Josephson coupling
topological restrictions upon possible configurations of vortices are removed
and various examples of structures forbidden in bulk superconductors are given.
In particular, it is shown that vortices may skip surface layers in samples of
less than a certain size R_c which might be macroscopic. The Josephson coupling
suppresses R_c estimates
The Correlation between Mixing Length and Metallicity on the Giant Branch: Implications for Ages in the Gaia Era
In the updated APOGEE-Kepler catalog, we have asteroseismic and spectroscopic data for over 3000 first ascent red giants. Given the size and accuracy of this sample, these data offer an unprecedented test of the accuracy of stellar models on the post-main-sequence. When we compare these data to theoretical predictions, we find a metallicity dependent temperature offset with a slope of around 100 K per dex in metallicity. We find that this effect is present in all model grids tested, and that theoretical uncertainties in the models, correlated spectroscopic errors, and shifts in the asteroseismic mass scale are insufficient to explain this effect. Stellar models can be brought into agreement with the data if a metallicity-dependent convective mixing length is used, with Delta alpha(ML), YREC similar to 0.2 per dex in metallicity, a trend inconsistent with the predictions of three-dimensional stellar convection simulations. If this effect is not taken into account, isochrone ages for red giants from the Gaia data will be off by as much as a factor of two even at modest deviations from solar metallicity ([Fe/H]- -0.5)
Dendritic and homogeneous regimes of flux penetration into YBCO films
Dendritic flux patterns in superconducting YBCO films are studied on a nanosecond time-scale. It is found that dendrites only develop for certain values of the external field and temperature