247 research outputs found
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
Phase coexistence of gradient Gibbs states
We consider the (scalar) gradient fields --with denoting
the nearest-neighbor edges in --that are distributed according to the
Gibbs measure proportional to \texte^{-\beta H(\eta)}\nu(\textd\eta). Here
is the Hamiltonian, is a symmetric potential,
is the inverse temperature, and is the Lebesgue measure on the linear
space defined by imposing the loop condition
for each plaquette
in . For convex , Funaki and Spohn have shown that
ergodic infinite-volume Gibbs measures are characterized by their tilt. We
describe a mechanism by which the gradient Gibbs measures with non-convex
undergo a structural, order-disorder phase transition at some intermediate
value of inverse temperature . At the transition point, there are at
least two distinct gradient measures with zero tilt, i.e., .Comment: 3 figs, PTRF style files include
A new methodology to estimate the steady-state permeability of roast and ground coffee in packed beds
AbstractIn an espresso-style extraction hot water (90±5°C) is driven through a coffee packed bed by a pressure gradient to extract soluble material from the coffee matrix. Permeability is a key parameter affecting extraction as it determines the flow rate through the bed and hence brewing and residence time. This may alter bed-to-cup mass transfer and therefore impact brew quality.In this work a methodology that will allow estimation of the permeability of coffee packed beds in steady-state was developed. Fitting measured flow rate – pressure drop data to Darcy’s law resulted in permeability values in the range of 10−13–10−14m2. Disagreement between the experimental and theoretical permeability, as estimated from dry measurements of particle size distribution and Kozeny–Carman equation, was found. Bed consolidation may have a larger effect on the packing structure than the mere decrease in bed bulk porosity. The Kozeny–Carman equation, corrected with a porosity-dependent tortuosity according to a power law, gave a good fit of the data
Application of diamond-like carbon coatings to elastomers frictional surfaces
Nitrile-butyl rubber-like materials were coated with amorphous hydrogenated diamond-like carbon (DLC) coatings in order to modify their surface and tribological properties. Measurements of water contact angle were performed by the sessile drop method and showed that the coated samples are more hydrophobic with water contact angles up to 116°. The surface free energy of the elastomers was calculated by the acid-base regression method considering polar and dispersive contributions and the results were correlated with changes in the surface chemistry measured by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. It has been found that the lower presence of oxygen functional groups on the elastomer surfaces led to lower surface free energies, even though the polar contribution was not predominant. We also found that the DLC coatings led to a significant decrease of the surface free energy (up to 16%) and that there is a good correlation between the surface free energy values and the corresponding water contact angle values. The coefficient of friction was also measured and presented a significant decrease after coating with DLC. © 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.The authors acknowledge the financial support of the EU from the Sixth framework programme in the KRISTAL Project no. 515837-2. L. Martínez and Y. Huttel acknowledge the Spanish “Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia” for the “Juan de la Cierva” and “Ramón y Cajal” programmes, respectively. R. Nevshupa acknowledges the “Marie Curie” programme (MIF1-CT-2006-22067)
Ferromagnetism in the Two-Dimensional Periodic Anderson Model
Using the constrained-path Monte Carlo method, we studied the magnetic
properties of the two-dimensional periodic Anderson model for electron fillings
between 1/4 and 1/2. We also derived two effective low energy theories to
assist in interpreting the numerical results. For 1/4 filling we found that the
system can be a Mott or a charge transfer insulator, depending on the relative
values of the Coulomb interaction and the charge transfer gap between the two
non-interacting bands. The insulator may be a paramagnet or antiferromagnet. We
concentrated on the effect of electron doping on these insulating phases. Upon
doping we obtained a partially saturated ferromagnetic phase for low
concentrations of conduction electrons. If the system were a charge transfer
insulator, we would find that the ferromagnetism is induced by the well-known
RKKY interaction. However, we found a novel correlated hopping mechanism
inducing the ferromagnetism in the region where the non-doped system is a Mott
insulator. Our regions of ferromagnetism spanned a much smaller doping range
than suggested by recent slave boson and dynamical mean field theory
calculations, but they were consistent with that obtained by density matrix
renormalization group calculations of the one-dimensional periodic Anderson
model
Electron-phonon interaction in C70
The matrix elements of the deformation potential of C are calculated
by means of a simple, yet accurate solution of the electron-phonon coupling
problem in fullerenes, based on a parametrization of the ground state
electronic density of the system in terms of hybridized orbitals.
The value of the calculated dimensionless total electron-phonon coupling
constant is , an order of magnitude smaller than in
C, consistent with the lack of a superconducting phase transition in
CA fullerite, and in overall agreement with measurements of the
broadening of Raman peaks in CK. We also calculate the photoemission
cross section of C, which is found to display less structure than that
associated with C, in overall agreement with the experimental
findings.Comment: To be published in Phys. Rev.
Wormholes and Ringholes in a Dark-Energy Universe
The effects that the present accelerating expansion of the universe has on
the size and shape of Lorentzian wormholes and ringholes are considered. It is
shown that, quite similarly to how it occurs for inflating wormholes, relative
to the initial embedding-space coordinate system, whereas the shape of the
considered holes is always preserved with time, their size is driven by the
expansion to increase by a factor which is proportional to the scale factor of
the universe. In the case that dark energy is phantom energy, which is not
excluded by present constraints on the dark-energy equation of state, that size
increase with time becomes quite more remarkable, and a rather speculative
scenario is here presented where the big rip can be circumvented by future
advanced civilizations by utilizing sufficiently grown up wormholes and
ringholes as time machines that shortcut the big-rip singularity.Comment: 11 pages, RevTex, to appear in Phys. Rev.
Itinerant Ferromagnetism in the Periodic Anderson Model
We introduce a novel mechanism for itinerant ferromagnetism, based on a
simple two-band model. The model includes an uncorrelated and dispersive band
hybridized with a second band which is narrow and correlated. The simplest
Hamiltonian containing these ingredients is the Periodic Anderson Model (PAM).
Using quantum Monte Carlo and analytical methods, we show that the PAM and an
extension of it contain the new mechanism and exhibit a non-saturated
ferromagnetic ground state in the intermediate valence regime. We propose that
the mechanism, which does not assume an intra atomic Hund's coupling, is
present in both the iron group and in some f electron compounds like
Ce(Rh_{1-x} Ru_x)_3 B_2, La_x Ce_{1-x} Rh_3 B_2 and the uranium
monochalcogenides US, USe, and UTe
Structure-property relationships in structural glass fibre reinforced composites from unsaturated polyester and inherently fire retardant phenolic resin matrix blends
The effects of matrices from co-cured blends of an unsaturated polyester (UP) with inherently fire-retardant and char-forming phenolic resoles (PH) on the mechanical and fire performances of resultant glass fibre-reinforced composites have been investigated. Three different phenolic resoles with increasing order of compatibility with UP have been used. These are: (i) an ethanol soluble resin, (PH-S), (ii) an epoxy-functionalized resin (PH-Ep), and (iii) an allyl-functionalized resin (PH-Al). The mechanical properties of the composites increased with increasing compatibility with two resin types as might be expected, but not previously demonstrated. However, even with the least compatible resin (PH-S), the impact properties were unaffected and the flexural/tensile properties while reduced, were still acceptable for certain applications. Fire properties were however, in reverse order as previously observed in cast resin samples from these composites. Moreover, the reduction in flammability was less compared to those of the cast resin samples, reported previously, explained here based on the insulating effect of glass fibre reinforcement
Cosmological parameters from SDSS and WMAP
We measure cosmological parameters using the three-dimensional power spectrum
P(k) from over 200,000 galaxies in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) in
combination with WMAP and other data. Our results are consistent with a
``vanilla'' flat adiabatic Lambda-CDM model without tilt (n=1), running tilt,
tensor modes or massive neutrinos. Adding SDSS information more than halves the
WMAP-only error bars on some parameters, tightening 1 sigma constraints on the
Hubble parameter from h~0.74+0.18-0.07 to h~0.70+0.04-0.03, on the matter
density from Omega_m~0.25+/-0.10 to Omega_m~0.30+/-0.04 (1 sigma) and on
neutrino masses from <11 eV to <0.6 eV (95%). SDSS helps even more when
dropping prior assumptions about curvature, neutrinos, tensor modes and the
equation of state. Our results are in substantial agreement with the joint
analysis of WMAP and the 2dF Galaxy Redshift Survey, which is an impressive
consistency check with independent redshift survey data and analysis
techniques. In this paper, we place particular emphasis on clarifying the
physical origin of the constraints, i.e., what we do and do not know when using
different data sets and prior assumptions. For instance, dropping the
assumption that space is perfectly flat, the WMAP-only constraint on the
measured age of the Universe tightens from t0~16.3+2.3-1.8 Gyr to
t0~14.1+1.0-0.9 Gyr by adding SDSS and SN Ia data. Including tensors, running
tilt, neutrino mass and equation of state in the list of free parameters, many
constraints are still quite weak, but future cosmological measurements from
SDSS and other sources should allow these to be substantially tightened.Comment: Minor revisions to match accepted PRD version. SDSS data and ppt
figures available at http://www.hep.upenn.edu/~max/sdsspars.htm
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