Orphan penumbrae: Submerging horizontal fields

We investigate the properties of orphan penumbrae, which are photospheric filamentary structures observed in active regions near polarity inversion lines that resemble the penumbra of regular sunspots but are not connected to any umbra. We use Hinode data from the Solar Optical Telescope to determine the properties of orphan penumbrae. Spectropolarimetric data are employed to obtain the vector magnetic field and line-of-sight velocities in the photosphere. Magnetograms are used to study the overall evolution of these structures, and G-band and Ca II H filtergrams are to investigate their brightness and apparent horizontal motions. Orphan penumbrae form between regions of opposite polarity in places with horizontal magnetic fields. Their magnetic configuration is that of $\Omega$-shaped flux ropes. In the two cases studied here, the opposite-polarity regions approach each other with time and the whole structure submerges as the penumbral filaments disappear. Orphan penumbrae are very similar to regular penumbrae, including the existence of strong gas flows. Therefore, they could have a similar origin. The main difference between them is the absence of a "background" magnetic field in orphan penumbrae. This could explain most of the observed differences. The fast flows we detect in orphan penumbrae may be caused by the siphon flow mechanism. Based on the similarities between orphan and regular penumbrae, we propose that the Evershed flow is also a manifestation of siphon flows.Comment: 15 pages, 15 figure

Short-Time Critical Dynamics of Damage Spreading in the Two-Dimensional Ising Model

The short-time critical dynamics of propagation of damage in the Ising ferromagnet in two dimensions is studied by means of Monte Carlo simulations. Starting with equilibrium configurations at $T= \infty$ and magnetization $M=0$, an initial damage is created by flipping a small amount of spins in one of the two replicas studied. In this way, the initial damage is proportional to the initial magnetization $M_0$ in one of the configurations upon quenching the system at $T_C$, the Onsager critical temperature of the ferromagnetic-paramagnetic transition. It is found that, at short times, the damage increases with an exponent $\theta_D=1.915(3)$, which is much larger than the exponent $\theta=0.197$ characteristic of the initial increase of the magnetization $M(t)$. Also, an epidemic study was performed. It is found that the average distance from the origin of the epidemic ($\langle R^2(t)\rangle$) grows with an exponent $z^* \approx \eta \approx 1.9$, which is the same, within error bars, as the exponent $\theta_D$. However, the survival probability of the epidemics reaches a plateau so that $\delta=0$. On the other hand, by quenching the system to lower temperatures one observes the critical spreading of the damage at $T_{D}\simeq 0.51 T_C$, where all the measured observables exhibit power laws with exponents $\theta_D = 1.026(3)$, $\delta = 0.133(1)$, and $z^*=1.74(3)$.Comment: 11 pages, 9 figures (included). Phys. Rev. E (2010), in press

Bivariate Nakagami-m distribution with arbitrary fading parameters

[EN] The bivariate Nakagami-m distribution with arbitrary fading parameters is derived, obtaining the probability density function (PDF), the cumulative density function (CDF) and the central moments. Additionally, limitations of that distribution are discussed.Reig, J.; Rubio Arjona, L.; Cardona Marcet, N. (2002). Bivariate Nakagami-m distribution with arbitrary fading parameters. Electronics Letters. 38(25):1715-1717. doi:10.1049/el:20021124S171517173825Nakagami, M.: ‘Them-distribution—a general formula of intensity distribution of rapid fading’, Hoffman, W.G., Statistical methods in radio wave propagation, (Pergamon 1960)Abramowitz, M., and Stegun, I.A.: ‘Handbook of mathematical functions’, (Dover, New York 1972)Tan, C. C., & Beaulieu, N. C. (1997). Infinite series representations of the bivariate Rayleigh and Nakagami-m distributions. IEEE Transactions on Communications, 45(10), 1159-1161. doi:10.1109/26.63467

Tailoring electronic and optical properties of TiO2: nanostructuring, doping and molecular-oxide interactions

Titanium dioxide is one of the most widely investigated oxides. This is due to its broad range of applications, from catalysis to photocatalysis to photovoltaics. Despite this large interest, many of its bulk properties have been sparsely investigated using either experimental techniques or ab initio theory. Further, some of TiO2's most important properties, such as its electronic band gap, the localized character of excitons, and the localized nature of states induced by oxygen vacancies, are still under debate. We present a unified description of the properties of rutile and anatase phases, obtained from ab initio state of the art methods, ranging from density functional theory (DFT) to many body perturbation theory (MBPT) derived techniques. In so doing, we show how advanced computational techniques can be used to quantitatively describe the structural, electronic, and optical properties of TiO2 nanostructures, an area of fundamental importance in applied research. Indeed, we address one of the main challenges to TiO2-photocatalysis, namely band gap narrowing, by showing how to combine nanostructural changes with doping. With this aim we compare TiO2's electronic properties for 0D clusters, 1D nanorods, 2D layers, and 3D bulks using different approximations within DFT and MBPT calculations. While quantum confinement effects lead to a widening of the energy gap, it has been shown that substitutional doping with boron or nitrogen gives rise to (meta-)stable structures and the introduction of dopant and mid-gap states which effectively reduce the band gap. Finally, we report how ab initio methods can be applied to understand the important role of TiO2 as electron-acceptor in dye-sensitized solar cells. This task is made more difficult by the hybrid organic-oxide structure of the involved systems.Comment: 32 pages, 8 figure

On the use of Neumann's principle for the calculation of the polarizability tensor of nanostructures

The polarizability measures how the system responds to an applied electrical field. Computationally, there are many different ways to evaluate this tensorial quantity, some of which rely on the explicit use of the external perturbation and require several individual calculations to obtain the full tensor. In this work, we present some considerations about symmetry that allow us to take full advantage of Neumann's principle and decrease the number of calculations required by these methods. We illustrate the approach with two examples, the use of the symmetries in real space and in spin space in the calculation of the electrical or the spin response.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figures, accepted for publication in the Journal of Nanoscience and Nanotechnolog

High Excitation Molecular Gas in the Magellanic Clouds

We present the first survey of submillimeter CO 4-3 emission in the Magellanic Clouds. The survey is comprised of 15 6'x6' maps obtained using the AST/RO telescope toward the molecular peaks of the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds. We have used these data to constrain the physical conditions in these objects, in particular their molecular gas density and temperature. We find that there are significant amounts of molecular gas associated with most of these molecular peaks, and that high molecular gas temperatures are pervasive throughout our sample. We discuss whether this may be due to the low metallicities and the associated dearth of gas coolants in the Clouds, and conclude that the present sample is insufficient to assert this effect.Comment: 18 pages, 3 figures, 5 tables. To appear in Ap