Pixelated Lenses and H_0 from Time-delay QSOs

Observed time delays between images of a lensed QSO lead to the determination of the Hubble constant by Refsdal's method, provided the mass distribution in the lensing galaxy is reasonably well known. Since the two or four QSO images usually observed are woefully inadequate by themselves to provide a unique reconstruction of the galaxy mass, most previous reconstructions have been limited to simple parameterized models, which may lead to large systematic errors in the derived H_0 by failing to consider enough possibilities for the mass distribution of the lens. We use non-parametric modeling of galaxy lenses to better explore physically plausible but not overly constrained galaxy mass maps, all of which reproduce the lensing observables exactly, and derive the corresponding distribution of H_0's. Blind tests - where one of us simulated galaxy lenses, lensing observables, and a value for H_0, and the other applied our modeling technique to estimate H_0 indicate that our procedure is reliable. For four simulated lensed QSOs the distribution of inferred H_0 have an uncertainty of \simeq 10% at 90% confidence. Application to published observations of the two best constrained time-delay lenses, PG1115+080 and B1608+656, yields H_0=61 +/- 11 km/s/Mpc at 68% confidence and 61 +/- 18 km/s/Mpc at 90% confidence.Comment: 27 pages, including 17 figs, LaTeX; accepted to A

Valley-Selective Landau-Zener Oscillations in Semi-Dirac p-n Junctions

We study transport across p-n junctions of gapped two-dimensional semi-Dirac materials: nodal semimetals whose energy bands disperse quadratically and linearly along distinct crystal axes. The resulting electronic properties --- relevant to materials such as TiO$_2$/VO$_2$ multilayers and $\alpha$-(BEDT-TTF)$_2$I$_3$ salts --- continuously interpolate between those of mono- and bi-layer graphene as a function of propagation angle. We demonstrate that tunneling across the junction depends on the orientation of the tunnel barrier relative to the crystalline axes, leading to strongly non-monotonic current-voltage characteristics, including negative differential conductance in some regimes. In multi-valley systems these features provide a natural route to engineering valley-selective transport.Comment: 7 pages, 7 figures, appendice

New magic number for neutron rich Sn isotopes

The variation of E(2+_1) of (134-140)Sn calculated with empirical SMPN interaction has striking similarity with that of experimental E(2+_1) of even-even (18-22)O and (42-48)Ca, showing clearly that N=84-88 spectra exhibit the effect of gradual filling up of \nu(2f_{7/2}) orbital which finally culminates in a new shell closure at N=90. Realistic two-body interaction CWG does not show this feature. Spin-tensor decomposition of SMPN and CWG interactions and variation of their components with valence neutron number reveals that the origin of the shell closure at 140Sn lies in the three body effects. Calculations with CWG3, which is obtained by including a simple three-body monopole term in the CWG interaction, predict decreasing E(2+_1) for (134-138)Sn and a shell closure at 140Sn.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figure

Augmented space recursion for partially disordered systems

Off-stoichiometric alloys exhibit partial disorder, in the sense that only some of the sublattices of the stoichiometric ordered alloy become disordered. This paper puts forward a generalization of the augmented space recursion (ASR) (introduced earlier by one of us (Mookerjee et al 1997(*))) for systems with many atoms per unit cell. In order to justify the convergence properties of ASR we have studied the convergence of various moments of local density of states and other physical quantities like Fermi energy and band energy. We have also looked at the convergence of the magnetic moment of Ni, which is very sensitive to numerical approximations towards the k-space value 0.6 $\mu_{B}$ with the number of recursion steps prior to termination.Comment: Latex 2e, 21 Pages, 13 Figures, iopb style file attache

The Linearly Independent Non Orthogonal yet Energy Preserving (LINOEP) vectors

It is well known that, in any inner product space, a set of linearly independent (LI) vectors can be transformed to a set of orthogonal vectors, spanning the same space, by the Gram-Schmidt Orthogonalization Method (GSOM). In this paper, we propose a transformation from a set of LI vectors to a set of LI non orthogonal yet energy (square of the norm) preserving (LINOEP) vectors in an inner product space and we refer it as LINOEP method. We also show that there are various solutions to preserve the square of the norm.Comment: 6 pages, 2 figure

Study of Phase Stability in NiPt Systems

We have studied the problem of phase stability in NiPt alloy system. We have used the augmented space recursion based on the TB-LMTO as the method for studying the electronic structure of the alloys. In particular, we have used the relativistic generalization of our earlier technique. We note that, in order to predict the proper ground state structures and energetics, in addition to relativistic effects, we have to take into account charge transfer effects with precision.Comment: 22 pages, 7 figures. Accepted for publication in JPC

Antimagnetic rotation and sudden change of electric quadrupole transition strength in 143Eu

Lifetimes of the states in the quadrupole structure in 143Eu have been measured using the Doppler shift attenuation method as well as parity of the states in the sequence has been firmly identified from polarization measurement using the Indian National Gamma Array. The decreasing trends of the deduced quadrupole transition strength B(E2) with spin, along with increasing J (2) /B(E2) values before band crossing, conclusively establish the origin of these states as arising out of antimagnetic rotation. The abrupt increase in the B(E2) values after the band crossing in the quadrupole band, a novel feature observed in the present experiment, may indicates the crossing of different shears configurations resulting in re-opening of shears structure. The results are well reproduced by numerical calculation within the framework of semi-classical geometric model.Comment: 6 pages, 4 postscript figure