The Chinese-French SVOM mission for Gamma-Ray Burst studies

We present the Space-based multi-band astronomical Variable Objects Monitor mission (SVOM) decided by the Chinese National Space Agency (CNSA) and the French Space Agency (CNES). The mission which is designed to detect about 80 Gamma-Ray Bursts (GRBs) of all known types per year, will carry a very innovative scientific payload combining a gamma-ray coded mask imagers sensitive in the range 4 keV to 250 keV, a soft X-ray telescope operating between 0.5 to 2 keV, a gamma-ray spectro-photometer sensitive in the range 50 keV to 5 MeV, and an optical telescope able to measure the GRB afterglow emission down to a magnitude limit M$_R=23$ with a 300 s exposure. A particular attention will be also paid to the follow-up in making easy the observation of the SVOM detected GRB by the largest ground based telescopes. Scheduled for a launch in 2013, it will provide fast and reliable GRB positions, will measure the broadband spectral energy distribution and temporal properties of the prompt emission, and will quickly identify the optical afterglows of detected GRBs, including those at very high redshift.Comment: Proceedings of the SF2A conference, Paris, 200

Relativistic Spheres

By analyzing the Einstein's equations for the static sphere, we find that there exists a non-singular static configuration whose radius can approach its corresponding horizon size arbitrarily.Comment: 8 pages revtex, 1 ps figur

Exactly isochoric deformations of soft solids

Many materials of contemporary interest, such as gels, biological tissues and elastomers, are easily deformed but essentially incompressible. Traditional linear theory of elasticity implements incompressibility only to first order and thus permits some volume changes, which become problematically large even at very small strains. Using a mixed coordinate transformation originally due to Gauss, we enforce the constraint of isochoric deformations exactly to develop a linear theory with perfect volume conservation that remains valid until strains become geometrically large. We demonstrate the utility of this approach by calculating the response of an infinite soft isochoric solid to a point force that leads to a nonlinear generalization of the Kelvin solution. Our approach naturally generalizes to a range of problems involving deformations of soft solids and interfaces in 2 dimensional and axisymmetric geometries, which we exemplify by determining the solution to a distributed load that mimics muscular contraction within the bulk of a soft solid

RHESSI Observations of a Simple Large X-ray Flare on 11-03-2003

We present data analysis and interpretation of a simple X-class flare observed with RHESSI on November 3, 2003. In contrast to other X-class flares observed previously, this flare shows a very simple morphology with well defined looptop (LT) and footpoint (FP) sources. The almost monotonic upward motion of the LT source and increase in separation of the two FP sources are consistent with magnetic reconnection models proposed for solar flares. In addition, we find that the source motions are relatively slower during the more active phases of hard X-ray emission; the emission centroid of the LT source shifts toward higher altitudes with the increase of energy; the separation between the LT emission centroids at two different photon energies is anti-correlated with the FP flux. Non-uniformity of the reconnecting magnetic fields could be a possible explanation of these features.Comment: To appear in the Astrophysical Journal Letters (12 pages, 4 figures

Effect of atmospheric turbulence on propagation properties of optical vortices formed by using coherent laser beam arrays

In this paper, we consider the effect of the atmospheric turbulence on the propagation of optical vertex formed from the radial coherent laser beam array, with the initially well-defined phase distribution. The propagation formula of the radial coherent laser array passing through the turbulent atmosphere is analytically derived by using the extended Huygens-Fresnel diffraction integral. Based on the derived formula, the effect of the atmospheric turbulence on the propagation properties of such laser arrays has been studied in great detail. Our main results show that the atmospheric turbulence may result in the prohibition of the formation of the optical vortex or the disappearance of the formed optical vortex, which are very different from that in the free space. The formed optical vortex with the higher topological charge may propagate over a much longer distance in the moderate or weak turbulent atmosphere. After the sufficient long-distance atmospheric propagation, all the output beams (even with initially different phase distributions) finally lose the vortex property and gradually become the Gaussian-shaped beams, and in this case the output beams actually become incoherent light fields due to the decoherence effect of the turbulent atmosphere.Comment: 10 pages, 5 figure

Dynamic response of exchange bias in graphene nanoribbons

The dynamics of magnetic hysteresis, including the training effect and the field sweep rate dependence of the exchange bias, is experimentally investigated in exchange-coupled potassium split graphene nanoribbons (GNRs). We find that, at low field sweep rate, the pronounced absolute training effect is present over a large number of cycles. This is reflected in a gradual decrease of the exchange bias with the sequential field cycling. However, at high field sweep rate above 0.5 T/min, the training effect is not prominent. With the increase in field sweep rate, the average value of exchange bias field grows and is found to follow power law behavior. The response of the exchange bias field to the field sweep rate variation is linked to the difference in the time it takes to perform a hysteresis loop measurement compared with the relaxation time of the anti-ferromagnetically aligned spins. The present results may broaden our current understanding of magnetism of GNRs and would be helpful in establishing the GNRs based spintronic devices.Comment: Accepted Applied Physics Letters (In press

Suppression of low-energy Andreev states by a supercurrent in YBa_2Cu_3O_7-delta

We report a coherence-length scale phenomenon related to how the high-Tc order parameter (OP) evolves under a directly-applied supercurrent. Scanning tunneling spectroscopy was performed on current-carrying YBa_2Cu_3O_7-delta thin-film strips at 4.2K. At current levels well below the theoretical depairing limit, the low-energy Andreev states are suppressed by the supercurrent, while the gap-like structures remain unchanged. We rule out the likelihood of various extrinsic effects, and propose instead a model based on phase fluctuations in the d-wave BTK formalism to explain the suppression. Our results suggest that a supercurrent could weaken the local phase coherence while preserving the pairing amplitude. Other possible scenarios which may cause the observed phenomenon are also discussed.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures, to appear in Physical Review

Effect of carbon nanotube doping on critical current density of MgB2 superconductor

The effect of doping MgB2 with carbon nanotubes on transition temperature, lattice parameters, critical current density and flux pinning was studied for MgB2-xCx with x = 0, 0.05, 0.1, 0.2 and 0.3. The carbon substitution for B was found to enhance Jc in magnetic fields but depress Tc. The depression of Tc, which is caused by the carbon substitution for B, increases with increasing doping level, sintering temperature and duration. By controlling the extent of the substitution and addition of carbon nanotubes we can achieve the optimal improvement on critical current density and flux pinning in magnetic fields while maintaining the minimum reduction in Tc. Under these conditions, Jc was enhanced by two orders of magnitude at 8T and 5K and 7T and 10K. Jc was more than 10,000A/cm2 at 20K and 4T and 5K and 8.5T, respectively