16,807 research outputs found
Nanowires: A route to efficient thermoelectric devices
Miniaturization of electronic devices aims at manufacturing ever smaller
products, from mesoscopic to nanoscopic sizes. This trend is challenging
because the increased levels of dissipated power demands a better understanding
of heat transport in small volumes. A significant amount of the consumed energy
is transformed into heat and dissipated to the environment. Thermoelectric
materials offer the possibility to harness dissipated energy and make devices
less energy-demanding. Heat-to-electricity conversion requires materials with a
strongly suppressed thermal conductivity but still high electronic conduction.
Nanowires can meet nicely these two requirements because enhanced phonon
scattering at the surface and defects reduces the lattice thermal conductivity
while electric conductivity is not deteriorated, leading to an overall
remarkable thermoelectric efficiency. Therefore, nanowires are regarded as a
promising route to achieving valuable thermoelectric materials at the
nanoscale. In this paper, we present an overview of key experimental and
theoretical results concerning the thermoelectric properties of nanowires. The
focus of this review is put on the physical mechanisms by which the efficiency
of nanowires can be improved. Phonon scattering at surfaces and interfaces,
enhancement of the power factor by quantum effects and topological protection
of electron states to prevent the degradation of electrical conductivity in
nanowires are thoroughly discussed
Hawking-like emission in kink-soliton escape from a potential well.
The escape of solitons over a potential barrier is analysed within the framework of a nonlinear Klein–Gordon equation. It is shown that the creation of a kink–antikink pair near the barrier through an internal mode instability can be followed by escape of the kink in a process analogous to Hawking radiation. These results have important implications in a wider context, including stochastic resonance and ratchet systems, which are also discussed
XMM-Newton and Deep Optical Observations of the OTELO fields: the Groth-Westphal Strip
OTELO (OSIRIS Tunable Emission Line Object Survey) will be carried out with
the OSIRIS instrument at the 10 m GTC telescope at La Palma, and is aimed to be
the deepest and richest survey of emission line objects to date. The deep
narrow-band optical data from OSIRIS will be complemented by means of
additional observations that include: (i) an exploratory broad-band survey that
is already being carried out in the optical domain, (ii) FIR and sub-mm
observations to be carried with the Herschel space telescope and the GTM, and
(iii) deep X-Ray observations from XMM-Newton and Chandra.Here we present a
preliminary analysis of public EPIC data of one of the OTELO targets,the
Groth-Westphal strip, gathered from the XMM-Newton Science Archive (XSA). EPIC
images are combined with optical BVRI data from our broadband survey carried
out with the 4.2m WHT at La Palma. Distance-independent diagnostics (involving
X/O ratio, hardness ratios, B/T ratio) are tested.Comment: 2 pages, 2 figures, uses graphicx package. To appear in proceedings
of "The X-Ray Universe 2005", San Lorenzo del Escorial, Spain, September
26-30, 200
A class of Hamilton-Jacobi equations on Banach-Finsler manifolds
The concept of subdifferentiability is studied in the context of
Finsler manifolds (modeled on a Banach space with a Lipschitz bump
function). A class of Hamilton-Jacobi equations defined on Finsler
manifolds is studied and several results related to the existence and
uniqueness of viscosity solutions are obtained.Comment: 24 page
VIMOS-VLT spectroscopy of the giant Ly-alpha nebulae associated with three z~2.5 radio galaxies
The morphological and spectroscopic properties of the giant (>60 kpc)
Ly-alpha nebulae associated with three radio galaxies at z~2.5 (MRC 1558-003,
MRC 2025-218 and MRC 0140-257) have been investigated using integral field
spectroscopic data obtained with VIMOS on VLT.
The morphologies are varied. The nebula of one source has a centrally peaked,
rounded appearance. In the other two objects, it consists of two spatial
components. The three nebulae are aligned with the radio axis within <30 deg.
The total Ly-alpha luminosities are in the range (0.3-3.4) x 1e44 erg s-1. The
Ly-alpha spectral profile shows strong variation through the nebulae, with FWHM
values in the range ~400-1500 km s-1 and velocity shifts V~120-600 km s-1.
We present an infall model which can explain successfully most Ly-alpha
morphological and spectroscopic properties of the nebula associated with MRC
1558-003. This adds further support to our previous conclusion that the
_quiescent_ giant nebulae associated with this and other high redshift powerful
radio galaxies are in infall. A problem for this model is the difficulty to
reproduce the large Ly-alpha FWHM values.
We have discovered a giant (~85 kpc) Ly-alpha nebula associated with the
radio galaxy MRC 0140-257 at z=2.64. It shows strikingly relaxed kinematics
(FWHM2) radio galaxies.Comment: 14 pages, 13 figures. Accepted for publication in MNRA
The importance of cephalopods to trawl fisheries in the western Mediterranean
The aim of the study was to define the commercial importance of cephalopods caught by trawlers from five Italian and Spanish Mediterranean ports. From summer 1995 to spring 1996, samples of the catches of trawlers were taken on board. The type of fishing activity was recorded and data were collected from at least three commercial hauls for each port, season and bathymetric stratum (350 m). The species composition and yield of the retained and discarded portions of the catch were noted for each port. From these data the commercial importance of each species was evaluated. Cephalopods were commercially important particularly in the shallower bathymetric stratum
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