5,407 research outputs found
Node-like excitations in superconducting PbMo6S8 probed by scanning tunneling spectroscopy
We present the first scanning tunneling spectroscopy study on the Chevrel
phase PbMo6S8, an extreme type II superconductor with a coherence length only
slightly larger than in high-Tc cuprates. Tunneling spectra measured on
atomically flat terraces are spatially homogeneous and show well-defined
coherence peaks. The low-energy spectral weight, the zero bias conductance and
the temperature dependence of the gap are incompatible with a conventional
isotropic s-wave interpretation, revealing the presence of low-energy
excitations in the superconducting state. We show that our data are consistent
with the presence of nodes in the superconducting gap.Comment: To appear in PRB; 5 pages, 4 figure
Multi-band Superconductivity in the Chevrel Phases SnMo6S8 and PbMo6S8
Sub-Kelvin scanning tunnelling spectroscopy in the Chevrel Phases SnMo6S8 and
PbMo6S8 reveals two distinct superconducting gaps with Delta_1 = 3 meV, Delta_2
~ 1.0 meV and Delta_1 = 3.1 meV, Delta_2 ~ 1.4 meV respectively. The gap
distribution is strongly anisotropic, with Delta_2 predominantly seen when
scanning across unit-cell steps on the (001) sample surface. The spectra are
well-fitted by an anisotropic two-band BCS s-wave gap function. Our
spectroscopic data are confirmed by electronic heat capacity measurements which
also provide evidence for a twin-gap scenario.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure
Games for Teaching/Learning Quantum Mechanics: A Pilot Study with High-School Students
The teaching of quantum physics is challenging, not the least because teachers must overcome the traditional narrative approach, students must gain a conceptual understanding of fundamentals, and citizens must become aware of quantum technologies. Quantum games are powerful tools to overcome obstacles and push one’s limits without fear of failure. We report on a pilot study involving twenty high-school student volunteers, consisting of a compact intervention module on the concepts of quantum states, properties, measurement, superposition, and entanglement within the framework of the Model of Educational Reconstruction, followed by playing a game, quantum TiqTaqToe. The outcomes of this research-based learning environment are discussed via the qualitative analysis of students’ answers to two open questionnaires. We find that students grasped the concepts of superposition and, with special awareness, entanglement, the game proving effective to help students experience their implications in quantum behavior. The informal and stimulating tournament atmosphere favored intertwining of the game with learning goals. Our central message is that the use of quantum game tools fits a teaching/learning environment in manners often not well understood in the literature; it enhances awareness of the nature of new and non-intuitive concepts, increases complementarity with other languages within the process of thinking about physics, boosts student engagement, and improves intervention efficiency and effectiveness
Investigation of Particle-in-Cell Acceleration Techniques for Plasma Simulations
COLISEUM is an application framework that integrates plasma propagation schemes and arbitrary 3D surface geometries. Using Particle-in-Cell (PIC) schemes to model the plasma propagation high fidelity modeling of the plasma and its interactions with the surfaces is possible. In order to improve the computational performance of the Particle-in-Cell scheme with Direct Simulation Monte Carlo collision modeling (PIC-DSMC) within COLISEUM, AQUILA, acceleration techniques have been developed that significantly decrease the amount of CPU time needed to obtain a steady-state solution. These techniques have been demonstrated to decrease the CPU time from 3 to 24 times with little appreciable differences in the global particle properties and number densities. This work investigates the differences in the local plasma properties that result from the application of the different acceleration techniques. Results show that the subcycling acceleration scheme does accurately capture the macroscopic flow properties (such as particle counts and species number densities) and the velocity distributions in the lower density regions of the flow field. However, the higher density regions of the flow field (such as in the main beam of the plasma source) show significant differences that are believed to be associated with the simplifying assumptions used in the original collision modeling scheme within the PIC-DSMC module AQUILA
The shape of the Red Giant Branch Bump as a diagnostic of partial mixing processes in low-mass stars
We suggest to use the shape of the Red Giant Branch (RGB) Bump in metal-rich
globular clusters as a diagnostic of partial mixing processes between the base
of the convective envelope and the H-burning shell. The Bump located along the
differential luminosity function of cluster RGB stars is a key observable to
constrain the H-profile inside these structures. In fact, standard evolutionary
models that account for complete mixing in the convective unstable layers and
radiative equilibrium in the innermost regions do predict that the first
dredge-up lefts over a very sharp H-discontinuity at the bottom of the
convective region. Interestingly enough we found that both atomic diffusion and
a moderate convective overshooting at the base of the convective region
marginally affects the shape of the RGB Bump in the differential Luminosity
Function (LF). As a consequence, we performed several numerical experiments to
estimate whether plausible assumptions concerning the smoothing of the
H-discontinuity, due to the possible occurrence of extra-mixing below the
convective boundary, affects the shape of the RGB Bump. We found that the
difference between the shape of RGB Bump predicted by standard and by smoothed
models can be detected if the H-discontinuity is smoothed over an envelope
region whose thickness is equal or larger than 0.5 pressure scale heights.
Finally, we briefly discuss the comparison between theoretical predictions and
empirical data in metal-rich, reddening free Galactic Globular Clusters (GGCs)
to constrain the sharpness of the H-profile inside RGB stars.Comment: 15 pages, 8 postscript figures, ApJ in pres
Heavy quasiparticles in the ferromagnetic superconductor ZrZn2
We report a study of the de Haas-van Alphen effect in the normal state of the
ferromagnetic superconductor ZrZn2. Our results are generally consistent with
an LMTO band structure calculation which predicts four exchange-split Fermi
surface sheets. Quasiparticle effective masses are enhanced by a factor of
about 4.9 implying a strong coupling to magnetic excitations or phonons. Our
measurements provide insight in to the mechanism for superconductivity and
unusual thermodynamic properties of ZrZn2.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures (one color
A large stellar evolution database for population synthesis studies. II. Stellar models and isochrones for an alpha-enhanced metal distribution
[Abridged] We present a large, new set of stellar evolution models and
isochrones for an alpha-enhanced metal distribution typical of Galactic halo
and bulge stars; it represents a homogeneous extension of our stellar model
library for a distribution already presented in Pietrinferni et al.(2004). The
effect of the alpha-element enhancement has been properly taken into account in
the nuclear network, opacity, equation of state and, for the first time, the
bolometric corrections, and color transformations. This allows us to avoid the
inconsistent use - common to all alpha-enhanced model libraries currently
available - of scaled-solar bolometric corrections and color transformations
for alpha-enhanced models and isochrones. We show how bolometric corrections to
magnitudes obtained for the U,B portion of stellar spectra for T_{eff}<=6500K,
are significantly affected by the metal mixture, especially at the higher
metallicities. We also provide complete sets of evolutionary models for
low-mass, He-burning stellar structures covering the whole metallicity range,
to enable synthetic horizontal branch simulations. We compare our database with
several widely used stellar model libraries from different authors, as well as
with various observed color magnitude and color-color diagrams (Johnson-Cousins
BVI and near infrared magnitudes, Stromgren colors) of Galactic field stars and
globular clusters. We also test our isochrones comparing integrated optical
colors and Surface Brightness Fluctuation magnitudes with selected globular
cluster data. We find a general satisfactory agreement with the empirical
constraints.Comment: 46 pages, 20 figures, ApJ in press, the whole database presented in
this paper can be foud at http://www.te.astro.it/BASTI/index.ph
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