37,276 research outputs found
Magnetism of Substitutional Co Impurities in Graphene: Realization of Single -Vacancies
We report {\it ab initio} calculations of the structural, electronic and
magnetic properties of a graphene monolayer substitutionally doped with Co
(Co) atoms. We focus in Co because among traditional ferromagnetic
elements (Fe, Co and Ni), only Co atoms induce spin-polarization in
graphene. Our results show the complex magnetism of Co substitutional impurites
in graphene, which is mapped into simple models such as the -vacancy and
Heisenberg model. The links established in our work can be used to bring into
contact the engineering of nanostructures with the results of -models in
defective graphene. In principle, the structures considered here can be
fabricated using electron irradiation or Ar ion bombardment to create
defects and depositing Co at the same time
Evidence for an inflationary phase transition from the LSS and CMB anisotropy data
In the light of the recent Boomerang and Maxima observations of the CMB which
show an anomalously low second acoustic peak, we reexamine the prediction by
Adams et al (1997) that this would be the consequence of a 'step' in the
primordial spectrum induced by a spontaneous symmetry breaking phase transition
during primordial inflation. We demonstrate that a deviation from
scale-invariance around ~Mpc can simultaneously explain both
the feature identified earlier in the APM galaxy power spectrum as well the
recent CMB anisotropy data, with a baryon density consistent with the BBN
value. Such a break also allows a good fit to the data on cluster abundances
even for a critical density matter-dominated universe with zero cosmological
constant.Comment: 4 pages with 3 figures, LaTeX file using espcrc2.sty to appear on the
Proceedings of "Euroconference on Frontiers in Particle Astrophysics and
Cosmology",Sant Feliu de Guixols,Spain,30th September-5th October of 200
The (In)Stability of Planetary Systems
We present results of numerical simulations which examine the dynamical
stability of known planetary systems, a star with two or more planets. First we
vary the initial conditions of each system based on observational data. We then
determine regions of phase space which produce stable planetary configurations.
For each system we perform 1000 ~1 million year integrations. We examine
upsilon And, HD83443, GJ876, HD82943, 47UMa, HD168443, and the solar system
(SS). We find that the resonant systems, 2 planets in a first order mean motion
resonance, (HD82943 and GJ876) have very narrow zones of stability. The
interacting systems, not in first order resonance, but able to perturb each
other (upsilon And, 47UMa, and SS) have broad regions of stability. The
separated systems, 2 planets beyond 10:1 resonance, (we only examine HD83443
and HD168443) are fully stable. Furthermore we find that the best fits to the
interacting and resonant systems place them very close to unstable regions. The
boundary in phase space between stability and instability depends strongly on
the eccentricities, and (if applicable) the proximity of the system to perfect
resonance. In addition to million year integrations, we also examined stability
on ~100 million year timescales. For each system we ran ~10 long term
simulations, and find that the Keplerian fits to these systems all contain
configurations which may be regular on this timescale.Comment: 37 pages, 49 figures, 13 tables, submitted to Ap
Influence of chemical and magnetic interface properties of Co-Fe-B / MgO / Co-Fe-B tunnel junctions on the annealing temperature dependence of the magnetoresistance
The knowledge of chemical and magnetic conditions at the Co40Fe40B20 / MgO
interface is important to interpret the strong annealing temperature dependence
of tunnel magnetoresistance of Co-Fe-B / MgO / Co-Fe-B magnetic tunnel
junctions, which increases with annealing temperature from 20% after annealing
at 200C up to a maximum value of 112% after annealing at 350C. While the well
defined nearest neighbor ordering indicating crystallinity of the MgO barrier
does not change by the annealing, a small amount of interfacial Fe-O at the
lower Co-Fe-B / MgO interface is found in the as grown samples, which is
completely reduced after annealing at 275C. This is accompanied by a
simultaneous increase of the Fe magnetic moment and the tunnel
magnetoresistance. However, the TMR of the MgO based junctions increases
further for higher annealing temperature which can not be caused by Fe-O
reduction. The occurrence of an x-ray absorption near-edge structure above the
Fe and Co L-edges after annealing at 350C indicates the recrystallization of
the Co-Fe-B electrode. This is prerequisite for coherent tunneling and has been
suggested to be responsible for the further increase of the TMR above 275C.
Simultaneously, the B concentration in the Co-Fe-B decreases with increasing
annealing temperature, at least some of the B diffuses towards or into the MgO
barrier and forms a B2O3 oxide
MIMAC : A micro-tpc matrix for directional detection of dark matter
Directional detection of non-baryonic Dark Matter is a promising search
strategy for discriminating WIMP events from background. However, this strategy
requires both a precise measurement of the energy down to a few keV and 3D
reconstruction of tracks down to a few mm. To achieve this goal, the MIMAC
project has been developed. It is based on a gaseous micro-TPC matrix, filled
with CF4 and CHF3. The first results on low energy nuclear recoils (H, F)
obtained with a low mono-energetic neutron field are presented. The discovery
potential of this search strategy is discussed and illustrated by a realistic
case accessible to MIMAC.Comment: 6 pages, Proc. of the fifth international symposium on large TPCs for
low energy rare event detection, Paris, France, Dec. 2010. To appear in
Journal of Physic
Chemical abundances of 1111 FGK stars from the HARPS GTO planet search program II: Cu, Zn, Sr, Y, Zr, Ba, Ce, Nd and Eu
To understand the formation and evolution of the different stellar
populations within our Galaxy it is essential to combine detailed kinematical
and chemical information for large samples of stars. We derive chemical
abundances of Cu, Zn, Sr, Y, Zr, Ba, Ce, Nd and Eu for a large sample of more
than 1000 FGK dwarf stars with high-resolution (\,115000) and
high-quality spectra from the HARPS-GTO program. The abundances are derived by
a standard Local Thermodinamyc Equilibrium (LTE) analysis using measured
Equivalent Widths (EWs) injected to the code MOOG and a grid of Kurucz ATLAS9
atmospheres. We find that thick disk stars are chemically disjunct for Zn and
Eu and also show on average higher Zr but lower Ba and Y when compared to the
thin disk stars. We also discovered that the previously identified
high- metal-rich population is also enhanced in Cu, Zn, Nd and Eu with
respect to the thin disk but presents Ba and Y abundances lower on average,
following the trend of thick disk stars towards higher metallities and further
supporting the different chemical composition of this population. The ratio of
heavy-s to light-s elements of thin disk stars presents the expected behaviour
(increasing towards lower metallicities) and can be explained by a major
contribution of low-mass AGB stars for s-process production at disk
metallicities. However, the opposite trend found for thick disk stars suggests
that intermediate-mass AGB stars played an important role in the enrichment of
the gas from where these stars formed. Previous works in the literature also
point to a possible primary production of light-s elements at low metallicities
to explain this trend. Finally, we also find an enhancement of light-s elements
in the thin disk at super solar metallicities which could be caused by the
contribution of metal-rich AGB stars. (short version)Comment: 20 pages, 19 figures, accepted by A&
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