HEiDi: Single crystal diffractometer at hot source

The single crystal diffractometer HEiDi, which is operated by the Institute of Crystallography, RWTH Aachen University and JCNS, Forschungszentrum Jülich, is designed for detailed studies on structural and magnetic properties of single crystals using unpolarised neutrons and Bragg’s Law: 2dhklsinθ = λ (typically 0.55 Å <λ< 1.2 Å)

The Accretion Disc Particle Method for Simulations of Black Hole Feeding and Feedback

Black holes grow by accreting matter from their surroundings. However, angular momentum provides an efficient natural barrier to accretion and so only the lowest angular momentum material will be available to feed the black holes. The standard sub-grid model for black hole accretion in galaxy formation simulations - based on the Bondi-Hoyle method - does not account for the angular momentum of accreting material, and so it is unclear how representative the black hole accretion rate estimated in this way is likely to be. In this paper we introduce a new sub-grid model for black hole accretion that naturally accounts for the angular momentum of accreting material. Both the black hole and its accretion disc are modelled as a composite accretion disc particle. Gas particles are captured by the accretion disc particle if and only if their orbits bring them within its accretion radius R_acc, at which point their mass is added to the accretion disc and feeds the black hole on a viscous timescale t_visc. The resulting black hole accretion rate (dM/dt)_BH powers the accretion luminosity L_acc ~ (dM/dt)_BH, which drives black hole feedback. Using a series of controlled numerical experiments, we demonstrate that our new accretion disc particle method is more physically self-consistent than the Bondi-Hoyle method. We also discuss the physical implications of the accretion disc particle method for systems with a high degree of rotational support, and we argue that the M_BH-sigma relation in these systems should be offset from the relation for classical bulges and ellipticals, as appears to be observed.Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRAS; 9 pages, 5 figure

Magnetic structure in the spin liquid Tb2_{2}Ti2_{2}O7_{7} induced by a [111] magnetic field: Search for a magnetization plateau

We have studied the field-induced magnetic structures of Tb2Ti2O7 pyrochlore by single-crystal neutron diffraction under a field applied along the [111] axis, up to H=12 T and down to T=40 mK. We refined the magnetic structures with k=0 propagation vector by performing a symmetry analysis in the space group R3¯m, reducing the number of free parameters to three only. The Tb moments gradually reorient towards the field direction, keeping close to a “3-in, 1-out / 1-in, 3-out” spin structure (magnetic space group R3¯m′) in the whole measured field range 0.05–12 T. Our results rule out the “all-in/all-out” structure previously proposed and do not support the existence of a magnetization plateau. We perform a quantitative comparison with mean-field calculations and we propose the presence of a low-temperature dynamic symmetry breaking of the local trigonal symmetry, akin to a dynamic Jahn-Teller effect, i.e., preserving the overall cubic symmetry. We discuss the possible origin of this off-diagonal mixing term in the crystal field Hamiltonian in terms of quadrupole-quadrupole interaction or magnetoelastic effects