4,202 research outputs found
Empiric Models of the Earth's Free Core Nutation
Free core nutation (FCN) is the main factor that limits the accuracy of the
modeling of the motion of Earth's rotational axis in the celestial coordinate
system. Several FCN models have been proposed. A comparative analysis is made
of the known models including the model proposed by the author. The use of the
FCN model is shown to substantially increase the accuracy of the modeling of
Earth's rotation. Furthermore, the FCN component extracted from the observed
motion of Earth's rotational axis is an important source for the study of the
shape and rotation of the Earth's core. A comparison of different FCN models
has shown that the proposed model is better than other models if used to
extract the geophysical signal (the amplitude and phase of FCN) from
observational data.Comment: 8 pages, 3 figures; minor update of the journal published versio
Surface Shubnikov-de Hass oscillations and non-zero Berry phases of the topological hole conduction in TlBiSe
We report the observation of two-dimensional Shubnikov-de Hass (SdH)
oscillations in the topological insulator TlBiSe. Hall
effect measurements exhibited electron-hole inversion in samples with bulk
insulating properties. The SdH oscillations accompanying the hole conduction
yielded a large surface carrier density of /cm, with the Landau-level fan diagram exhibiting the
Berry phase. These results showed the electron-hole reversibility around the
in-gap Dirac point and the hole conduction on the surface Dirac cone without
involving the bulk metallic conduction.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure
A first-principles study of tunneling magnetoresistance in Fe/MgAl2O4/Fe(001) magnetic tunnel junctions
We investigated the spin-dependent transport properties of Fe/MgAl2O4/Fe(001)
magnetic tunneling junctions (MTJs) on the basis of first-principles
calculations of the electronic structures and the ballistic conductance. The
calculated tunneling magnetoresistance (TMR) ratio of a Fe/MgAl2O4/Fe(001) MTJ
was about 160%, which was much smaller than that of a Fe/MgO/Fe(001) MTJ
(1600%) for the same barrier thickness. However, there was an evanescent state
with delta 1 symmetry in the energy gap around the Fermi level of normal spinel
MgAl2O4, indicating the possibility of a large TMR in Fe/MgAl2O4/Fe(001) MTJs.
The small TMR ratio of the Fe/MgAl2O4/Fe(001) MTJ was due to new conductive
channels in the minority spin states resulting from a band-folding effect in
the two-dimensional (2-D) Brillouin zone of the in-plane wave vector (k//) of
the Fe electrode. Since the in-plane cell size of MgAl2O4 is twice that of the
primitive in-plane cell size of bcc Fe, the bands in the boundary edges are
folded, and minority-spin states coupled with the delta 1 evanescent state in
the MgAl2O4 barrier appear at k//=0, which reduces the TMR ratio of the MTJs
significantly.Comment: 5 pages, 6 figures, 1 tabl
Half-metallic ferromagnets for magnetic tunnel junctions
Using theoretical arguments, we show that, in order to exploit half-metallic
ferromagnets in tunneling magnetoresistance (TMR) junctions, it is crucial to
eliminate interface states at the Fermi level within the half-metallic gap;
contrary to this, no such problem arises in giant magnetoresistance elements.
Moreover, based on an a priori understanding of the electronic structure, we
propose an antiferromagnetically coupled TMR element, in which interface states
are eliminated, as a paradigm of materials design from first principles. Our
conclusions are supported by ab-initio calculations
Precise determination of two-carrier transport properties in the topological insulator TlBiSe
We report the electric transport study of the three-dimensional topological
insulator TlBiSe. We applied a newly developed analysis procedure and
precisely determined two-carrier transport properties. Magnetotransport
properties revealed a multicarrier conduction of high- and low-mobility
electrons in the bulk, which was in qualitative agreement with angle-resolved
photoemission results~[K. Kuroda , Phys. Rev. Lett. , 146801
(2010)]. The temperature dependence of the Hall mobility was explained well
with the conventional Bloch-Gr{\"u}neisen formula and yielded the Debye
temperature ~K. The results indicate that the
scattering of bulk electrons is dominated by acoustic phonons.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figures, to be published in Physical Review
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A novel Arabidopsis pathosystem reveals cooperation of multiple hormonal response-pathways in host resistance against the global crop destroyer Macrophomina phaseolina.
Dubbed as a "global destroyer of crops", the soil-borne fungus Macrophomina phaseolina (Mp) infects more than 500 plant species including many economically important cash crops. Host defenses against infection by this pathogen are poorly understood. We established interactions between Mp and Arabidopsis thaliana (Arabidopsis) as a model system to quantitatively assess host factors affecting the outcome of Mp infections. Using agar plate-based infection assays with different Arabidopsis genotypes, we found signaling mechanisms dependent on the plant hormones ethylene, jasmonic acid and salicylic acid to control host defense against this pathogen. By profiling host transcripts in Mp-infected roots of the wild-type Arabidopsis accession Col-0 and ein2/jar1, an ethylene/jasmonic acid-signaling deficient mutant that exhibits enhanced susceptibility to this pathogen, we identified hundreds of genes potentially contributing to a diverse array of defense responses, which seem coordinated by complex interplay between multiple hormonal response-pathways. Our results establish Mp/Arabidopsis interactions as a useful model pathosystem, allowing for application of the vast genomics-related resources of this versatile model plant to the systematic investigation of previously understudied host defenses against a major crop plant pathogen
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Seasonal variations of atmospheric C2-C7 nonmethane hydrocarbons in Tokyo
Eighteen C2-C7 NMHCs (nonmethane hydrocarbons) were measured hourly during the Integrated Measurement Program for Aerosol and Oxidant Chemistry in Tokyo (IMPACT) measurement campaigns conducted in central Tokyo during four different periods (summer/autumn of 2003 and winter/summer of 2004). The ambient atmospheric concentrations of NMHCs showed an inverse correlation with wind speed and mixing height and were significantly affected by mesoscale weather conditions. The mixing ratio of isoprene tightly correlated with solar flux and temperature in summer, as it was dominantly emitted by the local vegetation. All the observed NMHCs except isoprene showed high correlation with each other in winter (r2 > 0.5), suggesting concurrent accumulation under stagnant condition and common sources. Emission ratios were calculated on the basis of the correlation with carbon monoxide and ethyne. Compared to the typical winter NMEC composition, during summer there was a significant increase (up to 7 times higher than wintertime) of C4-C5 alkanes from ftiel evaporation; of C2-C3 alkenes, n-hexane and benzene from chemical industry; and of toluene from local manufacturers, reflecting the temperature dependence of these evaporative emissions. In addition to the online measurements in Tokyo, canister sampling at a suburban site (Kisai) followed by multidimensional GC analyses was conducted during the summer campaign in 2004. The atmospheric concentrations of longer-lived compounds (≥ several days) at Kisai showed the buildup under sea breeze circulation. The average ambient, concentration of toluene was 2 times higher than that in central Tokyo, likely because of substantial emissions from local industries as reported in the prefectural statistics. Copyright 2007 by the American Geophysical Union
Detection of Phase Jumps of Free Core Nutation of the Earth and their Concurrence with Geomagnetic Jerks
We detected phase jumps of the Free Core Nutation (FCN) of the Earth directly
from the analysis of the Very Long Baseline Interferometer (VLBI) observation
of the Earth rotation for the period 1984-2003 by applying the Weighted Wavelet
Z-Transform (WWZ) method and the Short-time Periodogram with the Gabor function
(SPG) method. During the period, the FCN had two significant phase jumps in
1992 and 1998. These epochs coincide with the reported occurrence of
geomagnetic jerks.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figure
MnAs dots grown on GaN(0001)-(1x1) surface
MnAs has been grown by means of MBE on the GaN(0001)-(1x1) surface. Two
options of initiating the crystal growth were applied: (a) a regular MBE
procedure (manganese and arsenic were delivered simultaneously) and (b)
subsequent deposition of manganese and arsenic layers. It was shown that
spontaneous formation of MnAs dots with the surface density of 1
cm and cm, respectively (as observed by AFM),
occurred for the layer thickness higher than 5 ML. Electronic structure of the
MnAs/GaN systems was studied by resonant photoemission spectroscopy. That led
to determination of the Mn 3d - related contribution to the total density of
states (DOS) distribution of MnAs. It has been proven that the electronic
structures of the MnAs dots grown by the two procedures differ markedly. One
corresponds to metallic, ferromagnetic NiAs-type MnAs, the other is similar to
that reported for half-metallic zinc-blende MnAs. Both system behave
superparamagnetically (as revealed by magnetization measurements), but with
both the blocking temperatures and the intra-dot Curie temperatures
substantially different. The intra-dot Curie temperature is about 260 K for the
former system while markedly higher than room temperature for the latter one.
Relations between growth process, electronic structure and other properties of
the studied systems are discussed. Possible mechanisms of half-metallic MnAs
formation on GaN are considered.Comment: 20+ pages, 8 figure
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