Robust active heave compensated winch-driven overhead crane system for load transfer in marine operation

Active heave compensation (AHC) is important for load transfer in marine operation using the overhead crane system (OCS). The control of marine OCS aims to continuously regulate the displacement of the cart and the payload sway angle, whilst at the same time, maintaining the gap between the payload and the vessel main deck at a desirable and safe distance. As the marine OHC system is to be operated in a continuously changing environment, with plenty inevitable disturbances and undesirable loads, a robust controller, i.e., active force control (AFC) is thus greatly needed to promote accuracy and robustness features into the controllability of OCS in rough working environment. This paper highlights a novel method for controlling the payload in an OCS based on the combination of both AFC and AHC. Results from the simulation study clearly indicate that the performance of OCS can be greatly improved by the proposed robust AFC controller, as compared with the classical PID controller scheme

Probing many-body localization in a disordered quantum magnet

Quantum states cohere and interfere. Quantum systems composed of many atoms arranged imperfectly rarely display these properties. Here we demonstrate an exception in a disordered quantum magnet that divides itself into nearly isolated subsystems. We probe these coherent clusters of spins by driving the system beyond its linear response regime at a single frequency and measuring the resulting "hole" in the overall linear spectral response. The Fano shape of the hole encodes the incoherent lifetime as well as coherent mixing of the localized excitations. For the disordered Ising magnet, $\mathrm{LiHo_{0.045}Y_{0.955}F_4}$, the quality factor $Q$ for spectral holes can be as high as 100,000. We tune the dynamics of the quantum degrees of freedom by sweeping the Fano mixing parameter $q$ through zero via the amplitude of the ac pump as well as a static external transverse field. The zero-crossing of $q$ is associated with a dissipationless response at the drive frequency, implying that the off-diagonal matrix element for the two-level system also undergoes a zero-crossing. The identification of localized two-level systems in a dense and disordered dipolar-coupled spin system represents a solid state implementation of many-body localization, pushing the search forward for qubits emerging from strongly-interacting, disordered, many-body systems.Comment: 22 pages, 6 figure

Optical properties of Si/Si0.87Ge0.13 multiple quantum well wires

Nanometer-scale wires cut into a Si/Si0.87Ge0.13 multiple quantum well structure were fabricated and characterized by using photoluminescence and photoreflectance at temperatures between 4 and 20 K. It was found that, in addition to a low-energy broadband emission at around 0.8 eV and other features normally observable in photoluminescence measurements, fabrication process induced strain relaxation and enhanced electron-hole droplets emission together with a new feature at 1.131 eV at 4 K were observed. The latter was further identified as a transition related to impurities located at the Si/Si0.87Ge0.13 heterointerfaces

Density of states and electron concentration of double heterojunctions subjected to an in-plane magnetic field

We calculate the electronic states of Al$_x$Ga$_{1-x}$As/GaAs/Al$_x$Ga$_{1-x}$As double heterojunctions subjected to a magnetic field parallel to the quasi two-dimensional electron gas. We study the energy dispersion curves, the density of states, the electron concentration and the distribution of the electrons in the subbands. The parallel magnetic field induces severe changes in the density of states, which are of crucial importance for the explanation of the magnetoconductivity in these structures. However, to our knowledge, there is no systematic study of the density of states under these circumstances. We attempt a contribution in this direction. For symmetric heterostructures, the depopulation of the higher subbands, the transition from a single to a bilayer electron system and the domination of the bulk Landau levels in the centre the wide quantum well, as the magnetic field is continuously increased, are presented in the ``energy dispersion picture'' as well as in the ``electron concentration picture'' and in the ``density of states picture''.Comment: J. Phys.: Condens. Matter 11 No 26 (5 July 1999) 5131-5141 Figures (three) embedde

A HIGH REPETITION RATE ULTRA FAST HYBRID SWITCH MODULE FOR PROJECT X MEBT CHOPPER �

In order to serve several experiments simultaneously, the Project X requires a programmable chopping system to deflect bunches from the initially 162.5MHz CW H-beam. A helical 200 Ohm deflector is proposed, which needs a ±500V variable pulse length driver with ~2 ns rise/fall time at an average repetition rate of 33 MHz. The SLAC Hybrid MOSFET/driver Switch Module (HSM) has demonstrated 1ns switching of 1 kV into a 30 Ohm load during 6 MHz burst operation. This paper presents the development and preliminary testing results of a new HSM, which is optimized for the Project X chopper driver parameters. I

Nucleation of quark matter in neutron stars cores

We consider the general conditions of quark droplets formation in high density neutron matter. The growth of the quark bubble (assumed to contain a sufficiently large number of particles) can be described by means of a Fokker-Planck equation. The dynamics of the nucleation essentially depends on the physical properties of the medium it takes place. The conditions for quark bubble formation are analyzed within the frameworks of both dissipative and non-dissipative (with zero bulk and shear viscosity coefficients) approaches. The conversion time of the neutron star to a quark star is obtained as a function of the equation of state of the neutron matter and of the microscopic parameters of the quark nuclei. As an application of the obtained formalism we analyze the first order phase transition from neutron matter to quark matter in rapidly rotating neutron stars cores, triggered by the gravitational energy released during the spinning down of the neutron star. The endothermic conversion process, via gravitational energy absorption, could take place, in a very short time interval, of the order of few tens seconds, in a class of dense compact objects, with very high magnetic fields, called magnetars.Comment: 31 pages, 2 figures, to appear in Ap

Phase Separation of Bismuth Ferrite into Magnetite under Voltage Stressing

Micro-Raman studies show that under ~700 kV/cm of d.c. voltage stressing for a few seconds, thin-film bismuth ferrite BiFeO3 phase separates into magnetite Fe3O4. No evidence is found spectroscopically of hemite alpha-Fe2O3, maghemite gamma-Fe2O3, or of Bi2O3. This relates to the controversy regarding the magnitude of magnetization in BiFeO3.Comment: 9 pages and 2 figure