357 research outputs found
Investigation of low latitude scintillations in Brazil within the cigala project
Ionospheric scintillations are fluctuations in the phase and amplitude of the signals from GNSS satellites occurring when they cross regions of electron density irregularities in the ionosphere. Such disturbances can cause serious degradation on GNSS system performance, including integrity, accuracy and availability. The two indices internationally adopted to characterize ionospheric scintillations are: the amplitude scintillation index, S4, which is the standard deviation of the received power normalized by its mean value, and the phase scintillation index, σΦ, which is the standard deviation of the de-trended carrier phase. At low latitudes scintillations occur very frequently and can be intense. This is because the low latitudes show a characteristic feature of the plasma density, known as the equatorial anomaly, EA, for which a plasma density enhancement is produced and seen as crests on either side of the magnetic equator. It is a region in which the electron density is considerably high and inhomogeneous, producing ionospheric irregularities causing scintillations. The upcoming solar maximum, which is expected to reach its peak around May 2013, occurs at a time when our reliance on high-precision GNSS (such as GPS, GLONASS and the forthcoming GALILEO) has reached unprecedented proportions. Understanding and monitoring of scintillations are essential, so that warnings and forecast information can be made available to GNSS end users, either for global system or local augmentation network administrators in order to guarantee the necessary levels of accuracy, integrity and availability of high precision and/or safety-of-life applications. Especially when facing severe geospatial perturbations, receiver-level mitigations are also needed to minimize adverse effects on satellite signals tracking availability and accuracy. In this context, the challenge of the CIGALA (Concept for Ionospheric scintillation mitiGAtion for professional GNSS in Latin America) project, co-funded by the European GNSS Agency (GSA) through the European 7th Framework Program, is to understand the causes of ionospheric disturbances and model their effects in order to develop novel counter-measure techniques to be implemented in professional multi-frequency GNSS receivers. This paper describes the scientific advancements made within the project to understand and characterize ionospheric scintillation in Brazil by means of historical and new datasets
Quadrupolar Kondo Effect in Non-Kramers Doublet System PrInAg2
We performed ultrasonic measurement on the rare-earth intermetallic compound
PrInAg_2 to examine the quadrupolar Kondo effect associated with the
non-Kramers Gamma_3 doublet ground state. The characteristic softening of the
elastic constant (c_{11}-c_{12})/2 below 10 K in PrInAg_2 is attributed to a
Curie term in quadrupolar susceptibility for the quadrupole O_2^2=J_x^2-J_y^2
of the stable Gamma_3 ground state. (c_{11}-c_{12})/2 turns to a slight
increase with the -lnT dependence below 0.1 K, which suggests the quenching of
the quadrupolar moment in the quadrupolar Kondo state. Under applied magnetic
fields of 10 T and 15 T above 8.7 T corresponding to the Kondo temperature T_K
of ~ 0.86 K, the behavior of (c_{11}-c_{12})/2 is described in terms of
quadrupolar susceptibility for the stable 4f^2 state.Comment: PDF, 10pages + 5figures, Strongly Correlated Electron
Interpocket polarization model for magnetic structures in rare-earth hexaborides
The origin of peculiar magnetic structures in cubic rare-earth (R)
hexaborides RB_6 is traced back to their characteristic band structure. The
three sphere-like Fermi surfaces induce interpocket polarization of the
conduction band as a part of a RKKY-type interaction. It is shown for the
free-electron-like model that the interpocket polarization gives rise to a
broad maximum in the intersite interaction I(q) around q=(1/4,1/4,1/2) in the
Brillouin zone. This maximum is consistent with the superstructure observed in
R=Ce, Gd and Dy. The wave-number dependence of I(q) is independently extracted
from analysis of the spin-wave spectrum measured for NdB_6. It is found that
I(q) obtained from fitting the data has a similarly to that derived by the
interpocket polarization model, except that the absolute maximum now occurs at
(0,0,1/2) in consistency with the A-type structure. The overall shape of I(q)
gives a hint toward understanding an incommensurate structure in PrB_6 as well.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, submitted to J.Phys.Soc.Jp
In situ observation of stress relaxation in epitaxial graphene
Upon cooling, branched line defects develop in epitaxial graphene grown at
high temperature on Pt(111) and Ir(111). Using atomically resolved scanning
tunneling microscopy we demonstrate that these defects are wrinkles in the
graphene layer, i.e. stripes of partially delaminated graphene. With low energy
electron microscopy (LEEM) we investigate the wrinkling phenomenon in situ.
Upon temperature cycling we observe hysteresis in the appearance and
disappearance of the wrinkles. Simultaneously with wrinkle formation a change
in bright field imaging intensity of adjacent areas and a shift in the moire
spot positions for micro diffraction of such areas takes place. The stress
relieved by wrinkle formation results from the mismatch in thermal expansion
coefficients of graphene and the substrate. A simple one-dimensional model
taking into account the energies related to strain, delamination and bending of
graphene is in qualitative agreement with our observations.Comment: Supplementary information: S1: Photo electron emission microscopy and
LEEM measurements of rotational domains, STM data of a delaminated bulge
around a dislocation. S2: Movie with increasing brightness upon wrinkle
formation as in figure 4. v2: Major revision including new experimental dat
Magnetic Phase Diagram of GdNi2B2C: Two-ion Magnetoelasticity and Anisotropic Exchange Couplings
Extensive magnetization and magnetostriction measurements were carried out on
a single crystal of GdNi2B2C along the main tetragonal axes. Within the
paramagnetic phase, the magnetic and strain susceptibilities revealed a weak
anisotropy in the exchange couplings and two-ion tetragonal-preserving
alpha-strain modes. Within the ordered phase, magnetization and
magnetostriction revealed a relatively strong orthorhombic distortion mode and
rich field-temperature phase diagrams. For H//(100) phase diagram, three
field-induced transformations were observed, namely, at: Hd(T), related to the
domain alignment; Hr(T), associated with reorientation of the moment towards
the c-axis; and Hs(T), defining the saturation process wherein the exchange
field is completely counterbalanced. On the other hand, For H//(001) phase
diagram, only two field-induced transformations were observed, namely at: Hr(T)
and Hs(T). For both phase diagrams, Hs(T) follows the relation
Hs[1-(T/Tn)^2]^(1/2)kOe with Hs(T-->0)=128.5(5) kOe and Tn(H=0)=19.5 K. In
contrast, the thermal evolution of Hr(T) along the c-axis (much simpler than
along the a-axis) follows the relation Hr[1-T/Tr]^(1/3) kOe where
Hr(T-->0)=33.5(5) kOe and Tr(H=0)=13.5 K. It is emphasized that the
magnetoelastic interaction and the anisotropic exchange coupling are important
perturbations and therefore should be explicitly considered if a complete
analysis of the magnetic properties of the borocarbides is desired
Band Calculations for Ce Compounds with AuCu-type Crystal Structure on the basis of Dynamical Mean Field Theory I. CePd and CeRh
Band calculations for Ce compounds with the AuCu-type crystal structure
were carried out on the basis of dynamical mean field theory (DMFT). The
auxiliary impurity problem was solved by a method named NCAvc
(noncrossing approximation including the state as a vertex correction).
The calculations take into account the crystal-field splitting, the spin-orbit
interaction, and the correct exchange process of the virtual excitation. These are necessary features in the
quantitative band theory for Ce compounds and in the calculation of their
excitation spectra. The results of applying the calculation to CePd and
CeRh are presented as the first in a series of papers. The experimental
results of the photoemission spectrum (PES), the inverse PES, the
angle-resolved PES, and the magnetic excitation spectra were reasonably
reproduced by the first-principles DMFT band calculation. At low temperatures,
the Fermi surface (FS) structure of CePd is similar to that of the band
obtained by the local density approximation. It gradually changes into a form
that is similar to the FS of LaPd as the temperature increases, since the
band shifts to the high-energy side and the lifetime broadening becomes
large.}Comment: 12 pasges, 13 figure
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