Crystal growth and in-plane optical properties of Tl2_2Ba2_2Can−1_{n-1}Cun_nOx_x (n=1,2,3) superconductors

Single crystals of thallium-based cuprates with the general formula Tl$_{2}$Ba$_{2}$Ca$_{n-1}$Cu$_{n}$O$_{x}$(n=1,2,3) have been grown by the flux method. The superconducting transition temperatures determined by the ac magnetic susceptibility are 92 K, 109 K, and 119 K for n=1,2,3 respectively. X-ray diffraction measurements and EDX compositional analysis were described. We measured in-plane optical reflectance from room temperature down to 10 K, placing emphasis on Tl-2223. The reflectance roughly has a linear-frequency dependence above superconducting transition temperature, but displays a pronounced knee structure together with a dip-like feature at higher frequency below T$_c$. Correspondingly, the ratio of the reflectances below and above T$_{c}$ displays a maximum and a minimum near those feature frequencies. In particular, those features in Tl2223 appear at higher energy scale than Tl2212, and Tl2201. The optical data are analyzed in terms of spectral function. We discussed the physical consequences of the data in terms of both clean and dirty limit.Comment: 8 pages, 13 figures, to be published in Phys. Rev.

Neutrino Mass from Triplet and Doublet Scalars at the TeV Scale

If the minimal standard model of particle interactions is extended to include a scalar triplet with lepton number $L=-2$ and a scalar doublet with $L=-1$, neutrino masses $m_\nu \sim \mu_{12}^4 v^2/M^5 \sim 10^{-2}$ eV is possible, where $v \sim 10^2$ GeV is the electroweak symmetry breaking scale, $M \sim 1$ TeV is the typical mass of the new scalars, and $\mu_{12} \sim 1$ GeV is a soft lepton-number-violating parameter.Comment: 6 pages, no figur

Shifting RbR_b with AFBbA^b_{FB}

Precision measurements at the $Z$ resonance agree well with the standard model. However, there is still a hint of a discrepancy, not so much in $R_b$ by itself (which has received a great deal of attention in the past several years) but in the forward-backward asymmetry $A^b_{FB}$ together with $R_b$. The two are of course correlated. We explore the possibilty that these and other effects are due to the mixing of $b_L$ and $b_R$ with one or more heavy quarks.Comment: 11 pages, 1 Figure, LaTex fil

Canceling Quadratic Divergences in a Class of Two-Higgs-Doublet Models

The Newton-Wu conditions for the cancellation of quadratic divergences in a class of two-Higgs-doublet models are analyzed as to how they may be satisfied with a typical extension of the Standard Model of particle interactions.Comment: 5 pages, no figur

Quantization of static space-times

A 4-dimensional Lorentzian static space-time is equivalent to 3-dimensional Euclidean gravity coupled to a massless Klein-field. By canonically quantizing the coupling model in the framework of loop quantum gravity, we obtain a quantum theory which actually describes quantized static space-times. The Kinematical Hilbert space is the product of the Hilbert space of gravity with that of imaginary scalar fields. It turns out that the Hamiltonian constraint of the 2+1 model corresponds to a densely defined operator in the underlying Hilbert space, and hence it is finite without renormalization. As a new point of view, this quantized model might shed some light on a few physical problems concerning quantum gravity.Comment: 14 pages, made a few modifications, added Journal-re

Numerical framework for transcritical real-fluid reacting flow simulations using the flamelet progress variable approach

An extension to the classical FPV model is developed for transcritical real-fluid combustion simulations in the context of finite volume, fully compressible, explicit solvers. A double-flux model is developed for transcritical flows to eliminate the spurious pressure oscillations. A hybrid scheme with entropy-stable flux correction is formulated to robustly represent large density ratios. The thermodynamics for ideal-gas values is modeled by a linearized specific heat ratio model. Parameters needed for the cubic EoS are pre-tabulated for the evaluation of departure functions and a quadratic expression is used to recover the attraction parameter. The novelty of the proposed approach lies in the ability to account for pressure and temperature variations from the baseline table. Cryogenic LOX/GH2 mixing and reacting cases are performed to demonstrate the capability of the proposed approach in multidimensional simulations. The proposed combustion model and numerical schemes are directly applicable for LES simulations of real applications under transcritical conditions.Comment: 55th AIAA Aerospace Sciences Meeting, Dallas, T

An integrated wind risk warning model for urban rail transport in Shanghai, China

The integrated wind risk warning model for rail transport presented has four elements: Background wind data, a wind field model, a vulnerability model, and a risk model. Background wind data uses observations in this study. Using the wind field model with effective surface roughness lengths, the background wind data are interpolated to a 30-m resolution grid. In the vulnerability model, the aerodynamic characteristics of railway vehicles are analyzed with CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) modelling. In the risk model, the maximum value of three aerodynamic forces is used as the criteria to evaluate rail safety and to quantify the risk level under extremely windy weather. The full model is tested for the Shanghai Metro Line 16 using wind conditions during Typhoon Chan-hom. The proposed approach enables quick quantification of real- time safety risk levels during typhoon landfall, providing sophisticated warning information for rail vehicle operation safety