Interplay between strain, defect charge state and functionality in complex oxides

We use first-principles calculations to investigate the interplay between strain and the charge state of point defect impurities in complex oxides. Our work is motivated by recent interest in using defects as active elements to provide novel functionality in coherent epitaxial films. Using oxygen vacancies as model point defects, and CaMnO$_3$ and MnO as model materials, we calculate the changes in internal strain caused by changing the charge state of the vacancies, and conversely the effect of strain on charge-state stability. Our results show that the charge state is a degree of freedom that can be used to control the interaction of defects with strain and hence the concentration and location of defects in epitaxial films. We propose the use of field-effect gating to reversibly change the charge state of defects and hence the internal strain and corresponding strain-induced functionalities.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

Physical Origin of Differences among various Measures of Solar Meridional Circulation

We show that systematic differences between surface Doppler and magnetic element tracking measures of solar meridional flow can be explained by the effects of surface turbulent magnetic diffusion. Feature-tracking speeds are lower than plasma speeds in low and mid-latitudes, because magnetic diffusion opposes poleward plasma flow in low-latitudes whereas it adds to plasma flow at high latitudes. Flux transport dynamo models must input plasma flow; the model-outputs yield estimates of the surface magnetic feature tracking speed. We demonstrate that the differences between plasma speed and magnetic pattern speed in a flux-transport dynamo are consistent with the observed difference between these speeds.Comment: To appear in Ap

Changes in Families’ Organic Food Consumption

According to recent research based on the theoretical concept of the family cycle it can be assumed that expenditures for organic food in families decline as children get older. For organic food marketing this raises the question to which extent organic food consumption in families is characterised by changes, when changes in families’ organic food consumption appear over time and what the reasons for these changes are. The article presents theoretical background, research design and results of a qualitative study. Based on qualitative interviews which were analysed according to Grounded Theory it is found that consumers perceive changes in organic food consumption in terms of increase and decrease. As causal conditions for this, pregnancy, the feeding of babies with complementary food, children’s adolescence, a new partner and a new situation in household income could be identified. The results point out how qualitative research can contribute to the completion of existing and the inspiration for future quantitative studies.Family Cycle, Organic Food, Qualitative Interviews, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety,

Configuration Space for Random Walk Dynamics

Applied to statistical physics models, the random cost algorithm enforces a Random Walk (RW) in energy (or possibly other thermodynamic quantities). The dynamics of this procedure is distinct from fixed weight updates. The probability for a configuration to be sampled depends on a number of unusual quantities, which are explained in this paper. This has been overlooked in recent literature, where the method is advertised for the calculation of canonical expectation values. We illustrate these points for the $2d$ Ising model. In addition, we proof a previously conjectured equation which relates microcanonical expectation values to the spectral density.Comment: Various minor changes, appendix added, Fig. 2 droppe