390 research outputs found
Extinction of impurity resonances in large-gap regions of inhomogeneous d-wave superconductors
Impurity resonances observed by scanning tunneling spectroscopy in the
superconducting state have been used to deduce properties of the underlying
pure state. Here we study a longstanding puzzle associated with these
measurements, the apparent extinction of these resonances for Ni and Zn
impurities in large-gap regions of the inhomogeneous BSCCO superconductor. We
calculate the effect of order parameter and hopping suppression near the
impurity site, and find that these two effects are sufficient to explain the
missing resonances in the case of Ni. There are several possible scenarios for
the extinction of the Zn resonances, which we discuss in turn; in addition, we
propose measurements which could distinguish among them.Comment: 10 pages, 8 figure
Step Counts of 10- to 11-Year-Old Children by Ethnicity and Metropolitan Status
Background: The purpose of this study was to conduct a secondary analysis by combining 2 pedometer data sets to describe and analyze pedometer-determined steps/day of children by ethnicity and metropolitan status.
Methods: Participants were 582 children (309 girls, 273 boys; 53% Hispanic, 26% Caucasian, 21% African American) age 10 to 11 years (M = 10.37 ± 0.48) attending 1 of 10 schools located in urban, suburban, and rural settings. Participants wore a research grade pedometer for at least 3 week/school days. Mean steps/ day were analyzed by gender, ethnicity, and metropolitan status.
Results: Statistical analyses indicated 1) boys (12,853 ± 3831; P \u3c .001) obtained significantly more steps/day than girls (10,409 ± 3136); 2) African American (10,709 ± 3386; P \u3c .05) children accumulated significantly less steps/day than Hispanic (11,845 ± 3901) and Caucasian (11,668 ± 3369) children; and 3) urban (10,856 ± 3706; P \u3c .05) children obtained significantly less steps/day than suburban (12,297 ± 3616) and rural (11,934 ± 3374) children.
Conclusions: Findings support self-report data demonstrating reduced physical activity among African American children and youth, especially girls, and among children and youth living in urban areas. Possible reasons for these discrepancies are explored
Repulsion and attraction in high Tc superconductors
The influence of repulsion and attraction in high-Tc superconductors to the
gap functions is studied. A systematic method is proposed to compute the gap
functions using the irreducible representations of the point group. It is found
that a pure s-wave superconductivity exists only at very low temperatures, and
attractive potentials on the near shells significantly expand the gap functions
and increase significantly the critical temperature of superconductivity. A
strong on-site repulsion drives the gap into a gap. It is
expected that superconductivity with the symmetry reaches a high
critical temperature due to the cooperation of the on-site and the next-nearest
neighbor attractions.Comment: 4 pages, 5figure
Resolving the complex structure of the dust torus in the active nucleus of the Circinus galaxy
To test the dust torus model for active galactic nuclei directly, we study
the extent and morphology of the nuclear dust distribution in the Circinus
galaxy using high resolution interferometric observations in the mid-infrared
with the MIDI instrument at the Very Large Telescope Interferometer. We find
that the dust distribution in the nucleus of Circinus can be explained by two
components, a dense and warm disk-like component of 0.4 pc size and a slightly
cooler, geometrically thick torus component with a size of 2.0 pc. The disk
component is oriented perpendicular to the ionisation cone and outflow and
seems to show the silicate feature at 10 micron in emission. It coincides with
a nuclear maser disk in orientation and size. From the energy needed to heat
the dust, we infer a luminosity of the accretion disk corresponding to 20% of
the Eddington luminosity of the nuclear black hole. We find that the
interferometric data are inconsistent with a simple, smooth and axisymmetric
dust emission. The irregular behaviour of the visibilities and the shallow
decrease of the dust temperature with radius provide strong evidence for a
clumpy or filamentary dust structure. We see no evidence for dust reprocessing,
as the silicate absorption profile is consistent with that of standard galactic
dust. We argue that the collimation of the ionising radiation must originate in
the geometrically thick torus component. Our findings confirm the presence of a
geometrically thick, torus-like dust distribution in the nucleus of Circinus,
as required in unified schemes of Seyfert galaxies. Several aspects of our data
require that this torus is irregular, or "clumpy".Comment: 20 pages, 16 figures, accepted for publication by A&
Influence of Fermi surface topology on the quasiparticle spectrum in the vortex state
We study the influence of Fermi surface topology on the quasiparticle density
of states in the vortex state of type II superconductors. We observe that the
field dependence and the shape of the momentum and spatially averaged density
of states is affected significantly by the topology of the Fermi surface. We
show that this behavior can be understood in terms of characteristic Fermi
surface functions and that an important role is played by the number of points
on the Fermi surface at which the Fermi velocity is directed parallel to the
magnetic field. A critical comparison is made with a broadened BCS type density
of states, that has been used frequently in analysis of tunneling data. We
suggest a new formula as a replacement for the broadened BCS model for the
special case of a cylindrical Fermi surface. We apply our results to the two
gap superconductor MgB and show that in this particular case the field
dependence of the partial densities of states of the two gaps behaves very
differently due to the different topologies of the corresponding Fermi
surfaces, in qualitative agreement with recent tunneling experiments.Comment: 12 pages 12 figure
Sensitivity of the superconducting state and magnetic susceptibility to key aspects of electronic structure in ferropnictides
Experiments on the iron-pnictide superconductors appear to show some
materials where the ground state is fully gapped, and others where low-energy
excitations dominate, possibly indicative of gap nodes. Within the framework of
a 5-orbital spin fluctuation theory for these systems, we discuss how changes
in the doping, the electronic structure or interaction parameters can tune the
system from a fully gapped to nodal sign-changing gap with s-wave ()
symmetry (). In particular we focus on the role of the hole pocket at
the point of the unfolded Brillouin zone identified as crucial to
the pairing by Kuroki {\it et al.}, and show that its presence leads to
additional nesting of hole and electron pockets which stabilizes the isotropic
state. The pocket's contribution to the pairing can be tuned by doping,
surface effects, and by changes in interaction parameters, which we examine.
Analytic expressions for orbital pairing vertices calculated within the RPA
fluctuation exchange approximation allow us to draw connections between aspects
of electronic structure, interaction parameters, and the form of the
superconducting gap
Single Impurity Problem in Iron-Pnictide Superconductors
Single impurity problem in iron-pnictide superconductors is investigated by
solving Bogoliubov-de Gennes (BdG) equation in the five-orbital model, which
enables us to distinguish s and s superconducting states. We
construct a five-orbital model suitable to BdG analysis. This model reproduces
the results of random phase approximation in the uniform case. Using this
model, we study the local density of states around a non-magnetic impurity and
discuss the bound-state peak structure, which can be used for distinguishing
s and s states. A bound state with nearly zero-energy is found
for the impurity potential eV, while the bound state peaks stick to
the gap edge in the unitary limit. Novel multiple peak structure originated
from the multi-orbital nature of the iron pnictides is also found.Comment: 5 page
Normal State Spin Dynamics of Five-band Model for Iron-pnictides
Normal state spin dynamics of the recently discovered iron-pnictide
superconductors is discussed by calculating spin structure factor S(q, omega)
in an itinerant five-band model within RPA approximation. Due to the
characteristic Fermi surface structure of iron-pnictide, column like response
is found at (pi, 0) in extended Brillouin zone in the undoped case, which is
consistent with the recent neutron scattering experiment. This indicates that
the localized spin model is not necessary to explain the spin dynamics of this
system. Furthermore, we show that the temperature dependence of inelastic
neutron scattering intensity can be well reproduced in the itinerant model. We
also study NMR 1/T_1T in the same footing calculation and show that the
itinerant model can capture the magnetic property of iron-pnictide
superconductors.Comment: 4 page
Superconductivity at the Border of Electron Localization and Itinerancy
The superconducting state of iron pnictides and chalcogenides exists at the
border of antiferromagnetic order. Consequently, these materials could provide
clues about the relationship between magnetism and unconventional
superconductivity. One explanation, motivated by the so-called bad-metal
behaviour of these materials, proposes that magnetism and superconductivity
develop out of quasi-localized magnetic moments which are generated by strong
electron-electron correlations. Another suggests that these phenomena are the
result of weakly interacting electron states that lie on nested Fermi surfaces.
Here we address the issue by comparing the newly discovered alkaline iron
selenide superconductors, which exhibit no Fermi-surface nesting, to their iron
pnictide counterparts. We show that the strong-coupling approach leads to
similar pairing amplitudes in these materials, despite their different Fermi
surfaces. We also find that the pairing amplitudes are largest at the boundary
between electronic localization and itinerancy, suggesting that new
superconductors might be found in materials with similar characteristics.Comment: Version of the published manuscript prior to final journal-editting.
Main text (23 pages, 4 figures) + Supplementary Information (14 pages, 7
figures, 3 tables). Calculation on the single-layer FeSe is added.
Enhancement of the pairing amplitude in the vicinity of the Mott transition
is highlighted. Published version is at
http://www.nature.com/ncomms/2013/131115/ncomms3783/full/ncomms3783.htm
Parsec-scale dust distributions in Seyfert galaxies - Results of the MIDI AGN snapshot survey
The emission of warm dust dominates the mid-infrared spectra of active
galactic nuclei (AGN). Only interferometric observations provide the necessary
angular resolution to resolve the nuclear dust and to study its distribution
and properties. The investigation of dust in AGN cores is hence one of the main
science goals for the MID-infrared Interferometric instrument MIDI at the VLTI.
As the first step, the feasibility of AGN observations was verified and the
most promising sources for detailed studies were identified. This was carried
out in a "snapshot survey" with MIDI using Guaranteed Time Observations. In the
survey, observations were attempted for 13 of the brightest AGN in the
mid-infrared which are visible from Paranal. The results of the three
brightest, best studied sources have been published in separate papers. Here we
present the interferometric observations for the remaining 10, fainter AGN. For
8 of these, interferometric measurements could be carried out. Size estimates
or limits on the spatial extent of the AGN-heated dust were derived from the
interferometric data of 7 AGN. These indicate that the dust distributions are
compact, with sizes on the order of a few parsec. The derived sizes roughly
scale with the square root of the luminosity in the mid-infrared, s ~ sqrt(L),
with no clear distinction between type 1 and type 2 objects. This is in
agreement with a model of nearly optically thick dust structures heated to T ~
300 K. For three sources, the 10 micron feature due to silicates is tentatively
detected either in emission or in absorption. Based on the results for all AGN
studied with MIDI so far, we conclude that in the mid-infrared the differences
between individual galactic nuclei are greater than the generic differences
between type 1 and type 2 objects.Comment: 18 pages, 8 figures, updated to version published in A&A 502, 67-8
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