2,938 research outputs found
Turing's three philosophical lessons and the philosophy of information
In this article, I outline the three main philosophical lessons that we may learn from Turing's work, and how they lead to a new philosophy of information. After a brief introduction, I discuss his work on the method of levels of abstraction (LoA), and his insistence that questions could be meaningfully asked only by specifying the correct LoA. I then look at his second lesson, about the sort of philosophical questions that seem to be most pressing today. Finally, I focus on the third lesson, concerning the new philosophical anthropology that owes so much to Turing's work. I then show how the lessons are learned by the philosophy of information. In the conclusion, I draw a general synthesis of the points made, in view of the development of the philosophy of information itself as a continuation of Turing's work. This journal is © 2012 The Royal Society.Peer reviewe
Epitaxial graphene on SiC(0001): More than just honeycombs
The potential of graphene to impact the development of the next generation of
electronics has renewed interest in its growth and structure. The
graphitization of hexagonal SiC surfaces provides a viable alternative for the
synthesis of graphene, with wafer-size epitaxial graphene on SiC(0001) now
possible. Despite this recent progress, the exact nature of the graphene-SiC
interface and whether the graphene even has a semiconducting gap remain
controversial. Using scanning tunneling microscopy with functionalized tips and
density functional theory calculations, here we show that the interface is a
warped carbon sheet consisting of three-fold hexagon-pentagon-heptagon
complexes periodically inserted into the honeycomb lattice. These defects
relieve the strain between the graphene layer and the SiC substrate, while
still retaining the three-fold coordination for each carbon atom. Moreover,
these defects break the six-fold symmetry of the honeycomb, thereby naturally
inducing a gap: the calculated band structure of the interface is
semiconducting and there are two localized states near K below the Fermi level,
explaining the photoemission and carbon core-level data. Nonlinear dispersion
and a 33 meV gap are found at the Dirac point for the next layer of graphene,
providing insights into the debate over the origin of the gap in epitaxial
graphene on SiC(0001). These results indicate that the interface of the
epitaxial graphene on SiC(0001) is more than a dead buffer layer, but actively
impacts the physical and electronic properties of the subsequent graphene
layers
First-principles, atomistic thermodynamics for oxidation catalysis
Present knowledge of the function of materials is largely based on studies
(experimental and theoretical) that are performed at low temperatures and
ultra-low pressures. However, the majority of everyday applications, like e.g.
catalysis, operate at atmospheric pressures and temperatures at or higher than
300 K. Here we employ ab initio, atomistic thermodynamics to construct a phase
diagram of surface structures in the (T,p)-space from ultra-high vacuum to
technically-relevant pressures and temperatures. We emphasize the value of such
phase diagrams as well as the importance of the reaction kinetics that may be
crucial e.g. close to phase boundaries.Comment: 4 pages including 2 figure files. Submitted to Phys. Rev. Lett.
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Jahn-Teller stabilization of a "polar" metal oxide surface: Fe3O4(001)
Using ab initio thermodynamics we compile a phase diagram for the surface of
Fe3O4(001) as a function of temperature and oxygen pressures. A hitherto
ignored polar termination with octahedral iron and oxygen forming a wave-like
structure along the [110]-direction is identified as the lowest energy
configuration over a broad range of oxygen gas-phase conditions. This novel
geometry is confirmed in a x-ray diffraction analysis. The stabilization of the
Fe3O4(001)-surface goes together with dramatic changes in the electronic and
magnetic properties, e.g., a halfmetal-to-metal transition.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure
Strain and structure driven complex magnetic ordering of a CoO overlayer on Ir(100)
We have investigated the magnetic ordering in the ultrathin c(102)
CoO(111) film supported on Ir(100) on the basis of ab-initio calculations. We
find a close relationship between the local structural properties of the oxide
film and the induced magnetic order, leading to alternating ferromagnetically
and anti-ferromagnetically ordered segments. While the local magnetic order is
directly related to the geometric position of the Co atoms, the mismatch
between the CoO film and the Ir substrate leads to a complex long-range order
of the oxide.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure
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