Impulsive cylindrical gravitational wave: one possible radiative form emitted from cosmic strings and corresponding electromagnetic response

The cosmic strings(CSs) may be one important source of gravitational waves(GWs), and it has been intensively studied due to its special properties such as the cylindrical symmetry. The CSs would generate not only usual continuous GW, but also impulsive GW that brings more concentrated energy and consists of different GW components broadly covering low-, intermediate- and high-frequency bands simultaneously. These features might underlie interesting electromagnetic(EM) response to these GWs generated by the CSs. In this paper, with novel results and effects, we firstly calculate the analytical solutions of perturbed EM fields caused by interaction between impulsive cylindrical GWs (would be one of possible forms emitted from CSs) and background celestial high magnetic fields or widespread cosmological background magnetic fields, by using rigorous Einstein - Rosen metric. Results show: perturbed EM fields are also in the impulsive form accordant to the GW pulse, and asymptotic behaviors of the perturbed EM fields are fully consistent with the asymptotic behaviors of the energy density, energy flux density and Riemann curvature tensor of corresponding impulsive cylindrical GWs. The analytical solutions naturally give rise to the accumulation effect which is proportional to the term of distance^1/2, and based on it, we for the first time predict potentially observable effects in region of the Earth caused by the EM response to GWs from the CSs.Comment: 34 pages, 12 figure

A cryogenic dc-dc power converter for a 100kW synchronous HTS generator at liquid nitrogen temperatures

A dc-dc converter has been developed for retrofitting inside the vacuum space of the HTS rotor of a synchronous generator. The heavy copper sections of the current leads used for energising the HTS field winding were replaced by cryogenic power electronics; consisting of the converter and a rotor control unit. The converter board was designed using an H-bridge configuration with two 5A rated wires connecting the cryogenic boards to the stator control board located on the outside of the generator and drawing power from a (5A, 50V) dc power source. The robustness of converter board was well demonstrated when it was powered up from a cold start at 82K. When charging the field winding with moderate currents (30A), the heat in-leak to the ‘cold’ rotor core was only 2W. It continued to function down to 74K, surviving several quenches. However, the quench protection function failed when injecting 75A into the field winding, resulting in the burn out of one of the DC-link capacitors. The magnitudes of the critical currents measured with the original current leads were compared to the quench currents, which was defined as the current which triggered quench protection protocol. The difference between the two currents was rather large, (~20A). However, additional measurements using a single HTS coil in liquid nitrogen found that this reduction should not be so dramatic and in the region of 4A. Our conclusions identified the converter’s switching voltage and its operating frequency as two parameters, which could have contributed to lowering the quench current. Magnetic fields and eddy currents are expected to be more prominent the field winding and its impact on the converter also need further investigation

Super-soft symmetry energy encountering non-Newtonian gravity in neutron stars

Considering the non-Newtonian gravity proposed in the grand unification theories, we show that the stability and observed global properties of neutron stars can not rule out the super-soft nuclear symmetry energies at supra-saturation densities. The degree of possible violation of the Inverse-Square-Law of gravity in neutron stars is estimated using an Equation of State (EOS) of neutron-rich nuclear matter consistent with the available terrestrial laboratory data.Comment: Version accepted by Physical Review Letter

Temperature dependence and resonance effects in Raman scattering of phonons in NdFeAsOx_{x}F1−x_{1-x} single crystals

We report plane-polarized Raman scattering spectra of iron oxypnictide superconductor NdFeAsO$_{1-x}$F$_x$ single crystals with varying fluorine $x$ content. The spectra exhibit sharp and symmetrical phonon lines with a weak dependence on fluorine doping $x$. The temperature dependence does not show any phonon anomaly at the superconducting transition. The Fe related phonon intensity shows a strong resonant enhancement below 2 eV. We associate the resonant enhancement to the presence of an interband transition around 2 eV observed in optical conductivity. Our results point to a rather weak coupling between Raman-active phonons and electronic excitations in iron oxypnictides superconductors.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, to appear in Phys. Rev.

Gapless Fermions and Quantum Order

Using 2D quantum spin-1/2 model as a concrete example, we studied the relation between gapless fermionic excitations (spinons) and quantum orders in some spin liquid states. Using winding number, we find the projective symmetry group that characterizes the quantum order directly determines the pattern of Fermi points in the Brillouin zone. Thus quantum orders provide an origin for gapless fermionic excitations.Comment: 23 pages. LaTeX. Homepage http://dao.mit.edu/~we

Co-doped Ceria: Tendency towards ferromagnetism driven by oxygen vacancies

We perform an electronic structure study for cerium oxide homogeneously-doped with cobalt impurities, focusing on the role played by oxygen vacancies and structural relaxation. By means of full-potential ab-initio methods, we explore the possibility of ferromagnetism as observed in recent experiments. Our results indicate that oxygen vacancies seem to be crucial for the appearance of a ferromagnetic alignment among Co impurities, obtaining an increasing tendency towards ferromagnetism with growing vacancy concentration. The estimated couplings cannot explain though, the experimentally observed room-temperature ferromagnetism. In this systematic study, we draw relevant conclusions regarding the location of the oxygen vacancies and the magnetic couplings involved. In particular, we find that oxygen vacancies tend to nucleate in the neighborhood of Co impurities and we get a remarkably strong ferromagnetic coupling between Co atoms and the Ce^{3+} neighboring ions. The calculated magnetic moments per cell depend on the degree of reduction which could explain the wide spread in the magnetization values observed in the experiments