1,214 research outputs found
Dynamic roughening of the magnetic flux landscape in YBaCuO
We study the magnetic flux landscape in YBaCuO thin films as
a two dimensional rough surface. The vortex density in the superconductor forms
a self-affine structure in both space and time. This is characterized by a
roughness exponent and a growth exponent .
This is due to the structure and distribution of flux avalanches in the
self-organized critical state, which is formed in the superconductor. We also
discuss our results in the context of other roughening systems in the presence
of quenched disorder.Comment: 13 pages, 7 figures, accepted for publication in Physica
Halving the Casimir force with conductive oxides
The possibility to modify the strength of the Casimir effect by tailoring the
dielectric functions of the interacting surfaces is regarded as a unique
opportunity in the development of Micro- and NanoElectroMechanical Systems. In
air, however, one expects that, unless noble metals are used, the electrostatic
force arising from trapped charges overcomes the Casimir attraction, leaving no
room for exploitation of Casimir force engineering at ambient conditions. Here
we show that, in the presence of a conductive oxide, the Casimir force can be
the dominant interaction even in air, and that the use of conductive oxides
allows one to reduce the Casimir force up to a factor of 2 when compared to
noble metals.Comment: modified version, accepted for publication in Phys Rev Let
Avalanches and Self-Organized Criticality in Superconductors
We review the use of superconductors as a playground for the experimental
study of front roughening and avalanches. Using the magneto-optical technique,
the spatial distribution of the vortex density in the sample is monitored as a
function of time. The roughness and growth exponents corresponding to the
vortex landscape are determined and compared to the exponents that characterize
the avalanches in the framework of Self-Organized Criticality. For those
situations where a thermo-magnetic instability arises, an analytical non-linear
and non-local model is discussed, which is found to be consistent to great
detail with the experimental results. On anisotropic substrates, the anisotropy
regularizes the avalanches
A window into the neutron star: Modelling the cooling of accretion heated neutron star crusts
In accreting neutron star X-ray transients, the neutron star crust can be
substantially heated out of thermal equilibrium with the core during an
accretion outburst. The observed subsequent cooling in quiescence (when
accretion has halted) offers a unique opportunity to study the structure and
thermal properties of the crust. Initially crust cooling modelling studies
focussed on transient X-ray binaries with prolonged accretion outbursts (> 1
year) such that the crust would be significantly heated for the cooling to be
detectable. Here we present the results of applying a theoretical model to the
observed cooling curve after a short accretion outburst of only ~10 weeks. In
our study we use the 2010 outburst of the transiently accreting 11 Hz X-ray
pulsar in the globular cluster Terzan 5. Observationally it was found that the
crust in this source was still hot more than 4 years after the end of its short
accretion outburst. From our modelling we found that such a long-lived hot
crust implies some unusual crustal properties such as a very low thermal
conductivity (> 10 times lower than determined for the other crust cooling
sources). In addition, we present our preliminary results of the modelling of
the ongoing cooling of the neutron star in MXB 1659-298. This transient X-ray
source went back into quiescence in March 2017 after an accretion phase of ~1.8
years. We compare our predictions for the cooling curve after this outburst
with the cooling curve of the same source obtained after its previous outburst
which ended in 2001.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figure, to appear in the proceedings of "IAUS 337: Pulsar
Astrophysics - The Next 50 Years" eds: P. Weltevrede, B.B.P. Perera, L. Levin
Preston & S. Sanida
Logarithmic two-loop corrections to the Lamb shift in hydrogen
Higher order logarithmic corrections to the
hydrogen Lamb shift are calculated. The results obtained show the two-loop
contribution has a very peculiar behavior, and significantly alter the
theoretical predictions for low lying S-states.Comment: 14 pages, including 2 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev. A, updated
with minor change
Dendritic flux avalanches and nonlocal electrodynamics in thin superconducting films
We present numerical and analytical studies of coupled nonlinear Maxwell and
thermal diffusion equations which describe nonisothermal dendritic flux
penetration in superconducting films. We show that spontaneous branching of
propagating flux filaments occurs due to nonlocal magnetic flux diffusion and
positive feedback between flux motion and Joule heat generation. The branching
is triggered by a thermomagnetic edge instability which causes stratification
of the critical state. The resulting distribution of magnetic microavalanches
depends on a spatial distribution of defects. Our results are in good agreement
with experiments performed on Nb films.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, see http://mti.msd.anl.gov/aran_h1.htm for
extensive collection of movies of dendritic flux and temperature pattern
Dendritic flux penetration in Pb films with a periodic array of antidots
We explore the flux-jump regime in type-II Pb thin films with a periodic
array of antidots by means of magneto-optical measurements. A direct
visualization of the magnetic flux distribution allows to identify a rich
morphology of flux penetration patterns. We determine the phase boundary
between dendritic penetration at low temperatures and a smooth flux
invasion at high temperatures and fields. For the whole range of fields and
temperatures studied, guided vortex motion along the principal axes of the
square pinning array is clearly observed. In particular, the branching process
of the dendrite expansion is fully governed by the underlying pinning topology.
A comparative study between macroscopic techniques and direct local
visualization shed light onto the puzzling and independent magnetic
response observed at low temperatures and fields. Finally, we find that the
distribution of avalanche sizes at low temperatures can be described by a power
law with exponent
He+ lamb-shift measurement by the quenching-radiation anisotropy method
The Lamb shift of He+ is derived from the measured anisotropy in the electric-field-induced quenching radiation of the metastable 2s12 state. The results demonstrate that the anisotropy method can be applied with high precision to one-electron ion beams, as well as neutral beams. We find a Lamb shift of 14040.22.9 MHz (1 standard deviation). The sources of error and difficulties encountered in working with ion beams are discussed in detail. © 1979 The American Physical Society
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