The cusp: a window for particle exchange between the radiation belt and the solar wind

International audienceThe study focuses on a single particle dynamics in the cusp region. The topology of the cusp region in terms of magnetic field iso-B contours has been studied using the Tsyganenko 96 model (T96) as an example, to show the importance of an off-equatorial minimum on particle trapping. We carry out test particle simulations to demonstrate the bounce and drift motion. The "cusp trapping limit" concept is introduced to reflect the particle motion in the high latitude magnetospheric region. The spatial distribution of the "cusp trapping limit" shows that only those particles with near 90° pitch-angles can be trapped and drift around the cusp. Those with smaller pitch angles may be partly trapped in the iso-B contours, however, they will eventually escape along one of the magnetic field lines. There exist both open field lines and closed ones within the same drift orbit, indicating two possible destinations of these particles: those particles being lost along open field lines will be connected to the surface of the magnetopause and the solar wind, while those along closed ones will enter the equatorial radiation belt. Thus, it is believed that the cusp region can provide a window for particle exchange between these two regions. Some of the factors, such as dipole tilt angle, magnetospheric convection, IMF and the Birkeland current system, may influence the cusp's trapping capability and therefore affect the particle exchanging mechanism. Their roles are examined by both the analysis of cusp magnetic topology and test particle simulations

On the Dynamics of Single Mode Lasers with Passive Dispersive Reflector

For passive dispersive reflector (PDR) lasers we investigate a single mode model containing two functions characterizing the influence of the PDR. We study numerically the effect of the shape of these functions on the existence and robustness of self-pulsations. The possibility of tuning the frequency and modulation depth of the self-pulsations has been demonstrated

Multiple Triangulation Analysis: another approach to determine the orientation of magnetic flux ropes

Another approach (Multiple Triangulation Analysis, MTA) is presented to determine the orientation of magnetic flux rope, based on 4-point measurements. A 2-D flux rope model is used to examine the accuracy of the MTA technique in a theoretical way. It is found that the precision of the estimated orientation is dependent on both the spacecraft separation and the constellation path relative to the flux rope structure. However, the MTA error range can be shown to be smaller than that of the traditional MVA technique. As an application to real Cluster data, several flux rope events on 26 January 2001 are analyzed using MTA, to obtain their orientations. The results are compared with the ones obtained by several other methods which also yield flux rope orientation. The estimated axis orientations are shown to be fairly close, suggesting the reliability of the MTA method

Kondo effect of an adatom in graphene and its scanning tunneling spectroscopy

We study the Kondo effect of a single magnetic adatom on the surface of graphene. It was shown that the unique linear dispersion relation near the Dirac points in graphene makes it more easy to form the local magnetic moment, which simply means that the Kondo resonance can be observed in a more wider parameter region than in the metallic host. The result indicates that the Kondo resonance indeed can form ranged from the Kondo regime, to the mixed valence, even to the empty orbital regime. While the Kondo resonance displays as a sharp peak in the first regime, it has a peak-dip structure and/or an anti-resonance in the remaining two regimes, which result from the Fano resonance due to the significant background leaded by dramatically broadening of the impurity level in graphene. We also study the scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) spectra of the adatom and they show obvious particle-hole asymmetry when the chemical potential is tuned by the gate voltages applied to the graphene. Finally, we explore the influence of the direct tunneling channel between the STM tip and the graphene on the Kondo resonance and find that the lineshape of the Kondo resonance is unaffected, which can be attributed to unusual large asymmetry factor in graphene. Our study indicates that the graphene is an ideal platform to study systematically the Kondo physics and these results are useful to further stimulate the relevant experimental studies on the system.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figure

The Physics of Kondo Impurities in Graphene

This article summarizes our understanding of the Kondo effect in graphene, primarily from a theoretical perspective. We shall describe different ways to create magnetic moments in graphene, either by adatom deposition or via defects. For dilute moments, the theoretical description is in terms of effective Anderson or Kondo impurity models coupled to graphene's Dirac electrons. We shall discuss in detail the physics of these models, including their quantum phase transitions and the effect of carrier doping, and confront this with existing experimental data. Finally, we point out connections to other quantum impurity problems, e.g., in unconventional superconductors, topological insulators, and quantum spin liquids.Comment: 27 pages, 8 figs. Review article prepared for Rep. Prog. Phys. ("key issues" section). (v2) Final version as publishe

Conservative interacting particles system with anomalous rate of ergodicity

We analyze certain conservative interacting particle system and establish ergodicity of the system for a family of invariant measures. Furthermore, we show that convergence rate to equilibrium is exponential. This result is of interest because it presents counterexample to the standard assumption of physicists that conservative system implies polynomial rate of convergence.Comment: 16 pages; In the previous version there was a mistake in the proof of uniqueness of weak Leray solution. Uniqueness had been claimed in a space of solutions which was too large (see remark 2.6 for more details). Now the mistake is corrected by introducing a new class of moderate solutions (see definition 2.10) where we have both existence and uniquenes

Mid-infrared frequency comb spanning an octave based on an Er fiber laser and difference-frequency generation

We describe a coherent mid-infrared continuum source with 700 cm-1 usable bandwidth, readily tuned within 600 - 2500 cm-1 (4 - 17 \mum) and thus covering much of the infrared "fingerprint" molecular vibration region. It is based on nonlinear frequency conversion in GaSe using a compact commercial 100-fs-pulsed Er fiber laser system providing two amplified near-infrared beams, one of them broadened by a nonlinear optical fiber. The resulting collimated mid-infrared continuum beam of 1 mW quasi-cw power represents a coherent infrared frequency comb with zero carrier-envelope phase, containing about 500,000 modes that are exact multiples of the pulse repetition rate of 40 MHz. The beam's diffraction-limited performance enables long-distance spectroscopic probing as well as maximal focusability for classical and ultraresolving near-field microscopies. Applications are foreseen also in studies of transient chemical phenomena even at ultrafast pump-probe scale, and in high-resolution gas spectroscopy for e.g. breath analysis.Comment: 8 pages, 2 figures revised version, added reference