Special scrolls whose base curve has general moduli

In this paper we study the Hilbert scheme of smooth, linearly normal, special scrolls under suitable assumptions on degree, genus and speciality.Comment: Latex2e, shorter versio

On the geometric genus of reducible surfaces and degenerations of surfaces to unions of planes

In this paper we study some properties of degenerations of surfaces whose general fibre is a smooth projective surface and whose central fibre is a reduced, connected surface $X \subset IP^r$, $r \geq 3$, which is assumed to be a union of smooth projective surfaces, in particular of planes. Our original motivation has been a series of papers of G. Zappa which appeared in the 1940-50's regarding degenerations of scrolls to unions of planes. Here, we present a first set of results on the subject; other aspects are still work in progress and will appear later. We first study the geometry and the combinatorics of a surface like $X$, considered as a reduced, connected surface on its own; then we focus on the case in which X is the central fibre of a degeneration of relative dimension two over the complex unit disk. In this case, we deduce some of the intrinsic and extrinsic invariants of the general fibre from the ones of its central fibre. In the particular case of $X$ a central fibre of a semistable degeneration, i.e. $X$ has only global normal crossing singularities and the total space of the degeneration is smooth, some of the above invariants can be also computed by topological methods (i.e., the Clemens-Schmid exact sequence). Our results are more general, not only because the computations are independent on the fact that $X$ is the central fibre of a degeneration, but also because the degeneration is not semistable in general.Comment: latex2e, 26 pages, 11 figure

On the first Gaussian map for Prym-canonical line bundles

We prove by degeneration to Prym-canonical binary curves that the first Gaussian map of the Prym canonical line bundle $\omega_C \otimes A$ is surjective for the general point [C,A] of R_g if g >11, while it is injective if g < 12.Comment: To appear in Geometriae Dedicata. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1105.447

Equivalent birational embeddings II: divisors

Two divisors in $\P^n$ are said to be Cremona equivalent if there is a Cremona modification sending one to the other. We produce infinitely many non equivalent divisorial embeddings of any variety of dimension at most 14. Then we study the special case of plane curves and rational hypersurfaces. For the latter we characterise surfaces Cremona equivalent to a plane.Comment: v2 Exposition improved, thanks to referee, unconditional characterization of surfaces Cremona equivalent to a plan

Interacting Preformed Cooper Pairs in Resonant Fermi Gases

We consider the normal phase of a strongly interacting Fermi gas, which can have either an equal or an unequal number of atoms in its two accessible spin states. Due to the unitarity-limited attractive interaction between particles with different spin, noncondensed Cooper pairs are formed. The starting point in treating preformed pairs is the Nozi\`{e}res-Schmitt-Rink (NSR) theory, which approximates the pairs as being noninteracting. Here, we consider the effects of the interactions between the Cooper pairs in a Wilsonian renormalization-group scheme. Starting from the exact bosonic action for the pairs, we calculate the Cooper-pair self-energy by combining the NSR formalism with the Wilsonian approach. We compare our findings with the recent experiments by Harikoshi {\it et al.} [Science {\bf 327}, 442 (2010)] and Nascimb\`{e}ne {\it et al.} [Nature {\bf 463}, 1057 (2010)], and find very good agreement. We also make predictions for the population-imbalanced case, that can be tested in experiments.Comment: 10 pages, 6 figures, accepted version for PRA, discussion of the imbalanced Fermi gas added, new figure and references adde

EFFECT OF N2 PARTIAL PRESSURE ON THE GROWTH OF CHROMIUM NITRIDE COATINGS

Chromium nitride films has been prepared by reactive magnetron sputtering using a mixture of Ar and N2 gas. Keeping constant the total pressure during the film deposition the ratio of N2 to Ar has been varied from 0.3 to 5.0 to promote the growth of CrN films with different microstructure. The structural chemical characterization of grown films were performed by means of x-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy, auger electron spectroscopy and x-ray photoemission spectroscopy. Even if no clear correlation between material hardness and coating microstructure was observed with nanoindentation, the tribological characterization of the films, evidenced a strong dependence of the wear rate of the material by the process conditions. In particular we observed an improved wear resistance for coatings with a compressive residual stress