New Primordial-Magnetic-Field Limit from The Latest LIGO S5 data

Since the energy momentum tensor of a magnetic field always contains a spin-2 component in its anisotropic stress, stochastic primordial magnetic field (PMF) in the early universe must generate stochastic gravitational wave (GW) background. This process will greatly affect the relic gravitational wave (RGW), which is one of major scientific goals of the laser interferometer GW detections. Recently, the fifth science (S5) run of laser interferometer gravitational-wave observatory (LIGO) gave a latest upper limit $\Omega_{GW}<6.9\times10^{-6}$ on the RGW background. Utilizing this upper limit, we derive new PMF Limits: for a scale of galactic cluster $\lambda=1$ Mpc, the amplitude of PMF, that produced by the electroweak phase transition (EPT), has to be weaker than $B_{\lambda} \leq 4\times 10^{-7}$ Gauss; for a scale of supercluster $\lambda=100$ Mpc, the amplitude of PMF has to be weaker than $B_{\lambda} \leq 9\times 10^{-11}$ Gauss. In this manner, GW observation has potential to make interesting contributions to the study of primordial magnetic field.Comment: 17 pages, 3 figures, accepted for publication in PR

Polarized Curvature Radiation in Pulsar Magnetosphere

The propagation of polarized emission in pulsar magnetosphere is investigated in this paper. The polarized waves are generated through curvature radiation from the relativistic particles streaming along curved magnetic field lines and co-rotating with the pulsar magnetosphere. Within the 1/{\deg} emission cone, the waves can be divided into two natural wave mode components, the ordinary (O) mode and the extraord nary (X) mode, with comparable intensities. Both components propagate separately in magnetosphere, and are aligned within the cone by adiabatic walking. The refraction of O-mode makes the two components separated and incoherent. The detectable emission at a given height and a given rotation phase consists of incoherent X-mode and O-mode components coming from discrete emission regions. For four particle-density models in the form of uniformity, cone, core and patches, we calculate the intensities for each mode numerically within the entire pulsar beam. If the co-rotation of relativistic particles with magnetosphere is not considered, the intensity distributions for the X-mode and O-mode components are quite similar within the pulsar beam, which causes serious depolarization. However, if the co-rotation of relativistic particles is considered, the intensity distributions of the two modes are very different, and the net polarization of out-coming emission should be significant. Our numerical results are compared with observations, and can naturally explain the orthogonal polarization modes of some pulsars. Strong linear polarizations of some parts of pulsar profile can be reproduced by curvature radiation and subsequent propagation effect.Comment: 12 pages, 9 figures, Accepted for publication in MNRA

Optical spectroscopy study of Nd(O,F)BiS2 single crystals

We present an optical spectroscopy study on F-substituted NdOBiS$_2$ superconducting single crystals grown using KCl/LiCl flux method. The measurement reveals a simple metallic response with a relatively low screened plasma edge near 5000 \cm. The plasma frequency is estimated to be 2.1 eV, which is much smaller than the value expected from the first-principles calculations for an electron doping level of x=0.5, but very close to the value based on a doping level of 7$\%$ of itinerant electrons per Bi site as determined by ARPES experiment. The energy scales of the interband transitions are also well reproduced by the first-principles calculations. The results suggest an absence of correlation effect in the compound, which essentially rules out the exotic pairing mechanism for superconductivity or scenario based on the strong electronic correlation effect. The study also reveals that the system is far from a CDW instability as being widely discussed for a doping level of x=0.5.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figure

Optical properties of TlNi2Se2: Observation of pseudogap formation

The quasi-two-dimensional nickel chalcogenides $TlNi_2Se_2$ is a newly discovered superconductor. We have performed optical spectroscopy study on $TlNi_2Se_2$ single crystals over a broad frequency range at various temperatures. The overall optical reflectance spectra are similar to those observed in its isostructure $BaNi_2As_2$. Both the suppression in $R(\omega)$ and the peaklike feature in $\sigma_1(\omega)$ suggest the progressive formation of a pseudogap feature in the midinfrared range with decreasing temperatures, which might be originated from the dynamic local fluctuation of charge-density-wave (CDW) instability. We propose that the CDW instability in $TlNi_2Se_2$ is driven by the saddle points mechanism, due to the existence of van Hove singularity very close to the Fermi energy.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure