Current-driven Magnetization Reversal in a Ferromagnetic Semiconductor (Ga,Mn)As/GaAs/(Ga,Mn)As Tunnel Junction

Current-driven magnetization reversal in a ferromagnetic semiconductor based (Ga,Mn)As/GaAs/(Ga,Mn)As magnetic tunnel junction is demonstrated at 30 K. Magnetoresistance measurements combined with current pulse application on a rectangular 1.5 x 0.3 um^2 device revealed that magnetization switching occurs at low critical current densities of 1.1 - 2.2 x 10^5 A/cm^2 despite the presence of spin-orbit interaction in the p-type semiconductor system. Possible mechanisms responsible for the effect are discussed.Comment: 16 pages, 4 figure

Properties of Nambu-Goldstone Bosons in a Single-Component Bose-Einstein Condensate

We theoretically study the properties of Nambu-Goldstone bosons in an interacting single-component Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC). We first point out that the proofs of Goldstone's theorem by Goldstone, et al. [Phys. Rev. {\bf 127} (1962) 965] may be relevant to distinct massless modes of the BEC: whereas the first proof deals with the poles of the single-particle Green's function $\hat{G}$, the second one concerns those of the two-particle Green's function. Thus, there may be multiple Nambu-Goldstone bosons even in the single-component BEC with broken U(1) symmetry. The second mode turns out to have an infinite lifetime in the long-wavelength limit in agreement with the conventional viewpoint. In contrast, the first mode from $\hat{G}$, i.e., the Bogoliubov mode in the weak-coupling regime, is shown to be a "bubbling" mode fluctuating temporally out of and back into the condensate. The substantial lifetime originates from an "improper" structure of the self-energy inherent in the BEC, which has been overlooked so far and will be elucidated here, and removes various infrared divergences pointed out previously.Comment: 9 pages, 6 gigure

Quasiparticles of d-wave superconductors in finite magnetic fields

We study quasiparticles of d-wave superconductors in the vortex lattice by self-consistently solving the Bogoliubov-de Gennes equations. It is found for a pure $d_{x^2-y^2}$ state that: (i) low-energy quasiparticle bands in the magnetic Brillouin zone have rather large dispersion even in low magnetic fields, indicating absense of bound states for an isolated vortex; (ii) in finite fields with $k_F \xi_0$ small, the calculated tunneling conductance at the vortex core shows a double-peak structure near zero bias, as qualitatively consistent with the STM experiment by Maggio-Aprile et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. {\bf 75} (1995) 2754]. We also find that mixing of a $d_{xy}$- or an s-wave component, if any, develops gradually without transitions as the field is increased, having little effect on the tunneling spectra.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, LaTe

Earthquake-induced damage localization through non-linear dynamic analysis

The development of vibration-based long-term SHM methods for damage detection and preventive conservation of historic masonry buildings is receiving a growing trend of scientific interest. At the state of the art, well-acknowledged techniques for damage detection have been developed and validated, especially when dealing with earthquake-induced damages. The next scientific challenge to deal with in SHM is therefore damage localization, thus, not just detecting the occurrence of a damage, but also inferring, with a certain level of confidence, its location. This paper presents a methodology aimed at addressing the damage localization task in heritage masonry structures, based on Incremental Dynamic Analysis (IDA) carried out from a numerical model together with data recorded during the earthquake. IDA curves are built with reference to different portions of the structure, relating some local damage parameters (DMs) to some seismic or response intensity measures (IMs) and earthquake's intensity is used for locally identifying the damage in such portions. The choice of IM represents an important aspect of the IDA curves effectiveness and an appropriate study is carried out. The proposed methodology is validated through application to the numerical model of a reduced-scale masonry structure, called Brick House, which represents a well-known international benchmark case study tested on the LNEC-3D shaking table. The obtained results demonstrate that the proposed methodology is capable of achieving earthquake-induced damage detection and localization with a good level of aproximation.(undefined

Use-wear evidence for the use of threshing sledges in Neolithic Greece

Threshing sledge or tribulum represents an important innovation in agricultural techniques. It allows processing huge amounts of cereals and it has often associated to an increased agricultural production. Their use is attested during the Late Neolithic/Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age both in south-western Asia and Europe. In the Mediterranean area, their use lasted until few decades ago. Recently, as part of project focused on the analysis of the early agricultural tools of Neolithic Greece, a few elements bearing macro- and microscopic use-wear traces visually similar to ethnographic and archaeological threshing sledges have been identified from a number of Early and Middle Neolithic sites (i.e., Achilleion, Platia Magoula Zarkou, Revenia Korinos, Paliambela Kolindros). In this paper, we present the result of their study, including technological and traceological analysis. To provide a stronger assessment of the nature of the observed use-wear traces a quantitative comparison with ethnographic and experimental use-wear traces is carried out by integrating confocal microscopy. Despite the low number of recorded artefacts, obtained results suggest that threshing sledges were in use since the early phases of the Neolithic in Greece

Self-Consistent Approximations for Superconductivity beyond the Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer Theory

We develop a concise self-consistent perturbation expansion for superconductivity where all the pair processes are naturally incorporated without drawing "anomalous" Feynman diagrams. This simplification results from introducing an interaction vertex that is symmetric in the particle-hole indices besides the ordinary space-spin coordinates. The formalism automatically satisfies conservation laws, includes the Luttinger-Ward theory as the normal-state limit, and reproduces the Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer theory as the lowest-order approximation. It enables us to study the thermodynamic, single-particle, two-particle, and dynamical properties of superconductors with competing fluctuations based on a single functional $\Phi[\hat{G}]$ of Green's function $\hat{G}$ in the Nambu space. Specifically, we derive closed equations in the FLEX-S approximation, i.e., the fluctuation exchange approximation for superconductivity with all the pair processes, which contains extra terms besides those in the standard FLEX approximation.Comment: 14 pages, 6 figure

Contribution of particulate nitrate to airborne measurements of total reactive nitrogen

Simultaneous measurements of speciated, total reactive nitrogen (NOy) and particulate NO3 (particle diameter <1.3 μm) were made on board the NASA P-3B aircraft over the western Pacific in February-April 2001 during the Transport and Chemical Evolution over the Pacific (TRACE-P) experiment. Gas-phase and particulate NOy was measured using a gold tube catalytic converter. For the interpretation of particulate NOy, conversion efficiencies of particulate NH4NO3, KNO3, NaNO3, and Ca(NO3)2 were measured in the laboratory. Only NH4NO3 showed quantitative conversion, and its conversion efficiency was as high as that for HNO3. NOy measured on board the aircraft was found to be systematically higher by 10-30% than the sum of the individual NOy gas components (Σ(NOy)i) at 0-4 km. Particulate NO3- concentrations measured by a particle-into-liquid sampler (PILS) were nearly equal to NOy - Σ(NOy)i under low-dust-loading conditions. The PILS data showed that the majority of the particulate NO3- was in the form of NH4NO3 under these conditions, suggesting that NH4NO3 particles were quantitatively converted to detectable NO by the NOy converter, consistent with the laboratory experiments. The contribution of particulate NO3- to NOy was most important at 0-2 km, where NO3- constituted 10-30% of NOy during TRACE-P. On average, the amounts of particulate NO3- and gas-phase HNO3 were comparable in this region. Copyright 2005 by the American Geophysical Union

Solvent-induced micelle formation in a hydrophobic interaction model

We investigate the aggregation of amphiphilic molecules by adapting the two-state Muller-Lee-Graziano model for water, in which a solvent-induced hydrophobic interaction is included implicitly. We study the formation of various types of micelle as a function of the distribution of hydrophobic regions at the molecular surface. Successive substitution of non-polar surfaces by polar ones demonstrates the influence of hydrophobicity on the upper and lower critical solution temperatures. Aggregates of lipid molecules, described by a refinement of the model in which a hydrophobic tail of variable length interacts with different numbers of water molecules, are stabilized as the length of the tail increases. We demonstrate that the essential features of micelle formation are primarily solvent-induced, and are explained within a model which focuses only on the alteration of water structure in the vicinity of the hydrophobic surface regions of amphiphiles in solution.Comment: 11 pages, 10 figures; some rearrangement of introduction and discussion sections, streamlining of formalism and general compression; to appear in Phys. Rev.