Uniform spin wave modes in antiferromagnetic nanoparticles with uncompensated moments

In magnetic nanoparticles the uniform precession (q = 0 spin wave) mode gives the predominant contribution to the magnetic excitations. We have calculated the energy of the uniform mode in antiferromagnetic nanoparticles with uncompensated magnetic moments, using the coherent potential approximation. In the presence of uncompensated moments, an antiferromagnetic nanoparticle must be considered as a kind of a ferrimagnet. Two magnetic anisotropy terms are considered, a planar term confining the spins to the basal plane, and an axial term determining an easy axis in this plane. Excitation energies are calculated for various combinations of these two anisotropy terms, ranging from the simple uniaxial case to the planar case with a strong out-of-plane anisotropy. In the simple uniaxial case, the uncompensated moment has a large influence on the excitation energy, but in the planar case it is much less important. The calculations explain recent neutron scattering measurements on nanoparticles of antiferromagnetic α-Fe₂O₃ and NiO.     

Entropy of Bogoliubov automorphisms of the canonical anticommutation relations

We compute the entropyh _A ( _U ) in the sense of Connes, Narnhofer and Thirring of Bogoliubov automorphisms _U of the CAR-algebra with respect to invariant quasifree states _A with 0A1 having pure point spectrum.Supported in part by a grant from the National Science Foundation     

Can basic auditory and cognitive measures predict hearing-impaired listeners' localization and spatial speech recognition abilities?

This study aimed to clarify the basic auditory and cognitive processes that affect listeners' performance on two spatial listening tasks: sound localization and speech recognition in spatially complex, multi-talker situations. Twenty-three elderly listeners with mild-to-moderate sensorineural hearing impairments were tested on the two spatial listening tasks, a measure of monaural spectral ripple discrimination, a measure of binaural temporal fine structure (TFS) sensitivity, and two (visual) cognitive measures indexing working memory and attention. All auditory test stimuli were spectrally shaped to restore (partial) audibility for each listener on each listening task. Eight younger normal-hearing listeners served as a control group. Data analyses revealed that the chosen auditory and cognitive measures could predict neither sound localization accuracy nor speech recognition when the target and maskers were separated along the front-back dimension. When the competing talkers were separated along the left-right dimension, however, speech recognition performance was significantly correlated with the attentional measure. Furthermore, supplementary analyses indicated additional effects of binaural TFS sensitivity and average low-frequency hearing thresholds. Altogether, these results are in support of the notion that both bottom-up and top-down deficits are responsible for the impaired functioning of elderly hearing-impaired listeners in cocktail party-like situations.     

DOUBLESLICING: a non-iterative single profile multi-exponential curve resolution procedure. Application to time-domain NMR transverse relaxation data

A new non-iterative curve resolution technique for resolving single decay profiles is proposed. The new technique, called DoubleSlicing, is based on the Decra (Direct Exponential Curve Resolution Algorithm) principle. While the original Decra was designed to resolve several decay curves simultaneously and thus fitting common pure exponentials, DoubleSlicing can resolve single decay profiles by a simple double data transformation followed by an analytical and unique three-way decomposition. The new approach is successfully demonstrated on experimental NMR CPMG relaxation data, measured on combinations of unmixed paramagnetic CuSO(4) solutions. Decay signals of the water component were acquired following an innovative experimental design that ensured no interaction between the components present in each sample under observation. DoubleSlicing proved to be accurate in estimating relaxation times differing in one order of magnitude (range: 19.6-159.4ms). Its performance was comparable to discrete exponential fitting with the advantage of being much faster - in terms of computation time, DoubleSlicing outperformed exponential fitting by a factor of four.     

Mössbauer spectroscopy for determining phase stability in the ferrosilicon system

We present studies of phase dynamics of the silicon rich part of the Fe?Si system performed with Mössbauer spectroscopy. Standard spectra are obtained in very pure samples and these are applied to the studies of commercial 75& ferrosilicon. We find that the semistable high temperature alpha phase, known for considerable concentration of vacancies, needs multiple quadrupole doublets to fit the data. Finally it is shown how the Mössbauer effect can be applied to quality control in ferrosilicon production.     

Anomalous diffusion in living yeast cells

The viscoelastic properties of the cytoplasm of living yeast cells were investigated by studying the motion of lipid granules naturally occurring in the cytoplasm. A large frequency range of observation was obtained by a combination of video-based and laser-based tracking methods. At time scales from 10(-4) to 10(2) s, the granules typically perform subdiffusive motion with characteristics different from previous measurements in living cells. This subdiffusive behavior is thought to be due to the presence of polymer networks and membranous structures in the cytoplasm. Consistent with this hypothesis, we observe that the motion becomes less subdiffusive upon actin disruption.     

Spectral bundles and the DRY-Conjecture

Supersymmetric heterotic string models, built from a Calabi-Yau threefold X endowed with a stable vector bundle V, usually start from a phenomenologically motivated choice of a bundle V_v in the visible sector, the spectral cover construction on an elliptically fibered X being a prominent example. The ensuing anomaly mismatch between c₂(V_v) and c₂(X), or rather the corresponding differential forms, is often ‘solved’, on the cohomological level, by including a fivebrane. This leads to the question whether the difference can be alternatively realized by a further stable bundle. The ‘DRY’-conjecture of Douglas, Reinbacher and Yau in math.AG/0604597 gives a sufficient condition on cohomology classes on X to be realized as the Chern classes of a stable sheaf. In 1010.1644 [hep-th], we showed that infinitely many classes on X exist for which the conjecture is true. In this note, we give the sufficient condition for the mentioned fivebrane classes to be realized by a further stable bundle in the hidden sector. Using a result obtained in 1011.6246 [hep-th], we show that corresponding bundles exist, thereby confirming this version of the DRY-Conjecture.     

The effect of oxidation on the surface-near lattice relaxation in FeNi nanoparticles

The near-surface oxidation-induced lattice relaxation and compositional changes of FeNi alloy nano-particles are investigated. Using a newly developed transfer system, the particle structure was characterised by means of aberration-corrected HR-TEM prior to exposing the particles to ambient air. This allows for a comparison of oxidised and un-oxidised particles, respectively. Independent of the oxidation, the surface-near and/or interface-near metal lattice was found to be expanded by up to 3%. EELS profiles clearly reveal an enrichment of Fe at the particle surfaces. MD simulations in combination with HR-TEM contrast simulations were conducted to investigate the effect of the Fe enrichment on the structural relaxation. The results show that a surface-near over-stoichiometric enrichment of Fe indeed causes a dilation that counteracts a compression of the lattice at the particle surface as obtained for homogeneously alloyed particles. Besides, the large lattice mismatch between the metallic cores and the NiFe₂O₄ shells causes the formation of step dislocations in the close vicinities of the interface. In essence, the surface-near lattice relaxation in oxide free particles is found to be due to a segregation of Fe to the surface, whereas in the case of shell–core particles, no systematic influence of the oxide on the lattice relaxation was found.