Peak effect studies in single crystals CeRu2 and 2H-NbS2

We have studied the peak effect (PE) phenomenon in single crystals of weakly pinned superconductors CeRu₂ and 2H-NbS₂. 2H-NbS₂ is iso-structural and iso-electronic to 2H-NbSe₂, whose similarity with CeRu₂ as regards the PE representing the order-to-disorder transformation of the flux line lattice was claimed some time ago. We report on the step change in equilibrium magnetization across the peak effect in CeRu₂. We also present the vortex phase diagram of 2H-NbS₂ obtained from the magnetization data, and compare the PE phenomenon in 2H-NbS₂ and 2H-NbSe₂.     

Synthetic magnetic opals

We present studies of novel nanocomposites of BiNi impregnated into the structure of opals as well as inverse opals. Atomic force microscopy and high resolution elemental analyses show a highly ordered structure and uniform distribution of the BiNi filler in the matrix. These BiNi-based nanocomposites are found to exhibit distinct ferromagnetic-like ordering with transition temperature of about 675 K. As far as we know there exists no report in literature on any BiNi compound which is magnetic.     

Temperature hysteretic effect and its influence on colossal magnetoresistance of La0.33Nd0.33Ca0.33MnO3

Electrical resistance (R) measurements of a bulk La_0.33Nd_0.33Ca_0.33MnO₃ perovskite in magnetic fields up to 40 kOe have revealed anomalous temperature hysteretic effects both in 0 Oe and 20 kOe magnetic fields. The sharp peak observed in the R vs. T plot indicates the occurrence of metal-to-insulator (M-I) transition at a temperature of T _MI=110 K and 140 K, for cooling and warming paths, respectively. An applied magnetic field of 20 kOe reduces the resistance and shifts T _MI to 160 K and 185 K for cooling and warming, respectively. We have observed a much higher resistance in the cooling path than in the warming path leading to the hysteretic resistance ratio (R _cool/R _warm) of 200 at 110 K and 1.8 at 160 K for 0 Oe and 20 kOe, respectively. Record values of colossal magnetoresistance (CMR) have been achieved. The CMR value reaches nearly 99% in the temperature ranges of 90 K to 140 K and 90 K to 170 K for 20 kOe and 40 kOe magnetic fields in the cooling mode, respectively. The observed unusual behavior is attributed to the co-existence of La-rich and Nd-rich domains assumed to be distributed randomly in the compound.     

Cluster analysis of molecular simulation trajectories for systems where both conformation and orientation of the sampled states are important

Clustering methods have been widely used to group together similar conformational states from molecular simulations of biomolecules in solution. For applications such as the interaction of a protein with a surface, the orientation of the protein relative to the surface is also an important clustering parameter because of its potential effect on adsorbed‐state bioactivity. This study presents cluster analysis methods that are specifically designed for systems where both molecular orientation and conformation are important, and the methods are demonstrated using test cases of adsorbed proteins for validation. Additionally, because cluster analysis can be a very subjective process, an objective procedure for identifying both the optimal number of clusters and the best clustering algorithm to be applied to analyze a given dataset is presented. The method is demonstrated for several agglomerative hierarchical clustering algorithms used in conjunction with three cluster validation techniques. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Direct one-index transformations in multiconfiguration response calculations

The evaluation of gradient vectors of a general operator with one-index, double-one-index, or higher-order one-index transformed integrals is a key operation in multiconfiguration response theory calculations. We describe an integral-driven direct algorithm that carries out this operation efficiently without pretransforming the integrals. The use of this algorithm leads to a considerable reduction in disk space and timing. © 1994 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Ultra-low-frequency dust-electromagnetic modes in self-gravitating magnetized dusty plasmas

Obliquely propagating altra-low-frequency dust-electromagnetic waves in a self-gravitating, warm, magnetized, two fluid dusty plasma system have been investigated. Two special cases, namely, dust-Alfvén mode propagating parallel to the external magnetic field and dustmagnetosonic mode propagating perpendicular to the external magnetic field have also been considered. It has been shown that effects of self-gravitational field, dust fluid temperature, and obliqueness significantly modify the dispersion properties of these ultra-low-frequency dust-electromagnetic modes. It is also found that in parallel propagating dust-Alfvén mode these effects play no role, but in obliquely propagating dust-Alfvén mode or perpendicular propagating dust-magnetosonic mode the effect of self-gravitational field plays destabilizing role whereas the effect of dust/ion fluid temperature plays stabilizing role.     

Non-local symmetries of first-order equations

It is shown how one can transform scalar first-order ordinarydifferential equations which admit non-local symmetries of theexponential type to integrable equations admitting canonicalexponential non-local symmetries. As examples we invoke theAbel equation of the second kind, the Riccati equation and naturalgeneralizations of these. Moreover, our method describes howa double reduction of order for a second-order ordinary differentialequation which admits a two-dimensional Lie algebra of generatorsof point symmetries can be affected if the second-order equationis first reduced in order once by a symmetry which does notspan an ideal of the two-dimensional Lie algebra.