Annealing effects on the magnetization of Co–Ni–B amorphous nanoparticles

Chemically prepared (Co_xNi_1−x)_1−yB_y (x=0.5, 0.75, 1; y≈0.4) amorphous fine particles were characterized by X-ray diffraction, DTA and TGA, and in situ magnetic measurement as a function of annealing temperature in an inert atmosphere. Magnetic measurement performed in as-prepared and 150°C annealed samples shows an increase of the saturation magnetization and magnetic moment after thermal treatment. Room temperature magnetization increases by factors of 3.5, 1.8, and 1.5, for x=0.5, 0.75, and 1, respectively. These measurements may indicate a local re-ordering of the amorphous phase at temperatures much lower than the full crystallization temperature.     

The embedding of General Relativity in five dimensions

We argue that General Relativistic solutions can always be locally embedded in Ricci-flat 5-dimensional spaces. This is a direct consequence of a theorem of Campbell (given here for both a timelike and spacelike extra dimension, together with a special case of this theorem) which guarantees that anyn-dimensional Riemannian manifold can be locally embedded in an (n+1)-dimensional Ricci-flat Riemannian manifold. This is of great importance in establishing local generality for a proposal recently put forward and developed by Wesson and others, whereby vacuum (4+1)-dimensional field equations give rise to (3+1)-dimensional equations with sources. An important feature of Campbell's procedure is that it automatically guarantees the compatibility of Gauss-Codazzi equations and therefore allows the construction of embeddings to be in principle always possible. We employ this procedure to construct such embeddings in a number of simple cases.     

Magnetic discontinuities in magnetohydrodynamic turbulence and in the solar wind

Recent measurements of solar wind turbulence report the presence of intermittent, exponentially distributed angular discontinuities in the magnetic field. In this Letter, we study whether such discontinuities can be produced by magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) turbulence. We detect the discontinuities by measuring the fluctuations of the magnetic field direction, Δθ, across fixed spatial increments Δx in direct numerical simulations of MHD turbulence with an imposed uniform guide field B(0). A large region of the probability density function (pdf) for Δθ is found to follow an exponential decay, proportional to exp(-Δθ/θ(*)), with characteristic angle θ(*)≈(14°)(b(rms)/B(0))(0.65) for a broad range of guide-field strengths. We find that discontinuities observed in the solar wind can be reproduced by MHD turbulence with reasonable ratios of b(rms)/B(0). We also observe an excess of small angular discontinuities when Δx becomes small, possibly indicating an increasing statistical significance of dissipation-scale structures. The structure of the pdf in this case closely resembles the two-population pdf seen in the solar wind. We thus propose that strong discontinuities are associated with inertial-range MHD turbulence, while weak discontinuities emerge from dissipation-range turbulence. In addition, we find that the structure functions of the magnetic field direction exhibit anomalous scaling exponents, which indicates the existence of intermittent structures.     

Carbon nanotubes as substrates for molecular spiropyran-based switches

We present a joint theory-experiment study investigating the excitonic absorption of spiropyran-functionalized carbon nanotubes. The functionalization is promising for engineering switches on a molecular level, since spiropyrans can be reversibly switched between two different conformations, inducing a distinguishable and measurable change of optical transition energies in the substrate nanotube. Here, we address the question of whether an optical read-out of such a molecular switch is possible. Combining density matrix and density functional theory, we first calculate the excitonic absorption of pristine and functionalized nanotubes. Depending on the switching state of the attached molecule, we observe a red-shift of transition energies by about 15?meV due to the coupling of excitons with the molecular dipole moment. Then we perform experiments measuring the absorption spectrum of functionalized carbon nanotubes for both conformations of the spiropyran molecule. We find good qualitative agreement between the theoretically predicted and experimentally measured red-shift, confirming the possibility for an optical read-out of the nanotube-based molecular switch.     

Quaternionic-valued Gravitation in 8D, Grand Unification and Finsler Geometry

A unification model of 4D gravity and SU(3)×SU(2)×U(1) Yang-Mills theory is presented. It is obtained from a Kaluza-Klein compactification of 8D quaternionic gravity on an internal CP ²=SU(3)/U(2) symmetric space. We proceed to explore the nonlinear connection formalism used in Finsler geometry to show how ordinary gravity in D=4+2 dimensions has enough degrees of freedom to encode a 4D gravitational and SU(5) Yang-Mills theory. This occurs when the internal two-dim space is a sphere S ². This is an appealing result because SU(5) is one of the candidate GUT groups. We conclude by discussing how the nonlinear connection formalism of Finsler geometry provides an infinite hierarchical extension of the Standard Model within a six dimensional gravitational theory due to the embedding of SU(3)×SU(2)×U(1)⊂SU(5)⊂SU(∞).     

Optimization of finite element grids by direct energy search

One of the possible approaches to the reduction of computational costs in finite element analysis is the selection of ‘optimal grids’, which produce the ‘best’ answers, in the sense of minimizing a discretization error measure, for a fixed level of computational effort. The grid optimization problem is studied in the case of grids of similar topology having a fixed number of degrees of freedom per node. A general formulation based on weighted-residual error measures is specialized to field problems associated with a positive-definite energy functional, the minimization of which, with respect to variable node locations, is adopted as a grid optimality criterion. The problem is then embedded in the framework of the general nonlinear programming problem, and desirable computational features of candidate search algorithms are described.     

Supersymmetry and bosonization in three dimensions

We discuss on the possible existence of a supersymmetric invariance in purely fermionic planar systems and its relation to the fermion-boson mapping in three-dimensional quantum field theory. We consider, as a very simple example, the bosonization of free massive fermions and show that, under certain conditions on the masses, this model displays a supersymmetric-like invariance in the low energy regime. We construct the purely fermionic expression for the supercurrent and the non-linear supersymmetry transformation laws. We argue that the supersymmetry is absent in the limit of massless fermions where the bosonized theory is non-local.     

Nuclear shadowing in Glauber–Gribov theory with Q 2-evolution

We consider deep inelastic scattering off nuclei in the Regge limit within the Glauber–Gribov model. Using unitarized parton distribution functions for the proton, we find sizeable shadowing effects on the nuclear total and longitudinal structure functions, $F_{2}^{A}$ and $F_{L}^{A}$ , in the low-x limit. Extending a fan-diagram analysis for the large-mass region of coherent diffraction off nuclei to high Q ², we also find significant shadowing effects in this kinematical regime. Finally, we discuss the shortcomings of our approach and possible extensions of the model to other kinematical regimes.