Vortex energy and 360° Néel walls in thin‐film micromagnetics

We study the vortex pattern in ultrathin ferromagnetic films of circular crosssection. The model is based on the following energy functional: for in‐plane magnetizations m: B² → S¹ in the unit disc . The avoidance of volume charges ? · m ≠ 0 in B² and surface charges m · ν ≠ 0 on δB² leads to the formation of a vortex in the limit ε → 0. At the level ε > 0 the vortex is regularized by the formation of a 360° Néel wall (a one‐dimensional transition layer with core of scale ε) concentrated along a radius of B². We derive the limiting energy of the vortex by matching upper and lower bounds. Our analysis on the lower bound is based on a dynamical system argument and an interpolation inequality with sharp leading‐order constant, while the upper bound uses the leading‐order energy for 360° Néel walls. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Pseudo-harmonic morphisms with low dimensional fibers

Harmonic morphisms with one-dimensional fibers are subject to various classification results [6], [13]. Motivated by this fact, we point out some particular phenomena which occur in the case ofpseudo-harmonic morphisms with one and two-dimensional fibers.     

Mechanism of disease in early osteoarthritis: application of modern MR imaging techniques — a technical report

The application of biomolecular magnetic resonance imaging becomes increasingly important in the context of early cartilage changes in degenerative and inflammatory joint disease before gross morphological changes become apparent. In this limited technical report, we investigate the correlation of MRI T1, T2 and T1ρ relaxation times with quantitative biochemical measurements of proteoglycan and collagen contents of cartilage in close synopsis with histologic morphology. A recently developed MRI sequence, T1ρ, was able to detect early intracartilaginous degeneration quantitatively and also qualitatively by color mapping demonstrating a higher sensitivity than standard T2-weighted sequences. The results correlated highly with reduced proteoglycan content and disrupted collagen architecture as measured by biochemistry and histology. The findings lend support to a clinical implementation that allows rapid visual capturing of pathology on a local, millimeter level. Further information about articular cartilage quality otherwise not detectable in vivo, via normal inspection, is needed for orthopedic treatment decisions in the present and future.     

Influence of pitching on performance of VAWTs

Self- starting is the major obstacle to be overcome for successful design of a vertical axis wind turbine (VAWT). In the past has been suggested that pitching the turbine blades such that pitch angle is not 90 degrees allows for self-starting. To understand the physics surrounding pitching, an analysis is carried out for a common airfoil profile, NACA 0012. The vortex model is used to predict aerodynamic performance of VAWT with pitched blades at various angles. As a result of the analysis carried out for the airfoil at various pitch angles, it was shown that the “dead band” phenomenon could be overcome, but only slightly. At the same time, to overcome the “dead band” with a level on confidence, torques in the tip speed ratio (TSR ) range of 0.75 to 2.75 must be increased to values further above zero. The paper aimed at giving an insight into the small wind turbine starting behavior and its influence parameters. (© 2013 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Unsteady Flow and its Influence to Aerodynamic and Aeroacoustic of VAWT's

A study is reported of the influence of unsteady flow on the aerodynamics and aeroacoustics of vertical axis wind turbines by numerical simulation. The combination of aerodynamic predictions with a discrete vortex method and aeroacoustic predictions based on Ffowcs Williams-Hawkings equation is used to achieve this goal. The numerical results show that unsteady flow of the turbine has a significant influence on the turbine aerodynamics and can lead to a decrease in generated noise as compared to the conventional horizontal axis wind turbine at the similar aerodynamic performance. (© 2013 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

A double smoothing technique for solving unconstrained nondifferentiable convex optimization problems

The aim of this paper is to develop an efficient algorithm for solving a class of unconstrained nondifferentiable convex optimization problems in finite dimensional spaces. To this end we formulate first its Fenchel dual problem and regularize it in two steps into a differentiable strongly convex one with Lipschitz continuous gradient. The doubly regularized dual problem is then solved via a fast gradient method with the aim of accelerating the resulting convergence scheme. The theoretical results are finally applied to an l ₁ regularization problem arising in image processing.     

Optically active Babinet planar metamaterial film for terahertz polarization manipulation

A planar Babinet‐inverted dimer metamaterial possessing strong optical activity is proposed and characterized. An original fabrication method to produce large area (up to several cm²) freely suspended flexible metallic membranes is implemented to fabricate the metamaterial. Its optical properties are characterized by terahertz time‐domain spectroscopy, revealing anisotropic transmission with high optical activity. A simple coupled resonator model is applied to explain the principal optical features of the dimers, with predictive power of positions and number of resonances through a parametrical model. The model is validated for correct polarization‐dependent quantitative results on the optical activity in transmission spectra. The fabrication method presented in this work as well as the slit dimer design has great potential for exploitation in terahertz optics.     

Evidence for core-shell magnetic behavior in antiferromagnetic Co3O4 nanowires

Employing magnetometry measurements, we have studied Co3O4 nanowires focusing on the core-shell behavior. We find two magnetic contributions, i.e., a regular antiferromagnetic and an additional irreversible one. The first contribution can be attributed to the antiferromagnetically ordered wire cores. The nature of the second one can be identified using thermoremanent and isothermoremanent magnetizaton curves as magnetic fingerprints of the irreversible magnetization. We conclude that the nanowire shell behaves like a two-dimensional diluted antiferromagnet in a field.