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A. Sanchez

Publications and source records attributed to A. Sanchez.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

Enhancement of pinning properties of superconducting thin films by graded pinning landscapes

A graded distribution of pinning centers (antidots) in superconducting MoGe thin films has been investigated by magnetization and magneto-optical imaging. The pinning landscape has maximum density at the border, decreasing progressively towards the center. At high temperatures and low fields, where this landscape mimics the vortex distribution predicted by the Bean model, an increase of the critical current is observed. At low temperatures and fields, the superconducting performance of the non-uniform sample is also improved due to suppression of thermomagnetic avalanches. These findings emphasize the relevance of non-uniform pinning landscapes, so far experimentally unexplored, on the enhancement of pinning efficiency.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

MOONS: a Multi-Object Optical and Near-infrared Spectrograph for the VLT

MOONS is a new conceptual design for a Multi-Object Optical and Near-infrared Spectrograph for the Very Large Telescope (VLT), selected by ESO for a Phase A study. The baseline design consists of 1000 fibers deployable over a field of view of 500 square arcmin, the largest patrol field offered by the Nasmyth focus at the VLT. The total wavelength coverage is 0.8um-1.8um and two resolution modes: medium resolution and high resolution. In the medium resolution mode (R=4,000-6,000) the entire wavelength range 0.8um-1.8um is observed simultaneously, while the high resolution mode covers simultaneously three selected spectral regions: one around the CaII triplet (at R=8,000) to measure radial velocities, and two regions at R=20,000 one in the J-band and one in the H-band, for detailed measurements of chemical abundances. The grasp of the 8.2m Very Large Telescope (VLT) combined with the large multiplex and wavelength coverage of MOONS - extending into the near-IR - will provide the observational power necessary to study galaxy formation and evolution over the entire history of the Universe, from our Milky Way, through the redshift desert and up to the epoch of re-ionization at z>8-9. At the same time, the high spectral resolution mode will allow astronomers to study chemical abundances of stars in our Galaxy, in particular in the highly obscured regions of the Bulge, and provide the necessary follow-up of the Gaia mission. Such characteristics and versatility make MOONS the long-awaited workhorse near-IR MOS for the VLT, which will perfectly complement optical spectroscopy performed by FLAMES and VIMOS.

astro-ph.IM↗

Comment on "Geometrothermodynamics of a Charged Black Hole of String Theory"

We comment on the conclusions found by Larrañaga and Mojica regarding the consistency of the Geoemtrothermodynamics programme to describe the critical behaviour of a Gibbons-Maeda-Garfinkle-Horowitz-Strominger charged black hole. We argue that making the appropriate choice of metric for the thermodynamic phase space and, most importantly, considering the homogeneity of the thermodynamic potential we obtain consistent results for such a black hole.

gr-qc↗

Quantum Magnetomechanics with Levitating Superconducting Microspheres

We show that by magnetically trapping a superconducting microsphere close to a quantum circuit, it is experimentally feasible to perform ground-state cooling and to prepare quantum superpositions of the center-of-mass motion of the microsphere. Due to the absence of clamping losses and time dependent electromagnetic fields, the mechanical motion of micrometer-sized metallic spheres in the Meissner state is predicted to be very well isolated from the environment. Hence, we propose to combine the technology of magnetic microtraps and superconducting qubits to bring relatively large objects to the quantum regime.

quant-ph↗

Thermodynamic Geometry Of Charged Rotating BTZ Black Holes

We study the thermodynamics and the thermodynamic geometries of charged rotating BTZ (CR-BTZ) black holes in (2+1)-gravity. We investigate the thermodynamics of these systems within the context of the Weinhold and Ruppeiner thermodynamic geometries and the recently developed formalism of geometrothermodynamics (GTD). Considering the behavior of the heat capacity and the Hawking temperature, we show that Weinhold and Ruppeiner geometries cannot describe completely the thermodynamics of these black holes and of their limiting case of vanishing electric charge. In contrast, the Legendre invariance imposed on the metric in GTD allows one to describe the CR-BTZ black holes and their limiting cases in a consistent and invariant manner.

gr-qc↗

Coevolution of strategies and update rules in the Prisoner's Dilemma game on complex networks

In this work we study a weak Prisonerâs Dilemma game in which both strategies and update rules are subjected to evolutionary pressure. Interactions among agents are specified by complex topologies, and we consider both homogeneous and heterogeneous situations. We consider deterministic and stochastic update rules for the strategies, which in turn may consider single links or full context when selecting agents to copy from. Our results indicate that the co-evolutionary process preserves heterogeneous networks as a suitable framework for the emergence of cooperation. Furthermore, on those networks, the update rule leading to a larger fraction, which we call replicator dynamics, is selected during co-evolution. On homogeneous networks we observe that even if replicator dynamics turns out again to be the selected update rule, the cooperation level is larger than on a fixed update rule framework. We conclude that for a variety of topologies, the fact that the dynamics coevolves with the strategies leads in general to more cooperation in the weak Prisoner's Dilemma game.

physics.soc-ph↗

Phase transitions in geometrothermodynamics

Using the formalism of geometrothermodynamics, we investigate the geometric properties of the equilibrium manifold for diverse thermodynamic systems. Starting from Legendre invariant metrics of the phase manifold, we derive thermodynamic metrics for the equilibrium manifold whose curvature becomes singular at those points where phase transitions of first and second order occur. We conclude that the thermodynamic curvature of the equilibrium manifold, as defined in geometrothermodynamics, can be used as a measure of thermodynamic interaction in diverse systems with two and three thermodynamic degrees of freedom.

gr-qc↗

The Imaging Magnetograph eXperiment (IMaX) for the Sunrise balloon-borne solar observatory

The Imaging Magnetograph eXperiment (IMaX) is a spectropolarimeter built by four institutions in Spain that flew on board the Sunrise balloon-borne telesocope in June 2009 for almost six days over the Arctic Circle. As a polarimeter IMaX uses fast polarization modulation (based on the use of two liquid crystal retarders), real-time image accumulation, and dual beam polarimetry to reach polarization sensitivities of 0.1%. As a spectrograph, the instrument uses a LiNbO3 etalon in double pass and a narrow band pre-filter to achieve a spectral resolution of 85 mAA. IMaX uses the high Zeeman sensitive line of Fe I at 5250.2 AA and observes all four Stokes parameters at various points inside the spectral line. This allows vector magnetograms, Dopplergrams, and intensity frames to be produced that, after reconstruction, reach spatial resolutions in the 0.15-0.18 arcsec range over a 50x50 arcsec FOV. Time cadences vary between ten and 33 seconds, although the shortest one only includes longitudinal polarimetry. The spectral line is sampled in various ways depending on the applied observing mode, from just two points inside the line to 11 of them. All observing modes include one extra wavelength point in the nearby continuum. Gauss equivalent sensitivities are four Gauss for longitudinal fields and 80 Gauss for transverse fields per wavelength sample. The LOS velocities are estimated with statistical errors of the order of 5-40 m/s. The design, calibration and integration phases of the instrument, together with the implemented data reduction scheme are described in some detail.

astro-ph.SR↗

Thermodynamic systems as bosonic strings

We apply variational principles in the context of geometrothermodynamics. The thermodynamic phase space ${\cal T}$ and the space of equilibrium states ${\cal E}$ turn out to be described by Riemannian metrics which are invariant with respect to Legendre transformations and satisfy the differential equations following from the variation of a Nambu-Goto-like action. This implies that the volume element of ${\cal E}$ is an extremal and that ${\cal E}$ and ${\cal T}$ are related by an embedding harmonic map. We explore the physical meaning of geodesic curves in ${\cal E}$ as describing quasi-static processes that connect different equilibrium states. We present a Legendre invariant metric which is flat (curved) in the case of an ideal (van der Waals) gas and satisfies Nambu-Goto equations. The method is used to derive some new solutions which could represent particular thermodynamic systems.

hep-th↗

Complex cooperative networks from evolutionary preferential attachment

In spite of its relevance to the origin of complex networks, the interplay between form and function and its role during network formation remains largely unexplored. While recent studies introduce dynamics by considering rewiring processes of a pre-existent network, we study network growth and formation by proposing an evolutionary preferential attachment model, its main feature being that the capacity of a node to attract new links depends on a dynamical variable governed in turn by the node interactions. As a specific example, we focus on the problem of the emergence of cooperation by analyzing the formation of a social network with interactions given by the Prisoner's Dilemma. The resulting networks show many features of real systems, such as scale-free degree distributions, cooperative behavior and hierarchical clustering. Interestingly, results such as the cooperators being located mostly on nodes of intermediate degree are very different from the observations of cooperative behavior on static networks. The evolutionary preferential attachment mechanism points to an evolutionary origin of scale-free networks and may help understand similar feedback problems in the dynamics of complex networks by appropriately choosing the game describing the interaction of nodes.

physics.soc-ph↗

Unified geometric description of black hole thermodynamics

In the space of thermodynamic equilibrium states we introduce a Legendre invariant metric which contains all the information about the thermodynamics of black holes. The curvature of this thermodynamic metric becomes singular at those points where, according to the analysis of the heat capacities, phase transitions occur. This result is valid for the Kerr-Newman black hole and all its special cases and, therefore, provides a unified description of black hole phase transitions in terms of curvature singularities.

gr-qc↗

The Shared Reward Dilemma

One of the most direct human mechanisms of promoting cooperation is rewarding it. We study the effect of sharing a reward among cooperators in the most stringent form of social dilemma, namely the Prisoner's Dilemma. Specifically, for a group of players that collect payoffs by playing a pairwise Prisoner's Dilemma game with their partners, we consider an external entity that distributes a fixed reward equally among all cooperators. Thus, individuals confront a new dilemma: on the one hand, they may be inclined to choose the shared reward despite the possibility of being exploited by defectors; on the other hand, if too many players do that, cooperators will obtain a poor reward and defectors will outperform them. By appropriately tuning the amount to be shared a vast variety of scenarios arises, including traditional ones in the study of cooperation as well as more complex situations where unexpected behavior can occur. We provide a complete classification of the equilibria of the $n$-player game as well as of its evolutionary dynamics.

q-bio.PE↗

Two-Cannel Kondo Effect in Glass-Like ThAsSe

We present low-temperature heat and charge transport as well as caloric properties of a ThAsSe single crystal. An extra -AT1/2 term in the electrical resistivity, independent of magnetic fields as high as 14 T, provides evidence for an unusual scattering of conduction electrons. Additionally, both the thermal conductivity and specific heat show a glass-type temperature dependence which signifies the presence of tunneling states. These observations apparently point to an experimantal realization of a two-channel Kondo effect derived from structural two-level systems.

cond-mat.str-el↗

Generating Gowdy cosmological models

Using the analogy with stationary axisymmetric solutions, we present a method to generate new analytic cosmological solutions of Einstein's equation belonging to the class of $T^3$ Gowdy cosmological models. We show that the solutions can be generated from their data at the initial singularity and present the formal general solution for arbitrary initial data. We exemplify the method by constructing the Kantowski-Sachs cosmological model and a generalization of it that corresponds to an unpolarized $T^3$ Gowdy model.

gr-qc↗

Analysis of the self-similar spreading of power law fluids

We consider the equation that models the spreading of thin liquid films of power-law rheology. In particular, we analyze the existence and uniqueness of source-type self-similar solutions in planar and circular symmetries. We find that for shear-thinning fluids there exist a family of such solutions representing both finite and zero contact angle drops and that the solutions with zero contact angle are unique. We also prove the existence of traveling waves in one space dimension and classify them.

math-ph↗

Current profiles and AC losses of a superconducting strip with elliptic cross-section in perpendicular magnetic field

The case of a hard type II superconductor in the form of strip with elliptic cross-section when placed in transverse magnetic field is studied. We approach the problem in two steps, both based on the critical-state model. First we calculate numerically the penetrated current profiles that ensure complete shielding in the interior, without assuming an a priori form for the profiles. In the second step we introduce an analytical approximation that asumes that the current profiles are ellipses. Expressions linking the sample magnetization to the applied field are derived covering the whole range of applied fields. The theoretical predictions are tested by the comparison with experimental data for the imaginary part of AC susceptibility.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

Enhancement and deterioration of the critical current by defects in Josephson-junction arrays

We study how the addition of defects in an otherwise uniform Josehpson junction array modifies the critical current of the array, by numerically solving the system of coupled Josephson equations. Our results confirm the existence of two different regimes, depending on the normalized maximum Josephson current of each junction, $i_{\rm max}$: for large $i_{\rm max}$, the defects deteriorate partially the critical state of the uniform array and so decrease the critical current, while for low values of $i_{\rm max}$, the defects help the formation of the critical state, which leads to an enhancement of critical current. The results are discussed in comparison with the behavior of type-II superconductors, for which the inclusion of defects always results in an enhancement of the critical current.

cond-mat.supr-con↗