arXiv subjects

J. Garcia

Publications and source records attributed to J. Garcia.

70 records · Page 4Linked to original sources

arXiv2011

Structural changes at the semiconductor-insulator phase transition in the single layered La0.5Sr1.5MnO4 perovskite

The semiconductor-insulator phase transition of the single-layer manganite La0.5Sr1.5MnO4 has been studied by means of high resolution synchrotron x-ray powder diffraction and resonant x-ray scattering at the Mn K edge. We conclude that a concomitant structural transition from tetragonal I4/mmm to orthorhombic Cmcm phases drives this electronic transition. A detailed symmetry-mode analysis reveals that condensation of three soft modes -Delta_2(B2u), X1+(B2u) and X1+(A)- acting on the oxygen atoms accounts for the structural transformation. The Delta_2 mode leads to a pseudo Jahn-Teller distortion (in the orthorhombic bc-plane only) on one Mn site (Mn1) whereas the two X1+ modes produce an overall contraction of the other Mn site (Mn2) and expansion of the Mn1 one. The X1+ modes are responsible for the tetragonal superlattice (1/2,1/2,0)-type reflections in agreement with a checkerboard ordering of two different Mn sites. A strong enhancement of the scattered intensity has been observed for these superlattice reflections close to the Mn K edge, which could be ascribed to some degree of charge disproportion between the two Mn sites of about 0.15 electrons. We also found that the local geometrical anisotropy of the Mn1 atoms and its ordering originated by the condensed Delta_2 mode alone perfectly explains the resonant scattering of forbidden (1/4,1/4,0)-type reflections without invoking any orbital ordering.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2011

X-ray reflected spectra from accretion disk models.II. Diagnostic tools for X-ray observations

We present a comprehensive study of the emission spectra from accreting sources. We use our new reflection code to compute the reflected spectra from an accretion disk illuminated by X-rays. This set of models covers different values of ionization parameter, solar iron abundance and photon index for the illuminating spectrum. These models also include the most complete and recent atomic data for the inner-shell of the iron and oxygen isonuclear sequences. We concentrate our analysis to the 2-10 keV energy region, and in particular to the iron K-shell emission lines. We show the dependency of the equivalent width (EW) of the Fe K$α$ with the ionization parameter. The maximum value of the EW is $\sim 800$ eV for models with log $ξ\sim 1.5$, and decreases monotonically as $ξ$ increases. For lower values of $ξ$ the Fe K$α$ EW decreases to a minimum near log $ξ\sim 0.8$. We produce simulated CCD observations based on our reflection models. For low ionized, reflection dominated cases, the 2-10 keV energy region shows a very broad, curving continuum that cannot be represented by a simple power-law. We show that in addition to the Fe K-shell emission, there are other prominent features such as the Si and S L$α$ lines, a blend of Ar {\sc viii-xi} lines, and the Ca {\sc x} K$α$ line. In some cases the S {\sc xv} blends with the He-like Si RRC producing a broad feature that cannot be reproduced by a simple Gaussian profile. This could be used as a signature of reflection.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2010

Improving GPS Precision and Processing Time using Parallel and Reduced-Length Wiener Filters

Increasing GPS precision at low cost has always been a challenge for the manufacturers of the GPS receivers. This paper proposes the use of a Wiener filter for increasing precision in substitution of traditional GPS/INS fusion systems, which require expensive inertial systems. In this paper, we first implement and compare three GPS signal processing schemes: a Kalman filter, a neural network and a Wiener filter and compare them in terms of precision and the processing time. To further reduce the processing time of Wiener filter, we propose parallel and reduced-length implementations. Finally, we calculate the sampling frequency that would be required in every Wiener scheme in order to obtain the same total processing time as the Kalman filter and the neural network.

cs.OH↗

arXiv2010

The Herschel-SPIRE instrument and its in-flight performance

The Spectral and Photometric Imaging Receiver (SPIRE), is the Herschel Space Observatory`s submillimetre camera and spectrometer. It contains a three-band imaging photometer operating at 250, 350 and 500 microns, and an imaging Fourier Transform Spectrometer (FTS) which covers simultaneously its whole operating range of 194-671 microns (447-1550 GHz). The SPIRE detectors are arrays of feedhorn-coupled bolometers cooled to 0.3 K. The photometer has a field of view of 4' x 8', observed simultaneously in the three spectral bands. Its main operating mode is scan-mapping, whereby the field of view is scanned across the sky to achieve full spatial sampling and to cover large areas if desired. The spectrometer has an approximately circular field of view with a diameter of 2.6'. The spectral resolution can be adjusted between 1.2 and 25 GHz by changing the stroke length of the FTS scan mirror. Its main operating mode involves a fixed telescope pointing with multiple scans of the FTS mirror to acquire spectral data. For extended source measurements, multiple position offsets are implemented by means of an internal beam steering mirror to achieve the desired spatial sampling and by rastering of the telescope pointing to map areas larger than the field of view. The SPIRE instrument consists of a cold focal plane unit located inside the Herschel cryostat and warm electronics units, located on the spacecraft Service Module, for instrument control and data handling. Science data are transmitted to Earth with no on-board data compression, and processed by automatic pipelines to produce calibrated science products. The in-flight performance of the instrument matches or exceeds predictions based on pre-launch testing and modelling: the photometer sensitivity is comparable to or slightly better than estimated pre-launch, and the spectrometer sensitivity is also better by a factor of 1.5-2.

astro-ph.IM↗

arXiv2009

Nitrogen K-shell photoabsorption

Reliable atomic data have been computed for the spectral modeling of the nitrogen K lines, which may lead to useful astrophysical diagnostics. Data sets comprise valence and K-vacancy level energies, wavelengths, Einstein $A$-coefficients, radiative and Auger widths and K-edge photoionization cross sections. An important issue is the lack of measurements which are usually employed to fine-tune calculations so as to attain spectroscopic accuracy. In order to estimate data quality, several atomic structure codes are used and extensive comparisons with previous theoretical data have been carried out. In the calculation of K photoabsorption with the Breit--Pauli $R$-matrix method, both radiation and Auger damping, which cause the smearing of the K edge, are taken into account. This work is part of a wider project to compute atomic data in the X-ray regime to be included in the database of the popular {\sc xstar} modeling code.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2008

The Second-Generation Guide Star Catalog: Description and Properties

The GSC-II is an all-sky database of objects derived from the uncompressed DSS that the STScI has created from the Palomar and UK Schmidt survey plates and made available to the community. Like its predecessor (GSC-I), the GSC-II was primarily created to provide guide star information and observation planning support for HST. This version, however, is already employed at some of the ground-based new-technology telescopes such as GEMINI, VLT, and TNG, and will also be used to provide support for the JWST and Gaia space missions as well as LAMOST, one of the major ongoing scientific projects in China. Two catalogs have already been extracted from the GSC-II database and released to the astronomical community. A magnitude-limited (R=18.0) version, GSC2.2, was distributed soon after its production in 2001, while the GSC2.3 release has been available for general access since 2007. The GSC2.3 catalog described in this paper contains astrometry, photometry, and classification for 945,592,683 objects down to the magnitude limit of the plates. Positions are tied to the ICRS; for stellar sources, the all-sky average absolute error per coordinate ranges from 0.2" to 0.28" depending on magnitude. When dealing with extended objects, astrometric errors are 20% worse in the case of galaxies and approximately a factor of 2 worse for blended images. Stellar photometry is determined to 0.13-0.22 mag as a function of magnitude and photographic passbands (B,R,I). Outside of the galactic plane, stellar classification is reliable to at least 90% confidence for magnitudes brighter than R=19.5, and the catalog is complete to R=20.

astro-ph↗

arXiv2008

Observation of charge-density-wave excitations in manganites

In the optical conductivity of four different manganites with commensurate charge order (CO), strong peaks appear in the meV range below the ordering temperature T_{CO}. They are similar to those reported for one-dimensional charge density waves (CDW) and are assigned to pinned phasons. The peaks and their overtones allow one to obtain, for La{1-n/8}Ca{n/8}$MnO{3} with n = 5, 6, the electron-phonon coupling, the effective mass of the CO system, and its contribution to the dielectric constant. These results support a description of the CO in La-Ca manganites in terms of moderately weak-coupling and of the CDW theory.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2008

Radiative and Auger decay data for modelling nickel K lines

Radiative and Auger decay data have been calculated for modelling the K lines in ions of the nickel isonuclear sequence, from Ni$^+$ up to Ni$^{27+}$. Level energies, transition wavelengths, radiative transition probabilities, and radiative and Auger widths have been determined using Cowan's Hartree--Fock with Relativistic corrections (HFR) method. Auger widths for the third-row ions (Ni$^+$--Ni$^{10+}$) have been computed using single-configuration average (SCA) compact formulae. Results are compared with data sets computed with the AUTOSTRUCTURE and MCDF atomic structure codes and with available experimental and theoretical values, mainly in highly ionized ions and in the solid state.

astro-ph↗

arXiv2008

K-vacancy levels in Ne, Mg, Si, S, Ar, and Ca

The HFR and AUTOSTRUCTURE atomic structure codes are used to compute complete data sets of level energies, wavelengths, A-values, and radiative and Auger widths for K-vacancy states of the Ne, Mg, Si, S, Ar, and Ca isonuclear sequences. Ions with electron number N>9 are treated for the first time. Detailed comparisons with previous measurements and theoretical data for ions with N<=9 are carried out in order to estimate reliable accuracy ratings.

astro-ph↗

arXiv2008

Milliarcsecond N-Band Observations of the Nova RS Ophiuchi: First Science with the Keck Interferometer Nuller

We report observations of the nova RS Ophiuchi (RS Oph) using the Keck Interferometer Nuller (KIN), approximately 3.8 days following the most recent outburst that occurred on 2006 February 12. These observations represent the first scientific results from the KIN, which operates in N-band from 8 to 12.5 microns in a nulling mode. By fitting the unique KIN data, we have obtained an angular size of the mid-infrared continuum of 6.2, 4.0, or 5.4 mas for a disk profile, gaussian profile (FWHM), and shell profile respectively. The data show evidence of enhanced neutral atomic hydrogen emission and atomic metals including silicon located in the inner spatial regime near the white dwarf (WD) relative to the outer regime. There are also nebular emission lines and evidence of hot silicate dust in the outer spatial region, centered at ! 17 AU from the WD, that are not found in the inner regime. Our evidence suggests that these features have been excited by the nova flash in the outer spatial regime before the blast wave reached these regions. These identifications support a model in which the dust appears to be present between outbursts and is not created during the outburst event. We further discuss the present results in terms of a unifying model of the system that includes an increase in density in the plane of the orbit of the two stars created by a spiral shock wave caused by the motion of the stars through the cool wind of the red giant star. These data show the power and potential of the nulling technique which has been developed for the detection of Earth-like planets around nearby stars for the Terrestrial Planet Finder Mission and Darwin missions.

astro-ph↗

arXiv2007

Effect of Mn substitution by Ga on the optical properties of a metallic manganite

In a metallic manganite like La(2/3)Sr(1/3)MnO(3), the substitution of Mn(+3) by Ga(+3) dilutes the ferromagnetic order and locally cancels the Jahn-Teller distortion, without heavily affecting the crystal structure. One can thus follow the changes in the charge dynamics induced by Ga, until the ferro-metallic manganite is turned into an insulator. Here this phenomenon is studied in detail through the infrared reflectivity of five samples of La(2/3)Sr(1/3)Mn(1-x)Ga(x)O(3), with x increasing from 0 to 0.30 and for 50 < T < 320 K. A simple model which links the measured optical parameters to the magnetization M(x, T) well describes the behavior of the plasma frequency, the scattering rate, and the mid-infrared absorption along the metal-to-insulator transition.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2005

Controlled observation of a nonequilibrium Ising-Bloch transition in a nonlinear optical cavity

We describe the controlled observation of the nonequilibrium Ising-Bloch transition in a broad area nonlinear optical cavity, namely, a quasi-1D single longitudinal-mode photorefractive oscilator in a degenerate four-wave mixing configuration. Our experimental technique allows for the controlled injection of the domain walls. We use cavity detuning as control parameter and find that both Ising and Bloch walls can exist for the same detuning values within a certain interval of detunings, i.e., the Ising-Bloch transition is hysteretic in our case. A complex Ginzburg-Landau model is used for supporting the observations.

nlin.PS↗

arXiv2005

K-shell Photoabsorption of Oxygen Ions

Extensive calculations of the atomic data required for the spectral modelling of the K-shell photoabsorption of oxygen ions have been carried out in a multi-code approach. The present level energies and wavelengths for the highly ionized species (electron occupancies 2 <= N <= 4) are accurate to within 0.5 eV and 0.02 A, respectively. For N > 4, lack of measurements, wide experimental scatter, and discrepancies among theoretical values are handicaps in reliable accuracy assessments. The radiative and Auger rates are expected to be accurate to 10% and 20%, respectively, except for transitions involving strongly mixed levels. Radiative and Auger dampings have been taken into account in the calculation of photoabsorption cross sections in the K-threshold region, leading to overlapping lorentzian shaped resonances of constant widths that cause edge smearing. The behavior of the improved opacities in this region has been studied with the XSTAR modelling code using simple constant density slab models, and is displayed for a range of ionization parameters.

astro-ph↗

arXiv2004

Quantitative Stellar Spectral Classification. III. Spectral Resolution

The method developed by Stock and Stock (1999) to derive absolute magnitudes and intrinsic colors is applied to simulated low-resolution spectra. The simulation is made by convolving real spectra with a Gaussian function, $σ$ (the full width at half maximum) related to the final spectral resolution. The accuracy with which the stellar parameters are determined indicates that the method may be applied to typical objective-prism spectra. We show that changes in the spectral resolution do not significantly affect the stellar parameters obtained with this method for early-type stars, whereas for later-type stars an improved approach is necessary.

astro-ph↗

arXiv2002

Quantitative Stellar Spectral Classification. II. Early Type Stars

The method developed by Stock and Stock (1999) for stars of spectral types A to K to derive absolute magnitudes and intrinsic colors from the equivalent widths of absorption lines in stellar spectra is extended to B-type stars. Spectra of this type of stars for which the Hipparcos Catalogue gives parallaxes with an error of less than 20% were observed with the CIDA 1-meter reflector equipped with a Richardson spectrograph with a Thompson 576x384 CCD detector. The dispersion is 1.753 A/pixel using a 600 lines/mm grating in the first order. In order to cover the spectral range 3850 A to 5750 A the grating had to be used in two different positions, with an overlap in the region from 4800 A to 4900 A. A total of 116 stars was oberved, but not all with both grating positions. A total of 12 measureable absorption lines was identified in the spectra and their equivalent widths were measured. These were related to the absolute magnitudes derived from the Hipparcos Catalogue and to the intrinsic colors (deduced from the MK spectral types) using linear and second order polynomials and two or three lines as independent variables. The best solutions were obtained with polynomials of three lines, reproducing the absolute magnitudes with an average residual of about 0.40 magnitudes and the intrinsic colors with an average residual of 0.016 magnitudes.

astro-ph↗

arXiv1999

Asymmetric particle systems on R

We study interacting particle systems on the real line which generalize the Hammersley process [D. Aldous and P. Diaconis, Prob. Theory Relat. Fields 103, 199-213 (1995)]. Particles jump to the right to a randomly chosen point between their previous position and that of the forward neighbor, at a rate which may depend on the distance to the neighbor. A class of models is identified for which the invariant particle distribution is Poisson. The bulk of the paper is devoted to a model where the jump rate is constant and the jump length is a random fraction $r$ of the distance to the forward neighbor, drawn from a probability density $ϕ(r)$ on the unit interval. This is a special case of the random average process of Ferrari and Fontes [El. J. Prob. 3, Paper no. 6 (1998)]. The discrete time version of the model has been considered previously in the context of force propagation in granular media [S.N. Coppersmith et al., Phys. Rev. E 53, 4673 (1996)]. We show that the stationary two-point function of particle spacings factorizes for any choice of $ϕ(r)$. Under the assumption that this implies pairwise independence, the invariant density of interparticle spacings for the case of uniform $ϕ(r)$ is found to be a gamma distribution with parameter $ν$, where $ν= 1/2$, 1 and 2 for continuous time, backward sequential and discrete time dynamics, respectively. A heuristic derivation of a nonlinear diffusion equation is presented, and the tracer diffusion coefficient is computed for arbitrary $ϕ(r)$ and different types of dynamics.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗