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M. Weis

Publications and source records attributed to M. Weis.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

Nonlocal effects on Thermal Transport in MagLIF-Relevant Gaspipes on NIF

We present simulations of heat flow relevant to gaspipe experiments on the National Ignition Facility (NIF) to investigate kinetic effects on transport phenomena. D2 and neopentane (C5H12) filled targets are used to study the laser preheat stage of a MagLIF scheme where anaxial magnetic field is sometimes applied to the target. Simulations were done with the radiation-MHD code HYDRA with a collision-dominated fluid model and the Schurtz nonlocal electron thermal conduction model. Using the Schurtz model to evolve the electron temperature increased the heat front propagation of neopentane gas targets compared to a local model by limiting radial heat flow. This increases electron temperature near the axis, which decreases laser absorption. We find the effect of heat flow models on temperature profiles and laser propagation is modest. Beyond the Schurtz model, we utilize HYDRA to initialize plasma conditions for the Vlasov Fokker-Planck K2 code. We run K2 until a quasi-steady state is reached and examine the impact of kinetic effects on heat transport. Although axial heat flow is well predicted by fluid models, the fluid model consistently over predicts radial heat flow up to 150% in regions with the largest temperature gradient of D2 filled gaspipes. On the other hand, the Schurtz nonlocal electron conduction model is found to be adequate for capturing kinetic heat flow in gaspipes.

physics.plasm-ph

Unravelling the structure of magnetised molecular clouds with SILCC-Zoom: sheets, filaments and fragmentation

To what extent magnetic fields affect how molecular clouds (MCs) fragment and create dense structures is an open question. We present a numerical study of cloud fragmentation using the SILCC-Zoom simulations. These simulations follow the self-consistent formation of MCs in a few hundred parsec sized region of a stratified galactic disc; and include magnetic fields, self-gravity, supernova-driven turbulence, as well as a non-equilibrium chemical network. To discern the role of magnetic fields in the evolution of MCs, we study seven simulated clouds, five with magnetic fields, and two without, with a maximum resolution of 0.1 parsec. Using a dendrogram we identify hierarchical structures which form within the clouds. Overall, the magnetised clouds have more mass in a diffuse envelope with a number density between 1-100 cm$^{-3}$. We find that six out of seven clouds are sheet-like on the largest scales, as also found in recent observations, and with filamentary structures embedded within, consistent with the bubble-driven MC formation mechanism. Hydrodynamic simulations tend to produce more sheet-like structures also on smaller scales, while the presence of magnetic fields promotes filament formation. Analysing cloud energetics, we find that magnetic fields are dynamically important for less dense, mostly but not exclusively atomic structures (typically up to $\sim 100 - 1000$~cm$^{-3}$), while the denser, potentially star-forming structures are energetically dominated by self-gravity and turbulence. In addition, we compute the magnetic surface term and demonstrate that it is generally confining, and some atomic structures are even magnetically held together. In general, magnetic fields delay the cloud evolution and fragmentation by $\sim$ 1 Myr.

astro-ph.GA

Non-thermal transport of energy driven by photoexcited carriers in switchable solid states of GeTe

Phase change alloys have seen widespread use from rewritable optical discs to the present day interest in their use in emerging neuromorphic computing architectures. In spite of this enormous commercial interest, the physics of carriers in these materials is still not fully understood. Here, we describe the time and space dependence of the coupling between photoexcited carriers and the lattice in both the amorphous and crystalline states of one phase change material, GeTe. We study this using a time-resolved optical technique called picosecond acoustic method to investigate the \textit{in situ} thermally assisted amorphous to crystalline phase transformation in GeTe. Our work reveals a clear evolution of the electron-phonon coupling during the phase transformation as the spectra of photoexcited acoustic phonons in the amorphous ($a$-GeTe) and crystalline ($\alpha$-GeTe) phases are different. In particular and surprisingly, our analysis of the photoinduced acoustic pulse duration in crystalline GeTe suggests that a part of the energy deposited during the photoexcitation process takes place over a distance that clearly exceeds that defined by the pump light skin depth. In the opposite, the lattice photoexcitation process remains localized within that skin depth in the amorphous state. We then demonstrate that this is due to supersonic diffusion of photoexcited electron-hole plasma in the crystalline state. Consequently these findings prove the existence of a non-thermal transport of energy which is much faster than lattice heat diffusion.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci

From parallel to perpendicular -- On the orientation of magnetic fields in molecular clouds

We present synthetic dust polarization maps of simulated molecular clouds (MCs) with the goal to systematically explore the origin of the relative orientation of the magnetic field ($\bf{B}$) with respect to the MC sub-structures identified in density ($n$; 3D) and column density ($N$; 2D). The polarization maps are generated with the radiative transfer code POLARIS, including self-consistently calculated efficiencies for radiative torque alignment. The MCs are formed in two sets of 3D MHD simulations: in (i) colliding flows (CF), and (ii) the SILCC-Zoom simulations. In 3D, for the CF simulations with an initial field strength below $\sim$5 $\mu$G, $\bf{B}$ is oriented parallel or randomly with respect to the $n$-structures. For CF runs with stronger initial fields and all SILCC-Zoom simulations, which have an initial field strength of 3 $\mu$G, a flip from parallel to perpendicular orientation occurs at high densities of $n_\text{trans}$ $\simeq$ 10$^2$ - 10$^3$ cm$^{-3}$. We suggest that this flip happens if the MC's mass-to-flux ratio, $\mu$, is close to or below the critical value of 1. This corresponds to a field strength around 3 - 5 $\mu$G. In 2D, we use the Projected Rayleigh Statistics (PRS) to study the orientation of $\bf{B}$. If present, the flip in orientation occurs at $N_\text{trans}$ $\simeq$ 10$^{21 - 21.5}$ cm$^{-2}$, similar to the observed transition value from sub- to supercritical magnetic fields in the ISM. However, projection effects can reduce the power of the PRS method: Depending on the MC or LOS, the projected maps of the SILCC-Zoom simulations do not always show the flip, although expected from the 3D morphology. Such projection effects can explain the variety of recently observed field configurations, in particular within a single MC. Finally, we do not find a correlation between the observed orientation of $\bf{B}$ and the $N$-PDF.

astro-ph.GA

On the resolution requirements for modelling molecular gas formation in solar neighbourhood conditions

The formation of molecular hydrogen (H$_2$) and carbon monoxide (CO) is sensitive to the volume and column density distribution of the turbulent interstellar medium. In this paper, we study H$_2$ and CO formation in a large set of hydrodynamical simulations of periodic boxes with driven supersonic turbulence, as well as in colliding flows with the \textsc{Flash} code. The simulations include a non-equilibrium chemistry network, gas self-gravity, and diffuse radiative transfer. We investigate the spatial resolution required to obtain a converged H$_2$ and CO mass fraction and formation history. From the numerical tests we find that H$_2$ converges at a spatial resolution of $\lesssim0.2$~pc, while the required resolution for CO convergence is $\lesssim 0.04$~pc in gas with solar metallicity which is subject to a solar neighbourhood interstellar radiation field. We derive two critical conditions from our numerical results: the simulation has to at least resolve the densities at which (1) the molecule formation time in each cell in the computational domain is equal to the dissociation time, and (2) the formation time is equal to the the typical cell crossing time. For both H$_2$ and CO, the second criterion is more restrictive. The formulae we derive can be used to check whether molecule formation is converged in any given simulation.

astro-ph.GA

Measurements of the γ* p --> Δ(1232) reaction at low Q2

We report new p$(\vec{e},e^\prime p)π^\circ$ measurements in the $Δ^{+}(1232)$ resonance at the low momentum transfer region utilizing the magnetic spectrometers of the A1 Collaboration at MAMI. The mesonic cloud dynamics are predicted to be dominant and appreciably changing in this region while the momentum transfer is sufficiently low to be able to test chiral effective calculations. The results disagree with predictions of constituent quark models and are in reasonable agreement with dynamical calculations with pion cloud effects, chiral effective field theory and lattice calculations. The reported measurements suggest that improvement is required to the theoretical calculations and provide valuable input that will allow their refinements.

nucl-ex

Consistent threshold pi0 electro-production at Q^2=0.05, 0.10, and 0.15 GeV^2/c^2

New, accurate data are presented on the near threshold p(e,e'p)pi^0 reaction in the range of four-momentum transfers between Q^2=0.05 and 0.15GeV^2/c^2. The data were taken with the spectrometer setup of the A1 Collaboration at the Mainz Microtron MAMI. The complete center of mass solid angle was covered up to a center of mass energy of 4MeV above threshold. These results supersede the previous analysis based on three separate experiments, and are compared with calculations in Heavy Baryon Chiral Perturbation Theory and with phenomenological models.

nucl-ex

Virtual Compton Scattering measurements in the $γ^* N\to Δ$ transition

We report on new H$(e,e^\prime p)γ$ measurements in the $Δ(1232)$ resonance at $Q^2=0.06$ (GeV/c) carried out simultaneously with H$(e,e^\prime p)π^0$. It is the lowest $Q^2$ for which the virtual Compton scattering (VCS) reaction has been studied in the first resonance region. The VCS measured cross sections are well described by dispersion-relation calculations in which the multipole amplitudes derived from H$(e,e^\prime p)π^0$ data are used as input, thus confirming the compatibility of the results. The derived resonant magnetic dipole amplitude $M^{3/2}_{1+} = (40.60 \pm 0.70_{stat+sys})(10^{-3}/m_{π^+})$ at $W=$ 1232 MeV is in excellent agreement with the value extracted from H$(e,e^\prime p)π^0$ measurements.

nucl-ex

Separated cross sections in π^0 electroproduction at threshold at Q^2 = 0.05 GeV^2/c^2

The differential cross sections σ_0=σ_T+εσ_L, σ_{LT}, and σ_{TT} of π^0 electroproduction from the proton were measured from threshold up to an additional center of mass energy of 40 MeV, at a value of the photon four-momentum transfer of Q^2= 0.05 GeV^2/c^2 and a center of mass angle of θ=90^\circ. By an additional out-of-plane measurement with polarized electrons σ_{LT'} was determined. This showed for the first time the cusp effect above the π^+ threshold in the imaginary part of the s-wave. The predictions of Heavy Baryon Chiral Perturbation Theory are in disagreement with these data. On the other hand, the data are somewhat better predicted by the MAID phenomenological model and are in good agreement with the dynamical model DMT.

nucl-ex

Beam-helicity asymmetry in photon and pion electroproduction in the Delta(1232) resonance region at Q^2= 0.35 (GeV/c)^2

The beam-helicity asymmetry has been measured simultaneously for the reactions (e p \to e p γ) and (e p \to e p π^0) in the $Δ(1232)$ resonance region at $Q^2=$ 0.35 (GeV/c)$^2$. The experiment was performed at MAMI with a longitudinally polarized beam and an out-of-plane detection of the proton. The results are compared with calculations based on Dispersion Relations for virtual Compton scattering and with the MAID model for pion electroproduction. There is an overall good agreement between experiment and theoretical calculations. The remaining discrepancies may be ascribed to an imperfect parametrization of some $γ^{(*)} N \to πN$ multipoles, mainly contributing to the non-resonant background. The beam-helicity asymmetry in both channels ($γ$ and $π^0$) shows a good sensitivity to these multipoles and should allow future improvement in their parametrization.

hep-ph

First measurements of the ^16O(e,e'pn)^14N reaction

This paper reports on the first measurement of the ^16O(e,e'pn)^14N reaction. Data were measured in kinematics centred on a super-parallel geometry at energy and momentum transfers of 215 MeV and 316 MeV/c. The experimental resolution was sufficient to distinguish groups of states in the residual nucleus but not good enough to separate individual states. The data show a strong dependence on missing momentum and this dependence appears to be different for two groups of states in the residual nucleus. Theoretical calculations of the reaction using the Pavia code do not reproduce the shape or the magnitude of the data.

nucl-ex

Lowest Q^2 Measurement of the gamma*p -> Delta Reaction: Probing the Pionic Contribution

To determine nonspherical angular momentum amplitudes in hadrons at long ranges (low Q^2), data were taken for the p(\vec{e},e'p)π^0 reaction in the Delta region at Q^2=0.060 (GeV/c)^2 utilizing the magnetic spectrometers of the A1 Collaboration at MAMI. The results for the dominant transition magnetic dipole amplitude and the quadrupole to dipole ratios at W=1232 MeV are: M_{1+}^{3/2} = (40.33 +/- 0.63_{stat+syst} +/- 0.61_{model}) (10^{-3}/m_{π^+}),Re(E_{1+}^{3/2}/M_{1+}^{3/2}) = (-2.28 +/- 0.29_{stat+syst} +/- 0.20_{model})%, and Re(S_{1+}^{3/2}/M_{1+}^{3/2}) = (-4.81 +/- 0.27_{stat+syst} +/- 0.26_{model})%. These disagree with predictions of constituent quark models but are in reasonable agreement with lattice calculations with non-linear (chiral) pion mass extrapolations, with chiral effective field theory, and with dynamical models with pion cloud effects. These results confirm the dominance, and general Q^2 variation, of the pionic contribution at large distances.

nucl-ex

Determination of quadrupole strengths in the gamma*p-->Delta(1232) transition at Q2= 0.20 (GeV/c)2

We report new precise p$(\vec{e},e^\prime p)π^0$ measurements at the peak of the $Δ^{+}(1232)$ resonance at $Q^2=\unit[0.20](GeV/c)^2$ performed at the Mainz Microtron (MAMI). The new data are sensitive to both the electric quadrupole ($E2$) and the coulomb quadrupole ($C2$) amplitudes of the $γ^* N\toΔ$ transition. They yield precise quadrupole to dipole amplitude ratios CMR $= (-5.09 \pm 0.28_{stat+sys}\pm 0.30_{model})%$ and EMR $= (-1.96 \pm 0.68_{stat+sys} \pm 0.41_{model})%$ for $M^{3/2}_{1+} = (39.57 \pm 0.75_{stat+sys}\pm 0.40_{model})(10^{-3}/m_{π^+})$. The new results are in disagreement with Constituent Quark Model predictions and in qualitative agreement with models that account for mesonic contributions, including recent Lattice calculations. They thus give further credence to the conjecture of deformation in hadronic systems favoring the attribution of the origin of deformation to the dominance of mesonic effects.

nucl-ex

Measurement of the LT-asymmetry in π^0 electroproduction at the energy of the Δ(1232) resonance

The reaction p(e,e'p)pi^0 has been studied at Q^2=0.2 (GeV/c)^2 in the region of W=1232 MeV. From measurements left and right of q, cross section asymmetries ρ_LT have been obtained in forward kinematics ρ_LT(θ_π^0=20deg) = (-11.68 +/- 2.36_stat +/- 2.36_sys)$ and backward kinematics ρ_LT(θ_π^0=160deg) =(12.18 +/- 0.27_stat +/- 0.82_sys). Multipole ratios \Re(S_1+^* M_1+)/|M_1+|^2 and \Re(S_0+^* M_1+)/|M_1+|^2 were determined in the framework of the MAID2003 model. The results are in agreement with older data. The unusally strong negative \Re(S_0+^* M_1+)/|M_1+|^2 required to bring also the result of Kalleicher et al. in accordance with the rest of the data is almost excluded.

nucl-ex

Measurement of the asymmetries in 3He(e,e'p)d and 3He(e,e'p)np

The electron-target-asymmetries A_parallel and A_perpendicular with target spin parallel and perpendicular to the momentum transfer q were measured for both the two-- and three-body breakup of 3He in the 3He(e,e'p)-reaction. Polarized electrons were scattered off polarized 3He in the quasielastic regime in parallel kinematics with the scattered electron and the knocked-out proton detected using the Three-Spectrometer-Facility at MAMI. The results are compared to Faddeev calculations which take into account Final State Interactions as well as Meson Exchange Currents. The experiment confirms the prediction of a large effect of Final State Interactions in the asymmetry of the three-body breakup and of an almost negligible one for the two-body breakup.

nucl-ex

Measurement of the Electric Form Factor of the Neutron at Q^2 = 0.3-0.8 (GeV/c)^2

The electric form factor of the neutron, G_En, has been measured at the Mainz Microtron by recoil polarimetry in the quasielastic D(e_pol,e'n_pol)p reaction. Three data points have been extracted at squared four-momentum transfers Q^2 = 0.3, 0.6 and 0.8 (GeV/c)^2. Corrections for nuclear binding effects have been applied.

nucl-ex

Search for Narrow Nucleon Resonances below Pion Threshold in the H(e,e'pi^+)X and D(e,e'p)X Reactions

In two series of high-resolution coincidence experiments at the three-spectrometer facility at MAMI, the H(e,e'pi^+)X and D(e,e'p)X reactions were studied to search for narrow nucleon resonances below pion threshold. The missing-mass resolution was 0.6 to 1.6 MeV/c^2 (FWHM) in the proton experiment and 0.9 to 1.3 MeV/c^2 in the deuteron experiment. The experiments covered the missing-mass region from the neutron mass up to about 1050 and 1100 MeV/c^2, respectively. None of our measurements showed a signal for narrow resonances to a level of down to 10^-4 with respect to the neutron peak in the missing-mass spectra.

nucl-ex