arXiv subjects

Peter Schiffer

Publications and source records attributed to Peter Schiffer.

29 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2012

CRPropa 2.0 -- a Public Framework for Propagating High Energy Nuclei, Secondary Gamma Rays and Neutrinos

Version 2.0 of CRPropa is public software to model the extra-galactic propagation of ultra-high energy nuclei of atomic number Z<26 through structured magnetic fields and ambient photon backgrounds taking into account all relevant particle interactions. CRPropa covers the energy range 6*10^16 < E/eV < A*10^22 where A is the nuclear mass number. CRPropa can also be used to track secondary γ-rays and neutrinos which allows the study of their link with the charged primary nuclei -- the so called multi-messenger connection. After a general introduction we present several sample applications of current interest concerning the physics of extragalactic ultra-high energy radiation.

astro-ph.IM↗

arXiv2012

Direct entropy determination and application to artificial spin ice

From thermodynamic origins, the concept of entropy has expanded to a range of statistical measures of uncertainty, which may still be thermodynamically significant. However, laboratory measurements of entropy continue to rely on direct measurements of heat. New technologies that can map out myriads of microscopic degrees of freedom suggest direct determination of configurational entropy by counting in systems where it is thermodynamically inaccessible, such as granular and colloidal materials, proteins and lithographically fabricated nanometre-scale arrays. Here, we demonstrate a conditional-probability technique to calculate entropy densities of translation-invariant states on lattices using limited configuration data on small clusters, and apply it to arrays of interacting nanometre-scale magnetic islands (artificial spin ice). Models for statistically disordered systems can be assessed by applying the method to relative entropy densities. For artificial spin ice, this analysis shows that nearest-neighbour correlations drive longer-range ones.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2012

Magnetization states and switching in narrow-gapped ferromagnetic nanorings

We study permalloy nanorings that are lithographically fabricated with narrow gaps that break the rotational symmetry of the ring while retaining the vortex ground state, using both micromagnetic simulations and magnetic force microscopy (MFM). The vortex chirality in these structures can be readily set with an in-plane magnetic field and easily probed by MFM due to the field associated with the gap, suggesting such rings for possible applications in storage technologies. We find that the gapped ring edge characteristics (i.e., edge profile and gap shape) are critical in determining the magnetization switching field, thus elucidating an essential parameter in the controls of devices that might incorporate such structures.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2011

Magneto-optical Kerr Effect Studies of Square Artificial Spin Ice

We report a magneto-optical Kerr effect study of the collective magnetic response of artificial square spin ice, a lithographically-defined array of single-domain ferromagnetic islands. We find that the anisotropic inter-island interactions lead to a non-monotonic angular dependence of the array coercive field. Comparisons with micromagnetic simulations indicate that the two perpendicular sublattices exhibit distinct responses to island edge roughness, which clearly influence the magnetization reversal process. Furthermore, such comparisons demonstrate that disorder associated with roughness in the island edges plays a hitherto unrecognized but essential role in the collective behavior of these systems.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2011

Ignoring your neighbors: Moment correlations dominated by indirect or distant interactions in an ordered nanomagnet array

We have studied the moment correlations within triangular lattice arrays of single-domain co-aligned nanoscale ferromagnetic islands. Independent variation of lattice spacing along and perpendicular to the island axis tunes the magnetostatic interactions between islands through a broad range of relative strengths. For certain lattice parameters, the sign of the correlations between near-neighbor island moments is opposite to that favored by the pair-wise interaction. This finding, supported by analysis of the total correlation in terms of direct and convoluted indirect contributions across multiple pairwise interactions, indicates that indirect interactions and/or those mediated by further neighbors can be tuned to be dominant, with implications for the wide range of systems composed of interacting nanomagnets.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2010

Effective Temperature in an Interacting, Externally Driven, Vertex System: Theory and Experiment on Artificial Spin Ice

Frustrated arrays of interacting single-domain nanomagnets provide important model systems for statistical mechanics, because they map closely onto well-studied vertex models and are amenable to direct imaging and custom engineering. Although these systems are manifestly athermal, we demonstrate that the statistical properties of both hexagonal and square lattices can be described by an effective temperature based on the magnetostatic energy of the arrays. This temperature has predictive power for the moment configurations and is intimately related to how the moments are driven by an oscillating external field.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2010

A Method of Measuring Cosmic Magnetic Fields with Ultra High Energy Cosmic Ray Data

We present a method to measure cosmic magnetic fields with ultra high energy cosmic rays (UHECRs). We apply an advanced autocorrelation method to simulated UHECRs which includes their directional as well as energy information. Without explicit knowledge of the UHECR sources, such measurements are sensitive to the number of sources and to the magnetic field strength subjected to the UHECRs. Using a UHECR Monte Carlo model including sources, random walk propagation and a coherent deflection, we explain the procedure of reconstructing the allowed phase space of the model parameters from a simulated autocorrelation measurement.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2008

Tuning magnetic frustration of nanomagnets in triangular-lattice geometry

We study the configuration of magnetic moments on triangular lattices of single-domain ferromagnetic islands, examining the consequences of magnetostatic interactions in this frustrated geometry. By varying the island-island distance along one direction, we are able to tune the ratio of different interactions between neighboring islands, resulting in a corresponding variation in the local correlations between the island moments. Unlike other artificial frustrated magnets, this lattice geometry displays regions of ordered moment orientation, possibly resulting from a higher degree of anisotropy leading to a reduced level of frustration.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2007

Ground state lost but degeneracy found: the effective thermodynamics of artificial spin ice

We analyze the rotational demagnetization of artificial spin ice, a recently realized array of nanoscale single-domain ferromagnetic islands. Demagnetization does not anneal this model system into its anti-ferromagnetic ground state: the moments have a static disordered configuration similar to the frozen state of the spin ice materials. We demonstrate that this athermal system has an effective extensive degeneracy and we introduce a formalism that can predict the populations of local states in this ice-like system with no adjustable parameters.

cond-mat.soft↗

arXiv2007

Existence of two electronic states in Sr4Ru3O10 at low temperatures

We report measurements on in-plane resistivity, thermopower, and magnetization as a function of temperature and magnetic fields on single crystalline Sr4Ru3O10 grown by the floating zone method. As the temperature was lowered to below around 30 K, the in-plane and c-axis resistivities and the thermopower were found to exhibit a step feature accompanied by hysteresis behavior when the in-plane field was swept up and down from below 10 kOe to above 20 kOe. The sharp increase in the thermopower with increasing in-plane magnetic field at low temperatures has not been observed previously in layered transition metal oxides. Comparing with magnetization data, we propose that the step feature marks the transition between the two different electronic states in Sr4Ru3O10. We propose that the alignment of domains by the in-plane magnetic field is responsible to the emergence of the new electronic states in high applied in-plane magnetic field.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2001

Intrinsic chemical and structural inhomogeneity in lightly doped La(1-x)Sr(x)MnO(3)

X-ray absorption fine structure measurements of the Sr and La K edges of the solid solution La(1-x)Sr(x)MnO(3) reveal a consistent deviation from a random distribution of Sr at the La/Sr sites for x~0.3. Local structural disorder on the cation sublattice in the low-x samples is also observed to differ in the vicinity of the La-rich and Sr-rich clusters. The local clustering and structural disorder establish an intrinsic chemical as well as structural inhomogeneity on the nanometer scale, which may provide a mechanism for the nucleation of magnetoelectronic phase separation.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗