arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to R. A. de Souza.
We revisit the present status of the stiffness of the supranuclear equations of state, particularly the solutions that increase the stiffness in the presence of hyperons, the putative transition to a quark matter phase and the robustness of massive compact star observations.
We have used soft x-ray magnetic diffraction at the Fe3+ L2,3 edges to examine to what extent the Dzyaloshinsky-Moriya interaction in Ba3NbFe3Si2O14 influences its low temperature magnetic structure. A modulated component of the moments along the c-axis is present, adding to the previously proposed helical magnetic configuration of co-planar moments in the a,b-plane. This leads to a helical-butterfly structure and suggests that both the multi-axial in-plane and the uniform out-of-plane Dzyaloshinsky-Moriya vectors are relevant. A non zero orbital magnetic signal is also observed at the oxygen K edge, which reflects the surprisingly strong hybridization between iron 3d and oxygen 2p states, given the nominal spherical symmetry of the Fe3+ half filled shell.
We report on the ultrafast dynamics of magnetic order in a single crystal of CuO at a temperature of 207 K in response to strong optical excitation using femtosecond resonant x-ray diffraction. In the experiment, a femtosecond laser pulse induces a sudden, nonequilibrium increase in magnetic disorder. After a short delay ranging from 400 fs to 2 ps, we observe changes in the relative intensity of the magnetic ordering diffraction peaks that indicate a shift from a collinear commensurate phase to a spiral incommensurate phase. These results indicate that the ultimate speed for this antiferromagnetic re-orientation transition in CuO is limited by the long-wavelength magnetic excitation connecting the two phases.