The ultra-fast dynamics of superconducting vortices harbors rich physics generic to nonequilibrium collective systems. The phenomenon of flux-flow instability (FFI), however, prevents its exploration ...and sets practical limits for the use of vortices in various applications. To suppress the FFI, a superconductor should exhibit a rarely achieved combination of properties: weak volume pinning, close-to-depairing critical current, and fast heat removal from heated electrons. Here, we demonstrate experimentally ultra-fast vortex motion at velocities of 10-15 km s
in a directly written Nb-C superconductor with a close-to-perfect edge barrier. The spatial evolution of the FFI is described using the edge-controlled FFI model, implying a chain of FFI nucleation points along the sample edge and their development into self-organized Josephson-like junctions (vortex rivers). In addition, our results offer insights into the applicability of widely used FFI models and suggest Nb-C to be a good candidate material for fast single-photon detectors.
We report the first results on a direct search for a new 16.7 MeV boson (X) which could explain the anomalous excess of e^{+}e^{-} pairs observed in the excited ^{8}Be^{*} nucleus decays. Because of ...its coupling to electrons, the X could be produced in the bremsstrahlung reaction e^{-}Z→e^{-}ZX by a 100 GeV e^{-} beam incident on an active target in the NA64 experiment at the CERN Super Proton Synchrotron and observed through the subsequent decay into a e^{+}e^{-} pair. With 5.4×10^{10} electrons on target, no evidence for such decays was found, allowing us to set first limits on the X-e^{-} coupling in the range 1.3×10^{-4}≲ε_{e}≲4.2×10^{-4} excluding part of the allowed parameter space. We also set new bounds on the mixing strength of photons with dark photons (A^{'}) from nonobservation of the decay A^{'}→e^{+}e^{-} of the bremsstrahlung A^{'} with a mass ≲23 MeV.
A search for sub-GeV dark matter production mediated by a new vector boson A′, called a dark photon, is performed by the NA64 experiment in missing energy events from 100 GeV electron interactions in ...an active beam dump at the CERN SPS. From the analysis of the data collected in the years 2016, 2017, and 2018 with 2.84×1011 electrons on target no evidence of such a process has been found. The most stringent constraints on the A′ mixing strength with photons and the parameter space for the scalar and fermionic dark matter in the mass range ≲0.2 GeV are derived, thus demonstrating the power of the active beam dump approach for the dark matter search.
Most of superconductors in a magnetic field are penetrated by a lattice of quantized flux vortices. In the presence of a transport current causing the vortices to cross sample edges, emission of ...electromagnetic waves is expected due to the continuity of tangential components of the fields at the surface. Yet, such a radiation has not been observed so far due to low radiated power levels and lacking coherence in the vortex motion. Here, we clearly evidence the emission of electromagnetic waves from vortices crossing the layers of a superconductor/insulator Mo/Si superlattice. The emission spectra consist of narrow harmonically related peaks which can be finely tuned in the GHz range by the dc bias current and, coarsely, by the in-plane magnetic field value. Our findings show that superconductor/insulator superlattices can act as dc-tunable microwave generators bridging the frequency gap between conventional radiofrequency oscillators and (sub-)terahertz generators relying upon the Josephson effect.
We carried out a model-independent search for light scalar (s) and pseudoscalar axionlike (a) particles that couple to two photons by using the high-energy CERN SPS H4 electron beam. The new ...particles, if they exist, could be produced through the Primakoff effect in interactions of hard bremsstrahlung photons generated by 100 GeV electrons in the NA64 active dump with virtual photons provided by the nuclei of the dump. The a (s) would penetrate the downstream HCAL module, serving as a shield, and would be observed either through their a (s) → γγ decay in the rest of the HCAL detector, or as events with a large missing energy if the a (s) decays downstream of the HCAL. This method allows for the probing of the a (s) parameter space, including those from generic axion models, inaccessible to previous experiments. No evidence of such processes has been found from the analysis of the data corresponding to 2.84 × 10 11 electrons on target, allowing us to set new limits on the a(s)γγ -coupling strength for a (s) masses below 55 MeV.
A new method to extract neutral composition (O, O2, N2), exospheric temperature Tex, vertical plasma drift, W, and the total solar Extreme Ultraviolet flux with λ ≤ 1050 Å from routine ionosonde ...bottom‐side electron density, Ne(h), observations has been proposed. The method can be used around noontime hours for all months of the year at middle latitudes where the ionospheric F‐layer is formed by solar Extreme Ultraviolet radiation. The uncertainty of the retrieved neutral gas density coincides with the announced Mean Relative Deviation ±(10‐15%) of CHAMP/STAR neutral gas density observations. The method also provides statistically significant better results in a comparison with modern Mass‐Spectrometer‐Incoherent‐Scatter, Jacchia‐Bowman 2008, and Drag Temperature Model 2013 empirical models. The thermospheric parameters retrieved for the St. Patrick Day magnetic storm and two so‐called Q‐disturbance periods are given as an example of the method application. The retrieved neutral gas densities for the St. Patrick Day storm are compared to Swarm‐B accelerometer observations. The proposed method may be considered as a useful tool for analyses of the state of the upper atmosphere under various geophysical conditions.
Key Points
A new method to extract a self‐consistent set of aeronomic parameters (Tex, O, O2, N2, W, and EUV flux) from ionosonde observations has been proposed
The method is applied for all seasons at middle and lower latitudes where the ionospheric F‐layer is formed by solar EUV radiation
Testing of the method on CHAMP/STAR neutral gas density has shown better accuracy than modern empirical models MSISE00, JB2008, DTM2013
Study of K+→π0e+νγ decay with OKA setup Polyarush, A. Yu; Akimenko, S. A.; Artamonov, A. V. ...
The European physical journal. C, Particles and fields,
02/2021, Letnik:
81, Številka:
2
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
Results of a study of the
K
+
→
π
0
e
+
ν
γ
decay at OKA setup are presented. More than 32,000 events of this decay are observed. The differential spectra over the photon energy and the ...photon–electron opening angle in kaon rest frame are presented. The branching ratios, normalized to that of
K
e
3
decay are calculated for different cuts on
E
γ
∗
and
c
o
s
Θ
e
γ
∗
. In particular, the branching ratio for
E
γ
∗
>
30
MeV and
Θ
e
γ
∗
>
20
∘
is measured R =
B
r
(
K
+
→
π
0
e
+
ν
e
γ
)
B
r
(
K
+
→
π
0
e
+
ν
e
)
= = (0.587±0.010(
stat
.)±0.015(
syst
.))
×
10
-
2
, which is in a good agreement with ChPT
O
(
p
4
)
calculations.
On the statistics of ~1.7 × 10
8
interactions of positively charged kaons on copper nuclei, coherent events of the
K
+
π
0
system production are selected. The cross sections for the Coulomb and ...coherent strong components and their interference in the region of the
K
*(892) meson are measured. The partial width for the decay
K
*(892) →
K
+
γ is determined. When studying the mass spectrum of the
K
+
π
0
system, an effect which can be interpreted as the interference of the chiral anomaly and the
K
*(892)
s
-channel amplitudes is found. This gives an estimate for the ratio of the observed amplitude of the chiral anomaly to the theoretical one:
A
exp
/
A
th
= 0.9 ± 0.24(stat.) ± 0.3(syst.).
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