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The high-spin states in 153Ho, have been studied by 139 57 La(20Ne, 6n) reaction at a projectile energy of 139 MeV at Variable Energy Cyclotron Centre (VECC), Kolkata, India, utilizing an earlier campaign of Indian National Gamma Array (INGA) setup. Data from gamma-gamma coincidence, directional correlation and polarization measurements have been analyzed to assign and confirm the spins and parities of the levels. We have suggested a few additions and revisions of the reported level scheme of 153Ho. The RF-gamma time difference spectra have been useful to confirm the half-life of an isomer in this nucleus. From the comparison of experimental and theoretical results, it is found that there are definite indications of shape coexistence in this nucleus. The experimental and calculated lifetimes of several isomers have been compared to follow the coexistence and evolution of shape with increasing spin., Comment: Accepted for publication in Physical Review C as a regular article

Aimed at solving the outstanding problem of solar opacity, and radiation transport plasma models in general, we report substantial photoabsorption in the high-energy regime due to atomic core photo-excitations not heretofore considered. In extensive R-Matrix calculations of unprecedented complexity for an important iron ion Fe xvii (Fe$^{16+}$), with a wave function expansion of 99 Fe xviii (Fe$^{17+}$) LS core states from $n \leq 4$ complexes (equivalent to 218 fine structure levels), we find: i) up to orders of magnitude enhancement in background photoionization cross sections, in addition to strongly peaked photo-excitation-of-core resonances not considered in current opacity models, and ii) demonstrate convergence with respect to successive core excitations. The resulting increase in the monochromatic continuum, and 35% in the Rosseland Mean Opacity, are compared with the "higher-than-predicted" iron opacity measured at the Sandia Z-pinch fusion device at solar interior conditions., Comment: 5 pages, 5 figures, Phys. Rev. Letts. (in press)

The fundamental aspects of relaxation dynamics in Bi0.9Gd0.1Fe0.9Mn0.1O3 multiferroic system have been reported. The study was carried out employing dielectric relaxation spectroscopy covering eight decades in frequency 0.01 to106 Hz and in a wide range of temperature 423 K to 153 K, hydrostatic pressure 0.1 MPa to 1765 MPa and aging time 0 s to 80000 s. The temperature dependent dielectric response indicates three relaxations processes in the dynamic window of modulus formalism. Variable range hopping model of small polarons manifests the bulk conduction mechanism. The bulk and grain boundary contributions have been estimated using impedance spectroscopy analysis and reveal that localized process dominates the relaxation. The direct evidence of glassy feature is established below 200 K by aging experiments. Our findings provide a potential connection between nearly constant loss features appearing below 200 K with fastest relaxation of magnitude 0.16 eV. We also discuss the time temperature superposition behavior using modulus scaling. A pressure driven normal ferroelectric to relaxor behavior is witnessed above a critical pressure as a result of relative competition between short range and long range forces. Our findings focus the role of high pressure as a fundamental bridge between normal ferroelectrics and relaxors. Intriguingly, there exists a direct connection between chemical pressure induced by substitution and external hydrostatic pressure. These findings have robust fundamental importance on theoretical elucidation of relaxation dynamics in perovskite systems., Comment: 29 pages, 8 figures

During the last fifteen years, multiferroic (MF) research communities have been searching for an alternative room temperature MF material with large magnetoelectric (ME) coupling for possible applications in high density electronic components, low heat dissipation memory and logic devices. We have studied Pb(Zr0.20Ti0.80)0.70Pd0.30O3-{\delta} (PZTP30) system with an unusually large (30%) palladium occupancy in B site of PZT. This material exhibited a giant ME coupling coefficient ~0.36 mV/cm.Oe. Interestingly, this is the first time any room temperature single phase compound that showed ME trends, and magnitude similar to those in the well established mechanical strain-mediated ferroelectric and ferromagnetic composites; the latter ones are already in the commercial stage as nT/pT magnetic field sensors due to their large ME values. The presence of Pd in PZTP30 has been confirmed by XPS and XRF studies and assigned with related binding energies of Pd+2 and Pd+4 ions as 336.37 eV, 342.9 eV, and 337.53 eV, 343.43 eV, respectively, which may be the origin of room temperature magnetism in Pd substituted PZT ceramics. A sharp first order ferroelectric phase transition was observed at ~569 K (+/-5 K) that is confirmed from dielectric, Raman, and thermal analysis. Both ferromagnetic and ferroelectric orderings with large ME coupling were found above room temperature, a significant step forward in the development of single phase ME material with enhanced functionalities., Comment: 37 pages, 9 figures

We present a study of FeII emission in the near-infrared region (NIR) for 25 active galactic nuclei (AGNs) to obtain information about the excitation mechanisms that power it and the location where it is formed. We employ a NIR FeII template derived in the literature and found that it successfully reproduces the observed FeII spectrum. The FeII bump at 9200 Angstroms detected in all objects studied confirms that Lyman-alpha fluorescence is always present in AGNs. The The correlation found between the flux of the 9200 Angstroms bump, the 1 micron lines and the optical FeII imply that Lyman-alpha fluorescence plays an important role in the FeII production. We determined that at least 18% of the optical FeII is due to this process while collisional excitation dominates the production of the observed FeII. The line profiles of FeII 10502, OI 11287, CaII 8664 and Paschen-beta were compared to gather information about the most likely location where they are emitted. We found that FeII, OI and CaII have similar widths and are, on average, 30% narrower than Paschen-beta. Assuming that the clouds emitting the lines are virialized, we show that the FeII is emitted in a region twice as far from the central source than Paschen-beta. The distance though strongly varies: from 8.5 light-days for NGC4051 to 198.2 light-days for Mrk509. Our results reinforce the importance of the FeII in the NIR to constrain critical parameters that drive its physics and the underlying AGN kinematics as well as more accurate models aimed at reproducing this complex emission., Comment: Accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal