Based on the semi-classical extended Thomas-Fermi approach, we study the mass dependence of the symmetry energy coefficients of finite nuclei for 36 different Skyrme forces. The reference densities of both light and heavy nuclei are obtained. Eight m
odels based on nuclear liquid drop concept and the Skyrme force SkM* suggest the symmetry energy coefficient $a_{rm sym}=22.90 pm 0.15 $ MeV at $A=260$, and the corresponding reference density is $rho_Asimeq 0.1$ fm$^{-3}$ at this mass region. The standard Skyrme energy density functionals give negative values for the coefficient of the $I^4$ term in the binding energy formula, whereas the latest Weizsacker-Skyrme formula and the experimental data suggest positive values for the coefficient.
Pulsar nulling is a phenomenon of sudden cessation of pulse emission for a number of periods. The nulling fraction was often used to characterize the phenomenon. We propose a new method to analyse pulsar nulling phenomenon, by involving two key param
eters, the nulling degree, $chi$, which is defined as the angle in a rectangular coordinates for the numbers of nulling periods and bursting periods, and the nulling scale, $ N $, which is defined as the effective length of the consecutive nulling periods and bursting periods. The nulling degree $chi$ can be calculated by $tan chi = N_{rm nulling} / N_{rm bursting} $ and the mean is related to the nulling fraction, while the nulling scale, $ N $, is also a newly defined fundamental parameter which indicates how often the nulling occurs. We determined the distributions of $chi$ and $ N $ for 10 pulsars by using the data in literature. We found that the nulling degree $chi$ indicates the relative length of nulling to that of bursting, and the nulling scale $ N $ is found to be related to the derivative of rotation frequency and hence the loss rate of rotational energy of pulsars. Their deviations reflect the randomness of the nulling process.
Using muon spin rotation (muSR) and infrared spectroscopy we investigated the recently discovered superconductor K0.73Fe1.67Se2 with Tc = 32 K. We show that the combined data can be consistently described in terms of a macroscopically phase segregate
d state with a matrix of ~88% volume fraction that is insulating and strongly magnetic and inclusions with a ~12% volume fraction which are metallic, superconducting and non-magnetic. The electronic properties of the latter, in terms of the normal state plasma frequency and the superconducting condensate density, appear to be similar as in other iron selenide or arsenide superconductors.
The mode switching phenomenon of PSR B0329+54 is investigated based on the long-term monitoring from September 2003 to April 2009 made with the Urumqi 25m radio telescope at 1540 MHz. At that frequency, the change of relative intensity between the le
ading and trailing components is the predominant feature of mode switching. The intensity ratios between the leading and trailing components are measured for the individual profiles averaged over a few minutes. It is found that the ratios follow normal distributions, where the abnormal mode has a wider typical width than the normal mode, indicating that the abnormal mode is less stable than the normal mode. Our data show that 84.9% of the time for PSR B0329+54 was in the normal mode and 15.1% was in the abnormal mode. From the two passages of eight-day quasi-continuous observations in 2004, and supplemented by the daily data observed with 15 m telescope at 610 MHz at Jodrell Bank Observatory, the intrinsic distributions of mode timescales are constrained with the Bayesian inference method. It is found that the gamma distribution with the shape parameter slightly smaller than 1 is favored over the normal, lognormal and Pareto distributions. The optimal scale parameters of the gamma distribution is 31.5 minutes for the abnormal mode and 154 minutes for the normal mode. The shape parameters have very similar values, i.e. 0.75^{+0.22}_{-0.17} for the normal mode and 0.84^{+0.28}_{-0.22} for the abnormal mode, indicating the physical mechanisms in both modes may be the same. No long-term modulation of the relative intensity ratios was found for both the modes, suggesting that the mode switching was stable. The intrinsic timescale distributions, for the first time constrained for this pulsar, provide valuable information to understand the physics of mode switching.
Seven years of pulse time-of-arrival measurements have been collected from observations of the young pulsar PSR B2334+61 using the Nanshan radio telescope of Urumqi Observatory. A phase-connected solution has been obtained over the whole data span, 2
002 August to 2009 August. This includes a very large glitch that occurred between 2005 August 26 and September 8 (MJDs 53608 and 53621). The relative increase in rotational frequency for this glitch, $Delta u_{g}/ u~sim~20.5times10^{-6}$, is the largest ever seen. Although accounting for less than 1% of the glitch, there were two well-defined exponential decay terms with time constants of 21 and 147 days respectively. There was also a large long-term increase in the spindown rate with $Deltadot u_p/dot u sim 0.011$ at the time of the glitch. A highly significant oscillation with a period of close to one year is seen in the post-glitch residuals. It is very unlikely that this can be accounted for by a pulsar position error or proper motion -- it appears to result from effects interior to the neutron star. Implications of these results for pulsar glitch models are discussed.
Quasi-continuous observations of PSR B03239+54 over 20 days using the Nanshan 25-m telescope at 1540 MHz have been used to study the effects of refractive scintillation on the pulsar flux density and diffractive scintillation properties. Dynamic spec
tra were obtained from datasets of 90 min duration and diffractive parameters derived from a two-dimensional auto-correlation analysis. Secondary spectra were also computed but these showed no significant evidence for arc structure. Cross correlations between variations in the derived parameters were much lower than predicted by thin screen models and in one case was of opposite sign to the prediction. Observed modulation indices were larger than predicted by thin screen models with a Kolmogorov fluctuation spectrum. Structure functions were computed for the flux density, diffractive timescale and decorrelation bandwidth. These indicated a refractive timescale of $8pm 2$ h, much shorter than predicted by the thin screen model. The measured structure-function slope of $0.4pm 0.2$ is also inconsistent with scattering by a single thin screen for which a slope of 2.0 is expected. All observations are consistent with scattering by an extended medium having a Kolmogorov fluctuation spectrum which is concentrated towards the pulsar. This interpretation is also consistent with recent observations of multiple diffuse scintillation arcs for this pulsar.
