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Perpetual exploration is a fundamental problem in the domain of mobile agents, where an agent needs to visit each node infinitely often. This issue has received lot of attention, mainly for ring topologies, presence of black holes adds more complexity. A black hole can destroy any incoming agent without any observable trace. In \cite{BampasImprovedPeriodicDataRetrieval,KralovivcPeriodicDataRetrievalFirst}, the authors considered this problem in the context of \textit{ Periodic data retrieval}. They introduced a variant of black hole called gray hole (where the adversary chooses whether to destroy an agent or let it pass) among others and showed that 4 asynchronous and co-located agents are essential to solve this problem (hence perpetual exploration) in presence of such a gray hole if each node of the ring has a whiteboard. This paper investigates the exploration of a ring in presence of a ``byzantine black hole''. In addition to the capabilities of a gray hole, in this variant, the adversary chooses whether to erase any previously stored information on that node. Previously, one particular initial scenario (i.e., agents are co-located) and one particular communication model (i.e., whiteboard) are investigated. Now, there can be other initial scenarios where all agents may not be co-located. Also, there are many weaker models of communications (i.e., Face-to-Face, Pebble) where this problem is yet to be investigated. The agents are synchronous. The main results focus on minimizing the agent number while ensuring that perpetual exploration is achieved even in presence of such a node under various communication models and starting positions. Further, we achieved a better upper and lower bound result (i.e., 3 agents) for this problem (where the malicious node is a generalized version of a gray hole), by trading-off scheduler capability, for co-located and in presence of a whiteboard.

Tailoring the magnetic properties of iron oxide nanosystems is essential to expand their biomedical applications. In this study, the 34 nm iron oxide nanocubes with two phases consisting of Fe3O4 and alpha-Fe2O3 were annealed for 2 hours in the presence of O2, N2, He, and Ar to tune the respective phase volume fractions and control the magnetic properties. X-ray diffraction and magnetic measurements were carried out post-treatment to evaluate the changes of the treated samples compared to the as-prepared, which showed an enhancement of the alpha-Fe2O3 phase in the samples annealed with O2, while the others indicated Fe3O4 enhancement. Furthermore, the latter samples indicated enhancements in the crystallinity and saturation magnetization while coercivity enhancement was most significant in the samples annealed with O2, resulting in the highest specific absorption rates (up to 1000 W/g) in all the applied fields of 800, 600, and 400 Oe in agar during magnetic hyperthermia measurements. The general enhancement in the specific absorption rate post-annealing underscores the importance of the annealing atmosphere in the enhancement of the magnetic and structural properties of nanostructures.

The inherent existence of multi phases in iron oxide nanostructures highlights the significance of them being investigated deliberately to understand and possibly control the phases. Here, the effects of annealing at 250 0C with a variable duration on the bulk magnetic and structural properties of high aspect ratio bi-phase iron oxide nanorods with ferrimagnetic Fe3O4 and antiferromagnetic alpha-Fe2O3 is explored. Increasing annealing time under a free flow of oxygen enhanced the alpha-Fe2O3 volume fraction, and improved the crystallinity of the Fe3O4 phase, identified in changes in the magnetization as a function of annealing time. A critical annealing time of approximately 3 hours maximized the presence of both phases, as observed via an enhancement in the magnetization and an interfacial pinning effect. This is attributed to disordered spins separating the magnetically distinct phases which tend to align with the application of a magnetic field at high temperatures. The increased antiferromagnetic phase can be distinguished due to the field-induced metamagnetic transitions observed in structures annealed for more than 3 hours and was especially prominent in the 9-hour annealed sample. Our controlled study in determining the changes in volume fractions with annealing time will enable precise control over phase tunability in iron oxide nanorods, allowing custom-made phase volume fractions in different applications ranging from spintronics to biomedical applications.

This work deals with the Maximum Independent Set ($\mathcal{MIS}$) formation problem in a finite rectangular grid by autonomous robots. Suppose we are given a set of identical robots, where each robot is placed on a node of a finite rectangular grid $\mathcal{G}$ such that no two robots are on the same node. The $\mathcal{MIS}$ formation problem asks to design an algorithm, executing which each robot will move autonomously and terminate at a node such that after a finite time the set of nodes occupied by the robots is a maximum independent set of $\mathcal{G}$. We assume that robots are anonymous and silent, and they execute the same distributed algorithm. Previous works solving this problem used one or several door nodes through which the robots enter inside the grid or the graph one by one and occupy required nodes. In this work, we propose a deterministic algorithm that solves the $\mathcal{MIS}$ formation problem in a more generalized scenario, i.e., when the total number of required robots to form an $\mathcal{MIS}$ are arbitrarily placed on the grid. The proposed algorithm works under a semi-synchronous scheduler using robots with only 2 hop visibility range and only 3 colors.

Understanding impacts of phase transition, phase coexistence, and surface magnetism on the longitudinal spin Seebeck effect (LSSE) in a magnetic system is essential to manipulate the spin to charge current conversion efficiency for spincaloritronic applications. We aim to elucidate these effects by performing a comprehensive study of the temperature dependence of LSSE in biphase iron oxide (BPIO = alpha-Fe2O3 + Fe3O4) thin films grown on Si (100) and Al2O3 (111) substrates. A combination of temperature-dependent anomalous Nernst effect (ANE) and electrical resistivity measurements show that the contribution of ANE from the BPIO layer is negligible compared to the intrinsic LSSE in the Si/BPIO/Pt heterostructure even at room temperature. Below the Verwey transition of the Fe3O4 phase, the total signal across BPIO/Pt is dominated by the LSSE. Noticeable changes in the intrinsic LSSE signal for both Si/BPIO/Pt and Al2O3/BPIO/Pt heterostructures around the Verwey transition of the Fe3O4 phase and the antiferromagnetic (AFM) Morin transition of the alpha-Fe2O3 phase are observed. The LSSE signal for Si/BPIO/Pt is found to be almost two times greater than that for Al2O3/BPIO/Pt, an opposite trend is observed for the saturation magnetization though. Magnetic force microscopy reveals the higher density of surface magnetic moments of the Si/BPIO film compared to the Al2O3/BPIO film, which underscores a dominant role of interfacial magnetism on the LSSE signal and thereby explains the larger LSSE for Si/BPIO/Pt., Comment: Accepted in ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces

We explore strain-modulated helimagnetism in highly crystalline MnP nanorod films grown on Si(100) substrates using molecular beam epitaxy. The strained MnP film exhibits a paramagnetic to ferromagnetic (PM-FM) phase transition at TC ~ 279 K, and the FM to helical phase transition at TN ~ 110 K. The value of TN is greater than TN ~ 47 K for the MnP single crystal, indicating strong strain-modulated helimagnetic states in the MnP nanorod film. The presence of significant thermal hysteresis in the helical phase indicates coexistence of competing magnetic interactions, leading to the first-order metamagnetic transition. Similar to its single crystal counterpart, an anisotropic magnetic effect is observed in the MnP film, which is independently confirmed by magnetic hysteresis loop and radio-frequency transverse susceptibility (TS) measurements. The evolution of screw (SCR) to CONE and FAN phase is precisely tracked from magnetization versus magnetic field/temperature measurements. The temperature dependence of the anisotropy fields, extracted from the TS spectra, yields further insight into the competing nature of the magnetic phases. Unfolding of the different helical phases at T < 120 K (~TN) is analyzed by the temperature- and field-dependent magnetic entropy change. Based on these findings, the comprehensive magnetic phase diagrams of the MnP nanorod film are constructed for the first time for both the in-plane and out-of-plane magnetic field directions, revealing emergent strain/dimensionality-driven helical magnetic features that are absent in the magnetic phase diagram of the MnP single crystal., Comment: 9 figures

Magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) exhibiting superparamagnetic properties might generate large magnetic dipole-dipole interaction with electron spins in organic semiconductors (OSECs). This concept could be considered analogous to the effect of hyperfine interaction (HFI). In order to investigate this model, Fe3O4 MNPs are used as a dopant for generating random hyperfine-like magnetic fields in a HFI-dominant {\pi}-conjugated polymer host, poly(2-methoxy-5-(2-ethylhexyloxy)-1,4-phenylenevinylene) (MeH-PPV). The magnetoconductance (MC) response in organic light emitting diodes made by MeH-PPV/MNP blends is used to estimate the effective hyperfine field in the blends. Firstly, we find that the shape of the MC response essentially remains the same regardless of the MNP concentration, which is attributed to the similar functionality between the nuclear spins and the MNPs. Secondly, the width of MC increases with increasing MNP concentration. Magneto-optical Kerr effect experiments and micromagnetic simulation indicate that the additional increase of the MC width is associated with the strength of the magnetization of the blend. Finally, the MC broadening has the same temperature dependent trend as the magnetization of the MNPs where the unique effect of the MNPs in their superparamagnetic and ferromagnetic regimes on the MC response is observed. Magneto-photoinduced absorption (MPA) spectroscopy confirms that the MC broadening is not due to defects introduced by the MNPs, but is a result of unique superparamagnetic behavior. Our study yields a new pathway for tuning OSECs' magnetic functionality, which is essential to organic optoelectronic devices and magnetic sensor applications.

We propose conceptually novel thermopile structures for the anisotropic magneto-Peltier effect (AMPE) to enhance its heating/cooling power. The cross-shaped thermopile, one of the representative AMPE-based thermopile structures, consists of four L-shaped ferromagnetic metals arranged in a cross-shaped configuration, which allows concentration of the AMPE-induced temperature modulation at the center of the cross structure. The AMPE-based thermopile does not require the use of any complicated junctions comprising different materials, enabling the design of compact and versatile temperature controllers for nanoscale devices., Comment: 8 pages, 4 figures

The anisotropic magneto-Peltier effect (AMPE) and anomalous Ettingshausen effect (AEE) have been investigated in U-shaped Ni thin films of varying thickness and substrate by means of the lock-in thermography (LIT) method. We have established a procedure to extract pure AMPE and AEE contributions, separated from other thermoelectric effects, for ferromagnetic thin films. The measurements of the magnetic-field-angle $\theta_{\rm H}$ dependence of the LIT images clearly show that the temperature modulation induced by the AMPE (AEE) in the Ni films varies with the $\cos 2\theta_{\rm H}$ ($\cos \theta_{\rm H}$) pattern, confirming the symmetry of the AMPE (AEE). The systematic LIT measurements using various substrates show that the AMPE-induced temperature modulation decreases with the increase in thermal conductivity of the substrates, whereas the AEE-induced temperature modulation is almost independent of the thermal conductivity, indicating that the heat loss into the substrates plays an important role in determining the magnitude of the AMPE-induced temperature modulation in thin films. Our experimental results were reproduced by numerical calculations based on a two-dimensional finite element method. These findings provide a platform for investigating the AMPE and AEE in thin film devices., Comment: 21 pages, 7 figures, 1 table (An error in Fig. 3 is corrected in v4)

We present a comprehensive study of the magnetization dynamics and phase evolution in Cr$_{1/3}$NbS$_{2}$, which realizes a chiral soliton lattice (CSL). The magnetic field dependence of the ac magnetic response is analyzed for five harmonic components, $M_{n\omega}(H)$ $(n =1-5)$, using a phase sensitive measurement over a frequency range, $f = 11 - 10,000$ Hz. At a critical field, the modulated CSL continuously evolves from a helicity-rich to a ferromagnetic domain-rich structure, where the crossover is revealed by the onset of an anomalous nonlinear magnetic response that coincides with extremely slow dynamics. The behavior is indicative of the formation of a spatially coherent array of large ferromagnetic domains which relax on macroscopic time-scales. The frequency dependence of the ac magnetic loss displays an asymmetric distribution of relaxation times across the highly nonlinear CSL regime, which shift to shorter time-scales with increasing temperature. We experimentally resolve the tricritical point at $T_{TCP}$ in a temperature regime above the ferromagnetic Curie temperature which separates the linear and nonlinear regimes of the CSL at the phase transition. A comprehensive phase diagram is constructed which summarized the features of the field and temperature dependence of the magnetic crossovers and phase transitions in Cr$_{1/3}$NbS$_{2}$., Comment: 42 pages, 14 figures; figure quality updated, typos corrected, references removed

Material line defects are one-dimensional structures but the search and proof of electron behaviour consistent with the reduced dimension of such defects has been so far unsuccessful. Here we show using angle resolved photoemission spectroscopy that twin-grain boundaries in the layered semiconductor MoSe2 exhibit parabolic metallic bands. The one-dimensional nature is evident from a charge density wave transition, whose periodicity is given by kF/{\pi}, consistent with scanning tunneling microscopy and angle resolved photoemission measurements. Most importantly, we provide evidence for spin- and charge-separation, the hallmark of one-dimensional quantum liquids. Our studies show that the spectral line splits into distinctive spinon and holon excitations whose dispersions exactly follow the energy-momentum dependence calculated by a Hubbard model with suitable finite-range interactions. Our results also imply that quantum wires and junctions can be isolated in line defects of other transition metal dichalcogenides, which may enable quantum transport measurements and devices., Comment: ARTICLE

The exploration of exchange bias (EB) on the nanoscale provides a novel approach to improving the anisotropic properties of magnetic nanoparticles for prospective applications in nanospintronics and nanomedicine. However, the physical origin of EB is not fully understood. Recent advances in chemical synthesis provide a unique opportunity to explore EB in a variety of iron oxide-based nanostructures ranging from core/shell to hollow and hybrid composite nanoparticles. Experimental and atomistic Monte Carlo studies have shed light on the roles of interface and surface spins in these nanosystems. This review paper aims to provide a thorough understanding of the EB and related phenomena in iron oxide-based nanoparticle systems, knowledge of which is essential to tune the anisotropic magnetic properties of exchange-coupled nanoparticle systems for potential applications., Comment: Review article, 30 pages, 14 figure