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Apr 20

Composite stacks for reliable > 17 T trapped fields in bulk superconductor magnets

Trapped fields of over 20 T are, in principle, achievable in bulk, single-grain high temperature cuprate superconductors. The principle barriers to realizing such performance are, firstly, the large tensile stresses that develop during the magnetization of such trapped-field magnets as a result of the Lorentz force, which lead to brittle fracture of these ceramic-like materials at high fields and, secondly, catastrophic thermal instabilities as a result of flux movement during magnetization. Moreover, for a batch of samples nominally fabricated identically, the statistical nature of the failure mechanism means the best performance (i.e. trapped fields of over 17 T) cannot be attained reliably. The magnetization process, particularly to higher fields, also often damages the samples such that they cannot repeatedly trap high fields following subsequent magnetization. In this study, we report the sequential trapping of magnetic fields of ~ 17 T, achieving 16.8 T at 26 K initially and 17.6 T at 22.5 K subsequently, in a stack of two Ag-doped GdBa2Cu3O7-δ bulk superconductor composites of diameter 24 mm reinforced with (1) stainless-steel laminations, and (2) shrink-fit stainless steel rings. A trapped field of 17.6 T is, in fact, comparable with the highest trapped fields reported to date for bulk superconducting magnets of any mechanical and chemical composition, and this was achieved using the first composite stack to be fabricated by this technique.

  • 13 authors
·
Aug 22, 2019

Dynamical Dark Energy from a Massive Vector Field in Generalized Proca Theory

In this paper, we emphasise the recent observational findings from the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument Data Release 2 (DESI DR2), which provide compelling evidence for a possible deviation from the standard ΛCDM (Cold Dark Matter) cosmology, suggesting the presence of a dynamically evolving effective dark energy component. Motivated by this, we construct a theoretical framework in which a massive cosmological vector field, B^μ, couples non-minimally to the background curvature through marginal interactions, offering a controlled mechanism to realise the deviation from the ΛCDM model. A detailed analysis of the effective Equation of State (EoS) parameter w(tilde H) reveals a narrow region of parameter space consistent with current cosmological observations presented by DESI. The analysis yields a stringent upper bound for the coupling constant λ to be λ<2.98times10^{-11}, a very strong bound on mass 3.1356times10^{-66}~g leq m leq 3.3627times10^{-66}~g, and the admissible range -0.405 leq log_{10}tildeγleq -0.38 for which present-day value w_0 = w(tilde H = 1) corresponding to a deviation δ= w_0 + 1 that lies within the region 0.107 leq δleq 0.217. This interval reproduces the deviation inferred from the combined DESI, Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB), and Pantheon+ data, reflecting a controlled departure from the ΛCDM behaviour. In summary, the results suggest that the proposed framework of a massive vector field can account for the departure from ΛCDM behaviour highlighted by DESI in the current cosmic acceleration. Furthermore, the framework approaches the ΛCDM behaviour in late-time tgtrsim28 Gyr, establishing a direct phenomenological link between the underlying parameters and the observed dynamical nature of dark energy.

  • 1 authors
·
Nov 3, 2025