Bright solitons and soliton trains in a fermion-fermion mixture

We use a time-dependent dynamical mean-field-hydrodynamic model to predict and study bright solitons in a degenerate fermion-fermion mixture in a quasi-one-dimensional cigar-shaped geometry using variational and numerical methods. Due to a strong Pauli-blocking repulsion among identical spin-polarized fermions at short distances there cannot be bright solitons for repulsive interspecies fermion-fermion interactions. However, stable bright solitons can be formed for a sufficiently attractive interspecies interaction. We perform a numerical stability analysis of these solitons and also demonstrate the formation of soliton trains. These fermionic solitons can be formed and studied in laboratory with present technology.     

Desorption or disordering from diffraction peak intensity decay?

When an ordered overlayer is heated at a high enough temperature, there is loss of order that can be monitored through the decay of the peak intensity of diffraction spots. This is caused by either particle loss to the gas phase or the onset of diffusion that disorders the overlayer. With the use of model simulations on a c(2 × 2) ordered overlayer, we show how the peak intensity decay can differentiate between the two cases. We further examine the growth laws describing the growth of disorder to see if they obey similar laws as the reverse ordering processes. When no interfaces separating degenerate phases are present, disordering and ordering processes do not obey the same growth laws.     

Thermodynamic Instabilities in One Dimension: Correlations, Scaling and Solitons

Many thermodynamic instabilities in one dimension (e.g., DNA thermal denaturation, wetting of interfaces) can be described in terms of simple models involving harmonic coupling between nearest neighbors and an asymmetric on-site potential with a repulsive core, a stable minimum and a flat top. The paper deals with the case of the Morse on-site potential, which can be treated exactly in the continuum limit. Analytical expressions for correlation functions are derived; they are shown to obey scaling; numerical transfer-integral values obtained for a discrete version of the model exhibit the same critical behavior. Furthermore, it is shown in detail that the onset of the transition can be characterized by an entropic stabilization of an—otherwise unstable—nonlinear field configuration, a soliton-like domain wall (DW) with macroscopic energy content. The statistical mechanics of the DW provides an exact estimate of the critical temperature for a wide range of the discretization parameter; this suggests that the transition can be accurately viewed as being driven by a nonlinear entity.     

Debye-Hückel theory for slab geometries

The electrostatic interaction of charged particles through or at a low-dielectric slab, such as a lipid bilayer immersed in water or a self-assembled monolayer (SAM) on a metal substrate, is considered theoretically in the presence of salt within the Gaussian approximation using a generalized Green's formalism. A number of separate situations are discussed: i) The presence of a low-dielectric slab leads to pronounced interactions of a single charge with the slab via the formation of polarization surface charges. For SAMs on metal substrates, there is an intricate crossover from image-charge attraction to the metal substrate (for large distances) to image-charge repulsion from the SAM (for small distances) with a stable minimum at a distance of roughly 20 times the thickness of the hydrophobic film. For bilayers in water, the interaction of a single charge is always repulsive. ii) The surface potential of a SAM is calculated for the case when the hydrophobic layer contains dipole moments, which might explain the recently observed long-ranged repulsion of hydrophobic scanning tips from PEG-terminated SAMs on gold. iii) The interaction between charged particles through the bilayer is weakened. Oppositely charged particles still attract each other through the membrane. The free-energy minimum occurs as a result of the competition between self-repulsion from the slab and interparticle attraction and is located at a separation from the membrane surface which equals 15 times the membrane thickness. iv) Surface charges on the two surfaces of a bilayer attract each other through the bilayer unless the surface charge densities are the same, even if the signs are the same. v) All these effects are strongly influenced by the presence of salt. Received 25 January 2000     

Adsorption thermodynamics of interacting particles on diffusion-limited aggregates

Grand canonical Monte Carlo simulations have been performed in order to study adsorption thermodynamics of pairwise interacting particles on fractal surfaces. Diffusion-limited aggregates (DLA) have been used as a substrate where interacting particles are adsorbed. In order to obtain aggregates with different morphologies, DLA clusters are generated on different strongly correlated surfaces. Adsorption isotherm, adsorption energy and differential heat of adsorption were calculated for attractive and repulsive nearest-neighbor (NN) lateral interactions. For the case of repulsive couplings and low temperatures, four novel ordered phases has been found in the adsorbate, each one corresponding to the formation of a chessboard-like structure on sites with one, two, three and four NN sites, respectively. The values of coverage at which these ordered phases emerge are not symmetrical around θ=0.5. This is a consequence of the non-equivalence between vacancy and particle in the case of adsorption on fractal structures. The influence of ordered structures on thermodynamic quantities associated to the adsorbed monolayer has been analyzed and discussed in the context of the Lattice-Gas model.     

Matter-wave vortices and solitons in anisotropic optical lattices

Using numerical methods, we construct families of vortical, quadrupole, and fundamental solitons in a two-dimensional (2D) nonlinear-Schrödinger/Gross-Pitaevskii equation which models Bose-Einstein condensates (BECs) or photonic crystals. The equation includes the attractive or repulsive cubic nonlinearity and an anisotropic periodic potential. Two types of anisotropy are considered, accounted for by the difference in the strengths of the 1D sublattices, or by a difference in their periods. The limit case of the quasi-1D optical lattice (OL), when one sublattice is missing, is included too. By means of systematic simulations, we identify stability limits for two species of vortex solitons and quadrupoles, of the rhombus and square types. In the attraction model, rhombic vortices and quadrupoles remain stable up to the limit case of the quasi-1D lattice. In the same model, finite stability limits are found for vortices and quadrupoles of the square type, in terms of the anisotropy parameter. In the repulsion model, rhombic vortices and quadrupoles are stable in large parts of the first finite bandgap (FBG). Another species of partly stable anisotropic states is found in the second FBG, subfundamental dipoles, each squeezed into a single cell of the OL. Square-shaped quadrupoles are completely unstable in the repulsion model, while vortices of the same type are stable only in weakly anisotropic OL potentials.     

Fluids with highly directional attractive forces. II. Thermodynamic perturbation theory and integral equations

The formalism of statistical thermodynamics developed in the preceding paper is used as a basis for deriving tractable approximations. The system treated is one where repulsion and highly directional attraction due to a single molecular site combine to allow the formation of dimers, but no highers-mers. We derive thermodynamic perturbation theory, using the system interacting with only the repulsive potential as a reference system. Two distinct integral equations for the pair correlation are derived. The first one treats both parts of the interaction approximately; the other one employs the repulsive reference system used in perturbation theory. We show that each of these integral equations permits the calculation of an important thermodynamic function directly from the solution at a single state of density and temperature. In the first case this applies to a pressure consistent with the compressibility relation, in the second to the excess Helmholtz free energy over the reference system.Supported by the NSF under Grant No. CHE-82-11236 and by the U.S. Air Force under Grant No. AFOSR 82-0016A.     

Description of far-from-equilibrium processes by mean-field lattice gas models

Mean-field kinetic equations are a valuable tool to study the atomic dynamics and spin dynamics of simple lattice gas and Ising models. They can be derived from the microscopic master equation of the system and contain analytical expressions for kinetic coefficients and thermodynamic quantities which are usually introduced phenomenologically. We review several methods to obtain such equations, and discuss applications to the dynamics of order–disorder transitions, spinodal decomposition, and dendritic growth in the isothermal or chemical model. In the case of dendritic growth we show that the mean-field kinetic equations are equivalent to standard continuum equations for this problem and derive expressions for macroscopic quantities, e.g. the surface tension and kinetic coefficients, as functions of the microscopic order parameters. In spinodal decomposition, we focus our attention on the vacancy mechanism, which is a more faithful picture of diffusion in solids than the more widely examined exchange mechanism. We study the interfaces between an unstable mixture and a stable ‘vapour’ phase, and analyse surface modes that lead to specific surface patterns. For order–disorder transitions, studied in the framework of a repulsive two-sublattice model, we derive sets of coupled equations for the mean concentration (a conserved quantity) and for the occupational difference between the two sublattices emerging from the symmetry breaking due to ordering (non-conserved order parameter). These equations are applied to transport in the presence of ordered domains. Finally, we discuss the possibilities of improving the simple mean-field approximation by density functional theories and various forms of the dynamic pair approximation, including the path-probability method.     

Modulated phases and slow dynamics in attractive colloids

A system with a short-range attraction and a competing long-range screened repulsion is studied by using the self-consistent Hartree approximation and a replica approach. It is shown that by varying the parameters of the repulsive potential and the temperature yields a phase coexistence, a lamellar and a glassy phase. These results, which are confirmed by molecular dynamic simulations on a system of particles interacting via a DLVO potential, provide novel insights in the role of modulated phases in the slow dynamics of charged colloids in polymeric solutions.     

Thermodynamic and transport properties of simple fluids using lattice sums: bulk phases and liquid-vapour interface

Molecular dynamics simulations in the canonical ensemble have been performed to obtain the thermodynamic and transport properties of the Lennard-Jones fluid. The dispersion interactions were calculated using lattice sums. This method makes it possible to simulate the full potential avoiding the inclusion of the long range corrections (LRC) during or at the end of simulations. In the calculation of dynamic properties in bulk phases and thermodynamic quantities of inhomogeneous systems where the interface is physically present, in general the LRC cannot easily be included. By using the lattice sums method, the results are independent of the truncation of the potential. In the liquid-vapour interface simulations it is not necessary to make any pre-judgments about the form of the LRC formula to calculate coexisting properties such as the surface tension. The lattice sums method has been applied to evaluate how well the full interaction can be calculated in the liquid phase and in the liquid-vapour interface. In the liquid phase the pressure, configurational energy, diffusion coefficient and shear viscosity were obtained. The results of the thermodynamic properties are compared with those obtained using the spherically truncated and shifted (STS) potential with the LRC added at the end of simulations, and excellent agreement is found. The transport properties are calculated on different system sizes for a state near the triple point. The diffusion coefficient using the lattice sums method increases with the number of molecules, and the results are higher than those of the STS model truncated at 2.5σ (STS2.5). The shear viscosity does not show any system size dependence for systems with more than 256 molecules, and the lattice sums results are essentially the same as those for the STS2.5. In the liquid-vapour equilibria the coexisting densities and vapour pressures for the full potential agree well with those obtained using the Gibbs ensemble and the NPT + test particle methods. The surface tension using lattice sums and truncation of forces at 2.5σ agrees well with STS results using large system sizes and cutoff distances.     

Elastic interactions of adatoms or clusters on a surface: Effects due to anisotropy of the substrate and finite size of the clusters

The interactions of atoms or clusters of atoms adsorbed on a surface due to elastic strains created in the substrate is investigated. At large distances it falls off ass ^–3. The strength of the interaction which is repulsive for elastically isotropic substrates becomes angular dependent in general and becomes even attractive in certain directions for substrates with sufficient anisotropy. For a certain model of a cluster the interaction among clusters is calculated at all distances for the isotropic as well as for the anisotropic case. A repulsive potential barrier is found at distances of the order of the cluster diameter even in situations where the long-range behaviour is attractive.     

Low-temperature ultrafast mobility in systems with long-range repulsive interactions: Pb/Si(111)

A realization of the numerous phases predicted in systems with long-range repulsive interactions was recently found in Pb/Si(111). Surprisingly, these numerous phases can be grown at low temperatures approximately 40 K over macroscopic distances. This unusual observation can be explained from theoretical calculations of the collective diffusion coefficient D(c) in systems with long-range repulsive interactions. Instead of a gradual dependence of D(c) on coverage, it was found that D(c) has sharp maxima at low temperatures for every stable phase (i.e., for every rational value of the coverage theta=p/q) in agreement with the experiment.     

Fermions in 3D optical lattices: cooling protocol to obtain antiferromagnetism

A major challenge in realizing antiferromagnetic and superfluid phases in optical lattices is the ability to cool fermions. We determine the equation of state for the 3D repulsive Fermi-Hubbard model as a function of the chemical potential, temperature, and repulsion using unbiased determinantal quantum Monte Carlo methods, and we then use the local density approximation to model a harmonic trap. We show that increasing repulsion leads to cooling but only in a trap, due to the redistribution of entropy from the center to the metallic wings. Thus, even when the average entropy per particle is larger than that required for antiferromagnetism in the homogeneous system, the trap enables the formation of an antiferromagnetic Mott phase.     

Interaction Energies in a System of Three Organic Molecules Versus Their Structure and Mutual Induction

A method for the analysis of the interaction energies in a three-molecule nanocluster containing hydrocarbon molecules with double carbon–carbon bonds is presented. It is assumed that one of the molecules (pentene) has a dipole moment; the other two (aromatic molecules) have no dipole moments. The molecules in the considered three-molecule nanocluster are bounded by the long-range dispersion and induction interactions with the Coulomb repulsive forces at short intermolecular distances taken into account. Analytical expressions are obtained in terms of the presented method to calculate the dispersion and induction energies. In these expressions, the Coulomb repulsion at short distances is taken into account for each pair of molecules, which is possible owing to the specific charge properties of the double bonds in the considered molecules, which lead to the residual positive charges at the carbon atoms in these bonds. It was shown that the total interaction energy reached its minimum at smaller intermolecular distances between each pair of molecules compared with those in the corresponding isolated two-molecular nanocluster consisting of the same molecules.     

Tan relations in one dimension

We derive exact relations that connect the universal C/k⁴-decay of the momentum distribution at large k with both thermodynamic properties and correlation functions of two-component Fermi gases in one dimension with contact interactions. The relations are analogous to those obtained by Tan in the three-dimensional case and are derived from an operator product expansion of the one- and two-particle density matrix. They extend earlier results by Olshanii and Dunjko (2003) [24] for the bosonic Lieb–Liniger gas. As an application, we calculate the pair distribution function at short distances and the dimensionless contact in the limit of infinite repulsion. The ground state energy approaches a universal constant in this limit, a behavior that also holds in the three-dimensional case. In both one and three dimensions, a Stoner instability to a saturated ferromagnet for repulsive fermions with zero range interactions is ruled out at any finite coupling.     

Calculation of the equation of state of a dense hydrogen plasma by the Feynman path integral method

A method is developed for calculating the equation of state of a system of quantum particles at a finite temperature, based on the Feynman formulation of quantum statistics. A general analytical expression is found for the virial estimator for the kinetic energy of a system with rigid boundaries at a finite pressure. An effective method is developed for eliminating the unphysical singularity in the electrostatic potential between a discretized Feynman path of an electron and a proton. It is shown that the “refinement” of an expansion of a quantum-mechanical propagator by addition of high powers of time exacerbates, rather than eliminates, the divergence of a Feynman path integral. A brief summary of the current status of the problem is presented. The proposed new approaches are presented in relation to progress made in this field. Path integral Monte Carlo simulations are performed for nonideal hydrogen plasmas in which both indistinguishability and spin of electrons are taken into account under conditions preceding the formation of the electron shells of atoms. The electron permutation symmetry is represented in terms of Young operators. It is shown that, owing to the singularity of the Coulomb potential, quantum effects on the behavior of the electron component cannot be reduced to small corrections even if the system must be treated as a classical system according to the formal de Broglie criterion. Quantum-mechanical delocalization of electrons substantially weakens the repulsion between electrons as compared to protons. In relatively cold plasmas, many-body correlations lead to complex behavior of the potential of the average force between particles and give rise to repulsive forces acting between protons and electrons at distances of about 5 angstroms. Plasma pressure drops with decreasing plasma temperature as the electron shells of atoms begin to form, and the electron kinetic energy reaches a minimum at a temperature of about 31000 K. The minimum point weakly depends on plasma density. Owing to quantum effects, the electron component is “heated” well before electrons are completely bound in the field of protons.     

A molecular dynamics study on the role of attractive and repulsive forces in excess heat capacity at constant volume of dense fluids

The curves of experimental heat capacity against density show a minimum around and below the critical temperature (Tc), but at higher temperatures, this minimum is not observed. In this study, the role of attractive and repulsive forces on excess heat capacity of Lennard–Jones (LJ) dense fluids has been investigated using a molecular dynamics simulation technique. LJ potential is divided into attractive and repulsive parts. From the molecular dynamics calculations, potential energy and heat capacities have been obtained for Argon at temperatures of 100–500?K. The repulsive forces play the main role in causing the heat capacities at temperatures greater than critical point. Around and below the critical temperature, the role of repulsion is dominant at high densities, but attraction has the main role at low densities, consequently at middle densities, a minimum is formed.     

Trapping colloidal dielectric microparticles with overlapping evanescent optical waves

We experimentally demonstrate the creation of a stable surface trap for colloidal microparticles in a high-intensity evanescent optical field that is produced by total internal reflection of two counter-propagating and mutually incoherent laser beams. While the particles confined in the trap undergo fast Brownian motion, they never “stick” to the surface – not even at high optical powers – but rather levitate above the surface. If many particles are stored in the trap, they tend to form a well ordered self-organized array. We apply a numerical model based on the general energy-momentum tensor formalism to evaluate the overall optical force acting on a trapped particle. The optical-field parameters are calculated using the finite element method. The simulations show that for small particles a sharp repulsive potential at the surface – required for the levitation – can have neither optical nor light-induced thermal origin. Among the possible non-optical forces, electrostatic double-layer repulsion is often considered to be the origin of the levitation. We find, however, that the experimentally observed levitation of small particles in a high-intensity evanescent-wave trap cannot be explained by this effect.     

The Compressible Viscous Surface-Internal Wave Problem: Stability and Vanishing Surface Tension Limit

This paper concerns the dynamics of two layers of compressible, barotropic, viscous fluid lying atop one another. The lower fluid is bounded below by a rigid bottom, and the upper fluid is bounded above by a trivial fluid of constant pressure. This is a free boundary problem: the interfaces between the fluids and above the upper fluid are free to move. The fluids are acted on by gravity in the bulk, and at the free interfaces we consider both the case of surface tension and the case of no surface forces. We establish a sharp nonlinear global-in-time stability criterion and give the explicit decay rates to the equilibrium. When the upper fluid is heavier than the lower fluid along the equilibrium interface, we characterize the set of surface tension values in which the equilibrium is nonlinearly stable. Remarkably, this set is non-empty, i.e., sufficiently large surface tension can prevent the onset of the Rayleigh-Taylor instability. When the lower fluid is heavier than the upper fluid, we show that the equilibrium is stable for all non-negative surface tensions and we establish the zero surface tension limit.