Liquid-vapor transition driven by bond disorder

We report grand-canonical Monte Carlo simulations of an equimolar mixture of hard colloids coated with long polymers that have a complementary functionalization. Such systems have the potential to function as self-healing materials. Under conditions where the complementary polymer ends are strongly associated, we observe a first-order vapor-liquid transition from a dilute gas of colloidal dimers to a dense, liquid-like phase. This transition is driven exclusively by the increase in entropy associated with bond disorder-an effect that was predicted theoretically by Zilman et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 91, 015901 (2003)10.1103/PhysRevLett.91.015901]. Our simulations rationalize experimental observations by Schmatko et al. [Soft Matter 03 (2007) 703.].     

Experimental Realization of Perfect Discrimination for Two Unitary Operations

We experimentally demonstrate perfect discrimination between two unitary operations by using the sequential scheme proposed by Duan et al.[Phys. Rev. Lett. 98 (2007) 100503] Also, we show how to understand the scheme and to calculate the parameters for two-dimensional operations in the picture of the Bloch sphere.     

Comment on "phase transitions in systems of self-propelled agents and related network models"

A Comment on the Letter by M. Aldana et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 98, 095702 (2007)10.1103/PhysRevLett.98.095702.     

Josephson oscillation of a superfluid Fermi gas

Using the complete numerical solution of a time-dependent three-dimensional mean-field model we study the Josephson oscillation of a superfluid Fermi gas (SFG) at zero temperature formed in a combined axially-symmetric harmonic plus one-dimensional periodic optical-lattice (OL) potentials after displacing the harmonic trap along the axial OL axis. We study the dependence of Josephson frequency on the strength of the OL potential. The Josephson frequency decreases with increasing strength as found in the experiment of Cataliotti et al. [Science 293, 843 (2001)] for a Bose-Einstein condensate and of the experiment of Pezzè et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 93, 120401 (2004)] for an ideal Fermi gas. We demonstrate a breakdown of Josephson oscillation in the SFG for a large displacement of the harmonic trap. These features of Josephson oscillation of a SFG can be tested experimentally.     

The Amigó paradigm of forbidden/missing patterns: a detailed analysis

We deal here with the issue of determinism versus randomness in time series (TS), withthe goal of identifying their relative importance in a given TS. To this end we extend (i)the use of ordinal patterns based probability distribution functions associated to a TS[C. Bandt and B. Pompe, Phys. Rev. Lett. 88, 174102 (2002)] and (ii) theso-called Amigó paradigm of forbidden/missing patterns [J.M. Amigó et al., Europhys. Lett.79, 50001 (2007)], to analyze deterministic finite TS contaminated withstrong additive noises of different correlation-degree. Useful information on thedeterministic component of the original time series is obtained with the help of theso-called causal entropy-complexity plane [O.A. Rosso et al., Phys. Rev. Lett.99, 154102 (2007)].     

Correlated fermionic densities for many harmonically trapped particles interacting with repulsive forces

This study is motivated by the very recent work on correlation energy as approximated by the Thomas-Fermi (TF) semiclassical limit [B.R. Landry, et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 103 (2009) 066401]. In contrast, and motivated by the Hohenberg-Kohn theorem, our work is focussed primarily on the correlated TF ground-state density. We invoke directly the Holas et al. result that for two-fermion systems with harmonic trapping, the fermion-fermion interaction u simply adds to the trapping potential. We conclude this report with some results on correlation kinetic energy for two-fermion systems.     

Modeling and simulation of the agglomeration of carbonaceous dust in a radio frequency discharge using the Monte Carlo technique

The dust particle growth in plasmas is of major concern for safety issues in fusion reactors, and conversely has important industrial impacts. Dusty plasmas produced in laboratory, fusion, and in astrophysical environments have been therefore widely studied for many years to better understand the involved physical phenomena. In this work, we have investigated modeling and simulation (Ghabbouri et al. in Int Rev Phys 4(3):104–109, 2010; Samir et al. in Chin J Phys 46(2), 2008; Louafi et al. in Int Rev Phys 6(3):297–302, 2012) a new dust-growing mechanism in capacitive radio-frequency plasma of argon/acetylene mixture (Ariskin et al. in Appl Phys 105:063305, 2009). Principally we studied the Brownian agglomeration in the plasma sheath by Monte Carlo simulation. We have developed a FORTRAN code enabling complex numeric investigations of dust particles levitating above the electrode in RF sheath. Charges, forces, balancing radii and other quantities concerning dust particles are analyzed in dependence on plasma state, position within the sheath and applied mathematical models. Commentaries and analysis of numerical results have been made.     

Nonlinear diffusion of indirect excitons in an ideal bilayer with an in-plane harmonic trap

The nonlinear diffusion of the spatially indirect excitons in an ideal bilayer with an in-plane harmonic trap is investigated based on the theories developed by Ivanov [A.L. Ivanov, Europhys. Lett. 59 (2002) 586; A.L. Ivanov, J. Phys.: Condens. Matter 16 (2004) S3629] and Rapaport et al. [R. Rapaport, G. Chen, S. Simon, O. Mitrofanov, L. Pfeiffer, P.M. Platzman, Phys. Rev. B 72 (2005) 075428]. A nonlinear equation for the diffusion of the indirect excitons in this structure is established. The two-dimensional density of the indirect excitons in this structure is calculated. The calculations show that the density adjacent to the trap center for different exciton temperatures can remain very high even long after the photo-excitation because of the confinement of the in-plane harmonic trap, and that the indirect excitons gather several tens of μm away from the trap center. The calculations are in good agreement qualitatively with the experimental results of Voros et al. [Z. Voros, D.W. Snoke, L. Pfeiffer, K. West, Phys. Rev. Lett. 97 (2006) 016803] and prove that an in-plane harmonic trap can indeed keep an exciton gas dense near its center.     

Extended Born-Oppenheimer molecular dynamics

A Lagrangian generalization of time-reversible Born-Oppenheimer molecular dynamics Niklasson et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 97, 123001 (2006)10.1103/PhysRevLett.97.123001] is proposed. The formulation enables the application of higher-order symplectic or geometric integration schemes that are stable and energy conserving even under incomplete self-consistency convergence. It is demonstrated how the accuracy is improved by over an order of magnitude compared to previous formulations at the same level of computational cost. The proposed Lagrangian includes extended electronic degrees of freedom as auxiliary dynamical variables in addition to the nuclear coordinates and momenta. While the nuclear degrees of freedom propagate on the Born-Oppenheimer potential energy surface, the extended auxiliary electronic degrees of freedom evolve as a harmonic oscillator centered around the adiabatic propagation of the self-consistent ground state.     

High harmonic generation in a gas-filled hollow-core photonic crystal fiber

High harmonic generation (HHG) of intense infrared laser radiation (Ferray et al., J. Phys. B: At. Mol. Opt. Phys. 21:L31, 1988; McPherson et al., J. Opt. Soc. Am. B 4:595, 1987) enables coherent vacuum-UV (VUV) to soft-X-ray sources. In the usual setup, energetic femtosecond laser pulses are strongly focused into a gas jet, restricting the interaction length to the Rayleigh range of the focus. The average photon flux is limited by the low conversion efficiency and the low average power of the complex laser amplifier systems (Keller, Nature 424:831, 2003; Südmeyer et al., Nat. Photonics 2:599, 2008; Röser et al., Opt. Lett. 30:2754, 2005; Eidam et al., IEEE J. Sel. Top. Quantum Electron. 15:187, 2009) which typically operate at kilohertz repetition rates. This represents a severe limitation for many experiments using the harmonic radiation in fields such as metrology or high-resolution imaging. Driving HHG with novel high-power diode-pumped multi-megahertz laser systems has the potential to significantly increase the average photon flux. However, the higher average power comes at the expense of lower pulse energies because the repetition rate is increased by more than a thousand times, and efficient HHG is not possible in the usual geometry. So far, two promising techniques for HHG at lower pulse energies were developed: external build-up cavities (Gohle et al., Nature 436:234, 2005; Jones et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 94:193, 2005) and resonant field enhancement in nanostructured targets (Kim et al., Nature 453:757, 2008). Here we present a third technique, which has advantages in terms of ease of HHG light extraction, transverse beam quality, and the possibility to substantially increase conversion efficiency by phase-matching (Paul et al., Nature 421:51, 2003; Ren et al., Opt. Express 16:17052, 2008; Serebryannikov et al., Phys. Rev. E (Stat. Nonlinear Soft Matter Phys.) 70:66611, 2004; Serebryannikov et al., Opt. Lett. 33:977, 2008; Zhang et al., Nat. Phys. 3:270, 2007). The interaction between the laser pulses and the gas occurs in a Kagome-type Hollow-Core Photonic Crystal Fiber (HC-PCF) (Benabid et al., Science 298:399, 2002), which reduces the detection threshold for HHG to only 200 nJ. This novel type of fiber guides nearly all of the light in the hollow core (Couny et al., Science 318:1118, 2007), preventing damage even at intensities required for HHG. Our fiber guided 30-fs pulses with a pulse energy of more than 10 μJ, which is more than five times higher than for any other photonic crystal fiber (Hensley et al., Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics (CLEO), IEEE Press, New York, 2008).     

Volume reflection and volume refraction of relativistic particles in a uniformly bent crystal

The scattering of fast charged particles in a bent crystal has been analyzed in the framework of relativistic classical mechanics. The expressions obtained for the deflection function are in satisfactory agreement with the experimental data for the volume reflection of relativistic protons obtained by Yu. M. Ivanov et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 97, 144801 (2006); Yu. M. Ivanov et al., Pis’ma Zh. Eksp. Teor. Fiz. 84, 445 (2006) [JETP Lett. 84, 372 (2006)]; and W. Scandale et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 98, 154801 (2007). The features of the scattering of the particles on ring potentials are considered in a wide range of impact parameters.     

Magnetic excitations in the low-temperature ferroelectric phase of multiferroic YMn2O5 using inelastic neutron scattering

We studied magnetic excitations in a low-temperature ferroelectric phase of the multiferroic YMn(2)O(5) using inelastic neutron scattering (INS). We identify low-energy magnon modes and establish a correspondence between the magnon peaks observed by INS and electromagnon peaks observed in optical absorption [A. B. Sushkov et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 98, 027202 (2007).]. Furthermore, we explain the microscopic mechanism, which results in the lowest-energy electromagnon peak, by comparing the inelastic neutron spectral weight with the polarization in the commensurate ferroelectric phase.     

Generalized superposition of two squeezed states: generation and statistical properties

Superpositions of squeezed states were introduced by Sanders [Phys. Rev. A 39 (1998) 4284], Schleich et al. [Phys. Rev. A 38 (1988) 1177], Xin et al. [Phys. Rev. A 50 (1994) 2865], to investigate the occurrence of nonclassical properties of the quantized radiation field. In this report we present a generalized superposition state which interpolates between two arbitrary squeezed states. Nonclassical properties of this intermediate state as function of the interpolating parameters are studied, the previous results in the literature becoming a particularization of ours. An experimental proposal to generate this state is also presented.     

Comment on breakup densities of hot nuclei

In [V.E. Viola et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 93 (2004) 132701, D.S. Bracken et al., Phys. Rev. C 69 (2004) 034612] the observed decrease in spectral peak energies of IMFs emitted from hot nuclei was interpreted in terms of a breakup density that decreased with increasing excitation energy. Subsequently, Raduta et al. [Ad. Raduta et al., Phys. Lett. B 623 (2005) 43] performed MMM simulations that showed decreasing spectral peaks could be obtained at constant density. In this Letter we point out that this apparent inconsistency is due to a selective comparison of theory and data that overlooks the evolution of the fragment multiplicities as a function of excitation energy.     

Density functional investigations on structural and electronic properties of anionic and neutral sodium clusters Na(N) (N = 40-147): comparison with the experimental photoelectron spectra

Density functional calculations have been carried out to obtain low energy equilibrium geometries of anionic and neutral sodium clusters over a wide range of sizes 40 ≤ N ≤ 147, where N is the number of atoms. An exhaustive search for the low energy equilibrium geometries has been carried out. The density of states of the lowest energy geometries are compared with the experimental photoelectron spectra (Huber et al 2009 Phys. Rev. B 80 235425; Kostko et al 2007 Phys. Rev. Lett.98 043401) for N > 41. The agreement between theory and experiment is good for almost all the clusters and the changes in the spectrum with size correlate very well with the changes in the shapes as observed in the evolutionary trend of the ground state geometries.     

Local synchronization in complex networks of coupled oscillators

We investigate the effects that network topology, natural frequency distribution, and system size have on the path to global synchronization as the overall coupling strength between oscillators is increased in a Kuramoto network. In particular, we study the scenario recently found by Go?mez-Garden?es et al. [Phys. Rev. E 73, 056124 (2006)] in which macroscopic global synchronization emerges through a process whereby many small synchronized clusters form, grow, and merge, eventually leading to a macroscopic giant synchronized component. Our main result is that this scenario is robust to an increase in the number of oscillators or a change in the distribution function of the oscillators' natural frequencies, but becomes less prominent as the number of links per oscillator increases.     

Irreversibility of the threshold field for dendritic flux avalanches in superconductors

Hysteretic effects are seen in the upper and lower threshold fields for the appearance of dendritic flux instabilities, first explained in Yurchenko et al. [Phys. Rev. B 76 (2007) 092504], in NbN-films. We have measured the threshold fields at increasing and decreasing applied fields at different temperatures and proposed a mechanism explaining how the hysteresis arises by analyzing the field profiles inside the sample.     

Transport behaviour of a Bose Einstein condensate in a bichromatic optical lattice

We investigate the Bloch and dipole oscillations of a Bose Einstein condensate (BEC) in an optical superlattice. We show that, as the effective mass increases in an optical superlattice, the BEC is localized in accordance with recent experimental observations [J.E. Lye et. al. Phys. Rev. A 75, 061603 (2007)]. In addition, we find that the secondary optical lattice is a useful additional tool to manipulate the dynamics of the atoms.      

Strength, anisotropy, and preferred orientation of solid argon at high pressures

The elasticity and plasticity of materials at high pressure are of great importance for the fundamental insight they provide on bonding properties in dense matter and for applications ranging from geophysics to materials technology. We studied pressure-solidified argon with a boron-epoxy-beryllium composite gasket in a diamond anvil cell (DAC). Employing monochromatic synchrotron x-radiation and imaging plates in a radial diffraction geometry (Singh et al 1998 Phys.?Rev.?Lett.?80 2157; Mao et al 1998 Nature 396 741), we observed low strength in solid argon below 20?GPa, but the strength increases drastically with applied pressure, such that at 55?GPa, the shear strength exceeded 2.7?GPa. The elastic anisotropy at 55?GPa was four times higher than the extrapolated value from 30?GPa. Extensive (111) slip develops under uniaxial compression, as manifested by the preferred crystallographic orientation of (220) in the compression direction. These macroscopic properties reflect basic changes in van der Waals bondings under ultrahigh pressures.