Microscopic description of low-energy neutron scattering by nuclei

The Bloch and Gillet shell-model formalism extended to continuum states is applied to lowenergy neutron scattering by nuclei. It is shown that complete antisymmetrization leads in the r-representation to corrective terms which yield important corrections to the scattering lengths. Calculations are performed within a model restricted configuration space for the target nuclei ¹²C, ¹³C, ¹⁶O, ¹⁷O and ⁴⁰Ca. We predict values for the spin-dependent scattering amplitude for ¹³C and ¹⁷O. The antisymmetrization problem in the case of a large configuration mixing is studied for the ¹⁹F target nucleus. The resonant effects of the compound nucleus are then very important and the results become very sensitive to the configuration space and the interaction parameters.     

Creating ground state molecules with optical feshbach resonances in tight traps

We propose to create ultracold ground state molecules in an atomic Bose-Einstein condensate by adiabatic crossing of an optical Feshbach resonance. We envision a scheme where the laser intensity and possibly also frequency are linearly ramped over the resonance. Our calculations for (87)Rb show that for sufficiently tight traps it is possible to avoid spontaneous emission while retaining adiabaticity, and conversion efficiencies of up to 50% can be expected.     

Two-point time-series measurements of minor-species concentrations in a turbulent nonpremixed flame

We report a technique that is capable of making simultaneous two-point time-series measurements of minor-species concentrations in turbulent flames. The experimental setup, which incorporates picosecond time-resolved laser-induced fluorescence, has a spatial resolution of less than 250 microm and a temporal resolution of less than 100 micros, which spatially and temporally resolve microscales in many turbulent flows. Two-point time-series data are given for a standard turbulent nonpremixed flame at Re= 10,000, including a discussion of potential implications.     

Detection of topological transitions by transport through molecules and nanodevices

We analyze the phase transitions of an interacting electronic system weakly coupled to free-electron leads by considering its zero-bias conductance. This is expressed in terms of two effective impurity models for the cases with and without spin degeneracy. Using the half-filled ionic Hubbard ring, we demonstrate that the weight of the first conductance peak as a function of external flux or of the difference in gate voltages between even and odd sites allows one to identify the topological charge transition between a correlated insulator and a band insulator.