Stabilization by dissipation and stochastic resonant activation in quantum metastable systems

In this tutorial paper we present a comprehensive review of the escape dynamics from quantum metastable states in dissipative systems and related noise-induced effects. We analyze the role of dissipation and driving in the escape process from quantum metastable states with and without an external driving force, starting from a nonequilibrium initial condition. We use the Caldeira–Leggett model and a non-perturbative theoretical technique within the Feynman–Vernon influence functional approach in strong dissipation regime. In the absence of driving, we find that the escape time from the metastable region has a nonmonotonic behavior versus the system-bath coupling and the temperature, producing a stabilizing effect in the quantum metastable system. In the presence of an external driving, the escape time from the metastable region has a nonmonotonic behavior as a function of the frequency of the driving, the thermal-bath coupling and the temperature. The quantum noise enhanced stability phenomenon is observed in both systems investigated. Finally, we analyze the resonantly activated escape from a quantum metastable state in the spin-boson model. We find quantum stochastic resonant activation, that is the presence of a minimum in the escape time as a function of the driving frequency. Background and introductory material has been added in the first three sections of the paper to make this tutorial review reasonably self-contained and readable for graduate students and non-specialists from related areas.     

Purely quadratic dispersion of surface plasmon in Ag/Ni(111): the influence of electron confinement

Surface plasmon dispersion in nanoscale thin Ag films deposited onto the Ni(111) surface was investigated by angle‐resolved electron energy loss spectroscopy. We found that the dispersion curve contains only the quadratic term. The vanishing of the linear term was ascribed to the presence in the film of Ag 5sp‐related quantum well states. Screening effects enhanced by electron confinement in Ag quantum well states push the position of the centroid of the induced charge of the surface plasmon less inside the interface compared to other Ag systems, rendering null the linear coefficient of the dispersion curve. (© 2008 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

A review of the dynamical susceptibility in different complex systems

The dynamical susceptibility has been introduced to characterize the dynamical heterogeneities in glass forming liquids. We have used it as a tool to investigate the slow dynamics of other disordered systems such as gels, granular media and spin glasses. We review here the results obtained via numerical simulations of different model systems. The comparative study of the behaviour of the dynamical susceptibility sheds some light on the significant differences in the complex slow dynamics of glasses, spin glasses, granular media, irreversible gels, and colloidal gels.     

Metallization of the Ge(111) surface at high-temperature probed by energy-loss and Auger spectroscopies

We present new electron energy-loss spectroscopy (EELS) and Auger (AES) experiments aimed to study the structural transition of the Ge(111) surface taking place at high temperatures. Our advanced high-temperature set-up allowed us to collect accurate EELS spectra near the M_2,3 excitation edges and AES MMV and MVV spectra, corresponding to different probing depths ranging from 4 to 10 Å. The metallization of the surface has been clearly detected by the shift of the M_2,3 edge and of the MMV, MVV Auger energies. A detailed study of the transition has been performed using a fine temperature step under thermal equilibrium conditions. The AES and EELS experiments show that a sudden semiconductor-metal transition takes place at about 1000 K involving mainly the topmost layers. Deeper layers within 10 Å are also involved in the metallization process (in a range of 10 above 1010 K) and a smooth change in the topmost layers is also observed at higher temperatures up to 1070 K. These transitions are not fully reversible upon cooling (down to 870 K). Structural and electronic characteristics of the surface transition are discussed in light of available models.     

Absorbance spectra of polycrystalline samples and twinned crystals of oligothiophenes

We propose optical absorption technique at oblique incidence as one of the spectroscopic tools that allow experimentally recognizing the macroscopic order and structural features of molecular solids of conjugated molecules, from single crystals to polycrystalline or twinned samples. We apply this spectroscopy to quaterthiophene as representative of a wide class of materials that usually possess optical transitions of Frenkel exciton origin with strong directional dispersion. The comparison between experimental and simulated data gives evidence of the high sensitivity of this technique for determining quantitatively the polycrystallinity of the measured samples, whose domains may show mirror-like orientation of the unit cell with respect to one of its faces.Frenkel exciton; Oligothiophene, Optical properties     

The limits of the rotating wave approximation in electromagnetic field propagation in a cavity

We consider three two-level atoms inside a one-dimensional cavity, interacting with the electromagnetic field in the rotating wave approximation (RWA). One of the three atoms is initially excited, and the other two are in their ground state. We numerically calculate the propagation of the field emitted by the excited atom and scattered by the second atom, as well as the excitation probability of the second and third atom. Our numerical results clearly show the limits of the RWA in subtle problems such as relativistic causality in the atom–field interaction.     

Large-scale effects on meso-scale modeling for scalar transport

The transport of scalar quantities passively advected by velocity fields with a component at small scale ℓ can be modeled at scales larger than ℓ by means of an effective drift and an effective diffusivity, which can be determined by means of multiple-scale techniques. We show that the presence of a weak flow at large scales Lℓ induces interesting effects on the scalar transport at the meso-scales (i.e. at scales intermediate between ℓ and L). In particular, it gives rise to non-isotropic and non-homogeneous corrections to the meso-scale drift and diffusivity. We discuss an approximation that allows us to retain the second-order effects caused by the large-scale flow. This provides a rather accurate meso-scale modeling for both asymptotic and pre-asymptotic scalar transport properties. Numerical simulations in model flows are used to illustrate the importance of such large-scale effects.     

A diagram approach to the strong coupling in the single-impurity Anderson model

We propose a diagram theory around the atomic limit for the single-impurity Anderson model in which the strongly correlated impurity electrons hybridize with free (uncorrelated) conduction electrons. Using this diagram approach, we prove a linked-cluster theorem for the vacuum diagrams and derive Dyson-type equations for localized and conduction electrons and the corresponding equations for mixed propagators. The system of equations can be closed by summing an infinite series of ladder diagrams containing irreducible Green’s functions. The result allows discussing resonances associated with quantum transitions at the impurity site. __________ Translated from Teoreticheskaya i Matematicheskaya Fizika, Vol. 155, No. 3, pp. 474–497, June, 2008.