Quasi-linear response theory of statistical heavy-ion collisions: (II). Analysis of the friction tensor and the energy transport

We apply the recently proposed quasi-linear response theory to the study of energy transport in deep inelastic heavy-ion collisions. By solving a master equation, we show how quickly the canonical distribution function becomes a good representation of the intrinsic state in the case of the random intrinsic excitations proposed by Weidenmüller and co-workers. We numerically analyze the properties of the corresponding friction tensor. In addition, we demonstrate that the known fluctuation dissipation theorem in the linear response theory is considerably violated for large part of deep inelastic collisions. We then calculate the double differential cross section for three typical examples. The results agree well with the experimental data if we phenomenologically introduce a time-dependent potential. We remark on the difference of the present calculation from that of the linear response theory. We comment also on the validity of a time-dependent theory, which derives the basic equations from time-independent equations by assuming a one-to-one correspondence between the time and the relative distance.     

Transient spike adding in the presence of equilibria

Many models of neuronal activity exhibit complex oscillations in response to an input from other neurons in a network or to an input from a stimulus. We consider the effect of a single short stimulus on a simple model designed to mimic some features of neuronal dynamics. We focus on the transient response induced by the stimulus, particularly on the spike-adding behaviour of the response. Our main goal is to explain how the transient response is affected by the presence of unstable equilibria. We also investigate the dependence of the number of spikes on the amplitude and duration of the stimulus. In our analysis, we use numerical continuation methods and exploit the presence of different time scales in the model.     

Ashkin-Teller Formalism for Elastic Response of DNA Molecule to External Force and Torque

We propose an Ashkin-Teller-like model for elastic response of DNA molecule to external force and torque. The base-stacking interaction is described in a simple and uniform way. We obtain the phase diagram of dsDNA, and in particular, the transition from 13 form to the S state induced by stretching and twisting. The elastic response of the ssDNA is presented also in a unified formalism. The close relation of dsDNA molecule structure with elastic response is shown clearly. The calculated folding angle of the dsDNA molecule is 59.2°.     

Current response of a superlattice irradiated with nonequilibrium phonons

We studied a biased superlattice and revealed a considerable current response to irradiation by non-equilibrium acoustic phonons with an effective temperature on the order of a few Kelvins. We discuss two phonon source-superlattice configurations, for which the current response is caused by either interwell or intrawell electron transitions. We have shown that the response is sensitive to both direction and spectral distribution of phonons. The results explain recent experiments on the phonon-induced current response and prove that the superlattices can be used for the characterization of a high-frequency phonon flux.     

Fast voltage transients in capacitive silicon-to-cell stimulation detected with a luminescent molecular electronic probe

The capacitive stimulation of nerve cells from semiconductor chips is a prerequisite for the development of neuroelectronic devices. We report on the primary response of a cell membrane to a voltage step applied to oxidized silicon. It is observed with a luminescent voltage-sensitive dye. We find exponential voltage transients with a time constant of 1-5 micros. We assign the short response to an electrical decoupling by a thin film of electrolyte between oxide and membrane. The high-pass filtering of stimulation is a crucial constraint for the development of silicon-to-neuron interfaces.     

Microscopic theory of surface dielectric response in a local representation

We give a formulation of surface dielectric response in a local LCAO or Wannier representation. It is shown that this representation allows for a practical solution of the response integral equation and thus makes possible an explicit and self-consistent calculation of the nonlocal RPA response function ?^-1. The formulation takes into account lattice potential effects and is therefore particularly suited for investigations of surface dielectric response and screening in transition metals, semiconductors and insulators. We present model calculations of charge densities induced in a metal thin film by localized perturbations in the surface region. It is demonstrated that “surface effects”, resulting from differences in the effective atomic potential for different layers, must be included in calculations of surface response in systems with tightly bound electrons.     

Gas-mediated impact dynamics in fine-grained granular materials

Noncohesive granular media exhibit complex responses to sudden impact that often differ from those of ordinary solids and liquids. We investigate how this response is mediated by the presence of interstitial gas between the grains. Using high-speed x-ray radiography we track the motion of a steel sphere through the interior of a bed of fine, loose granular material. We find a crossover from nearly incompressible, fluidlike behavior at atmospheric pressure to a highly compressible, dissipative response once most of the gas is evacuated. We discuss these results in light of recent proposals for the drag force in granular media.     

Molecular and Functional Aspects of Bacterial Chemotaxis

We consider the dynamics of chemotaxis in the model bacterium Escherichia coli. We analyze both its molecular mechanisms and the functional causes governing the evolution of the observed behaviors. We review molecular models of the transduction network controlling the bacterial chemotaxis in response to chemoattractant binding to the receptors. In particular, recent progress stimulated by FRET experiments is presented for statistical physics allosteric models. The response function to a pulse of chemoattractant is expressed in terms of microscopic parameters of the allosteric models. The functional causes for the shape of the response function, as measured in experimental tethering assay, are then investigated. A hydrodynamic equation, valid for space-time scales larger than the microscopic running length and time, is derived for the position of a swimming bacterium. It is then shown how optimization over the microscopic parameters of the response function yields the curve observed experimentally. In particular, the observed property of adaptation to the background level of aspartate emerges as being produced by fluctuations in the space-time chemoattractant profiles sensed by bacteria along their trajectories. This functional cause is distinct from arguments based on the extension of the dynamical range. Future directions and experiments to probe the adaptation of E. coli chemotaxis to the environmental conditions and its response to realistic space-time chemoattractant stimuli are finally discussed.     

Transition to coherence in populations of coupled chaotic oscillators: a linear response approach

We consider the collective dynamics in an ensemble of globally coupled chaotic maps. The transition to the coherent state with a macroscopic mean field is analyzed in the framework of the linear response theory. The linear response function for the chaotic system is obtained using the perturbation approach to the Frobenius-Perron operator. The transition point is defined from this function by virtue of the self-excitation condition for the feedback loop. Analytical results for the coupled Bernoulli maps are confirmed by the numerics.     

Inertial effects in the response of viscous and viscoelastic fluids

We consider the effect of inertia on the high frequency response of a general linear viscoelastic material to local deformations. We calculate the displacement response and correlation functions for points separated by a distance r. The effects of inertia and incompressibility lead to anticorrelations in the correlation or response functions, which become more pronounced for more elastic materials. Furthermore, the stress propagation in viscoelastic media is no longer diffusive, as for simple liquids.     

Determination of Aberration Coefficient of Microoptic Arrays from Axial Confocal Response by Neural Method

We propose a high-speed and parallel method to determine lens aberrations from its confocal axial response. This method analyzes the intensity confocal response including the aberration information of the objective lens by means of neural network algorithm. This method is designed to work parallely for many microlenses, and simultaneously determines aberrations of each element of a microlens array. A prototype system can determine spherical aberration coefficients of a microlens in the range from −0.7λ to 0.3λ with less than 1% RMS error.     

Influence of the size,geometry and temporal response of the finite piezoelectric sensor on the photoacoustic signal: the case of the point-like source

Most photoacoustic (PA) work assumes a point-like detection of generated pressure waves; this assumption results in important differences between predicted and experimental signals, as shown in this paper. We used the geometry of a real sensor in the theoretical signal generation through the discretization of the sensing surface, considering each element as a point-like sensor. We modeled the interaction between the wavefront and the real sensor, starting from a well-known PA pressure relation for a point-like source and punctual detection. We obtained the electrical response of the real sensor experimentally and modeled it as a summation of Gaussian functions. The impulse response was convolved with the total PA pressure to obtain the theoretical PA signal. We analyzed the dependence of the source-sensor distance on the discretization size. Then the predicted signal and experimental data were compared for two different frequency response transducers. We found differences in shape and temporal width of simulated PA signals for point-like-source/punctual-detection model and for point-like-source/finite-sensor model.     

Depinning of a metastable disordered vortex lattice

We report on experiments investigating the depinning dynamics of a strongly pinned vortex lattice in 2H-NbSe2. We find that the depinning process starts at currents that are well below the critical current of the entire lattice and that it is governed by the formation of contiguous channels of mobile vortices connecting the sample edges. We obtain the formation time of the first channel by monitoring the delayed voltage response to a driving current step and by measuring the ramping rate dependence of the critical current. The subsequent increase in the number of moving vortices is determined from the temporal evolution of the voltage response and the critical current.     

Electro-optic detection of femtosecond electromagnetic pulses by use of poled polymers

We report the generation and coherent detection of freely propagating ultrashort baseband electromagnetic pulses. Using optical rectification in ?110? GaAs for wideband emission and electro-optic sampling in a poled polymer for wideband detection, we demonstrate spectral sensitivity that extends from the far infrared (lambda~100 mum) to ~33 THz(lambda = 9 mum) . Over a band of nearly 20 THz, a relatively flat frequency response is observed. We discuss issues that limit the response bandwidth.     

Current partition in multiprobe conductors in the presence of slowly oscillating external potentials

In the presence of a static potential drop a carrier stream incident at a contact of the sample is partitioned into the other contacts according to the transmission probabilities of the sample. The bare response to oscillating potentials, on the other hand, violates current conservation due to the piling up of unscreened charges in the sample, and has to be modified by taking the induced screening potential into account. We present a novel derivation of the conductance response to oscillating external chemical potentials, find the response to an arbitrary internal potential in terms of functional derivatives with respect to the local potential of the scattering matrix of the conductor, and determine the screening potential for slowly oscillating potentials from the condition of local charge neutrality. We find that the current partitioning depends on ratios of local densities of states which reflect the injection and emission properties of the contacts of the sample.     

Onset of motion and dynamic reordering of a vortex lattice

Time resolved transport measurements on a driven vortex lattice in an undoped 2H-NbSe2 crystal show that the response to a current pulse is governed by healing of defects as the lattice evolves from a stationary to a moving steady state and that the response time reflects the degree of order in the initial vortex state. We find that stationary field cooled vortex lattices become more ordered with decreasing temperature and identify a temperature below which a qualitative change in the response signals the disappearance of topological defects.     

Measurement of the frequency response of a diaphragm-based pressure sensor by use of a pulsed excimer laser

We present a novel method for measuring the frequency response of a diaphragm-based optical fiber Fabry-Perot interferometric pressure sensor. The impulse response of the sensor to the radiation pressure generated by an excimer laser pulse is measured. The Fourier transform of the impulse response yields the frequency response of the pressure sensor. Experimental results show that it is a convenient and efficient method for measurement of the frequency response of diaphragm-based pressure sensors.     

Dynamical response of nanomechanical oscillators in immiscible viscous fluid for in vitro biomolecular recognition

Dynamical response of nanomechanical cantilever structures immersed in a viscous fluid is important to in vitro single-molecule force spectroscopy, biomolecular recognition of disease-specific proteins, and the study of microscopic protein dynamics. Here we study the stochastic response of biofunctionalized nanomechanical cantilever beams in a viscous fluid. Using the fluctuation-dissipation theorem we derive an exact expression for the spectral density of displacement and a linear approximation for resonance frequency shift. We find that in a viscous solution the frequency shift of the nanoscale cantilever is determined by surface stress generated by biomolecular interaction with negligible contributions from mass loading due to the biomolecules.     

Electrostrictive response in single-mode ring-index-profile fibers

We have theoretically investigated, for what is to our knowledge the first time, the electrostrictive response in a single-mode ring-core fiber. We found that the electrostrictive response function differs strongly from those of standard fibers with a Gaussian light-intensity profile.     

Optical response of the copper surface to carbon monoxide deposition

The optical response of the Cu surface upon CO deposition is investigated from the clean Cu(110) to the reconstructed CO/Cu(110)-p(2x1) geometry through ab initio electronic structure calculations. We ascribe the relevant structures in the calculated reflectance anisotropy spectrum of the reconstructed phase to the persistence of surface states transitions. These are excited by light polarized along the direction perpendicular to the one found at the clean surface. We devise a simple model for the evolution of the optical response in the adsorption process, identifying three different regimes. The impurity regime, at very low coverages, is characterized by a critical coverage that enhances the actual one by a factor of approximately 30, close to the value estimated experimentally.