Evolution of an optically pumped ensemble of cold ground-state atoms in weak light fields

The evolution of multipole moments is analyzed for optically pumped cold ground-state atoms in the limit of low saturation of a closed j₀ → j₁ dipole transition. The longest multipole-moment relaxation times are analyzed as functions of ellipticity and frequency detuning from resonance for transitions with j₀ ? 5. The qualitative difference between the evolution toward steady-state Zeeman sublevel populations and dynamics of transient spontaneous emission is demonstrated for transitions of the following types: j → j?1, j → j with integer j, j → j with half-integer j, and j → j + 1.     

Vector correlations in the F + HD reaction

A theoretical study of the orientation of product rotational angular momenta for two chemical reaction channels: F + HD(ν _r = 0, j _r = 0) → HF(ν, j) + D and F + HD(ν _r = 0, j _r = 0) → DF(ν, j) + H at a E _coll = 78.54 meV collision energy was performed. Angular momentum orientation was described on the basis of irreducible tensor operators (state multipoles) expressed through anisotropy transfer coefficients, which contained quantum-mechanical scattering T matrices determined on the basis of exact solutions to quantum scattering equations obtained using the hyperquantization algorithm. The possibility of the existence of substantial orientation of the angular momentum of reaction products j in the direction perpendicular to the scattering plane was demonstrated. The dependences of differential reaction cross sections and state multi-poles on the ν and j quantum numbers were calculated and analyzed. A experimental scheme based on the multiphoton ionization method was suggested. The scheme can be used to detect predicted reaction product angular momentum orientation.     

Mesoscopic fluctuations of thermopower in a periodic antidot lattice

The mesoscopic fluctuations of thermopower (MFT) were experimentally observed in an AlGaAs/GaAs heterojunction with a low-resistance (～0.02h/e²) periodic antidot lattice in the situation where the mesoscopic fluctuations of conductance (MFC) were absent to within the experimental accuracy. The MFT spectrum contained a periodic component associated with the Aharonov-Bohm h/e oscillations in the area occupied by one antidot, whereas the h/2e oscillations were not observed. It is shown that a sizable contribution to the MFT comes from the interference of electron trajectories localized inside billiards formed by four neighboring antidots. Contrary to MFC, the MFT autocorrelation function in single billiards deviates from the Lorentzian form.     

Analytical assessment of some characteristic ratios for <Emphasis Type="Italic">s</Emphasis>-wave superconductors

We evaluate some thermodynamic quantities and characteristic ratios that describe low- and high-temperature s-wave superconducting systems. Based on a set of fundamental equations derived within the conformal transformation method, a simple model is proposed and studied analytically. After including a one-parameter class of fluctuations in the density of states, the mathematical structure of the s-wave superconducting gap, the free energy difference, and the specific heat difference is found and discussed in an analytic manner. Both the zero-temperature limit T = 0 and the subcritical temperature range T ? T_c are discussed using the method of successive approximations. The equation for the ratio R₁, relating the zero-temperature energy gap and the critical temperature, is formulated and solved numerically for various values of the model parameter. Other thermodynamic quantities are analyzed, including a characteristic ratio R₂, quantifying the dynamics of the specific heat jump at the critical temperature. It is shown that the obtained model results coincide with experimental data for low-T_c superconductors. The prospect of application of the presented model in studies of high-T_c superconductors and other superconducting systems of the new generation is also discussed.     

Density functional study of $$\hbox {AgScO}_2$$: Electronic and optical properties

Dielectric relaxation studies of binary (jk) polar mixtures of tetrahydrofuran with N-methyl acetamide, N,N-dimethyl acetamide, N-methyl formamide and N,N-dimethyl formamide dissolved in benzene(i) for different weight fractions (w _{j k} ’s) of the polar solutes and mole fractions (x _j ’s) of tetrahydrofuran at 25 ^°C are attempted by measuring the conductivity of the solution under 9.90 GHz electric field using Debye theory. The estimated relaxation time (τ _{j k} ’s) and dipole moment (μ _{j k} ’s) agree well with the reported values signifying the validity of the proposed methods. Structural and associational aspects are predicted from the plot of τ _{j k} and μ _{j k} against x _j of tetrahydrofuran to arrive at solute–solute (dimer) molecular association upto x _j =0.3 of tetrahydrofuran and thereafter solute–solvent (monomer) molecular association upto x _j =1.0 for all systems except tetrahydrofuran + N,N-dimethyl acetamide.     

On the density fluctuations of the superconducting state

The fluctuations of the number of particles in a subvolumeΩ′≦Ω in the superconducting state are investigated in the framework of the strong coupling limit of the BCS-theory. It is shown for values ofΩ′?Ω these fluctuations are proportional to the subvolumeΩ′ and agree for theseΩ′-values with the density fluctuations of the quasivacuum state.     

The Condition of Applicability for the Extended Boundary Conditions Method for Small Multilayer Particles

We have examined an analog to the extended boundary conditions method (EBCM) with the standard spherical basis, which is popular in light scattering theory, with respect to its applicability to the solution of an electrostatic problem that arises for multilayer scatterers the sizes of which are smaller compared to the wavelength of the incident radiation. It has been found that, in the case of two or more layers, to determine the polarizability and other optical characteristics of particles in the far-field zone, the parameters of the surfaces of layers should obey the condition max{σ₁^(j)} < min{σ₂^(j)}. In this case, appearing infinite systems of linear equations for expansion coefficients of unknown fields have a unique solution, which can be found by the reduction method. For nonspheroidal particles, this condition is related to the convergence radii of expansions of regular and irregular fields outside and inside of the particle, including its shells—R₁^(j) = σ₁^(j) and R₂^(j) = σ₂^(j). In other words, a spherical shell should exist in which expansions of all regular and irregular fields converge simultaneously. This condition is a natural generalization of the result for homogeneous particles, for which such a condition is imposed only on expansions of the “scattered” and internal fields—R₁ < R₂. For spheroidal multilayer particles, which should be singled out into a separate class, the EBCM applicability condition is written as max{σ₁⁽¹⁾, σ₁⁽²⁾, …, σ₁^(J?1), σ₁^(J)} < min{σ₂⁽¹⁾, σ₂⁽²⁾, …, σ₂^(J?1)} and parameters σ₂^(j) of the surfaces of shells are not related to corresponding convergence radii R₂^j of irregular fields. Numerical calculations for two-layer spheroids and pseudospheroids have confirmed completely theoretical inferences. Apart from the EBCM algorithm, an approximate formula has been proposed for the calculation of the polarizability of two-layer particles, in which the polarizability of a two-layer particle is interpreted as a linear combination of the polarizabilities of homogeneous particles that consist of the materials of the shell and core proportionally to their volumes. The range of applicability of this formula is wider than that for the EBCM, and the calculation error is smaller than 1%.     

Residual entropy of spin-s triangular Ising antiferromagnet

We employ a thermodynamic integration method (TIM) to establish the values of the residual entropy for the geometrically frustrated spin-s triangular Ising antiferromagnet, with the spin values s = 1/2, 1, 3/2, 2 and 5/2. The case of s = 1/2, for which the exact value is known, is used to assess the TIM performance. We also obtain an analytical formula for the lower bound in a general spin-s model and conjecture that it should reasonably approximate the true residual entropy for sufficiently large s. Implications of the present results in relation to reliability of the TIM as an indirect method for calculating global thermodynamic quantities, such as the free energy and the entropy, in similar systems involving frustration and/or higher spin values by standard Monte Carlo sampling are briefly discussed.     

Anomalous influence of spin fluctuations on the heat capacity and entropy in a strongly correlated helical ferromagnet MnSi

The influence of spin fluctuations on the thermodynamic properties of a helical ferromagnet MnSi has been investigated in the framework of the Hubbard model with the electronic spectrum determined from the first-principles LDA + U + SO calculation, which is extended taking into account the Hund coupling and the Dzyaloshinskii–Moriya antisymmetric exchange. It has been shown that the ground state of the magnetic material is characterized by large zero-point fluctuations, which disappear at the temperature T* (<T _c is the temperature of the magnetic phase transition). In this case, the entropy abruptly increases, and a lambdashaped anomaly appears in the temperature dependence of the heat capacity at constant volume (C _V (T)). In the temperature range T* < T < T _c , thermal fluctuations lead to the disappearance of the inhomogeneous magnetization. The competition between the increase in the entropy due to paramagnon excitations and its decrease as a result of the reduction in the amplitude of local magnetic moments, under the conditions of strong Hund exchange, is responsible for in the appearance of a “shoulder” in the dependence C _V (T)).     

A Complete Set of Invariant for Bell State and GHZ State

Fano statistical tensor parameters is a well known aspect for expression the density matrix of spin-j states. Enumeration SU(2) invariants for the most general symmetric states were constructed with making use of Multiaxial representation of spin- j density matrix into j(2j+1) axes and 2j real scalars (Sirsi and Adiga J. Russ. Laser Res. 32, 495, 2011). In this paper we will enumerate a complete set of invariants for Bell state and three qubit GHZ state using Multiaxial representation of the density matrix.     

Statistical Mechanics and the Climatology of the Arctic Sea Ice Thickness Distribution

We study the seasonal changes in the thickness distribution of Arctic sea ice, g(h), under climate forcing. Our analytical and numerical approach is based on a Fokker–Planck equation for g(h) (Toppaladoddi and Wettlaufer in Phys Rev Lett 115(14):148501, 2015), in which the thermodynamic growth rates are determined using observed climatology. In particular, the Fokker–Planck equation is coupled to the observationally consistent thermodynamic model of Eisenman and Wettlaufer (Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 106:28–32, 2009). We find that due to the combined effects of thermodynamics and mechanics, g(h) spreads during winter and contracts during summer. This behavior is in agreement with recent satellite observations from CryoSat-2 (Kwok and Cunningham in Philos Trans R Soc A 373(2045):20140157, 2015). Because g(h) is a probability density function, we quantify all of the key moments (e.g., mean thickness, fraction of thin/thick ice, mean albedo, relaxation time scales) as greenhouse-gas radiative forcing, \(\Delta F_0\), increases. The mean ice thickness decays exponentially with \(\Delta F_0\), but much slower than do solely thermodynamic models. This exhibits the crucial role that ice mechanics plays in maintaining the ice cover, by redistributing thin ice to thick ice-far more rapidly than can thermal growth alone.     

Analytic properties of the effective dielectric constant of a two-dimensional Rayleigh model

Analytic properties of the dimensionless static effective dielectric constant f(p, h) of a two-dimensional Rayleigh model (p is the concentration and h is the ratio of the dielectric constants of components) are considered as a function of the complex variable h. It is shown that the only singularities of the function f(p, h) are first-order poles for real h = h _n < 0 (n = 1, 2, ...) with the condensation point h = ?1, which form an infinite discrete (countable) set. The positions of the first ten poles of the function f(p, h) and the residues at these points are calculated and represented graphically versus the concentration. Based on the results obtained, a pole-type approximate formula is proposed that describes the behavior of the function f(p, h) over a wide range of p and complex h.     

Coherent electron-hole BCS state: Study of dynamics

The first experimental study of the evolution of a coherent electron-hole (e-h) BCS-like state in bulk GaAs at room temperature is presented. We explicitly demonstrate that the total spontaneous emission from e-h pairs located within the conduction and valence bands approaches zero when the radiative recombination of the e-h BCS state occurs. This confirms that a vast majority of electrons and holes available are condensed at the very bottoms of the bands and form the BCS state. The average lifetime of this state is measured to be around 300 fs. We also show that the coherence of electrons and holes of the BCS state is preserved for a much longer time compared to the intraband relaxation time T₂.     

A Liouville-type Theorem for Schrödinger Operators

In this paper we prove a sufficient condition, in terms of the behavior of a ground state of a symmetric critical operator P ₁, such that a nonzero subsolution of a symmetric nonnegative operator P ₀ is a ground state. Particularly, if P _j : = ?Δ + V _j , for j = 0,1, are two nonnegative Schrödinger operators defined on \(\Omega\subseteq \mathbb{R}^d\) such that P ₁ is critical in Ω with a ground state φ, the function \(\psi\nleq 0\) is a subsolution of the equation P ₀ u = 0 in Ω and satisfies \(\psi_+\leq C\varphi\) in Ω, then P ₀ is critical in Ω and \(\psi\) is its ground state. In particular, \(\psi\) is (up to a multiplicative constant) the unique positive supersolution of the equation P ₀ u = 0 in Ω. Similar results hold for general symmetric operators, and also on Riemannian manifolds.     

Reciprocal Time Relation of Noncolliding Brownian Motion with Drift

We consider an N-particle system of noncolliding Brownian motion starting from x ₁≤x ₂≤…≤x _N with drift coefficients ν _j , 1≤j≤N satisfying ν ₁≤ν ₂≤…≤ν _N . When all of the initial points are degenerated to be zero, x _j =0, 1≤j≤N, the equivalence is proved between a dilatation with factor 1/t of this drifted process and the noncolliding Brownian motion starting from ν ₁≤ν ₂≤…≤ν _N without drift observed at reciprocal time 1/t, for arbitrary t>0. Using this reciprocal time relation, we study the determinantal property of the noncolliding Brownian motion with drift having finite and infinite numbers of particles.     

Asymptotics of Self-similar Solutions to Coagulation Equations with Product Kernel

We consider mass-conserving self-similar solutions for Smoluchowski’s coagulation equation with kernel K(ξ,η)=(ξη) ^λ with λ∈(0,1/2). It is known that such self-similar solutions g(x) satisfy that x ^?1+2λ g(x) is bounded above and below as x→0. In this paper we describe in detail via formal asymptotics the qualitative behavior of a suitably rescaled function h(x)=h _λ x ^?1+2λ g(x) in the limit λ→0. It turns out that \(h \sim 1+ C x^{\lambda/2} \cos(\sqrt{\lambda} \log x)\) as x→0. As x becomes larger h develops peaks of height 1/λ that are separated by large regions where h is small. Finally, h converges to zero exponentially fast as x→∞. Our analysis is based on different approximations of a nonlocal operator, that reduces the original equation in certain regimes to a system of ODE.     

Nonplanar contribution to the four-loop universal anomalous dimension of the twist-2 Wilson operators in the $$ \mathcal{N} $$ = 4 supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory

The result of the direct component calculation of the nonplanar contribution to the four-loop anomalous dimension of the Konishi operator in the \(\mathcal{N}\) = 4 supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory is reported. The result contains only the ζ(5) term proportional to the ζ(5) contribution in the planar case, which comes only from wrapping corrections. The previous calculations of the leading transcendent contribution to the anomalous dimension of the twist-2 operators for first three even moments are also expanded to the nonplanar case and the same results as in the planar case are obtained up to a general factor. These two results imply that the nonplanar contribution of the four-loop universal anomalous dimension of the twist-2 Wilson operators with an arbitrary Lorentz spin j is proportional to S ₁ ² (j)ζ(5). This result provides a nonstandard square logarithmic asymptotic behavior ln² j for large Lorentz spins j of the operators.     

Spin excitations and thermodynamics of the <Emphasis Type="Italic">t</Emphasis>-<Emphasis Type="Italic">J</Emphasis> model on the honeycomb lattice

We present a spin-rotation-invariant Green-function theory for the dynamic spin susceptibility in the spin-1/2 antiferromagnetic t-J Heisenberg model on the honeycomb lattice. Employing a generalized mean-field approximation for arbitrary temperatures and hole dopings, the electronic spectrum of excitations, the spin-excitation spectrum and thermodynamic quantities (two-spin correlation functions, staggered magnetization, magnetic susceptibility, correlation length) are calculated by solving a coupled system of self-consistency equations for the correlation functions. The temperature and doping dependence of the magnetic (uniform static) susceptibility is ascribed to antiferromagnetic short-range order. Our results on the doping dependencies of the magnetization and susceptibility are analyzed in comparison with previous results for the t-J model on the square lattice.     

Fluctuations for the Ginzburg-Landau $${\nabla \phi}$$ Interface Model on a Bounded Domain

We study the massless field on \({D_n = D \cap \tfrac{1}{n} \mathbf{Z}^2}\), where \({D \subseteq \mathbf{R}^2}\) is a bounded domain with smooth boundary, with Hamiltonian \({\mathcal {H}(h) = \sum_{x \sim y} \mathcal {V}(h(x) - h(y))}\). The interaction \({\mathcal {V}}\) is assumed to be symmetric and uniformly convex. This is a general model for a (2 + 1)-dimensional effective interface where h represents the height. We take our boundary conditions to be a continuous perturbation of a macroscopic tilt: h(x) = n x · u + f(x) for \({x \in \partial D_n,\,u \in \mathbf{R}^2}\), and f : R ² → R continuous. We prove that the fluctuations of linear functionals of h(x) about the tilt converge in the limit to a Gaussian free field on D, the standard Gaussian with respect to the weighted Dirichlet inner product \({(f,g)_\nabla^\beta = \int_D \sum_i \beta_i \partial_i f_i \partial_i g_i}\) for some explicit β = β(u). In a subsequent article, we will employ the tools developed here to resolve a conjecture of Sheffield that the zero contour lines of h are asymptotically described by SLE(4), a conformally invariant random curve.