Ground-state energy of dilute neutron matter at next-to-leading order in lattice chiral effective field theory

We present lattice calculations for the ground-state energy of dilute neutron matter at next-to-leading order in chiral effective field theory. This study follows a series of recent papers on low-energy nuclear physics using chiral effective field theory on the lattice. In this work we introduce an improved spin- and isospin-projected leading-order action which allows for a perturbative treatment of corrections at next-to-leading order and smaller estimated errors. Using auxiliary fields and Euclidean-time projection Monte Carlo, we compute the ground state of 8, 12, and 16 neutrons in a periodic cube, covering a density range from 2% to 10% of normal nuclear density.     

The symmetric heavy-light ansatz

The symmetric heavy-light ansatz is a method for finding the ground state of any dilute unpolarized system of attractive two-component fermions. Operationally it can be viewed as a generalization of the Kohn-Sham equations in density functional theory applied to N -body density correlations. While the original Hamiltonian has an exact Z₂ symmetry, the heavy-light ansatz breaks this symmetry by skewing the mass ratio of the two components. In the limit where one component is infinitely heavy, the many-body problem can be solved in terms of single-particle orbitals. The original Z₂ symmetry is recovered by enforcing Z₂ symmetry as a constraint on N -body density correlations for the two components. For the 1D, 2D, and 3D attractive Hubbard models the method is in very good agreement with exact Lanczos calculations for few-body systems at arbitrary coupling. For the 3D attractive Hubbard model there is very good agreement with lattice Monte Carlo results for many-body systems in the limit of infinite scattering length.     

Systematics of collective correlation energies from self-consistent mean-field calculations

We study nucleon-nucleon scattering on the lattice at next-to-leading order in chiral effective field theory. We determine phase shifts and mixing angles from the properties of two-nucleon standing waves induced by a hard spherical wall in the center-of-mass frame. At fixed lattice spacing we test model independence of the low-energy effective theory by computing next-to-leading-order corrections for two different leading-order lattice actions. The first leading-order action includes instantaneous one-pion exchange and same-site contact interactions. The second leading-order action includes instantaneous one-pion exchange and Gaussian-smeared interactions. We find that in each case the results at next-to-leading order are accurate up to corrections expected at higher order.     

Lattice simulations for light nuclei: Chiral effective field theory at leading order

We discuss lattice simulations of light nuclei at leading order in the chiral effective field theory. Using lattice pion fields and auxiliary fields, we include the physics of instantaneous one-pion exchange and the leading-order S-wave contact interactions. We also consider higher-derivative contact interactions which adjust the S-wave scattering amplitude at higher momenta. By construction our lattice path integral is positive definite in the limit of exact Wigner SU(4) symmetry for any even number of nucleons. This SU(4) positivity and the approximate SU(4) symmetry of the low-energy interactions play an important role in suppressing sign and phase oscillations in Monte Carlo simulations. We assess the computational scaling of the lattice algorithm for light nuclei with up to eight nucleons and analyze in detail calculations of the deuteron, triton, and helium-4.     

First excitations of the spin 1/2 Heisenberg antiferromagnet on the kagomé lattice

We study the exact low energy spectra of the spin 1/2 Heisenberg antiferromagnet on small samples of the kagomé lattice of up to N=36 sites. In agreement with the conclusions of previous authors, we find that these low energy spectra contradict the hypothesis of Néel type long range order. Certainly, the ground state of this system is a spin liquid, but its properties are rather unusual. The magnetic () excitations are separated from the ground state by a gap. However, this gap is filled with nonmagnetic () excitations. In the thermodynamic limit the spectrum of these nonmagnetic excitations will presumably develop into a gapless continuum adjacent to the ground state. Surprisingly, the eigenstates of samples with an odd number of sites, i.e. samples with an unsaturated spin, exhibit symmetries which could support long range chiral order. We do not know if these states will be true thermodynamic states or only metastable ones. In any case, the low energy properties of the spin 1/2 Heisenberg antiferromagnet on the kagomé lattice clearly distinguish this system from either a short range RVB spin liquid or a standard chiral spin liquid. Presumably they are facets of a generically new state of frustrated two-dimensional quantum antiferromagnets. Received: 27 November 1997 / Accepted: 29 January 1998     

Fragmentation of CO+ molecular ion through dissociative excited states produced by swift multicharged heavy ion impact on CO molecules

We report the observation of resonances in the intensity correlation spectra of a 3D rubidium optical lattice, which we attribute to light scattering from propagating atomic density fluctuations in the lattice. This process is the spontaneous analog of the stimulated scattering mechanism recently described by Courtois et al.. We investigate the dependence of the new resonances on the lattice angle and show that they disappear for large angles, thus resolving previous discrepancies on the subject. Received: 30 January 1997 / Accepted: 9 October 1997     

Classical spin liquid properties of the infinite-component spin vector model on a fully frustrated two dimensional lattice

Thermodynamic quantities and correlation functions (CFs) of the classical antiferromagnet on the checkerboard lattice are studied for the exactly solvable infinite-component spin-vector model, D↦∞. In contrast to conventional two-dimensional magnets with continuous symmetry showing extended short-range order at distances smaller than the correlation length, r ξ _c∝ exp(T ^*/T), correlations in the checkerboard-lattice model decay already at the scale of the lattice spacing due to the strong degeneracy of the ground state characterized by a macroscopic number of strongly fluctuating local degrees of freedom. At low temperatures, spin CFs decay as < >∝ 1/r ² in the range a ₀≪r≪ξ _c∝T ^-1/2, where a₀ is the lattice spacing. Analytical results for the principal thermodynamic quantities in our model are very similar with MC simulations, exact and analytical results for the classical Heisenberg model (D = 3) on the pyrochlore lattice. This shows that the ground state of the infinite-component spin vector model on the checkerboard lattice is a classical spin liquid. Received 16 November 2001 and Received in final form 12 February 2002     

Nonresonant interaction of femtosecond laser pulse with centrosymmetric molecules

We have derived a system of equations that describes the evolution of the density matrix of a centrosymmetric molecule interacting with a single nonresonant femtosecond laser pulse. The dynamics of the ground electronic state is expressed in terms of the effective Hamiltonian and the coherences between the ground an excited electronic states are functionals of the ground state density matrix. Using the time-dependent perturbation theory, we have calculated the energy deposited in the molecule as a result of rotational stimulated Raman scattering. The effective absorption coefficient is found to be proportional to the fourth power of the pulse amplitude and has a resonance-like dependence with respect to the pulse duration.     

Quantitative measurement of image intensity in transmission electron microscope images

We have made a thorough comparison of the ability of image simulations to predict the contrast in high-resolution electron microscope lattice images of GaAs. Simulations of the diffracted beam intensities from thickness fringes generally agreed with observations to within ∼20% over a range of GaAs thicknesses up to 150 nm. Likewise, simulations of lattice images agreed qualitatively with experimental lattice images over a range of defocus and sample thicknesses up to 20 nm. However, using the same parameters as for the diffracted beam intensities, lattice fringe amplitudes were calculated to be typically two to three times higher than observed experimentally.     

Semiclassical ordering in the large-N pyrochlore antiferromagnet

We study the semiclassical limit of the Sp(N) generalization of the pyrochlore lattice Heisenberg antiferromagnet by expanding about the N --> infinity saddlepoint in powers of a generalized inverse spin. To leading order, we write down an effective Hamiltonian as a series in loops on the lattice. Using this as a formula for calculating the energy of any classical ground state, we perform Monte Carlo simulations and find a unique collinear ground state. This state is not a ground state of linear spin-wave theory, and can therefore not be a physical (N = 1) semiclassical ground state.     

Collapse transitions of a periodic hydrophilic hydrophobic chain

We study a single self avoiding hydrophilic hydrophobic polymer chain, through Monte-Carlo lattice simulations. The affinity of monomer i for water is characterized by a (scalar) charge , and the monomer-water interaction is short-ranged. Assuming incompressibility yields an effective short ranged interaction between monomer pairs (i,j), proportional to . In this article, we take (resp. ()) for hydrophilic (resp. hydrophobic) monomers and consider a chain with (i) an equal number of hydro-philic and -phobic monomers (ii) a periodic distribution of the along the chain, with periodicity 2p. The simulations are done for various chain lengths N, in d=2 (square lattice) and d=3 (cubic lattice). There is a critical value p _c (d,N) of the periodicity, which distinguishes between different low temperature structures. For p >p _c , the ground state corresponds to a macroscopic phase separation between a dense hydrophobic core and hydrophilic loops. For p <p _c (but not too small), one gets a microscopic (finite scale) phase separation, and the ground state corresponds to a chain or network of hydrophobic droplets, coated by hydrophilic monomers. We restrict our study to two extreme cases, and to illustrate the physics of the various phase transitions. A tentative variational approach is also presented. Received: 10 March 1998 / Received in final form: 25 June 1998 / Accepted: 1st July 1998     

Antiferromagnetic order and phase transitions in GdS as studied with X-ray resonance-exchange scattering

We report on X-ray resonance exchange and neutron scattering of metallic GdS. At the L_II and L _III absorption edges of Gd, resonance enhancements of more than two orders of magnitude over the non-resonant magnetic scattering are observed. Polarisation analysis proves that these enhancements are due to dipolar transitions from the 2p to the 5d states. The branching ratio between the L_II and L _III edges of 2.5 suggests a polarisation of the 5d electrons in the ground state. The antiferromagnetic order is of type II in the fcc lattice. Single crystal diffraction of hot neutrons suggests that the spin direction lies within the (111) planes with a value for the sublattice magnetisation of 6.51(3) . The critical exponent for the sublattice magnetisation has a value of β = 0.38(2) in agreement with a pure Heisenberg model. Above T _N, a sharp component persists in the critical diffuse scattering. Lattice distortions give indications for two additional low-temperature phase transitions at about 49 K and 32 K. We argue that these transitions are not connected to spin reorientations and discuss the possible influence of fourth-order exchange interactions. Received 19 November 1999 and Received in final form 12 December 2000     

Pairing mechanism in the doped Hubbard antiferromagnet: the 4×4 model as a test case

We introduce a local formalism, in terms of eigenstates of number operators, having well defined point symmetry, to solve the Hubbard model at weak coupling on a N × N square lattice (for even N). The key concept is that of W = 0 states, that are the many-body eigenstates of the kinetic energy with vanishing Hubbard repulsion. At half filling, the wave function demonstrates an antiferromagnetic order, a lattice step translation being equivalent to a spin flip. Further, we state a general theorem which allows to find all the W = 0 pairs (two-body W = 0 singlet states). We show that, in special cases, this assigns the ground state symmetries at least in the weak coupling regime. The N = 4 case is discussed in detail. To study the doped half filled system, we enhance the group theory analysis of the 4×4 Hubbard model introducing an Optimal Group which explains all the degeneracies in the one-body and many-body spectra. We use the Optimal Group to predict the possible ground state symmetries of the 4×4 doped antiferromagnet by means of our general theorem and the results are in agreement with exact diagonalization data. Then we create W = 0 electron pairs over the antiferromagnetic state. We show analitycally that the effective interaction between the electrons of the pairs is attractive and forms bound states. Computing the corresponding binding energy we are able to definitely predict the exact ground state symmetry. Received 24 October 2000     

Quantum corrections to the energy density of a homogeneous Bose gas

Quantum corrections to the properties of a homogeneous interacting Bose gas at zero temperature can be calculated as a low-density expansion in powers of , where is the number density and a is the S-wave scattering length. We calculate the ground state energy density to second order in . The coefficient of the correction has a logarithmic term that was calculated in 1959. We present the first calculation of the constant under the logarithm. The constant depends not only on a, but also on an extra parameter that describes the low energy scattering of the bosons. In the case of alkali atoms, we argue that the second order quantum correction is dominated by the logarithmic term, where the argument of the logarithm is ,and is the length scale set by the van der Waals potential. Received 2 February 1999     

Determination of the calcium ground state scattering length by photoassociation spectroscopy at large detunings

Photoassociation spectroscopy was used to determine the s-wave scattering length of ⁴⁰Ca atoms in their electronic ground state. Vibrational levels were observed in an extended range of up to 182 GHz below the dissociation limit 4s^{2 1}S₀–4s4p ¹P₁. Thus, the frequency interval was nearly tripled, in which photoassociation was observed compared to previous measurements. The spectra were analyzed by means of quantum mechanical simulations. With the new data it was possible to resolve the discrepancy concerning the ground state scattering length presented in earlier publications [Phys. Rev. A 67, 043408 (2003); Eur. Phys. J. D 26, 155 (2003)]. An improved dipole-dipole coupling constant C₃ ^Σ = 0.52306(20) ×10³ cm^-1 nm³ is obtained.     

Screened potential and quarkonia properties at high temperatures

We perform a quark model calculation of the quarkonia b and c spectra using smooth and sudden string breaking potentials. The screening parameter is scale dependent and can be related to an effective running gluon mass that has a finite infrared fixed point. A temperature dependence for the screening mass is motivated by lattice QCD simulations at finite temperature. Qualitatively different results are obtained for quarkonia properties close to a critical value of the deconfining temperature when a smooth or a sudden string breaking potential is used. In particular, with a sudden string breaking potential quarkonia radii remain almost independent of the temperature up to the critical point, only well above the critical point the radii increase significantly. Such a behavior will impact the phenomenology of quarkonia interactions in medium, in particular for scattering dissociation processes.     

Selective preparation of ground state wave-packets: a theoretical analysis of femtosecond pump-dump-probe experiments on the potassium dimer

We present simulations on pump-dump-probe experiments performed on the potassium dimer. The interaction of two time-delayed laser pulses prepares vibrational wave packets in the electronic ground state. The quantum calculations reveal to what extent it is possible to prepare a ground state superposition of states with high versus low vibrational quantum numbers by changing the pump-dump delay time. It is shown that transient signals may exhibit interference effects which are due to characteristics of ground state wave-packets composed of two components showing different vibrational dynamics. In this way the signals are able to yield information about vibrational overtone motion. Received 27 September 2000 and Received in final form 21 November 2000     

Quantum ice: a quantum Monte Carlo study

Ice states, in which frustrated interactions lead to a macroscopic ground-state degeneracy, occur in water ice, in problems of frustrated charge order on the pyrochlore lattice, and in the family of rare-earth magnets collectively known as spin ice. Of particular interest at the moment are "quantum spin-ice" materials, where large quantum fluctuations may permit tunnelling between a macroscopic number of different classical ground states. Here we use zero-temperature quantum Monte Carlo simulations to show how such tunnelling can lift the degeneracy of a spin or charge ice, stabilizing a unique "quantum-ice" ground state-a quantum liquid with excitations described by the Maxwell action of (3+1)-dimensional quantum electrodynamics. We further identify a competing ordered squiggle state, and show how both squiggle and quantum-ice states might be distinguished in neutron scattering experiments on a spin-ice material.     

Spatial diffusion in a periodic optical lattice: revisiting the Sisyphus effect

We numerically study the spatial diffusion of an atomic cloud experiencing Sisyphus cooling in a three-dimensional linlin optical lattice in a broad range of lattice parameters. In particular, we investigate the dependence on the size of the lattice sites which changes with the angle between the laser beams. We show that the steady-state temperature is largely independent of the lattice angle, but that the spatial diffusion changes significantly. It is shown that the numerical results fulfill the Einstein relations of Brownian motion in the jumping regime as well as in the oscillating regime. We finally derive an effective Brownian motion model from first principles which gives good agreement with the simulations. Received 8 August 2001 and Received in final form 6 November 2001