Classical analogs for Rabi-oscillations,Ramsey-fringes,and spin-echo in Josephson junctions

We investigate the results of recently published experiments on the quantum behavior of Josephson circuits in terms of the classical modeling based on the resistively and capacitively-shunted (RCSJ) junction model. Our analysis shows evidence for a close analogy between the nonlinear behavior of a pulsed microwave-driven Josephson junction at low temperature and low dissipation and the experimental observations reported for the Josephson circuits. Specifically, we demonstrate that Rabi-oscillations, Ramsey-fringes, and spin-echo observations are not phenomena with a unique quantum interpretation. In fact, they are natural consequences of transients to phase-locking in classical nonlinear dynamics and can be observed in a purely classical model of a Josephson junction when the experimental recipe for the application of microwaves is followed and the experimental detection scheme followed. We therefore conclude that classical nonlinear dynamics can contribute to the understanding of relevant experimental observations of Josephson response to various microwave perturbations at very low temperature and low dissipation.     

Two-dimensional,blue phase tactoids

ABSTRACT

We use full nematohydrodynamic simulations to study the statics and dynamics of monolayers of cholesteric liquid crystals. Using chirality and temperature as control parameters, we show that we can recover the two-dimensional blue phases recently observed in chiral nematics, where hexagonal lattices of half-skyrmion topological excitations are interleaved by lattices of trefoil topological defects. Furthermore, we characterise the transient dynamics during the quench from isotropic to blue phase. We then proceed by confining cholesteric stripes and blue phases within finite-sized tactoids and show that it is possible to access a wealth of reconfigurable droplet shapes including disk-like, elongated and star-shaped morphologies. Our results demonstrate a potential for constructing controllable, stable structures of liquid crystals by constraining 2D blue phases and varying the chirality, surface tension and elastic constants.     

Heterogeneous dynamics at the glass transition in van der Waals liquids, in the bulk and in thin films

It has been shown over the last few years that the dynamics close to the glass transition is strongly heterogeneous, both by measuring the diffusion coefficient of tagged particles or by NMR studies. Recent experiments have also demonstrated that the glass transition temperature of thin polymer films can be shifted as compared to the same polymer in the bulk. We propose here first a thermodynamical model for van der Waals liquids, which accounts for experimental results regarding the bulk modulus of polymer melts and the evolution of the density with temperature. This model allows us to describe the density fluctuations in such van der Waals liquids. Then, by considering the thermally induced density fluctuations in the bulk, we propose that the 3D glass transition is controlled by the percolation of small domains of slow dynamics, which allows to explain the heterogeneous dynamics close to T _g. We show then that these domains percolate at a lower temperature in the quasi-2D case of thin suspended polymer films and we calculate the corresponding glass transition temperature reduction, in quantitative agreement with experimental results of Jones and co-workers. In the case of strongly adsorbed films, we show that the strong adsorption amounts to enhance the slow domains percolation. This effect leads to 1) a broadening of the glass transition and 2) an increase of T _g in quantitative agreement with experimental results. For both strongly and weakly adsorbed films, the shift in T _g is given by a power law, the exponent being the inverse of that of the correlation length of 3D percolation. Received 21 March 2000 and Received in final form 4 December 2000     

Aging, rejuvenation and memory phenomena in spin glasses

In this paper, we review several important features of the out-of-equilibrium dynamics of spin glasses. Starting with the simplest experiments, we discuss the scaling laws used to describe the isothermal aging observed in spin glasses after a quench down to the low-temperature phase. We report in particular new results on the sub-aging behaviour of spin glasses. We then discuss the rejuvenation and memory effects observed when a spin glass is submitted to temperature variations during aging, from the point of view of both energy landscape pictures and real-space pictures. We highlight the fact that both approaches point out the necessity of hierarchical processes involved in aging. Finally, we report an investigation of the effect of small temperature variations on aging in spin glass samples with various anisotropies which indicates that this hierarchy depends on the spin anisotropy.     

Silicon clusters of intermediate size: energetics, dynamics, and thermal effects

A combination of the best available theoretical techniques for energetics, dynamics, and thermodynamics is employed in an extensive study of Si(n) ( n = 20,25) clusters. For T = 0 we solve the electronic structure by the density functional and the highly accurate quantum Monte Carlo approaches. Finite temperature and dynamical effects are investigated by the ab initio molecular dynamics method. This combination of methods enables us to find several new low-energy isomers and to explain the differences in properties, behavior, and stability of elongated versus compact types of structures and to elucidate the origin of the existing discrepancies between theory and experiments.     

Thermal equation of state, and melting and thermoelastic properties of bcc tantalum from molecular dynamics

We performed molecular dynamics simulations with the extended Finnis-Sinclair (EFS) potential to investigate thermal equation of state (EOS), and melting and thermoelastic properties of tantalum. The agreement of the obtained thermal EOS with experiments at ambient conditions is reasonably good. The EFS potential with the two-phase method also reproduced very satisfyingly the high-pressure melting curve, excellently consistent with both the experiments of melting temperature at ambient pressure and shock melting at high pressure. From molecular dynamics simulations, we also obtained the thermoelastic properties of Ta for temperatures up to 3000 K at ambient pressure. Fully including anharmonic effects in molecular dynamics, our calculated elastic constants are in excellent agreement with experimental data. Shear modulus G decreases quickly with increasing temperature.     

Phonon softening,chaotic motion,and order-disorder transition in Sn/Ge(111)

The phonon dynamics of the Sn/Ge(111) interface is studied using high-resolution helium atom scattering and first-principles calculations. At room temperature we observe a phonon softening at the Kmacr; point in the (sqrt[3]xsqrt[3])R30 degrees phase, associated with the stabilization of a (3x3) phase at low temperature. That phonon band is split into three branches in the (3x3) phase. We analyze the character of these phonons and find out that the low- and room-temperature modes are connected via a chaotic motion of the Sn atoms. The system is shown to present an order-disorder transition.     

激发核系统中最大Lyapunov指数、密度涨落以及多重碎裂之间的关系

基于量子分子动力学模型,系统地研究了从48Ca到298114一系列核素在不同温度下的最大Lyapunov指数、密度涨落以及体系多重碎裂之间的关系.发现最大Lyapunov指数随温度变化有一峰值出现(该峰值所对应的温度为"临界温度"),在该临界温度时体系的密度涨落达到最大,碎块的质量分布能够给出较好的PowerLaw指数.通过对最大Lyapunov指数与密度涨落随时间变化行为的研究,发现密度涨落的时间尺度要大于混沌的时间尺度,意味着混沌的概念可以用来研究体系的多重碎裂过程.最后还给出了有限体系相变的临界温度随体系大小变化的规律. Within a quantum molecular dynamics model we calculate the largest Lyapunov exponent (LLE), the density fluctuation, and the mass distribution of fragments for a series of nuclear systems at different initial temperatures. It is found that the LLE peaks at the temperature ("critical temperature") where the density fluctuation reaches a maximal value and the mass distribution fragments is fitted best by the Fisher s power law from which the critical exponents for mass and charge distribution are obtain...     

On a model for quantum friction III. Ergodic properties of the spin-boson system

We investigate the dynamics of a 2-level atom (or spin 1/2) coupled to a mass-less bosonic field at positive temperature. We prove that, at small coupling, the combined quantum system approaches thermal equilibrium. Moreover we establish that this approach is exponentially fast in time. We first reduce the question to a spectral problem for the Liouvillean, a self-adjoint operator naturally associated with the system. To compute this operator, we invoke Tomita-Takesaki theory. Once this is done we use complex deformation techniques to study its spectrum. The corresponding zero temperature model is also reviewed and compared. From a more philosophical point of view our results show that, contrary to the conventional wisdom, quantum dynamics can be simpler at positive than at zero temperature.     

Non-Markovianity in the presence of multiple thermal environments via collision model

By means of the collision model, we study the non-Markovianity of an open quantum system S being coupled to M thermal reservoirs. In our model, each reservoir is modeled as a chain of ancillas whose intracollisions account for the occurrence of non-Markovian dynamics. We show that by incorporating M reservoir ancillas into the system, the non-Markovian dynamics of S can be embedded in the extended system that experiences a completely Markovian dynamics. The number M of involved reservoirs can thus be identified as the memory depth and determines the degree of the non-Markovianity. In the equilibrium case with identical temperatures for all the reservoirs, we show that though the non-Markovianity is proportional to M in the zero and relatively low temperature regimes, in the relatively high temperature regime such proportional relation holds only for the weak intracollisions of the reservoir ancillas. In the nonequilibrium situation, we examine the effect of temperature difference of reservoirs on the non-Markovianity. Focusing on a simple situation with two reservoirs, we observe that the nonzero temperature difference has a significant impact on the non-Markovianity.     

Aromatic Polyimide/MWCNT Hybrid Nanocomposites: Structure,Dynamics, and Properties

Two series of hybrid polyimide (PI)/multiwalled carbon nanotube (MWCNT) nanocomposites were prepared including COOH-functionalized or pristine nanotubes, and their structure, morphology and dynamics/mechanical properties at 20°C–500°C were studied using WAXD (Wide-angle X-ray diffraction), AFM (Atomic force microscopy), TEM (transmission electron microscopy), DSC (Differential scanning calorimetry), DMA (Dynamic mechanical analysis), CRS (creep rate spectroscopy) techniques, and stress–strain testing. The impact of nanofiller loadings of 0.125, 0.25, 0.5, or 1 wt% relative to PI was evaluated. Specific changes in the matrix morphology and different quality of nanotube dispersion in the nanocomposites with amorphous and semicrystalline matrices were determined. The best nanotube dispersion was observed in the composites with 0.5 wt% MWCNT-COOH. A peculiar high temperature dynamics, different for amorphous, and semicrystalline matrices, was revealed in these nanocomposites. The most dramatic changes in high temperature dynamics and a pronounced dynamic heterogeneity as well as substantially enhanced mechanical properties at room temperature were revealed in the case of a semicrystalline PI matrix. The results were treated in terms of the synergistic impact of nanotubes and matrix crystallites on dynamics in the intercrystalline regions of PI (“combined constrained dynamics effect”) and the peculiar interfacial dynamics.     

Scaling,propagation, and kinetic roughening of flame fronts in random media

We introduce a model of two coupled reaction-diffusion equations to describe the dynamics and propagation of flame fronts in random media. The model incorporates heat diffusion, its dissipation, and its production through coupling to the background reactant density. We first show analytically and numerically that there is a finite critical value of the background density below which the front associated with the temperature field stops propagating. The critical exponents associated with this transition are shown to be consistent with meanfield theory of percolation. Second, we study the kinetic roughening associated with a moving planar flame front above the critical density. By numerically calculating the time-dependent width and equal-time height correlation function of the front, we demonstrate that the roughening process belongs to the universality class of the Kardar-Parisi-Zhang interface equation. Finally, we show how this interface equation can be analytically derived from our model in the limit of almost uniform background density.     

Growth of C30 and C31 Clusters： Structures, Energetics and Dynamics

We obtain the isomer spectra of C30 and C31 dusters by time-going-backward quasi-dynamics method and perform molecular dynamics simulations of the duster growth from isolated atoms in He buffer gas at 2500 K. The geometrical structures of the isomers of C30 and C31 can be classified into closed cages, open cages, bowls, sheets and other irregular shapes, where closed cages are found to have the lowest potential energies. However, dynamics simulations show that the sheet structures of C30 and C31 are the dominant outcome at the simulation temperature. Compared with relevant experimental results, we propose a different view in interpreting the experimental data and a research procedure to predict isomers that would be formed most probably under specific experimental conditions.     

Jamming, freezing and metastability in one-dimensional spin systems

We consider in parallel three one-dimensional spin models with kinetic constraints: the paramagnetic constrained Ising chain, the ferromagnetic Ising chain with constrained Glauber dynamics, and the same chain with constrained Kawasaki dynamics. At zero temperature the dynamics of these models is fully irreversible, leading to an exponentially large number of blocked states. Using a mapping of these spin systems onto sequential adsorption models of, respectively, monomers, dimers, and hollow trimers, we present exact results on the statistics of blocked states. We determine the distribution of their energy or magnetization, and in particular the large-deviation function describing its exponentially small tails. The spin and energy correlation functions are also determined. The comparison with an approach based on a priori statistics reveals systematic discrepancies with the Edwards hypothesis, concerning in particular the fall-off of correlations. Received 26 February 2002 Published online 6 June 2002     

Dynamics of kinks: nucleation, diffusion, and annihilation

We investigate the nucleation, annihilation, and dynamics of kinks in a classical (1+1)-dimensional straight phi(4) field theory at finite temperature. From large scale Langevin simulations, we establish that the nucleation rate is proportional to the square of the equilibrium density of kinks. We identify two annihilation time scales: one due to kink-antikink pair recombination after nucleation, the other from nonrecombinant annihilation. We introduce a mesoscopic model of diffusing kinks based on "paired" and "survivor" kinks and antikinks. Analytical predictions for the dynamical time scales, as well as the corresponding length scales, are in good agreement with the simulations.     

Geometric Quantum Discord of a Two-Qutrit System Under Decoherence at Finite Temperature

The dynamics and protection of geometric quantum discord (GQD) for a two-qutrit system under amplitude damping channel with finite temperature have been studied in detail. By using of a lower bound of GQD, numerical results show that the GQD dynamics suffering from amplitude damping channels is more robust against the decoherence at lower temperature. Moreover, by combining weak measurement with measurement reversal, we have also investigated the protecting of the GDQ for a two-qutrit system under decoherence. It is found that the measurement technique can effectively protect the GQD against decoherence at lower temperature, but fails to protect GQD at higher temperature of channel.     

Simulation of Dynamics in Two-Dimensional Vortex Systems in Random Media

Dynamics in two-dimensional vortex systems with random pinning centres is investigated using molecular dynamical simulations. The driving force and temperature dependences of vortex velocity are investigated. Below the critical depinning force Fc, a creep motion of vortex is found at low temperature. At forces slightly above Fc, a part of vortices flow in winding channels at zero temperature. In the vortex channel flow region, we observe the abnormal behaviour of vortex dynamics： the velocity is roughly independent of temperature or even decreases with temperature at low temperatures. A phase diagram that describes different dynamics of vortices is presented.     

Decoherence dynamics in low-dimensional cold atom interferometers

We report on a study of the dynamics of decoherence of a matter-wave interferometer, consisting of a pair of low-dimensional cold atom condensates at finite temperature. We identify two distinct regimes in the time dependence of the coherence factor of the interferometer: quantum and classical. Explicit analytical results are obtained in both regimes. In particular, in the two-dimensional case in the classical (long time) regime, we find that the dynamics of decoherence is universal, exhibiting a power-law decay with an exponent, proportional to the ratio of the temperature to the Kosterlitz-Thouless temperature of a single 2D condensate. In the one-dimensional case in the classical regime we find a universal nonanalytic time dependence of decoherence, which is a consequence of the nonhydrodynamic nature of damping in 1D liquids.