Binary collision approximation for solitary waves in a Y-shaped granular chain

We implement a binary collision approximation to study solitary wave propagation in a two-dimensional double Y-shaped granular chain. The solitary wave was transmitted and reflected when it met the interface of the bifurcated branches of the Y-shaped granular chains. We obtain the analytic results of the ratios of the transmitted and reflected speeds to the incident speed of the solitary wave, the maximum force between the two neighbor beads in a solitary wave, and the total time taken by the pulse to pass through each branch. All of the analytic results are in good agreement with the experimental observations from Daraio et al. [Phys. Rev. E 82 036603 (2010)]. Moreover, we also discuss the delay effects on the arrival of split pulses, and predict the recombination of the split waves traveling in branches in the final stem of asymmetric systems. The prediction of pulse recombination is verified by our numerical results.     

Power—Law in Depth—Dependence of Signal Speed in Vertical Granular Chain

The signal generated by an initial perturbation dispersively propagates in the vertical granular chain under gravity.For the power-law-type contact force,the signal speed follows power-law with the depth.When the perturbation is very weak,the exponent is 1/2(1-1/p).When the perturbation is very strong,the exponent approaches zero.The transition of the exponent from oscillatory regime with weak nonlinearity to quasi-solitary regime with strong nonlinearity is smooth.     

Head-on Collision of Solitary Waves Described by the Toda Lattice Model in Granular Chain

We study the head-on collision of two solitary waves in a precompressed granular chain using the discrete element method.Our study takes the Toda chain solution as the initial condition for the simulations.The simulation covers the dynamical evolution of the collision process from the start of the incident wave to the end of the collision.The interaction has a central collision region of about five-grain width in which two solitary waves merge completely and share only one peak.Four stages,i.e.,...     

Chirping and spreading of ultrashort laser pulses in underdense plasmas

A linear theory on the propagation of ultrashort pulses including only a few cycles in underdense plasmas is presented. It is shown that the dispersion in plasmas causes severe distortions in the pulse shape, including pulse chirping and spreading. The analytical calculations coincide very well with those obtained by particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations. The upper limit of the peak amplitude of the pulses, above which the linear theory breaks down due to the setting in of nonlinear effects of both the relativistic electron-mass increase and ponderomotive force, is also examined by PIC simulations. At certain high amplitudes, it is found that the ultrashort laser pulses can propagate like solitons.     

Cluster Model for Wave-Like Motions of a 2D Vertically Vibrated Granular System

The fact that trapezoid clusters exist in 2D vertically vibrated granular systems leads us to construct a cluster model, in which wave-like motions are explained as the result of cluster-plate and cluster-cluster collisions. By analyzing the collision of one cluster with the plate in detail, we deduce a basic equation from velocity relationship, which could be separated into two correlative equations： one relates wave-like motion with exciting acceleration, and we call it the excitation condition; the other relates wavelength with exciting frequency, viz., the dispersion relation. The theoretical results are in agreement with the experimental ones, which supports the idea of the cluster model. Moreover, from the cluster model, we also predict a possibility of abnormal dispersion relation of a 213 granular system.     

Validation of the Wiedemann–Franz law in a granular s-wave superconductor in the nanometer scale

The present study tries to evaluate the validity of the Wiedemann–Franz law in a granular s-wave superconductor in the presence of concentrated impurities. By using Green's function method and the Kubo formula technique, three distinct contributions of the Aslamazov–Larkin, the Maki–Thompson and, the density of states are calculated for both the electrical conductivity and the thermal conductivity in a granular s-wave superconductor. It is demonstrated that these different contributions to the fluctuation conductivity depend differently on the tunneling because of their different natures. This study examines the transport in a granular superconductor system in three dimensions in the limit of large tunneling conductance,which makes it possible to ignore all localization effects and the Coulomb interaction. We find that the tunneling is efficient near the critical temperature and that there is a crossover to the characteristic behavior of a homogeneous system.When it is far from the critical temperature, the tunneling is not effective and the system behaves as an ensemble of real zero-dimensional grains. The results show that the Wiedemann–Franz law is violated in both temperature regions.     

Topological String in Quantum-Chromodynamical Chiral Phase Transitions

It is pointed out that if in heavy ion collision processes, the quark-gluon plasma SU(2) chiral phase transition really takes place and the phase transition is a second order. Then the topological string, i.e., the π string, will be formed. The main effect of this phenomenon is that there will be a number of pions produced by decay of the π string in the final state. The pions from the decay of the π string lead to the same effect of decreasing the Hanbury-Brown-Twiss peak in two-pion spectra which is just as that of the long-lived hadronic resonances.At relativistic heavy-ion collision and large hadron collision energies, it is expected that the factors are about α ∽ 0.7 - 0.9 and α ∽ 0.6 - 0.85, respectively.     

Breathing Bright Solitons in a Bose—Einstein Condensate

A Bose-Einstein condensate with time varying scattering length in time-dependent harmonic trap is analytically investigated and soliton-like solutions of the Gross-Pitaeviskii equation are obtained to describe single soliton, bisoliton and N-soliton properties of the matter wave. The influences of the geometrical property and modulate frequency of trapping potential on soliton behaviour are discussed. When the trap potential has a very sinall trap aspect ratio or oscillates with a high frequency, the matter wave preserves its shape nearly like a soliton train in propagation, while the breathing behaviour, which displays the periodic collapse and revival of the matter wave, is found for a relatively large aspect ratio or slow varying potential. Meanwhile mass centre of the matter wave translates and/or oscillates for different trap aspect ratio and trap frequencies.     

Carrier shock and frequency conversion of a few—cycle pulse laser propagating in a non—resonant two—level atom medium

We have studied the spectral behaviour of few-cycle soliton pulses in a non-resonant two-level atom medium by solving the full Maxwell－Bloch equations. It is demonstrated further that the carrier effects play an important role in the propagation of the few-cycle pulse laser. When the frequency detuning is not very large, both the population distribution and the refractive index of the medium follow the oscillatory carrier field instantaneously; in this case, carrier-wave compression or carrier shock occurs, and a supercontinuum broader than that in the resonant medium may be generated. When the frequency detuning is large, the carrier shock is weak and the spectrum is not continuous, only showing an odd harmonic radiation.     

Influence of optical interference and carrier lifetime on the short circuit current density of organic bulk heterojunction solar cells

Based on simple analytical equations, short circuit current density (J_SC) of the organic bulk heterojunction solar cells has been calculated. It is found that the optical interference effect plays a very important role in the determination of J_SC; and obvious oscillatory behaviour of J_SC was observed as a function of thickness. At the same time, the influence of the carrier lifetime on J_SC also cannot be neglected. When the carrier lifetime is relatively short, J_SC only increases at the initial stage and then decreases rapidly with the increase of active layer thickness. However, for a relatively long carrier lifetime, the exciton dissociation probability must be considered, and J_SC behaves wave-like with the increase of active layer thickness. The validity of this model is confirmed by the experimental results.     

Dark Lump Excitations in Bose—Einstein Condensates

We investigate the dynamics of two-dimensional matter-wave pulses in a Bose-Einstein condensate with diskshaped traps.For the case of repulsive atom-atom interactions,a Kadomtsev-Petviashvili equation with positive dipersion is derived using the method of multiple scales.The results show that it is possible to excite dark lump-like two-dimensional nonlinear excitations in the Bose-Einstein condensate.     

Electron impact excitation of Ni-like gold studied by Dirac R-matrix method

We calculate the electron impact excitation of Ni-like gold by using the Dirac R-matrix theory, and the corresponding collision strengths and effective collision strengths are obtained. In the calculations of the level energy,(1s22s22p6)3s23p63d10, 3s23p63d94 l, 3s23p53d104 l, and 3s3p63d104l(l = 0,1,2,3) configurations are included and 107fine-structure levels are generated. In the calculations of the collision strengths, only the first 59 levels are included. Comparisons are made with the distorted wave(DW) results of Zeng et al. for both collision strengths and effective collision strengths. For the collision strengths, the two sets of calculations are in excellent agreement for most of the transitions.However, because of the inclusion of the resonances, our effective collision strengths are generally several times larger than those of Zeng et al.. The accuracy of our calculations is assessed.     

Propagation of Lorentz–Gaussian Beams in Strongly Nonlocal Nonlinear Media

In this paper the propagation of Lorentz-Gaussian beams in strongly nonlinear nonlocal media is investi- gated by the ABCD matrix method. For this purpose, an expression for field distribution during propagation is derived and based on it, the propagation of Lorentz-Gaussian beams is simulated in this media. Then, the evolutions of beam width and curvature radius during propagation are discussed.     

The phase behaviour of single polyethylene chains with and without fixing one end

The phase behaviour of a single polyethylene chain is studied by using molecular dynamics simulations. A free chain and a chain with fixing one end are considered here, since the atomic force microscope （AFM） tip can play a significant role in polymer crystallization in experiment. For a free chain, it is confirmed in our calculation that the polymer chain exhibits an extended coil state at high temperatures, collapses into a condensed state at low temperatures, i.e. the coil-to-globule transition that is determined by a high temperature shoulder of the heat capacity curve, and an additional liquid-to-solid transition that is described by a low temperature peak of the same heat curve. These results accord with previous studies of square-well chains and Lennard-Jones homopolymers. However, when one of the end monomers of the same chain is fixed the results become very different, and the chain cannot reach an extended coil-like state as a free chain does at high temperatures, i.e. there exists no coil-to-globule-like transition. These results may provide some insights into the influence of AFM tip when it is used to study the phase behaviour of polymer chains. If the interaction force between AFM tip and polymer monomers is strong, some monomers or one of them can be seen as being fixed by the tip, which is similar to our simulation model, and it is also found that AFM tip could induce polymer crystallization.     

Radiative Energy Shifts of an Atom Coupled to the Derivative of a Scalar Field near a Reflecting Boundary

We study the radiative energy level shifts of a two-level atom in dipole coupling to the derivative of a massless scalar quantum field in a spacetime with a perfectly reflecting boundary, and calculate the contributions of vacuum fluctuations and radiation reaction to the level shift. It is found that the energy level shift of the excited state is an oscillating function of the atom＇s distance from the boundary and it can either be positive or negative, while that of the ground state is always positive. The most remarkable feature is that the energy level shift of the ground state behaves like 1/z^4 when the atom＇s distance from the boundary, z, is very large as compared to the transition wavelength of the atom, while it behaves like 1/z^3 when z is very small     

Phase evolution of the reemitted field in the semiconductor quantum wells under the femtosecond pulse train intersubband excitation

Property of the phase of the reemitted field in the semiconductor quantum wells (QWs) excited by femtosecond pulse train is investigated. It is shown that the phase evolution of the reemitted field is controlled by the relative phase between the successive pulses of the incident train. For all the odd pulses excitation, the reemitted field is from out-of-phase to in-phase, then again to out-of-phase with the incident pulses, whereas for all the even pulses excitation, the situation is the opposite, i.e., it is from in-phase to out-of-phase, then again to in-phase with the incident pulses.     

Investigation of long-range sound propagation in surface ducts

Understanding the effect of source-receiver geometry on sound propagation in surface ducts can improve the performance of near-surface sonar in deep water. The Lloyd-mirror and normal mode theories are used to analyze the features of surface-duct propagation in this paper. Firstly, according to the Lloyd-mirror theory, a shallow point source generates directional lobes, whose grazing angles are determined by the source depth and frequency. By assuming a part of the first lobe to be just trapped in the surface duct, a method to calculate the minimum cutoff frequency （MCF） is obtained. The presented method is source depth dependent and thus is helpful for determining the working depth for sonar. Secondly, it is found that under certain environments there exists a layer of low transmission loss （TL） in the surface duct, whose thickness is related to the source geometry and can be calculated by the Lloyd-mirror method. The receiver should be placed in this layer to minimize the TL. Finally, the arrival angle on a vertical linear array （VLA） in the surface duct is analyzed based on normal mode theory, which provides a priori knowledge of the beam direction of passive sonar.     

Acoustic topological adiabatic passage via a level crossing

Stimulated adiabatic passage has been extensively studied to achieve robust and selective population transfer in quantum systems. Recently, the quantum-classic analogy has been rapidly developing and can be considered responsible for the implementation of the adiabatic transfer of sound energy in cavity chain systems. In this article, we investigate the adiabatic transfer of sound energy between two topological end states in the Su-Schrieffer-Heeger(SSH) cavity chain, which can be considered to be the acoustic analog of the quantum chirped-pulse excitation. The topological adiabatic passage in SSH cavity chain has two categories. When the single-cavity resonance frequencies on the sublattices A and B in the SSH cavity chain do not switch their spectrum positions, the topologically protected adiabatic evolution results in the returning passage of the sound excited in one end cavity. When a level crossing with single-cavity resonance frequencies on the sublattices A and B exhibits switch in the frequency spectrum, acoustic energy is observed to be topologically pumped between the two end cavities of the SSH chain.     

Propagation and collision of compacton-like kinks in Klein—Gordon lattice system

We study the propagation and collision of the compacton-like kinks in the system of an anharmonic lattice with a double well on-site potential by a direct algebraic method and numerical experiments. It is found that the localization of the compacton-like kinks is related to the nonlinear coupling parameter Cnl and the potential barrier height V0 of the double well potential. The velocity of the propagation of the compacton-like kinks is determined by the linear coupling parameter Cl, the nonlinear coupling parameter Cnl and the localization parameter q. Numerical experiments demonstrate that appropriate Cl is not detrimental to a stable propagation of the compacton-like kinks. However, the collision of compacton-like kinks and anti-kinks in the lattice with comparatively small Cl leads to the emergence of a discrete stationary breather and small amplitude nonlinear oscillation background, while moderate Cl results in the emergence of two deformed kinks with radiating oscillations and lower propagation velocities.     

A numerical study of dynamics in thin hopper flow and granular jet

The dynamics of granular material discharging from a cuboid but thin hopper,including the hopper flow and granular jet,are investigated via discrete element method(DEM)simulations.The slot width is varied to study its influence on the flow.It is found the flow in the cuboid hopper has similarity with the flow in two-dimensional(2D)hopper.When the slot width is large,the flowrate is higher than the predicted value from Beverloo’s law and the velocity distribution is not Gaussian-like.For granular jet,there is a transition with varying slot width.For large slot width,there is a dense core in the jet and the variations of velocities and density are relatively small.Finally,the availability of continuum model is assessed and the results show that the performance with large slot width is better than that with small slot width.