Glass behavior of a relaxor Cd2Nb2O7 in a weak DC field

The temperature behavior of the dielectric response ε_his(T) at a frequency of 1 kHz (110 K< T<300 K), δε(T)=[ε_his(T)-ε_ZFC(T)], and of the order parameter q(T), characterizing ε(T) in a relaxor, is investigated for the relaxor Cd₂Nb₂O₇ on samples with different thermal and electric histories in a dc field much weaker than the polarization saturation field. In a weak field (E _dc=0.95 kV/cm), the behavior of δε(T) ∝ χ_nl changes in the region T _f =184 K and the ε_his(T) curves diverge monotonically at lower temperatures, indicating the development of the glassy state in the system. Analysis of the behavior of q(T) in the framework of the model of spin and dipole glasses shows that random interactions of polar microscopic regions in the presence of random fields play a dominating role in the phase formed below T _f in the ZFC and FH/ZFC regimes. The relative contribution of random fields increases in the FC regime in a weak field and is manifested in the ZFH/FC regime both below and above T _f .     

Multichannel scattering of a particle in a quantum wire of cylindrical symmetry

The Schrödinger equation for a scattering particle in a quantum wire is considered. We discuss two geometrical forms of cross-section of the wire: the rectangular section and the cylindrical one. It is shown that scattering of the particle on an arbitrary potential V = V (x, y, z,), given in the wire, can be considered as a multichannel scattering, where the index of the channel coincides with the index which determines energy levels of the confined transverse motion of the particle. A method for determination of the amplitudes of transmission T _i and reflection R _i in the case of multichannel scattering is proposed. The case of two-channel scattering is considered in detail and a method for determination of the scattering amplitudes T ₁, T ₂ and R ₁, R ₂ is proposed.     

How chaotic is a state of a quantum system?

A concept related to the entropy is studied. Let A and B be two density matrices, with eigenvalues a₁, a₂,… and b₁, b₂,…, arranged in decreasing order and repeated according to multiplicity. Then A is said to be “more mixed”, or “more chaotic”, than B, if a₁?b₁, a₁+a₂?b₁+b₂,…,a₁+…+a_m?b₁+…+b_m,…; It turns out that if A is more mixed than B, then the entropy of A is larger than the entropy of B. However, more generally, let v be an arbitrary concave function, ?0, and vanishing at 0. Then, if A is more mixed than B, trv(A)?trv(B). It is shown that also the converse is true. Furthermore, a variety of other characterizations of the relation “A is more mixed than B” is obtained, and several applications to quantum statistical mechanics are given.     

Replica symmetry breaking in a fermionic cluster spin glass model in a transverse field

We analyze a fermionic Ising spin glass model in the presence of a transverse magnetic field Γ within a cluster mean field theory. The model considers a Sherrington-Kirkpatrick type interaction between magnetic moments of clusters with a ferromagnetic intra-cluster coupling J₀. The spin site operators are written as a bilinear combination of fermionic operators. In these quantum spin glass model, the inter-cluster disorder is treated by using a framework of one-step replica symmetry breaking within the static approximation. The effective intra-cluster interaction is then computed by means of an exact diagonalization method. Results for several cluster size n_s, values of Γ and J₀ are presented. For instance, the specific heat shows a broad maximum (for n_s>1) at a temperature above the freezing temperature T_f, which is characterized by the inter-cluster replica symmetry breaking. Phase diagrams T versus Γ show that the critical temperature T_f(Γ) decreases for any value of n_s when Γ increases until it reaches a quantum critical point at some value of Γ_c.     

Thermodynamic behavior of a water model with a liquid-liquid critical point

In this paper we calculate the constant pressure specific heat response of a water model with a liquid-liquid critical point. We show how, due to the existence of the critical point, there is a secondary maximum in the specific heat at some temperature T_*>T_h for any pressure P>P_c, being T_h the first order transition temperature between the high and the low density liquid phases and P_c the pressure of the critical point. This secondary maximum does not correspond to any long range correlated phase transition and does not show up in the temperature dependence of the isothermal compressibility.     

Diffusion of a Heteropolymer in a Multi-Interface Medium

We consider a heteropolymer, consisting of an i.i.d. concatenation of hydrophilic and hydrophobic monomers, in the presence of water and oil arranged in alternating layers. The heteropolymer is modelled by a directed path ( $\left( {i,S_i } \right)_{i \in \mathbb{N}_0 }$ , where the vertical component lives on $\mathbb{Z}$ , and the layers are horizontal with equal width. The path measure for the vertical component is given by that of simple random walk multiplied by an exponential weight factor that favors matches and disfavors mismatches between the monomers and the medium. We study the vertical motion of the heteropolymer as a function of its total length n when the width of the layers is d _n and the parameters in the exponential weight factor are such that the heteropolymer tends to stay close to an interface (“localized regime”). In the limit as n→∞ and under the condition that lim _n→∞ d _n /log log n=∞ and lim _n→∞ d _n /log n=0, we show that the vertical motion is a diffusive hopping between neighboring interfaces on a time scale exp[χd _n (1+o(1))], where χ is computed explicitly in terms of a variational problem. An analysis of this variational problem sheds light on the optimal hopping strategy.     

Quantum transport in a time-dependent random potential with a finite correlation time

Using an earlier density matrix formalism in momentum space we study the motion of a particle in a time-dependent random potential with a finite correlation time τ, for 0 < t ? τ. Within this domain we consider two subdomains bounded by kinetic time scales (t _c ² = 2m? ^-1 c ², c ² = σ ², ξ ², σξ, with 2σ the width of an initial wavepacket and the correlation length of the gaussian potential fluctuations), where we obtain power law scaling laws for the effect of the random potential in the mean squared displacement 〈x ²〉 and in the mean kinetic energy 〈E _kin〉. At short times, ? min (t _σ ², 1/2t _ξ ²), 〈x ²〉 and 〈E _kin〉 scale classically as t ⁴ and t ², respectively. At intermediate times, t _σξ ? t ? 2t _σ ² and 1/2t _ξ ² ? t ? t _σξ, these quantities scale quantum mechanically as t ^3/2 and as √t, respectively. These results lie in the perspective of recent studies of the existence of (fractional) power law behavior of 〈x ²〉 and 〈E _kin〉 at intermediate times. We also briefly discuss the scaling laws for 〈x ²〉 and 〈E _kin〉 at short times in the case of spatially uncorrelated potential.     

Description of ultracold atoms in a one-dimensional geometry of a harmonic trap with a realistic interaction

We compute the ground-state energy of two atoms in a one-dimensional geometry of a harmonic optical trap. We obtain a dependence of the energy on a one-dimensional scattering length, which corre-sponds to various strengths of the interaction potential V _int (x) = V ₀ exp {?2cx ²}. The calculation is performed by numerical and analytical methods. For the analytical method we choose the oscillator representation method (OR), which has been successfully applied to computations of bound states of various few-body systems. The main results of this paper are (1) a numerical investigation of the validity range of the previously used pseudopotential method and (2) an investigation of the validity range of the OR for the potential V(x) = V _conf (x) + V _int (x) = x ²/2 + V ₀ exp {?2cx ²}.     

On the topological charge concentrated at a point

For SU(2) gauge fields over the 4-dimensional sphere with a finite number of points x₁, x₂, ..., and x_N removed, there are gauge transformations which modify the topological charge concentrated at x_j by adding n_j, where n₁, n₂, …, and n_N. are integers such that Σ^N_{j = 1}n_j = 0. However, the reduction modulo Z of the topological charge at a point is well defined, being given in terms of the secondary characteristic classes of Chern and Simons, except when the topological charge is indeterminate.     

Relaxation time of a Brownian rotator in a potential with nonparabolic barriers

The extension of the Kramers theory of the escape rate of a Brownian particle from a potential well to the entire range of damping proposed by Mel’nikov and Meshkov [V.I. Mel’nikov, S.V. Meshkov, J. Chem. Phys. 85 (1986) 1018] is applied to the inertial rotational Brownian motion of a fixed axis rotator in a potential V(θ)=−K₁cos2θ−K₂cos4θ, where θ is the angle specifying the orientation of the rotator and K₁ and K₂ are constants. It is shown that in the neighbourhood of K₁∼4K₂ (flat barrier), the Mel’nikov-Meshkov method must suitably be adapted so that the effect of a nonparabolic barrier top can be correctly accounted for in the calculation of the relaxation time. The results obtained are compared with numerical calculations of the longest relaxation time (inverse smallest nonvanishing eigenvalue) using a matrix continued fraction algorithm and reasonable agreement is obtained for K₁≥4K₂ and all values of the dissipation parameter.     

Exact solutions for a forced Burgers equation with a linear external force

We investigate the solutions of the Burgers equation , where F(x,t) is an external force and Φ(x,t) represents a forcing term. This equation is first analyzed in the absence of the forcing term by taking F(x,t)=k₁(t)−k₂(t)x into account. For this case, the solution obtained extends the usual one present in the Ornstein-Uhlenbeck process and depending on the choice of k₁(t) and k₂(t) it can present a stationary state or an anomalous spreading. Afterwards, the forcing terms Φ(x,t)=Φ₁(t)+Φ₂(t)x and Φ(x,t)=Φ₃x−Φ₄/x³ are incorporated in the previous analysis and exact solutions are obtained for both cases.     

Change in the shape of a symmetric light pulse passing through a quantum well

A theory for the response of a 2D two-level system to irradiation by a symmetric light pulse is developed. Under certain conditions, such an electron system approximates an ideal solitary quantum well in a zero field or a strong magnetic field H perpendicular to the plane of the well. One of the energy levels is the ground state of the system, while the other is a discrete excited state with energy ?ω₀, which may be an exciton level for H=0 or any level in a strong magnetic field. It is assumed that the effect of other energy levels and the interaction of light with the lattice can be ignored. General formulas are derived for the time dependence of the dimensionless “coefficients” of the reflection ?(t), absorption A(t), and transmission ?(t) for a symmetric light pulse. It is shown that the ?(t), A(t), and ?(t) time dependences have singular points of three types. At points t ₀ of the first type, A(t ₀)=T(t ₀)=0 and total reflection takes place. It is shown that for γ_r?γ, where γ_r and γ are the radiative and nonradiative reciprocal lifetimes, respectively, for the upper energy level of the two-level system, the amplitude and shape of the transmitted pulse can change significantly under the resonance ω_l=ω₀. In the case of a long pulse, when γ_l<γ_r, the pulse is reflected almost completely. (The quantity γ_l characterizes the duration of the exciting pulse.) In the case of an intermediate pulse duration γ_l?γ_r, the reflection, absorption, and transmission are comparable in value and the shape of the transmitted pulse differs considerably from the shape of the exciting pulse: the transmitted pulse has two peaks due to the existence of the point t ₀ of total reflection, at which the transmission is zero. If the carrier frequency ω_l of light differs from the resonance frequency ω₀, the oscillating ?(t), A(t), and ?(t) time dependences are observed at the frequency Δω=ωl?ω₀. Oscillations can be observed most conveniently for Δω?γ_l. The position of the singular points of total absorption, reflection, and transparency is studied for the case when ω_l differs from the resonance frequency.     

The correlation function for a quantum oscillator in a low-temperature heat bath

The momentum autocorrelation function c(t) for a quantum oscillator coupled with harmonic forces to a heat bath of oscillators is calculated at low temperatures. It is found that c(t) contains two distinct terms: one, the zero-point contribution c₀(t), is temperature independent, and the other, c₁(t), does depend on temperature. We concentrate our attention on the low-temperature case. An expression for c₁(t) is obtained, which is valid for arbitrary strenghts of the coupling and for arbitrary times. It is shown that c₁(t) is governed by the low-frequency behaviour of F(λ) = A²(λ)ϱ(λ), where ϱ(λ) is the density of normal modes and A(λ) is the central-oscillator component of the λth normal mode; other details of the problem are irrelevant. It is found that c₁(t) decays in time as an inverse-power law, with a relaxation time t_q ≈ ħ/kT.     

Self-focusing of electromagnetic waves in a magnetoplasma

The steady state self-focusing of a Gaussian electromagnetic beam in a magneto-plasma has been studied. On a short time scale, a non-linearity in the dielectric constant of a plasma appears due to the ponderomotive force. This force in the case of the extraordinary mode has opposite signs forω>ω _c andω<ω _c, whereω _c is the electron cyclotron frequency. The self-focusing due to this effect is predicted at frequencies except forω _c /2<ω<ω _c . The focusing of the ordinary mode is adversely affected by the magnetic field. On a larger time scale, the non-uniform heating of electrons by the beam and the resulting redistribution of the electron density is a source of non-linearity. This non-local non-linearity is several orders of magnitude higher than the ponderomotive non-linearity. We predict self-focusing of the extraordinary mode only above the gyroresonance (ω>ω _c ), while the ordinary mode can be focused at all frequencies.     

Stability of bipolarons in the presence of a magnetic field

The stability of large Fröhlich bipolarons in the presence of a static magnetic field is investigated with the path integral formalism. We find that the application of a magnetic field (characterized by the cyclotron frequence ω _c) favors bipolaron formation: (i) the critical electronphonon coupling parameter α _c (above which the bipolaron is stable) decreases with increasing ω _c and (ii) the critical Coulomb repulsion strength U _c (below which the bipolaron is stable) increases with increasing ω _c. The binding energy and the corresponding variational parameters are calculated as a function of α, U and ω _c. Analytical results are obtained in various limiting cases. In the limit of strong electron-phonon coupling (α ? 1) we obtain for ω _c ? 1 that E _estim ? E _estim(ω _c = 0) + c(u)ω _c/α ⁴ with c(u) an explicitly calculated constant, dependent on the ratio u = U/α where U is the strength of the Coulomb repulsion. This relation applies both in 2D and in 3D, but with a different expression for c(u). For ω _c ? α ²? 1 we find in 3D E _estim ? ω _c - α ² A(u) ln²(ω _c/α ²), (also with an explicit analytical expression for A(u)) whereas in 2D E _estim ^2D ? ω _c - α√ω _cπ(u-2-√2)/2. The validity region of the Feynman-Jensen inequality for the present problem, bipolarons in a magnetic field, remains to be examined.     

Refined interpretation of broadband radiation from a gas-discharge plasma of a krypton-xenon mixture

The earlier interpretation of the broadband continuum observed in the VUV emission spectra of a gas-discharge plasma in a Kr + Xe mixture is refined. On the assumption that this continuum is caused by the bound-free transitions v,0⁺(³ P ₁) → ε, 0⁺(¹ S ₀) in KrXe* and Xe₂ molecules, the distribution of the population over the vibrational levels v of the states 0⁺(³ P ₁) of both molecules is obtained and the vibrational temperature for different methods of excitation of the spectrum is determined. Internuclear potentials 0⁺(³ P ₁) and 0⁺(¹ S ₀) available from the literature are used. To improve the agreement between the calculated and experimental spectra, it is proposed to modify the positive branch of the potential curve 0⁺(¹ S ₀) of the KrXe* molecule.     

Radiation forces of a focused partially coherent flattened vortex beam on a Rayleigh spherical particle

A focused partially coherent flattened vortex beam used to trap a Rayleigh dielectric spherical particle with relative refractive index p < 1 is studied. The dependence of radiation forces (RFs) on the beam order N, waist width w₀, correlation length σ₀, particle radius a and focal length f is analyzed and illustrated by numerical examples. By a suitable choice of N, w₀, σ₀ and f a stable trap of the Rayleigh particle is achievable. In particular, there exist critical values w0,c, σ_0,c for a partially coherent flattened vortex beam the particle can be trapped by the beam with w₀ less than w0,c and σ₀ larger than σ_0,c. A comparison with the previous work is made.     

Scaling law for a low-pressure gas breakdown in a homogeneous DC electric field

Gas breakdown in nitrogen, air, and oxygen in a dc electric field at various interelectrode distances L is studied experimentally. A scaling law for a low-pressure gas breakdown U _dc =f(pL, L/R) is deduced. According to this scaling law, the breakdown voltage U _dc is a function not only of the product of the gas pressure p and the gap length L, but also of the ratio of the gap length L to the chamber radius R. It is shown that, for any dimensions of the cylindrical discharge chamber (in the range of L/R under investigation), the ratio of the breakdown electric field to the gas pressure p at the minimum of the ignition curve remains constant: (E _dc /p)_min≈const. A method for calculating the ignition curve in a cylindrical discharge chamber with arbitrary values of L and R is proposed.     

Algebraic realization of a coupled rotor picture

The relation between the shape variables (β, γ) of the collective model and the (λ, μ) labels which define the irreducible representations of the SU(3) shell model is extended to a coupled rotor picture where one rotor represents protons (π) and the other one neutrons (ν). The joint distribution, (β, γ), emerges as the overlap of the initial distributions, (β _π ,γ _π ) and (β _ν ,γ _ν ), where three Euler angles define the relative orientation of proton and neutron subsystems. It is shown analytically that the rotor construction for triaxial and axially symmetric shapes corresponds to a (λ _π ,μ _π = 0) ? (λ _ν ,μ _ν → (λ, μ) _ρ=1 coupling in the SU(3) model.     

Self-consistent expansion of a multicomponent plasma into a vacuum

The problem of the one-dimensional collisionless expansion of a multicomponent plasma into a vacuum is considered. In the hydrodynamic approximation, an approximate analytical solution for an arbitrary set of ion species with masses M₁,..., M_n and charge numbers Z₁e, Z₂e,..., Z_ne is found by using the technique of self-similar variables employed by Gurevich, Pariiskaya, and Pitaevskii for the case of single-species ions. A numerical iterative algorithm is developed in which the analytical solution is used as a first approximation.