Full current statistics of incoherent "cold electrons"

We evaluate the full current statistics (FCS) in the low-dimensional (1D and 2D) diffusive conductors in the incoherent regime eV>E(Th)=D/L(2), E(Th) being the Thouless energy. It is shown that the Coulomb interaction substantially enhances the probability of big current fluctuations for short conductors with E(Th)>1/tau(E), tau(E) being the energy relaxation time, leading to the exponential tails in the current distribution. The current fluctuations are most strong for low temperatures, provided E(Th) approximately [(eV)(2)/Dnu(2)(1)](1/3) for 1D and E(Th) approximately (eV/g)ln(g for 2D, where g is a dimensionless conductance and nu(1) is a 1D density of states. The FCS in the "hot electron" regime is also discussed.     

Finite frequency quantum noise in an interacting mesoscopic conductor

We present a quantum calculation based on scattering theory of the frequency-dependent noise of current in an interacting chaotic cavity. We include interactions of the electron system via long range Coulomb forces between the conductor and a gate with capacitance C. We obtain explicit results exhibiting the two time scales of the problem, the cavity's dwell time tau(D) and the RC time tau(C) of the cavity in relation to the gate. The noise shows peculiarities at frequencies of the order and exceeding the inverse charge relaxation time tau(-1) = tau(D)(-1) + tau(C)(-1).     

Dynamics of quantum phase transition in an array of Josephson junctions

We study the dynamics of the Mott insulator-superfluid quantum phase transition in a periodic 1D array of Josephson junctions. We show that crossing the critical point at a finite rate with a quench time tau(Q) induces finite quantum fluctuations of the current around the loop proportional to tau(-1/6)(Q). This scaling could be experimentally verified with an array of weakly coupled Bose-Einstein condensates or superconducting grains.     

Exponential sensitivity to dephasing of electrical conduction through a quantum dot

According to random-matrix theory, interference effects in the conductance of a ballistic chaotic quantum dot should vanish proportional to (tau(phi)/tau(D))(p) when the dephasing time tau(phi) becomes small compared to the mean dwell time tau(D). Aleiner and Larkin have predicted that the power law crosses over to an exponential suppression proportional to exp((-tau(E)/tau(phi)) when tau(phi) drops below the Ehrenfest time tau(E). We report the first observation of this crossover in a computer simulation of universal conductance fluctuations. Their theory also predicts an exponential suppression proportional to exp((-tau(E)/tau(D)) in the absence of dephasing--which is not observed. We show that the effective random-matrix theory proposed previously for quantum dots without dephasing explains both observations.     

Correlation time and diffusion coefficient imaging: application to a granular flow system

A parametric method for spatially resolved measurements for velocity autocorrelation functions, R(u)(tau) = , expressed as a sum of exponentials, is presented. The method is applied to a granular flow system of 2-mm oil-filled spheres rotated in a half-filled horizontal cylinder, which is an Ornstein-Uhlenbeck process with velocity autocorrelation function R(u)(tau) = e(- ||tau ||/tau(c)), where tau(c) is the correlation time and D = tau(c) is the diffusion coefficient. The pulsed-field-gradient NMR method consists of applying three different gradient pulse sequences of varying motion sensitivity to distinguish the range of correlation times present for particle motion. Time-dependent apparent diffusion coefficients are measured for these three sequences and tau(c) and D are then calculated from the apparent diffusion coefficient images. For the cylinder rotation rate of 2.3 rad/s, the axial diffusion coefficient at the top center of the free surface was 5.5 x 10(-6) m(2)/s, the correlation time was 3 ms, and the velocity fluctuation or granular temperature was 1.8 x 10(-3) m(2)/s(2). This method is also applicable to study transport in systems involving turbulence and porous media flows.     

Measurement of the absolute branching fraction of Ds+ --> tau+ nutau decay

Using a sample of tagged D(s)(+) decays collected near the D(s)(*+/-)D(s)(-/+) peak production energy in e(+)e(-) collisions with the CLEO-c detector, we study the leptonic decay D(s)(+)-->tau(+)nu(tau) via the decay channel tau(+)-->e(+)nu(e)nu(tau). We measure B(D(s)(+)-->tau(+)nu(tau))=(6.17+/-0.71+/-0.34)%, where the first error is statistical and the second systematic. Combining this result with our measurements of D(s)(+)-->mu(+)nu(mu) and D(s)(+)-->tau(+)nu(tau) (via tau(+)-->pi(+)nu(tau)), we determine f(D(s))=(274+/-10+/-5) MeV.     

Nonexponential quasiparticle decay and phase relaxation in low-dimensional conductors

We show that in low-dimensional disordered conductors, the quasiparticle decay and the relaxation of the phase are not exponential processes. In the quasi-one-dimensional case, both behave at small time as e(-(t/tau(in))3/2) where the inelastic time, tau(in), identical for both processes, is a power T-2/3 of the temperature. The nonexponential quasiparticle decay results from a modified derivation of the Fermi golden rule. This result implies the existence of an unusual distribution of relaxation times.     

Electron tunnelling phase time and dwell time through an associated delta potential barrier

The electron tunnelling phase time τP and dwell time τD through an associated delta potential barrier U(x) = ξδ(x) are calculated and both are in the order of 10^-17～10^-16s. The results show that the dependence of the phase time on the delta barrier parameter ξ can be described by the characteristic length lc = h^2/meξ and the characteristic energy Ec=meξ^2/h^2 of the delta barrier, where me is the electron mass, lc and Ec are assumed to be the effective width and height of the delta barrier with lcEc=ξ, respectively. It is found that TD reaches its maximum and τD = τp as the energy of the tunnelling electron is equal to Ec/2, i.e. as lc =λDB, λDB is de Broglie wave length of the electron.     

Ehrenfest time and the coherent backscattering off ballistic cavities

If the Ehrenfest time tau(E) of a ballistic cavity is not negligible in comparison to its dwell time tau(D), the weak localization correction to the cavity's transmission is suppressed proportional to exp(-tau(E/tau(D). At the same time, quantum interference enhances the probability of reflection into the mode of incidence by a factor two. This "enhanced backscattering" does not depend on the Ehrenfest time. We show that, in addition to the diagonal enhanced backscattering, there are off-diagonal contributions to coherent backscattering that become relevant if tau(E) > or = tau(D).     

Critical behavior of thermal relaxation near a breakdown point

At a composition far above the percolation threshold, the resistance of a composite sample increases with time due to Joule heating as a constant current of a sufficiently large value is passed through the sample. If the current is less than a certain breakdown current (I(b)) the resistance eventually reaches a steady value with a characteristic relaxation time tau(h). The latter diverges with current I as tau(h) approximately (1-I(2)/I(2)(b))(-z). The value of the exponent z displays large fluctuations leading to unusual scaling of the relaxation time. It is shown that the results lead to important conclusions about the nature of breakdown phenomena.     

Collective non-Abelian instabilities in a melting color glass condensate

We present first results for (3 + 1)D simulations of SU(2) Yang-Mills equations for matter expanding into the vacuum after a heavy ion collision. Violations of boost invariance cause a non-Abelian Weibel instability leading soft modes to grow with proper time tau as exp(gamma square root(g2 mu tau)), where g2 mu is a scale arising from the saturation of gluons in the nuclear wave function. The scale for the growth rate gamma is set by a plasmon mass, defined as omega(pl) = kappa0 square root(g2 mu/tau)), generated dynamically in the collision. We compare the numerical ratio gamma/kappa0 to the corresponding value predicted by the hard thermal loop formalism for anisotropic plasmas.     

Dephasing by extremely dilute magnetic impurities revealed by Aharonov-Bohm oscillations

We have probed the magnetic field dependence of the electron phase coherence time tau(phi) by measuring the Aharonov-Bohm conductance oscillations of mesoscopic Cu rings. Whereas tau(phi) determined from the low-field magnetoresistance saturates below 1 K, the amplitude of Aharonov-Bohm h/e oscillations increases strongly on a magnetic field scale proportional to the temperature. This provides strong evidence that a likely explanation for the frequently observed saturation of tau(phi) at low temperature in weakly disordered metallic thin films is the presence of extremely dilute magnetic impurities.     

Spin Hall effect in doped semiconductor structures

In this Letter we present a microscopic theory of the extrinsic spin Hall effect based on the diagrammatic perturbation theory. Side-jump and skew-scattering contributions are explicitly taken into account to calculate the spin Hall conductivity, and we show that their effects scale as sigma(xy)SJ/sigma(xy)SS approximately (h/tau)/epsilonF, with tau being the transport relaxation time. Motivated by recent experimental work we apply our theory to n- and p-doped 3D and 2D GaAs structures, obtaining sigma(s)/sigma(c) approximately 10(-3)-10(-4), where sigma(s(c)) is the spin Hall (charge) conductivity, which is in reasonable agreement with the recent experimental results of Kato et al. [Science 306, 1910 (2004)] in n-doped 3D GaAs system.     

Role of the channel geometry on the bubble pinch-off in flow-focusing devices

The formation of bubbles by flow focusing of a gas and a liquid in a rectangular channel is shown to depend strongly on the channel aspect ratio. Bubble breakup consists in a slow linear 2D collapse of the gas thread, ending in a fast 3D pinch-off. The 2D collapse is predicted to be stable against perturbations of the gas-liquid interface, whereas the 3D pinch-off is unstable, causing bubble polydispersity. During 3D pinch-off, a scaling w_(m) approximately tau(1/3) between the neck width w_(m) and the time tau before breakup indicates that breakup is driven by the inertia of both gas and liquid, not by capillarity.     

Relationship between the noise-induced persistent current and the dephasing rate

ac noise in disordered conductors causes both dephasing of the electron wave functions and a dc current around a mesoscopic ring. We demonstrate that the dephasing rate tau(-1)(varphi) in long wires and the dc current , induced by the same noise and averaged over an ensemble of small rings, are connected in a remarkably simple way: tau(varphi) = C(beta)e. Here e is an electron charge, and the constant C(beta) approximately 1 depends on the Dyson symmetry class. The relationship seems to agree reasonably with experiments. This suggests that the two puzzles, anomalously large persistent current and the low-temperature saturation of the dephasing, may have a common solution.     

Large force fluctuations in a flowing granular medium

We study fluctuations in the force at the boundary of a 2D granular flow. The forces are mainly impulsive at all flow rates. The probability distribution of impulses decays exponentially at large impulses, as do the forces in a static granular medium. At small impulses, the distribution evolves continuously with flow rate with no indication of the transition from collisional flow to intermittently jamming flows. However, the distribution of the time interval between collisions tends to a power law, P(tau) - tau(-3/2), showing a clear dynamical signature of the approach to jamming.     

Can a quantum nondemolition measurement improve the sensitivity of an atomic magnetometer?

We consider the limitations due to noise (e.g., quantum projection noise and photon shot-noise) on the sensitivity of an idealized atomic magnetometer that utilizes spin squeezing induced by a continuous quantum nondemolition measurement. Such a magnetometer measures spin precession of N atomic spins by detecting optical rotation of far-detuned light. We show that for very short measurement times, the optimal sensitivity scales as N(-3/4); if strongly squeezed probe light is used, the Heisenberg limit of N-1 scaling can be achieved. However, if the measurement time exceeds tau(rel)/N(1/2) in the former case, or tau(rel)/N in the latter, where tau(rel) is the spin relaxation time, the scaling becomes N(-1/2), as for a standard shot-noise-limited magnetometer.     

Effects of various types of molecular dynamics on 1D and 2D (2)H NMR studied by random walk simulations

By carrying out random walk simulations we systematically study the effects of various types of complex molecular dynamics on (2)H NMR experiments in solids. More precisely, we calculate one-dimensional (1D) (2)H NMR spectra and the results of two dimensional (2D) (2)H NMR experiments in time domain, taking into account isotropic as well as highly restricted motions which involve rotational jumps about different finite angles. Although the dynamical models are chosen to mimic the primary and secondary relaxation in supercooled liquids and glasses, we do not intend to describe experimental results quantitatively but rather to show general effects appearing for complex reorientations. We carefully investigate whether 2D (2)H NMR in time domain, which was originally designed to measure correlation times of ultraslow motions (tau >/= 1 ms), can be used to obtain shorter tau, too. It is demonstrated that an extension of the time window to tau >/= 10 &mgr;s is possible when dealing with exponential relaxation, but that it will fail if there is a distribution of correlation times G(lgtau). Vice versa, we show that 1D (2)H NMR spectra, usually recorded to look at dynamics with tau in the microsecond regime, are also applicable for studying ultraslow motions provided that the loss of correlation is achieved step by step. Therefore, it is useful to carry out 1D and 2D NMR experiments simultaneously in order to reveal the mechanism of complex molecular motions. In addition, we demonstrate that highly restricted dynamics can be clearly observed in 1D spectra and in 2D NMR in time domain if long solid-echo delays and large evolution times are applied, respectively. Finally, unexpected observations are described which appear in the latter experiment when considering very broad distributions G(lgtau). Because of these effects, time scale and geometry of a considered motion cannot be extracted from a straightforward analysis of experimental results. Copyright 2000 Academic Press.     

Observation of B(0)-->D(*-)tau(+)nu(tau) decay at Belle

We report an observation of the decay B{0}-->D{*-}tau{+}nu{tau} in a data sample containing 535x10{6} BB pairs collected with the Belle detector at the KEKB asymmetric-energy e{+}e{-} collider. We find a signal with a significance of 5.2sigma and measure the branching fraction B(B{0}-->D{*-}tau{+}nu{tau})=(2.02{-0.37}{+0.40}(stat)+/-0.37(syst))%. This is the first observation of an exclusive B decay with a b-->ctaunu{tau} transition.     

Geometry-dependent dephasing in small metallic wires

Temperature dependent weak localization is measured in metallic nanowires in a previously unexplored size regime down to width w = 5 nm. The dephasing time, tau(phi), shows a low temperature T dependence close to quasi-1D theoretical expectations (tau(phi) approximately T(-2/3)) in the narrowest wires, but exhibits a relative saturation as T-->0 for wide samples of the same material, as observed previously. As only sample geometry is varied to exhibit both suppression and divergence of tau(phi), this finding provides a new constraint on models of dephasing phenomena.