On the role of the uncertainty principle in superconductivity and superfluidity

We discuss the general interplay between the uncertainty principle and the onset of dissipationless transport phenomena such as superconductivity and superfluidity. We argue that these phenomena are possible because of the robustness of many-body quantum states with respect to the external environment, which is directly related to the uncertainty principle as applied to coordinates and momenta of the carriers. In the case of superconductors, this implies relationships between macroscopic quantities such as critical temperature and critical magnetic field, and microscopic quantities such as the amount of spatial squeezing of a Cooper pair and its correlation time. In the case of ultracold atomic Fermi gases, this should be paralleled by a connection between the critical temperature for the onset of superfluidity and the corresponding critical velocity. Tests of this conjecture are finally sketched with particular regard to the understanding of the behaviour of superconductors under external pressures or mesoscopic superconductors, and the possibility to mimic these effects in ultracold atomic Fermi gases using Feshbach resonances and atomic squeezed states.     

From microscopic interactions to macroscopic laws of cluster evolution

We derive macroscopic governing laws of growth velocity, surface tension, mobility, critical nucleus size, and morphological evolution of clusters, from microscopic scale master equations for a prototype surface reaction system with long range adsorbate-adsorbate interactions.     

Bloch equations for the Kondo system

A microscopic derivation of Bloch equations is given describing the dynamics of the magnetization densities of conduction electrons and magnetic impurities under the influence of Kondo-scattering and external magnetic fields. The calculation starts from generalized Kadanoff-Baym-equations and is developed with respect to smooth external macroscopic fields. Restricting to the particle-hole-approximation a time ordered perturbation theory yields scattering matrices containing the leading singular contributions. To obtain the needed selfenergies further well-defined approximations have to be incorporated.     

Crossing of specific heat curves in some correlated fermion systems

Specific heat versus temperature curves for various pressures, or magnetic fields (or some other external control parameter) have been seen to cross at a point or in a very small range of temperatures in many correlated fermion systems. We show that this behavior is related to the possibility of existence of a quantum critical point. Vicinity to a quantum critical point in these systems leads to a crossover from quantum to classical fluctuation regime at some temperature . The temperature at which the curves cross turns out to be near this crossover temperature. We have discussed the case of the normal phase of liquid Helium three and the heavy fermion systems CeAl₃ and UBe₁₃ in detail within the spin fluctuation theory, a theory which inherently contains a low energy scale which can be identified with . When the crossover scale is a homogeneous function of these control parameters there is always crossing at a point. We also mention other theories exhibiting a low energy scale near a quantum critical point and discuss this phenomenon in those theories. Received 25 June 1999     

Do semiclassical zero temperature black holes exist?

The semiclassical Einstein equations are solved to first order in epsilon = Planck's over 2pi/M2 for the case of a Reissner-Nordstr?m black hole perturbed by the vacuum stress energy of quantized free fields. Massless and massive fields of spin 0, 1/2, and 1 are considered. We show that in all physically realistic cases, macroscopic zero temperature black hole solutions do not exist. Any static zero temperature semiclassical black hole solutions must then be microscopic and isolated in the space of solutions; they do not join smoothly onto the classical extreme Reissner-Nordstr?m solution as epsilon-->0.     

Nonlinear response to external magnetic fields

The purpose of this paper is to study conditions under which a system of itinerate spin-$\text{1}\text{2}$ fermions might exhibit a macroscopic linear response to external magnetic fields after long times. Exact expressions are obtained for the nonlinear response of the magnetization and the total energy. We find that for a constant field there is no response (our model contains no mechanism for the relaxation of spins). For an oscillatory field there is a response in which secular terms (in the time) appear which are associated both with nonlinear terms in the external field and with contributions from the background medium. The secular terms involving the magnetic field would not be seen if one used the usual approximations of microscopic linear response theory. They give rise to new conditions which must be satisfied if the system is to exhibit a macroscopic linear response in the long-time limit.     

Large Deviations for the Macroscopic Motion of an Interface

We study the most probable way an interface moves on a macroscopic scale from an initial to a final position within a fixed time in the context of large deviations for a stochastic microscopic lattice system of Ising spins with Kac interaction evolving in time according to Glauber (non-conservative) dynamics. Such interfaces separate two stable phases of a ferromagnetic system and in the macroscopic scale are represented by sharp transitions. We derive quantitative estimates for the upper and the lower bound of the cost functional that penalizes all possible deviations and obtain explicit error terms which are valid also in the macroscopic scale. Furthermore, using the result of a companion paper about the minimizers of this cost functional for the macroscopic motion of the interface in a fixed time, we prove that the probability of such events can concentrate on nucleations should the transition happen fast enough.     

Diauxic Growth at the Mesoscopic Scale

In the present paper, we study a diauxic growth that can be generated by a class of model at the mesoscopic scale. Although the diauxic growth can be related to the macroscopic scale, similarly to the logistic scale, one may ask whether models on mesoscopic or microscopic scales may lead to such a behavior. The present paper is the first step towards the developing of the mesoscopic models that lead to a diauxic growth at the macroscopic scale. We propose various nonlinear mesoscopic models conservative or not that lead directly to some diauxic growths.     

Scaling of fluctuations and critical exponents

We present a new technique to describe the abnormal behavior of certain fluctuation observables in the critical regime of quantum statistical systems which undergo a phase transition. The idea is to rescale the local fluctuation operators by a relevant external parameter of the system, in addition to the usual scaling with the inverse square root of the volume. The scaling indices used in this scaling procedure are directly related to the critical exponents. Furthermore, it is explained that this new method of scaling preserves the CCR structure of the algebra of macroscopic fluctuations. Finally, scaling indices are computed for the relevant microscopic observables at all temperatures in a mean field approximation for a quantum anharmonic crystal. These indices yield the same critical exponents as predicted by mean field theory.     

Collective phase sensitivity

The collective phase response to a macroscopic external perturbation of a population of interacting nonlinear elements exhibiting collective oscillations is formulated for the case of globally coupled oscillators. The macroscopic phase sensitivity is derived from the microscopic phase sensitivity of the constituent oscillators by a two-step phase reduction. We apply this result to quantify the stability of the macroscopic common-noise-induced synchronization of two uncoupled populations of oscillators undergoing coherent collective oscillations.     

Basic concepts of synergetics

The paper presents a brief outline of microscopic as well as of macroscopic synergetics. In microscopic synergetics we start from evolution equations for microscopic variables or densities in which fluctuating forces and control parameters are included. When control parameters are changed, the systems are studied close to instability points. The concepts of order parameters, enslaving, critical fluctuations, and critical slowing down are presented. In macroscopic synergetics unbiased estimates on distribution functions and underlying processes are made based on observed moments or correlation functions. In such a case, a Fokker-Planck equation or a corresponding Langevin equation may be derived.     

Nonlinear theory of waves in solid state with cardinally changing crystalline structure

A nonlinear theory of propagating periodic and nonlinear solitary waves (like kinks and solitons) related to the motion of defects in crystals and of specific periodic waves into which the former ones transform in the field of the compression stress was developed. The role of intense tension stress leading to the heavy structural rearrangement of the crystal as a result of the effect of the external stress on the interatomic potential barriers was taken into account as well. Crystals with a complex lattice consisting of two sublattices were considered. Arbitrarily large displacements of sublattices were analyzed. The nonlinear theory is based on an additional element of the translational symmetry typical for complex lattices but not introduced earlier in solid-state physics. The variational equations of macroscopic and microscopic displacements turn out to be a nonlinear generalization of the linear equations of acoustic and optical modes obtained by Carman, Born, and Huang Kun. The microscopic displacement fields are described by the nonlinear sine-Gordon equation. In the one-dimensional case, exact solutions of the nonlinear equations were found and their features were revealed. In the case of two-dimensional (2+1) fields, new methods of the exact solutions of the sine-Gordon equation were developed. They describe the interaction of the nonlinear waves with the structural inhomogeneities of solid state due to the external fields of stress and deformations.     

Thermodynamics of particle systems in the presence of external macroscopic fields

We study the grand partition function of a system of identical particles interacting via a superstable potential in the presence of an external field depending on a scale factor. We discuss the case when the scale factor increases to infinity (macroscopic limit for the external potential) and we prove rigorously a link between the so obtained pressure and the usual one (barometric formula).Research partially supported by the Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche.     

Inhomogeneity of deformation of solids at the nanometer level

A new method for processing interferometrically recorded deformation data has been implemented for studying an inhomogeneity in the rate and parameters of deformation jumps at the nanostructure level, which provides detection of deformation jumps of less than 300 nm. It is shown that the lower limit for deformation jumps lies in the range 10–30 nm for aluminum and is 130 nm for amorphous polymer (poly(methyl methacrylate)). It is assumed that the sizes of jumps correspond to scales of ordered structures, as was previously established for higher level structures. The results obtained make it possible to investigate more thoroughly the multilevel character of deformation and to evaluate the sizes of the nanostructural units, their evolution during deformation and under the effect of external fields, as well as their relation to the microscopic and macroscopic inhomogeneities of deformation.     

Second Law of Thermodynamics for Macroscopic Mechanics Coupled to Thermodynamic Degrees of Freedom

Starting from and only using classical Hamiltonian dynamics, we prove the maximum work principle in a system where macroscopic dynamical degrees of freedom are intrinsically coupled to microscopic degrees of freedom. Unlike in many of the standard and recent works on the second law, the macroscopic dynamics is not governed by an external action but undergoes the back reaction of the microscopic degrees of freedom. Our theorems cover such physical situations as impact between macroscopic bodies, thermodynamic machines, and molecular motors. Our work identifies and quantifies the physical limitations on the applicability of the second law for small systems.      

From Nonlinear Scaling Fields to Critical Amplitudes

We propose to combine the nonlinear scaling fields associated with the high-temperature (HT) fixed point, with those associated with the unstable fixed point, in order to calculate the susceptibility and other thermodynamic quantities. The general strategy relies on simple linear relations between the HT scaling fields and the thermodynamic quantities, and the estimation of RG invariants formed out of the two sets of scaling fields. This estimation requires convergent expansions in overlapping domains. If, in addition, the initial values of the scaling fields associated with the unstable fixed point can be calculated from the temperature and the parameters appearing in the microscopic Hamiltonian, one can estimate the critical amplitudes. This strategy has been developed using Dyson's hierarchical model where all the steps can be approximately implemented with good accuracy. We show numerically that for this model (and a simplified version of it), the required overlap apparently occurs, allowing an accurate determination of the critical amplitudes.     

Microscopic and macroscopic structure of the precursor layer in spreading viscous drops

We study the spreading of viscous nonvolatile liquids on smooth horizontal substrates using a phase-modulated interference microscope with sufficient dynamic range to enable the simultaneous measurement of both the inner ("microscopic") length scale and the outer ("macroscopic") flow scale in addition to the intermediate matching region. The resulting measurements of both the apparent contact angle and the lateral scale of the precursor "wetting" film agree quantitatively with theoretical predictions for a van der Waal's liquid over a wide range of capillary numbers.