Stability of charged metal clusters in the vicinity of an ionic charge

Stability of highly charged metal clusters in the electric field of an external ion is investigated with the classical liquid drop model. We study the optimum shape of the cluster which has a local minimum of the total energy, taking account of the effects of the surface charge polarization on the Coulomb energy and the cluster deformation on the surface energy. We find that the cluster deformation greatly affects the total energy of the system and that a cluster with a fissility larger than some critical value 0.7-0.8 can become unstable against deformation. We investigate the local competition between the Coulomb force and the surface tension at the cluster surface and show that the surface charge polarization which is induced by the external electric field significantly affects the shape of the cluster and its stability. Received 5 November 2002 / Received in final form 27 January 2003 Published online 11 March 2003 RID="a" ID="a"e-mail: hamada@konan-u.ac.jp     

Skyrmions on an elastic cylinder

For a spin-polarized electron gas on an elastic cylinder in an external axial magnetic field and an axial electric field we find that the corresponding Euler-Lagrange equation is the double sine-Gordon (DSG) equation with an exact 2π-skyrmion solution. The DSG skyrmion is stabilized, without Coulomb repulsion, by the curvature of the cylinder. It adopts a characteristic length ξ which is smaller than the radius of the cylinder. For an elastic cylinder this mismatch of length scales causes a deformation of the cylinder in the region of the skyrmion. Received 23 October 2001 / Received in final form 8 March 2002 Published online 2 October 2002 RID="a" ID="a"e-mail: rossen.dandoloff@ptm.u-cergy.fr     

Stabilization of the long-range magnetic ordering by dipolar and magnetoelastic interactions in two-dimensional ferromagnets

The possibility of the long-range magnetic order stabilization in two-dimensional ferromagnets with the account of dipolar and magnetoelastic interactions is investigated. The mechanisms of the magnetic order stabilization by both types of interactions are studied. The Curie temperature is estimated. The comparisons with experimental data are made. Received 22 June 2001 and Received in final form 17 January 2002     

Are changes in morphology clear indicators for the glass transition in thin polymer films? Tentative ideas

I present some tentative ideas on the possibility of plastic deformation which might be relevant in ultra-thin polymer films at temperatures close but below the glass transition temperature. Several possible sources for sufficiently strong forces are discussed. The relevance of such forces in experiments aiming at determining thin-film properties like the glass transition temperature, thermal expansion or surface morphology is discussed. Received 19 September 2001 and Received in final form 5 December 2001     

Calculations of ferromagnetic surface dynamics using the Green's functions theory and matching procedure

A Heisenberg model is employed to study the spin fluctuation dynamics on a (001) ferromagnetic surface using a new theoretical formalism. The solution of the full magnetic problem arising from the absence of magnetic translation symmetry in one dimension due to the presence of a magnetic surface is presented. The calculations are described using simultaneously a closed form of the spin-wave Green's function and the matching procedure in the random-phase approximation. Analytic expressions for the Green's functions are also derived in a low-temperature spin-wave approximation. The theoretical approach determines the bulk and evanescent spin fluctuation fields in the two dimensional plane normal to the surface. The results are used to calculate the localised modes of magnons associated with the surface. Numerical examples of the modes are given and they are found to exhibit various effects due to the interplay between the bulk and surface modes. It is shown that there may be surface spin-waves that decay in amplitude with distance into the bulk domain. Also the bulk spin fluctuations field as well as the magnons localised at the surface depend on the nature of the bulk-surface coupling exchange. The unstable surface magnetic configurations are illustrated and discussed. The results derived from the dynamic correlation functions between a pair of spin operators at any two sites are employed to evaluate the spin deviation in the ferromagnet due to localised surface modes obtained by the matching procedure as a function of temperature. Received 21 April 2002 / Received in final form 25 October 2002 Published online 14 March 2003     

First-principles calculation of electric field gradients and hyperfine couplings in YBa2Cu3O7

The local electronic structure of YBa₂Cu₃O₇ has been calculated using first-principles cluster methods. Several clusters embedded in an appropriate background potential have been investigated. The electric field gradients at the copper and oxygen sites are determined and compared to previous theoretical calculations and experiments. Spin polarized calculations with different spin multiplicities have enabled a detailed study of the spin density distribution to be made and a simultaneous determination of magnetic hyperfine coupling parameters. The contributions from on-site and transferred hyperfine fields have been disentangled with the conclusion that the transferred spin densities essentially are due to nearest neighbour copper ions only with marginal influence of ions further away. This implies that the variant temperature dependencies of the planar copper and oxygen NMR spin-lattice relaxation rates are only compatible with commensurate antiferromagnetic correlations. The theoretical hyperfine parameters are compared with those derived from experimental data. Received 10 April 2001 and Received in final form 19 June 2001     

Nonextensive statistics and incomplete information

We comment on some open questions and theoretical peculiarities in Tsallis nonextensive statistical mechanics. It is shown that the theoretical basis of the successful Tsallis' generalized exponential distribution shows some worrying properties with the conventional normalization and the escort probability. These theoretical difficulties may be avoided by introducing an so called incomplete normalization allowing to deduce Tsallis' generalized distribution in a more convincing and consistent way. Received 29 October 2001 and Received in final form 30 January 2002     

Semi-microscopical description of the scission configuration in the neutronless fission of 252Cf

The neutronless fission of ²⁵²Cf is studied in the frame of a molecular model in which the scission configuration is described by two aligned fragments interacting by means of Coulomb (+ nuclear) forces. The study is carried out for different distances between the fragments tips and excitation energies. For a given deformation, the fragment's total energy is computed via the constrained Hartree-Fock + BCS formalism. The total excitation energy present in the fragments is supposed to contribute only to the fragments deformation and the asymptotic value of the kinetic energy is equated to the inter-fragment potential at scission. These two constraints are yielding a few fission channels for a fixed tip distance and excitation energy. Discarding those fission channels corresponding to a disequilibrium in the sharing of the excitation energy between the two fragments, we establish the most likely scission configurations for a specified excitation energy. Received: 24 September 1999     

On the difference between proton and neutron spin-orbit splittings in nuclei

The latest experimental data on nuclei at ¹³²Sn permit us for the first time to determine the spin-orbit splittings of neutrons and protons in identical orbits in this neutron-rich doubly magic region and compare the case to that of ²⁰⁸Pb. Using the new results, which are now consistent for the two neutron-rich doubly magic regions, a theoretical analysis defines the isotopic dependence of the mean-field spin-orbit potential and leads to a simple explicit expression for the difference between the spin-orbit splittings of neutrons and protons. The isotopic dependence is explained in the framework of different theoretical approaches. Received: 13 February 2002 / Accepted: 20 February 2002     

Deformation in cooperative molecular motors

We implement a model to represent the effect of the deformation of the backbone of a system of motor proteins while sliding on a track filament. This model incorporates a nearest neighbor interaction term among the motors for the deformation energy. Correlations induced by this term result in increased motor force for inter-particle distances small compared to the ratchet period. Received 20 February 2001 and Received in final form 31 May 2001     

Vitrification in a 2D Ising model with mobile bonds

A bond-disordered two-dimensional Ising model is used to simulate Kauzmann's mechanism of vitrification in liquids, by a Glauber Monte Carlo simulation. The rearrangement of configurations is achieved by allowing impurity bonds to hop to nearest neighbors at the same rate as the spins flip. For slow cooling, the theoretical minimum energy configuration is approached, characterized by an amorphous distribution of locally optimally arranged impurity bonds. Rapid cooling to low temperatures regularly finds bond configurations of higher energy, which are both a priori rare and severely restrictive to spin movement, providing a simple realization of kinetic vitrification. A supercooled liquid regime is also found, and characterized by a change in sign of the field derivative of the spin-glass susceptibility at a finite temperature. Received 3 August 2000 and Received in final form 9 March 2001     

Complex dynamics in gelling systems

We study the viscoelastic properties and the relaxation process in a gelling system by means of a minimal statistical-mechanics model. The model is based on percolation and bond fluctuation dynamics. The values for the critical exponents of the viscosity and elasticity agree with a part of the experimental observations and of the theoretical predictions. The obtained relaxation patterns well reproduce the behaviour observed in different gelling systems. Received 10 March 2002 and Received in final form 30 April 2002     

Static magneto-polarizability of cylindrical nanostructures

The static polarizability of cylindrical systems is shown to have a strong dependence on a uniform magnetic field applied parallel to the tube axis. This dependence is demonstrated by performing exact numerical diagonalizations of simple cylinders (rolled square lattices), armchair and zig-zag carbon nanotubes (rolled honeycomb lattices) for different electron-fillings. At low temperature, the polarizability as function of the magnetic field has a discontinuous character where plateau-like region are separated by sudden jumps or peaks. A one to one correspondence is pointed out between each discontinuity of the polarizability and the magnetic-field induced cross-over between the ground state and the first excited state. Our results suggest the possibility to use measurements of the static polarizability under magnetic field to get important informations about excited states of cylindrical systems such as carbon nanotubes. Received 29 March 2001 and Received in final form 8 August 2001     

Contribution of quasiparticle-phonon,recoil and coriolis interactions in describing low-lying states of <Superscript>133</Superscript>Nd isotope

A quasiparticle-phonon coupling based on one quadrupole phonon is developed. The coupling is constructed by using a deformed average field of Nilsson, a monopole pairing interaction and a quadrupole-quadrupole force. Microscopic structure of the quadrupole phonon is given from the Tamm-Dancoff Approximation. The two effects of recoil and Coriolis forces are included with the assumption of a symmetric rotational motion. Since theoretical treatment is performed for an odd- A nuclei the configuration of intrinsic states should contain both one-quasiparticle and quasiparticle-phonon components. This method is applied to describe the level scheme of ¹³³Nd for which an agreement with experimental data is obtained. The results are also found similar to previous calculations obtained by the Particle plus Triaxial Rotor Model. Received: 23 August 1999     

An integrable model in general relativity

Melnikov-method-based theoretical results are demonstrated concerning the relative effectiveness of any two weak excitations in suppressing homoclinic/heteroclinic chaos of a relevant class of dissipative, low-dimensional and non-autonomous systems for the main resonance between the chaos-inducing and chaos-suppressing excitations. General analytical expressions are derived from the analysis of generic Melnikov functions providing the boundaries of the regions as well as the enclosed area in the amplitude/initial phase plane of the chaos-suppressing excitation where homoclinic/heteroclinic chaos is inhibited. The relevance of the theoretical results on chaotic attractor elimination is confirmed by means of Lyapunov exponent calculations for a two-well Duffing oscillator. Received 21 May 2002 / Received in final form 13 September 2002 Published online 29 November 2002     

Linear hydrodynamics and viscoelasticity of nematic elastomers

We develop a continuum theory of linear viscoelastic response in oriented monodomain nematic elastomers. The expression for the dissipation function is analogous to the Leslie-Ericksen version of anisotropic nematic viscosity; we propose the relations between the anisotropic rubber moduli and new viscous coefficients. A new dimensionless number is introduced, which describes the relative magnitude of viscous and rubber-elastic torques. In an elastic medium with an independently mobile internal degree of freedom, the nematic director with its own relaxation dynamics, the model shows a dramatic decrease in the dynamic modulus in certain deformation geometries. The degree to which the storage modulus does not altogether drop to zero is shown to be both dependent on frequency and to be proportional to the semi-softness, the non-ideality of a nematic network. We consider the most interesting geometry for the implementation of the theory, calculating the dynamic response to an imposed simple shear and making predictions for effective moduli and (exceptionally high) loss factors. Received 16 October 2000 and Received in final form 10 December 2000     

Interactions between isolated nucleosome core particles: A tail-bridging effect?

Interactions between isolated nucleosome core particles are studied as a function of the monovalent salt concentration by osmometry and by electrophoretic mobility measurements. The data are compared to the measurements performed on the protein-free DNA fragments and also analysed using the conventional theoretical approach. At low salt, an electrostatic screening effect accounts for the variation of the second virial coefficient whereas the simple hard-core contribution becomes predominant at high salt. In the intermediate range, an attraction occurs. In the light of previous results (Mangenot et al. Biophys. J. 82, 345 (2002)), we show that the flexible basic proteic tails are responsible for this attraction. A tail-bridging effect is discussed. Received 4 October 2001     

Relation between vortex excitation and thermal conductivity in superconductors

Thermal conductivity κ _xx(T) under a field is investigated in d _{x2 - y2}-wave superconductors and isotropic s-wave superconductors by the linear response theory, using a microscopic wave function of the vortex lattice states. To study the origin of the different field dependence of κ_xx(T) between higher and lower temperature regions, we analyze the spatially-resolved thermal conductivity around a vortex at each temperature, which is related to the spectrum of the local density of states. We also discuss the electric conductivity in the same formulation for a comparison. Received 8 December 2001 and Received in final form 20 March 2002 Published online 6 June 2002