Do intradot electron-electron interactions induce dephasing?

We investigate the degree of coherence of electronic transport through a quantum dot (QD) in the presence of an intradot electron-electron interaction. By using an open multiterminal Aharonov-Bohm (AB) setup, we find that the intradot interaction does not induce any dephasing effect and the electron transport through the QD is fully coherent. We also observe that the asymmetric amplitude of the AB oscillation in the conductance through the two-terminal AB setup originates from the interplay between the confined structure and the electron-electron interaction. Thus, one cannot associate a dephasing process with this asymmetric amplitude, as has been done in previous studies.     

Berezinskii–Kosterlitz–Thouless transition close to the percolation threshold

We use Monte Carlo to investigate the Berezinskii–Kosterlitz–Thouless transition close to the site percolation threshold in a square lattice. Several thermodynamic quantities are calculated for lattice sizes L×L$L\times L$, from 16<L<640$16<L<640$. Our results are consistent with an infinite order transition for any value of the concentration of magnetic sites. We found that close to the critical percolation concentration, _pc$p_c$ (0.592746), the Berezinskii–Kosterlitz–Thouless transition temperature goes to zero as _TBKT∝(p−_pc)^0.908$T_{\mathit{BKT}}\propto {(p-p_c)}^{0.908}$ and the specific heat behaves as _Tsh∝p^1.133$T_{sh}\propto p^{1.133}$.     

Is a nanorod (or nanotube) with a lower Young’s modulus stiffer? Is not Young’s modulus a stiffness indicator?

It has been a known fact in classical mechanics of materials that Young’s modulus is an indicator of material stiffness and materials with a higher Young’s modulus are stiffer. At the nanoscale, within the scope and under specific circumstances described in this paper, however, a nanorod (or a nanotube) with a smaller Young’s modulus (smaller stress-strain rate) is stiffer. In such a scenario, Young’s modulus is not a stiffness indicator for nanostructures. Furthermore, the nonlocal stress-strain rate is dependent on types of load, boundary conditions and location. This is likely to be one of the many possible reasons why numerous experiments in the past obtained significantly varying values of Young’s modulus for a seemingly identical nanotube, i.e. because the types of loading and/or boundary conditions in the experiments were different, as well as at which point the property was measured. Based on the nonlocal elasticity theory and within the scope of material and geometric linearity, this paper reports the strange and hitherto unrealized effect that a nanorod (or a nanotube) with a lower Young’s modulus (smaller stress-strain rate) indicates smaller extension in tensile analysis. Similarly, it is also predicted that a nanorod (or a nanotube) with a lower Young’s modulus results in smaller bending deflection, higher critical buckling load, higher free vibration frequency and higher wave propagation velocity, which are at all consequences of a stiffer nanostructure.     

Do Co-Worker Networks Increase or Decrease Productivity Differences?

Do labor mobility and co-worker networks contribute to convergence or divergence between regions? Based on the previous literature, labor mobility contributes to knowledge transfer between firms. Therefore, mobility may contribute to decreasing productivity differences, while limited mobility sustains higher differences. The effect of co-worker networks, however, can be two-fold in this process; they transmit information about potential jobs, which may enhance the mobility of workers—even between regions—and this enhanced mobility may contribute to levelling of differences. However, if mobility between regions involves movement costs, co-worker networks may concentrate locally—possibly contributing to the persistence of regional differences. In this paper, we build an agent-based model of labor mobility across firms and regions with knowledge spillovers that reflects key empirical observations on labor markets. We analyze the impact of network information provided about potential employers in this model and find that it contributes to increasing inter-regional mobility, and subsequently, to decreasing regional differences. We also find that both the density of coworker networks, as well as their regional concentrations, decrease if network information is available.     

Deviatoric stress: a nuisance or a gold mine?

Both synchrotron radiation and deviatoric stress were once considered to be nuisances. Now synchrotron radiation is one of the most important tools available to scientists of all disciplines and deviatoric stress is one of the most useful aspects of x-ray diffraction at extreme conditions. Samples in high-pressure devices are under true hydrostatic pressure only when surrounded by a fluid, thus limiting true hydrostatic pressure studies at ambient temperatures to pressures below about 11?GPa. Elevated temperature is able to extend this limit but has rarely been used for this purpose. Instead, noble gases have been used as pressure media as their solids are especially soft. Deviatoric stress and resultant anisotropic elastic strain in solid samples and solid media have led to many subtle errors in determinations of elastic properties and crystal structures, especially in the days before it was realized that they could be measured and were potentially a valuable source of information. In recent years, measuring anisotropic elastic strain by x-ray diffraction has provided new insights into materials strength, elastic properties, crystal structures, mechanisms of phase transitions, slip systems, lattice preferred orientation, and, of course, ways to make corrections when deviatoric stress is indeed a nuisance.     

Is ionization adiabatic near threshold?

Time-dependent perturbation theory is applied to a two-level model of neon to predict the energy dependence of 2p → 3p shakeup accompanying ionization. In this picture, the outgoing electron is treated as a classical particle moving in the potential of the nucleus and the other electrons. The time dependence of the perturbation is calculated numerically and integrated to give the shakeup probability. For core ionization this model predicts the probability for shakeup at the shakeup threshold to be about 79% of the value at the sudden limit. For 2p ionization the corresponding ratio is 67%. Thus, even at the threshold the process is closer to the sudden limit than to the adiabatic limit. Experimental results are in agreement with these theoretical predictions.     

Charm in PHENIX—a signal or a background?

Charm, as well as Strangeness, plays an important role in searches for the Quark Gluon Plasma.J/Φ Suppression and Strangeness Enhancement are two of the earliest proposed QGP signatures. Recent theoretical work on charm in Relativistic Heavy Ion collisions has focussed on di-lepton production. However, even before the discovery of theJ/Ψ, evidence of open charm was seen in hadron collisions via the observation of promptsingle leptons “resulting from the semi-leptonic decays of charm particles.” [1] The ‘copious’ yield of direct (i.e. not from Dalitz decays) single electrons and muons—at a levele/π～10^?4 forpT≥1.3 GeV/c—observed in the early 1970’s was explained by Hinchliffe and Llewellyn-Smith and Bourquin and Gaillard as evidence of open-charm production. It is likely thate/π at RHIC is large and is a good measure of charm production. Thus, a measurement of single electrons with moderatepT>1.5 GeV/c at RHIC should give a clean charm signal in heavy ion collisions,with no combinatoric background.     

Do B meson decays exclude a light Higgs?

In the standard model with three generations a light Higgs boson will be produced in a quarter of all B meson decays. A novel calculation of the b → sH matrix element is given. Existing data on B meson decays excludes a light Higgs with mass less than 300 MeV or between 2 and 3.7 GeV. Because of theoretical uncertainties in the branching fractions for Higgs production and decay, a window between 300 MeV and 2 GeV is still allowed. Such a Higgs could be discovered at the ϒ (4S) in inclusive π⁺π⁻ or K⁺ K⁻ invariant mass plots, and in events with six kaons.     

A second look at a controversial percolation exponent—Is η negative in three dimensions?

Series for the three dimensional bond percolation probability are reexamined in the light of a recent evaluation of the percolation thresholdp _c . We find $$\beta = 0.435 \pm 0.035$$ which implies $$\eta = - 0.01 \pm 0.09$$ We determine Δ₁ = 1.05 ± 0.15 and also observe a second correction exponent near Δ₂ ~ 1.7.     

Do superconductors have zero resistance in a magnetic field?

We show that dc voltage versus current measurements of a YBa(2)Cu(3)O(7-delta) film in a magnetic field can be collapsed onto scaling functions proposed by Fisher et al. [Phys. Rev. B 43, 130 (1991)] as is widely reported in the literature. We find, however, that good data collapse is achieved for a wide range of critical exponents and temperatures. These results strongly suggest that agreement with scaling alone does not prove the existence of a phase transition. We propose a criterion to determine if the data collapse is valid, and thus if a phase transition occurs. To our knowledge, none of the data reported in the literature meet our criterion.     

Causal nets or what is a deterministic computation?

The network approach to computation is more direct and physical than the one based on some specific computing devices (like Turing machines). However, the size of a usual—e.g., Boolean—network does not reflect the complexity of computing the corresponding function, since a small network may be very hard to find even if it exists. A history of the work of a particular computing device can be described as a network satisfying some restrictions. The size of this network reflects the complexity of the problem, but the restrictions are usually somewhat arbitrary and even awkward. Causal nets are restricted only by determinism (causality) and locality of interaction. Their geometrical characteristics do reflect computational complexities. And various imaginary computer devices are easy to express in their terms. The elementarily of this concept may help bringing geometrical and algebraic (and maybe even physical) methods into the theory of computations. This hope is supported by the group-theoretical criterion given in this paper for computability from symmetrical initial configurations.Part of this work was done while this author was visiting Johann Wolfgang Goethe University, Frankfurt am Main in 1978 and Stanford University in 1979.The research of this author was partially supported by NSF grants MCS 77-19754 and MCS-8104211.     

Do male northern elephant seals recognize individuals or merely relative dominance rank?

Vocal recognition was tested in a socially dynamic context where many individuals interact: the female defense polygyny practiced by male northern elephant seals. The goal was to tease apart whether animals recognize other individuals or instead use a simple rule-based category (i.e., relative dominance rank). A total of 67 playback experiments conducted with 18 males at An?o Nuevo State Reserve, California, tested three aspects of recognition: (1) recognition of relative rank; (2) whether such recognition was continuous or categorical; and (3) recognition of familiarity. Results indicate that males recognize familiar individuals although responses are primarily based on relative dominance rank.     

Do unpolarized electrons affect the polarization of a stored beam?

We present a short overview of the PAX physics case for polarized antiprotons. In order to progress towards a stored polarized antiproton beam, it is crucial to understand the interaction of polarized protons with unpolarized electrons. Therefore investigations that address in particular the contributions of electrons to the polarization buildup of a stored proton beam are presented here in more detail. The measurement of the depolarizing p e cross section settled a long-standing controversy about the role of electrons in the polarization buildup of a stored beam by spin-filtering. Instead of studying the buildup of polarization in an initially unpolarized beam, here the inverse situation was investigated by observation of the depolarization of an initially polarized beam. For the first time, electrons in the electron cooler have been used as a target to study their depolarizing effect on a 49.3 MeV proton beam orbiting in COSY. The foreseen spin-filtering experiments at COSY–Jülich and at the AD of CERN are briefly discussed as well.     

Towards a Resolution of Dilemma: Nonlocality or Nonobjectivity?

This paper discusses a possible resolution of the nonobjectivity-nonlocality dilemma in quantum mechanics in the light of experimental tests of the Bell inequality for two entangled photons and a Bell-like inequality for a single neutron. My conclusion is that these experiments show that quantum mechanics is nonobjective: that is, the values of physical observables cannot be assigned to a system before measurement. Bell’s assumption of nonlocality has to be rejected as having no direct experimental confirmation, at least thus far. I also consider the relationships between nonobjectivity and contextuality. Specifically, I analyze the impact of the Kochen-Specker theorem on the problem of contextuality of quantum observables. I argue that, just as von Neumann’s “no-go” theorem, the Kochen-Specker theorem is based on assumptions that do not correspond to the real physical situation. Finally, I present a theory of measurement based on a classical, purely wave model (pre-quantum classical statistical field theory), a model that reproduces quantum probabilities. In this model continuous fields are transformed into discrete clicks of detectors. While this model is classical, it is nonobjective. In this case, nonobjectivity is the result of the dependence of experimental outcomes on the context of measurement, in accordance with Bohr’s view.     

Do Solids Flow?

Are solids intrinsically different from liquids? Must a finite stress be applied in order to induce flow? Or, instead, do all solids only look rigid on some finite timescales and eventually flow if an infinitesimal shear stress is applied? Surprisingly, these simple questions are a matter of debate and definite answers are still lacking. Here we show that solidity is only a time-scale dependent notion: equilibrium states of matter that break spontaneously translation invariance, e.g. crystals, flow if even an infinitesimal stress is applied. However, they do so in a way inherently different from ordinary liquids since their viscosity diverges for vanishing shear stress with an essential singularity. We find an ultra-slow decrease of the shear stress as a function of the shear rate, which explains the apparent yield stress identified in rheological flow curves. Furthermore, we suggest that an alternating shear of frequency ω and amplitude γ should lead to a dynamic phase transition line in the (ω,γ) plane, from a ‘flowing’ to a ‘non-flowing’ phase. Finally, we apply our results to crystals, show the corresponding microscopic process leading to flow and discuss possible experimental investigations.     

Do vortices entangle?

We propose an experiment for directly constructing and locally probing topologically entangled states of superconducting vortices which can be performed with present-day technology. Calculations using an elastic string vortex model indicate that as the pitch (the winding angle divided by the vertical distance) increases, the vortices approach each other. At values of the pitch higher than a maximum value the entangled state becomes unstable to collapse via a singularity of the model. We provide predicted experimental signatures for both vortex entanglement and vortex cutting. The local probe we propose can also be used to explore a wide range of other quantities.     

Structure of a collapsed polymer chain with stickers: a single- or multiflower?

Using an amphiphilic copolymer with evenly spaced hydrophobic styrene segments (stickers), poly(N-isopropylacrylamide-s-styrene), we recently confirmed a long-standing prediction that such a copolymer chain in a solvent selectively poor for the stickers could self-fold from a random coil to a single-flowerlike core-shell nanostructure. Moreover, we found that the self-folding involves the movement of the sticks to the center and the transition from the random coil to the collapsed globule passes through a proposed ordered coil state.     

Is the Free Electromagnetic Field a Consequence of Maxwell's Equations or a Postulate?

It is generally accepted that solutions of so called free Maxwell equations for = 0 (null charge density at every point of the whole space) describe a free electromagnetic field for which flux lines neither begin nor end in a charge). In order to avoid ambiguities and unacceptable approximation which have place in the conventional approach in respect to the free field concept, we explicitly consider three possible types of space regions: (i) isolated charge-free region, where a resultant electric field with the flux lines which either begin or end in a charge is zero in every point, for example, inside a hollow conductor of any shape or in a free-charge universe; (ii) non-isolated charge-free region, where this electric [see (i)] field is not zero in every point; and (iii) charge-neutral region, where point charges exist but their algebraic sum is zero. According to these definitions a strict mathematical interpretation of Maxwell's equations gives following conclusions: (1) In isolated charge-free regions electric free field cannot be unconditionally understood neither as a direct consequence of Maxwell's equations nor as a valid approximation: it may be introduced only as a postulate; nevertheless, this case is compatible is the existence of a time-independent background magnetic field. (2) In both charge-neutral and non-isolated charge-free regions, where the condition = function or = 0 respectively holds, Maxwell's equation for the total electric field have non-zero solutions, as in the conventional approach. However, these solution cannot be strictly identified with the electric free field. This analysis gives rise to the reconsideration of the free-electromagnetic field concept and leads to the simplest implications in respect to charge-neutral universe.