Annealing two-dimensional diffusion-limited aggregates

We have studied the structure of annealed two-dimensional diffusion-limited aggregates (DLA). The annealing process consists of introducing internal flexibility to the original DLA rigid structure as well as excluded volume interactions between particles. From extensive Monte Carlo simulations we obtained aggregates with fractal dimension slightly higher than that obtained for two-dimensional DLA structures. This is somehow surprising since the fractal dimension of the annealed structure is determined not only by connectivity but also by the competing effects of excluded volume interactions and configurational entropy, whilst in the rigid DLA only diffusion counts for the fractal-dimension value.     

Effects of Monomer Size Distribution on the fractal dimensionality of diffusion-limited aggregates

Computer simulations of diffusion-limited aggregation (DLA) for monomers to investigate the effects of size and of lognormal distribution on the fractal dimensionality of the aggregates were conducted on a two-dimensional lattice. The results show the DLA clusters posses multifractal characteristics. For clusters consisting of monodisperse monomers, the bifurcation point on the graph of the pair correlation function (PCF) for each cluster is located right at the monomers size under investigation The textural dimension (D_f1) has a stable value of about 1.65, whereas the structural dimension (D_f2) decreased with increase in monomer size. For the cases with monomers in log-normal distributions, the textural dimension is around 1.67; however, the structural dimension decreases with increasing polydispersity of monomer size.     

Fractal aggregates of particles

Recent work to understand aggregation of particles using the concept of fractal is reviewed. We introduce all the tools issued from the theory of fractals, and which are useful for our study. Then we define and detail the two main models: the particle-cluster process where individual particles come to stick on large clusters, and the cluster-cluster process where clusters diffuse and stick when they collide. The important parameters of these models are varied and their influence on the resulting geometrical disordered structure is discussed. All along the paper, the connections with existing experiments are given.     

Percolation of interacting particles on heterogeneous surfaces

The percolation problem of interacting particles on square lattices with two kinds of energetically different sites is studied. Square lattices formed by collections of either randomly or orderly distributed sites are generated. The system is characterized by two parameters, namely, the interaction between adjacent particles, ω, and the energy difference between the two kinds of sites, . Particles are adsorbed at equilibrium on the lattice. By means of Monte Carlo simulations and finite-size scaling analysis the critical coverage is determined. The percolative behavior of the system is presented and discussed in terms of the mentioned parameters, ω and .     

Superweakly interacting massive particles

We investigate a new class of dark matter: superweakly interacting massive particles (super-WIMPs). As with conventional WIMPs, super-WIMPs appear in well motivated particle theories with naturally the correct relic density. In contrast to WIMPs, however, super-WIMPs are impossible to detect in all conventional dark matter searches. We consider the concrete examples of gravitino and graviton cold dark matter in models with supersymmetry and universal extra dimensions, respectively, and show that super-WIMP dark matter satisfies stringent constraints from big bang nucleosynthesis and the cosmic microwave background.     

Adsorption thermodynamics of monomers on diluted-bonds triangular lattices

The surface of amorphous solids cannot be usually represented by a regular lattice of adsorbing sites. One of the main characteristics of such surfaces is a variable connectivity for each site. A simple model consisting of a triangular lattice where a fraction of bonds (interactions) is suppressed at random is used here to find out, by using Monte Carlo simulations, how the adsorption thermodynamics of repulsively interacting monomers is modified with respect to the same process in the regular lattice. Adsorption isotherm, differential heat of adsorption and adsorbed phase entropy calculations are carried out showing and interpreting the effects of the variable connectivity. In particular, it is found that the order-disorder phase transition observed for the regular lattice survives, though with modifications, above a critical mean connectivity.     

Diffusion of interacting particles on a percolating lattice

The diffusion has been simulated by the Monte Carlo method on a random lattice. As in the ant in the labyrinth problem the particles move by stepping to allowed, randomly chosen neighboring fields. The particle interaction has been defined by the constraint that only one particle can occupy a site at a time. Biased diffusion means that one of the directions will be chosen with a greater probability than the others. It was shown that, with an increasing number of walkers, the displacement of the particles first of all increases to a maximum value and then decreases. This filling-up effect will not occur with small bias fields and on lattices with a high concentration of allowed sites.     

Absorption spectra of quantum aggregates interacting via long-range forces

We present a simple formula by which the shape of the absorption spectrum of an aggregate of quantum "monomers" (cold atoms, molecules, quantum dots, nanoparticles, etc.) interacting via dipole-dipole forces can be calculated from the averaged spectrum of the quantum monomer itself. Spectral broadening, due to a wide variety of causes, is included explicitly so that the formula is applicable not only to the idealization of a discrete spectrum but also to the practical situation of a continuously broadened spectrum. In simple cases, analytic results are obtained showing the strong dependence of the aggregate spectrum on the precise nature of the broadening of the quantum monomer spectrum. The formula is compared with results of exact diagonalization of model aggregate Hamiltonians and with experiment.     

Dynamics and thermodynamics of the low-temperature strongly interacting Bose gas

We measure the zero-temperature equation of state of a homogeneous Bose gas of (7)Li atoms by analyzing the in situ density distributions of trapped samples. For increasing repulsive interactions our data show a clear departure from mean-field theory and provide a quantitative test of the many-body corrections first predicted in 1957 by Lee, Huang, and Yang [Phys. Rev. 106, 1135 (1957).]. We further probe the dynamic response of the Bose gas to a varying interaction strength and compare it to simple theoretical models. We deduce a lower bound for the value of the universal constant ξ > 0.44(8) that would characterize the universal Bose gas at the unitary limit.