Criticality of relaxation in dislocation systems

Relaxation processes of dislocation systems are studied by two-dimensional dynamical simulations. In order to capture generic features, three physically different scenarios were studied and power-law decays found for various physical quantities. Our main finding is that all these are the consequence of the underlying scaling property of the dislocation velocity distribution. Scaling is found to break down at some cutoff time increasing with system size. The absence of intrinsic relaxation time indicates that criticality is ubiquitous in all states studied. These features are reminiscent of glassy systems and can be attributed to the inherent quenched disorder in the position of the slip planes.     

Intergranular giant magnetoresistance in a spontaneously phase separated perovskite oxide

We present small-angle neutron scattering data proving that, on the insulating side of the metal-insulator transition, the doped perovskite cobaltite La(1-x)Sr(x)CoO(3) phase separates into ferromagnetic metallic clusters embedded in a nonferromagnetic matrix. This induces a hysteretic magnetoresistance, with temperature and field dependence characteristic of intergranular giant magnetoresistance (GMR). We argue that this system is a natural analog to the artificial structures fabricated by depositing nanoscale ferromagnetic particles in a metallic or insulating matrix; i.e., this material displays a GMR effect without the deliberate introduction of chemical interfaces.     

Laser-scanning confocal imaging of calcium in spontaneously contracting cardiac cells: nuclear-cytosolic Ca differences

Laser scanning confocal microscopy (LSCM) of Ca²⁺ -sensitive fluorophores was used to investigate Ca²⁺ oscillations in the nuclear environment of spontaneously contracting, isolated, rat cardiac myocytes. LSCM allowed for clear separation of the intranuclear and cytosolic Ca²⁺ changes that resulted from the sponteneous local elevations of Ca²⁺ that propagated in these cells. While we were not able to resolve any clear differences in the timecourse of the elevation of Ca²⁺ in some of these cells, the rate of sequestration of nuclear Ca²⁺ could be seen to clearly lag behind that of the neighboring cytosol. This resulted in distinct images of cells transiently showing significantly higher nuclear than cytosolic Ca²⁺ levels. The enhanced spatial resolution and rejection of out-of-focus information of confocal microscopy, are important features of this technique, that will allow for the detailed analysis of the spatial and temporal second messenger responses of living cells and tissues.     

Spin relaxation of muonated radicals in the gas phase

We report on recent results obtained for longitudinal field (T ₁) spin relaxation of the muonium-substituted (muonated) free radicals MuCO, MuC₂F₄, MuC₂H₃F, and MuC₄H₈ (t-butyl), comparing with results reported earlier for MuC₂H₄ (and MuC₂D₄). Some comparison with transverse field (T ₂) data is also given. These data are fit to a phenomenological model based on NMR theory of spin relaxation in gases. The parameters of these fits are presented and discussed.     

Dynamics of relaxation processes in a triglycine selenate single crystal in a ferroelectric phase

The deviation of the relaxation spectrum from the Debye type is studied experimentally and the presence of the non-Debye relaxation is shown, which is defined in different temperature ranges either by proton multiposition transitions below the Curie point T _c or relaxation domain and interphase boundaries in the vicinity of T _c. For triglycine selenate, the methods of analysis of dielectric non-Debye spectra are used.     

14N spin relaxation study in the hexagonal phase of a lyotropic liquid crystal

¹⁴N quadrupolar splitting and spin-lattice relaxation times T _IZ and T _IQ were measured in the hexagonal phase of a binary mixture of dodecyltrimethylammonium chloride and water. The derived spectral densities of motion at seven temperatures together with their corresponding quadrupolar splittings were analysed based on a simple model of ‘classical’ aggregates. Both fast local motion and slower surface self-diffusion about the cylindrical aggregate axis were required to account for the ¹⁴N spin relaxation in this phase. The azimuthal correlation time was found to be tens of nanoseconds.     

Ultrasound relaxation during the transition of a CTSM crystal to the proton-glass phase

The visco-elastic response of a crystal/superprotonic conductor during the transition to the structured glass state is investigated. The mechanism of ultrasound relaxation associated with the diffusion of disordered protons is considered. Anisotropy of the thermal-activation parameters is established. Fiz. Tverd. Tela (St. Petersburg) 39, 89–92 (January 1997)     

Dielectric relaxation in layered oxides of the Aurivillius phase family

Two new polycrystalline layered oxides Bi_2.33Ca_0.17Nb_1.33W_0.17O_7.5 and Bi_2.25Ca_0.25Nb_1.25W_0.25O_7.5, in which the number of perovskite layers is equal to 1.5, have been synthesized. It has been revealed using X-ray powder diffraction analysis that both compounds have a single-phase composition and exhibit a structure of Aurivillius phases with orthorhombic unit cells corresponding to space group Cmm2. The analysis of the temperature dependences of the permittivity in the frequency range from 1 kHz to 1 MHz has demonstrated that these compounds are characterized by relaxor properties. This manifests itself in the frequency dispersion of the ferroelectric-paraelectric transition temperature and high values of the diffusivity parameter: γ = 1.75 and 1.82.     

Criticality in the randomness-induced second-order phase transition of the triangular Ising antiferromagnet with nearest- and next-nearest-neighbor interactions

Using a Wang-Landau entropic sampling scheme, we investigate the effects of quenched bond randomness on a particular case of a triangular Ising model with nearest- (J_nn) and next-nearest-neighbor (J_nnn) antiferromagnetic interactions. We consider the case R=J_nnn/J_nn=1, for which the pure model is known to have a columnar ground state where rows of nearest-neighbor spins up and down alternate and undergo a weak first-order phase transition from the ordered to the paramagnetic state. With the introduction of quenched bond randomness we observe the effects signaling the expected conversion of the first-order phase transition to a second-order phase transition and using the Lee-Kosterlitz method, we quantitatively verify this conversion. The emerging, under random bonds, continuous transition shows a strongly saturating specific heat behavior, corresponding to a negative exponent α, and belongs to a new distinctive universality class with ν=1.135(11), γ/ν=1.744(9), and β/ν=0.124(8). Thus, our results for the critical exponents support an extensive but weak universality and the emerged continuous transition has the same magnetic critical exponent (but a different thermal critical exponent) as a wide variety of two-dimensional (2d) systems without and with quenched disorder.     

Dynamics of a quantum phase transition and relaxation to a steady state

We review recent theoretical work on two closely related issues: excitation of an isolated quantum condensed matter system driven adiabatically across a continuous quantum phase transition or a gapless phase, and apparent relaxation of an excited system after a sudden quench of a parameter in its Hamiltonian. Accordingly, the review is divided into two parts. The first part revolves around a quantum version of the Kibble–Zurek mechanism including also phenomena that go beyond this simple paradigm. What they have in common is that excitation of a gapless many-body system scales with a power of the driving rate. The second part attempts a systematic presentation of recent results and conjectures on apparent relaxation of a pure state of an isolated quantum many-body system after its excitation by a sudden quench. This research is motivated in part by recent experimental developments in the physics of ultracold atoms with potential applications in the adiabatic quantum state preparation and quantum computation.     

Magnetic relaxation in a spin-1 Ising model near the second-order phase transition point

The magnetic relaxation of a spin-1 Ising model with bilinear and biquadratic interactions is formulated within the framework of statistical equilibrium theory and the thermodynamics of irreversible processes. Using a molecular-field expression for the magnetic Gibbs energy, the magnetic Gibbs energy produced in the irreversible process is calculated and time derivatives of the dipolar and quadrupolar order parameters are treated as fluxes conjugate to their appropriate generalized forces in the sense of Onsager theory. The kinetic equations are obtained by introducing kinetic coefficients that satisfy the Onsager relation. By solving these equations an expression is derived for the dynamic or complex magnetic susceptibility. From the real and imaginary parts of this expression, magnetic dispersion and absorption factor are calculated and analyzed near the second-order phase transition.     

Chain dynamics in a chiral C phase by deuteron spin relaxation study

Molecular reorientations and internal conformational transitions of an aligned chiral liquid crystal (LC) 10B1M7 are studied by means of deuterium spin-lattice relaxation in its smectic A (SmA) and smectic C* (SmC*) phase. The motional model which is applicable to uniaxial phases of many LCs is found to be adequate even when the phase is a tilted SmC* phase. The deuterium NMR spectrum in this phase cannot discern rotations of the molecular director about the pitch axis. The basic assumption is that the phase biaxiality is practically unobservable. However, the relaxation rates can be accounted for by the tilt angle between the molecular director and the layer normal in the SmC* phase. The tumbling motion appears to show a higher activation energy upon entering from the uniaxial SmA into the SmC* phase.     

Criticality of Parasitic Disease Transmission in a Diffusive Population

Through using the methods of finite-size effect and short time dynamic scaling, we study the critical behavior of parasitic disease spreading process in a diffusive population mediated by a static vector environment. Through comprehensive analysis of parasitic disease spreading we find that this model presents a dynamical phase transition from disease-free state to endemic state with a finite population density. We determine the critical population density, above which the system reaches an epidemic spreading stationary state. We also perform a scaling analysis to determine the order parameter and critical relaxation exponents. The results show that the model does not belong to the usual directed percolation universality class and is compatible with the class of directed percolation with diffusive and conserved fields.     

Dynamic mechanical relaxation and loss in the incommensurate phase of quartz

The dynamic mechanical properties of quartz have been studied as a function of temperature across the α-β phase transition and in the vicinity of the incommensurate (IC) phase on cooling from the β phase. The mechanical response of the IC phase shows strong anelasticity for measurement of Young's modulus (closely related to C(11) in our geometry) with modulated stress driven at 1 Hz. The dynamic shear modulus does not show similar strong effects in its imaginary component, although a very weak anomaly is barely detectable in the real part of the modulus. Our results indicate that the incommensurate microstructures within the quartz transition interval are susceptible to dilatational stress with relaxation times around 1 s.     

Longitudinal muon spin relaxation in organic radicals in the vapour phase

The aim of this work is the study of longitudinal field relaxation for organic radicals in the gas or vapour phase, for which the technique of Muon Spin Relaxation proves to be uniquely suitable. Following on from the first such study of the muonium substituted ethyl radical in gaseous ethene [1], the present work represents the beginning of a systematic study of species of various molecular symmetries and still higher molecular weight, with a view to investigating their collisional dynamics. Preliminary data for the muonium substituted cyclohexadienyl radical in benzene vapour, and the results of tests for radical formation in acetylene and carbon monoxide, are presented.     

Criticality of Parasitic Disease Transmission in a Diffusive Population

Through using the methods of finite-size effect and short time dynamic scaling, we study the critical behavior of parasitic disease spreading process in a diffusive population mediated by a static vector environment. Through comprehensive analysis of parasitic disease spreading we find that this model presents a dynamical phase transition from disease-free state to endemic state with a finite population density. We determine the critical population density, above which the system reaches an epidemic spreading stationary state. We also perform a scaling analysis to determine the order parameter and critical relaxation exponents. The results show that the model does not belong to the usual directed percolation universality class and is compatible with the class of directed percolation with diffusive and conserved fields.