Minimum Energy and Total Dipole Moment

Several magnetic materials consisting of dipoles owe their properties to the specific nature of the dipole–dipole interaction. In the present work, systems of particles possessing a dipole moment arranged on various types of 2D and 3D structures, completely arbitrary and, in some 2D instances, periodic (albeit finite), are studied. Noteworthy, the work is in the regime of strong dipole moments where a classical treatment is possible. The ultimate goal is to quantitatively address the unknown relation existing between the minimum possible energy of a system of dipoles and the concomitant total dipole moment. To such an end, classical numerical methods are used to the previous minimum energy–total dipole moment tandem for various magnetic configurations at zero temperature. An analytic bound for the minimal energy valid for any dimension is also obtained. With this exploration, new light is shed on the connection between the two former physical quantities, establishing an analytic inequality for $N=3$ particles, and describing other instances of physical interest.     

Large Magnetic Anisotropy Energy and Robust Half-Metallic Ferromagnetism in 2D MnXSe4 (X = As,Sb)

In recent years, intrinsic 2D magnetism has aroused great interest because of its potential application in spintronic devices. However, low Curie temperature (T_c) and magnetic anisotropy energy (MAE) limit its application prospects. Here, using first-principles calculations based on density-functional theory, a series of stable MnXSe₄ (X=As, Sb) single-layer is predicted. The MAE of single-layer MnAsSe₄ and MnSbSe₄ is 648.76 and 808.95 $\mu$eV per Mn atom, respectively. Monte Carlo simulations suggest the T_c of single-layer MnAsSe₄ and MnSbSe₄ is 174 and 250 K, respectively. The energy band calculation with hybrid Heyd–Scuseria–Ernzerhof (HSE06) function indicates the MnXSe₄ (X = As, Sb) is ferromagnetic half-metallic. Also, it has 100% spin-polarization ratio at the Fermi level. For MnAsSe₄ and MnSbSe₄, the spin-gaps are 1.59 and 1.48 eV, respectively. These excellent magnetic properties render MnXSe₄ (X = As, Sb) as promising candidate materials for 2D spintronic applications.     

Possible Link between the Distribution of Atomic Spectral Lines and the Radiation–Matter-Equilibrium in the Early Universe

The uncanny resemblance of the global distribution of all experimentally known atomic spectral lines to the Planckian spectral distribution associated with black body radiation at a temperature of $T\approx 9000\mathrm{K}$ is reported. This value coincides with the critical temperature of equilibrium between the respective densities of radiation and matter in the early universe.     

Efficient Ultraviolet Nanosources Based on Third-Harmonic Generation in Dielectric–Metal Composite Nanodisks

Dielectric materials with high indices have recently attracted much attention in the community of nanophotonics. Severe optical losses in visible–ultraviolet (UV) region, however, limit their applications. This article proposes dielectric–metal nanocomposites as alternative high-index materials for Mie-resonance-based applications. Such composite materials have high indices in the range of wavelength longer than plasmon resonance of inclusion metal nanoparticles, while they have much lower losses in the range from blue-violet down to near-UV compared with commonly used high-index materials such as silicon, enabling near-UV generation with high efficiency based on third-harmonic generation (THG). The numerical results show that ZnO nanodisk containing silver nanoparticles can generate near-UV radiation at 351.3 nm via THG with an efficiency about 20 times higher compared with silicon nanodisk under same pumping condition. Significantly high THG efficiency of 0.015% has been predicted with such a composite nanodisk supported by aluminum substrate under pumping with a peak intensity of 20 GW cm⁻², a spot size of 0.8 $\mu \mathrm{m}$, a duration of 50 fs at 1054 nm, respectively.     

Effect of arbitrary temperature degeneracy and ion magnetization on shear Alfven waves in electron-positron-ion plasmas

Linear properties of low-frequency electromagnetic shear Alfven waves (SAWs) are studied in quantum electron-positron-ion plasmas with effect of arbitrary temperature degeneracy for magnetized () and unmagnetized ( ) ions by using the quantum hydrodynamic model. Dispersion relations are derived for nearly degenerate () and nearly non-degenerate () plasmas. Bohm potential due to density correlation and temperature degeneracy due to Fermi–Dirac statistics of electron–positron, and their effects on the dispersion of SAWs are studied in detail both analytically and numerically. The relevance of the work regarding dense astrophysical plasmas is highlighted.     

Numerical study of the effect of secondary electron emission on the sheath characteristics in q-non-extensive plasma

In this paper, a plasma sheath containing primary electrons, cold positive ions, and secondary electrons is studied using a one-dimensional fluid model in which the primary electrons are described by q-non-extensive distribution according to the Tsallis statistics. Based on the Sagdeev potential method and the current balance relation, a modified sheath criterion, and floating potential are established theoretically. The effect of secondary electron emission on q-non-extensive plasma sheath characteristics have been numerically examined. A significant change is observed in the quantities characterizing the non-extensive plasma sheath with the presence of the secondary electrons. It is found that the sheath properties with super-extensive distribution and sub-extensive distribution are different compared with plasma sheath with Maxwell distribution .     

Damped dust-ion-acoustic solitons in collisional magnetized nonthermal plasmas

A multispecies magnetized collisional nonthermal plasma system, containing inertial ion species, noninertial electron species following nonthermal -distribution, and immobile dust particles, is considered to examine the characteristics of the dissipative dust-ion-acoustic soliton modes, theoretically and parametrically. The electrostatic solitary modes are found to be associated with the low-frequency dissipative dust-ion-acoustic solitary waves (DIASWs). The ion-neutral collision is taken into account, and the influence of ion-neutral collisional effects on the dynamics of dissipative DIASWs is investigated. It is reported that most of the plasma medium in space and laboratory are far from thermal equilibrium, and the particles in such plasma system are well fitted via the -nonthermal distribution than via the thermal Maxwellian distribution. The reductive perturbation approach is adopted to derive the damped KdV (dKdV) equation, and the solitary wave solution of the dKdV equation is derived via the tangent hyperbolic method to analyse the basic features (amplitude, width, speed, time evolution, etc.) of dissipative DIASWs. The propagation nature and also the basic features of dissipative DIASWs are seen to influence significantly due to the variation of the plasma configuration parameters and also due to the variation of the supethermality index in the considered plasma system. The implication of the results of this study could be useful for better understanding the electrostatic localized disturbances, in the ion length and time scale, in space and experimental dusty plasmas, where the presence of excess energetic electrons and ion-neutral collisional damping are accountable.     

Thermodynamics of the uniform electron gas: Fermionic path integral Monte Carlo simulations in the restricted grand canonical ensemble

The uniform electron gas (UEG) is one of the key models for the understanding of warm dense matter—an exotic, highly compressed state of matter between solid and plasma phases. The difficulty in modelling the UEG arises from the need to simultaneously account for Coulomb correlations, quantum effects, and exchange effects, as well as finite temperature. The most accurate results so far were obtained from quantum Monte Carlo (QMC) simulations with a variety of representations. However, QMC for electrons is hampered by the fermion sign problem. Here, we present results from a novel fermionic propagator path integral Monte Carlo in the restricted grand canonical ensemble. The ab initio simulation results for the spin-resolved pair distribution functions and static structure factor are reported for two isotherms (T in the units of the Fermi temperature). Furthermore, we combine the results from the linear response theory in the Singwi-Tosi-Land-Sjölander scheme with the QMC data to remove finite-size errors in the interaction energy. We present a new corrected parametrization for the interaction energy and the exchange–correlation free energy in the thermodynamic limit, and benchmark our results against the restricted path integral Monte Carlo by Brown et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 110 , 146405 (2013)] and configuration path integral Monte Carlo/permutation-blocking path integral Monte Carlo by Dornheim et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 117 , 115701 (2016)].