Configurational entropy of systems with non-additive lateral interactions

The configurational entropy per site of a lattice gas model with non-additive interactions between adsorbed particles for square, triangular and honeycomb lattices is discussed in the present study. The model used here assumes that the energy which links a certain atom with any of its nearest-neighbors strongly depends on the state of occupancy in the first coordination sphere of that adatom. By means of Monte Carlo simulations in the canonical ensemble by following the algorithm of parallel tempering and the thermodynamic integration method the configurational entropy per site has been calculated. By analyzing the behavior of the configurational entropy per site, the different low-temperature-ordered phases are described. The dependency of the critical temperature of the system as a function of characteristic parameters of the model is established.     

Time-Reversed Dynamical Entropy and Irreversibility in Markovian Random Processes

A concept of time-reversed entropy per unit time is introduced in analogy with the entropy per unit time by Shannon, Kolmogorov, and Sinai. This time-reversed entropy per unit time characterizes the dynamical randomness of a stochastic process backward in time, while the standard entropy per unit time characterizes the dynamical randomness forward in time. The difference between the time-reversed and standard entropies per unit time is shown to give the entropy production of Markovian processes in nonequilibrium steady states.     

Theory of spin-flip excitations across the ferromagnetic stoner gap in electron energy loss

We present calculations based on a simplified band model of the spin-flip cross section expected in electron energy loss in a ferromagnetic metal. It is shown how direct production of Stoner excitations can lead to observable features in both spin polarized and ordinary EELS spectra. A strong primary electron energy dependence is predicted for all these spin-flip features, in agreement with recent experiments.     

A decomposed equation for local entropy and entropy production in volume-preserving coarse-grained systems

In this study an equation for the local entropy is derived based on the formulation of a master equation and is applied to volume-preserving maps. The equation consists of the following terms: unsteady, convection, diffusion, probability-weighted phase space volume expansion rate, nonnegative entropy production, and residuals. The decomposition makes it possible to evaluate entropy production in terms of microscopic dynamics and is expected to be applicable to many coarse-grained systems on the phase space. When it is applied to two volume-preserving multibaker chain systems it is confirmed that the summation of the nonnegative entropy production on each site numerically coincides with the entropy production introduced by Gilbert et al. [T. Gilbert, J.R. Dorfman, P. Gaspard, Entropy production, fractals, and relaxation to equilibrium, Phys. Rev. Lett. 85 (2000) 1606-1609] and the phenomenological expression both in nonequilibrium steady and unsteady states. The coincidence is brought about by the fact that the residual terms vanish in the thermodynamic limit when they are integrated on each site. It follows that the entropy production is dominated by the nonnegative entropy production term and becomes positive in nonequilibrium states.     

r-Process nucleosynthesis without excess neutrons

Matter expanding sufficiently rapidly and at high enough entropy per nucleon can enter a heavy-element synthesis regime heretofore unexplored. In this extreme regime, more similar to nucleosynthesis in the early universe than to that typical in stellar explosive environments, there is a persistent disequilibrium between free nucleons and abundant alpha particles, which allows heavy r-process nucleus production even in matter with more protons than neutrons. This observation bears on the issue of the site of the r process, on the variability of abundance yields from r-process events, and on constraints on neutrino physics derived from nucleosynthesis.     

Chaotic properties of systems with Markov dynamics

We present a general approach for computing the dynamic partition function of a continuous-time Markov process. The Ruelle topological pressure is identified with the large deviation function of a physical observable. We construct for the first time a corresponding finite Kolmogorov-Sinai entropy for these processes. Then, as an example, the latter is computed for a symmetric exclusion process. We further present the first exact calculation of the topological pressure for an N-body stochastic interacting system, namely, an infinite-range Ising model endowed with spin-flip dynamics. Expressions for the Kolmogorov-Sinai and the topological entropies follow.     

Transition entropy of defect melting

We use the newly developed gauge theory of line-like defects to calculate, in the mean field approximation, the entropy for the combined proliferation of dislocations and disclinations. The result is ΔS ≈ 2.4 per site, in good agreement with the melting entropy in most materials.     

Cyclotron spin-flip mode in the extreme quantum limit

In a two-dimensional electron system, the combined excitation (the cyclotron spin-flip mode) associated with changes in both orbital and spin quantum numbers is investigated. The energy of the cyclotron spin-flip mode is studied as a function of the electron filling factor. Comparative dependences of the decay times of the cyclotron spin-flip mode and the magnetoplasmon are measured. It is shown that, as the filling factor increases from v = 0 or decreases from v = 1, the damping of the cyclotron spin-flip mode increases significantly, while the magnetoplasma mode remains undamped.     

Hamiltonian dynamics,nanosystems, and nonequilibrium statistical mechanics

An overview is given of recent advances in nonequilibrium statistical mechanics on the basis of the theory of Hamiltonian dynamical systems and in the perspective provided by the nanosciences. It is shown how the properties of relaxation toward a state of equilibrium can be derived from Liouville's equation for Hamiltonian dynamical systems. The relaxation rates can be conceived in terms of the so-called Pollicott–Ruelle resonances. In spatially extended systems, the transport coefficients can also be obtained from the Pollicott–Ruelle resonances. The Liouvillian eigenstates associated with these resonances are in general singular and present fractal properties. The singular character of the nonequilibrium states is shown to be at the origin of the positive entropy production of nonequilibrium thermodynamics. Furthermore, large-deviation dynamical relationships are obtained, which relate the transport properties to the characteristic quantities of the microscopic dynamics such as the Lyapunov exponents, the Kolmogorov–Sinai entropy per unit time, and the fractal dimensions. We show that these large-deviation dynamical relationships belong to the same family of formulas as the fluctuation theorem, as well as a new formula relating the entropy production to the difference between an entropy per unit time of Kolmogorov–Sinai type and a time-reversed entropy per unit time. The connections to the nonequilibrium work theorem and the transient fluctuation theorem are also discussed. Applications to nanosystems are described.     

Voltage control of the spin dynamics of an exciton in a semiconductor quantum dot

We report the observation of a spin-flip process in a quantum dot whereby a dark exciton with total angular momentum L = 2 becomes a bright exciton with L = 1. The spin-flip process is revealed in the decay dynamics following nongeminate excitation. We are able to control the spin-flip rate by more than an order of magnitude simply with a dc voltage. The spin-flip mechanism involves a spin exchange with the Fermi sea in the back contact of our device and corresponds to the high temperature Kondo regime. We use the Anderson Hamiltonian to calculate a spin-flip rate, and we find excellent agreement with the experimental results.     

Probing spin-flip scattering in ballistic nanosystems

Because spin-flip length is longer than the electron mean-free path in a metal, past studies of spin-flip scattering are limited to the diffusive regime. We propose to use a magnetic double barrier tunnel junction to study spin-flip scattering in the nanometer sized spacer layer near the ballistic limit. We extract the voltage and temperature dependence of the spin-flip conductance Gs in the spacer layer from magnetoresistance measurements. In addition to spin scattering information including the mean-free path (70 nm) and the spin-flip length (1.0-2.6 microm) at 4.2 K, this technique also yields information on the density of states and quantum well resonance in the spacer layer.     

Majority-Vote Cellular Automata, Ising Dynamics, and P-Completeness

We study cellular automata where the state at each site is decided by a majority vote of the sites in its neighborhood. These are equivalent, for a restricted set of initial conditions, to nonzero probability transitions in single spin-flip dynamics of the Ising model at zero temperature. We show that in three or more dimensions these systems can simulate Boolean circuits of AND and OR gates, and are therefore P-complete. That is, predicting their state t time-steps in the future is at least as hard as any other problem that takes polynomial time on a serial computer. Therefore, unless a widely believed conjecture in computer science is false, it is impossible even with parallel computation to predict majority-vote cellular automata, or zero-temperature single spin-flip Ising dynamics, qualitatively faster than by explicit simulation.     

Spin-flip transport through an interacting quantum dot

The spin-flip associated transport based on the Anderson model is studied. It is found that the electrons are scattered due to spin-flip effect via the normal, mixed and Kondo channels. The spin-flip scattering via Kondo channel enhances the Kondo resonance peak and causes a slight blue shift. The conductance is suppressed by the spin-flip scattering. This is attributed to the reason that electrons with energy near Fermi level are scattered by Kondo channel.     

Entanglement entropy and mutual information production rates in acoustic black holes

A method to investigate acoustic Hawking radiation is proposed, where entanglement entropy and mutual information are measured from the fluctuations of the number of particles. The rate of entropy radiated per one-dimensional (1D) channel is given by S=κ/12, where κ is the sound acceleration on the sonic horizon. This entropy production is accompanied by a corresponding formation of mutual information to ensure the overall conservation of information. The predictions are confirmed using an ab initio analytical approach in transonic flows of 1D degenerate ideal Fermi fluids.     

光电负反馈下垂直腔表面发射激光器偏振开关特性研究

基于扩展的自旋反转模型, 对光电负反馈下垂直腔表面发射激光器的偏振开关特性进行了数值仿真和理论分析. 研究结果表明: 对于不同的自旋反转率, 反馈强度和延迟时间对激光器偏振开关特性产生较大影响.在慢自旋反转率下运行时, 随着反馈强度的增加, 开关点电流呈线性增加, 导致X偏振模被压缩, 这与报道的基于各向同性光反馈的情景相反, 产生这一现象的原因是由于光电负反馈提高了X偏振模的阈值; 延迟时间对开关点电流的影响随反馈强度的变化而不同.在快自旋反转率下运行时, 反馈强度对开关点电流的影响与慢自旋反转率时的情形不同, 开关点电流经历先增加后减小的过程, 开关点电流受反馈强度的影响更加敏感; 而延迟时间的影响规律和慢自旋反转率时相似. 此外, 还发现自发辐射噪声对激光器偏振开关特性有较大影响. 关键词： 垂直腔表面发射激光器 偏振开关 光电负反馈 自发辐射噪声     

Spin flip inelastic scattering in electron energy loss spectroscopy of a ferromagnetic metal

A model ferromagnetic metal is used to calculate the spin-polarization which occurs during inelastic electron-metal scattering with the production of an electron-hole pair. The polarization is found to have contributions from unequal spin-flip as well as non-flip energy loss rates. Our results indicate an asymmetry of the order of a few percent with parameters roughly modelling iron.     

On the interaction of stimulated spin-flip raman scattering and stimulated recombination radiation in InSb

We have studied the interaction of stimulated spin-flip Raman scattering and stimulated recombination radiation in n-InSb using a CW CO pump laser. A change in linewidth and output power of second Stokes spin-flip radiation is observed when the tuning curve of the first Stokes stimulated spin-flip radiation and the stimulated recombination radiation cross. The observations are explained using a simple rate equation model.     

Entropy in nuclear collisions

Data on the multiplicity of pions produced in nucleon-nucleon interactions and central collisions of identical nuclei are discussed using a statistical approach. It is argued that the suppression of the pion production observed at low energies (p _LAB <15>c per nucleon) is due to entropy transfer to baryons. The enhancement of the entropy production in central S+S collisions at 200 GeV/c per nucleon may be interpreted as manifestation of the increase, by a factor of about 3, of the effective number of degrees of freedom in the early stage of the collision.     

A Photon Force and Flow for Dissipative Structuring: Application to Pigments,Plants and Ecosystems

Through a modern derivation of Planck’s formula for the entropy of an arbitrary beam of photons, we derive a general expression for entropy production due to the irreversible process of the absorption of an arbitrary incident photon spectrum in material and its dissipation into an infrared-shifted grey-body emitted spectrum, with the rest being reflected or transmitted. Employing the framework of Classical Irreversible Thermodynamic theory, we define the generalized thermodynamic flow as the flow of photons from the incident beam into the material and the generalized thermodynamic force is, then, the entropy production divided by the photon flow, which is the entropy production per unit photon at a given wavelength. We compare the entropy production of different inorganic and organic materials (water, desert, leaves and forests) under sunlight and show that organic materials are the greater entropy-producing materials. Intriguingly, plant and phytoplankton pigments (including chlorophyll) reach peak absorption exactly where entropy production through photon dissipation is maximal for our solar spectrum 430<λ<550 nm, while photosynthetic efficiency is maximal between 600 and 700 nm. These results suggest that the evolution of pigments, plants and ecosystems has been towards optimizing entropy production, rather than photosynthesis. We propose using the wavelength dependence of global entropy production as a biosignature for discovering life on planets of other stars.     

Thermoelectric efficiency enhanced in a quantum dot with polarization leads,spin-flip and external magnetic field

We theoretically study the thermoelectric transport properties in a quantum dot system with two ferromagnetic leads, the spin-flip scattering and the external magnetic field. The results show that the spin polarization of the leads strongly influences thermoelectric coefficients of the device. For the parallel configuration the peak of figure of merit increases with the increase of polarization strength and non-collinear configuration trends to destroy the improvement of figure of merit induced by lead polarization. While the modulation of the spin-flip scattering on the figure of merit is effective only in the absence of external magnetic field or small magnetic field. In terms of improving the thermoelectric efficiency, the external magnetic field plays a more important role than spin-flip scattering. The thermoelectric efficiency can be significantly enhanced by the magnetic field for a given spin-flip scattering strength.