Surface wave effect on light scattering from one-dimensional photonic crystals

Light scattering and reflection measurements using attenuated total reflection technique for s polarization of the incident light on a finite one-dimensional photonic crystal are reported. Angular specular reflection was measured experimentally to determine, the optimum thickness, the angular position of the surface mode, and the number of bi-layers of the system. It was demonstrated that the position of the surface mode inside the last film is close to the asymptotic value when the number of periods is increased. Spectral reflection measurements were made to determine experimentally the band gap width and measure the dispersion relation of the surface mode inside this band. The corresponding field amplitude was calculated (∣E∣²) showing that in resonant conditions it has a maximum near the surface. The angular dependence of the scattered light measured displays a peak caused by singles cattering and located approximately at the excitation angle of the surface electromagnetic mode. When the incident light is in resonance with the surface electromagnetic wave, it is found experimentally that the scattering of light is enhanced overall by approximately one order of magnitude in comparison with the off-resonance case.     

Atomistic modeling of Zn deposition on the low index faces of Cu

The formation process of Zn/Cu surface alloys is investigated using the Bozzolo-Ferrante-Smith (BFS) method for alloys. The effects of the crystallographic orientation on the deposition process, formation of surface alloys as a function of temperature and coverage, Zn surface migration, and interdiffusion in the Cu substrate, are modeled and discussed with atom-by-atom energy analyses and large scale simulations.     

A Model with Darwinian Dynamics on a Rugged Landscape

We discuss the population dynamics with selection and random diffusion, keeping the total population constant, in a fitness landscape associated with Constraint Satisfaction, a paradigm for difficult optimization problems. We obtain a phase diagram in terms of the size of the population and the diffusion rate, with a glass phase inside which the dynamics keeps searching for better configurations, and outside which deleterious ‘mutations’ spoil the performance. The phase diagram is analogous to that of dense active matter in terms of temperature and drive.

     

Importance sampling of rare events in chaotic systems

The European Physical Journal B - A way to make financial models effective is by letting them to represent the so called “fat tails”, i.e., extreme changes in stock prices that are...     

Signatures of short-range many-body effects in the dielectric function of silicon for finite momentum transfer

We present an investigation of the dynamic structure factor and of the dielectric function epsilonM(Q,omega) of the prototypical semiconductor silicon for finite momentum transfer, combining inelastic x-ray scattering experiments and ab initio calculations. In contrast with optical spectra, for finite momentum transfer time-dependent density-functional theory in the adiabatic local-density approximation together with lifetime broadening describes the physics of valence excitations correctly. Major structures in the spectra, governed by short-range crystal and exchange-correlation local-field effects, are strongly influenced by a mixing of transitions of positive and negative energies, in striking difference to spectra for vanishing momentum transfer. This mixing gives rise to a pronounced Fano asymmetry.     

Stealth scalar field overflying a 2+1 black hole

A nontrivial scalar field configuration of vanishing energy-momentum is reported. These matter configurations have no influence on the metric and therefore they are not be “detected" gravitationally. This phenomenon occurs for a time–dependent nonminimally coupled and self-interacting scalar field on the 2+1 (BTZ) black hole geometry. We conclude that such stealth configurations exist for the static 2+1 black hole for any value of the nonminimal coupling parameter ζ≠0 with a fixed self-interaction potential U _ζ(Φ). For the range 0 < ζ≤1/2 potentials are bounded from below and for the range 0 < ζ < 1/4 the stealth field falls into the black hole and is swallowed by it at an exponential rate, without any consequence for the black hole.     

Ultrasound-assisted extraction of phenolic compounds from Laurus nobilis L. and their antioxidant activity

Bay leaves (BL) (Laurus nobilis L., Family: Laureceae) are traditionally used to treat some symptoms of gastrointestinal problems, such as epigastric bloating, impaired digestion, eructing and flatulence. These biological properties are mainly attributed to its phenolic compounds. In this paper, ultrasound-assisted extraction of phenolic compounds from Laurus nobilis L. (Laureceae) was studied.Effects of several experimental factors, such as sonication time, solid/liquid ratio and concentration of solvent on extraction of phenolic compounds were evaluated through a randomized complete block design with factorial treatment arrangement (3³). The best extraction conditions were: 1 g plant sample with 12 mL of 35% ethanol, for 40 min, obtaining a yield of phenolic compounds of 17.32 ± 1.52 mg g^?1 of plant. In addition, free radical-scavenging potential of DPPH and lipid oxidation inhibition, by linoleic acid peroxidation of the selected extract was measured in order to evidence their antioxidant properties. Results indicated that high amounts of phenolic compounds can be extracted from L. nobilis by ultrasound-assisted extraction technology.     

Specific and nonspecific collapse in protein folding funnels

Experiments with fast folding proteins are beginning to address the relationship between collapse and folding. We investigate how different scenarios for folding can arise depending on whether the folding and collapse transitions are concurrent or whether a nonspecific collapse precedes folding. Many earlier studies have focused on the limit in which collapse is fast compared to the folding time; in this work we focus on the opposite limit where, at the folding temperature, collapse and folding occur simultaneously. Real proteins exist in both of these limits. The folding mechanism varies substantially in these two regimes. In the regime of concurrent folding and collapse, nonspecific collapse now occurs at a temperature below the folding temperature (but slightly above the glass transition temperature).     

The semiclassical limit of a quantum Fermi accelerator

A classical Fermi accelerator model (FAM) is known to show chaotic behavior. The FAM is defined by a free particle bouncing elastically from two rigid walls, one fixed and the other oscillating periodically in time. The central aim of this paper is to connect the quantum and the classical solutions to the FAM in the semiclassical limit. This goal is accomplished using a finite inverted parametric oscillator (FIPO), confined to a box withfixed walls, as an alternative representation of the FAM. In the FIPO representation, an explicit correspondence between classical and quantum limits is accomplished using a Husimi representation of the quasienergy eigenfunctions.     

On the polynomial τ-functions for the KP hierarchy and the bispectral property

We show that the -functions obtained from Schur polynomials lead to wave functions w(x ₁, x ₂, ... ; k) that possess the following bispectral property: There exists a differential operator B{k,_k}, independent of x ₁ , such that B{k,_k}w = {x ₁}w, where {x ₁} is independent of k. This extends for the KP hierarchy some earlier results of J. J. Duistermaat and F. A. Grünbaum for the rational solutions of KdV and of P. Wright for certain rational solutions of the generalized KdV equations.