Ultrasonic measurement of dental enamel demineralization

The DONAR (digital ultrasonic system) has been used to continuously measure the displacement, due to etching by hydrochloric acid, of the surface of bovine enamel and to monitor the development of a demineralized layer. Conventional pulse echoes are used to measure displacements of the order of micrometres with an uncertainty no greater than 0.1 μm. The demineralized zone in one instance attained a maximum thickness of 5 μm and was much less in other experiments.     

Local information as a resource in distributed quantum systems

A new paradigm for distributed quantum systems where information is a valuable resource is developed. After finding a unique measure for information, we construct a scheme for its manipulation in analogy with entanglement theory. In this scheme, instead of maximally entangled states, two parties distill local states. We show that, surprisingly, the main tools of entanglement theory are general enough to work in this opposite scheme. Up to plausible assumptions, we show that the amount of information that must be lost during the protocol of concentration of local information can be expressed as the relative entropy distance from some special set of states.     

Transport in two dimensions. I the self-diffusion coefficient

The Mori formalism is used to study generalized transport coefficients in two dimensions. All finite multilinear products of the single particle density and momentum density comprise the set of the variables in the calculation of the self-diffusion coefficient. A self-consistent equation, which is a non-linear integral equation, is obtained for the leading asymptotic behavior of the generalized self-diffusion coefficient. An asymptotic solution is presented which for small wavevector (k) and frequency (s) behaves like $\text{In}{}^{\mathrm{<mtext>1</mtext><mtext>2</mtext>}}\text{(s + k}{}^2\text{D)}{}^{\mathrm{?1}}$, where D has the dimensions of a diffusion coefficient. The mean square and mean fourth displacements of a tagged particle are also calculated. The long time behavior of the momentum correlation function exhibits a tail of the form $\text{[t}\text{In}{}^{\mathrm{<mtext>1</mtext><mtext>2</mtext>}}\text{(t)]}{}^{\mathrm{?1}}$ whose coefficient is dependent of the intermolecular potential.     

Transients in one-dimensional superconductors

We provide theoretical justification within the framework of the generalized TDGL equations for the observation of a delay time when a current pulse is applied to a superconducting microbridge. Predictions are made as to the dependences of the delay time on current, microbridge length and relaxation times.     

Relaxation properties of weakly coupled classical systems

The relaxation properties of a small classical system weakly coupled to a large classical system which acts as a heat bath are described using a generalized Fokker-Planck equation. The Fokker-Planck equation is derived in general using a modification of the elimination of fast variables techniques previously described. The specific example in which the small system is a harmonic oscillator linearly coupled to the heat bath is treated in detail and it is demonstrated that there is a dynamic frequency shift as well as a statistical shift of the oscillator frequency.     

Spatial correlations in bounded nonequilibrium fluid systems

We study the influence of boundaries on the equal-time thermal correlations in a three-dimensional fluid maintained under a constant temperature gradient. Within the confines of the model for an idealized fluid bounded by two infinite, parallel walls, we show that it is crucial to retain the unbounded spatial components in the problem so that the solutions approach meaningful results as we move the walls infinitely far apart. In addition, we consider a composite system by including the dynamics of the walls, and we investigate the conditions for the relevant physical parameters under which the details of wall dynamics may be neglected by employing the simple boundary condition T=0.