Identical Quantum Particles and Weak Discernibility

Saunders has recently claimed that “identical quantum particles” with an anti-symmetric state (fermions) are weakly discernible objects, just like irreflexively related ordinary objects in situations with perfect symmetry (Black’s spheres, for example). Weakly discernible objects have all their qualitative properties in common but nevertheless differ from each other by virtue of (a generalized version of) Leibniz’s principle, since they stand in relations an entity cannot have to itself. This notion of weak discernibility has been criticized as question begging, but we defend and accept it for classical cases likes Black’s spheres. We argue, however, that the quantum mechanical case is different. Here the application of the notion of weak discernibility indeed is question begging and in conflict with standard interpretational ideas. We conclude that the introduction of the conceptual resource of weak discernibility does not change the interpretational status quo in quantum mechanics.     

First-principles modelling of scanning tunneling microscopy using non-equilibrium Green’s functions

The investigation of electron transport processes in nano-scale architectures plays a crucial role in the development of surface chemistry and nano-technology. Experimentally, an important driving force within this research area has been the concurrent refinements of scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) techniques. The theoretical treatment of the STM operation has traditionally been based on the Bardeen and Tersoff–Hamann methods which take as input the single-particle wave functions and eigenvalues obtained from finite cluster or slabs models of the surface-tip interface. Here, we present a novel STM simulation scheme based on non-equilibrium Green’s functions (NEGF) and Wannier functions which is both accurate and very efficient. The main novelty of the scheme compared to the Bardeen and Tersoff–Hamann approaches is that the coupling to the infinite (macroscopic) electrodes is taken into account. As an illustrating example we apply the NEGF-STM method to the Si(001)-(2×1):H surface with sub-surface P doping and discuss the results in comparison to the Bardeen and Tersoff–Hamann methods.     

Ac conductivity and dielectric behavior of hydrated homoionic alkali-cations-exchanged montmorillonite

The dielectric properties of a series of homoionic alkali-exchanged montmorillonites were studied at different treatment temperatures and various water loadings by means of complex impedance spectroscopy. To date, however, this method has been underutilized in clay minerals studies. The main objective of the present work is to understand the relaxation mechanisms of water molecules interacting with different hydration centers in clay minerals, with a view to eventually control their interactions with the alkali extra-framework cations. The other part of our study is to study the dielectric properties such as real and imaginary parts of dielectric permittivity, loss tangent, and ac conductivity in the frequency range 10^?2–10⁶?Hz and temperature range 173–333?K of these clay minerals. The obtained results have been discussed in terms of the Jonscher model.     

Study of nonlinear dissipative pulse propagation under the combined effect of two-photon absorption and gain dispersion: A variational approach involving Rayleigh’s dissipation function

We try to derive some explicit equations for predicting the laws which govern the evolution of different parameters of a propagating optical pulse in a nonlinear medium under the combined influence of two-photon absorption and gain dispersion. Using the generalized Euler-Lagrange equation, the dynamics of different pulse parameters are generated. The Rayleigh’s dissipation function is incorporated in order to take recourse to the dissipative part, with an analogy with the non-conservative frictional problem in classical mechanics. It appears from the study that the influence of the dissipative part can well be explained using the proposed model. The analytically predicted results are compared with the numerical data obtained from direct simulation of the Ginzburg-Landau equation and the results are found to be quite satisfactory, supporting the prediction.     

High-throughput screening of ferroelectric materials for non-volatile random access memory using multilayer perceptrons

During the last several years, the development of combinatorial technology has enabled synthesis of a huge amount of chemical compounds in a short time. The large number of variables makes the direct human interpretation of data derived from combinatorial experimentation for high-throughput screening (HTS) very difficult. Artificial neural networks using multilayer perceptrons (MLP) have been successfully applied to the regression problems with various material data. In this work, MLP model was applied to HTS of ferroelectric materials including Bi_4−xLa_xTi₃O₁₂ (BLT) and Bi_4−xCe_xTi₃O₁₂ (BCT). The model using MLP was made to predict the ferroelectric properties of whole feasible experimental conditions. Once a neural network model with high accuracy and good generalization performance was established, we could predict the expected optimal reaction conditions with the best characteristics. The highest gradient value obtained using MLP model is higher than the maximum value found from experiments, thereby accelerating the discovery of the optimal compositions and post-annealing time of BCT and BLT.     

Large intrinsic birefringence in zinc-blende based artificial semiconductors

A new attempt to solve the phase matching problem for semiconductor-based frequency conversion devices, based on the implementation of intrinsic birefringence in artificial materials, is discussed. The first results concerning the growth and characterization of ultrashort period superlattices are presented. To cite this article: J.-M. Jancu et al., C. R. Physique 8 (2007).     

Development of highly potent chiral discrimination methods that solve the problems of the diastereomer method

The development of highly potent chiral discrimination methods that solve the problems of the diastereomer method, in which it is impossible to discriminate the diastereomers having chiral centers separated by more than four bonds, is described. On the basis of the results obtained, a new hypothesis, Induced Chiral Fields that the achiral reversed phase can provide chiral fields depending on the structures of the eluents, is proposed to explain the significant results of separation of the diastereomers derived from newly developed chiral and fluorescent labeling reagents and optical isomers by reversed-phase HPLC, which was hitherto impossible.     

工程测量中光波干涉必须满足的几个条件

讨论了两列光波发生干涉现象的理想化条件和在实验中能否观察到干涉现象发生的操作性条件,推导了各种情况下的理论公式。从工程应用的角度出发,研究了检测仪器的响应时间T和光强分辨能力对观察光的干涉现象的影响,提出了观察光的干涉现象的第四个必要条件,对在各种情况下应用光的干涉现象有一定的指导作用。     

安培环路定理的拓扑学描述

近年来拓扑学在量子力学中得到了广泛的运用.本文将安培环路定理积分式重新表达为一矢量场在轮胎参数面上的第一类陈数积分.数值模拟展示了该积分值为一整数即第一陈数,其代表矢量场的整体性质:当经历连续变换时,矢量场的局部数值发生改变但整体积分值即陈数仍保持不变;若陈数发生改变,则表明矢量场变换的连续性条件发生破坏,矢量场出现奇点.进一步通过高斯映射将该矢量场从参数轮胎面映射到单位球面上,并给出了第一陈数的直观几何意义.理论和数值结果揭示了安培环路定理的拓扑学本质,表明拓扑概念在经典物理学中也会有广泛应用.     

Kernel polynomial representation for imaginary-time Green's functions in continuous-time quantum Monte Carlo impurity solver

Inspired by the recently proposed Legendre orthogonal polynomial representation for imaginary-time Green s functions G(τ),we develop an alternate and superior representation for G(τ) and implement it in the hybridization expansion continuous-time quantum Monte Carlo impurity solver.This representation is based on the kernel polynomial method,which introduces some integral kernel functions to filter the numerical fluctuations caused by the explicit truncations of polynomial expansion series and can improve the computational precision significantly.As an illustration of the new representation,we re-examine the imaginary-time Green's functions of the single-band Hubbard model in the framework of dynamical mean-field theory.The calculated results suggest that with carefully chosen integral kernel functions,whether the system is metallic or insulating,the Gibbs oscillations found in the previous Legendre orthogonal polynomial representation have been vastly suppressed and remarkable corrections to the measured Green's functions have been obtained.