1,202 research outputs found

    Discrete Breathers

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    Nonlinear classical Hamiltonian lattices exhibit generic solutions in the form of discrete breathers. These solutions are time-periodic and (typically exponentially) localized in space. The lattices exhibit discrete translational symmetry. Discrete breathers are not confined to certain lattice dimensions. Necessary ingredients for their occurence are the existence of upper bounds on the phonon spectrum (of small fluctuations around the groundstate) of the system as well as the nonlinearity in the differential equations. We will present existence proofs, formulate necessary existence conditions, and discuss structural stability of discrete breathers. The following results will be also discussed: the creation of breathers through tangent bifurcation of band edge plane waves; dynamical stability; details of the spatial decay; numerical methods of obtaining breathers; interaction of breathers with phonons and electrons; movability; influence of the lattice dimension on discrete breather properties; quantum lattices - quantum breathers. Finally we will formulate a new conceptual aproach capable of predicting whether discrete breather exist for a given system or not, without actually solving for the breather. We discuss potential applications in lattice dynamics of solids (especially molecular crystals), selective bond excitations in large molecules, dynamical properties of coupled arrays of Josephson junctions, and localization of electromagnetic waves in photonic crystals with nonlinear response.Comment: 62 pages, LaTeX, 14 ps figures. Physics Reports, to be published; see also at http://www.mpipks-dresden.mpg.de/~flach/html/preprints.htm

    Black Hole Scattering from Monodromy

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    We study scattering coefficients in black hole spacetimes using analytic properties of complexified wave equations. For a concrete example, we analyze the singularities of the Teukolsky equation and relate the corresponding monodromies to scattering data. These techniques, valid in full generality, provide insights into complex-analytic properties of greybody factors and quasinormal modes. This leads to new perturbative and numerical methods which are in good agreement with previous results.Comment: 28 pages + appendices, 2 figures. For Mathematica calculation of Stokes multipliers, download "StokesNotebook" from https://sites.google.com/site/justblackholes/techy-zon

    Dynamics of Lattice Kinks

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    In this paper we consider two models of soliton dynamics (the sine Gordon and the \phi^4 equations) on a 1-dimensional lattice. We are interested in particular in the behavior of their kink-like solutions inside the Peierls- Nabarro barrier and its variation as a function of the discreteness parameter. We find explicitly the asymptotic states of the system for any value of the discreteness parameter and the rates of decay of the initial data to these asymptotic states. We show that genuinely periodic solutions are possible and we identify the regimes of the discreteness parameter for which they are expected to persist. We also prove that quasiperiodic solutions cannot exist. Our results are verified by numerical simulations.Comment: 50 pages, 10 figures, LaTeX documen

    Field theory of dissipative systems with gapped momentum states

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    Electron-positron pairs in physics and astrophysics: from heavy nuclei to black holes

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    From the interaction of physics and astrophysics we are witnessing in these years a splendid synthesis of theoretical, experimental and observational results originating from three fundametal physical processes. They were originally proposed by Dirac, by Breit and Wheeler and by Sauter, Heisenberg, Euler and Schwinger. The vacuum polarization process in strong electromagnetic field, pioneered by Sauter, Heisenberg, Euler and Schwinger, introduced the concept of critical electric field. It has been searched without success for more than forty years by heavy-ion collisions in many of the leading particle accelerators worldwide. The novel situation today is that these same processes can be studied on a much more grandiose scale during the gravitational collapse leading to the formation of a black hole being observed in Gamma Ray Bursts. This report is dedicated to the scientific race in act. The theoretical and experimental work developed in Earth-based laboratories is confronted with the theoretical interpretation of space-based observations of phenomena originating on cosmological scales. What has become clear in the last ten years is that all the three above mentioned processes, duly extended in the general relativistic framework, are necessary for the understanding of the physics of the gravitational collapse to a black hole. Vice versa, the natural arena where these processes can be observed in mutual interaction and on an unprecedented scale, is indeed the realm of relativistic astrophysics.Comment: to appear in Physics Reports, corrected proof

    Applications of Massive Integrable Quantum Field Theories to Problems in Condensed Matter Physics

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    We review applications of the sine-Gordon model, the O(3) non-linear sigma model, the U(1) Thirring model, and the O(N) Gross--Neveu model to quasi one-dimensional quantum magnets, Mott insulators, and carbon nanotubes. We focus upon the determination of dynamical response functions for these problems. These quantities are computed by means of form factor expansions of quantum correlation functions in integrable quantum field theories. This approach is reviewed here in some detail.Comment: 150 pages, 35 figures, published in the I. Kogan Memorial Volume by World Scientifi

    Resonant nonlinear magneto-optical effects in atoms

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    In this article, we review the history, current status, physical mechanisms, experimental methods, and applications of nonlinear magneto-optical effects in atomic vapors. We begin by describing the pioneering work of Macaluso and Corbino over a century ago on linear magneto-optical effects (in which the properties of the medium do not depend on the light power) in the vicinity of atomic resonances, and contrast these effects with various nonlinear magneto-optical phenomena that have been studied both theoretically and experimentally since the late 1960s. In recent years, the field of nonlinear magneto-optics has experienced a revival of interest that has led to a number of developments, including the observation of ultra-narrow (1-Hz) magneto-optical resonances, applications in sensitive magnetometry, nonlinear magneto-optical tomography, and the possibility of a search for parity- and time-reversal-invariance violation in atoms.Comment: 51 pages, 23 figures, to appear in Rev. Mod. Phys. in Oct. 2002, Figure added, typos corrected, text edited for clarit
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