Poisson and Porter-Thomas Fluctuations in off-Yrast Rotational Transitions

Fluctuations associated with stretched E2 transitions from high spin levels in nuclei around $^{168}$Yb are investigated by a cranked shell model extended to include residual two-body interactions. It is found that the gamma-ray energies behave like random variables and the energy spectra show the Poisson fluctuation, in the cranked mean field model without the residual interaction. With two-body residual interaction included, discrete transition pattern with unmixed rotational bands is still valid up to around 600 keV above yrast, in good agreement with experiments. At higher excitation energy, a gradual onset of rotational damping emerges. At 1.8 MeV above yrast, complete damping is observed with GOE type fluctuations for both energy levels and transition strengths(Porter-Thomas fluctuations).Comment: 21 pages, phyzzx, YITP/K-99

Operations and single particle interferometry

Interferometry of single particles with internal degrees of freedom is investigated. We discuss the interference patterns obtained when an internal state evolution device is inserted into one or both the paths of the interferometer. The interference pattern obtained is not uniquely determined by the completely positive maps (CPMs) that describe how the devices evolve the internal state of a particle. By using the concept of gluing of CPMs, we investigate the structure of all possible interference patterns obtainable for given trace preserving internal state CPMs. We discuss what can be inferred about the gluing, given a sufficiently rich set of interference experiments. It is shown that the standard interferometric setup is limited in its abilities to distinguish different gluings. A generalized interferometric setup is introduced with the capacity to distinguish all gluings. We also connect to another approach using the well known fact that channels can be realized using a joint unitary evolution of the system and an ancillary system. We deduce the set of all such unitary `representations' and relate the structure of this set to gluings and interference phenomena.Comment: Journal reference added. Material adde

The Coherent Crooks Equality

This chapter reviews an information theoretic approach to deriving quantum fluctuation theorems. When a thermal system is driven from equilibrium, random quantities of work are required or produced: the Crooks equality is a classical fluctuation theorem that quantifies the probabilities of these work fluctuations. The framework summarised here generalises the Crooks equality to the quantum regime by modeling not only the driven system but also the control system and energy supply that enables the system to be driven. As is reasonably common within the information theoretic approach but high unusual for fluctuation theorems, this framework explicitly accounts for the energy conservation using only time independent Hamiltonians. We focus on explicating a key result derived by Johan {\AA}berg: a Crooks-like equality for when the energy supply is allowed to exist in a superposition of energy eigenstates states.Comment: 11 pages, 3 figures; Chapter for the book "Thermodynamics in the Quantum Regime - Recent Progress and Outlook", eds. F. Binder, L. A. Correa, C. Gogolin, J. Anders and G. Adess

Supershell structure in trapped dilute Fermi gases

We show that a dilute harmonically trapped two-component gas of fermionic atoms with a weak repulsive interaction has a pronounced super-shell structure: the shell fillings due to the spherical harmonic trapping potential are modulated by a beat mode. This changes the ``magic numbers'' occurring between the beat nodes by half a period. The length and amplitude of this beating mode depend on the strength of the interaction. We give a simple interpretation of the beat structure in terms of a semiclassical trace formula for the symmetry breaking U(3) --> SO(3).Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures; In version 2, references added. The semiclassical explanation of super-shell structure is refined. Version 3, as appeared in Phys. Rev.

Shell Model for Warm Rotating Nuclei

In order to provide a microscopic description of levels and E2 transitions in rapidly rotating nuclei with internal excitation energy up to a few MeV, use is made of a shell model which combines the cranked Nilsson mean-field and the residual surface delta two-body force. The damping of collective rotational motion is investigated in the case of a typical rare-earth nucleus, namely \Yb. It is found that rotational damping sets in at around 0.8 MeV above the yrast line, and the levels which form rotational band structures are thus limited. We predict at a given rotational frequency existence of about 30 rotational bands of various lengths, in overall agreement with the experimental findings. The onset of the rotational damping proceeds quite gradually as a function of the internal excitation energy. The transition region extends up to around 2 MeV above yrast and it is characterized by the presence of scars of discrete rotational bands which extend over few spin values and stand out among the damped transitions, and by a two-component profile in the $E_\gamma -E_\gamma$ correlation. The important role played by the high-multipole components of the two-body residual interaction is emphasized.Comment: 28 pages, LaTe

Correlation studies of fission fragment neutron multiplicities

We calculate neutron multiplicities from fission fragments with specified mass numbers for events having a specified total fragment kinetic energy. The shape evolution from the initial compound nucleus to the scission configurations is obtained with the Metropolis walk method on the five-dimensional potential-energy landscape, calculated with the macroscopic-microscopic method for the three-quadratic-surface shape family. Shape-dependent microscopic level densities are used to guide the random walk, to partition the intrinsic excitation energy between the two proto-fragments at scission, and to determine the spectrum of the neutrons evaporated from the fragments. The contributions to the total excitation energy of the resulting fragments from statistical excitation and shape distortion at scission is studied. Good agreement is obtained with available experimental data on neutron multiplicities in correlation with fission fragments from $^{235}$U(n$_{\rm th}$,f). At higher neutron energies a superlong fission mode appears which affects the dependence of the observables on the total fragment kinetic energy.Comment: 12 pages, 10 figure

Onset of Rotational Damping in Superdeformed Nuclei

We discuss damping of the collective rotational motion in $A\sim 150$ superdeformed nuclei by means of a shell model combining the cranked Nilsson mean-filed and the surface-delta two-body residual force. It is shown that, because of the shell structure associated with the superdeformed mean-field, onset energy of the rotational damping becomes $E_x \sim 2-3$ MeV above yrast line, which is much higher than in normal deformed nuclei. The mechanism of the shell structure effect is investigated through detailed analysis of level densities in superdeformed nuclei. It is predicted the onset of damping varies in different supedeformed nuclei along with variation in the single-particle structure at the Fermi surface.Comment: 24 pages, latex, 14 figures (compressed and uuencoded

Collective motion in quantum diffusive environment

The general problem of dissipation in macroscopic large-amplitude collective motion and its relation to energy diffusion of intrinsic degrees of freedom of a nucleus is studied. By applying the cranking approach to the nuclear many-body system, a set of coupled dynamical equations for the collective classical variable and the quantum mechanical occupancies of the intrinsic nuclear states is derived. Different dynamical regimes of the intrinsic nuclear motion and its consequences on time properties of collective dissipation are discussed.Comment: 15 pages, 5 figure

Pressure-induced phase transition in the electronic structure of palladium nitride

We present a combined theoretical and experimental study of the electronic structure and equation of state (EOS) of crystalline PdN2. The compound forms above 58 GPa in the pyrite structure and is metastable down to 11 GPa. We show that the EOS cannot be accurately described within either the local density or generalized gradient approximations. The Heyd-Scuseria-Ernzerhof exchange-correlation functional (HSE06), however, provides very good agreement with experimental data. We explain the strong pressure dependence of the Raman intensities in terms of a similar dependence of the calculated band gap, which closes just below 11 GPa. At this pressure, the HSE06 functional predicts a first-order isostructural transition accompanied by a pronounced elastic instability of the longitudinal-acoustic branches that provides the mechanism for the experimentally observed decomposition. Using an extensive Wannier function analysis, we show that the structural transformation is driven by a phase transition of the electronic structure, which is manifested by a discontinuous change in the hybridization between Pd-d and N-p electrons as well as a conversion from single to triple bonded nitrogen dimers. We argue for the possible existence of a critical point for the isostructural transition, at which massive fluctuations in both the electronic as well as the structural degrees of freedom are expected.Comment: 9 pages, 12 figures. Revised version corrects minor typographical error