Vortex Nucleation Induced Phonon Radiation from a Moving Electron Bubble in Superfluid 4He

We construct an efficient zero-temperature semi-local density functional to dynamically simulate an electron bubble passing through superfluid 4He under various pressures and electric fields up to nanosecond timescale. Our simulated drift velocity can be quantitatively compared to experiments particularly when pressure approaches zero. We find that the high-speed bubble experiences remarkable expansion and deformation before vortex nucleation occurs. Accompanied by vortex-ring shedding, drastic surface vibration is generated leading to intense phonon radiation into the liquid. The amount of energy dissipated by these phonons is found to be greater than the amount carried away solely by the vortex rings. These results may enrich our understanding about the vortex nucleation induced energy dissipation in this fascinating system.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figure

Triaxiality and shape coexistence in Germanium isotopes

The ground-state deformations of the Ge isotopes are investigated in the framework of Gogny-Hartree-Fock-Bogoliubov (HFB) and Skyrme Hartree-Fock plus pairing in the BCS approximation. Five different Skyrme parametrizations are used to explore the influence of different effective masses and spin-orbit models. There is generally good agreement for binding energies and deformations (total quadrupole moment, triaxiality) with experimental data where available (i.e., in the valley of stability). All calculations agree in predicting a strong tendency for triaxial shapes in the Ge isotopes with only a few exceptions due to neutron (sub-)shell closures. The frequent occurrence of energetically very close shape isomers indicates that the underlying deformation energy landscape is very soft. The general triaxial softness of the Ge isotopes is demonstrated in the fully triaxial potential energy surface. The differences between the forces play an increasing role with increasing neutron number. This concerns particularly the influence of the spin-orbit model, which has a visible effect on the trend of binding energies towards the drip line. Different effective mass plays an important role in predicting the quadrupole and triaxial deformations. The pairing strength only weakly affects binding energies and total quadrupole deformations, but considerably influences triaxiality.Comment: 9 page

Slow-roll inflation with a Gauss-Bonnet correction

We consider slow-roll inflation for a single scalar field with an arbitrary potential and an arbitrary nonminimal coupling to the Gauss-Bonnet term. By introducing a combined hierarchy of Hubble and Gauss-Bonnet flow functions, we analytically derive the power spectra of scalar and tensor perturbations. The standard consistency relation between the tensor-to-scalar ratio and the spectral index of tensor perturbations is broken. We apply this formalism to a specific model with a monomial potential and an inverse monomial Gauss-Bonnet coupling and constrain it by the 7-year Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe data. The Gauss-Bonnet term with a positive (or negative) coupling may lead to a reduction (or enhancement) of the tensor-to-scalar ratio and hence may revive the quartic potential ruled out by recent cosmological data.Comment: 7 pages, 2 figures, RevTeX, references added, published versio

Systematic {\it ab initio} study of the magnetic and electronic properties of all 3d transition metal linear and zigzag nanowires

It is found that all the zigzag chains except the nonmagnetic (NM) Ni and antiferromagnetic (AF) Fe chains which form a twisted two-legger ladder, look like a corner-sharing triangle ribbon, and have a lower total energy than the corresponding linear chains. All the 3d transition metals in both linear and zigzag structures have a stable or metastable ferromagnetic (FM) state. The electronic spin-polarization at the Fermi level in the FM Sc, V, Mn, Fe, Co and Ni linear chains is close to 90% or above. In the zigzag structure, the AF state is more stable than the FM state only in the Cr chain. It is found that the shape anisotropy energy may be comparable to the electronic one and always prefers the axial magnetization in both the linear and zigzag structures. In the zigzag chains, there is also a pronounced shape anisotropy in the plane perpendicular to the chain axis. Remarkably, the axial magnetic anisotropy in the FM Ni linear chain is gigantic, being ~12 meV/atom. Interestingly, there is a spin-reorientation transition in the FM Fe and Co linear chains when the chains are compressed or elongated. Large orbital magnetic moment is found in the FM Fe, Co and Ni linear chains