Solvent Driven Formation of Bolaamphiphilic Vesicles

We show that a spontaneous bending of single layer bolaamphiphiles results from the frustration due to the competition between core-core and tail-solvent interactions. We find that spherical vesicles are stable under rather general assumptions on these interactions described within the Flory-Huggins theory. We consider also the deformation of the vesicles in an external magnetic field that has been recently experimentally observed.Comment: J. Phys. Chem. B, accepte

Nonperturbative anharmonic phenomena in crystal lattice dynamics

Slow dynamics of energy transfer between different phonon modes under the resonance conditions is considered. It may result in new effects in the inelastic and quasielastic neutron scattering spectra.Comment: Contribution to the proceedings of the 3rd International Symposium on Slow Dynamics in Complex Systems (Sendai, Japan,November 3-8, 2003), to be published in AIP Conference series, 200

An dynamical-mean-field-theory investigation of specific heat and electronic structure of α\alpha and δ\delta-plutonium

We have carried out a comparative study of the electronic specific heat and electronic structure of $\alpha$ and $\delta$-plutonium using dynmical mean field theory (DMFT). We use the perturbative T-matrix and fluctuating exchange (T-matrix FLEX) as a quantum impurity solver. We considered two different physical pictures of plutonoium. In the first, $5{f^5}+$, the perturbative treatment of electronic correlations has been carried out around the non-magnetic (LDA) Hamiltonian, which results in an f occupation around a bit above $n_f = 5$. In the second, $5{f^6}-$, plutonium is viewed as being close to an $5{f^6}$ configuration, and perturbation theory is carried out around the (LDA+U) starting point bit below $n_f = 6$. In the latter case the electronic specific heat coefficient $\gamma$ attains a smaller value in $\gamma$-Pu than in $\alpha$-Pu, in contradiction to experiment, while in the former case our calculations reproduce the experimentally observed large increase of $\gamma$ in $\delta$-Pu as compared to the $\alpha$ phase. This enhancement of the electronic specific heat coefficient in $\delta$-Pu is due to strong electronic correlations present in this phase, which cause a substantial increase of the electronic effective mass, and high density of states at $E_F$. The densities of states of $\alpha$ and $\delta$-plutonium obtained starting from the open-shell configuration are also in good agreement with the experimental photoemission spectra.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figure

On the phonon-induced superconductivity of disordered alloys

A model of alloy is considered which includes both quenched disorder in the electron subsystem (``alloy'' subsystem) and electron-phonon interaction. For given approximate solution for the alloy part of the problem, which is assumed to be conserving in Baym's sense, we construct the generating functional and derive the Eliashberg-type equations which are valid to the lowest order in the adiabatic parameter.The renormalization of bare electron-phonon interaction vertices by disorder is taken into account consistently with the approximation for the alloy self-energy. For the case of exact configurational averaging the same set of equations is established within the usual T-matrix approach. We demonstrate that for any conserving approximation for the alloy part of the self-energy the Anderson's theorem holds in the case of isotropic singlet pairing provided disorder renormalizations of the electron-phonon interaction vertices are neglected. Taking account of the disorder renormalization of the electron-phonon interaction we analyze general equations qualitatively and present the expressions for $T_{c}$ for the case of weak and intermediate electron-phonon coupling. Disorder renormalizations of the logarithmic corrections to the effective coupling, which arise when the effective interaction kernel for the Cooper channel has the second energy scale, as well as the renormalization of the dilute paramagnetic impurity suppression are discussed.Comment: 59 pages, 10 Eps figures, LaTe

Diffraction catastrophes and semiclassical quantum mechanics for Veselago lensing in graphene

We study the effect of trigonal warping on the focussing of electrons by n-p junctions in graphene. We find that perfect focussing, which was predicted for massless Dirac fermions, is only preserved for one specific sample orientation. In the general case, trigonal warping leads to the formation of cusp caustics, with a different position of the focus for graphene's two valleys. We develop a semiclassical theory to compute these positions and find very good agreement with tight-binding simulations. Considering the transmission as a function of potential strength, we find that trigonal warping splits the single Dirac peak into two distinct peaks, leading to valley polarization. We obtain the transmission curves from tight-binding simulations and find that they are in very good agreement with the results of a billiard model that incorporates trigonal warping. Furthermore, the positions of the transmission maxima and the scaling of the peak width are accurately predicted by our semiclassical theory. Our semiclassical analysis can easily be carried over to other Dirac materials, which generally have different Fermi surface distortions.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures, plus supplemental material. Important reference added and text update