1,492 research outputs found
Intensity correlations and mesoscopic fluctuations of diffusing photons in cold atoms
We study the angular correlation function of speckle patterns that result
from multiple scattering of photons by cold atomic clouds. We show that this
correlation function becomes larger than the value given by Rayleigh law for
classical scatterers. These large intensity fluctuations constitute a new
mesoscopic interference effect specific to atom-photon interactions, that could
not be observed in other systems such as weakly disordered metals. We provide a
complete description of this behavior and expressions that allow for a
quantitative comparison with experiments.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figure
Self-dual Ginzburg-Landau vortices in a disk
We study the properties of the Ginzburg-Laundau model in the self-dual point
for a two-dimensional finite system . By a numerical calculation we analyze the
solutions of the Euler-Lagrange equations for a cylindrically symmetric ansatz.
We also study the self-dual equations for this case. We find that the minimal
energy configurations are not given by the Bogomol'nyi equations but by
solutions to the Euler Lagrange ones. With a simple approximation scheme we
reproduce the result of the numerical calculation.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figures, RevTex macro
Non-Gaussian fluctuations of mesoscopic persistent currents
The persistent current in an ensemble of normal-metal rings shows Gaussian
distributed sample-to-sample fluctuations with non-Gaussian corrections, which
are precursors of the transition into the Anderson localized regime. We here
report a calculation of the leading non-Gaussian correction to the current
autocorrelation function, which is of third order in the current. Although the
third-order correlation function is small, inversely proportional to the
dimensionless conductance of the ring, the mere fact that it is nonzero is
remarkable, since it is an odd moment of the current distribution.Comment: 4+ pages, 2 figure
Vortex nucleation through edge states in finite Bose-Einstein condensates
We study the vortex nucleation in a finite Bose-Einstein condensate. Using a
set of non-local and chiral boundary conditions to solve the
Schrdinger equation of non-interacting bosons in a rotating trap, we
obtain a quantitative expression for the characteristic angular velocity for
vortex nucleation in a condensate which is found to be 35% of the transverse
harmonic trapping frequency.Comment: 24 pages, 8 figures. Both figures and the text have been revise
Coherent Backscattering of Ultracold Atoms
We report on the direct observation of coherent backscattering (CBS) of
ultracold atoms, in a quasi-two-dimensional configuration. Launching atoms with
a well-defined momentum in a laser speckle disordered potential, we follow the
progressive build up of the momentum scattering pattern, consisting of a ring
associated with multiple elastic scattering, and the CBS peak in the backward
direction. Monitoring the depletion of the initial momentum component and the
formation of the angular ring profile allows us to determine microscopic
transport quantities. The time resolved evolution of the CBS peak is studied
and is found a fair agreement with predictions, at long times as well as at
short times. The observation of CBS can be considered a direct signature of
coherence in quantum transport of particles in disordered media. It is
responsible for the so called weak localization phenomenon, which is the
precursor of Anderson localization.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure
Representations of coarse-grained potentials for polymer simulations
In order to be able to simulate long time and large space scale properties of polymer melts one has to resort to coarse grained models, for example by subdividing all polymers into parts and restricting attention to the center of mass positions and velocities of these parts. The dynamics of these variables is governed by Langevin equations in which the free energy obtained by integrating the remaining variables provides the potential of the conservative forces. In general this leads to many particle interactions on the coarse-grained level. Methods suggested in the literature to represent these many particle interactions by effective two body interactions are reviewed and a new method, based on the Gibbs-Bogoliubov inequality, is proposed. The reason why none of these methods is able to reproduce the pressure of the underlying atomistic model is discussed
Diagrammatic Approach for the High-Temperature Regime of Quantum Hall Transitions
We use a general diagrammatic formalism based on a local conductivity
approach to compute electronic transport in continuous media with long-range
disorder, in the absence of quantum interference effects. The method allows us
then to investigate the interplay of dissipative processes and random drifting
of electronic trajectories in the high-temperature regime of quantum Hall
transitions. We obtain that the longitudinal conductance \sigma_{xx} scales
with an exponent {\kappa}=0.767\pm0.002 in agreement with the value
{\kappa}=10/13 conjectured from analogies to classical percolation. We also
derive a microscopic expression for the temperature-dependent peak value of
\sigma_{xx}, useful to extract {\kappa} from experiments.Comment: 4+epsilon pages, 5 figures, attached with Supplementary Material. A
discussion and a plot of the temperature-dependent longitudinal conductance
was added in the final versio
Speed of sound in disordered Bose-Einstein condensates
Disorder modifies the sound-wave excitation spectrum of Bose-Einstein
condensates. We consider the classical hydrodynamic limit, where the disorder
correlation length is much longer than the condensate healing length. By
perturbation theory, we compute the phonon lifetime and correction to the speed
of sound. This correction is found to be negative in all dimensions, with
universal asymptotics for smooth correlations. Considering in detail optical
speckle potentials, we find a quite rich intermediate structure. This has
consequences for the average density of states, particularly in one dimension,
where we find a "boson dip" next to a sharp "boson peak" as function of
frequency. In one dimension, our prediction is verified in detail by a
numerical integration of the Gross-Pitaevskii equation.Comment: final, extended version with 2 new figure
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