13,984 research outputs found
Spin noise in quantum dot ensembles
We study theoretically spin fluctuations of resident electrons or holes in
singly charged quantum dots. The effects of external magnetic field and
effective fields caused by the interaction of electron and nuclei spins are
analyzed. The fluctuations of spin Faraday, Kerr and ellipticity signals
revealing the spin noise of resident charge carriers are calculated for the
continuous wave probing at the singlet trion resonance.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figure
Simulations of magnetic and magnetoelastic properties of Tb2Ti2O7 in paramagnetic phase
Magnetic and magnetoelastic properties of terbium titanate pyrochlore in
paramagnetic phase are simulated. The magnetic field and temperature
dependences of magnetization and forced magnetostriction in Tb2Ti2O7 single
crystals and polycrystalline samples are calculated in the framework of
exchange charge model of crystal field theory and a mean field approximation.
The set of electron-deformation coupling constants has been determined.
Variations of elastic constants with temperature and applied magnetic field are
discussed. Additional strong softening of the crystal lattice at liquid helium
temperatures in the magnetic field directed along the rhombic symmetry axis is
predicted.Comment: 13 pages, 4 figures, 2 table
Performance of the modified Becke-Johnson potential
Very recently, in the 2011 version of the Wien2K code, the long standing
shortcome of the codes based on Density Functional Theory, namely, its
impossibility to account for the experimental band gap value of semiconductors,
was overcome. The novelty is the introduction of a new exchange and correlation
potential, the modified Becke-Johnson potential (mBJLDA). In this paper, we
report our detailed analysis of this recent work. We calculated using this
code, the band structure of forty one semiconductors and found an important
improvement in the overall agreement with experiment as Tran and Blaha [{\em
Phys. Rev. Lett.} 102, 226401 (2009)] did before for a more reduced set of
semiconductors. We find, nevertheless, within this enhanced set, that the
deviation from the experimental gap value can reach even much more than 20%, in
some cases. Furthermore, since there is no exchange and correlation energy term
from which the mBJLDA potential can be deduced, a direct optimization procedure
to get the lattice parameter in a consistent way is not possible as in the
usual theory. These authors suggest that a LDA or a GGA optimization procedure
is used previous to a band structure calculation and the resulting lattice
parameter introduced into the 2011 code. This choice is important since small
percentage differences in the lattice parameter can give rise to quite higher
percentage deviations from experiment in the predicted band gap value.Comment: 10 pages, 2 figures, 5 Table
The gravity-related decoherence master equation from hybrid dynamics
Canonical coupling between classical and quantum systems cannot result in
reversible equations, rather it leads to irreversible master equations.
Coupling of quantized non-relativistic matter to gravity is illustrated by a
simplistic example. The heuristic derivation yields the theory of
gravity-related decoherence proposed longtime ago by Penrose and the author.Comment: 9pp, extended version of invited talk at Fifth International Workshop
DICE2010 (Castello Pasquini/Castiglioncello/Tuscany, Sept. 13-17, 2010
Quantum, Multi-Body Effects and Nuclear Reaction Rates in Plasmas
Detailed calculations of the contribution from off-shell effects to the
quasiclassical tunneling of fusing particles are provided. It is shown that
these effects change the Gamow rates of certain nuclear reactions in dense
plasma by several orders of magnitude.Comment: 11 pages; change of content: added clarification of one of the
important steps in the derivatio
Detailed studies of non-linear magneto-optical resonances at D1 excitation of Rb-85 and Rb-87 for partially resolved hyperfine F-levels
Experimental signals of non-linear magneto-optical resonances at D1
excitation of natural rubidium in a vapor cell have been obtained and described
with experimental accuracy by a detailed theoretical model based on the optical
Bloch equations. The D1 transition of rubidium is a challenging system to
analyze theoretically because it contains transitions that are only partially
resolved under Doppler broadening. The theoretical model took into account all
nearby transitions, the coherence properties of the exciting laser radiation,
and the mixing of magnetic sublevels in an external magnetic field and also
included averaging over the Doppler profile. Great care was taken to obtain
accurate experimental signals and avoid systematic errors. The experimental
signals were reproduced very well at each hyperfine transition and over a wide
range of laser power densities, beam diameters, and laser detunings from the
exact transition frequency. The bright resonance expected at the F_g=1 -->
F_e=2 transition of Rb-87 has been observed. A bright resonance was observed at
the F_g=2 --> F_e=3 transition of Rb-85, but displaced from the exact position
of the transition due to the influence of the nearby F_g=2 --> F_e=2
transition, which is a dark resonance whose contrast is almost two orders of
magnitude larger than the contrast of the bright resonance at the F_g=2 -->
F_e=3 transition. Even in this very delicate situation, the theoretical model
described in detail the experimental signals at different laser detunings.Comment: 11 pages, 9 figure
Probing photo-ionization: simulations of positive streamers in varying N2:O2 mixtures
Photo-ionization is the accepted mechanism for the propagation of positive
streamers in air though the parameters are not very well known; the efficiency
of this mechanism largely depends on the presence of both nitrogen and oxygen.
But experiments show that streamer propagation is amazingly robust against
changes of the gas composition; even for pure nitrogen with impurity levels
below 1 ppm streamers propagate essentially with the same velocity as in air,
but their minimal diameter is smaller, and they branch more frequently.
Additionally, they move more in a zigzag fashion and sometimes exhibit a
feathery structure. In our simulations, we test the relative importance of
photo-ionization and of the background ionization from pulsed repetitive
discharges, in air as well as in nitrogen with 1 ppm O2 . We also test
reasonable parameter changes of the photo-ionization model. We find that photo-
ionization dominates streamer propagation in air for repetition frequencies of
at least 1 kHz, while in nitrogen with 1 ppm O2 the effect of the repetition
frequency has to be included above 1 Hz. Finally, we explain the feather-like
structures around streamer channels that are observed in experiments in
nitrogen with high purity, but not in air.Comment: 12 figure
Non-equilibrium statistical mechanics of classical nuclei interacting with the quantum electron gas
Kinetic equations governing time evolution of positions and momenta of atoms
in extended systems are derived using quantum-classical ensembles within the
Non-Equilibrium Statistical Operator Method (NESOM). Ions are treated
classically, while their electrons quantum mechanically; however, the
statistical operator is not factorised in any way and no simplifying
assumptions are made concerning the electronic subsystem. Using this method, we
derive kinetic equations of motion for the classical degrees of freedom (atoms)
which account fully for the interaction and energy exchange with the quantum
variables (electrons). Our equations, alongside the usual Newtonian-like terms
normally associated with the Ehrenfest dynamics, contain additional terms,
proportional to the atoms velocities, which can be associated with the
electronic friction. Possible ways of calculating the friction forces which are
shown to be given via complicated non-equilibrium correlation functions, are
discussed. In particular, we demonstrate that the correlation functions are
directly related to the thermodynamic Matsubara Green's functions, and this
relationship allows for the diagrammatic methods to be used in treating
electron-electron interaction perturbatively when calculating the correlation
functions. This work also generalises previous attempts, mostly based on model
systems, of introducing the electronic friction into Molecular Dynamics
equations of atoms.Comment: 18 page
Spin noise spectroscopy under resonant optical probing conditions: coherent and non-linear effects
High sensitivity Faraday rotation spectroscopy is used to measure the
fluctuating magnetization noise of non-interacting rubidium atoms under
resonant and non-resonant optical probing conditions. The spin noise frequency
spectra in dependence on the probe light detuning with respect to the
D2-transition reveals clear signatures of a coherent coupling of the
participating electronic levels. The results are explained by extended Bloch
equations including homogeneous and inhomogeneous broadening mechanisms. Our
measurements further indicate that spin noise originating from excited states
are governed at high intensities by collective effects
Crowdsourcing EO datasets to improve cloud detection algorithms and land cover change
Involving citizens in science is gaining considerable traction of late. With positive examples
(e.g. Geo-Wiki, FotoQuest Austria), a number of projects are exploring the options to engage
the public in contributing to scientific research, often by asking participants to collect some
data or validate some results. The International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis
(IIASA), with extensive experience in crowdsourcing and gamification, has joined Sinergise,
Copernicus Masters 2016 winners, to engage the public in an initiative involving ESA’s
Sentinel-2 satellite imagery.
Sentinel-2 imagery offers high revisit times and sufficient resolution for land change
detection applications. Unfortunately, simple (but fast) algorithms often fail due to many
false-positives: changes in clouds are perceived as land changes. The ability to discriminate
of cloudy pixels is thus crucial for any automatic or semi-automatic solutions that detect land
change.
A plethora of algorithms to distinguish clouds in Sentinel-2 data are available. However,
there is a need for better data on where and when clouds occur to help improve these
algorithms. To overcome this current gap in the data, we are engaging the public in this task.
Using a number of tools, developed at IIASA, and Sentinel Hub services, which provide fast
access to the entire global archive of Sentinel-2 data, the aim is to obtain a large data
resource of curated cloud classifications. The resulting dataset will be published as open
data and made available through Geopedia platform.
The gamified process will start by asking users if there are clouds on a small image (e.g. 8x8
pixels at the highest Sentinel-2 resolution of 10 m/px), which will provide us with a screening
process to pinpoint cloudy areas, employing Picture Pile crowdsourcing game from IIASA.
The next step will involve a more detailed workflow, as users will get a slightly larger image
(e.g. 64x64 pixels) and will then be asked to delineate different types of clouds: opaque
clouds (nothing is seen through the clouds), thick clouds (where the surface is still
discernible through the clouds), and thin clouds (where the surface is unequivocally covered
by a cloud); the rest of the image will be implicitly cloud-free. The resulting data will be
made available through the Geopedia portal, both for exploring and downloading. This
paper will demonstrate this process and show some results from a crowdsourcing campaign.
The approach will also allow us to collect other datasets in a rapid and efficient manner. For
example, using a slightly modified configuration, a similar workflow could be used to obtain
a manually curated land cover classification data set, which could be used as training data
for machine learning algorithms
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