59 research outputs found
Monte Carlo simulation of boson lattices
Boson lattices are theoretically well described by the Hubbard model. The
basic model and its variants can be effectively simulated using Monte Carlo
techniques. We describe two newly developed approaches, the Stochastic Series
Expansion (SSE) with directed loop updates and continuous--time Diffusion Monte
Carlo (CTDMC). SSE is a formulation of the finite temperature partition
function as a stochastic sampling over product terms. Directed loops is a
general framework to implement this stochastic sampling in a non--local fashion
while maintaining detailed balance. CTDMC is well suited to finding exact
ground--state properties, applicable to any lattice model not suffering from
the sign problem; for a lattice model the evolution of the wave function can be
performed in continuous time without any time discretization error. Both the
directed loop algorithm and the CTDMC are important recent advances in
development of computational methods. Here we present results for a Hubbard
model for anti--ferromagnetic spin--1 bosons in one dimensions, and show
evidence for a dimerized ground state in the lowest Mott lobe.Comment: 3 pages, 5 figur
Layer- and bulk roton excitations of 4He in porous media
We examine the energetics of bulk and layer-roton excitations of 4He in
various porous medial such as aerogel, Geltech, or Vycor, in order to find out
what conclusions can be drawn from experiments on the energetics about the
physisorption mechanism. The energy of the layer-roton minimum depends
sensitively on the substrate strength, thus providing a mechanism for a direct
measurement of this quantity. On the other hand, bulk-like roton excitations
are largely independent of the interaction between the medium and the helium
atoms, but the dependence of their energy on the degree of filling reflects the
internal structure of the matrix and can reveal features of 4He at negative
pressures. While bulk-like rotons are very similar to their true bulk
counterparts, the layer modes are not in close relation to two-dimensional
rotons and should be regarded as a third, completely independent kind of
excitation
Excitations in confined helium
We design models for helium in matrices like aerogel, Vycor or Geltech from a
manifestly microscopic point of view. For that purpose, we calculate the
dynamic structure function of 4He on Si substrates and between two Si walls as
a function of energy, momentum transfer, and the scattering angle. The
angle--averaged results are in good agreement with the neutron scattering data;
the remaining differences can be attributed to the simplified model used here
for the complex pore structure of the materials. A focus of the present work is
the detailed identification of coexisting layer modes and bulk--like
excitations, and, in the case of thick films, ripplon excitations. Involving
essentially two--dimensional motion of atoms, the layer modes are sensitive to
the scattering angle.Comment: Phys. Rev. B (2003, in press
Many-body aspects of positron annihilation in the electron gas
We investigate positron annihilation in electron liquid as a case study for
many-body theory, in particular the optimized Fermi Hypernetted Chain (FHNC-EL)
method. We examine several approximation schemes and show that one has to go up
to the most sophisticated implementation of the theory available at the moment
in order to get annihilation rates that agree reasonably well with experimental
data. Even though there is basically just one number to look at, the
electron-positron pair distribution function at zero distance, it is exactly
this number that dictates how the full pair distribution behaves: In most
cases, it falls off monotonously towards unity as the distance increases. Cases
where the electron-positron pair distribution exhibits a dip are precursors to
the formation of bound electron--positron pairs. The formation of
electron-positron pairs is indicated by a divergence of the FHNC-EL equations,
from this we can estimate the density regime where positrons must be localized.
This occurs in our calculations in the range 9.4 <= r_s <=10, where r_s is the
dimensionless density parameter of the electron liquid.Comment: To appear in Phys. Rev. B (2003
Thin helium film on a glass substrate
We investigate by Monte Carlo simulations the structure, energetics and
superfluid properties of thin helium-four films (up to four layers) on a glass
substrate, at low temperature. The first adsorbed layer is found to be solid
and "inert", i.e., atoms are localized and do not participate to quantum
exchanges. Additional layers are liquid, with no clear layer separation above
the second one. It is found that a single helium-three impurity resides on the
outmost layer, not significantly further away from the substrate than
helium-four atoms on the same layer.Comment: Six figures, submitted for publication to the Journal of Low
Temperature Physic
Quasicondensate and superfluid fraction in the 2D charged-boson gas at finite temperature
The Bogoliubov - de Gennes equations are solved for the Coulomb Bose gas
describing a fluid of charged bosons at finite temperature. The approach is
applicable in the weak coupling regime and the extent of its quantitative
usefulness is tested in the three-dimensional fluid, for which diffusion Monte
Carlo data are available on the condensate fraction at zero temperature. The
one-body density matrix is then evaluated by the same approach for the
two-dimensional fluid with e^2/r interactions, to demonstrate the presence of a
quasi-condensate from its power-law decay with increasing distance and to
evaluate the superfluid fraction as a function of temperature at weak coupling.Comment: 9 pages, 2 figure
Volume element structure and roton-maxon-phonon excitations in superfluid helium beyond the Gross-Pitaevskii approximation
We propose a theory which deals with the structure and interactions of volume
elements in liquid helium II. The approach consists of two nested models linked
via parametric space. The short-wavelength part describes the interior
structure of the fluid element using a non-perturbative approach based on the
logarithmic wave equation; it suggests the Gaussian-like behaviour of the
element's interior density and interparticle interaction potential. The
long-wavelength part is the quantum many-body theory of such elements which
deals with their dynamics and interactions. Our approach leads to a unified
description of the phonon, maxon and roton excitations, and has noteworthy
agreement with experiment: with one essential parameter to fit we reproduce at
high accuracy not only the roton minimum but also the neighboring local maximum
as well as the sound velocity and structure factor.Comment: 9 pages, 6 figure
Liquid 4He: contributions to first principles theory of quantized vortices, thermohydrodynamic properties, and the lambda transition
Liquid 4He has been studied extensively for almost a century, but there are
still a number of outstanding weak or missing links in our comprehension of it.
This paper reviews some of the principal paths taken in previous research and
then proceeds to fill gaps and create an integrated picture with more complete
understanding through first principles treatment of a realistic model that
starts with a microscopic, atomistic description of the liquid. Newly derived
results for vortex cores and thermohydrodynamic properties for a two-fluid
model are used to show that interacting quantized vortices may produce a lambda
anomaly in specific heat near the superfluid transition where flow properties
change. The nature of the order in the superfluid state is explained.
Experimental support for new calculations is exhibited, and a unique specific
heat experiment is proposed to test predictions of the theory. Relevance of the
theory to modern research in cosmology, astrophysics, and Bose-Einstein
condensates is discussed.Comment: 155 pages, 28 figure
To wet or not to wet: that is the question
Wetting transitions have been predicted and observed to occur for various
combinations of fluids and surfaces. This paper describes the origin of such
transitions, for liquid films on solid surfaces, in terms of the gas-surface
interaction potentials V(r), which depend on the specific adsorption system.
The transitions of light inert gases and H2 molecules on alkali metal surfaces
have been explored extensively and are relatively well understood in terms of
the least attractive adsorption interactions in nature. Much less thoroughly
investigated are wetting transitions of Hg, water, heavy inert gases and other
molecular films. The basic idea is that nonwetting occurs, for energetic
reasons, if the adsorption potential's well-depth D is smaller than, or
comparable to, the well-depth of the adsorbate-adsorbate mutual interaction. At
the wetting temperature, Tw, the transition to wetting occurs, for entropic
reasons, when the liquid's surface tension is sufficiently small that the free
energy cost in forming a thick film is sufficiently compensated by the fluid-
surface interaction energy. Guidelines useful for exploring wetting transitions
of other systems are analyzed, in terms of generic criteria involving the
"simple model", which yields results in terms of gas-surface interaction
parameters and thermodynamic properties of the bulk adsorbate.Comment: Article accepted for publication in J. Low Temp. Phy
Relativistic quantum effects of Dirac particles simulated by ultracold atoms
Quantum simulation is a powerful tool to study a variety of problems in
physics, ranging from high-energy physics to condensed-matter physics. In this
article, we review the recent theoretical and experimental progress in quantum
simulation of Dirac equation with tunable parameters by using ultracold neutral
atoms trapped in optical lattices or subject to light-induced synthetic gauge
fields. The effective theories for the quasiparticles become relativistic under
certain conditions in these systems, making them ideal platforms for studying
the exotic relativistic effects. We focus on the realization of one, two, and
three dimensional Dirac equations as well as the detection of some relativistic
effects, including particularly the well-known Zitterbewegung effect and Klein
tunneling. The realization of quantum anomalous Hall effects is also briefly
discussed.Comment: 22 pages, review article in Frontiers of Physics: Proceedings on
Quantum Dynamics of Ultracold Atom
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