330 research outputs found
Bar-Halo Friction in Galaxies II: Metastability
It is well-established that strong bars rotating in dense halos generally
slow down as they lose angular momentum to the halo through dynamical friction.
Angular momentum exchanges between the bar and halo particles take place at
resonances. While some particles gain and others lose, friction arises when
there is an excess of gainers over losers. This imbalance results from the
generally decreasing numbers of particles with increasing angular momentum, and
friction can therefore be avoided if there is no gradient in the density of
particles across the major resonances. Here we show that anomalously weak
friction can occur for this reason if the pattern speed of the bar fluctuates
upwards. After such an event, the density of resonant halo particles has a
local inflexion created by the earlier exchanges, and bar slowdown can be
delayed for a long period; we describe this as a metastable state. We show that
this behavior in purely collisionless N-body simulations is far more likely to
occur in methods with adaptive resolution. We also show that the phenomenon
could arise in nature, since bar-driven gas inflow could easily raise the bar
pattern speed enough to reach the metastable state. Finally, we demonstrate
that mild external, or internal, perturbations quickly restore the usual
frictional drag, and it is unlikely therefore that a strong bar in a galaxy
having a dense halo could rotate for a long period without friction.Comment: 13 pages, 11 figures, to appear in Ap
Multiband theory of multi-exciton complexes in self-assembled quantum dots
We report on a multiband microscopic theory of many-exciton complexes in
self-assembled quantum dots. The single particle states are obtained by three
methods: single-band effective-mass approximation, the multiband
method, and the tight-binding method. The electronic structure calculations are
coupled with strain calculations via Bir-Pikus Hamiltonian. The many-body wave
functions of electrons and valence holes are expanded in the basis of
Slater determinants. The Coulomb matrix elements are evaluated using statically
screened interaction for the three different sets of single particle states and
the correlated -exciton states are obtained by the configuration interaction
method. The theory is applied to the excitonic recombination spectrum in
InAs/GaAs self-assembled quantum dots. The results of the single-band
effective-mass approximation are successfully compared with those obtained by
using the of and tight-binding methods.Comment: 10 pages, 8 figure
Bar-halo Friction in Galaxies I: Scaling Laws
It has been known for some time that rotating bars in galaxies slow due to
dynamical friction against the halo. However, recent attempts to use this
process to place constraints on the dark matter density in galaxies and
possibly also to drive dark matter out of the center have been challenged. This
paper uses simplified numerical experiments to clarify several aspects of the
friction mechanism. I explicitly demonstrate the Chandrasekhar scaling of the
friction force with bar mass, halo density, and halo velocity dispersion. I
present direct evidence that exchanges between the bar and halo orbits at major
resonances are responsible for friction and study both individual orbits and
the net changes at these resonances. I also show that friction alters the phase
space density of particles in the vicinity of a major resonance, which is the
reason the magnitude of the friction force depends on the prior evolution. I
demonstrate that bar slow down can be captured correctly in simulations having
modest spatial resolution and practicable numbers of particles. Subsequent
papers in this series delineate the dark matter density that can be tolerated
in halos of different density profiles.Comment: 15 pages, 13 figures, to appear in ApJ - major revisions from version
Extreme mass ratio inspiral rates: dependence on the massive black hole mass
We study the rate at which stars spiral into a massive black hole (MBH) due
to the emission of gravitational waves (GWs), as a function of the mass M of
the MBH. In the context of our model, it is shown analytically that the rate
approximately depends on the MBH mass as M^{-1/4}. Numerical simulations
confirm this result, and show that for all MBH masses, the event rate is
highest for stellar black holes, followed by white dwarfs, and lowest for
neutron stars. The Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) is expected to see
hundreds of these extreme mass ratio inspirals per year. Since the event rate
derived here formally diverges as M->0, the model presented here cannot hold
for MBHs of masses that are too low, and we discuss what the limitations of the
model are.Comment: Accepted to CQG, special LISA issu
Non-equilibrium transport through a vertical quantum dot in the absence of spin-flip energy relaxation
We investigate non-equilibrium transport in the absence of spin-flip energy
relaxation in a few-electron quantum dot artificial atom. Novel non-equilibrium
tunneling processes involving high-spin states which cannot be excited from the
ground state because of spin-blockade, and other processes involving more than
two charge states are observed. These processes cannot be explained by orthodox
Coulomb blockade theory. The absence of effective spin relaxation induces
considerable fluctuation of the spin, charge, and total energy of the quantum
dot. Although these features are revealed clearly by pulse excitation
measurements, they are also observed in conventional dc current characteristics
of quantum dots.Comment: accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.Let
Elasticity of semiflexible polymers with and without self-interactions
A {\it new} formula for the force vs extension relation is derived from the
discrete version of the so called {\it worm like chain} model. This formula
correctly fits some recent experimental data on polymer stretching and some
numerical simulations with pairwise repulsive potentials. For a more realistic
Lennard-Jones potential the agreement with simulations is found to be good when
the temperature is above the temperature. For lower temperatures a
plateau emerges, as predicted by some recent experimental and theoretical
results, and our formula gives good results only in the high force regime. We
briefly discuss how other kinds of self-interactions are expected to affect the
elasticity of the polymer.Comment: 8 pages, 10 figure
Single Molecule Statistics and the Polynucleotide Unzipping Transition
We present an extensive theoretical investigation of the mechanical unzipping
of double-stranded DNA under the influence of an applied force. In the limit of
long polymers, there is a thermodynamic unzipping transition at a critical
force value of order 10 pN, with different critical behavior for homopolymers
and for random heteropolymers. We extend results on the disorder-averaged
behavior of DNA's with random sequences to the more experimentally accessible
problem of unzipping a single DNA molecule. As the applied force approaches the
critical value, the double-stranded DNA unravels in a series of discrete,
sequence-dependent steps that allow it to reach successively deeper energy
minima. Plots of extension versus force thus take the striking form of a series
of plateaus separated by sharp jumps. Similar qualitative features should
reappear in micromanipulation experiments on proteins and on folded RNA
molecules. Despite their unusual form, the extension versus force curves for
single molecules still reveal remnants of the disorder-averaged critical
behavior. Above the transition, the dynamics of the unzipping fork is related
to that of a particle diffusing in a random force field; anomalous,
disorder-dominated behavior is expected until the applied force exceeds the
critical value for unzipping by roughly 5 pN.Comment: 40 pages, 18 figure
Self-consistent non-Markovian theory of a quantum state evolution for quantum information processing
It is shown that the operator sum representation for non-Markovian dynamics
and the Lindblad master equation in Markovian limit can be derived from a
formal solution to quantum Liouville equation for a qubit system in the
presence of decoherence processes self-consistently. Our formulation is the
first principle theory based on projection-operator formalism to obtain an
exact reduced density operator in time-convolutionless form starting from the
quantum Liouville equation for a noisy quantum computer. The advantage of our
approach is that it is general enough to describe a realistic quantum computer
in the presence of decoherence provided details of the Hamiltonians are known.Comment: 5page
- …