Study of the topological Hall effect on simple models

Recently, a chirality-driven contribution to the anomalous Hall effect has been found that is induced by the Berry phase and does not directly involve spin-orbit coupling. In this paper, we will investigate this effect numerically in a two-dimensional electron gas with a simple magnetic texture model. Both the adiabatic and non-adiabatic regimes are studied, including the effect of disorder. By studying the transition between both regimes the discussion about the correct adiabaticity criterium in the diffusive limit is clarified.Comment: 8 pages, 7 figures, revtex

Prethermalization and thermalization in models with weak integrability breaking

We study the effects of integrability breaking perturbations on the non-equilibrium evolution of many-particle quantum systems. We focus on a class of spinless fermion models with weak interactions. We employ equation of motion techniques that can be viewed as generalizations of quantum Boltzmann equations. We benchmark our method against time dependent density matrix renormalization group computations and find it to be very accurate as long as interactions are weak. For small integrability breaking, we observe robust prethermalization plateaux for local observables on all accessible time scales. Increasing the strength of the integrability breaking term induces a "drift" away from the prethermalization plateaux towards thermal behaviour. We identify a time scale characterizing this cross-over.Comment: 9 pages, 4 figure

Supernova cosmology: legacy and future

The discovery of dark energy by the first generation of high-redshift supernova surveys has generated enormous interest beyond cosmology and has dramatic implications for fundamental physics. Distance measurements using supernova explosions are the most direct probes of the expansion history of the Universe, making them extremely useful tools to study the cosmic fabric and the properties of gravity at the largest scales. The past decade has seen the confirmation of the original results. Type Ia supernovae are among the leading techniques to obtain high-precision measurements of the dark energy equation of state parameter, and in the near future, its time dependence. The success of these efforts depends on our ability to understand a large number of effects, mostly of astrophysical nature, influencing the observed flux at Earth. The frontier now lies in understanding if the observed phenomenon is due to vacuum energy, albeit its unnatural density, or some exotic new physics. Future surveys will address the systematic effects with improved calibration procedures and provide thousands of supernovae for detailed studies.Comment: Invited review, Annual Review of Nuclear and Particle Science (submitted version

First-principles calculation of the intersublattice exchange interactions and Curie temperatures of full Heusler alloys Ni2MnX (X=Ga, In, Sn, Sb)

The interatomic exchange interactions and Curie temperatures in Ni-based full Heusler alloys Ni2MnX with X=Ga, In, Sn and Sb are studied within the framework of the density-functional theory. The calculation of the exchange parameters is based on the frozen-magnon approach. Despite closeness of the experimental Curie temperatures for all four systems their magnetism appeared to differ strongly. This difference involves both the Mn-Mn and Mn-Ni exchange interactions. The Curie temperatures, Tc, are calculated within the mean-field approximation by solving a matrix equation for a multi-sublattice system. Good agreement with experiment for all four systems is obtained. The role of different exchange interactions in the formation of Tc of the systems is discussed.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figure

Nonadiabatic effects in the dynamics of atoms confined in a cylindric time-orbiting-potential magnetic trap

In a time-orbiting-potential magnetic trap the neutral atoms are confined by means of an inhomogeneous magnetic field superimposed to an uniform rotating one. We perform an analytic study of the atomic motion by taking into account the nonadiabatic effects arising from the spin dynamics about the local magnetic field. Geometric-like magnetic-fields determined by the Berry's phase appear within the quantum description. The application of a variational procedure on the original quantum equation leads to a set of dynamical evolution equations for the quantum average value of the position operator and of the spin variables. Within this approximation we derive the quantum-mechanical ground state configuration matching the classical adiabatic solution and perform some numerical simulations.Comment: 12 pages, 4 figure

Wind-sand tunnel testing of surface-mounted obstacles: Similarity requirements and a case study on a Sand Mitigation Measure

Windblown sand flow interacts with a number of surface-mounted human-built obstacles. The wind-sand flow perturbation and resulting morphodynamic response of the sand bed cannot be assessed in analytical terms. Therefore, wind-sand tunnel studies around scale physical models are often carried out. They should be driven by physical similarity theory based on dimensionless numbers referred to the whole multiphase and multiscale flow. However, similarity requirements cannot be fully satisfied under typical testing conditions and attention should be paid on the extent of the similarity relaxation. In this study, the background of wind-sand tunnel testing of surface-mounted obstacles is recalled by reviewing wind tunnel setups and similarity requirements. Then, a wind-sand tunnel campaign on a Sand Mitigation Measure is described and critically discussed. The setup dimensionless numbers are compared with statistics on those of past studies. The inescapable relaxation of similarity requirements is motivated by the test goals. The time evolution towards in-equilibrium conditions of both sand bed morphodynamics and sand transport is discussed. Finally, the results of engineering interest are described: the Sand Mitigation Measure sand trapping performance is assessed in dimensionless terms through the measurements of the incoming and outgoing sand concentration in air

Optoelectronic oscillators for communication systems

We introduce and report recent developments on a novel five port optoelectronic voltage controlled oscillator consisting of a resonant tunneling diode (RTD) optical-waveguide integrated with a laser diode. The RTD-based optoelectronic oscillator (OEO) has both optical and electrical input and output ports, with the fifth port allowing voltage control. The RTD-OEO locks to reference radio-frequency (RF) sources by either optical or electrical injection locking techniques allowing remote synchronization, eliminating the need of impedance matching between traditional RF oscillators. RTD-OEO functions include generation, amplification and distribution of RF carriers, clock recovery, carrier recovery, modulation and demodulation and frequency synthesis. Self-injection locking operation modes, where small portions of the output electrical/ optical signals are fed back into the electrical/optical input ports, are also proposed. The self-phase locked loop configuration can give rise to low-noise high-stable oscillations, not limited by the RF source performance and with no need of external optoelectronic conversion

Turbulence transition and the edge of chaos in pipe flow

The linear stability of pipe flow implies that only perturbations of sufficient strength will trigger the transition to turbulence. In order to determine this threshold in perturbation amplitude we study the \emph{edge of chaos} which separates perturbations that decay towards the laminar profile and perturbations that trigger turbulence. Using the lifetime as an indicator and methods developed in (Skufca et al, Phys. Rev. Lett. {\bf 96}, 174101 (2006)) we show that superimposed on an overall $1/\Re$-scaling predicted and studied previously there are small, non-monotonic variations reflecting folds in the edge of chaos. By tracing the motion in the edge we find that it is formed by the stable manifold of a unique flow field that is dominated by a pair of downstream vortices, asymmetrically placed towards the wall. The flow field that generates the edge of chaos shows intrinsic chaotic dynamics.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figure

Transport on weighted Networks: when correlations are independent of degree

Most real-world networks are weighted graphs with the weight of the edges reflecting the relative importance of the connections. In this work, we study non degree dependent correlations between edge weights, generalizing thus the correlations beyond the degree dependent case. We propose a simple method to introduce weight-weight correlations in topologically uncorrelated graphs. This allows us to test different measures to discriminate between the different correlation types and to quantify their intensity. We also discuss here the effect of weight correlations on the transport properties of the networks, showing that positive correlations dramatically improve transport. Finally, we give two examples of real-world networks (social and transport graphs) in which weight-weight correlations are present.Comment: 8 pages, 8 figure