Giant Magnetoresistance Oscillations Induced by Microwave Radiation and a Zero-Resistance State in a 2D Electron System with a Moderate Mobility

The effect of a microwave field in the frequency range from 54 to 140 $\mathrm{GHz}$ on the magnetotransport in a GaAs quantum well with AlAs/GaAs superlattice barriers and with an electron mobility no higher than $10^6$ $\mathrm{cm^2/Vs}$ is investigated. In the given two-dimensional system under the effect of microwave radiation, giant resistance oscillations are observed with their positions in magnetic field being determined by the ratio of the radiation frequency to the cyclotron frequency. Earlier, such oscillations had only been observed in GaAs/AlGaAs heterostructures with much higher mobilities. When the samples under study are irradiated with a 140-$\mathrm{GHz}$ microwave field, the resistance corresponding to the main oscillation minimum, which occurs near the cyclotron resonance, appears to be close to zero. The results of the study suggest that a mobility value lower than $10^6$ $\mathrm{cm^2/Vs}$ does not prevent the formation of zero-resistance states in magnetic field in a two-dimensional system under the effect of microwave radiation.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figur

Nonequilibrium stationary states with ratchet effect

An ensemble of particles in thermal equilibrium at temperature $T$, modeled by Nos\`e-Hoover dynamics, moves on a triangular lattice of oriented semi-disk elastic scatterers. Despite the scatterer asymmetry a directed transport is clearly ruled out by the second law of thermodynamics. Introduction of a polarized zero mean monochromatic field creates a directed stationary flow with nontrivial dependence on temperature and field parameters. We give a theoretical estimate of directed current induced by a microwave field in an antidot superlattice in semiconductor heterostructures.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figures (small changes added

Twinkling pulsar wind nebulae in the synchrotron cut-off regime and the gamma-ray flares in the Crab Nebula

Synchrotron radiation of ultra-relativistic particles accelerated in a pulsar wind nebula may dominate its spectrum up to gamma-ray energies. Because of the short cooling time of the gamma-ray emitting electrons, the gamma-ray emission zone is in the immediate vicinity of the acceleration site. The particle acceleration likely occurs at the termination shock of the relativistic striped wind, where multiple forced magnetic field reconnections provide strong magnetic fluctuations facilitating Fermi acceleration processes. The acceleration mechanisms imply the presence of stochastic magnetic fields in the particle acceleration region, which cause stochastic variability of the synchrotron emission. This variability is particularly strong in the steep gamma-ray tail of the spectrum, where modest fluctuations of the magnetic field lead to strong flares of spectral flux. In particular, stochastic variations of magnetic field, which may lead to quasi-cyclic gamma-ray flares, can be produced by the relativistic cyclotron ion instability at the termination shock. Our model calculations of the spectral and temporal evolution of synchrotron emission in the spectral cut-off regime demonstrate that the intermittent magnetic field concentrations dominate the gamma-ray emission from highest energy electrons and provide fast, strong variability even for a quasi-steady distribution of radiating particles. The simulated light curves and spectra can explain the very strong gamma-ray flares observed in the Crab nebula and the lack of strong variations at other wavelengths. The model predicts high polarization in the flare phase, which can be tested with future polarimetry observations.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, MNRAS in pres

Continuation of connecting orbits in 3D-ODEs: (I) Point-to-cycle connections

We propose new methods for the numerical continuation of point-to-cycle connecting orbits in 3-dimensional autonomous ODE's using projection boundary conditions. In our approach, the projection boundary conditions near the cycle are formulated using an eigenfunction of the associated adjoint variational equation, avoiding costly and numerically unstable computations of the monodromy matrix. The equations for the eigenfunction are included in the defining boundary-value problem, allowing a straightforward implementation in AUTO, in which only the standard features of the software are employed. Homotopy methods to find connecting orbits are discussed in general and illustrated with several examples, including the Lorenz equations. Complete AUTO demos, which can be easily adapted to any autonomous 3-dimensional ODE system, are freely available.Comment: 18 pages, 10 figure

Photocurrent, Rectification, and Magnetic Field Symmetry of Induced Current Through Quantum Dots

We report mesoscopic dc current generation in an open chaotic quantum dot with ac excitation applied to one of the shape-defining gates. For excitation frequencies large compared to the inverse dwell time of electrons in the dot (i.e., GHz), we find mesoscopic fluctuations of induced current that are fully asymmetric in the applied perpendicular magnetic field, as predicted by recent theory. Conductance, measured simultaneously, is found to be symmetric in field. In the adiabatic (i.e., MHz) regime, in contrast, the induced current is always symmetric in field, suggesting its origin is mesoscopic rectification.Comment: related papers at http://marcuslab.harvard.ed

Coherent radiation from neutral molecules moving above a grating

We predict and study the quantum-electrodynamical effect of parametric self-induced excitation of a molecule moving above the dielectric or conducting medium with periodic grating. In this case the radiation reaction force modulates the molecular transition frequency which results in a parametric instability of dipole oscillations even from the level of quantum or thermal fluctuations. The present mechanism of instability of electrically neutral molecules is different from that of the well-known Smith-Purcell and transition radiation in which a moving charge and its oscillating image create an oscillating dipole. We show that parametrically excited molecular bunches can produce an easily detectable coherent radiation flux of up to a microwatt.Comment: 4 page

Photovoltaic Current Response of Mesoscopic Conductors to Quantized Cavity Modes

We extend the analysis of the effects of electromagnetic (EM) fields on mesoscopic conductors to include the effects of field quantization, motivated by recent experiments on circuit QED. We show that in general there is a photovoltaic (PV) current induced by quantized cavity modes at zero bias across the conductor. This current depends on the average photon occupation number and vanishes identically when it is equal to the average number of thermal electron-hole pairs. We analyze in detail the case of a chaotic quantum dot at temperature T_e in contact with a thermal EM field at temperature T_f, calculating the RMS size of the PV current as a function of the temperature difference, finding an effect ~pA.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figure

Matrix and vector models in the strong coupling limit

In this paper we consider matrix and vector models in the large N limit ($N \times N$ matrices and vectors with N^{2} components). For the case of zero-dimensional model (D=0) it is proved that in the strong coupling limit $g \to \infty$ statistical sums of both models coincide up to a coefficient. This is also true for D=1.Comment: 8 page

SU(2) Gluodynamics and HP1 sigma-model embedding: Scaling, Topology and Confinement

We investigate recently proposed HP1 sigma-model embedding method aimed to study the topology of SU(2) gauge fields. The HP1 based topological charge is shown to be fairly compatible with various known definitions. We study the corresponding topological susceptibility and estimate its value in the continuum limit. The geometrical clarity of HP1 approach allows to investigate non-perturbative aspects of SU(2) gauge theory on qualitatively new level. In particular, we obtain numerically precise estimation of gluon condensate and its leading quadratic correction. Furthermore, we present clear evidences that the string tension is to be associated with global (percolating) regions of sign-coherent topological charge. As a byproduct of our analysis we estimate the continuum value of quenched chiral condensate and the dimensionality of regions, which localize the lowest eigenmodes of overlap Dirac operator.Comment: 22 pages, 18 ps figures, revtex4. Replaced to match published version (PRD, to appear