21,259 research outputs found
Lattice vibrations and structural instability in Cesium near the cubic to tetragonal transition
Under pressure cesium undergoes a transition from a high-pressure fcc phase
(Cs-II) to a collapsed fcc phase (Cs-III) near 4.2GPa. At 4.4GPa there follows
a transition to the tetragonal Cs-IV phase. In order to investigate the lattice
vibrations in the fcc phase and seek a possible dynamical instability of the
lattice, the phonon spectra of fcc-Cs at volumes near the III-IV transition are
calculated using Savrasov's density functional linear-response LMTO method.
Compared with quasiharmonic model calculations including non-central
interatomic forces up to second neighbours, at the volume (
is the experimental volume of bcc-Cs with =6.048{\AA}), the
linear-response calculations show soft intermediate wavelength
phonons. Similar softening is also observed for
short wavelength and phonons and intermediate
wavelength phonons. The Born-von K\'{a}rm\'{a}n analysis of
dispersion curves indicates that the interplanar force constants exhibit
oscillating behaviours against plane spacing and the large softening of
intermediate wavelength phonons results from a
negative (110)-interplanar force-constant . The frequencies of the
phonons with around 1/3 become imaginary
and the fcc structure becomes dynamically unstable for volumes below .
It is suggested that superstructures corresponding to the
soft mode should be present as a precursor of tetragonal Cs-IV structure.Comment: 12 pages, 5 figure
Hawking Radiation for Non-minimally Coupled Matter from Generalized 2D Black Hole Models
It is well known that spherically symmetric reduction of General Relativity
(SSG) leads to non-minimally coupled scalar matter. We generalize (and correct)
recent results to Hawking radiation for a class of dilaton models which share
with the Schwarzschild black hole non-minimal coupling of scalar fields and the
basic global structure. An inherent ambiguity of such models (if they differ
from SSG) is discussed. However, for SSG we obtain the rather disquieting
result of a negative Hawking flux at infinity, if the usual recipe for such
calculations is applied.Comment: 8 page
Stochastics theory of log-periodic patterns
We introduce an analytical model based on birth-death clustering processes to
help understanding the empirical log-periodic corrections to power-law scaling
and the finite-time singularity as reported in several domains including
rupture, earthquakes, world population and financial systems. In our
stochastics theory log-periodicities are a consequence of transient clusters
induced by an entropy-like term that may reflect the amount of cooperative
information carried by the state of a large system of different species. The
clustering completion rates for the system are assumed to be given by a simple
linear death process. The singularity at t_{o} is derived in terms of
birth-death clustering coefficients.Comment: LaTeX, 1 ps figure - To appear J. Phys. A: Math & Ge
A study of quantum decoherence in a system with Kolmogorov-Arnol'd-Moser tori
We present an experimental and numerical study of the effects of decoherence
on a quantum system whose classical analogue has Kolmogorov-Arnol'd-Moser (KAM)
tori in its phase space. Atoms are prepared in a caesium magneto-optical trap
at temperatures and densities which necessitate a quantum description. This
real quantum system is coupled to the environment via spontaneous emission. The
degree of coupling is varied and the effects of this coupling on the quantum
coherence of the system are studied. When the classical diffusion through a
partially broken torus is < hbar, diffusion of quantum particles is inhibited.
We find that increasing decoherence via spontaneous emission increases the
transport of quantum particles through the boundary.Comment: 19 pages including 6 figure
Modeling temporal fluctuations in avalanching systems
We demonstrate how to model the toppling activity in avalanching systems by
stochastic differential equations (SDEs). The theory is developed as a
generalization of the classical mean field approach to sandpile dynamics by
formulating it as a generalization of Itoh's SDE. This equation contains a
fractional Gaussian noise term representing the branching of an avalanche into
small active clusters, and a drift term reflecting the tendency for small
avalanches to grow and large avalanches to be constricted by the finite system
size. If one defines avalanching to take place when the toppling activity
exceeds a certain threshold the stochastic model allows us to compute the
avalanche exponents in the continum limit as functions of the Hurst exponent of
the noise. The results are found to agree well with numerical simulations in
the Bak-Tang-Wiesenfeld and Zhang sandpile models. The stochastic model also
provides a method for computing the probability density functions of the
fluctuations in the toppling activity itself. We show that the sandpiles do not
belong to the class of phenomena giving rise to universal non-Gaussian
probability density functions for the global activity. Moreover, we demonstrate
essential differences between the fluctuations of total kinetic energy in a
two-dimensional turbulence simulation and the toppling activity in sandpiles.Comment: 14 pages, 11 figure
Stellar Oscillations Network Group
Stellar Oscillations Network Group (SONG) is an initiative aimed at designing
and building a network of 1m-class telescopes dedicated to asteroseismology and
planet hunting. SONG will have 8 identical telescope nodes each equipped with a
high-resolution spectrograph and an iodine cell for obtaining precision radial
velocities and a CCD camera for guiding and imaging purposes. The main
asteroseismology targets for the network are the brightest (V<6) stars. In
order to improve performance and reduce maintenance costs the instrumentation
will only have very few modes of operation. In this contribution we describe
the motivations for establishing a network, the basic outline of SONG and the
expected performance.Comment: Proc. Vienna Workshop on the Future of Asteroseismology, 20 - 22
September 2006. Comm. in Asteroseismology, Vol. 150, in the pres
The N=2(4) string is self-dual N=4 Yang-Mills
N=2 string amplitudes, when required to have the Lorentz covariance of the
equivalent N=4 string, describe a self-dual form of N=4 super Yang-Mills in 2+2
dimensions. Spin-independent couplings and the ghost nature of SO(2,2)
spacetime make it a topological-like theory with vanishing loop corrections.Comment: 7 pg., ITP-SB-92-24 (uuencoded dvi file; otherwise same as original
Boundary effects in a random neighbor model of earthquakes
We introduce spatial inhomogeneities (boundaries) in a random neighbor
version of the Olami, Feder and Christensen model [Phys. Rev. Lett. 68, 1244
(1992)] and study the distributions of avalanches starting both from the bulk
and from the boundaries of the system. Because of their clear geophysical
interpretation, two different boundary conditions have been considered (named
free and open, respectively). In both cases the bulk distribution is described
by the exponent . Boundary distributions are instead
characterized by two different exponents and , for free and open boundary conditions, respectively. These
exponents indicate that the mean-field behavior of this model is correctly
described by a recently proposed inhomogeneous form of critical branching
process.Comment: 6 pages, 2 figures ; to appear on PR
Unitarity and Bounds on the Scale of Fermion Mass Generation
The scale of fermion mass generation can, as shown by Appelquist and
Chanowitz, be bounded from above by relating it to the scale of unitarity
violation in the helicity nonconserving amplitude for fermion-anti-fermion
pairs to scatter into pairs of longitudinally polarized electroweak gauge
bosons. In this paper, we examine the process t tbar -> W_L W_L in a family of
phenomenologically-viable deconstructed Higgsless models and we show that scale
of unitarity violation depends on the mass of the additional vector-like
fermion states that occur in these theories (the states that are the
deconstructed analogs of Kaluza-Klein partners of the ordinary fermions in a
five-dimensional theory). For sufficiently light vector fermions, and for a
deconstructed theory with sufficiently many lattice sites (that is,
sufficiently close to the continuum limit), the Appelquist-Chanowitz bound can
be substantially weakened. More precisely, we find that, as one varies the mass
of the vector-like fermion for fixed top-quark and gauge-boson masses, the
bound on the scale of top-quark mass generation interpolates smoothly between
the Appelquist-Chanowitz bound and one that can, potentially, be much higher.
In these theories, therefore, the bound on the scale of fermion mass generation
is independent of the bound on the scale of gauge-boson mass generation. While
our analysis focuses on deconstructed Higgsless models, any theory in which
top-quark mass generation proceeds via the mixing of chiral and vector fermions
will give similar results.Comment: 12 pages, 11 eps figures included, revtex. Refrences added; wording
modified slightly to emphasize focus on top-quar
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