19,154 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
The Top Triangle Moose
We introduce a deconstructed model that incorporates both Higgsless and
top-color mechanisms. The model alleviates the typical tension in Higgsless
models between obtaining the correct top quark mass and keeping delta-rho
small. It does so by singling out the top quark mass generation as arising from
a Yukawa coupling to an effective top-Higgs which develops a small vacuum
expectation value, while electroweak symmetry breaking results largely from a
Higgsless mechanism. As a result, the heavy partners of the SM fermions can be
light enough to be seen at the LHC.Comment: To appear in proceedings of SCGT09, Nagoya, Japan. 5 page
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
Coupled Magnetic Excitations in Single Crystal PrBa2Cu3O6.2
The dispersion of the low-energy magnetic excitations of the Pr sublattice in
PrBa2Cu3O6.2 is determined by inelastic neutron scattering measurements on a
single crystal. The dispersion, which shows the effect of interactions with the
Cu spin-waves, is well described by a model of the coupled Cu-Pr magnetic
system. This enables values for the principal exchange constants to be
determined, which suggest that both Pr-Pr and Cu-Pr interactions are important
in producing the anomalously high ordering temperature of the Pr sublattice.
Measurements of the Cu optic spin wave mode show that the inter-layer Cu-Cu
exchange is significantly lower than in YBa2Cu3O6.2.Comment: To be published Phys. Rev. Let
Cosmological Constraints on Dissipative Models of Inflation
(Abridged) We study dissipative inflation in the regime where the dissipative
term takes a specific form, \Gamma=\Gamma(\phi), analyzing two models in the
weak and strong dissipative regimes with a SUSY breaking potential. After
developing intuition about the predictions from these models through analytic
approximations, we compute the predicted cosmological observables through full
numerical evolution of the equations of motion, relating the mass scale and
scale of dissipation to the characteristic amplitude and shape of the
primordial power spectrum. We then use Markov Chain Monte Carlo techniques to
constrain a subset of the models with cosmological data from the cosmic
microwave background (WMAP three-year data) and large scale structure (SDSS
Luminous Red Galaxy power spectrum). We find that the posterior distributions
of the dissipative parameters are highly non-Gaussian and their allowed ranges
agree well with the expectations obtained using analytic approximations. In the
weak regime, only the mass scale is tightly constrained; conversely, in the
strong regime, only the dissipative coefficient is tightly constrained. A lower
limit is seen on the inflation scale: a sub-Planckian inflaton is disfavoured
by the data. In both weak and strong regimes, we reconstruct the limits on the
primordial power spectrum and show that these models prefer a {\it red}
spectrum, with no significant running of the index. We calculate the reheat
temperature and show that the gravitino problem can be overcome with large
dissipation, which in turn leads to large levels of non-Gaussianity: if
dissipative inflation is to evade the gravitino problem, the predicted level of
non-Gaussianity might be seen by the Planck satellite.Comment: 14 pages, 9 figures, Accepted by JCAP without text changes,
References adde
Solar-like oscillations of semiregular variables
Oscillations of the Sun and solar-like stars are believed to be excited
stochastically by convection near the stellar surface. Theoretical modeling
predicts that the resulting amplitude increases rapidly with the luminosity of
the star. Thus one might expect oscillations of substantial amplitudes in red
giants with high luminosities and vigorous convection. Here we present evidence
that such oscillations may in fact have been detected in the so-called
semiregular variables, extensive observations of which have been made by
amateur astronomers in the American Association for Variable Star Observers
(AAVSO). This may offer a new opportunity for studying the physical processes
that give rise to the oscillations, possibly leading to further information
about the properties of convection in these stars.Comment: Astrophys. J. Lett., in the press. Processed with aastex and
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A stochastic theory for temporal fluctuations in self-organized critical systems
A stochastic theory for the toppling activity in sandpile models is
developed, based on a simple mean-field assumption about the toppling process.
The theory describes the process as an anti-persistent Gaussian walk, where the
diffusion coefficient is proportional to the activity. It is formulated as a
generalization of the It\^{o} stochastic differential equation with an
anti-persistent fractional Gaussian noise source. An essential element of the
theory is re-scaling to obtain a proper thermodynamic limit, and it captures
all temporal features of the toppling process obtained by numerical simulation
of the Bak-Tang-Wiesenfeld sandpile in this limit.Comment: 9 pages, 4 figure
Universality of Electron Mobility in LaAlO/SrTiO and bulk SrTiO
Metallic LaAlO/SrTiO (LAO/STO) interfaces attract enormous attention,
but the relationship between the electron mobility and the sheet electron
density, , is poorly understood. Here we derive a simple expression for
the three-dimensional electron density near the interface, , as a
function of and find that the mobility for LAO/STO-based interfaces
depends on in the same way as it does for bulk doped STO. It is known
that undoped bulk STO is strongly compensated with background donors and acceptors. In intentionally doped
bulk STO with a concentration of electrons background impurities
determine the electron scattering. Thus, when it is natural to see
in LAO/STO the same mobility as in the bulk. On the other hand, in the bulk
samples with the mobility collapses because scattering happens on
intentionally introduced donors. For LAO/STO the polar catastrophe
which provides electrons is not supposed to provide equal number of random
donors and thus the mobility should be larger. The fact that the mobility is
still the same implies that for the LAO/STO the polar catastrophe model should
be revisited.Comment: 4 pages and 1 figur
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