30,451 research outputs found
Exact and approximate dynamics of the quantum mechanical O(N) model
We study a quantum dynamical system of N, O(N) symmetric, nonlinear
oscillators as a toy model to investigate the systematics of a 1/N expansion.
The closed time path (CTP) formalism melded with an expansion in 1/N is used to
derive time evolution equations valid to order 1/N (next-to-leading order). The
effective potential is also obtained to this order and its properties
areelucidated. In order to compare theoretical predictions against numerical
solutions of the time-dependent Schrodinger equation, we consider two initial
conditions consistent with O(N) symmetry, one of them a quantum roll, the other
a wave packet initially to one side of the potential minimum, whose center has
all coordinates equal. For the case of the quantum roll we map out the domain
of validity of the large-N expansion. We discuss unitarity violation in the 1/N
expansion; a well-known problem faced by moment truncation techniques. The 1/N
results, both static and dynamic, are also compared to those given by the
Hartree variational ansatz at given values of N. We conclude that late-time
behavior, where nonlinear effects are significant, is not well-described by
either approximation.Comment: 16 pages, 12 figrures, revte
Strongly-resonant p-wave superfluids
We study theoretically a dilute gas of identical fermions interacting via a
p-wave resonance. We show that, depending on the microscopic physics, there are
two distinct regimes of p-wave resonant superfluids, which we term "weak" and
"strong". Although expected naively to form a BCS-BEC superfluid, a
strongly-resonant p-wave superfluid is in fact unstable towards the formation
of a gas of fermionic triplets. We examine this instability and estimate the
lifetime of the p-wave molecules due to the collisional relaxation into
triplets. We discuss consequences for the experimental achievement of p-wave
superfluids in both weakly- and strongly-resonant regimes
Quantum Monte Carlo calculation of the zero-temperature phase diagram of the two-component fermionic hard-core gas in two dimensions
Motivated by potential realizations in cold-atom or cold-molecule systems, we have performed quantum Monte Carlo simulations of two-component gases of fermions in two dimensions with hard-core interactions. We have determined the gross features of the zero-temperature phase diagram by investigating the relative stabilities of paramagnetic and ferromagnetic fluids and crystals. We have also examined the effect of including a pairwise, long-range r^3 potential between the particles. Our most important conclusion is that there is no region of stability for a ferromagnetic fluid phase, even if the long-range interaction is present. We also present results for the pair-correlation function, static structure factor, and momentum density of two-dimensional hard-core fluids
Resumming the large-N approximation for time evolving quantum systems
In this paper we discuss two methods of resumming the leading and next to
leading order in 1/N diagrams for the quartic O(N) model. These two approaches
have the property that they preserve both boundedness and positivity for
expectation values of operators in our numerical simulations. These
approximations can be understood either in terms of a truncation to the
infinitely coupled Schwinger-Dyson hierarchy of equations, or by choosing a
particular two-particle irreducible vacuum energy graph in the effective action
of the Cornwall-Jackiw-Tomboulis formalism. We confine our discussion to the
case of quantum mechanics where the Lagrangian is . The
key to these approximations is to treat both the propagator and the
propagator on similar footing which leads to a theory whose graphs have the
same topology as QED with the propagator playing the role of the photon.
The bare vertex approximation is obtained by replacing the exact vertex
function by the bare one in the exact Schwinger-Dyson equations for the one and
two point functions. The second approximation, which we call the dynamic Debye
screening approximation, makes the further approximation of replacing the exact
propagator by its value at leading order in the 1/N expansion. These two
approximations are compared with exact numerical simulations for the quantum
roll problem. The bare vertex approximation captures the physics at large and
modest better than the dynamic Debye screening approximation.Comment: 30 pages, 12 figures. The color version of a few figures are
separately liste
Time evolution of the chiral phase transition during a spherical expansion
We examine the non-equilibrium time evolution of the hadronic plasma produced
in a relativistic heavy ion collision, assuming a spherical expansion into the
vacuum. We study the linear sigma model to leading order in a large-
expansion. Starting at a temperature above the phase transition, the system
expands and cools, finally settling into the broken symmetry vacuum state. We
consider the proper time evolution of the effective pion mass, the order
parameter , and the particle number distribution. We
examine several different initial conditions and look for instabilities
(exponentially growing long wavelength modes) which can lead to the formation
of disoriented chiral condensates (DCCs). We find that instabilities exist for
proper times which are less than 3 fm/c. We also show that an experimental
signature of domain growth is an increase in the low momentum spectrum of
outgoing pions when compared to an expansion in thermal equilibrium. In
comparison to particle production during a longitudinal expansion, we find that
in a spherical expansion the system reaches the ``out'' regime much faster and
more particles get produced. However the size of the unstable region, which is
related to the domain size of DCCs, is not enhanced.Comment: REVTex, 20 pages, 8 postscript figures embedded with eps
Structure and consequences of vortex-core states in p-wave superfluids
It is now well established that in two-dimensional chiral p-wave paired
superfluids, the vortices carry zero-energy modes which obey non-abelian
exchange statistics and can potentially be used for topological quantum
computation. In such superfluids there may also exist other excitations below
the bulk gap inside the cores of vortices. We study the properties of these
subgap states, and argue that their presence affects the topological protection
of the zero modes. In conventional superconductors where the chemical potential
is of the order of the Fermi energy of a non-interacting Fermi gas, there is a
large number of subgap states and the mini-gap towards the lowest of these
states is a small fraction of the Fermi energy. It is therefore difficult to
cool the system to below the mini-gap and at experimentally available
temperatures, transitions between the subgap states, including the zero modes,
will occur and can alter the quantum states of the zero-modes. We show that
compound qubits involving the zero-modes and the parity of the occupation
number of the subgap states on each vortex are still well defined. However,
practical schemes taking into account all subgap states would nonetheless be
difficult to achieve. We propose to avoid this difficulty by working in the
regime of small chemical potential mu, near the transition to a strongly paired
phase, where the number of subgap states is reduced. We develop the theory to
describe this regime of strong pairing interactions and we show how the subgap
states are ultimately absorbed into the bulk gap. Since the bulk gap vanishes
as mu -> 0 there is an optimum value mu_c which maximises the combined gap. We
propose cold atomic gases as candidate systems where the regime of strong
interactions can be explored, and explicitly evaluate mu_c in a Feshbach
resonant K-40 gas.Comment: 19 pages, 10 figures; v2: main text as published version, additional
detail included as appendice
Non-equilibrium dynamics in quantum field theory at high density: the tsunami
The dynamics of a dense relativistic quantum fluid out of thermodynamic
equilibrium is studied in the framework of the Phi^4 scalar field theory in the
large N limit. The time evolution of a particle distribution in momentum space
(the tsunami) is computed. The effective mass felt by the particles in such a
high density medium equals the tree level mass plus the expectation value of
the squared field. The case of negative tree level squared mass is particularly
interesting. In such case dynamical symmetry restoration as well as dynamical
symmetry breaking can happen. Furthermore, the symmetry may stay broken with
vanishing asymptotic squared mass showing the presence of out of equilibrium
Goldstone bosons. We study these phenomena and identify the set of initial
conditions that lead to each case. We compute the equation of state which turns
to depend on the initial state. Although the system does not thermalize, the
equation of state for asymptotically broken symmetry is of radiation type. We
compute the correlation functions at equal times. The two point correlator for
late times is the sum of different terms. One stems from the initial particle
distribution. Another term accounts for the out of equilibrium Goldstone bosons
created by spinodal unstabilities when the symmetry is asymptotically
broken.Both terms are of the order of the inverse of the coupling for distances
where causal signals can connect the two points. The contribution of the out of
equilibrium Goldstones exhibits scaling behaviour in a generalized sense.Comment: LaTex, 49 pages, 15 .ps figure
Equilibrium and nonequilibrium properties associated with the chiral phase transition at finite density in the Gross-Neveu Model
We study the dynamics of the chiral phase transition at finite density in the
Gross-Neveu (GN) model in the leading order in large-N approximation. The phase
structure of the GN model in this approximation has the property that there is
a tricritical point at a fixed temperature and chemical potential separating
regions where the chiral transition is first order from that where it is second
order. We consider evolutions starting in local thermal and chemical
equilibrium in the massless unbroken phase for conditions pertaining to
traversing a first or second order phase transition. We assume boost invariant
kinematics and determine the evolution of the order parameter , the
energy density and pressure as well as the effective temperature, chemical
potential and interpolating number densities as a function of the proper time
. We find that before the phase transition, the system behaves as if it
were an ideal fluid in local thermal equilibrium with equation of state
. After the phase transition, the system quickly reaches its true
broken symmetry vacuum value for the fermion mass and for the energy density.
The single particle distribution functions for Fermions and anti-Fermions go
far out of equilibrium as soon as the plasma traverses the chiral phase
transition. We have also determined the spatial dependence of the "pion"
Green's function as a function of the proper time.Comment: 39 pages, 23 figure
Troubles with Bayesianism: An introduction to the psychological immune system
A Bayesian mind is, at its core, a rational mind. Bayesianism is thus well-suited to predict and explain mental processes that best exemplify our ability to be rational. However, evidence from belief acquisition and change appears to show that we do not acquire and update information in a Bayesian way. Instead, the principles of belief acquisition and updating seem grounded in maintaining a psychological immune system rather than in approximating
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The effect of host structure on the selectivity and mechanism of supramolecular catalysis of Prins cyclizations.
The effect of host structure on the selectivity and mechanism of intramolecular Prins reactions is evaluated using K12Ga4L6 tetrahedral catalysts. The host structure was varied by modifying the structure of the chelating moieties and the size of the aromatic spacers. While variation in chelator substituents was generally observed to affect changes in rate but not selectivity, changing the host spacer afforded differences in efficiency and product diastereoselectivity. An extremely high number of turnovers (up to 840) was observed. Maximum rate accelerations were measured to be on the order of 105, which numbers among the largest magnitudes of transition state stabilization measured with a synthetic host-catalyst. Host/guest size effects were observed to play an important role in host-mediated enantioselectivity
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