The Debye-Waller Factor in solid 3He and 4He

The Debye-Waller factor and the mean-squared displacement from lattice sites for solid 3He and 4He were calculated with Path Integral Monte Carlo at temperatures between 5 K and 35 K, and densities between 38 nm^(-3) and 67 nm^(-3). It was found that the mean-squared displacement exhibits finite-size scaling consistent with a crossover between the quantum and classical limits of N^(-2/3) and N^(-1/3), respectively. The temperature dependence appears to be T^3, different than expected from harmonic theory. An anisotropic k^4 term was also observed in the Debye-Waller factor, indicating the presence of non-Gaussian corrections to the density distribution around lattice sites. Our results, extrapolated to the thermodynamic limit, agree well with recent values from scattering experiments.Comment: 5 figure

Transfer-Matrix Monte Carlo Estimates of Critical Points in the Simple Cubic Ising, Planar and Heisenberg Models

The principle and the efficiency of the Monte Carlo transfer-matrix algorithm are discussed. Enhancements of this algorithm are illustrated by applications to several phase transitions in lattice spin models. We demonstrate how the statistical noise can be reduced considerably by a similarity transformation of the transfer matrix using a variational estimate of its leading eigenvector, in analogy with a common practice in various quantum Monte Carlo techniques. Here we take the two-dimensional coupled $XY$-Ising model as an example. Furthermore, we calculate interface free energies of finite three-dimensional O($n$) models, for the three cases $n=1$, 2 and 3. Application of finite-size scaling to the numerical results yields estimates of the critical points of these three models. The statistical precision of the estimates is satisfactory for the modest amount of computer time spent

Comparison of two non-primitive methods for path integral simulations: Higher-order corrections vs. an effective propagator approach

Two methods are compared that are used in path integral simulations. Both methods aim to achieve faster convergence to the quantum limit than the so-called primitive algorithm (PA). One method, originally proposed by Takahashi and Imada, is based on a higher-order approximation (HOA) of the quantum mechanical density operator. The other method is based upon an effective propagator (EPr). This propagator is constructed such that it produces correctly one and two-particle imaginary time correlation functions in the limit of small densities even for finite Trotter numbers P. We discuss the conceptual differences between both methods and compare the convergence rate of both approaches. While the HOA method converges faster than the EPr approach, EPr gives surprisingly good estimates of thermal quantities already for P = 1. Despite a significant improvement with respect to PA, neither HOA nor EPr overcomes the need to increase P linearly with inverse temperature. We also derive the proper estimator for radial distribution functions for HOA based path integral simulations.Comment: 17 pages, latex, 6 postscript figure

Nature of the quantum phase transitions in the two-dimensional hardcore boson model

We use two Quantum Monte Carlo algorithms to map out the phase diagram of the two-dimensional hardcore boson Hubbard model with near ($V_1$) and next near ($V_2$) neighbor repulsion. At half filling we find three phases: Superfluid (SF), checkerboard solid and striped solid depending on the relative values of $V_1$, $V_2$ and the kinetic energy. Doping away from half filling, the checkerboard solid undergoes phase separation: The superfluid and solid phases co-exist but not as a single thermodynamic phase. As a function of doping, the transition from the checkerboard solid is therefore first order. In contrast, doping the striped solid away from half filling instead produces a striped supersolid phase: Co-existence of density order with superfluidity as a single phase. One surprising result is that the entire line of transitions between the SF and checkerboard solid phases at half filling appears to exhibit dynamical O(3) symmetry restoration. The transitions appear to be in the same universality class as the special Heisenberg point even though this symmetry is explicitly broken by the $V_2$ interaction.Comment: 10 pages, 14 eps figures, include

Density functional theories and self-energy approaches

A purpose-designed microarray platform (Stressgenes, Phase 1) was utilised to investigate the changes in gene expression within the liver of rainbow trout during exposure to a prolonged period of confinement. Tissue and blood samples were collected from trout at intervals up to 648 h after transfer to a standardised confinement stressor, together with matched samples from undisturbed control fish. Plasma ACTH, cortisol, glucose and lactate were analysed to confirm that the neuroendocrine response to confinement was consistent with previous findings and to provide a phenotypic context to assist interpretation of gene expression data. Liver samples for suppression subtractive hybridisation (SSH) library construction were selected from within the experimental groups comprising “early” stress (2–48 h) and “late” stress (96–504 h). In order to reduce redundancy within the four SSH libraries and yield a higher number of unique clones an additional subtraction was carried out. After printing of the arrays a series of 55 hybridisations were executed to cover 6 time points. At 2 h, 6 h, 24 h, 168 h and 504 h 5 individual confined fish and 5 individual control fish were used with control fish only at 0 h. A preliminary list of 314 clones considered differentially regulated over the complete time course was generated by a combination of data analysis approaches and the most significant gene expression changes were found to occur during the 24 h to 168 h time period with a general approach to control levels by 504 h. Few changes in expression were apparent over the first 6 h. The list of genes whose expression was significantly altered comprised predominantly genes belonging to the biological process category (response to stimulus) and one cellular component category (extracellular region) and were dominated by so-called acute phase proteins. Analysis of the gene expression profile in liver tissue during confinement revealed a number of significant clusters. The major patterns comprised genes that were up-regulated at 24 h and beyond, the primary examples being haptoglobin, β-fibrinogen and EST10729. Two representative genes from each of the six k-means clusters were validated by qPCR. Correlations between microarray and qPCR expression patterns were significant for most of the genes tested. qPCR analysis revealed that haptoglobin expression was up-regulated approximately 8-fold at 24 h and over 13-fold by 168 h.This project was part funded by the European Commission (Q5RS-2001-02211), Enterprise Ireland and the Natural Environment Research Council of the United Kingdom

A measurement of the tau mass and the first CPT test with tau leptons

We measure the mass of the tau lepton to be 1775.1+-1.6(stat)+-1.0(syst.) MeV using tau pairs from Z0 decays. To test CPT invariance we compare the masses of the positively and negatively charged tau leptons. The relative mass difference is found to be smaller than 3.0 10^-3 at the 90% confidence level.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figures, Submitted to Phys. Letts.

First Measurement of Z/gamma* Production in Compton Scattering of Quasi-real Photons

We report the first observation of Z/gamma* production in Compton scattering of quasi-real photons. This is a subprocess of the reaction e+e- to e+e-Z/gamma*, where one of the final state electrons is undetected. Approximately 55 pb-1 of data collected in the year 1997 at an e+e- centre-of-mass energy of 183 GeV with the OPAL detector at LEP have been analysed. The Z/gamma* from Compton scattering has been detected in the hadronic decay channel. Within well defined kinematic bounds, we measure the product of cross-section and Z/gamma* branching ratio to hadrons to be (0.9+-0.3+-0.1) pb for events with a hadronic mass larger than 60 GeV, dominated by (e)eZ production. In the hadronic mass region between 5 GeV and 60 GeV, dominated by (e)egamma* production, this product is found to be (4.1+-1.6+-0.6) pb. Our results agree with the predictions of two Monte Carlo event generators, grc4f and PYTHIA.Comment: 18 pages, LaTeX, 5 eps figures included, submitted to Physics Letters

Search for Higgs Bosons in e+e- Collisions at 183 GeV

The data collected by the OPAL experiment at sqrts=183 GeV were used to search for Higgs bosons which are predicted by the Standard Model and various extensions, such as general models with two Higgs field doublets and the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model (MSSM). The data correspond to an integrated luminosity of approximately 54pb-1. None of the searches for neutral and charged Higgs bosons have revealed an excess of events beyond the expected background. This negative outcome, in combination with similar results from searches at lower energies, leads to new limits for the Higgs boson masses and other model parameters. In particular, the 95% confidence level lower limit for the mass of the Standard Model Higgs boson is 88.3 GeV. Charged Higgs bosons can be excluded for masses up to 59.5 GeV. In the MSSM, mh > 70.5 GeV and mA > 72.0 GeV are obtained for tan{beta}>1, no and maximal scalar top mixing and soft SUSY-breaking masses of 1 TeV. The range 0.8 < tanb < 1.9 is excluded for minimal scalar top mixing and m{top} < 175 GeV. More general scans of the MSSM parameter space are also considered.Comment: 49 pages. LaTeX, including 33 eps figures, submitted to European Physical Journal

A Measurement of the Product Branching Ratio f(b->Lambda_b).BR(Lambda_b->Lambda X) in Z0 Decays

The product branching ratio, f(b->Lambda_b).BR(Lambda_b->Lambda X), where Lambda_b denotes any weakly-decaying b-baryon, has been measured using the OPAL detector at LEP. Lambda_b are selected by the presence of energetic Lambda particles in bottom events tagged by the presence of displaced secondary vertices. A fit to the momenta of the Lambda particles separates signal from B meson and fragmentation backgrounds. The measured product branching ratio is f(b->Lambda_b).BR(Lambda_b->Lambda X) = (2.67+-0.38(stat)+0.67-0.60(sys))% Combined with a previous OPAL measurement, one obtains f(b->Lambda_b).BR(Lambda_b->Lambda X) = (3.50+-0.32(stat)+-0.35(sys))%.Comment: 16 pages, LaTeX, 3 eps figs included, submitted to the European Physical Journal