Entropic Origin of the Growth of Relaxation Times in Simple Glassy Liquids

Transitions between ``glassy'' local minima of a model free-energy functional for a dense hard-sphere system are studied numerically using a ``microcanonical'' Monte Carlo method that enables us to obtain the transition probability as a function of the free energy and the Monte Carlo ``time''. The growth of the height of the effective free energy barrier with density is found to be consistent with a Vogel-Fulcher law. The dependence of the transition probability on time indicates that this growth is primarily due to entropic effects arising from the difficulty of finding low-free-energy saddle points connecting glassy minima.Comment: Four pages, plus three postscript figure

Phase Diagram Of A Hard-sphere System In A Quenched Random Potential: A Numerical Study

We report numerical results for the phase diagram in the density-disorder plane of a hard sphere system in the presence of quenched, random, pinning disorder. Local minima of a discretized version of the Ramakrishnan-Yussouff free energy functional are located numerically and their relative stability is studied as a function of the density and the strength of disorder. Regions in the phase diagram corresponding to liquid, glassy and nearly crystalline states are mapped out, and the nature of the transitions is determined. The liquid to glass transition changes from first to second order as the strength of the disorder is increased. For weak disorder, the system undergoes a first order crystallization transition as the density is increased. Beyond a critical value of the disorder strength, this transition is replaced by a continuous glass transition. Our numerical results are compared with those of analytical work on the same system. Implications of our results for the field-temperature phase diagram of type-II superconductors are discussed.Comment: 14 pages, 10 postscript figures (included), submitted to Phys. Rev.

Polarographic Behaviour of Picoline Complexes of Cu(II)

614-61

Structure and Magnetization of Two-Dimensional Vortex Arrays in the Presence of Periodic Pinning

Ground-state properties of a two-dimensional system of superconducting vortices in the presence of a periodic array of strong pinning centers are studied analytically and numerically. The ground states of the vortex system at different filling ratios are found using a simple geometric argument under the assumption that the penetration depth is much smaller than the spacing of the pin lattice. The results of this calculation are confirmed by numerical studies in which simulated annealing is used to locate the ground states of the vortex system. The zero-temperature equilibrium magnetization as a function of the applied field is obtained by numerically calculating the energy of the ground state for a large number of closely spaced filling ratios. The results show interesting commensurability effects such as plateaus in the B-H diagram at simple fractional filling ratios.Comment: 12 pages, 19 figures, submitted for publicatio

Na2V3O7, a frustrated nanotubular system with spin-1/2 diamond rings

Following the recent discussion on the puzzling nature of the interactions in the nanotubular system Na2V3O7, we present a detailed ab-initio microscopic analysis of its electronic and magnetic properties. By means of a non-trivial downfolding study we propose an effective model in terms of tubes of nine-site rings with the geometry of a spin-diamond necklace with frustrated inter-ring interactions. We show that this model provides a quantitative account of the observed magnetic behavior.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figures. Phys. Rev. Lett. (in press

Role of break-up processes in fusion enhancement of drip-line nuclei at energies below the Coulomb barrier

We carry out realistic coupled-channels calculations for $^{11}$Be + $^{208}$Pb reaction in order to discuss the effects of break-up of the projectile nucleus on sub-barrier fusion. We discretize in energy the particle continuum states, which are associated with the break-up process, and construct the coupling form factors to these states on a microscopic basis. The incoming boundary condition is employed in solving coupled-channels equations, which enables us to define the flux for complete fusion inside the Coulomb barrier. It is shown that complete fusion cross sections are significantly enhanced due to the couplings to the continuum states compared with the no coupling case at energies below the Coulomb barrier, while they are hindered at above barrier energies.Comment: RevTex, 3 pages, 5 figure

Electronic structure and exchange interactions of the ladder vanadates CaV2O5 and MgV2O5

We have performed ab-initio calculations of the electronic structure and exchange couplings in the layered vanadates CaV2O5 and MgV2O5. Based on our results we provide a possible explanation of the unusual magnetic properties of these materials, in particular the large difference in the spin gap between CaV2O5 and MgV2O5

Construction of the free energy landscape by the density functional theory

On the basis of the density functional theory, we give a clear definition of the free energy landscape. To show the usefulness of the definition, we construct the free energy landscape for rearrangement of atoms in an FCC crystal of hard spheres. In this description, the cooperatively rearranging region (CRR) is clealy related to the hard spheres involved in the saddle between two adjacent basins. A new concept of the simultaneously rearranging region (SRR) emerges naturally as spheres defined by the difference between two adjacent basins. We show that the SRR and the CRR can be determined explicitly from the free energylandscape.Comment: 11 pages, 3 figures, submitted to J. Chem. Phy

Evidence of Double Phonon Excitations in ^{16}O + ^{208}Pb Reaction

The fusion cross-sections for ^{16}O + ^{208}Pb, measured to high precision, enable the extraction of the distribution of fusion barriers. This shows a structure markedly different from the single-barrier which might be expected for fusion of two doubly-closed shell nuclei. The results of exact coupled channel calculations performed to understand the observations are presented. These calculations indicate that coupling to a double octupole phonon excited state in ^{208}Pb is necessary to explain the experimental barrier distributions.Comment: 6 pages, 2 figures, To be published in the Proceedings of the FUSION 97 Conference, South Durras, Australia, March 1997 (J. Phys. G