5,751 research outputs found
Electron-Electron Bremsstrahlung Emission and the Inference of Electron Flux Spectra in Solar Flares
Although both electron-ion and electron-electron bremsstrahlung contribute to
the hard X-ray emission from solar flares, the latter is normally ignored. Such
an omission is not justified at electron (and photon) energies above
keV, and inclusion of the additional electron-electron bremsstrahlung in
general makes the electron spectrum required to produce a given hard X-ray
spectrum steeper at high energies.
Unlike electron-ion bremsstrahlung, electron-electron bremsstrahlung cannot
produce photons of all energies up to the maximum electron energy involved. The
maximum possible photon energy depends on the angle between the direction of
the emitting electron and the emitted photon, and this suggests a diagnostic
for an upper cutoff energy and/or for the degree of beaming of the accelerated
electrons.
We analyze the large event of January 17, 2005 observed by RHESSI and show
that the upward break around 400 keV in the observed hard X-ray spectrum is
naturally accounted for by the inclusion of electron-electron bremsstrahlung.
Indeed, the mean source electron spectrum recovered through a regularized
inversion of the hard X-ray spectrum, using a cross-section that includes both
electron-ion and electron-electron terms, has a relatively constant spectral
index over the range from electron kinetic energy keV to MeV. However, the level of detail discernible in the recovered electron
spectrum is not sufficient to determine whether or not any upper cutoff energy
exists.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figures, submitted to Astrophysical Journa
Noise enhancement due to quantum coherence in coupled quantum dots
We show that the intriguing observation of noise enhancement in the charge
transport through two vertically coupled quantum dots can be explained by the
interplay of quantum coherence and strong Coulomb blockade. We demonstrate that
this novel mechanism for super-Poissonian charge transfer is very sensitive to
decoherence caused by electron-phonon scattering as inferred from the measured
temperature dependence.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, corrected version (Figs.2 and 3
Kinetics of electron-positron pair plasmas using an adaptive Monte Carlo method
A new algorithm for implementing the adaptive Monte Carlo method is given. It
is used to solve the relativistic Boltzmann equations that describe the time
evolution of a nonequilibrium electron-positron pair plasma containing
high-energy photons and pairs. The collision kernels for the photons as well as
pairs are constructed for Compton scattering, pair annihilation and creation,
bremsstrahlung, and Bhabha & Moller scattering. For a homogeneous and isotropic
plasma, analytical equilibrium solutions are obtained in terms of the initial
conditions. For two non-equilibrium models, the time evolution of the photon
and pair spectra is determined using the new method. The asymptotic numerical
solutions are found to be in a good agreement with the analytical equilibrium
states. Astrophysical applications of this scheme are discussed.Comment: 43 pages, 7 postscript figures, to appear in the Astrophysical
Journa
Non-Markovian Dynamics of Charge Carriers in Quantum Dots
We have investigated the dynamics of bound particles in multilevel
current-carrying quantum dots. We look specifically in the regime of resonant
tunnelling transport, where several channels are available for transport.
Through a non-Markovian formalism under the Born approximation, we investigate
the real-time evolution of the confined particles including transport-induced
decoherence and relaxation. In the case of a coherent superposition between
states with different particle number, we find that a Fock-space coherence may
be preserved even in the presence of tunneling into and out of the dot.
Real-time results are presented for various asymmetries of tunneling rates into
different orbitals.Comment: 9 pages, 3 figures, International Workshop on Physics-Based
Mathematical Models for Low-Dimensional Semiconductor Nanostructures. BIRS,
November 18-23, 200
Kinetics of four-wave mixing for a 2D magneto-plasma in strong magnetic fields
We investigate the femtosecond kinetics of an optically excited 2D
magneto-plasma at intermediate and high densities under a strong magnetic field
perpendicular to the quantum well (QW). We assume an additional weak lateral
confinement which lifts the degeneracy of the Landau levels partially. We
calculate the femtosecond dephasing and relaxation kinetics of the laser pulse
excited magneto-plasma due to bare Coulomb potential scattering, because
screening is under these conditions of minor importance. In particular the
time-resolved and time-integrated four-wave mixing (FWM) signals are calculated
by taking into account three Landau subbands in both the valance and the
conduction band assuming an electron-hole symmetry. The FWM signals exhibit
quantum beats mainly with twice the cyclotron frequency. Contrary to general
expectations, we find no pronounced slowing down of the dephasing with
increasing magnetic field. On the contrary, one obtains a decreasing dephasing
time because of the increase of the Coulomb matrix elements and the number of
states in a given Landau subband. In the situation when the loss of scattering
channels exceeds these increasing effects, one gets a slight increase at the
dephasing time. However, details of the strongly modulated scattering kinetics
depend sensitively on the detuning, the plasma density, and the spectral pulse
width relative to the cyclotron frequency.Comment: 13 pages, in RevTex format, 10 figures, Phys. Rev B in pres
Signatures of spin blockade in the optical response of a charged quantum dot
We model spin blockade for optically excited electrons and holes in a charged
semiconductor quantum dot. We study the case where the quantum dot is initially
charged with a single electron and is then filled with an additional, optically
excited electron-hole pair, thus forming a charged exciton (trion). To make
contact with recent experiments, we model an optical pump-probe setup, in which
the two lowest quantum dot levels (s and p shells) are photo excited. Using the
Lindblad master equation, we calculate the differential transmission spectrum
as a function of the pump-probe time delay. Taking into account both spin
conserving and spin-flip intraband relaxation processes, we find that the
presence of the ground-state electron spin leads to an optical spin blockade at
short delay times which is visible as a crossover between two exponential
decays of the differential transmission. To make predictions for future
experiments, we also study the dependence of the spin-blockade on an external
magnetic field.Comment: 8 pages, 8 figure
Bremsstrahlung and pair production processes at low energies, multi-differential cross section and polarization phenomena
Radiative electron-proton scattering is studied in peripheral kinematics,
where the scattered electron and photon move close to the direction of the
initial electron. Even in the case of unpolarized initial electron the photon
may have a definite polarization. The differential cross sections with
longitudinally or transversal polarized initial electron are calculated. The
same phenomena are considered for the production of an electron-positron pair
by the photon, where the final positron (electron) can be also polarized.
Differential distributions for the case of polarized initial photon are given.
Both cases of unscreened and completely screened atomic targets are considered.Comment: 15 pages, 6 figure
Thermoelectric transport with electron-phonon coupling and electron-electron interaction in molecular junctions
Within the framework of nonequilibrium Green's functions, we investigate the
thermoelectric transport in a single molecular junction with electron-phonon
and electron-electron interactions. By transforming into a displaced phonon
basis, we are able to deal with these interactions non-perturbatively. Then, by
invoking the weak tunneling limit, we are able to calculate the
thermoelectricity. Results show that at low temperatures, resonances of the
thermoelectric figure of merit ZT occur around the sides of resonances of
electronic conductance but drops dramatically to zero at exactly these resonant
points. We find ZT can be enhanced by increasing electron-phonon coupling and
Coulomb repulsion, and an optimal enhancement is obtained when these two
interactions are competing. Our results indicate a great potential for
single-molecular-junctions as good thermoelectric devices over a wide range of
temperatures.Comment: 7+ pages, 3 figures, with updated appendix. Accepted by PR
Polarization and Aharonov-Bohm oscillations in quantum-ring magnetoexcitons
We study interaction and radial polarization effects on the the absorption
spectrum of neutral bound magnetoexcitons confined in quantum-ring structures.
We show that the size and orientation of the exciton's dipole moment, as well
as the interaction screening, play important roles in the Aharonov-Bohm
oscillations. In particular, the excitonic absorption peaks display A-B
oscillations both in position and amplitude for weak electron-hole interaction
and large radial polarization. The presence of impurity scattering induces
anticrossings in the exciton spectrum, leading to a modulation in the
absorption strength. These properties could be used in experimental
investigations of the effect in semiconductor quantum-ring structures.Comment: Updated version, 6 pages, 4 figures. To appear in Phys. Rev.
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