3,873 research outputs found
Impossible shadows and lightness constancy
The intersection between an illumination and a reflectance edge is characterised by the
`ratio-invariant' property, that is the luminance ratio of the regions under different illumination
remains the same.
In a CRT experiment, we shaped two areas, one surrounding the other, and simulated
an illumination edge dividing them in two frames of illumination. The portion of the illumina-
tion edge standing on the surrounding area (labelled contextual background) was the contextual
edge, while the portion standing on the enclosed area (labelled mediating background) was the
mediating edge. On the mediating background, there were two patches, one per illumination
frame. Observers were asked to adjust the luminance of the patch in bright illumination to
equate the lightness of the other. We compared conditions in which the luminance ratio at the
contextual edge could be (i) equal (possible shadow), or (ii) larger (impossible shadow) than
that at the mediating edge. In addition, we manipulated the reflectance of the backgrounds.
It could be higher for the contextual than for the mediating background; or, vice versa, lower
for the contextual than for the mediating background. Results reveal that lightness constancy
significantly increases when: (i) the luminance ratio at the contextual edge is larger than that at
the mediating edge creating an impossible shadow, and (ii) the reflectance of the contextual
background is lower than that of the mediating one. We interpret our results according to the
albedo hypothesis, and suggest that the scission process is facilitated when the luminance ratio
at the contextual edge is larger than that at the mediating edge and/or the reflectance of the
including area is lower than that of the included one. This occurs even if the ratio-invariant
property is violated
Mixed quantum-classical dynamics from the exact decomposition of electron-nuclear motion
We present a novel mixed quantum-classical approach to the coupled
electron-nuclear dynamics based on the exact factorization of the
electron-nuclear wave function, recently proposed in [A. Abedi, N. T. Maitra,
and E. K. U. Gross, Phys. Rev. Lett. 105, 123002 (2010)]. In this framework,
classical nuclear dynamics is derived as the lowest order approximation of the
time dependent Schr\"odinger equation that describes the evolution of the
nuclei. The effect of the time dependent scalar and vector potentials,
representing the exact electronic back-reaction on the nuclear subsystem, is
consistently derived within the classical approximation. We examine with an
example the performance of the proposed mixed quantum-classical scheme in
comparison with exact calculations
Signal modeling of high-purity Ge detectors with a small read-out electrode and application to neutrinoless double beta decay search in Ge-76
The GERDA experiment searches for the neutrinoless double beta decay of Ge-76
using high-purity germanium detectors enriched in Ge-76. The analysis of the
signal time structure provides a powerful tool to identify neutrinoless double
beta decay events and to discriminate them from gamma-ray induced backgrounds.
Enhanced pulse shape discrimination capabilities of "Broad Energy Germanium"
detectors with a small read-out electrode have been recently reported. This
paper describes the full simulation of the response of such a detector,
including the Monte Carlo modeling of radiation interaction and subsequent
signal shape calculation. A pulse shape discrimination method based on the
ratio between the maximum current signal amplitude and the event energy applied
to the simulated data shows quantitative agreement with the experimental data
acquired with calibration sources. The simulation has been used to study the
survival probabilities of the decays which occur inside the detector volume and
are difficult to assess experimentally. Such internal decay events are produced
by the cosmogenic radio-isotopes Ge-68 and Co-60 and the neutrinoless double
beta decay of Ge-76. Fixing the experimental acceptance of the double escape
peak of the 2.614 MeV photon to 90%, the estimated survival probabilities at
Qbb = 2.039 MeV are (86+-3)% for Ge-76 neutrinoless double beta decays,
(4.5+-0.3)% for the Ge-68 daughter Ga-68, and (0.9+0.4-0.2)% for Co-60 decays.Comment: 27 pages, 17 figures. v2: fixed typos and references. Submitted to
JINS
On the mass of atoms in molecules: Beyond the Born-Oppenheimer approximation
Describing the dynamics of nuclei in molecules requires a potential energy
surface, which is traditionally provided by the Born-Oppenheimer or adiabatic
approximation. However, we also need to assign masses to the nuclei. There, the
Born-Oppenheimer picture does not account for the inertia of the electrons and
only bare nuclear masses are considered. Nowadays, experimental accuracy
challenges the theoretical predictions of rotational and vibrational spectra
and requires to include the participation of electrons in the internal motion
of the molecule. More than 80 years after the original work of Born and
Oppenheimer, this issue still is not solved in general. Here, we present a
theoretical and numerical framework to address this problem in a general and
rigorous way. Starting from the exact factorization of the electron-nuclear
wave function, we include electronic effects beyond the Born-Oppenheimer regime
in a perturbative way via position-dependent corrections to the bare nuclear
masses. This maintains an adiabatic-like point of view: the nuclear degrees of
freedom feel the presence of the electrons via a single potential energy
surface, whereas the inertia of electrons is accounted for and the total mass
of the system is recovered. This constitutes a general framework for describing
the mass acquired by slow degrees of freedom due to the inertia of light,
bounded particles. We illustrate it with a model of proton transfer, where the
light particle is the proton, and with corrections to the vibrational spectra
of molecules. Inclusion of the light particle inertia allows to gain orders of
magnitude in accuracy
Ultrafast dynamics with the exact factorization
The exact factorization of the time-dependent electron-nuclear wavefunction
has been employed successfully in the field of quantum molecular dynamics
simulations for interpreting and simulating light-induced ultrafast processes.
In this work, we summarize the major developments leading to the formulation of
a trajectory-based approach, derived from the exact factorization equations,
capable of dealing with nonadiabatic electronic processes, and including
spin-orbit coupling and the non-perturbative effect of an external
time-dependent field. This trajectory-based quantum-classical approach has been
dubbed coupled-trajectory mixed quantum-classical (CT-MQC) algorithm, whose
performance is tested here to study the photo-dissociation dynamics of IBr
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