749 research outputs found
Scaling of the localization length in linear electronic and vibrational systems with long-range correlated disorder
The localization lengths of long-range correlated disordered chains are
studied for electronic wavefunctions in the Anderson model and for vibrational
states. A scaling theory close to the band edge is developed in the Anderson
model and supported by numerical simulations. This scaling theory is mapped
onto the vibrational case at small frequencies. It is shown that for small
frequencies, unexpectateley the localization length is smaller for correlated
than for uncorrelated chains.Comment: to be published in PRB, 4 pages, 2 Figure
Growth, microstructure, and failure of crazes in glassy polymers
We report on an extensive study of craze formation in glassy polymers.
Molecular dynamics simulations of a coarse-grained bead-spring model were
employed to investigate the molecular level processes during craze nucleation,
widening, and breakdown for a wide range of temperature, polymer chain length
, entanglement length and strength of adhesive interactions between
polymer chains. Craze widening proceeds via a fibril-drawing process at
constant drawing stress. The extension ratio is determined by the entanglement
length, and the characteristic length of stretched chain segments in the
polymer craze is . In the craze, tension is mostly carried by the
covalent backbone bonds, and the force distribution develops an exponential
tail at large tensile forces. The failure mode of crazes changes from
disentanglement to scission for , and breakdown through scission
is governed by large stress fluctuations. The simulations also reveal
inconsistencies with previous theoretical models of craze widening that were
based on continuum level hydrodynamics
Statistics of pre-localized states in disordered conductors
The distribution function of local amplitudes of single-particle states in
disordered conductors is calculated on the basis of the supersymmetric
-model approach using a saddle-point solution of its reduced version.
Although the distribution of relatively small amplitudes can be approximated by
the universal Porter-Thomas formulae known from the random matrix theory, the
statistics of large amplitudes is strongly modified by localization effects. In
particular, we find a multifractal behavior of eigenstates in 2D conductors
which follows from the non-integer power-law scaling for the inverse
participation numbers (IPN) with the size of the system. This result is valid
for all fundamental symmetry classes (unitary, orthogonal and symplectic). The
multifractality is due to the existence of pre-localized states which are
characterized by power-law envelopes of wave functions, , . The pre-localized states in short quasi-1D wires have the
power-law tails , too, although their IPN's
indicate no fractal behavior. The distribution function of the
largest-amplitude fluctuations of wave functions in 2D and 3D conductors has
logarithmically-normal asymptotics.Comment: RevTex, 17 twocolumn pages; revised version (several misprint
corrected
Fracture of a biopolymer gel as a viscoplastic disentanglement process
We present an extensive experimental study of mode-I, steady, slow crack
dynamics in gelatin gels. Taking advantage of the sensitivity of the elastic
stiffness to gel composition and history we confirm and extend the model for
fracture of physical hydrogels which we proposed in a previous paper (Nature
Materials, doi:10.1038/nmat1666 (2006)), which attributes decohesion to the
viscoplastic pull-out of the network-constituting chains. So, we propose that,
in contrast with chemically cross-linked ones, reversible gels fracture without
chain scission
Influence of nonlocal electrodynamics on the anisotropic vortex pinning in
We have studied the pinning force density Fp of YNi_2B_2C superconductors for
various field orientations. We observe anisotropies both between the c-axis and
the basal plane and within the plane, that cannot be explained by usual mass
anisotropy. For magnetic field , the reorientation structural
transition in the vortex lattice due to nonlocality, which occurs at a field
, manifests itself as a kink in Fp(H). When , Fp is
much larger and has a quite different H dependence, indicating that other
pinning mechanisms are present. In this case the signature of nonlocal effects
is the presence of a fourfold periodicity of Fp within the basal plane.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure
Temperature dependence and mechanisms for vortex pinning by periodic arrays of Ni dots in Nb films
Pinning interactions between superconducting vortices in Nb and magnetic Ni
dots were studied as a function of current and temperature to clarify the
nature of pinning mechanisms. A strong current dependence is found for a square
array of dots, with a temperature dependent optimum current for the observation
of periodic pinning, that decreases with temperature as (1-T/Tc)3/2. This same
temperature dependence is found for the critical current at the first matching
field with a rectangular array of dots. The analysis of these results allows to
narrow the possible pinning mechanisms to a combination of two: the interaction
between the vortex and the magnetic moment of the dot and the proximity effect.
Moreover, for the rectangular dot array, the temperature dependence of the
crossover between the low field regime with a rectangular vortex lattice to the
high field regime with a square configuration has been studied. It is found
that the crossover field increases with decreasing temperature. This dependence
indicates a change in the balance between elastic and pinning energies,
associated with dynamical effects of the vortex lattice in the high field
range.Comment: 12 text pages (revtex), 6 figures (1st jpeg, 2nd-6th postscript)
accepted in Physical Review
X-wave mediated instability of plane waves in Kerr media
Plane waves in Kerr media spontaneously generate paraxial X-waves (i.e.
non-dispersive and non-diffractive pulsed beams) that get amplified along
propagation. This effect can be considered a form of conical emission (i.e.
spatio-temporal modulational instability), and can be used as a key for the
interpretation of the out of axis energy emission in the splitting process of
focused pulses in normally dispersive materials. A new class of spatio-temporal
localized wave patterns is identified. X-waves instability, and nonlinear
X-waves, are also expected in periodical Bose condensed gases.Comment: 4 pages, 6 figure
Singularity free dilaton-driven cosmologies and pre-little-bang
There are no reasons why the singularity in the growth of the dilaton
coupling should not be regularised, in a string cosmological context, by the
presence of classical inhomogeneities. We discuss a class of inhomogeneous
dilaton-driven models whose curvature invariants are all bounded and regular in
time and space. We prove that the non-space-like geodesics of these models are
all complete in the sense that none of them reaches infinity for a finite value
of the affine parameter. We conclude that our examples represent truly
singularity-free solutions of the low energy beta functions. We discuss some
symmetries of the obtained solutions and we clarify their physical
interpretation. We also give examples of solutions with spherical symmetry. In
our scenario each physical quantity is everywhere defined in time and space,
the big-bang singularity is replaced by a maximal curvature phase where the
dilaton kinetic energy reaches its maximum. The maximal curvature is always
smaller than one (in string units) and the coupling constant is also smaller
than one and it grows between two regimes of constant dilaton, implying,
together with the symmetries of the solutions, that higher genus and higher
curvature corrections are negligible. We argue that our examples describe, in a
string cosmological context, the occurrence of ``little bangs''(i.e. high
curvature phases which never develop physical singularities). They also suggest
the possibility of an unexplored ``pre-little-bang'' phase.Comment: 25 pages in LaTex style, 3 encapsulated figure
On the mechanisms of heavy-quarkonium hadroproduction
We discuss the various mechanisms potentially at work in hadroproduction of
heavy quarkonia in the light of computations of higher-order QCD corrections
both in the Colour-Singlet (CS) and Colour-Octet (CO) channels and the
inclusion of the contribution arising from the s-channel cut in the CS channel.
We also discuss new observables meant to better discriminate between these
different mechanisms.Comment: Invited review talk at 3rd International Conference On Hard And
Electromagnetic Probes Of High-Energy Nuclear Collisions (HP2008), 8-14 June
2008, Illa da Toxa, Galicia, Spain. 11 pages, 21 figures, LaTeX, uses
svjour.cls and svepj.clo (included
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