640 research outputs found
Mode-locking and mode-competition in a non-equilibrium solid-state condensate
A trapped polariton condensate with continuous pumping and decay is analyzed
using a generalized Gross-Pitaevskii model. Whereas an equilibrium condensate
is characterized by a macroscopic occupation of a ground state, here the
steady-states take more general forms. Some are characterized by a large
population in an excited state, and others by large populations in several
states. In the latter case, the highly-populated states synchronize to a common
frequency above a critical density. Estimates for the critical density of this
synchronization transition are consistent with experiments.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figure
The new physics of non-equilibrium condensates: insights from classical dynamics
We discuss the dynamics of classical Dicke-type models, aiming to clarify the
mechanisms by which coherent states could develop in potentially
non-equilibrium systems such as semiconductor microcavities. We present
simulations of an undamped model which show spontaneous coherent states with
persistent oscillations in the magnitude of the order parameter. These states
are generalisations of superradiant ringing to the case of inhomogeneous
broadening. They correspond to the persistent gap oscillations proposed in
fermionic atomic condensates, and arise from a variety of initial conditions.
We show that introducing randomness into the couplings can suppress the
oscillations, leading to a limiting dynamics with a time-independent order
parameter. This demonstrates that non-equilibrium generalisations of polariton
condensates can be created even without dissipation. We explain the dynamical
origins of the coherence in terms of instabilities of the normal state, and
consider how it can additionally develop through scattering and dissipation.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figures, submitted for a special issue of J. Phys.:
Condensed Matter on "Optical coherence and collective phenomena in
nanostructures". v2: added discussion of links to exact solution
Mechanism for the failure of the Edwards hypothesis in the SK spin glass
The dynamics of the SK model at T=0 starting from random spin configurations
is considered. The metastable states reached by such dynamics are atypical of
such states as a whole, in that the probability density of site energies,
, is small at . Since virtually all metastable states
have a much larger , this behavior demonstrates a qualitative failure of
the Edwards hypothesis. We look for its origins by modelling the changes in the
site energies during the dynamics as a Markov process. We show how the small
arises from features of the Markov process that have a clear physical
basis in the spin-glass, and hence explain the failure of the Edwards
hypothesis.Comment: 5 pages, new title, modified text, additional reference
Microcavity quantum-dot systems for non-equilibrium Bose-Einstein condensation
We review the practical conditions required to achieve a non-equilibrium BEC
driven by quantum dynamics in a system comprising a microcavity field mode and
a distribution of localised two-level systems driven to a step-like population
inversion profile. A candidate system based on eight 3.8nm layers of
In(0.23)Ga(0.77)As in GaAs shows promising characteristics with regard to the
total dipole strength which can be coupled to the field mode.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, to be published in J. Phys. Conf. Ser. for QD201
Finite-size fluctuations and photon statistics near the polariton condensation transition in a single-mode microcavity
We consider polariton condensation in a generalized Dicke model, describing a
single-mode cavity containing quantum dots, and extend our previous mean-field
theory to allow for finite-size fluctuations. Within the fluctuation-dominated
regime the correlation functions differ from their (trivial) mean-field values.
We argue that the low-energy physics of the model, which determines the photon
statistics in this fluctuation-dominated crossover regime, is that of the
(quantum) anharmonic oscillator. The photon statistics at the crossover are
different in the high- and low- temperature limits. When the temperature is
high enough for quantum effects to be neglected we recover behavior similar to
that of a conventional laser. At low enough temperatures, however, we find
qualitatively different behavior due to quantum effects.Comment: 12 pages, 5 figures. v2: Revised version with minor corrections
(typos, added reference, correction in argument following Eq. 25). v3:
further typos correcte
Modulated Floquet Topological Insulators
Floquet topological insulators are topological phases of matter generated by
the application of time-periodic perturbations on otherwise conventional
insulators. We demonstrate that spatial variations in the time-periodic
potential lead to localized quasi-stationary states in two-dimensional systems.
These states include one-dimensional interface modes at the nodes of the
external potential, and fractionalized excitations at vortices of the external
potential. We also propose a setup by which light can induce currents in these
systems. We explain these results by showing a close analogy to px+ipy
superconductors
Androgen receptor mutations in prostate cancer
We analyzed the frequency and relevance of mutations in the coding region of the androgen receptor (AR) in genomic DNA extracted from 137 specimens of prostate cancer. The specimens were obtained from the primary tumors of patients affected by stage B disease [15 nonmicrodissected (group 1A) and 84 microdissected (group 1B)] and from the metastatic deposits of individuals with stage D1 disease [8 nonmicrodissected (group 2A) and 30 microdissected (group 2B)] who had not undergone androgen ablation therapy. The study was conducted by PCR-single strand conformational polymorphism (SSCP) analysis of exons 2-8 in the four groups and direct sequence analysis of exon 1 in group 1B. As positive and negative controls, we used genomic DNA extracted from genital skin fibroblasts of patients affected by various forms of androgen resistance with known mutations in the AR. To control for genetic instability, PCR-SSCP analysis of exon 2 of the human progesterone receptor was carried out on each specimen. The overall number of mutations detected was 11 (8%). No mutations were detected in any of the 99 patients with stage B disease. Eleven mutations were detected in exons 2-8 in 8 of the 38 patients with stage D1 disease (all in group 2B). Simultaneous analysis of exon 2 of the progesterone receptor was carried out, and no SSCP changes were identified. These data suggest that AR mutations are rare and presumably do not play a role in the initial phase of prostatic carcinogenesis. The presence of a significant number of AR mutations in metastatic disease indicates that mutations of this molecule may play a role in the most advanced phases of the natural history of this disease, either by facilitating growth or acquisition of the metastatic phenotype
Far-off-resonant wave interaction in one-dimensional photonic crystals with quadratic nonlinearity
We extend a recently developed Hamiltonian formalism for nonlinear wave
interaction processes in spatially periodic dielectric structures to the
far-off-resonant regime, and investigate numerically the three-wave resonance
conditions in a one-dimensional optical medium with nonlinearity.
In particular, we demonstrate that the cascading of nonresonant wave
interaction processes generates an effective nonlinear response in
these systems. We obtain the corresponding coupling coefficients through
appropriate normal form transformations that formally lead to the Zakharov
equation for spatially periodic optical media.Comment: 14 pages, 4 figure
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