4,477 research outputs found
Development of a Computationally Efficient Fabric Model for Optimization of Gripper Trajectories in Automated Composite Draping
An automated prepreg fabric draping system is being developed which consists
of an array of actuated grippers. It has the ability to pick up a fabric ply
and place it onto a double-curved mold surface. A previous research effort
based on a nonlinear Finite Element model showed that the movements of the
grippers should be chosen carefully to avoid misplacement and induce of
wrinkles in the draped configuration. Thus, the present study seeks to develop
a computationally efficient model of the mechanical behavior of a fabric based
on 2D catenaries which can be used for optimization of the gripper
trajectories. The model includes bending stiffness, large deflections, large
ply shear and a simple contact formulation. The model is found to be quick to
evaluate and gives very reasonable predictions of the displacement field
Dressed matter waves
We suggest to view ultracold atoms in a time-periodically shifted optical
lattice as a "dressed matter wave", analogous to a dressed atom in an
electromagnetic field. A possible effect lending support to this concept is a
transition of ultracold bosonic atoms from a superfluid to a Mott-insulating
state in response to appropriate "dressing" achieved through time-periodic
lattice modulation. In order to observe this effect in a laboratory experiment,
one has to identify conditions allowing for effectively adiabatic motion of a
many-body Floquet state.Comment: 9 pages, 4 figures, to be published in: J. Phys.: Conference Serie
The role of real-space micromotion for bosonic and fermionic Floquet fractional Chern insulators
Fractional Chern insulators are the proposed phases of matter mimicking the
physics of fractional quantum Hall states on a lattice without an overall
magnetic field. The notion of Floquet fractional Chern insulators refers to the
potential possibilities to generate the underlying topological bandstructure by
means of Floquet engineering. In these schemes, a highly controllable and
strongly interacting system is periodically driven by an external force at a
frequency such that double tunneling events during one forcing period become
important and contribute to shaping the required effective energy bands. We
show that in the described circumstances it is necessary to take into account
also third order processes combining two tunneling events with interactions.
Referring to the obtained contributions as micromotion-induced interactions, we
find that those interactions tend to have a negative impact on the stability of
of fractional Chern insulating phases and discuss implications for future
experiments.Comment: 13 pages, 7 figure
Describing many-body localized systems in thermal environments
In this work we formulate an efficient method for the description of fully many-body localized systems in weak contact with thermal environments at temperature T. The key idea is to exploit the representation of the system in terms of quasi-local integrals of motion (l-bits) to efficiently derive the generator for the quantum master equation in Born-Markov approximation. We, moreover, show how to compute the steady state of this equation efficiently by using quantum-jump Monte-Carlo techniques as well as by deriving approximate kinetic equations of motion. As an example, we consider a one-dimensional disordered extended Hubbard model for spinless fermions, for which we derive the l-bit representation approximately by employing a recently proposed method valid in the limit of strong disorder and weak interactions. Coupling the system to a global thermal bath, we study the transport between two leads with different chemical potentials at both of its ends. We find that the temperature-dependent current is captured by an interaction-dependent version of Mott's law for variable range hopping, where transport is enhanced/lowered depending on whether the interactions are attractive or repulsive, respectively. We interpret these results in terms of spatio-energetic correlations between the l-bits
Quantum simulation of frustrated magnetism in triangular optical lattices
Magnetism plays a key role in modern technology as essential building block
of many devices used in daily life. Rich future prospects connected to
spintronics, next generation storage devices or superconductivity make it a
highly dynamical field of research. Despite those ongoing efforts, the
many-body dynamics of complex magnetism is far from being well understood on a
fundamental level. Especially the study of geometrically frustrated
configurations is challenging both theoretically and experimentally. Here we
present the first realization of a large scale quantum simulator for magnetism
including frustration. We use the motional degrees of freedom of atoms to
comprehensively simulate a magnetic system in a triangular lattice. Via a
specific modulation of the optical lattice, we can tune the couplings in
different directions independently, even from ferromagnetic to
antiferromagnetic. A major advantage of our approach is that standard
Bose-Einstein-condensate temperatures are sufficient to observe magnetic
phenomena like N\'eel order and spin frustration. We are able to study a very
rich phase diagram and even to observe spontaneous symmetry breaking caused by
frustration. In addition, the quantum states realized in our spin simulator are
yet unobserved superfluid phases with non-trivial long-range order and
staggered circulating plaquette currents, which break time reversal symmetry.
These findings open the route towards highly debated phases like spin-liquids
and the study of the dynamics of quantum phase transitions.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure
Tunneling control and localization for Bose-Einstein condensates in a frequency modulated optical lattice
The similarity between matter waves in periodic potential and solid-state
physics processes has triggered the interest in quantum simulation using
Bose-Fermi ultracold gases in optical lattices. The present work evidences the
similarity between electrons moving under the application of oscillating
electromagnetic fields and matter waves experiencing an optical lattice
modulated by a frequency difference, equivalent to a spatially shaken periodic
potential. We demonstrate that the tunneling properties of a Bose-Einstein
condensate in shaken periodic potentials can be precisely controlled. We take
additional crucial steps towards future applications of this method by proving
that the strong shaking of the optical lattice preserves the coherence of the
matter wavefunction and that the shaking parameters can be changed
adiabatically, even in the presence of interactions. We induce reversibly the
quantum phase transition to the Mott insulator in a driven periodic potential.Comment: Laser Physics (in press
Tunable gauge potential for neutral and spinless particles in driven lattices
We present a universal method to create a tunable, artificial vector gauge
potential for neutral particles trapped in an optical lattice. The necessary
Peierls phase of the hopping parameters between neighboring lattice sites is
generated by applying a suitable periodic inertial force such that the method
does not rely on any internal structure of the particles. We experimentally
demonstrate the realization of such artificial potentials, which generate
ground state superfluids at arbitrary non-zero quasi-momentum. We furthermore
investigate possible implementations of this scheme to create tuneable magnetic
fluxes, going towards model systems for strong-field physics
Epitaxial growth of deposited amorphous layer by laser annealing
We demonstrate that a single short pulse of laser irradiation of appropriate energy is capable of recrystallizing in open air an amorphous Si layer deposited on a (100) single-crystal substrate into an epitaxial layer. The laser pulse annealing technique is shown to overcome the interfacial oxide obstacle which usually leads to polycrystalline formation in normal thermal annealing
Increased plasma viscosity as a reason for inappropriate erythropoietin formation
The aim of this study was to examine whether altered plasma viscosity could contribute to the inappropriately low production rate of erythropoietin (EPO) observed in patients suffering from hypergammaglobulinemias associated with multiple myeloma or Waldenström's disease. We found that the EPO formation in response to anemia in these patients was inversely related to plasma viscosity. A similar inverse relationship between plasma viscosity and EPO production was seen in rats in which EPO formation had been stimulated by exchange transfusion and the plasma viscosity of which was thereby altered by using exchange solutions of different composition to alter plasma viscosity and thus whole blood viscosity independently from hematocrit. Raising the gammaglobulin concentration to approximately 40 mg/ml plasma in the rats almost totally blunted the rise in serum EPO levels despite a fall of the hematocrit to 20%. Determination of renal EPO mRNA levels by RNase protection revealed that the reductions in serum EPO levels at higher plasma viscosities were paralleled by reductions in renal EPO mRNA levels. Taken together, our findings suggest that plasma viscosity may be a significant inhibitory modulator of anemia-induced EPO formation. The increased plasma viscosity in patients with hypergammaglobulinemias may therefore contribute to the inappropriate EPO production, which is a major reason for the anemia developing in these patients
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