30 research outputs found
Macroscopic Symmetry Group Describes Josephson Tunneling in Twinned Crystals
A macroscopic symmetry group describing the superconducting state of an
orthorhombically twinned crystal of YBCO is introduced. This macroscopic
symmetry group is different for different symmetries of twin boundaries.
Josephson tunneling experiments performed on twinned crystals of YBCO determine
this macroscopic symmetry group and hence determine the twin boundary symmetry
(but do not experimentally determine whether the microscopic order parameter is
primarily d- or s-wave). A consequence of the odd-symmetry twin boundaries in
YBCO is the stability of vortices containing one half an elementary flux
quantum at the intersection of a twin boundary and certain grain boundaries.Comment: 6 pages, to be published in the Proceedings of the MOS96 Conference
in the Journal of Low Temperature Physic
Conformational Mechanics of Polymer Adsorption Transitions at Attractive Substrates
Conformational phases of a semiflexible off-lattice homopolymer model near an
attractive substrate are investigated by means of multicanonical computer
simulations. In our polymer-substrate model, nonbonded pairs of monomers as
well as monomers and the substrate interact via attractive van der Waals
forces. To characterize conformational phases of this hybrid system, we analyze
thermal fluctuations of energetic and structural quantities, as well as
adequate docking parameters. Introducing a solvent parameter related to the
strength of the surface attraction, we construct and discuss the
solubility-temperature phase diagram. Apart from the main phases of adsorbed
and desorbed conformations, we identify several other phase transitions such as
the freezing transition between energy-dominated crystalline low-temperature
structures and globular entropy-dominated conformations.Comment: 13 pages, 15 figure
Probing structural relaxation in complex fluids by critical fluctuations
Complex fluids, such as polymer solutions and blends, colloids and gels, are
of growing interest in fundamental and applied soft-condensed-matter science. A
common feature of all such systems is the presence of a mesoscopic structural
length scale intermediate between atomic and macroscopic scales. This
mesoscopic structure of complex fluids is often fragile and sensitive to
external perturbations. Complex fluids are frequently viscoelastic (showing a
combination of viscous and elastic behaviour) with their dynamic response
depending on the time and length scales. Recently, non-invasive methods to
infer the rheological response of complex fluids have gained popularity through
the technique of microrheology, where the diffusion of probe spheres in a
viscoelastic fluid is monitored with the aid of light scattering or microscopy.
Here we propose an alternative to traditional microrheology that does not
require doping of probe particles in the fluid (which can sometimes drastically
alter the molecular environment). Instead, our proposed method makes use of the
phenomenon of "avoided crossing" between modes associated with the structural
relaxation and critical fluctuations that are spontaneously generated in the
system.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure
Josephson tunneling in high- superconductors
This article describes the Josephson tunneling from time-reversal
symmetry-breaking states and compares it with that from time-reversal invariant
states for both twinned and untwinned crystals and for both -axis and
basal-plane currents, in a model for orthorhombic YBCO. A macroscopic
invariance group describing the superconducting state of a twinned crystal is
introduced and shown to provide a useful framework for the discussion of the
results for twinned crystals. In addition, a ring geometry, which allows
-wave and -wave superconductivity in a tetragonal
superconductor to be distinguished on the basis of symmetry arguments only, is
proposed and analyzed. Finally, an appendix gives details of the experimental
Josephson tunneling evidence for a superconducting state of orthorhombic
symmetry in YBCO.Comment: Latex File, 18 pages, 6 Postscript figures, submitted to Phys. Rev.
Finite thermal conductivity at the vapor-liquid critical line of a binary fluid mixture
Scale-free static and dynamical correlations in melts of monodisperse and Flory-distributed homopolymers: A review of recent bond-fluctuation model studies
It has been assumed until very recently that all long-range correlations are
screened in three-dimensional melts of linear homopolymers on distances beyond
the correlation length characterizing the decay of the density
fluctuations. Summarizing simulation results obtained by means of a variant of
the bond-fluctuation model with finite monomer excluded volume interactions and
topology violating local and global Monte Carlo moves, we show that due to an
interplay of the chain connectivity and the incompressibility constraint, both
static and dynamical correlations arise on distances . These
correlations are scale-free and, surprisingly, do not depend explicitly on the
compressibility of the solution. Both monodisperse and (essentially)
Flory-distributed equilibrium polymers are considered.Comment: 60 pages, 49 figure