3,029 research outputs found
Optical guiding in meter-scale plasma waveguides
We demonstrate a new highly tunable technique for generating meter-scale low
density plasma waveguides. Such guides can enable electron acceleration to tens
of GeV in a single stage. Plasma waveguides are imprinted in hydrogen gas by
optical field ionization induced by two time-separated Bessel beam pulses: The
first pulse, a J_0 beam, generates the core of the waveguide, while the delayed
second pulse, here a J_8 or J_16 beam, generates the waveguide cladding. We
demonstrate guiding of intense laser pulses over hundreds of Rayleigh lengths
with on axis plasma densities as low as N_e0=5x10^16 cm^-3
Universal quantum computation by discontinuous quantum walk
Quantum walks are the quantum-mechanical analog of random walks, in which a
quantum `walker' evolves between initial and final states by traversing the
edges of a graph, either in discrete steps from node to node or via continuous
evolution under the Hamiltonian furnished by the adjacency matrix of the graph.
We present a hybrid scheme for universal quantum computation in which a quantum
walker takes discrete steps of continuous evolution. This `discontinuous'
quantum walk employs perfect quantum state transfer between two nodes of
specific subgraphs chosen to implement a universal gate set, thereby ensuring
unitary evolution without requiring the introduction of an ancillary coin
space. The run time is linear in the number of simulated qubits and gates. The
scheme allows multiple runs of the algorithm to be executed almost
simultaneously by starting walkers one timestep apart.Comment: 7 pages, revte
Optimal box-covering algorithm for fractal dimension of complex networks
The self-similarity of complex networks is typically investigated through
computational algorithms the primary task of which is to cover the structure
with a minimal number of boxes. Here we introduce a box-covering algorithm that
not only outperforms previous ones, but also finds optimal solutions. For the
two benchmark cases tested, namely, the E. Coli and the WWW networks, our
results show that the improvement can be rather substantial, reaching up to 15%
in the case of the WWW network.Comment: 5 pages, 6 figure
New universality class for the three-dimensional XY model with correlated impurities: Application to He in aerogels
Encouraged by experiments on He in aerogels, we confine planar spins in
the pores of simulated aerogels (diffusion limited cluster-cluster aggregation)
in order to study the effect of quenched disorder on the critical behavior of
the three-dimensional XY model. Monte Carlo simulations and finite-size scaling
are used to determine critical couplings and exponents. In agreement with
experiments, clear evidence of change in the thermal critical exponents
and is found at nonzero volume fractions of impurities. These changes
are explained in terms of {\it hidden} long-range correlations within disorder
distributions.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev. Let
Structure of plastically compacting granular packings
The developing structure in systems of compacting ductile grains were studied
experimentally in two and three dimensions. In both dimensions, the peaks of
the radial distribution function were reduced, broadened, and shifted compared
with those observed in hard disk- and sphere systems. The geometrical
three--grain configurations contributing to the second peak in the radial
distribution function showed few but interesting differences between the
initial and final stages of the two dimensional compaction. The evolution of
the average coordination number as function of packing fraction is compared
with other experimental and numerical results from the literature. We conclude
that compaction history is important for the evolution of the structure of
compacting granular systems.Comment: 12 pages, 12 figure
Universality in Random Walk Models with Birth and Death
Models of random walks are considered in which walkers are born at one
location and die at all other locations with uniform death rate. Steady-state
distributions of random walkers exhibit dimensionally dependent critical
behavior as a function of the birth rate. Exact analytical results for a
hyperspherical lattice yield a second-order phase transition with a nontrivial
critical exponent for all positive dimensions . Numerical studies
of hypercubic and fractal lattices indicate that these exact results are
universal. Implications for the adsorption transition of polymers at curved
interfaces are discussed.Comment: 11 pages, revtex, 2 postscript figure
Failure mechanisms and surface roughness statistics of fractured Fontainebleau sandstone
In an effort to investigate the link between failure mechanisms and the
geometry of fractures of compacted grains materials, a detailed statistical
analysis of the surfaces of fractured Fontainebleau sandstones has been
achieved. The roughness of samples of different widths W is shown to be self
affine with an exponent zeta=0.46 +- 0.05 over a range of length scales ranging
from the grain size d up to an upper cut-off length \xi = 0.15 W. This low zeta
value is in agreement with measurements on other sandstones and on sintered
materials. The probability distributions P(delta z,delta h) of the variations
of height over different distances delta z > d can be collapsed onto a single
Gaussian distribution with a suitable normalisation and do not display
multifractal features. The roughness amplitude, as characterized by the
height-height correlation over fixed distances delta z, does not depend on the
sample width, implying that no anomalous scaling of the type reported for other
materials is present. It is suggested, in agreement with recent theoretical
work, to explain these results by the occurence of brittle fracture (instead of
damage failure in materials displaying a higher value of zeta = 0.8).Comment: 7 page
Cellular automaton rules conserving the number of active sites
This paper shows how to determine all the unidimensional two-state cellular
automaton rules of a given number of inputs which conserve the number of active
sites. These rules have to satisfy a necessary and sufficient condition. If the
active sites are viewed as cells occupied by identical particles, these
cellular automaton rules represent evolution operators of systems of identical
interacting particles whose total number is conserved. Some of these rules,
which allow motion in both directions, mimic ensembles of one-dimensional
pseudo-random walkers. Numerical evidence indicates that the corresponding
stochastic processes might be non-Gaussian.Comment: 14 pages, 5 figure
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