305 research outputs found
Exploring local quantum many-body relaxation by atoms in optical superlattices
We establish a setting - atoms in optical superlattices with period 2 - in
which one can experimentally probe signatures of the process of local
relaxation and apparent thermalization in non-equilibrium dynamics without the
need of addressing single sites. This opens up a way to explore the convergence
of subsystems to maximum entropy states in quenched quantum many-body systems
with present technology. Remarkably, the emergence of thermal states does not
follow from a coupling to an environment, but is a result of the complex
non-equilibrium dynamics in closed systems. We explore ways of measuring the
relevant signatures of thermalization in this analogue quantum simulation of a
relaxation process, exploiting the possibilities offered by optical
superlattices.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, version to published in Physical Review Letter
Pharmacokinetics of Pamidronate in Patients With Bone Metastases
Background: Pamidronate is a secondgeneration bisphosphonate used in the treatment of tumor-induced hypercalcemia and in the management of bone metastases from breast cancer, myeloma, or prostate cancer. The pharmacokinetics of pamidronate is unknown in cancer patients. Purpose: To determine the influence of the rate of administration and of bone metabolism, we studied the pharmacokinetics of pamidronate at three different infusion rates in 37 patients with bone metastases. Methods: Three groups of 11-14 patients were given 60 mg pamidronate as an intravenous infusion over a period of 1, 4, or 24 hours. Urine samples were collected in the three groups of patients. Plasma samples were obtained only in the 1-hour infusion group. The assay of pamidronate in plasma and urine was performed by high-performance liquid chromatography with fluorescence detection after the derivatization of pamidronate with fluorescamine. Results: The body retention (BR) at 0-24 hours of pamidronate represented 60%-70% of the administered dose and was not significantly modified by the infusion rate. In particular, the BR at 0-24 hours was not reduced at the fastest infusion rate. Among patients, a threefold variability in BR at 0-24 hours occurred, which was related directly to the number of bone metastases and, to some extent, to creatinine clearance. At 60 mg/hour, the plasma kinetics followed a multiexponential course characterized by a short distribution phase. The mean (±SD) half-life of the distribution phase was 0.8 hour (±0.3), the mean (±SD) of the area under the curve for drug concentration in plasma × time at 0-24 hours was 22.0 × 8.8 μmol/L × hours, and the mean (±SD) of the maximum plasma concentration was 9.7 μmol/L (±3.2). Pharmacokinetic variables remained unchanged after repeated infusions applied to four patients. Clinically, the three infusion rates were equally well tolerated without significant toxicity. Conclusions: The 1-hour infusion rate could be proposed as kinetically appropriate for the administration of pamidronate to patients with metastatic bone diseases. [J Natl Cancer Inst 84: 788-792, 1992
Electronic Structure Calculations with LDA+DMFT
The LDA+DMFT method is a very powerful tool for gaining insight into the
physics of strongly correlated materials. It combines traditional ab-initio
density-functional techniques with the dynamical mean-field theory. The core
aspects of the method are (i) building material-specific Hubbard-like many-body
models and (ii) solving them in the dynamical mean-field approximation. Step
(i) requires the construction of a localized one-electron basis, typically a
set of Wannier functions. It also involves a number of approximations, such as
the choice of the degrees of freedom for which many-body effects are explicitly
taken into account, the scheme to account for screening effects, or the form of
the double-counting correction. Step (ii) requires the dynamical mean-field
solution of multi-orbital generalized Hubbard models. Here central is the
quantum-impurity solver, which is also the computationally most demanding part
of the full LDA+DMFT approach. In this chapter I will introduce the core
aspects of the LDA+DMFT method and present a prototypical application.Comment: 21 pages, 7 figures. Chapter of "Many-Electron Approaches in Physics,
Chemistry and Mathematics: A Multidisciplinary View", eds. V. Bach and L.
Delle Site, Springer 201
Particle number conservation in quantum many-body simulations with matrix product operators
Incorporating conservation laws explicitly into matrix product states (MPS)
has proven to make numerical simulations of quantum many-body systems much less
resources consuming. We will discuss here, to what extent this concept can be
used in simulation where the dynamically evolving entities are matrix product
operators (MPO). Quite counter-intuitively the expectation of gaining in speed
by sacrificing information about all but a single symmetry sector is not in all
cases fulfilled. It turns out that in this case often the entanglement imposed
by the global constraint of fixed particle number is the limiting factor.Comment: minor changes, 18 pages, 5 figure
Rigorous mean-field dynamics of lattice bosons: Quenches from the Mott insulator
We provide a rigorous derivation of Gutzwiller mean-field dynamics for
lattice bosons, showing that it is exact on fully connected lattices. We apply
this formalism to quenches in the interaction parameter from the Mott insulator
to the superfluid state. Although within mean-field the Mott insulator is a
steady state, we show that a dynamical critical interaction exists, such
that for final interaction parameter the Mott insulator is
exponentially unstable towards emerging long-range superfluid order, whereas
for the Mott insulating state is stable. We discuss the implications
of this prediction for finite-dimensional systems.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures, published versio
Nonadiabatic Dynamics of Ultracold Fermions in Optical Superlattices
We study the time-dependent dynamical properties of two-component ultracold
fermions in a one-dimensional optical superlattice by applying the adaptive
time-dependent density matrix renormalization group to a repulsive Hubbard
model with an alternating superlattice potential. We clarify how the time
evolution of local quantities occurs when the superlattice potential is
suddenly changed to a normal one. For a Mott-type insulating state at quarter
filling, the time evolution exhibits a profile similar to that expected for
bosonic atoms, where correlation effects are less important. On the other hand,
for a band-type insulating state at half filling, the strong repulsive
interaction induces an unusual pairing of fermions, resulting in some striking
properties in time evolution, such as a paired fermion co-tunneling process and
the suppression of local spin moments. We further address the effect of a
confining potential, which causes spatial confinement of the paired fermions.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figure
Data-based modeling of drug penetration relates human skin barrier function to the interplay of diffusivity and free-energy profiles
Based on experimental concentration depth profiles of the antiinflammatory drug dexamethasone in human skin, we model the time-dependent drug penetration by the 1D general diffusion equation that accounts for spatial variations in the diffusivity and free energy. For this, we numerically invert the diffusion equation and thereby obtain the diffusivity and the free-energy profiles of the drug as a function of skin depth without further model assumptions. As the only input, drug concentration profiles derived from X-ray microscopy at three consecutive times are used. For dexamethasone, skin barrier function is shown to rely on the combination of a substantially reduced drug diffusivity in the stratum corneum (the outermost epidermal layer), dominant at short times, and a pronounced free-energy barrier at the transition from the epidermis to the dermis underneath, which determines the drug distribution in the long-time limit. Our modeling approach, which is generally applicable to all kinds of barriers and diffusors, allows us to disentangle diffusivity from free-energetic effects. Thereby we can predict short-time drug penetration, where experimental measurements are not feasible, as well as long-time permeation, where ex vivo samples deteriorate, and thus span the entire timescales of biological barrier functioning
Probing local relaxation of cold atoms in optical superlattices
In the study of relaxation processes in coherent non-equilibrium dynamics of
quenched quantum systems, ultracold atoms in optical superlattices with
periodicity two provide a very fruitful test ground. In this work, we consider
the dynamics of a particular, experimentally accessible initial state prepared
in a superlattice structure evolving under a Bose-Hubbard Hamiltonian in the
entire range of interaction strengths, further investigating the issues raised
in Ref. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 101, 063001 (2008)]. We investigate the relaxation
dynamics analytically in the non interacting and hard core bosonic limits,
deriving explicit expressions for the dynamics of certain correlation
functions, and numerically for finite interaction strengths using the
time-dependent density-matrix renormalization (t-DMRG) approach. We can
identify signatures of local relaxation that can be accessed experimentally
with present technology. While the global system preserves the information
about the initial condition, locally the system relaxes to the state having
maximum entropy respecting the constraints of the initial condition. For finite
interaction strengths and finite times, the relaxation dynamics contains
signatures of the relaxation dynamics of both the non-interacting and hard core
bosonic limits.Comment: 18 pages RevTex, 20 figures, final version (problem with figures
resolved
Probing the relaxation towards equilibrium in an isolated strongly correlated 1D Bose gas
The problem of how complex quantum systems eventually come to rest lies at
the heart of statistical mechanics. The maximum entropy principle put forward
in 1957 by E. T. Jaynes suggests what quantum states one should expect in
equilibrium but does not hint as to how closed quantum many-body systems
dynamically equilibrate. A number of theoretical and numerical studies
accumulate evidence that under specific conditions quantum many-body models can
relax to a situation that locally or with respect to certain observables
appears as if the entire system had relaxed to a maximum entropy state. In this
work, we report the experimental observation of the non-equilibrium dynamics of
a density wave of ultracold bosonic atoms in an optical lattice in the regime
of strong correlations. Using an optical superlattice, we are able to prepare
the system in a well-known initial state with high fidelity. We then follow the
dynamical evolution of the system in terms of quasi-local densities, currents,
and coherences. Numerical studies based on the time-dependent density-matrix
renormalization group method are in an excellent quantitative agreement with
the experimental data. For very long times, all three local observables show a
fast relaxation to equilibrium values compatible with those expected for a
global maximum entropy state. We find this relaxation of the quasi-local
densities and currents to initially follow a power-law with an exponent being
significantly larger than for free or hardcore bosons. For intermediate times
the system fulfills the promise of being a dynamical quantum simulator, in that
the controlled dynamics runs for longer times than present classical algorithms
based on matrix product states can efficiently keep track of.Comment: 8 pages, 6 figure
Pharmacokinetics of pamidronate in patients with bone metastases
BACKGROUND: Pamidronate is a second-generation bisphosphonate used in the treatment of tumor-induced hypercalcemia and in the management of bone metastases from breast cancer, myeloma, or prostate cancer. The pharmacokinetics of pamidronate is unknown in cancer patients. PURPOSE: To determine the influence of the rate of administration and of bone metabolism, we studied the pharmacokinetics of pamidronate at three different infusion rates in 37 patients with bone metastases. METHODS: Three groups of 11-14 patients were given 60 mg pamidronate as an intravenous infusion over a period of 1, 4, or 24 hours. Urine samples were collected in the three groups of patients. Plasma samples were obtained only in the 1-hour infusion group. The assay of pamidronate in plasma and urine was performed by high-performance liquid chromatography with fluorescence detection after the derivatization of pamidronate with fluorescamine. RESULTS: The body retention (BR) at 0-24 hours of pamidronate represented 60%-70% of the administered dose and was not significantly modified by the infusion rate. In particular, the BR at 0-24 hours was not reduced at the fastest infusion rate. Among patients, a threefold variability in BR at 0-24 hours occurred, which was related directly to the number of bone metastases and, to some extent, to creatinine clearance. At 60 mg/hour, the plasma kinetics followed a multiexponential course characterized by a short distribution phase. The mean (+/- SD) half-life of the distribution phase was 0.8 hour (+/- 0.3), the mean (+/- SD) of the area under the curve for drug concentration in plasma x time at 0-24 hours was 22.0 +/- 8.8 mumol/L x hours, and the mean (+/- SD) of the maximum plasma concentration was 9.7 mumol/L (+/- 3.2). Pharmacokinetic variables remained unchanged after repeated infusions applied to four patients. Clinically, the three infusion rates were equally well tolerated without significant toxicity. CONCLUSIONS: The 1-hour infusion rate could be proposed as kinetically appropriate for the administration of pamidronate to patients with metastatic bone diseases
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