14,179 research outputs found
Unusual conductance of polyyne-based molecular wires
We report a full self-consistent ab initio calculation of the current-voltage
curve and the conductance of thiolate capped polyynes in contact with gold
electrodes. We find the conductance of polyynes an order of magnitude larger
compared with other conjugated oligomers. The reason lies in the position of
the Fermi level deep in the HOMO related resonance. With the conductance weakly
dependent on the applied bias and almost independent of the length of the
molecular chain, polyynes appear as nearly perfect molecular wires.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figures, 3 table
High-order harmonic generation from polyatomic molecules including nuclear motion and a nuclear modes analysis
We present a generic approach for treating the effect of nuclear motion in
the high-order harmonic generation from polyatomic molecules. Our procedure
relies on a separation of nuclear and electron dynamics where we account for
the electronic part using the Lewenstein model and nuclear motion enters as a
nuclear correlation function. We express the nuclear correlation function in
terms of Franck-Condon factors which allows us to decompose nuclear motion into
modes and identify the modes that are dominant in the high-order harmonic
generation process. We show results for the isotopes CH and CD and
thereby provide direct theoretical support for a recent experiment [Baker {\it
et al.}, Science {\bf 312}, 424 (2006)] that uses high-order harmonic
generation to probe the ultra-fast structural nuclear rearrangement of ionized
methane.Comment: 6 pages, 6 figure
Consequences of a Change in the Galactic Environment of the Sun
The interaction of the heliosphere with interstellar clouds has attracted
interest since the late 1920's, both with a view to explaining apparent
quasi-periodic climate "catastrophes" as well as periodic mass extinctions.
Until recently, however, models describing the solar wind - local interstellar
medium (LISM) interaction self-consistently had not been developed. Here, we
describe the results of a two-dimensional (2D) simulation of the interaction
between the heliosphere and an interstellar cloud with the same properties as
currently, except that the neutral H density is increased from the present
value of n(H) ~ 0.2 cm^-3 to 10 cm^-3. The mutual interaction of interstellar
neutral hydrogen and plasma is included. The heliospheric cavity is reduced
considerably in size (approximately 10 - 14 AU to the termination shock in the
upstream direction) and is highly dynamical. The interplanetary environment at
the orbit of the Earth changes markedly, with the density of interstellar H
increasing to ~2 cm^-3. The termination shock itself experiences periods where
it disappears, reforms and disappears again. Considerable mixing of the shocked
solar wind and LISM occurs due to Rayleigh-Taylor-like instabilities at the
nose, driven by ion-neutral friction. Implications for two anomalously high
concentrations of 10Be found in Antarctic ice cores 33 kya and 60 kya, and the
absence of prior similar events, are discussed in terms of density enhancements
in the surrounding interstellar cloud. The calculation presented here supports
past speculation that the galactic environment of the Sun moderates the
interplanetary environment at the orbit of the Earth, and possibly also the
terrestrial climate.Comment: 23 pages, 2 color plates (jpg), 3 figures (eps
High Harmonic Generation in SF: Raman-excited Vibrational Quantum Beats
In a recent experiment (N. Wagner et al., PNAS v103, p13279) on SF, a
high-harmonic generating laser pulse is preceded by a pump pulse which
stimulates Raman-active modes in the molecule. Varying the time delay between
the two pulses modulates high harmonic intensity, with frequencies equal to the
vibration frequencies of the Raman-active modes. We propose an explanation of
this modulation as a quantum interference between competing pathways that occur
via adjacent vibrational states of the molecule. The Raman and high harmonic
processes act as beamsplitters, producing vibrational quantum beats among the
Raman-active vibrational modes that are excited by the first pulse. We
introduce a rigorous treatment of the electron-ion recombination process and
the effect of the ionic Coulomb field in the electron propagation outside the
molecule, improving over the widely-used three-step model.Comment: submitted to PR
Universal decay of scalar turbulence
The asymptotic decay of passive scalar fields is solved analytically for the
Kraichnan model, where the velocity has a short correlation time. At long
times, two universality classes are found, both characterized by a distribution
of the scalar -- generally non-Gaussian -- with global self-similar evolution
in time. Analogous behavior is found numerically with a more realistic flow
resulting from an inverse energy cascade.Comment: 4 pages, 3 Postscript figures, submitted to PR
Energy flux fluctuations in a finite volume of turbulent flow
The flux of turbulent kinetic energy from large to small spatial scales is
measured in a small domain B of varying size R. The probability distribution
function of the flux is obtained using a time-local version of Kolmogorov's
four-fifths law. The measurements, made at a moderate Reynolds number, show
frequent events where the flux is backscattered from small to large scales,
their frequency increasing as R is decreased. The observations are corroborated
by a numerical simulation based on the motion of many particles and on an
explicit form of the eddy damping.Comment: 10 Pages, 5 figures, 1 tabl
A Multiresolution Census Algorithm for Calculating Vortex Statistics in Turbulent Flows
The fundamental equations that model turbulent flow do not provide much
insight into the size and shape of observed turbulent structures. We
investigate the efficient and accurate representation of structures in
two-dimensional turbulence by applying statistical models directly to the
simulated vorticity field. Rather than extract the coherent portion of the
image from the background variation, as in the classical signal-plus-noise
model, we present a model for individual vortices using the non-decimated
discrete wavelet transform. A template image, supplied by the user, provides
the features to be extracted from the vorticity field. By transforming the
vortex template into the wavelet domain, specific characteristics present in
the template, such as size and symmetry, are broken down into components
associated with spatial frequencies. Multivariate multiple linear regression is
used to fit the vortex template to the vorticity field in the wavelet domain.
Since all levels of the template decomposition may be used to model each level
in the field decomposition, the resulting model need not be identical to the
template. Application to a vortex census algorithm that records quantities of
interest (such as size, peak amplitude, circulation, etc.) as the vorticity
field evolves is given. The multiresolution census algorithm extracts coherent
structures of all shapes and sizes in simulated vorticity fields and is able to
reproduce known physical scaling laws when processing a set of voriticity
fields that evolve over time
Stiff polymer in monomer ensemble
We make use of the previously developed formalism for a monomer ensemble and
include angular dependence of the segments of the polymer chains thus
described. In particular we show how to deal with stiffness when the polymer
chain is confined to certain regions. We investigate the stiffness from the
perspectives of a differential equation, integral equations, or recursive
relations for both continuum and lattice models. Exact analytical solutions are
presented for two cases, whereas numerical results are shown for a third case.Comment: 10 pages, including 6 figure
Nontrivial temporal scaling in a Galilean stick-slip dynamics
We examine the stick-slip fluctuating response of a rough massive
non-rotating cylinder moving on a rough inclined groove which is submitted to
weak external perturbations and which is maintained well below the angle of
repose. The experiments presented here, which are reminiscent of the Galileo's
works with rolling objects on inclines, have brought in the last years
important new insights into the friction between surfaces in relative motion
and are of relevance for earthquakes, differing from classical block-spring
models by the mechanism of energy input in the system. Robust nontrivial
temporal scaling laws appearing in the dynamics of this system are reported,
and it is shown that the time-support where dissipation occurs approaches a
statistical fractal set with a fixed value of dimension. The distribution of
periods of inactivity in the intermittent motion of the cylinder is also
studied and found to be closely related to the lacunarity of a random version
of the classic triadic Cantor set on the line.Comment: 7 pages including 6 figure
A note on the extension of the polar decomposition for the multidimensional Burgers equation
It is shown that the generalizations to more than one space dimension of the
pole decomposition for the Burgers equation with finite viscosity and no force
are of the form u = -2 viscosity grad log P, where the P's are explicitly known
algebraic (or trigonometric) polynomials in the space variables with polynomial
(or exponential) dependence on time. Such solutions have polar singularities on
complex algebraic varieties.Comment: 3 pages; minor formatting and typos corrected. Submitted to Phys.
Rev. E (Rapid Comm.
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