Doping quantum dimer models on the square lattice

A family of models is proposed to describe the motion of holes in a fluctuating quantum dimer background on the square lattice. Following Castelnovo et al. [Ann. Phys. (NY) 318, 316 (2005)], a generalized Rokhsar-Kivelson Hamiltonian at **finite doping** which can be mapped on a **doped** interacting classical dimer model is constructed. A simple physical extension of this model is also considered. Using numerical computations and simple considerations based on the above exact mapping, we determine the phase diagram of the model showing a number of quantum phases typical of a doped Mott insulator. The two-hole correlation function generically exhibits short-range or long-range algebraic correlations in the solid (columnar) and liquid (critical) phases of the model, respectively. Evidence for an extended region of a doped VBS phase exhibiting holon pairing but **no** phase separation is given. In contrast, we show that hole deconfinement occurs in the staggered dimer phase.Comment: 5 page

Unraveling radial dependency effects in fiber thermal drawing

Fiber-based devices with advanced functionalities are emerging as promising solutions for various applications in flexible electronics and bioengineering. Multimaterial thermal drawing, in particular, has attracted strong interest for its ability to generate fibers with complex architectures. Thus far, however, the understanding of its fluid dynamics has only been applied to single material preforms for which higher order effects, such as the radial dependency of the axial velocity, could be neglected. With complex multimaterial preforms, such effects must be taken into account, as they can affect the architecture and the functional properties of the resulting fiber device. Here, we propose a versatile model of the thermal drawing of fibers, which takes into account a radially varying axial velocity. Unlike the commonly used cross section averaged approach, our model is capable of predicting radial variations of functional properties caused by the deformation during drawing. This is demonstrated for two effects observed, namely, by unraveling the deformation of initially straight, transversal lines in the preform and the dependence on the draw ratio and radial position of the in-fiber electrical conductivity of polymer nanocomposites, an important class of materials for emerging fiber devices. This work sets a thus far missing theoretical and practical understanding of multimaterial fiber processing to better engineer advanced fibers and textiles for sensing, health care, robotics, or bioengineering applications

On methods to determine bounds on the Q-factor for a given directivity

This paper revisit and extend the interesting case of bounds on the Q-factor for a given directivity for a small antenna of arbitrary shape. A higher directivity in a small antenna is closely connected with a narrow impedance bandwidth. The relation between bandwidth and a desired directivity is still not fully understood, not even for small antennas. Initial investigations in this direction has related the radius of a circumscribing sphere to the directivity, and bounds on the Q-factor has also been derived for a partial directivity in a given direction. In this paper we derive lower bounds on the Q-factor for a total desired directivity for an arbitrarily shaped antenna in a given direction as a convex problem using semi-definite relaxation techniques (SDR). We also show that the relaxed solution is also a solution of the original problem of determining the lower Q-factor bound for a total desired directivity. SDR can also be used to relax a class of other interesting non-convex constraints in antenna optimization such as tuning, losses, front-to-back ratio. We compare two different new methods to determine the lowest Q-factor for arbitrary shaped antennas for a given total directivity. We also compare our results with full EM-simulations of a parasitic element antenna with high directivity.Comment: Correct some minor typos in the previous versio

Relativistic corrections for two- and three-body flux tube model

We generalize the relativistic flux tube model for arbitrary two- or three-body systems. The spin-independent and spin-dependent contributions of the flux tube to the total Hamiltonian are computed in perturbation. In particular, we show that the spin-dependent part exhibits a universal spin-orbit form: It does not depend on the nature of the confined particles. The general equations we present, being well-defined for light particles, can thus be applied to usual as well as exotic hadrons such as hybrid mesons and glueballs.Comment: 10 pages; v2 accepted for publication (minor changes

A systematic benchmark of the ab initio Bethe-Salpeter equation approach for low-lying optical excitations of small organic molecules

The predictive power of the ab initio Bethe-Salpeter equation (BSE) approach, rigorously based on many-body Green's function theory but incorporating information from density functional theory, has already been demonstrated for the optical gaps and spectra of solid-state systems. Interest in photoactive hybrid organic/inorganic systems has recently increased, and so has the use of the BSE for computing neutral excitations of organic molecules. However, no systematic benchmarks of the BSE for neutral electronic excitations of organic molecules exist. Here, we study the performance of the BSE for the 28 small molecules in Thiel's widely-used time-dependent density functional theory benchmark set [M. Schreiber et al. J. Chem. Phys. 128, 134110 (2008)]. We observe that the BSE produces results that depend critically on the mean-field starting point employed in the perturbative approach. We find that this starting point dependence is mainly introduced through the quasiparticle energies obtained at the intermediate GW step, and that with a judicious choice of starting mean-field, singlet excitation energies obtained from BSE are in excellent quantitative agreement with higher-level wavefunction methods. The quality of the triplet excitations is slightly less satisfactory

Sorption-induced Static Bending of Microcantilevers Coated with Viscoelastic Material

Absorption of a chemical analyte into a polymercoating results in an expansion governed by the concentration and type of analyte that has diffused into the bulk of the coating. When the coating is attached to a microcantilever, this expansion results in bending of the device. Assuming that absorption (i.e., diffusion across the surface barrier into the bulk of the coating) is Fickian, with a rate of absorption that is proportional to the difference between the absorbed concentration and the equilibrium concentration, and the coating is elastic, the bending response of the coated device should exhibit a first-order behavior. However, for polymercoatings, complex behaviors exhibiting an overshoot that slowly decays to the steady-state value have been observed. A theoretical model of absorption-induced static bending of a microcantilever coated with a viscoelastic material is presented, starting from the general stress/strain relationship for a viscoelastic material. The model accounts for viscoelasticstress relaxation and possible coating plasticization. Calculated responses show that the model is capable of reproducing the same transient behavior exhibited in the experimental data. The theory presented can also be used for extracting viscoelasticproperties of the coating from the measured bending data

Optimal Planar Electric Dipole Antenna

Considerable time is often spent optimizing antennas to meet specific design metrics. Rarely, however, are the resulting antenna designs compared to rigorous physical bounds on those metrics. Here we study the performance of optimized planar meander line antennas with respect to such bounds. Results show that these simple structures meet the lower bound on radiation Q-factor (maximizing single resonance fractional bandwidth), but are far from reaching the associated physical bounds on efficiency. The relative performance of other canonical antenna designs is compared in similar ways, and the quantitative results are connected to intuitions from small antenna design, physical bounds, and matching network design.Comment: 10 pages, 15 figures, 2 tables, 4 boxe