3,706 research outputs found
Composition-induced structural transitions in mixed rare-gas clusters
The low-energy structures of mixed Ar--Xe and Kr--Xe Lennard-Jones clusters
are investigated using a newly developed parallel Monte Carlo minimization
algorithm with specific exchange moves between particles or trajectories. Tests
on the 13- and 19- atom clusters show a significant improvement over the
conventional basin-hopping method, the average search length being reduced by
more than one order of magnitude. The method is applied to the more difficult
case of the 38-atom cluster, for which the homogeneous clusters have a
truncated octahedral shape. It is found that alloys of dissimilar elements
(Ar--Xe) favor polytetrahedral geometries over octahedra due to the reduced
strain penalty. Conversely, octahedra are even more stable in Kr--Xe alloys
than in Kr_38 or Xe_38, and they show a core-surface phase separation behavior.
These trends are indeed also observed and further analysed on the 55-atom
cluster. Finally, we correlate the relative stability of cubic structures in
these clusters to the glassforming character of the bulk mixtures.Comment: 14 pages, 8 figures, 5 tables PRB vol 70, in pres
Analysis of the Strong Coupling Limit of the Richardson Hamiltonian using the Dyson Mapping
The Richardson Hamiltonian describes superconducting correlations in a
metallic nanograin. We do a perturbative analysis of this and related
Hamiltonians, around the strong pairing limit, without having to invoke Bethe
Ansatz solvability. Rather we make use of a boson expansion method known as the
Dyson mapping. Thus we uncover a selection rule that facilitates both
time-independent and time-dependent perturbation expansions. In principle the
model we analise is realised in a very small metalic grain of a very regular
shape. The results we obtain point to subtleties sometimes neglected when
thinking of the superconducting state as a Bose-Einstein condensate. An
appendix contains a general presentation of time-independent perturbation
theory for operators with degenerate spectra, with recursive formulas for
corrections of arbitrarily high orders.Comment: New final version accepted for publication in PRB. 17 two-column
pages, no figure
Activated sampling in complex materials at finite temperature: the properly-obeying-probability activation-relaxation technique
While the dynamics of many complex systems is dominated by activated events,
there are very few simulation methods that take advantage of this fact. Most of
these procedures are restricted to relatively simple systems or, as with the
activation-relaxation technique (ART), sample the conformation space
efficiently at the cost of a correct thermodynamical description. We present
here an extension of ART, the properly-obeying-probability ART (POP-ART), that
obeys detailed balance and samples correctly the thermodynamic ensemble.
Testing POP-ART on two model systems, a vacancy and an interstitial in
crystalline silicon, we show that this method recovers the proper
thermodynamical weights associated with the various accessible states and is
significantly faster than MD in the diffusion of a vacancy below 700 K.Comment: 10 pages, 3 figure
New approach to the thermal Casimir force between real metals
The new approach to the theoretical description of the thermal Casimir force
between real metals is presented. It uses the plasma-like dielectric
permittivity that takes into account the interband transitions of core
electrons. This permittivity precisely satisfies the Kramers-Kronig relations.
The respective Casimir entropy is positive and vanishes at zero temperature in
accordance with the Nernst heat theorem. The physical reasons why the Drude
dielectric function, when substituted in the Lifshitz formula, is inconsistent
with electrodynamics are elucidated. The proposed approach is the single one
consistent with all measurements of the Casimir force performed up to date. The
application of this approach to metal-type semiconductors is considered.Comment: 14 pages, 6 figures. Proceedings of QFEXT07, to appear in J. Phys.
Comment on ``Precision measurement of the Casimir-Lifshitz force in a fluid''
Recently J.N. Munday and F. Capasso [Phys. Rev. A {\bf 75}, 060102(R) (2007);
arXiv:0705.3793] claimed that they have performed a precision measurement of
the Casimir force between a sphere and a plate coated with Au, both immersed in
ethanol. The measurement results were claimed to be consistent with the
Lifshitz theory. We demonstrate that the calculation of the Casimir force
between the smooth bodies following the authors prescription has a discrepancy
up to 25% with respect to authors result. We show also that the attractive
electrostatic force only due to the surface potential differences was
underestimated by a factor of 590 and the charge double layer interaction was
not taken into account. All this leads to the conclusion that the results of
this experiment are in fact uncertain.Comment: 5 pages, 1 figure, submitted to Physical Review A; corrections are
made in accordance to referee's suggestion
Coordinate Singularities in Harmonically-sliced Cosmologies
Harmonic slicing has in recent years become a standard way of prescribing the
lapse function in numerical simulations of general relativity. However, as was
first noticed by Alcubierre (1997), numerical solutions generated using this
slicing condition can show pathological behaviour. In this paper, analytic and
numerical methods are used to examine harmonic slicings of Kasner and Gowdy
cosmological spacetimes. It is shown that in general the slicings are prevented
from covering the whole of the spacetimes by the appearance of coordinate
singularities. As well as limiting the maximum running times of numerical
simulations, the coordinate singularities can lead to features being produced
in numerically evolved solutions which must be distinguished from genuine
physical effects.Comment: 21 pages, REVTeX, 5 figure
General approach for studying first-order phase transitions at low temperatures
By combining different ideas, a general and efficient protocol to deal with
discontinuous phase transitions at low temperatures is proposed. For small
's, it is possible to derive a generic analytic expression for appropriate
order parameters, whose coefficients are obtained from simple simulations. Once
in such regimes simulations by standard algorithms are not reliable, an
enhanced tempering method, the parallel tempering -- accurate for small and
intermediate system sizes with rather low computational cost -- is used.
Finally, from finite size analysis, one can obtain the thermodynamic limit. The
procedure is illustrated for four distinct models, demonstrating its power,
e.g., to locate coexistence lines and the phases density at the coexistence.Comment: 5 page
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