1,613 research outputs found
Two-Photon Spectroscopy Between States of Opposite Parities
Magnetic- and electric-dipole two-photon absorption (MED-TPA), recently
introduced as a new spectroscopic technique for studying transitions between
states of opposite parities, is investigated from a theoretical point of view.
A new approximation, referred to as {\it weak quasi-closure approximation}, is
used together with symmetry adaptation techniques to calculate the transition
amplitude between states having well-defined symmetry properties. Selection
rules for MED-TPA are derived and compared to selection rules for
parity-forbidden electric-dipole two-photon absorption (ED-TPA).Comment: 7 pages, Revtex File, to be published in Physical Review
Phase operators, temporally stable phase states, mutually unbiased bases and exactly solvable quantum systems
We introduce a one-parameter generalized oscillator algebra A(k) (that covers
the case of the harmonic oscillator algebra) and discuss its finite- and
infinite-dimensional representations according to the sign of the parameter k.
We define an (Hamiltonian) operator associated with A(k) and examine the
degeneracies of its spectrum. For the finite (when k < 0) and the infinite
(when k > 0 or = 0) representations of A(k), we construct the associated phase
operators and build temporally stable phase states as eigenstates of the phase
operators. To overcome the difficulties related to the phase operator in the
infinite-dimensional case and to avoid the degeneracy problem for the
finite-dimensional case, we introduce a truncation procedure which generalizes
the one used by Pegg and Barnett for the harmonic oscillator. This yields a
truncated generalized oscillator algebra A(k,s), where s denotes the truncation
order. We construct two types of temporally stable states for A(k,s) (as
eigenstates of a phase operator and as eigenstates of a polynomial in the
generators of A(k,s)). Two applications are considered in this article. The
first concerns physical realizations of A(k) and A(k,s) in the context of
one-dimensional quantum systems with finite (Morse system) or infinite
(Poeschl-Teller system) discrete spectra. The second deals with mutually
unbiased bases used in quantum information.Comment: Accepted for publication in Journal of Physics A: Mathematical and
Theoretical as a pape
Aggregation number distributions and mesoglobules in dilute solutions of diblock and triblock copolymers
We investigate the aggregation number and size distributions for
inter-molecular clusters of amphiphilic diblock and triblock copolymers in poor
solvent at very low concentrations. Diblocks and triblocks with hydrophilic
ends are shown to possess narrow distributions corresponding to formation of
monodispersed mesoglobules. Diblocks with hydrophobic ends are found to produce
inter-cluster multimers due to bridging by the hydrophilic middle blocks,
resulting in polydisperse distributions. Implications of these observations for
preparation of monodispersed nanoparticles and, potentially, understanding of
the quaternary structure of proteins are discussed.Comment: 4 pages, 4 PS figures. Accepted for publication in EP
Scaling theory of DNA confined in nanochannels and nanoslits
A scaling analysis is presented of the statistics of long DNA confined in
nanochannels and nanoslits. It is argued that there are several regimes in
between the de Gennes and Odijk limits introduced long ago. The DNA chain folds
back on itself giving rise to a global persistence length which may be very
large owing to entropic deflection. Moreover, there is an orientational
excluded-volume effect between the DNA segments imposed solely by the
nanoconfinement. These two effects cause the chain statistics to be intricate
leading to nontrivial power laws for the chain extension in the intermediate
regimes. It is stressed that DNA confinement within nanochannels differs from
that in nanoslits because the respective orientational excluded-volume effects
are not the same.Comment: 5 pages, 1 figure Several corrections, some minor changes in the text
and replacement of one referenc
Structure of bottle-brush brushes under good solvent conditions. A molecular dynamics study
We report a simulation study for bottle-brush polymers grafted on a rigid
backbone. Using a standard coarse-grained bead-spring model extensive molecular
dynamics simulations for such macromolecules under good solvent conditions are
performed. We consider a broad range of parameters and present numerical
results for the monomer density profile, density of the untethered ends of the
grafted flexible backbones and the correlation function describing the range
that neighboring grafted bottle-brushes are affected by the presence of the
others due to the excluded volume interactions. The end beads of the flexible
backbones of the grafted bottle-brushes do not access the region close to the
rigid backbone due to the presence of the side chains of the grafted
bottle-brush polymers, which stretch further the chains in the radial
directions. Although a number of different correlation lengths exist as a
result of the complex structure of these macromolecules, their properties can
be tuned with high accuracy in good solvents. Moreover, qualitative differences
with "typical" bottle-brushes are discussed. Our results provide a first
approach to characterizing such complex macromolecules with a standard bead
spring model.Comment: To appear in Journal of Physics Condensed Matter (2011
Scaling of Entropic Shear Rigidity
The scaling of the shear modulus near the gelation/vulcanization transition
is explored heuristically and analytically. It is found that in a dense melt
the effective chains of the infinite cluster have sizes that scale sub-linearly
with their contour length. Consequently, each contributes k_B T to the
rigidity, which leads to a shear modulus exponent d\nu. In contrast, in phantom
elastic networks the scaling is linear in the contour length, yielding an
exponent identical to that of the random resistor network conductivity, as
predicted by de Gennes'. For non-dense systems, the exponent should cross over
to d\nu when the percolation length becomes much larger than the
density-fluctuation length.Comment: 4 pages, 2 eps figure
Entropic Elasticity of Phantom Percolation Networks
A new method is used to measure the stress and elastic constants of purely
entropic phantom networks, in which a fraction of neighbors are tethered by
inextensible bonds. We find that close to the percolation threshold the
shear modulus behaves as , where the exponent in two
dimensions, and in three dimensions, close to the corresponding
values of the conductivity exponent in random resistor networks. The components
of the stiffness tensor (elastic constants) of the spanning cluster follow a
power law , with an exponent and 2.6 in two and
three dimensions, respectively.Comment: submitted to the Europhys. Lett., 7 pages, 5 figure
Effective interactions between star polymers
We study numerically the effective pair potential between star polymers with
equal arm lengths and equal number of arms. The simulations were done for
the soft core Domb-Joyce model on the simple cubic lattice, to minimize
corrections to scaling and to allow for an unlimited number of arms. For the
sampling, we used the pruned-enriched Rosenbluth method (PERM). We find that
the potential is much less soft than claimed in previous papers, in particular
for . While we verify the logarithmic divergence of , with
being the distance between the two cores, predicted by Witten and Pincus, we
find for that the Mayer function is hardly distinguishable from that for
a Gaussian potential.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figure
Precipitation forecasting through an analog sorting technique: a comparative study
This study aims at comparing two quantitative precipitation forecasting
techniques based on the meteorological analogy concept. Method A considers
first a selection of analogous situations at synoptic scale. Second a subset
of the most similar situations in terms of hygrometry is extracted. Method B
extends method A by two innovative ways, which are restricting the search
for analogues with temperature information instead of the common season
criterion, and exploiting the information about vertical motion considering
vertical velocity. Forecasts are evaluated in a perfect prognosis context
and in operational conditions as well, by mean of verification measures
(Continuous Ranked Probability Skill Score and scores computed from
contingency tables). Results of the case study in France show that: (1)
there is an increase in forecast skill when temperature and vertical
velocity are included in the procedure, (2) it is possible to anticipate
rainfall events up to one week ahead and (3) the introduction of new
variables such as vertical velocity may be useless beyond few days ahead
if the forecast of the weather model is not reliable
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