Nonequilibrium and nonperturbative dynamics of ultrastrong coupling in open lines

The time and space resolved dynamics of a qubit with an Ohmic coupling to propagating 1D photons is studied, from weak coupling to the ultrastrong coupling regime. A nonperturbative study based on matrix product states shows the following results, (i) The ground state of the combined systems contains excitations of both the qubit and the surrounding bosonic field. (ii) An initially excited qubit equilibrates through spontaneous emission to a state, which under certain conditions is locally close to that ground state, both in the qubit and the field. (iii) The resonances of the combined qubit-photon system match those of the spontaneous emission process and also the predictions of the adiabatic renormalization [A. J. Leggett et al., Rev. Mod. Phys. 59, 1 (1987)]. Finally, nonperturbative ab initio calculations show that this physics can be studied using a flux qubit galvanically coupled to a superconducting transmission line

A comprehensive study of shower to shower fluctuations

By means of Monte Carlo simulations of extensive air showers (EAS), we have performed a comprehensive study of the shower to shower fluctuations affecting the longitudinal and lateral development of EAS. We split the fluctuations into physical fluctuations and those induced by the thinning procedure customarily applied to simulate showers at EeV energies and above. We study the influence of thinning on the calculation of the shower to shower fluctuations in the simulations. For thinning levels larger than 10^(-5) - 10^(-6), the determination of the shower to shower fluctuations is hampered by the artificial fluctuations induced by the thinning procedure. However, we show that shower to shower fluctuations can still be approximately estimated, and we provide expressions to calculate them. The influence of fluctuations of the depth of first interaction on the determination of shower to shower fluctuations is also addressed.Comment: 17 pages, 15 figure

A finite element method with mesh adaptivity for computing vortex states in fast-rotating Bose-Einstein condensates

Numerical computations of stationary states of fast-rotating Bose-Einstein condensates require high spatial resolution due to the presence of a large number of quantized vortices. In this paper we propose a low-order finite element method with mesh adaptivity by metric control, as an alternative approach to the commonly used high order (finite difference or spectral) approximation methods. The mesh adaptivity is used with two different numerical algorithms to compute stationary vortex states: an imaginary time propagation method and a Sobolev gradient descent method. We first address the basic issue of the choice of the variable used to compute new metrics for the mesh adaptivity and show that simultaneously refinement using the real and imaginary part of the solution is successful. Mesh refinement using only the modulus of the solution as adaptivity variable fails for complicated test cases. Then we suggest an optimized algorithm for adapting the mesh during the evolution of the solution towards the equilibrium state. Considerable computational time saving is obtained compared to uniform mesh computations. The new method is applied to compute difficult cases relevant for physical experiments (large nonlinear interaction constant and high rotation rates).Comment: to appear in J. Computational Physic

Morphometric Comparison of Blue Catfish Ictalurus furcatus (Lesueur, 1840) from Northern and Southern Atlantic Drainages of Me´xico

A morphometric comparison was performed on specimens of blue catfish (Ictalurus furcatus) from northern (Lower Rı´o Bravo) and southern (Chiapas) Me´xico in order to identify diagnostic characters that allow their discrimination. The discriminant function analysis determined three characters to be highly diagnostic to separate the two groups of specimens: the southern group [SG] has a shorter anal base (mean 5 3.4 times in standard length [SL], range 5 3.1 to 3.7) vs northern group [NG] (mean 5 2.9 times in SL, range 5 2.7 to 3.1), a lesser head width (mean 5 6.0 times in SL, range 5.1 to 6.8) vs NG (mean 5 5.6 times, range 5 5.3 to 6.0), and a lower number of anal rays (mean 5 26, range 5 24 to 28) vs NG (mean 5 31, range 5 29 to 34). Additionally, 14 other characters were also different (P , 0.01) between both groups. All these characters support the taxonomic validation of Ictalurus meridionalis (Gu¨ nther 1864) for the individuals of SG that are currently included in I. furcatus Lesueur. Studies on comparative osteology and molecular genetics of both forms are needed for the clarification of their taxonomic status

Improved Gauge Actions on Anisotropic Lattices I

On anisotropic lattices with the anisotropy $\xi=a_\sigma/a_\tau$ the following basic parameters are calculated by perturbative method: (1) the renormalization of the gauge coupling in spatial and temporal directions, $g_\sigma$ and $g_\tau$, (2) the $\Lambda$ parameter, (3) the ratio of the renormalized and bare anisotropy $\eta=\xi/\xi_B$ and (4) the derivatives of the coupling constants with respect to $\xi$, $\partial g_\sigma^{-2}/\partial \xi$ and $\partial g_\tau^{-2}/\partial \xi$. We employ the improved gauge actions which consist of plaquette and six-link rectangular loops, $c_0 P(1 \times 1)_{\mu \nu} + c_1 P(1 \times 2)_{\mu \nu}$. This class of actions covers Symanzik, Iwasaki and DBW2 actions. The ratio $\eta$ shows an impressive behavior as a function of $c_{1}$, i.e.,$\eta>1$ for the standard Wilson and Symanzik actions, while $\eta<1$ for Iwasaki and DBW2 actions. This is confirmed non-perturbatively by numerical simulations in weak coupling regions. The derivatives $\partial g^{-2}_{\tau}/\partial \xi$ and $\partial g^{-2}_{\sigma}/\partial \xi$ also changes sign as $-c_{1}$ increases. For Iwasaki and DBW2 actions they become opposite sign to those for standard and Symanzik actions. However, their sum is independent of the type of actions due to Karsch's sum rule

Renormalization of the isovector πN\pi N amplitude in pionic atoms

The extraction of the isovector s-wave pi N amplitude from pionic atoms is studied with special emphasis on uncertainties and their dependence on the assumptions made regarding the neutron density distributions in nuclei and on the size of the data base used . Only `global' analyses of pionic-atom data reveal a discrepancy between the extracted isovector s-wave pi N amplitude b_1=-0.108\pm0.007 m_\pi^{-1} and its free pi N counterpart b_1^{free}=-0.0885^{+0.0010}_{-0.0021} m_\pi ^{-1}, where the uncertainty in the neutron densities is included in the error analysis. The role of `deeply bound' pionic atom states is discussed and the reason for failure of these states to provide new information is explained.Comment: 17 pages, 4 figures, slightly extended, accepted by NP

Effect of grain interactions on the frequency dependence of magnetic susceptibility

Accepted versio

The Puzzling Stability of Monatomic Gold Wires

We have examined theoretically the spontaneous thinning process of tip-suspended nanowires, and subsequently studied the structure and stability of the monatomic gold wires recently observed by Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM). The methods used include thermodynamics, classical many-body force simulations, Local Density (LDA) and Generalized Gradient (GGA) electronic structure calculations as well as ab-initio simulations including the two tips. The wire thinning is well explained in terms of a thermodynamic tip suction driving migration of surface atoms from the wire to the tips. For the same reason the monatomic wire becomes progressively stretched. Surprisingly, however, all calculations so far indicate that the stretched monatomic gold wire should be unstable against breaking, contrary to the apparent experimental stability. The possible reasons for the observed stability are discussed.Comment: 4 figure

Ion size effects on the electrokinetics of salt-free concentrated suspensions in ac fields

We analyze the influence of finite ion size effects in the response of a salt-free concentrated suspension of spherical particles to an oscillating electric field. Salt-free suspensions are just composed of charged colloidal particles and the added counterions released by the particles to the solution, that counterbalance their surface charge. In the frequency domain, we study the dynamic electrophoretic mobility of the particles and the dielectric response of the suspension. We find that the Maxwell-Wagner-O'Konski process associated with the counterions condensation layer, is enhanced for moderate to high particle charges, yielding an increment of the mobility for such frequencies. We also find that the increment of the mobility grows with ion size and particle charge. All these facts show the importance of including ion size effects in any extension attempting to improve standard electrokinetic models.Comment: J. Colloid Interface Sci., in press, 13 pages, 9 figure

A travelling wave model of ripple formation on ion bombarded surfaces

NOTICE: this is the author’s version of a work that was accepted for publication in Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section B: Beam Interactions with Materials and Atoms. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published in Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section B: Beam Interactions with Materials and Atoms, Vol 303, May 2013, DOI:10.1016/j.nimb.2012.11.031We present a mathematical model describing surface modification resulting from atomic motion after ion bombardment. The model considers only the defect production and recovery process induced by the local atom rearrangement and is essentially independent of surface topography changes formed by both sputtering and surface diffusion. A stable analytic, travelling wave solution is presented for a specific incident angle, which agrees with experimental observation excellently. © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved