186 research outputs found
Strongly correlated wave functions for artificial atoms and molecules
A method for constructing semianalytical strongly correlated wave functions
for single and molecular quantum dots is presented. It employs a two-step
approach of symmetry breaking at the Hartree-Fock level and of subsequent
restoration of total spin and angular momentum symmetries via Projection
Techniques. Illustrative applications are presented for the case of a
two-electron helium-like single quantum dot and a hydrogen-like quantum dot
molecule.Comment: 9 pages. Revtex with 2 GIF and 1 EPS figures. Published version with
extensive clarifications. A version of the manuscript with high quality
figures incorporated in the text is available at
http://calcite.physics.gatech.edu/~costas/qdhelproj.html For related papers,
see http://www.prism.gatech.edu/~ph274c
Centre-of-mass separation in quantum mechanics: Implications for the many-body treatment in quantum chemistry and solid state physics
We address the question to what extent the centre-of-mass (COM) separation
can change our view of the many-body problem in quantum chemistry and solid
state physics. It was shown that the many-body treatment based on the
electron-vibrational Hamiltonian is fundamentally inconsistent with the
Born-Handy ansatz so that such a treatment can never respect the COM problem.
Born-Oppenheimer (B-O) approximation reveals some secret: it is a limit case
where the degrees of freedom can be treated in a classical way. Beyond the B-O
approximation they are inseparable in principle. The unique covariant
description of all equations with respect to individual degrees of freedom
leads to new types of interaction: besides the known vibronic (electron-phonon)
one the rotonic (electron-roton) and translonic (electron-translon)
interactions arise. We have proved that due to the COM problem only the
hypervibrations (hyperphonons, i.e. phonons + rotons + translons) have true
physical meaning in molecules and crystals; nevertheless, the use of pure
vibrations (phonons) is justified only in the adiabatic systems. This fact
calls for the total revision of our contemporary knowledge of all non-adiabatic
effects, especially the Jahn-Teller effect and superconductivity. The vibronic
coupling is responsible only for removing of electron (quasi)degeneracies but
for the explanation of symmetry breaking and forming of structure the rotonic
and translonic coupling is necessary.Comment: 39 pages, 11 sections, 3 appendice
Validity of rating scale measures of voice quality
The validity of perceptual measures of vocal quality has been neglected in studies of voice, which focus more commonly on rater reliability. Validity depends in part on reliability, because an unreliable test does not measure what it is intended to measure. However, traditional measures of rating reliability only partially represent interrater agreement, because they cannot reflect variations or patterns of agreement for specific voice samples. In this paper the likelihood that two raters would agree in their ratings of a single voice is examined, for each voice in five previously gathered data sets. Results do not support the continued assumption that traditional rating procedures produce useful indices of listeners' perceptions. Listeners agreed very poorly in the midrange of scales for breathiness and roughness, and mean ratings in the midrange of such scales did not represent the extent to which a voice possesses a quality, but served only to indicate that listeners disagreed. Techniques like analysis by synthesis or judgment of similarity avoid decomposing quality into constituent dimensions, and do not require a listener to compare an external stimulus to an unstable internal representation, thus decreasing the error in measures of quality. Modeling individual differences in perception can increase the variance accounted for in models of quality, further reducing the error in perceptual measures. Thus such techniques may provide valid alternatives to current approaches
Phonons and related properties of extended systems from density-functional perturbation theory
This article reviews the current status of lattice-dynamical calculations in
crystals, using density-functional perturbation theory, with emphasis on the
plane-wave pseudo-potential method. Several specialized topics are treated,
including the implementation for metals, the calculation of the response to
macroscopic electric fields and their relevance to long wave-length vibrations
in polar materials, the response to strain deformations, and higher-order
responses. The success of this methodology is demonstrated with a number of
applications existing in the literature.Comment: 52 pages, 14 figures, submitted to Review of Modern Physic
Perception of aperiodicity in pathological voice
Although jitter, shimmer, and noise acoustically characterize all voice signals, their perceptual importance in naturally produced pathological voices has not been established psychoacoustically. To determine the role of these attributes in the perception of vocal quality, listeners were asked to adjust levels of jitter, shimmer, and the noise-to-signal ratio in a speech synthesizer, so that synthetic voices matched naturally produced tokens. Results showed that, although listeners agreed well in their judgments of the noise-to-signal ratio, they did not agree with one another in their chosen settings for jitter and shimmer. Noise-dependent differences in listeners' ability to detect changes in amounts of jitter and shimmer implicate both listener insensitivity and inability to isolate jitter and shimmer as separate dimensions in the overall pattern of aperiodicity in a voice as causes of this poor agreement. These results suggest that jitter and shimmer are not useful as independent indices of perceived vocal quality, apart from their acoustic contributions to the overall pattern of spectrally shaped noise in a voice. (c) 2005 Acoustical Society of America
Size-scale affects the upper limit of elastic energy storage
Elastically-driven motion has been used as a strategy to achieve high speeds in small organisms and engineered micro-robotic devices. We examine the size-scaling relations determining the limit of elastic energy release from elastomer bands that efficiently cycle mechanical energy with minimal loss. The maximum center-of-mass velocity of the elastomer bands was found to be size-scale independent, while smaller bands demonstrated larger accelerations and shorter durations of elastic energy release. Scaling relationships determined from these measurements are consistent with the performance of small organisms and engineered devices which utilize elastic elements to power motion
Why edge inversion? Theoretical characterization of the bonding in the transition states for inversion in F n NH(3−n) and FnPH(3−n) (n = 0–3)
A variation-perturbation method for atomic and molecular interactions. II. The interaction potential and van der Waals molecule for Ne–HF
A recently developed variation-perturbation theory for calculating intermolecular forces has been applied to the Ne–HF system for fixed H–F distances. The maximum well depth is 0.49 kJ/mol (41 cm-1) for a linear configuration with the H between the Ne and F and the Ne–H distance approximately 5.5 bohr. A secondary minimum of depth 0.24 kJ/mol (20 cm-1) was found for the other linear configuration at a Ne–F distance of about 7.0 bohr. A saddle point, about 0.20 kJ/mol (17 cm-1) deep, for the T-shaped configuration is present also at about 7.0 bohr. The potential has been used to calculate some of the bound state internal energies of the Ne–HF van der Waals molecule. The dissociation energy is 15 cm-1 from the lowest state. The Journal of Chemical Physics is copyrighted by The American Institute of Physics
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