6,839 research outputs found
Density-matrix functionals for pairing in mesoscopic superconductors
A functional theory based on single-particle occupation numbers is developed
for pairing. This functional, that generalizes the BCS approach, directly
incorporates corrections due to particle number conservation. The functional is
benchmarked with the pairing Hamiltonian and reproduces perfectly the energy
for any particle number and coupling.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, revised versio
Pairing dynamics in particle transport
We analyze the effect of pairing on particle transport in time-dependent
theories based on the Hartree-Fock-Bogoliubov (HFB) or BCS approximations. The
equations of motion for the HFB density matrices are unique and the theory
respects the usual conservation laws defined by commutators of the conserved
quantity with the Hamiltonian. In contrast, the theories based on the BCS
approximation are more problematic. In the usual formulation of TDHF+BCS, the
equation of continuity is violated and one sees unphysical oscillations in
particle densities. This can be ameliorated by freezing the occupation numbers
during the evolution in TDHF+BCS, but there are other problems with the BCS
that make it doubtful for reaction dynamics. We also compare different
numerical implementations of the time-dependent HFB equations. The equations of
motion for the and Bogoliubov transformations are not unique, but it
appears that the usual formulation is also the most efficient. Finally, we
compare the time-dependent HFB solutions with numerically exact solutions of
the two-particle Schrodinger equation. Depending on the treatment of the
initial state, the HFB dynamics produces a particle emission rate at short
times similar to that of the Schrodinger equation. At long times, the total
particle emission can be quite different, due to inherent mean-field
approximation of the HFB theory.Comment: 11 pages, 9 figure
General Relativistic Flux Modulations from Disk Instabilities in Sagittarius A*
Near-IR and X-ray flares have been detected from the supermassive black hole
Sgr A* at the center of our Galaxy with a (quasi)-period of ~17-20 minutes,
suggesting an emission region only a few Schwarzschild radii above the event
horizon. The latest X-ray flare, detected with XMM-Newton, is notable for its
detailed lightcurve, yielding not only the highest quality period thus far, but
also important structure reflecting the geometry of the emitting region. Recent
MHD simulations of Sgr A*'s disk have demonstrated the growth of a Rossby wave
instability, that enhances the accretion rate for several hours, possibly
accounting for the observed flares. In this Letter, we carry out ray-tracing
calculations in a Schwarzschild metric to determine as accurately as possible
the lightcurve produced by general relativistic effects during such a
disruption. We find that the Rossby wave induced spiral pattern in the disk is
an excellent fit to the data, implying a disk inclination angle of ~77 deg.
Note, however, that if this association is correct, the observed period is not
due to the underlying Keplerian motion but, rather, to the pattern speed. The
favorable comparison between the observed and simulated lightcurves provides
important additional evidence that the flares are produced in Sgr A*'s inner
disk.Comment: 5 Pages, 3 Figures, accepted for publication in ApJ Lette
Phase transitions for random states and a semi-circle law for the partial transpose
For a system of N identical particles in a random pure state, there is a
threshold k_0 = k_0(N) ~ N/5 such that two subsystems of k particles each
typically share entanglement if k > k_0, and typically do not share
entanglement if k < k_0. By "random" we mean here "uniformly distributed on the
sphere of the corresponding Hilbert space." The analogous phase transition for
the positive partial transpose (PPT) property can be described even more
precisely. For example, for N qubits the two subsystems of size k are typically
in a PPT state if k
k_1. Since, for a given state of the entire system, the induced state of a
subsystem is given by the partial trace, the above facts can be rephrased as
properties of random induced states. An important step in the analysis depends
on identifying the asymptotic spectral density of the partial transposes of
such random induced states, a result which is interesting in its own right.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures. This short note contains a high-level overview of
two long and technical papers, arXiv:1011.0275 and arXiv:1106.2264. Version
2: unchanged results, editorial changes, added reference, close to the
published articl
Molecular Density Functional Theory for water with liquid-gas coexistence and correct pressure
The solvation of hydrophobic solutes in water is special because liquid and
gas are almost at coexistence. In the common hypernetted chain approximation to
integral equations, or equivalently in the homogenous reference fluid of
molecular density functional theory, coexistence is not taken into account.
Hydration structures and energies of nanometer-scale hydrophobic solutes are
thus incorrect. In this article, we propose a bridge functional that corrects
this thermodynamic inconsistency by introducing a metastable gas phase for the
homogeneous solvent. We show how this can be done by a third order expansion of
the functional around the bulk liquid density that imposes the right pressure
and the correct second order derivatives. Although this theory is not limited
to water, we apply it to study hydrophobic solvation in water at room
temperature and pressure and compare the results to all-atom simulations. With
this correction, molecular density functional theory gives, at a modest
computational cost, quantitative hydration free energies and structures of
small molecular solutes like n-alkanes, and of hard sphere solutes whose radii
range from angstroms to nanometers. The macroscopic liquid-gas surface tension
predicted by the theory is comparable to experiments. This theory gives an
alternative to the empirical hard sphere bridge correction used so far by
several authors.Comment: 18 pages, 6 figure
Buried dislocation networks designed to organize the growth of III-V semiconductor nanostructures
We first report a detailed transmission electron microscopy study of
dislocation networks (DNs) formed at shallowly buried interfaces obtained by
bonding two GaAs crystals between which we establish in a controlled manner a
twist and a tilt around a k110l direction. For large enough twists, the DN
consists of a twodimensional network of screw dislocations accommodating mainly
the twist and of a one-dimensional network of mixed dislocations accommodating
mainly the tilt. We show that in addition the mixed dislocations accommodate
part of the twist and we observe and explain slight unexpected disorientations
of the screw dislocations with respect to the k110l directions. By performing a
quantitative analysis of the whole DN, we propose a coherent interpretation of
these observations which also provides data inaccessible by direct experiments.
When the twist is small enough, one screw subnetwork vanishes. The surface
strain field induced by such DNs has been used to pilot the lateral ordering of
GaAs and InGaAs nanostructures during metal-organic vapor phase epitaxy. We
prove that the dimensions and orientations of the nanostructures are correlated
with those of the cells of the underlying DN and explain how the interface
dislocation structure governs the formation of the nanostructures
Formation and annealing of dislocation loops induced by nitrogen implantation of ZnO
Although zinc oxide is a promising material for the fabrication of short
wavelength optoelectronic devices, p-type doping is a step that remains
challenging for the realization of diodes. Out of equilibrium methods such as
ion implantation are expected to dope ZnO successfully provided that the
non-radiative defects introduced by implantation can be annealed out. In this
study, ZnO substrates are implanted with nitrogen ions, and the extended
defects induced by implantation are studied by transmission electron microscopy
and X-ray diffraction (XRD), before and after annealing at 900^{\circ}C. Before
annealing, these defects are identified to be dislocation loops lying either in
basal planes in high N concentration regions, or in prismatic planes in low N
concentration regions, together with linear dislocations. An uniaxial
deformation of 0.4% along the c axis, caused by the predominant basal loops, is
measured by XRD in the implanted layer. After annealing, prismatic loops
disappear while the density of basal loops decreases and their diameter
increases. Moreover, dislocation loops disappear completely from the
sub-surface region. XRD measurements show a residual deformation of only 0.05%
in the implanted and annealed layer. The fact that basal loops are favoured
against prismatic ones at high N concentration or high temperature is
attributed to a lower stacking fault energy in these conditions. The
coalescence of loops and their disappearance in the sub-surface region are
ascribed to point defect diffusion. Finally, the electrical and optical
properties of nitrogen-implanted ZnO are correlated with the observed
structural features.Comment: 8 page
Description of Pairing correlation in Many-Body finite systems with density functional theory
Different steps leading to the new functional for pairing based on natural
orbitals and occupancies proposed in ref. [D. Lacroix and G. Hupin,
arXiv:1003.2860] are carefully analyzed. Properties of quasi-particle states
projected onto good particle number are first reviewed. These properties are
used (i) to prove the existence of such a functional (ii) to provide an
explicit functional through a 1/N expansion starting from the BCS approach
(iii) to give a compact form of the functional summing up all orders in the
expansion. The functional is benchmarked in the case of the picked fence
pairing Hamiltonian where even and odd systems, using blocking technique are
studied, at various particle number and coupling strength, with uniform and
random single-particle level spacing. In all cases, a very good agreement is
found with a deviation inferior to 1% compared to the exact energy.Comment: 14 pages, 9 figure
Carrier thermal escape in families of InAs/InP self-assembled quantum dots
We investigate the thermal quenching of the multimodal photoluminescence from
InAs/InP (001) self-assembled quantum dots. The temperature evolution of the
photoluminescence spectra of two samples is followed from 10 K to 300 K. We
develop a coupled rate-equation model that includes the effect of carrier
thermal escape from a quantum dot to the wetting layer and to the InP matrix,
followed by transport, recapture or non-radiative recombination. Our model
reproduces the temperature dependence of the emission of each family of quantum
dots with a single set of parameters. We find that the main escape mechanism of
the carriers confined in the quantum dots is through thermal emission to the
wetting layer. The activation energy for this process is found to be close to
one-half the energy difference between that of a given family of quantum dots
and that of the wetting layer as measured by photoluminescence excitation
experiments. This indicates that electron and holes exit the InAs quantum dots
as correlated pairs
Analysis, Isolation, and Activation of Antigen-Specific CD4 + and CD8+ T Cells by Soluble MHC-Peptide Complexes
T cells constitute the core of adaptive cellular immunity and protect higher organisms against pathogen infections and cancer. Monitoring of disease progression as well as prophylactic or therapeutic vaccines and immunotherapies call for conclusive detection, analysis, and sorting of antigen-specific T cells. This is possible by means of soluble recombinant ligands for T cells, i.e., MHC class I-peptide (pMHC I) complexes for CD8(+) T cells and MHC class II-peptide (pMHC II) complexes for CD4(+) T cells and flow cytometry. Here we review major developments in the development of pMHC staining reagents and their diverse applications and discuss perspectives of their use for basic and clinical investigations
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