Variance Reduction Result for a Projected Adaptive Biasing Force Method

This paper is committed to investigate an extension of the classical adaptive biasing force method, which is used to compute the free energy related to the Boltzmann-Gibbs measure and a reaction coordinate function. The issue of this technique is that the approximated gradient of the free energy, called biasing force, is not a gradient. The commitment to this field is to project the estimated biasing force on a gradient using the Helmholtz decomposition. The variance of the biasing force is reduced using this technique, which makes the algorithm more efficient than the standard ABF method. We prove exponential convergence to equilibrium of the estimated free energy, with a precise rate of convergence in function of Logarithmic Sobolev inequality constants

A multiple replica approach to simulate reactive trajectories

A method to generate reactive trajectories, namely equilibrium trajectories leaving a metastable state and ending in another one is proposed. The algorithm is based on simulating in parallel many copies of the system, and selecting the replicas which have reached the highest values along a chosen one-dimensional reaction coordinate. This reaction coordinate does not need to precisely describe all the metastabilities of the system for the method to give reliable results. An extension of the algorithm to compute transition times from one metastable state to another one is also presented. We demonstrate the interest of the method on two simple cases: a one-dimensional two-well potential and a two-dimensional potential exhibiting two channels to pass from one metastable state to another one

Première découverte d'un Arthrodire (Placodermi, Vertebrata) dans le Dévonien d'Amérique du Sud

Des plaques dermiques d'un grand Arthrodire eubrachyhtoracide (Placodermi, Vertebrata), provisoirement attribuées à un Dunkleosteidae, ont été découvertes dans les faciès détritique de la Formation de Colpacucho (Famennien), sur la Péninsule de Cumana (Lac Titicaca, Bolivie). Il s'agit de la première découverte de restes d'Arthrodires en Amérique du Sud. Ces plaques d'Arthrodire sont associées à une épine de Chondrichthyen évoquant certaines espèces de "Ctenacanthus" du Famennien et du Carbonifère inférieur (Résumé d'auteur

Optical properties of Au colloids self-organized into rings via copolymer templates

The investigation of the Localized Surface Plasmon Resonance for plasmonic nanoparticles has opened new perspectives for optical nanosensors. Today, an issue in plasmonics is the development of large scale and low cost devices. We focus here on the Langmuir-Blodgett technique to self-organize gold nanoparticles (~ 7 nm) into rings (~ 60 nm) via polystyrene-b-polymethylmethacrylate templates. In particular, we investigated the optical properties of organized gold nanoparticle rings over large areas and report experimental evidence for plasmon resonances of both individual nanoparticles and collective modes. This paves the way for designing devices with multiple resonances in the visible-Infra-red spectrum and developing optical sensors

Magnetization jump in the XXZ chain with next-nearest-neighbor exchange

We study the dependence of the magnetization M with magnetic field B at zero temperature in the spin-1/2 XXZ chain with nearest-neighbor (NN) J1 and next-NN J2 exchange interactions, with anisotropies Delta1 and Delta2 respectively. The region of parameters for which a jump in M(B) exists is studied using numerical diagonalization, and analytical results for two magnons on a ferromagnetic background in the thermodynamic limit. We find a line in the parameter space (J2/J1, Delta1/J1, Delta2/J2) (determined by two simple equations) at which the ground state is highly degenerate. M(B) has a jump near this line, and at or near the isotropic case with ferromagnetic J1 and antiferromagnetic J2, with |J2/J1| near 1/4. These results are relevant for some systems containing CuO chains with edge-sharing CuO4 units.Comment: 9 pages, 8 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev.

On the sign of the linear magnetoelectric coefficient in Cr2_2O3_3

We establish the sign of the linear magnetoelectric (ME) coefficient, $\alpha$, in chromia, Cr$_2$O$_3$. Cr$_2$O$_3$ is the prototypical linear ME material, in which an electric (magnetic) field induces a linearly proportional magnetization (polarization), and a single magnetic domain can be selected by annealing in combined magnetic (H) and electric (E) fields. Opposite antiferromagnetic domains have opposite ME responses, and which antiferromagnetic domain corresponds to which sign of response has previously been unclear. We use density functional theory (DFT) to calculate the magnetic response of a single antiferromagnetic domain of Cr$_2$O$_3$ to an applied in-plane electric field at 0 K. We find that the domain with nearest neighbor magnetic moments oriented away from (towards) each other has a negative (positive) in-plane ME coefficient, $\alpha_{\perp}$, at 0 K. We show that this sign is consistent with all other DFT calculations in the literature that specified the domain orientation, independent of the choice of DFT code or functional, the method used to apply the field, and whether the direct (magnetic field) or inverse (electric field) ME response was calculated. Next, we reanalyze our previously published spherical neutron polarimetry data to determine the antiferromagnetic domain produced by annealing in combined E and H fields oriented along the crystallographic symmetry axis at room temperature. We find that the antiferromagnetic domain with nearest-neighbor magnetic moments oriented away from (towards) each other is produced by annealing in (anti-)parallel E and H fields, corresponding to a positive (negative) axial ME coefficient, $\alpha_{\parallel}$, at room temperature. Since $\alpha_{\perp}$ at 0 K and $\alpha_{\parallel}$ at room temperature are known to be of opposite sign, our computational and experimental results are consistent.Comment: 11 pages, 5 figure

HST optical spectral index map of the jet of 3C 273

We present HST images at 622 nm and 300 nm of the jet in 3C273 and determine the run of the optical spectral index at 0.2" along the jet. The smoothness of spectral index changes shows that the physical conditions are varying smoothly across the jet. There is no correlation between the optical flux and spectral index, as would be expected for relativistic electrons suffering strong cooling due to synchrotron emission. We find no evidence for localized acceleration or loss sites. This suggests that the spectral shape is not changing much throughout the jet. We show that relativistic beaming and/or sub-equipartition magnetic fields cannot remove the discrepancy between light-travel time along the jet and the lifetime of electrons emitting optical synchrotron radiation. We consider this further evidence in favour of a distributed electron acceleration process.Comment: Accepted for publication by Astronomy and Astrophysics (13 pages, 8 figures

Metamagnetism in the XXZ model with next-to-nearest-neighbor coupling

We investigate groundstate energies and magnetization curves in the one dimensional XXZ-model with next to nearest neighbour coupling $\alpha>0$ and anisotropy $\Delta$ ($-1 \le \Delta \le 1$) at T=0. In between the familiar ferro- and antiferromagnetic phase we find a transition region -- called metamagnetic phase -- where the magnetization curve is discontinuous at a critical field $B_c(\alpha,\Delta)$.Comment: LaTeX file (text) + 5 PS files (5 figures

Ergodic properties of quasi-Markovian generalized Langevin equations with configuration dependent noise and non-conservative force

We discuss the ergodic properties of quasi-Markovian stochastic differential equations, providing general conditions that ensure existence and uniqueness of a smooth invariant distribution and exponential convergence of the evolution operator in suitably weighted $L^{\infty}$ spaces, which implies the validity of central limit theorem for the respective solution processes. The main new result is an ergodicity condition for the generalized Langevin equation with configuration-dependent noise and (non-)conservative force