Work distributions in the T=0 Random Field Ising Model

We perform a numerical study of the three-dimensional Random Field Ising Model at T=0. We compare work distributions along metastable trajectories obtained with the single-spin flip dynamics with the distribution of the internal energy change along equilibrium trajectories. The goal is to investigate the possibility of extending the Crooks fluctuation theorem to zero temperature when, instead of the standard ensemble statistics, one considers the ensemble generated by the quenched disorder. We show that a simple extension of Crooks fails close to the disordered induced equilibrium phase transition due to the fact that work and internal energy distributions are very asymmetric

Line creep in paper peeling

The dynamics of a "peeling front" or an elastic line is studied under creep (constant load) conditions. Our experiments show an exponential dependence of the creep velocity on the inverse force (mass) applied. In particular, the dynamical correlations of the avalanche activity are discussed here. We compare various avalanche statistics to those of a line depinning model with non-local elasticity, and study various measures of the experimental avalanche-avalanche and temporal correlations such as the autocorrelation function of the released energy and aftershock activity. From all these we conclude, that internal avalanche dynamics seems to follow "line depinning" -like behavior, in rough agreement with the depinning model. Meanwhile, the correlations reveal subtle complications not implied by depinning theory. Moreover, we also show how these results can be understood from a geophysical point of view.Comment: 22 pages, 14 fig

The magnetization-driven random field Ising model at T=0

We study the hysteretic evolution of the random field Ising model (RFIM) at T=0 when the magnetization M is controlled externally and the magnetic field H becomes the output variable. The dynamics is a simple modification of the single-spin-flip dynamics used in the H-driven situation and consists in flipping successively the spins with the largest local field. This allows to perform a detailed comparison between the microscopic trajectories followed by the system with the two protocols. Simulations are performed on random graphs with connectivity z=4 (Bethe lattice) and on the 3-D cubic lattice. The same internal energy U(M)is found with the two protocols when there is no macroscopic avalanche and it does not depend on whether the microscopic states are stable or not. On the Bethe lattice, the energy inside the macroscopic avalanche also coincides with the one that is computed analytically with the H-driven algorithm along the unstable branch of the hysteresis loop. The output field, defined here as dU/dM, exhibits very large fluctuations with the magnetization and is not self-averaging. Relation to the experimental situation is discussed.Comment: 11 pages, 13 figure

Light-Trap: A SiPM Upgrade for Very High Energy Astronomy and Beyond

With the development of the Imaging Atmospheric Cherenkov Technique (IACT), Gamma-ray astronomy has become one of the most interesting and productive fields of astrophysics. Current IACT telescope arrays (MAGIC, H.E.S.S, VERITAS) use photomultiplier tubes (PMTs) to detect the optical/near-UV Cherenkov radiation emitted due to the interaction of gamma rays with the atmosphere. For the next generation of IACT experiments, the possibility of replacing the PMTs with Silicon photomultipliers (SiPMs) is being studied. Among the main drawbacks of SiPMs are their limited active area (leading to an increase in the cost and complexity of the camera readout) and their sensitivity to unwanted wavelengths. Here we propose a novel method to build a relatively low-cost pixel consisting of a SiPM attached to a PMMA disc doped with a wavelength shifter. This pixel collects light over a much larger area than a single standard SiPM and improves sensitivity to near-UV light while simultaneously rejecting background. We describe the design of a detector that could also have applications in other fields where detection area and cost are crucial. We present results of simulations and laboratory measurements of a pixel prototype and from field tests performed with a 7-pixel cluster installed in a MAGIC telescope camera.Comment: Proceedings of the 35th International Cosmic Ray Conference (ICRC 2017), Bexco, Busan, Korea. Id:81

Dynamic hysteresis in the rheology of complex fluids

Recently, rheological hysteresis has been studied systematically in a wide range of complex fluids combining global rheology and time-resolved velocimetry. In this paper we present an analysis of the roles of the three most fundamental mechanisms in simple-yield-stress fluids: structure dynamics, viscoelastic response, and spatial flow heterogeneities, i.e., time-dependent shear bands. Dynamical hysteresis simulations are done analogously to rheological ramp-up and -down experiments on a coupled model which incorporates viscoelasticity and time-dependent structure evolution. Based on experimental data, a coupling between hysteresis measured from the local velocity profiles and that measured from the global flow curve has been suggested. According to the present model, even if transient shear banding appears during the shear ramps, in typical narrow-gap devices, only a small part of the hysteretic response can be attributed to heterogeneous flow. This results in decoupling of the hysteresis measured from the local velocity profiles and the global flow curve, demonstrating that for an arbitrary time-dependent rheological response this proposed coupling can be very weak.Peer reviewe

State Preparation in the Heisenberg Model through Adiabatic Spiraling

An adiabatic state preparation technique, called the adiabatic spiral, is proposed for the Heisenberg model. This technique is suitable for implementation on a number of quantum simulation platforms such as Rydberg atoms, trapped ions, or superconducting qubits. Classical simulations of small systems suggest that it can be successfully implemented in the near future. A comparison to Trotterized time evolution is performed and it is shown that the adiabatic spiral is able to outperform Trotterized adiabatics.Comment: 22 pages, 8 figures, published versio

Scalable Circuits for Preparing Ground States on Digital Quantum Computers: The Schwinger Model Vacuum on 100 Qubits

The vacuum of the lattice Schwinger model is prepared on up to 100 qubits of IBM's Eagle-processor quantum computers. A new algorithm to prepare the ground state of a gapped translationally-invariant system on a quantum computer is presented, which we call Scalable Circuits ADAPT-VQE (SC-ADAPT-VQE). This algorithm uses the exponential decay of correlations between distant regions of the ground state, together with ADAPT-VQE, to construct quantum circuits for state preparation that can be scaled to arbitrarily large systems. SC-ADAPT-VQE is applied to the Schwinger model, and shown to be systematically improvable, with an accuracy that converges exponentially with circuit depth. Both the structure of the circuits and the deviations of prepared wavefunctions are found to become independent of the number of spatial sites, $L$. This allows for a controlled extrapolation of the circuits, determined using small or modest-sized systems, to arbitrarily large $L$. The circuits for the Schwinger model are determined on lattices up to $L=14$ (28 qubits) with the qiskit classical simulator, and subsequently scaled up to prepare the $L=50$ (100 qubits) vacuum on IBM's 127 superconducting-qubit quantum computers ibm_brisbane and ibm_cusco. After applying an improved error-mitigation technique, which we call Operator Decoherence Renormalization, the chiral condensate and charge-charge correlators obtained from the quantum computers are found to be in good agreement with classical Matrix Product State simulations.Comment: 14 pages + appendices. 16 figures, 12 table

Influence of the driving mechanism on the response of systems with athermal dynamics: the example of the random-field Ising model

We investigate the influence of the driving mechanism on the hysteretic response of systems with athermal dynamics. In the framework of local-mean field theory at finite temperature (but neglecting thermallly activated processes), we compare the rate-independent hysteresis loops obtained in the random field Ising model (RFIM) when controlling either the external magnetic field $H$ or the extensive magnetization $M$. Two distinct behaviors are observed, depending on disorder strength. At large disorder, the $H$-driven and $M$-driven protocols yield identical hysteresis loops in the thermodynamic limit. At low disorder, when the $H$-driven magnetization curve is discontinuous (due to the presence of a macroscopic avalanche), the $M$-driven loop is re-entrant while the induced field exhibits strong intermittent fluctuations and is only weakly self-averaging. The relevance of these results to the experimental observations in ferromagnetic materials, shape memory alloys, and other disordered systems is discussed.Comment: 11 pages, 11 figure