739 research outputs found
The Fate of Ernst Ising and the Fate of his Model
On this, the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the "Ising Lectures" in Lviv
(Ukraine), we give some personal reflections about the famous model that was
suggested by Wilhelm Lenz for ferromagnetism in 1920 and solved in one
dimension by his PhD student, Ernst Ising, in 1924. That work of Lenz and Ising
marked the start of a scientific direction that, over nearly 100 years,
delivered extraordinary successes in explaining collective behaviour in a vast
variety of systems, both within and beyond the natural sciences. The broadness
of the appeal of the Ising model is reflected in the variety of talks presented
at the Ising lectures ( http://www.icmp.lviv.ua/ising/ ) over the past two
decades but requires that we restrict this report to a small selection of
topics. The paper starts with some personal memoirs of Thomas Ising (Ernst's
son). We then discuss the history of the model, exact solutions, experimental
realisations, and its extension to other fields.Comment: 46 pages, 9 figure
On the occurrence of oscillatory modulations in the power-law behavior of dynamic and kinetic processes in fractals
The dynamic and kinetic behavior of processes occurring in fractals with
spatial discrete scale invariance (DSI) is considered. Spatial DSI implies the
existence of a fundamental scaling ratio (b_1). We address time-dependent
physical processes, which as a consequence of the time evolution develop a
characteristic length of the form , where z is the dynamic
exponent. So, we conjecture that the interplay between the physical process and
the symmetry properties of the fractal leads to the occurrence of time DSI
evidenced by soft log-periodic modulations of physical observables, with a
fundamental time scaling ratio given by . The conjecture is
tested numerically for random walks, and representative systems of broad
universality classes in the fields of irreversible and equilibrium critical
phenomena.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures. Submitted to EP
On the center of mass of Ising vectors
We show that the center of mass of Ising vectors that obey some simple
constraints, is again an Ising vector.Comment: 8 pages, 3 figures, LaTeX; Claims in connection with disordered
systems have been withdrawn; More detailed description of the simulations;
Inset added to figure
Diffusive Thermal Dynamics for the Ising Ferromagnet
We introduce a thermal dynamics for the Ising ferromagnet where the energy
variations occurring within the system exhibit a diffusive character typical of
thermalizing agents such as e.g. localized excitations. Time evolution is
provided by a walker hopping across the sites of the underlying lattice
according to local probabilities depending on the usual Boltzmann weight at a
given temperature. Despite the canonical hopping probabilities the walker
drives the system to a stationary state which is not reducible to the canonical
equilibrium state in a trivial way. The system still exhibits a magnetic phase
transition occurring at a finite value of the temperature larger than the
canonical one. The dependence of the model on the density of walkers realizing
the dynamics is also discussed. Interestingly the differences between the
stationary state and the Boltzmann equilibrium state decrease with increasing
number of walkers.Comment: 9 pages, 14 figures. Accepted for publication on PR
Statistically interacting quasiparticles in Ising chains
The exclusion statistics of two complementary sets of quasiparticles,
generated from opposite ends of the spectrum, are identified for Ising chains
with spin s=1/2,1. In the s=1/2 case the two sets are antiferromagnetic domain
walls (solitons) and ferromagnetic domains (strings). In the s=1 case they are
soliton pairs and nested strings, respectively. The Ising model is equivalent
to a system of two species of solitons for s=1/2 and to a system of six species
of soliton pairs for s=1. Solitons exist on single bonds but soliton pairs may
be spread across many bonds. The thermodynamics of a system of domains spanning
up to lattice sites is amenable to exact analysis and shown to become
equivalent, in the limit M -> infinity, to the thermodynamics of the s=1/2
Ising chain. A relation is presented between the solitons in the Ising limit
and the spinons in the XX limit of the s=1/2 XXZ chain.Comment: 18 pages and 4 figure
Geodesics for Efficient Creation and Propagation of Order along Ising Spin Chains
Experiments in coherent nuclear and electron magnetic resonance, and optical
spectroscopy correspond to control of quantum mechanical ensembles, guiding
them from initial to final target states by unitary transformations. The
control inputs (pulse sequences) that accomplish these unitary transformations
should take as little time as possible so as to minimize the effects of
relaxation and decoherence and to optimize the sensitivity of the experiments.
Here we give efficient syntheses of various unitary transformations on Ising
spin chains of arbitrary length. The efficient realization of the unitary
transformations presented here is obtained by computing geodesics on a sphere
under a special metric. We show that contrary to the conventional belief, it is
possible to propagate a spin order along an Ising spin chain with coupling
strength J (in units of Hz), significantly faster than 1/(2J) per step. The
methods presented here are expected to be useful for immediate and future
applications involving control of spin dynamics in coherent spectroscopy and
quantum information processing
FKBP5 Genotype-Dependent DNA Methylation and mRNA Regulation After Psychosocial Stress in Remitted Depression and Healthy Controls.
BACKGROUND: Polymorphisms in the FK506 binding protein 5 (FKBP5) gene have been shown to influence glucocorticoid receptor sensitivity, stress response regulation, and depression risk in traumatized subjects, with most consistent findings reported for the functional variant rs1360780. In the present study, we investigated whether the FKBP5 polymorphism rs1360780 and lifetime history of major depression are associated with DNA methylation and FKBP5 gene expression after psychosocial stress. METHODS: A total of 116 individuals with a positive (n = 61) and negative (n = 55) lifetime history of major depression participated in the Trier Social Stress Test. We assessed plasma cortisol concentrations, FKBP5 mRNA expression, and CpG methylation of FKBP5 intron 7 in peripheral blood cells. RESULTS: Genotype-dependent plasma cortisol response to psychosocial stress exposure was observed in healthy controls, with the highest and longest-lasting cortisol increase in subjects with the TT genotype of the FKBP5 polymorphism rs1360780, and healthy controls carrying the T risk allele responded with a blunted FKBP5 mRNA expression after psychosocial stress. No genotype effects could be found in remitted depression. CONCLUSIONS: The FKBP5 rs1360780 polymorphism is associated with plasma cortisol and FKBP5 mRNA expression after psychosocial stress in healthy controls but not in remitted depression. Preliminary results of the DNA methylation analysis suggest that epigenetic modifications could be involved
Thermal noise limitations to force measurements with torsion pendulums: Applications to the measurement of the Casimir force and its thermal correction
A general analysis of thermal noise in torsion pendulums is presented. The
specific case where the torsion angle is kept fixed by electronic feedback is
analyzed. This analysis is applied to a recent experiment that employed a
torsion pendulum to measure the Casimir force. The ultimate limit to the
distance at which the Casimir force can be measured to high accuracy is
discussed, and in particular the prospects for measuring the thermal correction
are elaborated upon.Comment: one figure, five pages, to be submitted to Phys Rev
An asteroseismic test of diffusion theory in white dwarfs
The helium-atmosphere (DB) white dwarfs are commonly thought to be the
descendants of the hotter PG1159 stars, which initially have uniform He/C/O
atmospheres. In this evolutionary scenario, diffusion builds a pure He surface
layer which gradually thickens as the star cools. In the temperature range of
the pulsating DB white dwarfs (T_eff ~ 25,000 K) this transformation is still
taking place, allowing asteroseismic tests of the theory. We have obtained
dual-site observations of the pulsating DB star CBS114, to complement existing
observations of the slightly cooler star GD358. We recover the 7 independent
pulsation modes that were previously known, and we discover 4 new ones to
provide additional constraints on the models. We perform objective global
fitting of our updated double-layered envelope models to both sets of
observations, leading to determinations of the envelope masses and pure He
surface layers that qualitatively agree with the expectations of diffusion
theory. These results provide new asteroseismic evidence supporting one of the
central assumptions of spectral evolution theory, linking the DB white dwarfs
to PG1159 stars.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figures, 3 tables, accepted for publication in A&
Stationary State Solutions of a Bond Diluted Kinetic Ising Model: An Effective-Field Theory Analysis
We have examined the stationary state solutions of a bond diluted kinetic
Ising model under a time dependent oscillating magnetic field within the
effective-field theory (EFT) for a honeycomb lattice . Time evolution of
the system has been modeled with a formalism of master equation. The effects of
the bond dilution, as well as the frequency and amplitude of
the external field on the dynamic phase diagrams have been discussed in detail.
We have found that the system exhibits the first order phase transition with a
dynamic tricritical point (DTCP) at low temperature and high amplitude regions,
in contrast to the previously published results for the pure case \cite{Ling}.
Bond dilution process on the kinetic Ising model gives rise to a number of
interesting and unusual phenomena such as reentrant phenomena and has a
tendency to destruct the first-order transitions and the DTCP. Moreover, we
have investigated the variation of the bond percolation threshold as functions
of the amplitude and frequency of the oscillating field.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figure
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