43,974 research outputs found
Assessment of density-functional approximations: Long-range correlations and self-interaction effects
The complex nature of electron-electron correlations is made manifest in the very simple but nontrivial problem of two electrons confined within a sphere. The description of highly nonlocal correlation and self-interaction effects by widely used local and semilocal exchange-correlation energy density functionals is shown to be unsatisfactory in most cases. Even the best such functionals exhibit significant errors in the Kohn-Sham potentials and density profiles
Gas Dynamics of the Nickel-56 Decay Heating in Pair-Instability Supernovae
Very massive 140-260 Msun stars can die as highly-energetic pair-instability
supernovae (PI SNe) with energies of up to 100 times those of core-collapse SNe
that can completely destroy the star, leaving no compact remnant behind. These
explosions can synthesize Msun of radioactive Ni56, which can cause
them to rebrighten at later times when photons due to Ni56 decay diffuse out of
the ejecta. However, heat from the decay of such large masses of Ni56 could
also drive important dynamical effects deep in the ejecta that are capable of
mixing elements and affecting the observational signatures of these events. We
have now investigated the dynamical effect of Ni56 heating on PI SN ejecta with
high-resolution two-dimensional hydrodynamic simulations performed with the
CASTRO code. We find that expansion of the hot Ni56 bubble forms a shell at the
base of the silicon layer of the ejecta about 200 days after the explosion but
that no hydrodynamical instabilities develop that would mix Ni56 with the
Si/O-rich ejecta. However, while the dynamical effects of Ni56 heating may be
weak they could affect the observational signatures of some PI SNe by diverting
decay energy into internal expansion of the ejecta at the expense of
rebrightening at later times.Comment: Accepted to ApJ, 14 page
Infrared optical absorption spectra of CuO single crystals: Fermion-spinon band and dimensional crossover of the antiferromagnetic order
We have obtained mid-infrared optical absorption spectra of the S=1/2 quasi
one-dimensional CuO using polarized transmission measurement and interpreted
the spectra in terms of phonon assisted magnetic excitations. When the electric
field is parallel to the main antiferromagnetic direction a Delta shaped peak
is observed with the maximum at 0.23eV which is attributed to spinons along
Cu-O chains. At low temperatures in the antiferromagnetic phase another peak
appears at 0.16eV which is attributed to two-magnon absorption but the spinon
peak remains. This behavior is interpreted as due to a dimensional crossover
where the low temperature three-dimensional magnetic phase keeps short range
characteristics of a one-dimensional magnet.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figure
Radiation Transport Simulations of Pulsational Pair-Instability Supernovae
Massive stars of helium cores of 35-65 Msun eventually encounter the
electron/positron creation instability, and it triggers explosive carbon or
oxygen burning that produces several thermonuclear eruptions. The resulting
catastrophe collisions of eruptive shells sometimes produce luminous transients
with peak luminosity of erg/sec, known as pulsational
pair-instability supernovae (PPISNe). Previous 2D simulations of colliding
shells show the development of Rayleigh-Taylor (RT) instabilities and mixing.
Here we present radiation hydrodynamic PPISNe simulations of a 110 Msun
solar-metallicity star that was promising to produce a superluminous transit in
the early work. Our comprehensive study contains a suite of one-, two-, and
three-dimensional models. We discuss the impact of dimensionality and fluid
instabilities on the resulting light curves. The results show the RT mixing
found in previous multidimensional hydro studies transforms into a thin and
distorted shell due to radiative cooling. Radiation from the wiggly shell peaks
at its bolometric light curve of erg/sec, lasting about
150 days and following with a plateau of erg/sec for
another two hundred days before it fades away. The total radiation energy
emitted from colliding shells is erg, which is of the kinetic energy of the major eruption. The dimensional effects also
manifest on the physical properties, such as irregularity and thickness of the
shell. Our study suggests PPISNe is a promising candidate of luminous SNe, the
radiation of which originates from colliding shells with a homogeneous mixing
of ejecta.Comment: Submitted to ApJ, 16 pages, comments are welcom
Transport in Graphene Tunnel Junctions
We present a technique to fabricate tunnel junctions between graphene and Al
and Cu, with a Si back gate, as well as a simple theory of tunneling between a
metal and graphene. We map the differential conductance of our junctions versus
probe and back gate voltage, and observe fluctuations in the conductance that
are directly related to the graphene density of states. The conventional
strong-suppression of the conductance at the graphene Dirac point can not be
clearly demonstrated, but a more robust signature of the Dirac point is found:
the inflection in the conductance map caused by the electrostatic gating of
graphene by the tunnel probe. We present numerical simulations of our
conductance maps, confirming the measurement results. In addition, Al causes
strong n-doping of graphene, Cu causes a moderate p-doping, and in high
resistance junctions, phonon resonances are observed, as in STM studies.Comment: 22 pages, 5 figure
Reduced Fine-Tuning in Supersymmetry with R-parity violation
Both electroweak precision measurements and simple supersymmetric extensions
of the standard model prefer a mass of the Higgs boson less than the
experimental lower limit of 114 GeV. We show that supersymmetric models with R
parity violation and baryon number violation have a significant range of
parameter space in which the Higgs dominantly decays to six jets. These decays
are much more weakly constrained by current LEP analyses and would allow for a
Higgs mass near that of the . In general, lighter scalar quark and other
superpartner masses are allowed and the fine-tuning typically required to
generate the measured scale of electroweak symmetry breaking is ameliorated.
The Higgs would potentially be discovered at hadron colliders via the
appearance of new displaced vertices. The lightest neutralino could be
discovered by a scan of vertex-less events LEP I data.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures. Significant detail added to the arguments
regarding LEP limits - made more quantitative. Better figures used, plotting
more physical quantities. Typos corrected and references updated. Conclusions
unchange
Dynamical Exchanges in Facilitated Models of Supercooled liquids
We investigate statistics of dynamical exchange events in coarse--grained
models of supercooled liquids in spatial dimensions , 2, and 3. The
models, based upon the concept of dynamical facilitation, capture generic
features of statistics of exchange times and persistence times. Here,
distributions for both times are related, and calculated for cases of strong
and fragile glass formers over a range of temperatures. Exchange time
distributions are shown to be particularly sensitive to the model parameters
and dimensions, and exhibit more structured and richer behavior than
persistence time distributions. Mean exchange times are shown to be Arrhenius,
regardless of models and spatial dimensions. Specifically, , with being the excitation concentration. Different dynamical
exchange processes are identified and characterized from the underlying
trajectories. We discuss experimental possibilities to test some of our
theoretical findings.Comment: 11 pages, 14 figures, minor corrections made, paper published in
Journal of Chemical Physic
Concurrent Magnetic and Metal-Insulator Transitions in (Eu,Sm)B_6 Single Crystals
The effects of magnetic doping on a EuB_6 single crystal were investigated
based on magnetic and transport measurements. A modest 5% Sm substitution for
Eu changes the magnetic and transport properties dramatically and gives rise to
concurrent antiferromagnetic and metal-insulator transitions (MIT) from
ferromagnetic MIT for EuB6. Magnetic doping simultaneously changes the
itinerant carrier density and the magnetic interactions. We discuss the origin
of the concurrent magnetic MIT in (Eu,Sm)B_6.Comment: 13 pages, 3 figures, final version to appear in Appl. Phys. Lett
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