836 research outputs found
Using Abrupt Changes in Magnetic Susceptibility within Type-II Superconductors to Explore Global Decoherence Phenomena
A phenomenon of a periodic staircase of macroscopic jumps in the admitted
magnetic field has been observed, as the magnitude of an externally applied
magnetic field is smoothly increased or decreased upon a superconducting (SC)
loop of type II niobium-titanium wire which is coated with a
non-superconducting layer of copper. Large temperature spikes were observed to
occur simultaneously with the jumps, suggesting brief transitions to the normal
state, caused by en masse motions of Abrikosov vortices. An experiment that
exploits this phenomenon to explore the global decoherence of a large
superconducting system will be discussed, and preliminary data will be
presented. Though further experimentation is required to determine the actual
decoherence rate across the superconducting system, multiple classical
processes are ruled out, suggesting that jumps in magnetic flux are fully
quantum mechanical processes which may correspond to large group velocities
within the global Cooper pair wavefunction.Comment: 13 pages, 4 figures, part of proceedings for FQMT 2011 conference in
Prague, Czech Republi
Quantum Noise and Superluminal Propagation
Causal "superluminal" effects have recently been observed and discussed in
various contexts. The question arises whether such effects could be observed
with extremely weak pulses, and what would prevent the observation of an
"optical tachyon." Aharonov, Reznik, and Stern (ARS) [Phys. Rev. Lett., vol.
81, 2190 (1998)] have argued that quantum noise will preclude the observation
of a superluminal group velocity when the pulse consists of one or a few
photons. In this paper we reconsider this question both in a general framework
and in the specific example, suggested by Chiao, Kozhekin, and Kurizki [Phys.
Rev. Lett., vol. 77, 1254 (1996)], of off-resonant, short-pulse propagation in
an optical amplifier. We derive in the case of the amplifier a signal-to-noise
ratio that is consistent with the general ARS conclusions when we impose their
criteria for distinguishing between superluminal propagation and propagation at
the speed c. However, results consistent with the semiclassical arguments of
CKK are obtained if weaker criteria are imposed, in which case the signal can
exceed the noise without being "exponentially large." We show that the quantum
fluctuations of the field considered by ARS are closely related to
superfluorescence noise. More generally we consider the implications of
unitarity for superluminal propagation and quantum noise and study, in addition
to the complete and truncated wavepackets considered by ARS, the residual
wavepacket formed by their difference. This leads to the conclusion that the
noise is mostly luminal and delayed with respect to the superluminal signal. In
the limit of a very weak incident signal pulse, the superluminal signal will be
dominated by the noise part, and the signal-to-noise ratio will therefore be
very small.Comment: 30 pages, 1 figure, eps
Can a charged ring levitate a neutral, polarizable object? Can Earnshaw's Theorem be extended to such objects?
Stable electrostatic levitation and trapping of a neutral, polarizable object
by a charged ring is shown to be theoretically impossible. Earnshaw's Theorem
precludes the existence of such a stable, neutral particle trap.Comment: 11 pages, 1 figur
Effective photon-photon interaction in a two-dimensional "photon fluid"
We formulate an effective theory for the atom-mediated photon-photon
interactions in a two-dimensional ``photon fluid'' confined in a Fabry-Perot
resonator. With the atoms modelled by a collection of anharmonic Lorentz
oscillators, the effective interaction is evaluated to second order in the
coupling constant (the anharmonicity parameter). The interaction has the form
of a renormalized two-dimensional delta-function potential, with the
renormalization scale determined by the physical parameters of the system, such
as density of atoms and the detuning of the photons relative to the resonance
frequency of the atoms. For realistic values of the parameters, the
perturbation series has to be resummed, and the effective interaction becomes
independent of the ``bare'' strength of the anharmonic term. The resulting
expression for the non-linear Kerr susceptibility, is parametrically equal to
the one found earlier for a dilute gas of two-level atoms. Using our result for
the effective interaction parameter, we derive conditions for the formation of
a photon fluid, both for Rydberg atoms in a microwave cavity and for alkali
atoms in an optical cavity.Comment: 25 pages (revtex4), including 2 figure
Signal velocity, causality, and quantum noise in superluminal light pulse propagation
We consider pulse propagation in a linear anomalously dispersive medium where
the group velocity exceeds the speed of light in vacuum (c) or even becomes
negative. A signal velocity is defined operationally based on the optical
signal-to-noise ratio, and is computed for cases appropriate to the recent
experiment where such a negative group velocity was observed. It is found that
quantum fluctuations limit the signal velocity to values less than c.Comment: 4 Journal pages, 3 figure
Efficient Reactive Brownian Dynamics
We develop a Split Reactive Brownian Dynamics (SRBD) algorithm for particle
simulations of reaction-diffusion systems based on the Doi or volume reactivity
model, in which pairs of particles react with a specified Poisson rate if they
are closer than a chosen reactive distance. In our Doi model, we ensure that
the microscopic reaction rules for various association and disassociation
reactions are consistent with detailed balance (time reversibility) at
thermodynamic equilibrium. The SRBD algorithm uses Strang splitting in time to
separate reaction and diffusion, and solves both the diffusion-only and
reaction-only subproblems exactly, even at high packing densities. To
efficiently process reactions without uncontrolled approximations, SRBD employs
an event-driven algorithm that processes reactions in a time-ordered sequence
over the duration of the time step. A grid of cells with size larger than all
of the reactive distances is used to schedule and process the reactions, but
unlike traditional grid-based methods such as Reaction-Diffusion Master
Equation (RDME) algorithms, the results of SRBD are statistically independent
of the size of the grid used to accelerate the processing of reactions. We use
the SRBD algorithm to compute the effective macroscopic reaction rate for both
reaction- and diffusion-limited irreversible association in three dimensions.
We also study long-time tails in the time correlation functions for reversible
association at thermodynamic equilibrium. Finally, we compare different
particle and continuum methods on a model exhibiting a Turing-like instability
and pattern formation. We find that for models in which particles diffuse off
lattice, such as the Doi model, reactions lead to a spurious enhancement of the
effective diffusion coefficients.Comment: To appear in J. Chem. Phy
Metal Enrichment of the Intergalactic Medium in Cosmological Simulations
Observations have established that the diffuse intergalactic medium (IGM) at
z ~ 3 is enriched to ~0.1-1% solar metallicity and that the hot gas in large
clusters of galaxies (ICM) is enriched to 1/3-1/2 solar metallicity at z=0.
Metals in the IGM may have been removed from galaxies (in which they presumably
form) during dynamical encounters between galaxies, by ram-pressure stripping,
by supernova-driven winds, or as radiation-pressure driven dust efflux. This
study develops a method of investigating the chemical enrichment of the IGM and
of galaxies, using already completed cosmological simulations. To these
simulations, we add dust and (gaseous) metals, distributing the dust and metals
in the gas according to three simple parameterized prescriptions, one for each
enrichment mechanism. These prescriptions are formulated to capture the basic
ejection physics, and calibrated when possible with empirical data. Our results
indicate that dynamical removal of metals from >~ 3*10^8 solar mass galaxies
cannot account for the observed metallicity of low-column density Ly-alpha
absorbers, and that dynamical removal from >~ 3*10^10 solar mass galaxies
cannot account for the ICM metallicities. Dynamical removal also fails to
produce a strong enough mass-metallicity relation in galaxies. In contrast,
either wind or radiation-pressure ejection of metals from relatively large
galaxies can plausibly account for all three sets of observations (though it is
unclear whether metals can be distributed uniformly enough in the low-density
regions without overly disturbing the IGM, and whether clusters can be enriched
quite as much as observed). We investigate in detail how our results change
with variations in our assumed parameters, and how results for the different
ejection processes compare. (Abridged)Comment: Minor revision, 1 figure added addressing diffusion of metals after
their ejection. Accepted by ApJ. 31 EmulateApj Pages with 13 embedded
postscript figure
Transparent Anomalous Dispersion and Superluminal Light Pulse Propagation at a Negative Group Velocity
Anomalous dispersion cannot occur in a transparent passive medium where
electromagnetic radiation is being absorbed at all frequencies, as pointed out
by Landau and Lifshitz. Here we show, both theoretically and experimentally,
that transparent linear anomalous dispersion can occur when a gain doublet is
present. Therefore, a superluminal light pulse propagation can be observed even
at a negative group velocity through a transparent medium with almost no pulse
distortion. Consequently, a {\it negative transit time} is experimentally
observed resulting in the peak of the incident light pulse to exit the medium
even before entering it. This counterintuitive effect is a direct result of the
{\it rephasing} process owing to the wave nature of light and is not at odds
with either causality or Einstein's theory of special relativity.Comment: 12 journal pages, 9 figure
Bilateral symmetry breaking in a nonlinear Fabry-Perot cavity exhibiting optical tristability
We show the existence of a region in the parameter space that defines the
field dynamics in a Fabry-Perot cylindrical cavity, where three output stable
stationary states of the light are possible for a given localized incident
field. Two of these states do not preserve the bilateral (i.e. left-right)
symmetry of the entire system. These broken-symmetry states are the
high-transmission nonlinear modes of the system. We also discuss how to excite
these states.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figure
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