Comment on "Long-range electrostatic interactions between like-charged colloids: Steric and confinement effects"

In a recent study [Phys. Rev. E 60, 6530 (1999)], Trizac and Raimbault showed that the effective pair interaction between like charged colloids immersed in a cylindrically confined electrolyte remains repulsive even when the size of the micro-ions or the finite longitudinal extension of the confining cylinder are taken into account. Contrary to their claim, we argue that the case of finite longitudinal confinement doesn't always generate repulsive interactions and to illustrate this point we also provide a simple example.Comment: 3 pages, 1 figure. Accepted for publication in Phys. Rev. E 200

Macroscopic and Microscopic Entropy of Near-Extremal Spinning Black Holes

A seven parameter family of five-dimensional black hole solutions depending on mass, two angular momenta, three charges and the asymptotic value of a scalar field is constructed. The entropy is computed as a function of these parameters both from the Bekenstein-Hawking formula and from the degeneracies of the corresponding D-brane states in string theory. The expressions agree at and to leading order away from extremality.Comment: 7 pages, harvma

H_3^{++}$ molecular ion in a strong magnetic field: triangular configuration

The existence of the molecular ion $H_3^{++}$ in a magnetic field in a triangular configuration is revised. Variational method with an optimization of the form of the vector potential (gauge fixing) is used. It is shown that in the range of magnetic fields $10^8 < B < 10^{11} G$ the system $(pppe)$, with protons forming an equilateral triangle perpendicular to magnetic line, has a well-pronounced minimum in the total energy. This configuration is unstable towards decays $H{-atom} + p + p$ and $H_2^+ + p$. Triangular configuration of $H_3^{++}$ complements $H_3^{++}$ in the linear configuration which exists for $B \gtrsim 10^{10} G$.Comment: RevTeX 14 pages, 9 figures, 1 table Physical Review A (accepted

Spin transport of electrons through quantum wires with spatially-modulated strength of the Rashba spin-orbit interaction

We study ballistic transport of spin-polarized electrons through quantum wires in which the strength of the Rashba spin-orbit interaction (SOI) is spatially modulated. Subband mixing, due to SOI, between the two lowest subbands is taken into account. Simplified approximate expressions for the transmission are obtained for electron energies close to the bottom of the first subband and near the value for which anticrossing of the two lowest subbands occurs. In structures with periodically varied SOI strength, {\it square-wave} modulation on the spin transmission is found when only one subband is occupied and its possible application to the spin transistor is discussed. When two subbands are occupied the transmission is strongly affected by the existence of SOI interfaces as well as by the subband mixing