Monopoles in the Higgs Phase

We describe new solutions of Yang-Mills-Higgs theories consisting of magnetic monopoles in a phase with fully broken gauge symmetry. Rather than spreading out radially, the magnetic field lines form flux tubes. The solution is topologically stable and, when embedded in N=2 SQCD, preserves 1/4 of the supercharges. From the perspective of the flux-tube the monopole appears as a kink. Many monopoles may be threaded onto a single flux tube and placed at arbitrary separation to create a stable, BPS necklace of solitons.Comment: 8 Pages, 1 Figure. v2: Added references and comments on 3He. v3: Another reference and corrected term in Lagrangia

Superconducting p-branes and Extremal Black Holes

In Einstein-Maxwell theory, magnetic flux lines are `expelled' from a black hole as extremality is approached, in the sense that the component of the field strength normal to the horizon goes to zero. Thus, extremal black holes are found to exhibit the sort of `Meissner effect' which is characteristic of superconducting media. We review some of the evidence for this effect, and do present new evidence for it using recently found black hole solutions in string theory and Kaluza-Klein theory. We also present some new solutions, which arise naturally in string theory, which are non-superconducting extremal black holes. We present a nice geometrical interpretation of these effects derived by looking carefully at the higher dimensional configurations from which the lower dimensional black hole solutions are obtained. We show that other extremal solitonic objects in string theory (such as p-branes) can also display superconducting properties. In particular, we argue that the relativistic London equation will hold on the worldvolume of `light' superconducting p-branes (which are embedded in flat space), and that minimally coupled zero modes will propagate in the adS factor of the near-horizon geometries of `heavy', or gravitating, superconducting p-branes.Comment: 22 pages, 2 figure

Structure and dynamics of Rh surfaces

Lattice relaxations, surface phonon spectra, surface energies, and work functions are calculated for Rh(100) and Rh(110) surfaces using density-functional theory and the full-potential linearized augmented plane wave method. Both, the local-density approximation and the generalized gradient approximation to the exchange-correlation functional are considered. The force constants are obtained from the directly calculated atomic forces, and the temperature dependence of the surface relaxation is evaluated by minimizing the free energy of the system. The anharmonicity of the atomic vibrations is taken into account within the quasiharmonic approximation. The importance of contributions from different phonons to the surface relaxation is analyzed.Comment: 9 pages, 7 figures, scheduled to appear in Phys. Rev. B, Feb. 15 (1998). Other related publications can be found at http://www.rz-berlin.mpg.de/th/paper.htm

A quantum gate array can be programmed to evaluate the expectation value of any operator

A programmable gate array is a circuit whose action is controlled by input data. In this letter we describe a special--purpose quantum circuit that can be programmed to evaluate the expectation value of any operator $O$ acting on a space of states of $N$ dimensions. The circuit has a program register whose state $|\Psi(O)>_P$ encodes the operator $O$ whose expectation value is to be evaluated. The method requires knowledge of the expansion of $O$ in a basis of the space of operators. We discuss some applications of this circuit and its relation to known instances of quantum state tomography.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures include

First-principles study of lattice instabilities in the ferromagnetic martensite Ni2_2MnGa

The phonon dispersion relations and elastic constants for ferromagnetic Ni$_2$MnGa in the cubic and tetragonally distorted Heusler structures are computed using density-functional and density-functional perturbation theory within the spin-polarized generalized-gradient approximation. For $0.9<c/a<1.06$, the TA$_2$ tranverse acoustic branch along $[110]$ and symmetry-related directions displays a dynamical instability at a wavevector that depends on $c/a$. Through examination of the Fermi-surface nesting and electron-phonon coupling, this is identified as a Kohn anomaly. In the parent cubic phase the computed tetragonal shear elastic constant, C$^\prime$=(C$_{11}-$C$_{12}$)/2, is close to zero, indicating a marginal elastic instability towards a uniform tetragonal distortion. We conclude that the cubic Heusler structure is unstable against a family of energy-lowering distortions produced by the coupling between a uniform tetragonal distortion and the corresponding $[110]$ modulation. The computed relation between the $c/a$ ratio and the modulation wavevector is in excellent agreement with structural data on the premartensitic ($c/a$ = 1) and martensitic ($c/a$ = 0.94) phases of Ni$_2$MnGa.Comment: submitted to Phys. Rev.

The Appearance and Disappearance of Ship Tracks on Large Spatial Scales

The 1-km advanced very high resolution radiometer observations from the morning, NOAA-12, and afternoon, NOAA-11, satellite passes over the coast of California during June 1994 are used to determine the altitudes, visible optical depths, and cloud droplet effective radii for low-level clouds. Comparisons are made between the properties of clouds within 50 km of ship tracks and those farther than 200 km from the tracks in order to deduce the conditions that are conducive to the appearance of ship tracks in satellite images. The results indicate that the low-level clouds must be sufficiently close to the surface for ship tracks to form. Ship tracks rarely appear in low-level clouds having altitudes greater than 1 km. The distributions of visible optical depths and cloud droplet effective radii for ambient clouds in which ship tracks are embedded are the same as those for clouds without ship tracks. Cloud droplet sizes and liquid water paths for low-level clouds do not constrain the appearance of ship tracks in the imagery. The sensitivity of ship tracks to cloud altitude appears to explain why the majority of ship tracks observed from satellites off the coast of California are found south of 358N. A small rise in the height of low-level clouds appears to explain why numerous ship tracks appeared on one day in a particular region but disappeared on the next, even though the altitudes of the low-level clouds were generally less than 1 km and the cloud cover was the same for both days. In addition, ship tracks are frequent when lowlevel clouds at altitudes below 1 km are extensive and completely cover large areas. The frequency of imagery pixels overcast by clouds with altitudes below 1 km is greater in the morning than in the afternoon and explains why more ship tracks are observed in the morning than in the afternoon. If the occurrence of ship tracks in satellite imagery data depends on the coupling of the clouds to the underlying boundary layer, then cloud-top altitude and the area of complete cloud cover by low-level clouds may be useful indices for this coupling.This work was supported in part by the Office of Naval Research and by the National Science Foundation through the Center for Clouds, Chemistry and Climate at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, an NSF Science and Technology Center

First Principles Calculation of Elastic Properties of Solid Argon at High Pressures

The density and the elastic stiffness coefficients of fcc solid argon at high pressures from 1 GPa up to 80 GPa are computed by first-principles pseudopotential method with plane-wave basis set and the generalized gradient approximation (GGA). The result is in good agreement with the experimental result recently obtained with the Brillouin spectroscopy by Shimizu et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 86, 4568 (2001)]. The Cauchy condition was found to be strongly violated as in the experimental result, indicating large contribution from non-central many-body force. The present result has made it clear that the standard density functional method with periodic boundary conditions can be successfully applied for calculating elastic properties of rare gas solids at high pressures in contrast to those at low pressures where dispersion forces are important.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figures, submitted to PR