Double Entropic Stochastic Resonance

We demonstrate the appearance of a purely entropic stochastic resonance (ESR) occurring in a geometrically confined system, where the irregular boundaries cause entropic barriers. The interplay between a periodic input signal, a constant bias and intrinsic thermal noise leads to a resonant ESR-phenomenon in which feeble signals become amplified. This new phenomenon is characterized by the presence of two peaks in the spectral amplification at corresponding optimal values of the noise strength. The main peak is associated with the manifest stochastic resonance synchronization mechanism involving the inter-well noise-activated dynamics while a second peak relates to a regime of optimal sensitivity for intra-well dynamics. The nature of ESR, occurring when the origin of the barrier is entropic rather than energetic, offers new perspectives for novel investigations and potential applications. ESR by itself presents yet another case where one constructively can harvest noise in driven nonequilibrium systems.Comment: 6 pages, 7 figures ; Europhys. Lett., in press (2009

Ferromagnetic Domain Structure of La0.78Ca0.22MnO3 Single Crystals

The magneto-optical technique has been employed to observe spontaneous ferromagnetic domain structures in La0.78Ca0.22MnO3 single crystals. The magnetic domain topology was found to be correlated with the intrinsic twin structure of the investigated crystals. With decreasing temperature the regular network of ferromagnetic domains undergoes significant changes resulting in apparent rotation of the domain walls in the temperature range of 70-150 K. The apparent rotation of the domain walls can be understood in terms of the Jahn-Teller deformation of the orthorhombic unit cell, accompanied by additional twinning.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figures, to be published in PR

Demon-free quantum Brownian motors

A quantum Smoluchowski equation is put forward that consistently describes thermal quantum states. In particular, it notably does not induce a violation of the second law of thermodynamics. This so modified kinetic equation is applied to study {\it analytically} directed quantum transport at strong friction in arbitrarily shaped ratchet potentials that are driven by nonthermal two-state noise. Depending on the mutual interplay of quantum tunneling and quantum reflection these quantum corrections can induce both, either a sizable enhancement or a suppression of transport. Moreover, the threshold for current reversals becomes markedly shifted due to such quantum fluctuations.Comment: 4 pages 3 figure

System size resonance in coupled noisy systems and in the Ising model

We consider an ensemble of coupled nonlinear noisy oscillators demonstrating in the thermodynamic limit an Ising-type transition. In the ordered phase and for finite ensembles stochastic flips of the mean field are observed with the rate depending on the ensemble size. When a small periodic force acts on the ensemble, the linear response of the system has a maximum at a certain system size, similar to the stochastic resonance phenomenon. We demonstrate this effect of system size resonance for different types of noisy oscillators and for different ensembles -- lattices with nearest neighbors coupling and globally coupled populations. The Ising model is also shown to demonstrate the system size resonance.Comment: 4 page

Gain in Stochastic Resonance: Precise Numerics versus Linear Response Theory beyond the Two-Mode Approximation

In the context of the phenomenon of Stochastic Resonance (SR) we study the correlation function, the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and the ratio of output over input SNR, i.e. the gain, which is associated to the nonlinear response of a bistable system driven by time-periodic forces and white Gaussian noise. These quantifiers for SR are evaluated using the techniques of Linear Response Theory (LRT) beyond the usually employed two-mode approximation scheme. We analytically demonstrate within such an extended LRT description that the gain can indeed not exceed unity. We implement an efficient algorithm, based on work by Greenside and Helfand (detailed in the Appendix), to integrate the driven Langevin equation over a wide range of parameter values. The predictions of LRT are carefully tested against the results obtained from numerical solutions of the corresponding Langevin equation over a wide range of parameter values. We further present an accurate procedure to evaluate the distinct contributions of the coherent and incoherent parts of the correlation function to the SNR and the gain. As a main result we show for subthreshold driving that both, the correlation function and the SNR can deviate substantially from the predictions of LRT and yet, the gain can be either larger or smaller than unity. In particular, we find that the gain can exceed unity in the strongly nonlinear regime which is characterized by weak noise and very slow multifrequency subthreshold input signals with a small duty cycle. This latter result is in agreement with recent analogue simulation results by Gingl et al. in Refs. [18, 19].Comment: 22 pages, 5 eps figures, submitted to PR

Prompt photon hadroproduction at high energies in off-shell gluon-gluon fusion

The amplitude for production of a single photon associated with quark pair in the fusion of two off-shell gluons is calculated. The matrix element found is applied to the inclusive prompt photon hadroproduction at high energies in the framework of kt-factorization QCD approach. The total and differential cross sections are calculated in both central and forward pseudo-rapidity regions. The conservative error analisys is performed. We used the unintegrated gluon distributions in a proton which were obtained from the full CCFM evolution equation as well as from the Kimber-Martin-Ryskin prescription. Theoretical results were compared with recent experimental data taken by the D0 and CDF collaborations at Fermilab Tevatron. Theoretical predictions for the LHC energies are given.Comment: 32 pages, 18 figure

Absorption of Ultrashort Laser Pulses in Strongly Overdense Targets

We report on the first absorption experiments of sub-10 fs high-contrast Ti:Sa laser pulses incident on solid targets. The very good contrast of the laser pulse assures the formation of a very small pre-plasma and the pulse interacts with the matter close to solid density. Experimental results indicate that p-polarized laser pulses are absorbed up to 80 percent at 80 degrees incidence angle. The simulation results of PSC PIC code clearly confirm the observations and show that the collisionless absorption works efficiently in steep density profiles

Nuclear model effects in Charged Current neutrino--nucleus quasielastic scattering

The quasielastic scattering of muon neutrinos on oxygen 16 is studied for neutrino energies between 200 MeV and 1 GeV using a relativistic shell model. Final state interactions are included within the distorted wave impulse approximation, by means of a relativistic optical potential, with and without imaginary part, and of a relativistic mean field potential. For comparison with experimental data the inclusive charged--current quasielastic cross section for $\nu_\mu$--$^{12}C$ scattering in the kinematical conditions of the LSND experiment at Los Alamos is also presented and briefly discussed.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figures, two-column format. Accepted as brief report in Phys. Rev.