A one-dimensional tunable magnetic metamaterial

We present experimental data on a one-dimensional superconducting metamaterial that is tunable over a broad frequency band. The basic building block of this magnetic thin-film medium is a single-junction (rf-) superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID). Due to the nonlinear inductance of such an element, its resonance frequency is tunable in situ by applying a dc magnetic field. We demonstrate that this results in tunable effective parameters of our metamaterial consisting of 54 SQUIDs. In order to obtain the effective magnetic permeability from the measured data, we employ a technique that uses only the complex transmission coefficient S21

Wigner crystallization in the quantum 1D jellium at all densities

The jellium is a model, introduced by Wigner (Phys Rev 46(11):1002, 1934), for a gas of electrons moving in a uniform neutralizing background of positive charge. Wigner suggested that the repulsion between electrons might lead to a broken translational symmetry. For classical one-dimensional systems this fact was proven by Kunz (Ann Phys 85(2):303–335, 1974), while in the quantum setting, Brascamp and Lieb (Functional integration and its applications. Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1975) proved translation symmetry breaking at low densities. Here, we prove translation symmetry breaking for the quantum one-dimensional jellium at all densities

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

Statistics of transition times, phase diffusion and synchronization in periodically driven bistable systems

The statistics of transitions between the metastable states of a periodically driven bistable Brownian oscillator are investigated on the basis of a two-state description by means of a master equation with time-dependent rates. The results are compared with extensive numerical simulations of the Langevin equation for a sinusoidal driving force. Very good agreement is achieved both for the counting statistics of the number of transitions and the residence time distribution of the process in either state. The counting statistics corroborate in a consistent way the interpretation of stochastic resonance as a synchronisation phenomenon for a properly defined generalized Rice phase.Comment: 15 pages, 9 figure

Capacitance fluctuations causing channel noise reduction in stochastic Hodgkin-Huxley systems

Voltage-dependent ion channels determine the electric properties of axonal cell membranes. They not only allow the passage of ions through the cell membrane but also contribute to an additional charging of the cell membrane resulting in the so-called capacitance loading. The switching of the channel gates between an open and a closed configuration is intrinsically related to the movement of gating charge within the cell membrane. At the beginning of an action potential the transient gating current is opposite to the direction of the current of sodium ions through the membrane. Therefore, the excitability is expected to become reduced due to the influence of a gating current. Our stochastic Hodgkin-Huxley like modeling takes into account both the channel noise -- i.e. the fluctuations of the number of open ion channels -- and the capacitance fluctuations that result from the dynamics of the gating charge. We investigate the spiking dynamics of membrane patches of variable size and analyze the statistics of the spontaneous spiking. As a main result, we find that the gating currents yield a drastic reduction of the spontaneous spiking rate for sufficiently large ion channel clusters. Consequently, this demonstrates a prominent mechanism for channel noise reduction.Comment: 18 page

System size resonance in an attractor neural network

We study the response of an attractor neural network, in the ferromagnetic phase, to an external, time-dependent stimulus, which drives the system periodically two different attractors. We demonstrate a non-trivial dependance of the system via a system size resonance, by showing a signal amplification maximum at a certain finite size.Comment: 7 pages, 9 figures, submitted to Europhys. Let

Top quark forward-backward asymmetry and W^prime bosons

The top quark forward-backward asymmetry measured at the Fermilab Tevatron collider deviates from the standard model prediction. A W^prime boson model is described, where the coupling W^prime-t-d is fixed by the tt_bar forward-backward asymmetry and total cross section at the Tevatron. We show that such a W^prime boson would be produced in association with a top quark at the CERN Large Hadron Collider (LHC), thus inducing additional tt_bar+j events. We use measurements of tt_bar+n-jet production from the LHC to constrain the allowed W^prime-t-d couplings as a function of W^prime boson mass. We find that this W^prime model is constrained at the 95% C.L. using 0.7 fb^{-1} of data from the LHC, and could be fully excluded with 5 fb^{-1} of data.Comment: 6 pgs., 4 PS figure