Solvation Effects in Near-Critical Binary Mixtures

A Ginzburg-Landau theory is presented to investigate solvation effects in near-critical polar fluid binary mixtures. Concentration-dependence of the dielectric constant gives rise to a shell region around a charged particle within which solvation occurs preferentially. As the critical point is approached, the concentration has a long-range Ornstein-Zernike tail representing strong critical electrostriction. If salt is added, strong coupling arises among the critical fluctuations and the ions. The structure factors of the critical fluctuations and the charge density are calculated and the phase transition behavior is discussed.Comment: 12 pages, 8 figures, to be published in J. Chem. Phy

Multiple K-shell excitation of lithium clusters: Implications for hollow-atom solids

Systematic molecular-orbital calculations are performed for Li9z+ clusters in which Nexc (= 0-9) core electrons are excited to valence orbitals. For neutral (z=0) clusters, the magnitudes of work functions, cohesive energies, and average core-electron excitation energies increase with Nexc, owing to relaxation of valence electrons around localized core holes. Total energy of a multiply charge ion, produced by a series of Auger decay, remains lower than the corresponding dissociation limit as far as z≦3. We thereby discuss a possibility of realizing a hollow-atom solid, multiply core-excited state with temporal crystalline order, by utilizing intense free-electron lasers

Semi-analytic theory of multiphonon effects on the static structure factors of warm solids

A semi-analytic formula for the temperature-dependent static structure factor S(k) of polycrystalline and amorphous solids applicable to the entire wavenumber (k) range is derived. The formula describes thermal diffuse scattering due to multiphonon processes entirely by a single kernel function without resorting to the standard perturbation expansion. It is analytically proven that S(k → 0) is determined from the one-phonon term, whereas the asymptotic limit S(k → ∞) = 1 can be reproduced through a Gaussian integral of the multiphonon term. The formula also reveals that an enhancement of the one-phonon scattering intensity at each Bragg point is expressed as a logarithmic singularity. Numerical examples for a face-centred cubic polycrystal near the melting point are shown. The present formula is computationally more efficient than other theoretical models, requiring only a one-dimensional integration to obtain S(k) once the elastic part of the structure factor and the Debye–Waller factor are given

Final Evolution and Delayed Explosions of Spinning White Dwarfs in Single Degenerate Models for Type Ia Supernovae

We study the occurrence of delayed SNe~Ia in the single degenerate (SD) scenario. We assume that a massive carbon-oxygen (CO) white dwarf (WD) accretes matter coming from a companion star, making it to spin at the critical rate. We assume uniform rotation due to magnetic field coupling. The carbon ignition mass for non-rotating WDs is M_{ig}^{NR} \approx 1.38 M_{\odot}; while for the case of uniformly rotating WDs it is a few percent larger (M_{ig}^{R} \approx 1.43 M_{\odot}). When accretion rate decreases, the WD begins to lose angular momentum, shrinks, and spins up; however, it does not overflow its critical rotation rate, avoiding mass shedding. Thus, angular momentum losses can lead the CO WD interior to compression and carbon ignition, which would induce an SN~Ia. The delay, largely due to the angular momentum losses timescale, may be large enough to allow the companion star to evolve to a He WD, becoming undetectable at the moment of explosion. This scenario supports the occurrence of delayed SNe~Ia if the final CO WD mass is 1.38 M_{\odot} < M < 1.43 M_{\odot}. We also find that if the delay is longer than ~3 Gyr, the WD would become too cold to explode, rather undergoing collapse.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figures, published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters, 809, L6 (2015), added some corrections for errat

Ion-induced nucleation in polar one-component fluids

We present a Ginzburg-Landau theory of ion-induced nucleation in a gas phase of polar one-component fluids, where a liquid droplet grows with an ion at its center. By calculating the density profile around an ion, we show that the solvation free energy is larger in gas than in liquid at the same temperature on the coexistence curve. This difference much reduces the nucleation barrier in a metastable gas.Comment: 9 pagers, 9 figures, to be published in J. Chem. Phy

Final Evolution and Delayed Explosions of Spinning White Dwarfs in Single Degenerate Models for Type Ia Supernovae

We study the occurrence of delayed SNe~Ia in the single degenerate (SD) scenario. We assume that a massive carbon-oxygen (CO) white dwarf (WD) accretes matter coming from a companion star, making it to spin at the critical rate. We assume uniform rotation due to magnetic field coupling. The carbon ignition mass for non-rotating WDs is MigNR ≈ 1.38 M⊙; while for the case of uniformly rotating WDs it is a few percent larger (MigR ≈ 1.43 M⊙). When accretion rate decreases, the WD begins to lose angular momentum, shrinks, and spins up; however, it does not overflow its critical rotation rate, avoiding mass shedding. Thus, angular momentum losses can lead the CO WD interior to compression and carbon ignition, which would induce an SN~Ia. The delay, largely due to the angular momentum losses timescale, may be large enough to allow the companion star to evolve to a He WD, becoming undetectable at the moment of explosion. This scenario supports the occurrence of delayed SNe Ia if the final CO WD mass is 1.38 M⊙ < M < 1.43 M⊙. We also find that if the delay is longer than ~3 Gyr, the WD would become too cold to explode, rather undergoing collapse.Facultad de Ciencias Astronómicas y GeofísicasInstituto de Astrofísica de La Plat

Rapid energy-level shifts in metals under intense inner-shell photoexcitation

Rapid energy-level shifts in metals due to intense near-edge photoexcitation of core electrons are investigated with the density matrix formalism. Analytic theory indicates that, as the core hole density increases, the core levels are lowered relative to the valence levels, leading to an enhancement of the band gap; its origin can be attributed to a large asymmetry between localized core and delocalized valence orbitals. The energy-level shifts are incorporated into the rate equation to compute time evolutions of near-edge photoabsorption spectra for metallic lithium irradiated by a vacuum ultraviolet laser pulse. Numerical results indicate saturable absorption due to a blue shift of the K-edge, leading to a nonlinear transmission of the laser pulse at high intensities

Wide-range photoabsorption cross-sections of simple metals: large basis-set OPW calculations for sodium.

Photoabsorption cross-sections of simple metals are formulated through a solid-state band theory based on the orthogonalized-plane-wave (OPW) method in Slater's local-exchange approximation, where interband transitions of core and conduction electrons are evaluated up to the soft x-ray regime by using large basis sets. The photoabsorption cross-sections of a sodium crystal are computed for a wide photon energy range from 3 to 1800 eV. It is found that the numerical results reproduce the existing x-ray databases fairly well for energies above the L(2, 3)-edge (31 eV), verifying a consistency between solid-state and atomic models for inner-shell photoabsorption; additional oscillatory structures in the present spectra manifest solid-state effects. Our computed results in the vacuum ultraviolet regime (6-30 eV) are also in better agreement with experimental data compared to earlier theories, although some discrepancies remain in the range of 20-30 eV. The influence of the core eigenvalues on the absorption spectra is examined

Derivation of the Drude conductivity from quantum kinetic equations

The Drude formula of ac (frequency-dependent) electric conductivity has been established as a simple and practically useful model to understand the electromagnetic response of simple free-electron-like metals. In most textbooks of solid-state physics, the Drude formula is derived from either a classical equation of motion or the semiclassical Boltzmann transport equation. On the other hand, quantum-mechanical derivation of the Drude conductivity, which requires an appropriate treatment of phonon-assisted intraband transitions with small momentum transfer, has not been well documented except for the zero- or high-frequency case. Here, a lucid derivation of the Drude conductivity that covers the entire frequency range is presented by means of quantum kinetic equations in the density-matrix formalism. The derivation is straightforward so that advanced undergraduate students or early-year graduate students will be able to gain insight into the link between the microscopic Schrödinger equation and macroscopic transport