Spectroscopic studies of fractal aggregates of silver nanospheres undergoing local restructuring

We present an experimental spectroscopic study of large random colloidal aggregates of silver nanoparticles undergoing local restructuring. We argue that such well-known phenomena as strong fluctuation of local electromagnetic fields, appearance of "hot spots" and enhancement of nonlinear optical responses depend on the local structure on the scales of several nanosphere diameters, rather that the large-scale fractal geometry of the sample.Comment: 3.5 pages, submitted to J. Chem. Phy

Bridging Atomistic/Continuum Scales in Solids with Moving Dislocations

We propose a multiscale method for simulating solids with moving dislocations. Away from atomistic subdomains where the atomistic dynamics are fully resolved, a dislocation is represented by a localized jump profile, superposed on a defect-free field. We assign a thin relay zone around an atomistic subdomain to detect the dislocation profile and its propagation speed at a selected relay time. The detection technique utilizes a lattice time history integral treatment. After the relay, an atomistic computation is performed only for the defect-free field. The method allows one to effectively absorb the fine scale fluctuations and the dynamic dislocations at the interface between the atomistic and continuum domains. In the surrounding region, a coarse grid computation is adequate

Local anisotropy and giant enhancement of local electromagnetic fields in fractal aggregates of metal nanoparticles

We have shown within the quasistatic approximation that the giant fluctuations of local electromagnetic field in random fractal aggregates of silver nanospheres are strongly correlated with a local anisotropy factor S which is defined in this paper. The latter is a purely geometrical parameter which characterizes the deviation of local environment of a given nanosphere in an aggregate from spherical symmetry. Therefore, it is possible to predict the sites with anomalously large local fields in an aggregate without explicitly solving the electromagnetic problem. We have also demonstrated that the average (over nanospheres) value of S does not depend noticeably on the fractal dimension D, except when D approaches the trivial limit D=3. In this case, as one can expect, the average local environment becomes spherically symmetrical and S approaches zero. This corresponds to the well-known fact that in trivial aggregates fluctuations of local electromagnetic fields are much weaker than in fractal aggregates. Thus, we find that, within the quasistatics, the large-scale geometry does not have a significant impact on local electromagnetic responses in nanoaggregates in a wide range of fractal dimensions. However, this prediction is expected to be not correct in aggregates which are sufficiently large for the intermediate- and radiation-zone interaction of individual nanospheres to become important.Comment: 9 pages 9 figures. No revisions from previous version; only figure layout is change

Heat Treatment Condition Influence on Novokuibyshevsk Vacuum Residue Component Composition

The article presents the information about thermal degradation of Novokuibyshevsk vacuum residue and change of products composition during this process. The optimal conditions for the thermal destruction of vacuum residue components were established. The regularities of material balance composition change, Sgeneral were determined depending on cracking conditions. The basic directions of resin-asphaltene component transformations were identified, changes in their structural-group parameters in the process of initiated cracking were analyzed. Conducting of Novokuibyshevsk vacuum residue thermolysis leads to deep resins-asphaltenes average molecules structure characteristic changes. Developed alkyl and naphthenic moieties, which are presented in initial molecule, undergo degradation, amount of structural blocks in resins and asphaltenes molecules reduces, their average size decreases. Also the reduction in total content of the rings (saturated and aromatic) was established in average structural unit, at the same time decrease of rings substitution and length of the aliphatic fragments can be observed. In general the process of vacuum residue thermal cracking causes partial degradation of saturated (aliphatic and naphthenic) fragments and, partially, aromatic rings, which contain heteroatomic elements

Disorder-free localization in an interacting 2D lattice gauge theory

Disorder-free localization has been recently introduced as a mechanism for ergodicity breaking in low-dimensional homogeneous lattice gauge theories caused by local constraints imposed by gauge invariance. We show that also genuinely interacting systems in two spatial dimensions can become nonergodic as a consequence of this mechanism. This result is all the more surprising since the conventional many-body localization is conjectured to be unstable in two dimensions; hence the gauge invariance represents an alternative robust localization mechanism surviving in higher dimensions in the presence of interactions. Specifically, we demonstrate nonergodic behavior in the quantum link model by obtaining a bound on the localization-delocalization transition through a classical correlated percolation problem implying a fragmentation of Hilbert space on the nonergodic side of the transition. We study the quantum dynamics in this system by introducing the method of "variational classical networks," an efficient and perturbatively controlled representation of the wave function in terms of a network of classical spins akin to artificial neural networks. We identify a distinguishing dynamical signature by studying the propagation of line defects, yielding different light cone structures in the localized and ergodic phases, respectively. The methods we introduce in this work can be applied to any lattice gauge theory with finite-dimensional local Hilbert spaces irrespective of spatial dimensionality

Observation of the onset of strong scattering on high frequency acoustic phonons in densified silica glass

The linewidth of longitudinal acoustic waves in densified silica glass is obtained by inelastic x-ray scattering. It increases with a high power alpha of the frequency up to a crossover where the waves experience strong scattering. We find that \alpha is at least 4, and probably larger. Resonance and hybridization of acoustic waves with the boson-peak modes seems to be a more likely explanation for these findings than Rayleigh scattering from disorder.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, to appear in Phys. Rev. Letter

Study of a spring pendulum sinker harmonic oscillations in LabVIEW software package

В данной статье приведено описание демонстрационной установки «Пружинный маятник», совмещенной с ПК. Колебания груза на пружине при помощи датчика расстояния и блока АЦП визуализируются на экране компьютера. Осциллограммы, выводимые на экране монитора, позволяют сделать сравнительный анализ положения максимумов и минимумов гармонических колебаний смещения, скорости и ускорения колеблющегося груза, а также амплитуд указанных зависимостей. Также можно проследить зависимость частоты собственных колебаний от массы груза и жесткости пружины.This paper describes demonstration installation “Spring pendulum” combined with the PC. Sinker oscillations on the spring with the help of distance sensor and ADC block are visualized on a computer screen. The oscillograms are displayed on the screen that makes it possible to do a comparative analysis of the harmonic displacement oscillations maxima and minima positions, velocity and acceleration of the oscillating sinker, as well as the amplitudes of these mentioned dependencies. The natural frequency dependence on the sinker weight and the stiffness of the spring is also can be observed