Program computes equilibrium normal shock and stagnation point solutions for arbitrary gas mixtures

Program computes solutions for flow parameters in arbitrary gas mixtures behind a normal and a reflected normal shock, for in-flight and shock-tube stagnation conditions. Equilibrium flow calculations are made by a free-energy minimization technique coupled with the steady-flow conservation equations and a modified Newton-Raphson iterative scheme

General principles for the non-equilibrium relaxation of populations in quantum materials

We examine the problem of how excited populations of electrons relax after they have been excited by a pump. We include three of the most important relaxation processes: (i) impurity scattering; (ii) Coulomb scattering; and (iii) electron-phonon scattering. The relaxation of an excited population of electrons is one of the most fundamental processes measured in pump/probe experiments, but its interpretation remains under debate. We show how several common assumptions about non-equilibrium relaxation that are pervasive in the field may not hold under quite general conditions. The analysis shows that non-equilibrium relaxation is more complex than previously thought, but it yields to recently developed theoretical methods in non-equilibrium theory. In this work, we show how one can use many-body theory to properly interpret and analyze these complex systems. We focus much of the discussion on implications of these results for experiment.Comment: 13 pages, 10 figure

Lightcone renormalization and quantum quenches in one-dimensional Hubbard models

The Lieb-Robinson bound implies that the unitary time evolution of an operator can be restricted to an effective light cone for any Hamiltonian with short-range interactions. Here we present a very efficient renormalization group algorithm based on this light cone structure to study the time evolution of prepared initial states in the thermodynamic limit in one-dimensional quantum systems. The algorithm does not require translational invariance and allows for an easy implementation of local conservation laws. We use the algorithm to investigate the relaxation dynamics of double occupancies in fermionic Hubbard models as well as a possible thermalization. For the integrable Hubbard model we find a pure power-law decay of the number of doubly occupied sites towards the value in the long-time limit while the decay becomes exponential when adding a nearest neighbor interaction. In accordance with the eigenstate thermalization hypothesis, the long-time limit is reasonably well described by a thermal average. We point out though that such a description naturally requires the use of negative temperatures. Finally, we study a doublon impurity in a N\'eel background and find that the excess charge and spin spread at different velocities, providing an example of spin-charge separation in a highly excited state.Comment: published versio

Determining the forsterite abundance of the dust around Asymptotic Giant Branch stars

Aims. We present a diagnostic tool to determine the abundance of the crystalline silicate forsterite in AGB stars surrounded by a thick shell of silicate dust. Using six infrared spectra of high mass-loss oxygen rich AGB stars we obtain the forsterite abundance of their dust shells. Methods. We use a monte carlo radiative transfer code to calculate infrared spectra of dust enshrouded AGB stars. We vary the dust composition, mass-loss rate and outer radius. We focus on the strength of the 11.3 and the 33.6 \mu m forsterite bands, that probe the most recent (11.3 \mu m) and older (33.6 \mu m) mass-loss history of the star. Simple diagnostic diagrams are derived, allowing direct comparison to observed band strengths. Results. Our analysis shows that the 11.3 \mu m forsterite band is a robust indicator for the forsterite abundance of the current mass-loss period for AGB stars with an optically thick dust shell. The 33.6 \mu m band of forsterite is sensitive to changes in the density and the geometry of the emitting dust shell, and so a less robust indicator. Applying our method to six high mass-loss rate AGB stars shows that AGB stars can have forsterite abundances of 12% by mass and higher, which is more than the previously found maximum abundance of 5%.Comment: Accepted for publication in A&