Dynamics of polymers: classic results and recent developments

In this chapter we review concepts and theories of polymer dynamics. We think of it as an introduction to the topic for scientists specializing in other subfields of statistical mechanics and condensed matter theory, so, for the readers reference, we start with a short review of the equilibrium static properties of polymer systems. Most attention is paid to the dynamics of unentangled polymer systems, where apart from classical Rouse and Zimm models we review some recent scaling and analytical generalizations. The dynamics of systems with entanglements is also briefly reviewed. Special attention is paid to the discussion of comparatively weakly understood topological states of polymer systems and possible approaches to the description of their dynamics

Optical chaos in nonlinear photonic crystals

We examine a spatial evolution of lightwaves in a nonlinear photonic crystal with a quadratic nonlinearity when simultaneously a second harmonic and a sum-frequency generation are quasi-phase-matched. We find the conditions of a transition to Hamiltonian chaos for different amplitudes of lightwaves at the boundary of the crystal.Comment: LaTEX2e, 5 pages, 4 figure

Direct current generation due to harmonic mixing: From bulk semiconductors to semiconductor superlattices

We discuss an effect of dc current and dc voltage (stopping bias) generation in a semiconductor superlattice subjected by an ac electric field and its phase-shifted n-th harmonic. In the low field limit, we find a simple dependence of dc voltage on a strength, frequency, and relative phase of mixing harmonics for an arbitrary even value of n. We show that the generated dc voltage has a maximum when a frequency of ac field is of the order of a scattering constant of electrons in a superlattice. This means that for typical semiconductor superlattices at room temperature operating in the THz frequency domain the effect is really observable. We also made a comparison of a recent paper describing an effect of a directed current generation in a semiconductor superlattice subjected by ac field and its second harmonic (n=2) [K.Seeger, Appl.Phys.Lett. 76(2000)82] with our earlier findings describing the same effect [K.Alekseev et al., Europhys. Lett. 47(1999)595; cond-mat/9903092 ]. For the mixing of an ac field and its n-th harmonic with n>=4, we found that additionally to the phase-shift controlling of the dc current, there is a frequency control. This frequency controlling of the dc current direction is absent in the case of n=2. The found effect is that, both the dc current suppression and the dc current reversals exist for some particular values of ac field frequency. For typical semiconductor superlattices such an interesting behavior of the dc current should be observable also in the THz domain. Finally, we briefly review the history of the problem of the dc current generation at mixing of harmonics in semiconductors and semiconductor microstructures.Comment: 9 pages, 1 figure, RevTEX, EPS

Quantization of Diffeomorphism-Invariant Theories with Fermions

We extend ideas developed for the loop representation of quantum gravity to diffeomorphism-invariant gauge theories coupled to fermions. Let P -> Sigma be a principal G-bundle over space and let F be a vector bundle associated to P whose fiber is a sum of continuous unitary irreducible representations of the compact connected gauge group G, each representation appearing together with its dual. We consider theories whose classical configuration space is A x F, where A is the space of connections on P and F is the space of sections of F, regarded as a collection of Grassmann-valued fermionic fields. We construct the `quantum configuration space a x f as a completion of A x F. Using this we construct a Hilbert space L^2(a x f) for the quantum theory on which all automorphisms of P act as unitary operators, and determine an explicit `spin network basis' of the subspace L^2((a x f)/G) consisting of gauge-invariant states. We represent observables constructed from holonomies of the connection along paths together with fermionic fields and their conjugate momenta as operators on L^2((a x f)/G). We also construct a Hilbert space H_diff of diffeomorphism-invariant states using the group averaging procedure of Ashtekar, Lewandowski, Marolf, Mourao and Thiemann.Comment: 28 pages, latex, 7 ps-files (included) are needed to process the source fil