Isochoric thermal conductivity of solid nitrogen

The isochoric thermal conductivity of solid nitrogen has been investigated on four samples of different densities in the temperature interval from 20 K to the onset of melting. In alfa-N2 the isochoric thermal conductivity exhibits a dependence weaker than 1/T; in beta-N2 it increases slightly with temperature. The experimental results are discussed within a model in which the heat is transported by low-frequency phonons or by "diffusive" modes above the mobility boundary. The growth of the thermal conductivity in beta-N2 is attributed to the decreasing "rotational" component of the total thermal resistance, which occurs as the rotational correlations between the neighboring molecules become weaker.Comment: Postscript 12 pages, 3 figures, 1 table. To be published in 200

Sliding of Electron Crystal of Finite Size on the Surface of Superfluid He-4 Confined in a Microchannel

We present a new study of the nonlinear transport of a two-dimensional electron crystal on the surface of liquid helium confined in a 10 micrometer-wide channel in which the effective length of the crystal can be varied from 10 to 215 micrometers. At low driving voltages, the moving electron crystal is strongly coupled to deformation of the liquid surface arising from resonant excitation of surface capillary waves, ripplons, while at higher driving voltages the crystal decouples from the deformation. We find strong dependence of the decoupling threshold of the driving electric field acting on the electrons, on the size of the crystal. In particular, the threshold electric field significantly decreases when the length of the crystal becomes shorter than 25 micrometers. We explain this effect as arising from weakening of surface deformations due to radiative loss of resonantly-excited ripplons from an electron crystal of finite size, and we account for the observed effect using an instructive analytical model.Comment: 5 figure

Causal signal transmission by quantum fields. IV: The causal Wick theorem

Wick's theorem in the Schwinger-Perel-Keldysh closed-time-loop formalism is written in a form where the place of contractions is taken by the linear response function of the field. This result demonstrates that the physical information supplied by Wick's theorem for operators is propagation of the free field in space and time.Comment: Final version, to appear in Phys Rev