15,614 research outputs found
Multiple jumps and vacancy diffusion in a face-centered cubic metal
The diffusion of monovacancies in gold has been studied by computer
simulation. Multiple jumps have been found to play a central role in the atomic
dynamics at high temperature, and have been shown to be responsible for an
upward curvature in the Arrhenius plot of the diffusion coefficient.
Appropriate saddle points on the potential energy surface have been found,
supporting the interpretation of vacancy multiple jumps as distinct migration
mechanisms.Comment: 16 page
Passage-time distributions from a spin-boson detector model
The passage-time distribution for a spread-out quantum particle to traverse a
specific region is calculated using a detailed quantum model for the detector
involved. That model, developed and investigated in earlier works, is based on
the detected particle's enhancement of the coupling between a collection of
spins (in a metastable state) and their environment. We treat the continuum
limit of the model, under the assumption of the Markov property, and calculate
the particle state immediately after the first detection. An explicit example
with 15 boson modes shows excellent agreement between the discrete model and
the continuum limit. Analytical expressions for the passage-time distribution
as well as numerical examples are presented. The precision of the measurement
scheme is estimated and its optimization discussed. For slow particles, the
precision goes like , which improves previous estimates,
obtained with a quantum clock model.Comment: 11 pages, 6 figures; minor changes, references corrected; accepted
for publication in Phys. Rev.
A Theory of Errors in Quantum Measurement
It is common to model random errors in a classical measurement by the normal
(Gaussian) distribution, because of the central limit theorem. In the quantum
theory, the analogous hypothesis is that the matrix elements of the error in an
observable are distributed normally. We obtain the probability distribution
this implies for the outcome of a measurement, exactly for the case of 2x2
matrices and in the steepest descent approximation in general. Due to the
phenomenon of `level repulsion', the probability distributions obtained are
quite different from the Gaussian.Comment: Based on talk at "Spacetime and Fundamental Interactions: Quantum
Aspects" A conference to honor A. P. Balachandran's 65th Birthda
Designing Dirac points in two-dimensional lattices
We present a framework to elucidate the existence of accidental contacts of
energy bands, particularly those called Dirac points which are the point
contacts with linear energy dispersions in their vicinity. A generalized
von-Neumann-Wigner theorem we propose here gives the number of constraints on
the lattice necessary to have contacts without fine tuning of lattice
parameters. By counting this number, one could quest for the candidate of Dirac
systems without solving the secular equation. The constraints can be provided
by any kinds of symmetry present in the system. The theory also enables the
analytical determination of k-point having accidental contact by selectively
picking up only the degenerate solution of the secular equation. By using these
frameworks, we demonstrate that the Dirac points are feasible in various
two-dimensional lattices, e.g. the anisotropic Kagome lattice under inversion
symmetry is found to have contacts over the whole lattice parameter space.
Spin-dependent cases, such as the spin-density-wave state in LaOFeAs with
reflection symmetry, are also dealt with in the present scheme.Comment: 15pages, 9figures (accepted to Phys. Rev. B
Suppression of Zeno effect for distant detectors
We describe the influence of continuous measurement in a decaying system and
the role of the distance from the detector to the initial location of the
system. The detector is modeled first by a step absorbing potential. For a
close and strong detector, the decay rate of the system is reduced; weaker
detectors do not modify the exponential decay rate but suppress the long-time
deviations above a coupling threshold. Nevertheless, these perturbing effects
of measurement disappear by increasing the distance between the initial state
and the detector, as well as by improving the efficiency of the detector.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure
Disclosing hidden information in the quantum Zeno effect: Pulsed measurement of the quantum time of arrival
Repeated measurements of a quantum particle to check its presence in a region
of space was proposed long ago [G. R. Allcock, Ann. Phys. {\bf 53}, 286 (1969)]
as a natural way to determine the distribution of times of arrival at the
orthogonal subspace, but the method was discarded because of the quantum Zeno
effect: in the limit of very frequent measurements the wave function is
reflected and remains in the original subspace. We show that by normalizing the
small bits of arriving (removed) norm, an ideal time distribution emerges in
correspondence with a classical local-kinetic-energy distribution.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, minor change
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