119,818 research outputs found
Height fluctuations of a contact line: a direct measurement of the renormalized disorder correlator
We have measured the center-of-mass fluctuations of the height of a contact
line at depinning for two different systems: liquid hydrogen on a rough cesium
substrate and isopropanol on a silicon wafer grafted with silanized patches.
The contact line is subject to a confining quadratic well, provided by gravity.
From the second cumulant of the height fluctuations, we measure the
renormalized disorder correlator Delta(u), predicted by the Functional RG
theory to attain a fixed point, as soon as the capillary length is large
compared to the Larkin length set by the microscopic disorder. The experiments
are consistent with the asymptotic form for Delta(u) predicted by Functional
RG, including a linear cusp at u=0. The observed small deviations could be used
as a probe of the underlying physical processes. The third moment, as well as
avalanche-size distributions are measured and compared to predictions from
Functional RG.Comment: 6 pages, 14 figure
Improved holder protects crystal during high acceleration and impact
A plastic holder, which retains a crystal blank with standard silvered contacts sandwiched between two copper contacts, protects the crystal against vibration during high acceleration and impact
Distribution of velocities in an avalanche
For a driven elastic object near depinning, we derive from first principles
the distribution of instantaneous velocities in an avalanche. We prove that
above the upper critical dimension, d >= d_uc, the n-times distribution of the
center-of-mass velocity is equivalent to the prediction from the ABBM
stochastic equation. Our method allows to compute space and time dependence
from an instanton equation. We extend the calculation beyond mean field, to
lowest order in epsilon=d_uc-d.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figure
Kondo Resonance of a Microwave Photon
We emulate renormalization group models, such as the Spin-Boson Hamiltonian
or the anisotropic Kondo model, from a quantum optics perspective by
considering a superconducting device. The infra-red confinement involves photon
excitations of two tunable transmission lines entangled to an artificial
spin-1/2 particle or double-island charge qubit. Focusing on the propagation of
microwave light, in the underdamped regime of the Spin-Boson model, we identify
a many-body resonance where a photon is absorbed at the renormalized qubit
frequency and reemitted forward in an elastic manner. We also show that
asymptotic freedom of microwave light is reached by increasing the input signal
amplitude at low temperatures which allows the disappearance of the
transmission peak.Comment: Final Version: Main text and Supplementary Materia
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