Calculation of the Two-body T-matrix in Configuration Space

A spectral integral method (IEM) for solving the two-body Schroedinger equation in configuration space is generalized to the calculation of the corresponding T-matrix. It is found that the desirable features of the IEM, such as the economy of mesh-points for a given required accuracy, are carried over also to the solution of the T-matrix. However the algorithm is considerably more complex, because the T-matrix is a function of two variables r and r', rather than only one variable r, and has a slope discontinuity at r=r'. For a simple exponential potential an accuracy of 7 significant figures is achieved, with the number N of Chebyshev support points in each partition equal to 17. For a potential with a large repulsive core, such as the potential between two He atoms, the accuracy decreases to 4 significant figures, but is restored to 7 if N is increased to 65.Comment: 22 pages, 1 table 8 figure

Acoustics of tachyon Fermi gas

We consider a Fermi gas of free tachyons as a continuous medium and find whether it satisfies the causality condition. There is no stable tachyon matter with the particle density below critical value $n_T$ and the Fermi momentum $k_F<\sqrt{\frac 32}m$ that depends on the tachyon mass $m$. The pressure $P$ and energy density $E$ cannot be arbitrary small, but the situation $P>E$ is not forbidden. Existence of shock waves in tachyon gas is also discussed. At low density $n_T<n<3.45n_T$ the tachyon matter remains stable but no shock wave do survive.Comment: 14 pages, 2 figures (color

Shock waves in superconducting cosmic strings: growth of current

Intrinsic equations of motion of superconducting cosmic string may admit solutions in the shock-wave form that implies discontinuity of the current term \chi. The hypersurface of discontinuity propagates at finite velocity determined by finite increment \Delta \chi =\chi_+ -\chi_-. The current increases \chi_+>\chi_- in stable shocks but transition between spacelike (\chi >0) and timelike (\chi<0) currents is impossible.Comment: 13 pages, 3 figure

Absence of Domain Wall Roughening in a Transverse Field Ising Model with Long-Range Interactions

We investigate roughening transitions in the context of transverse-field Ising models. As a modification of the transverse Ising model with short range interactions, which has been shown to exhibit domain wall roughening, we have looked into the possibility of a roughening transition for the case of long-range interactions, since such a system is physically realized in the insulator LiHoF4. The combination of strong Ising anisotropy and long-range forces lead naturally to the formation of domain walls but we find that the long-range forces destroy the roughening transition.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figures, revtex

Anomalous Hydrodynamics

Our goal is to examine the role of anomalies in the hydrodynamic regime of field theories. We employ methods based on gauge/gravity duality to examine R-charge anomalies in the hydrodynamic regime of stronly t'Hooft coupled, large N, N = 4 Super Yang-Mills. We use a single particle spectrum treatment based on the familiar "level crossing" picture of chiral anomalies to investigate thermalized, massless QED. In each case, we work in the presence of a homogeneous background magnetic field, and find the same result. Regardless of whether a paricular current is anomalously non-conserved or not, as long as it participates in an anomalous 3-pt. correlator, its constitutive relation recieves a new term, proportional to a product of the anomaly coefficient, the magnetic field, and any charge density participating in the anomaly. This agrees with results found by Alekseev et.al. for QED. We include a general, symmetry based argument for the presence of such terms, and use linear response theory to determine their coefficients in a model with anomalous global charges. This last method we apply to briefly examine baryon transport in chiral QCD in a strong magnetic field.Comment: 23 pages, 2 figures. To be submitted to JHE

Thermodynamic curvature measures interactions

Thermodynamic fluctuation theory originated with Einstein who inverted the relation $S=k_B\ln\Omega$ to express the number of states in terms of entropy: $\Omega= \exp(S/k_B)$. The theory's Gaussian approximation is discussed in most statistical mechanics texts. I review work showing how to go beyond the Gaussian approximation by adding covariance, conservation, and consistency. This generalization leads to a fundamentally new object: the thermodynamic Riemannian curvature scalar $R$, a thermodynamic invariant. I argue that $|R|$ is related to the correlation length and suggest that the sign of $R$ corresponds to whether the interparticle interactions are effectively attractive or repulsive.Comment: 29 pages, 7 figures (added reference 27

Discrete Symmetry and Stability in Hamiltonian Dynamics

In this tutorial we address the existence and stability of periodic and quasiperiodic orbits in N degree of freedom Hamiltonian systems and their connection with discrete symmetries. Of primary importance in our study are the nonlinear normal modes (NNMs), i.e periodic solutions which represent continuations of the system's linear normal modes in the nonlinear regime. We examine the existence of such solutions and discuss different methods for constructing them and studying their stability under fixed and periodic boundary conditions. In the periodic case, we employ group theoretical concepts to identify a special type of NNMs called one-dimensional "bushes". We describe how to use linear combinations such NNMs to construct s(>1)-dimensional bushes of quasiperiodic orbits, for a wide variety of Hamiltonian systems and exploit the symmetries of the linearized equations to simplify the study of their destabilization. Applying this theory to the Fermi Pasta Ulam (FPU) chain, we review a number of interesting results, which have appeared in the recent literature. We then turn to an analytical and numerical construction of quasiperiodic orbits, which does not depend on the symmetries or boundary conditions. We demonstrate that the well-known "paradox" of FPU recurrences may be explained in terms of the exponential localization of the energies Eq of NNM's excited at the low part of the frequency spectrum, i.e. q=1,2,3,.... Thus, we show that the stability of these low-dimensional manifolds called q-tori is related to the persistence or FPU recurrences at low energies. Finally, we discuss a novel approach to the stability of orbits of conservative systems, the GALIk, k=2,...,2N, by means of which one can determine accurately and efficiently the destabilization of q-tori, leading to the breakdown of recurrences and the equipartition of energy, at high values of the total energy E.Comment: 50 pages, 13 figure

Bulk Viscosity, Decaying Dark Matter, and the Cosmic Acceleration

We discuss a cosmology in which cold dark-matter particles decay into relativistic particles. We argue that such decays could lead naturally to a bulk viscosity in the cosmic fluid. For decay lifetimes comparable to the present hubble age, this bulk viscosity enters the cosmic energy equation as an effective negative pressure. We investigate whether this negative pressure is of sufficient magnitude to account fo the observed cosmic acceleration. We show that a single decaying species in a flat, dark-matter dominated cosmology without a cosmological constant cannot reproduce the observed magnitude-redshift relation from Type Ia supernovae. However, a delayed bulk viscosity, possibly due to a cascade of decaying particles may be able to account for a significant fraction of the apparent cosmic acceleration. Possible candidate nonrelativistic particles for this scenario include sterile neutrinos or gauge-mediated decaying supersymmetric particles.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figure

Heat exchange mediated by a quantum system

We consider heat transfer between two thermal reservoirs mediated by a quantum system using the generalized quantum Langevin equation. The thermal reservoirs are treated as ensembles of oscillators within the framework of the Drude-Ullersma model. General expressions for the heat current and thermal conductance are obtained for arbitrary coupling strength between the reservoirs and the mediator and for different temperature regimes. As an application of these results we discuss the origin of Fourier's law in a chain of large, but finite subsystems coupled to each other by the quantum mediators. We also address a question of anomalously large heat current between the STM tip and substrate found in a recent experiment. The question of minimum thermal conductivity is revisited in the framework of scaling theory as a potential application of the developed approach.Comment: 16 pages, 6 figure

Light masses in short distance penguin loops

Penguin diagrams for decays such as $b\to (s,d)\gamma$ involve virtual loops of $u$ or other light quarks. Logarithms of the virtual quark mass could, in principle, influence the phenomenological analysis of the decay. It is thus important to study these logarithms to all orders in QCD perturbation theory. In this paper we show that, at arbitrary order, the matrix elements of operators in the effective hamiltonian contributing to $b\to s\gamma$ are finite for the limit of $m_u \to 0$ in penguin loops.Comment: 11 pages, 6 ps figures. Revise