Spin effects in strong-field laser-electron interactions

The electron spin degree of freedom can play a significant role in relativistic scattering processes involving intense laser fields. In this contribution we discuss the influence of the electron spin on (i) Kapitza-Dirac scattering in an x-ray laser field of high intensity, (ii) photo-induced electron-positron pair production in a strong laser wave and (iii) multiphoton electron-positron pair production on an atomic nucleus. We show that in all cases under consideration the electron spin can have a characteristic impact on the process properties and their total probabilities. To this end, spin-resolved calculations based on the Dirac equation in the presence of an intense laser field are performed. The predictions from Dirac theory are also compared with the corresponding results from the Klein-Gordon equation.Comment: 9 pages, 6 figure

Dynamics of quantum spin chains and multi-fermion excitation continua

We use the Jordan-Wigner representation to study dynamic quantities for the spin-1/2 XX chain in a transverse magnetic field. We discuss in some detail the properties of the four-fermion excitation continuum which is probed by the dynamic trimer structure factor.Comment: Presented at the SCES '05 - The International Conference on Strongly Correlated Electron Systems (Vienna, July 26-30, 2005

SAFT-γ force field for the simulation of molecular fluids: 4. A single-site coarse-grained model of water applicable over a wide temperature range

In this work, we develop coarse-grained (CG) force fields for water, where the effective CG intermolecular interactions between particles are estimated from an accurate description of the macroscopic experimental vapour-liquid equilibria data by means of a molecular-based equation of state. The statistical associating fluid theory for Mie (generalised Lennard-Jones) potentials of variable range (SAFT-VR Mie) is used to parameterise spherically symmetrical (isotropic) force fields for water. The resulting SAFT-γ CG models are based on the Mie (8-6) form with size and energy parameters that are temperature dependent; the latter dependence is a consequence of the angle averaging of the directional polar interactions present in water. At the simplest level of CG where a water molecule is represented as a single bead, it is well known that an isotropic potential cannot be used to accurately reproduce all of the thermodynamic properties of water simultaneously. In order to address this deficiency, we propose two CG potential models of water based on a faithful description of different target properties over a wide range of temperatures: our CGW1-vle model is parameterised to match the saturated-liquid density and vapour pressure; our other CGW1-ift model is parameterised to match the saturated-liquid density and vapour-liquid interfacial tension. A higher level of CG corresponding to two water molecules per CG bead is also considered: the corresponding CGW2-bio model is developed to reproduce the saturated-liquid density and vapour-liquid interfacial tension in the physiological temperature range, and is particularly suitable for the large-scale simulation of bio-molecular systems. A critical comparison of the phase equilibrium and transport properties of the proposed force fields is made with the more traditional atomistic models

Ray-tracing in pseudo-complex General Relativity

Motivated by possible observations of the black hole candidate in the center of our galaxy and the galaxy M87, ray-tracing methods are applied to both standard General Relativity (GR) and a recently proposed extension, the pseudo-complex General Relativity (pc-GR). The correction terms due to the investigated pc-GR model lead to slower orbital motions close to massive objects. Also the concept of an innermost stable circular orbit (ISCO) is modified for the pc-GR model, allowing particles to get closer to the central object for most values of the spin parameter $a$ than in GR. Thus, the accretion disk, surrounding a massive object, is brighter in pc-GR than in GR. Iron K$\alpha$ emission line profiles are also calculated as those are good observables for regions of strong gravity. Differences between the two theories are pointed out.Comment: revised versio

Towards the continuum limit in transport coefficient computations

The analytic continuation needed for the extraction of transport coefficients necessitates in principle a continuous function of the Euclidean time variable. We report on progress towards achieving the continuum limit for 2-point correlator measurements in thermal SU(3) gauge theory, with specific attention paid to scale setting. In particular, we improve upon the determination of the critical lattice coupling and the critical temperature of pure SU(3) gauge theory, estimating r0*Tc ~ 0.7470(7) after a continuum extrapolation. As an application the determination of the heavy quark momentum diffusion coefficient from a correlator of colour-electric fields attached to a Polyakov loop is discussed.Comment: 7 pages. To appear in the Proceedings of the 31st International Symposium on Lattice Field Theory, July 29 - August 3, 2013, Mainz, German

Towards the infrared limit in SU(3) Landau gauge lattice gluodynamics

We study the behavior of the gluon and ghost dressing functions in SU(3) Landau gauge at low momenta available on lattice sizes 12^4-32^4 at $\beta$=5.8, 6.0 and 6.2. We demonstrate the ghost dressing function to be systematically dependent on the choice of Gribov copies, while the influence on the gluon dressing function is not resolvable. The running coupling given in terms of these functions is found to be decreasing for momenta q<0.6 GeV. We study also effects of the finite volume and of the lattice discretization.Comment: 10 pages, 6 figures. Revised version to appear in Phys.Rev.D. Title modified; a new subsection discusses finite volume and finite lattice spacing effects; few references adde

The influence of shared visual context on the successful emergence of conventions in a referential communication task

Abstract Human communication is thoroughly context bound. We present two experiments investigating the importance of the shared context, that is, the amount of knowledge two interlocutors have in common, for the successful emergence and use of novel conventions. Using a referential communication task where black-and-white pictorial symbols are used to convey colors, pairs of participants build shared conventions peculiar to their dyad without experimenter feedback, relying purely on ostensive-inferential communication. Both experiments demonstrate that access to the visual context promotes more successful communication. Importantly, success improves cumulatively, supporting the view that pairs establish conventional ways of using the symbols to communicate. Furthermore, Experiment 2 suggests that dyads with access to the visual context successfully adapt the conventions built for one color space to another color space, unlike dyads lacking it. In linking experimental pragmatics with language evolution, the study illustrates the benefits of exploring the emergence of linguistic conventions using an ostensive-inferential model of communication.1. Introduction 1.1. Artificial language experiments and the emergence problem 1.2. Referential communication tasks and interaction 1.3. The current study 1.4. Ethical approval and preregistration 2. Experiment 1 2.1. Method 2.1.1. Participants 2.1.2. Materials 2.1.3. Procedure 2.1.4. Experimental task 2.2. Results 2.2.1. Does the shared visual context improve communicative success and do pairs improve over time? 2.2.2. Exploration of the questionnaires 2.3. Discussion 3. Experiment 2 3.1. Method 3.1.1. Participants 3.1.2. Materials 3.1.3. Procedure 3.2. Results 3.2.1. Can the results of Experiment 1 be replicated? 3.2.2. Does the shared visual context increase the number of conventions? 3.2.3. Are conventions developed by shared visual context pairs more generalizable? 3.3. Discussion 4. General discussion 5. Conclusio

Time-resolved charge detection with cross-correlation techniques

We present time-resolved charge sensing measurements on a GaAs double quantum dot with two proximal quantum point contact (QPC) detectors. The QPC currents are analyzed with cross-correlation techniques, which enables us to measure dot charging and discharging rates for significantly smaller signal-to-noise ratios than required for charge detection with a single QPC. This allows to reduce the current level in the detector and therefore the invasiveness of the detection process and may help to increase the available measurement bandwidth in noise-limited setups.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figure

An overview of the "Color Game" App project

The Color Game gaming app (2018–2019) invited players from all over the world to invent a visual language without words. Participants took part in a referential communication task where a Sender had to indicate a colour to a Receiver, with the help of black and white symbols. They could freely choose which other players they interacted with, and play repeatedly with their chosen contacts. This paper presents the Color Game dataset, accessible at https://osf.io/9yc25/, which records all interactions between app players. In its final cleaned-up version, the dataset contains 347,606 games by 2,535 players, from more than 100 different countries, speaking 80 different languages. This companion paper describes the app’s workings and history.1. General description 2. Preregistered predictions & projects 2.1. Preregistration process 2.2. The projects 2.2.1. FRIENDS (https://osf.io/y2vak/). 2.2.2. INFORMATION (https://osf.io/7y9pn/). 2.2.3. LANGUAGE (https://osf.io/a8bge/). 2.2.4. PRIORS (https://osf.io/dqhtv/). 2.2.5. SALIENCE (https://osf.io/f9xzq/) 2.2.6. TREES (https://osf.io/r7n32/). 2.3. Open-ended exploration 3. Open data & code 3.1. The Color Game dataset repository 3.2. Exclusion and inclusion criteria: preregistered rules 3.3. Exclusion and inclusion criteria: departures from the preregistered rules 3.4. Other datasets 3.5. Open code 4. Color Game deployment log 5. Descriptive and exploratory analyses 6. Acknowledgements 7. Creative Commons Licence 8. Data privacy Reference

Spectroscopy of PTCDA attached to rare gas samples: clusters vs. bulk matrices. I. Absorption spectroscopy

The interaction between PTCDA (3,4,9,10-perylene-tetracarboxylic-dianhydride) and rare gas or para-hydrogen samples is studied by means of laser-induced fluorescence excitation spectroscopy. The comparison between spectra of PTCDA embedded in a neon matrix and spectra attached to large neon clusters shows that these large organic molecules reside on the surface of the clusters when doped by the pick-up technique. PTCDA molecules can adopt different conformations when attached to argon, neon and para-hydrogen clusters which implies that the surface of such clusters has a well-defined structure and has not liquid or fluxional properties. Moreover, a precise analysis of the doping process of these clusters reveals that the mobility of large molecules on the cluster surface is quenched, preventing agglomeration and complex formation