Periodic Pattern in the Residual-Velocity Field of OB Associations

An analysis of the residual-velocity field of OB associations within 3 kpc of the Sun has revealed periodic variations in the radial residual velocities along the Galactic radius vector with a typical scale length of lambda=2.0(+/-0.2) kpc and a mean amplitude of fR=7(+/-1) km/s. The fact that the radial residual velocities of almost all OB-associations in rich stellar-gas complexes are directed toward the Galactic center suggests that the solar neighborhood under consideration is within the corotation radius. The azimuthal-velocity field exhibits a distinct periodic pattern in the region 0<l<180 degrees, where the mean azimuthal-velocity amplitude is ft=6(+/-2) km/s. There is no periodic pattern of the azimuthal-velocity field in the region 180<l<360 degrees. The locations of the Cygnus arm, as well as the Perseus arm, inferred from an analysis of the radial- and azimuthal-velocity fields coincide. The periodic patterns of the residual-velocity fields of Cepheids and OB associations share many common features.Comment: 21 page

Semiclassical Theory of Chaotic Quantum Transport

We present a refined semiclassical approach to the Landauer conductance and Kubo conductivity of clean chaotic mesoscopic systems. We demonstrate for systems with uniformly hyperbolic dynamics that including off-diagonal contributions to double sums over classical paths gives a weak-localization correction in quantitative agreement with results from random matrix theory. We further discuss the magnetic field dependence. This semiclassical treatment accounts for current conservation.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figur

Semiclassical Theory of Time-Reversal Focusing

Time reversal mirrors have been successfully implemented for various kinds of waves propagating in complex media. In particular, acoustic waves in chaotic cavities exhibit a refocalization that is extremely robust against external perturbations or the partial use of the available information. We develop a semiclassical approach in order to quantitatively describe the refocusing signal resulting from an initially localized wave-packet. The time-dependent reconstructed signal grows linearly with the temporal window of injection, in agreement with the acoustic experiments, and reaches the same spatial extension of the original wave-packet. We explain the crucial role played by the chaotic dynamics for the reconstruction of the signal and its stability against external perturbations.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figur

Lifetime of the first and second collective excitations in metallic nanoparticles

We determine the lifetime of the surface plasmon in metallic nanoparticles under various conditions, concentrating on the Landau damping, which is the dominant mechanism for intermediate-size particles. Besides the main contribution to the lifetime, which smoothly increases with the size of the particle, our semiclassical evaluation yields an additional oscillating component. For the case of noble metal particles embedded in a dielectric medium, it is crucial to consider the details of the electronic confinement; we show that in this case the lifetime is determined by the shape of the self-consistent potential near the surface. Strong enough perturbations may lead to the second collective excitation of the electronic system. We study its lifetime, which is limited by two decay channels: Landau damping and ionization. We determine the size dependence of both contributions and show that the second collective excitation remains as a well defined resonance.Comment: 18 pages, 5 figures; few minor change

Anomaly in the relaxation dynamics close to the surface plasmon resonance

We propose an explanation for the anomalous behaviour observed in the relaxation dynamics of the differential optical transmission of noble-metal nanoparticles. Using the temperature dependences of the position and the width of the surface plasmon resonance, we obtain a strong frequency dependence in the time evolution of the transmission close to the resonance. In particular, our approach accounts for the slowdown found below the plasmon frequency. This interpretation is independent of the presence of a nearby interband transition which has been invoked previously. We therefore argue that the anomaly should also appear for alkaline nanoparticles.Comment: version published in EP

Phase sensitive noise in quantum dots under periodic perturbation

We evaluate the ensemble averaged noise in a chaotic quantum dot subject to DC bias and a periodic perturbation of frequency $\Omega$. The noise displays cusps at bias $V_n=n\hbar\Omega/e$ that survive the average, even when the period of the perturbation is far shorter than the dwell time in the dot. These features are sensitive to the phase of the time-dependent scattering amplitudes of electrons to pass through the system.Comment: Published version. Improved discussion, with a few small typos correcte

Analysis of shot noise suppression in mesoscopic cavities in a magnetic field

We present a numerical investigation of shot noise suppression in mesoscopic cavities and an intuitive semiclassical explanation of the behavior observed in the presence of an orthogonal magnetic field. In particular, we conclude that the decrease of shot noise for increasing magnetic field is the result of the interplay between the diameter of classical cyclotron orbits and the width of the apertures defining the cavity. Good agreement with published experimental results is obtained, without the need of introducing fitting parameters.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, contents changed (final version

Crossover of magnetoconductance autocorrelation for a ballistic chaotic quantum dot

The autocorrelation function C_{\varphi,\eps}(\Delta\varphi,\,\Delta \eps)= \langle \delta g(\varphi,\,\eps)\, \delta g(\varphi+\Delta\varphi,\,\eps+\Delta \eps)\rangle ($\varphi$ and \eps are rescaled magnetic flux and energy) for the magnetoconductance of a ballistic chaotic quantum dot is calculated in the framework of the supersymmetric non-linear $\sigma$-model. The Hamiltonian of the quantum dot is modelled by a Gaussian random matrix. The particular form of the symmetry breaking matrix is found to be relevant for the autocorrelation function but not for the average conductance. Our results are valid for the complete crossover from orthogonal to unitary symmetry and their relation with semiclassical theory and an $S$-matrix Brownian motion ensemble is discussed.Comment: 7 pages, no figures, accepted for publication in Europhysics Letter

Time Reversal Mirror and Perfect Inverse Filter in a Microscopic Model for Sound Propagation

Time reversal of quantum dynamics can be achieved by a global change of the Hamiltonian sign (a hasty Loschmidt daemon), as in the Loschmidt Echo experiments in NMR, or by a local but persistent procedure (a stubborn daemon) as in the Time Reversal Mirror (TRM) used in ultrasound acoustics. While the first is limited by chaos and disorder, the last procedure seems to benefit from it. As a first step to quantify such stability we develop a procedure, the Perfect Inverse Filter (PIF), that accounts for memory effects, and we apply it to a system of coupled oscillators. In order to ensure a many-body dynamics numerically intrinsically reversible, we develop an algorithm, the pair partitioning, based on the Trotter strategy used for quantum dynamics. We analyze situations where the PIF gives substantial improvements over the TRM.Comment: Submitted to Physica

Embedding method for the scattering phase in strongly correlated quantum dots

The embedding method for the calculation of the conductance through interacting systems connected to single channel leads is generalized to obtain the full complex transmission amplitude that completely characterizes the effective scattering matrix of the system at the Fermi energy. We calculate the transmission amplitude as a function of the gate potential for simple diamond-shaped lattice models of quantum dots with nearest neighbor interactions. In our simple models we do not generally observe an interaction dependent change in the number of zeroes or phase lapses that depend only on the symmetry properties of the underlying lattice. Strong correlations separate and reduce the widths of the resonant peaks while preserving the qualitative properites of the scattering phase.Comment: 11 pages, 3 figures. Proceedings of the Workshop on Advanced Many-Body and Statistical Methods in Mesoscopic Systems, Constanta, Romania, June 27th - July 2nd 2011. To appear in Journal of Physics: Conference Serie