Variations of the Lifshitz-van der Waals force between metals immersed in liquids

We present a theoretical calculation of the Lifshitz-van der Waals force between two metallic slabs embedded in a fluid, taking into account the change of the Drude parameters of the metals when in contact with liquids of different index of refraction. For the three liquids considered in this work, water, $CCl_3F$ and $CBr_3F$ the change in the Drude parameters of the metal imply a difference of up to 15% in the determination of the force at short separations. These variations in the force is bigger for liquids with a higher index of refraction.Comment: 2 figures, 1 tabl

Near-Infrared Spectroscopy of 0.4<z<1.0 CFRS Galaxies: Oxygen Abundances, SFRs and Dust

Using new J-band VLT-ISAAC and Keck-NIRSPEC spectroscopy, we have measured Halpha and [NII] line fluxes for 0.47<z<0.92 CFRS galaxies which have [OII], Hbeta and [OIII]a line fluxes available from optical spectroscopy, to investigate how the properties of the star forming gas in galaxies evolve with redshift. We derive the extinction and oxygen abundances for the sample using a method based on a set of ionisation parameter and oxygen abundance diagnostics, simultaneously fitting the [OII], Hbeta,[OIII], Halpha, and [NII] line fluxes. The individual reddening measurements allow us to accurately correct the Halpha-based star formation rate (SFR) estimates for extinction. Our most salient conclusions are: a) in all 30 CFRS galaxies the source of gas ionisation is not due to AGN activity; b) we find a range of 0<AV<3, suggesting that it is important to determine the extinction for every single galaxy in order to reliably measure SFRs and oxygen abundances in high redshift galaxies; c) high values of [NII]/Halpha >0.1 for most (but not all) of the CFRS galaxies indicate that they lie on the high-metallicity branch of the R23 calibration; d) about one third of the 0.47<z<0.92 CFRS galaxies in our sample have lower metallicities than local galaxies with similar luminosities and star formation rates; e) comparison with a chemical evolution model indicates that these low metallicity galaxies are unlikely to be the progenitors of metal-poor dwarf galaxies at z~0.Comment: Accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journa

Off-resonance field enhancement by spherical nanoshells

We study light scattering by spherical nanoshells consistent of metal/dielectric composites. We consider two geometries of metallic nanoshell with dielectric core, and dielectric coated metallic nanoparticle. We demonstrate that for both geometries the local field enhancement takes place out of resonance regions ("dark states"), which, nevertheless, can be understood in terms of the Fano resonance. At optimal conditions the light is stronger enhanced inside the dielectric material. By using nonlinear dielectric materials it will lead to a variety nonlinear phenomena applicable for photonics applications

A Quantum Monte Carlo algorithm for non-local corrections to the Dynamical Mean-Field Approximation

We present the algorithmic details of the dynamical cluster approximation (DCA), with a quantum Monte Carlo (QMC) method used to solve the effective cluster problem. The DCA is a fully-causal approach which systematically restores non-local correlations to the dynamical mean field approximation (DMFA) while preserving the lattice symmetries. The DCA becomes exact for an infinite cluster size, while reducing to the DMFA for a cluster size of unity. We present a generalization of the Hirsch-Fye QMC algorithm for the solution of the embedded cluster problem. We use the two-dimensional Hubbard model to illustrate the performance of the DCA technique. At half-filling, we show that the DCA drives the spurious finite-temperature antiferromagnetic transition found in the DMFA slowly towards zero temperature as the cluster size increases, in conformity with the Mermin-Wagner theorem. Moreover, we find that there is a finite temperature metal to insulator transition which persists into the weak-coupling regime. This suggests that the magnetism of the model is Heisenberg like for all non-zero interactions. Away from half-filling, we find that the sign problem that arises in QMC simulations is significantly less severe in the context of DCA. Hence, we were able to obtain good statistics for small clusters. For these clusters, the DCA results show evidence of non-Fermi liquid behavior and superconductivity near half-filling.Comment: 25 pages, 15 figure

Buffering plasmons in nanoparticle waveguides at the virtual-localized transition

We study the plasmonic energy transfer from a locally excited nanoparticle (LE-NP) to a linear array of small NPs and we obtain the parametric dependence of the response function. An analytical expression allows us to distinguish the extended resonant states and the localized ones, as well as an elusive regime of virtual states. This last appears when the resonance width collapses and before it becomes a localized state. Contrary to common wisdom, the highest excitation transfer does not occur when the system has a well defined extended resonant state but just at the virtual-localized transition, where the main plasmonic modes have eigenfrequencies at the passband edge. The slow group velocity at this critical frequency enables the excitation buffering and hence favors a strong signal inside the chain. A similar situation should appear in many other physical systems. The extreme sensitivity of this transition to the waveguide and LE-NP parameters provides new tools for plasmonics.Comment: Regular article: 7 pages and 5 figure

Upper ocean climate of the Eastern Mediterranean Sea during the Holocene Insolation Maximum – a model study

ine thousand years ago (9 ka BP), the Northern Hemisphere experienced enhanced seasonality caused by an orbital configuration close to the minimum of the precession index. To assess the impact of this "Holocene Insolation Maximum" (HIM) on the Mediterranean Sea, we use a regional ocean general circulation model forced by atmospheric input derived from global simulations. A stronger seasonal cycle is simulated by the model, which shows a relatively homogeneous winter cooling and a summer warming with well-defined spatial patterns, in particular, a subsurface warming in the Cretan and western Levantine areas. The comparison between the SST simulated for the HIM and a reconstruction from planktonic foraminifera transfer functions shows a poor agreement, especially for summer, when the vertical temperature gradient is strong. As a novel approach, we propose a reinterpretation of the reconstruction, to consider the conditions throughout the upper water column rather than at a single depth. We claim that such a depth-integrated approach is more adequate for surface temperature comparison purposes in a situation where the upper ocean structure in the past was different from the present-day. In this case, the depth-integrated interpretation of the proxy data strongly improves the agreement between modelled and reconstructed temperature signal with the subsurface summer warming being recorded by both model and proxies, with a small shift to the south in the model results. The mechanisms responsible for the peculiar subsurface pattern are found to be a combination of enhanced downwelling and wind mixing due to strengthened Etesian winds, and enhanced thermal forcing due to the stronger summer insolation in the Northern Hemisphere. Together, these processes induce a stronger heat transfer from the surface to the subsurface during late summer in the western Levantine; this leads to an enhanced heat piracy in this region, a process never identified before, but potentially characteristic of time slices with enhanced insolation

Are errors detected before they occur? Early error sensations revealed by metacognitive judgments on the timing of error awareness

Errors in choice tasks are not only detected fast and reliably, participants often report that they knew that an error occurred already before a response was produced. These early error sensations stand in contrast with evidence suggesting that the earliest neural correlates of error awareness emerge around 300 ms after erroneous responses. The present study aimed to investigate whether anecdotal evidence for early error sensations can be corroborated in a controlled study in which participants provide metacognitive judgments on the subjective timing of error awareness. In Experiment 1, participants had to report whether they became aware of their errors before or after the response. In Experiment 2, we measured confidence in these metacognitive judgments. Our data show that participants report early error sensations with high confidence in the majority of error trials across paradigms and experiments. These results provide first evidence for early error sensations, informing theories of error awareness

Optical properties of carbon nanofiber photonic crystals

Carbon nanofibers (CNF) are used as components of planar photonic crystals. Square and rectangular lattices and random patterns of vertically aligned CNF were fabricated and their properties studied using ellipsometry. We show that detailed information such as symmetry directions and the band structure of these novel materials can be extracted from considerations of the polarization state in the specular beam. The refractive index of the individual nanofibers was found to be n_CNF = 4.1.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figure