1,370 research outputs found
Cracks Cleave Crystals
The problem of finding what direction cracks should move is not completely
solved. A commonly accepted way to predict crack directions is by computing the
density of elastic potential energy stored well away from the crack tip, and
finding a direction of crack motion to maximize the consumption of this energy.
I provide here a specific case where this rule fails. The example is of a crack
in a crystal. It fractures along a crystal plane, rather than in the direction
normally predicted to release the most energy. Thus, a correct equation of
motion for brittle cracks must take into account both energy flows that are
described in conventional continuum theories and details of the environment
near the tip that are not.Comment: 6 page
Steady-State Cracks in Viscoelastic Lattice Models
We study the steady-state motion of mode III cracks propagating on a lattice
exhibiting viscoelastic dynamics. The introduction of a Kelvin viscosity
allows for a direct comparison between lattice results and continuum
treatments. Utilizing both numerical and analytical (Wiener-Hopf) techniques,
we explore this comparison as a function of the driving displacement
and the number of transverse sites . At any , the continuum theory misses
the lattice-trapping phenomenon; this is well-known, but the introduction of
introduces some new twists. More importantly, for large even at
large , the standard two-dimensional elastodynamics approach completely
misses the -dependent velocity selection, as this selection disappears
completely in the leading order naive continuum limit of the lattice problem.Comment: 27 pages, 8 figure
Product recognition in store shelves as a sub-graph isomorphism problem
The arrangement of products in store shelves is carefully planned to maximize
sales and keep customers happy. However, verifying compliance of real shelves
to the ideal layout is a costly task routinely performed by the store
personnel. In this paper, we propose a computer vision pipeline to recognize
products on shelves and verify compliance to the planned layout. We deploy
local invariant features together with a novel formulation of the product
recognition problem as a sub-graph isomorphism between the items appearing in
the given image and the ideal layout. This allows for auto-localizing the given
image within the aisle or store and improving recognition dramatically.Comment: Slightly extended version of the paper accepted at ICIAP 2017. More
information @project_page -->
http://vision.disi.unibo.it/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=111&catid=7
Ab initio calculation of intrinsic spin Hall effect in semiconductors
Relativistic band theoretical calculations reveal that intrinsic spin Hall
conductivity in hole-doped archetypical semiconductors Ge, GaAs and AlAs is
large , showing the possibility of spin
Hall effect beyond the four band Luttinger Hamiltonian. The calculated
orbital-angular-momentum (orbital) Hall conductivity is one order of magnitude
smaller, indicating no cancellation between the spin and orbital Hall effects
in bulk semiconductors. Furthermore, it is found that the spin Hall effect can
be strongly manipulated by strains, and that the spin Hall conductivity in
the semiconductors is large in pure as well as doped semiconductors.Comment: Phys. Rev. Lett. (accepted
Two-photon absorption and broadband optical limiting with bis-donor stilbenes
Large two-photon absorptivities are reported for symmetrical bis-donor stilbene derivatives with dialkylamino or diphenylamino groups. These molecules exhibit strong optical limiting of nanosecond pulses over a broad spectral range in the visible. Relative to bis(di-n-butylamino)stilbene, bis(diphenylamino)stilbene exhibits a 90-nm red shift of its optical limiting band but only a minimal shift of ~13 nm of its lowest one-photon electronic absorption band. Mixtures of these compounds offer an unprecedented combination of broad optical limiting bandwidth and high linear transparency
Necessary and sufficient condition for longitudinal magnetoresistance
Since the Lorentz force is perpendicular to the magnetic field, it should not
affect the motion of a charge along the field. This argument seems to imply
absence of longitudinal magnetoresistance (LMR) which is, however, observed in
many materials and reproduced by standard semiclassical transport theory
applied to particular metals. We derive a necessary and sufficient condition on
the shape of the Fermi surface for non-zero LMR. Although an anisotropic
spectrum is a pre-requisite for LMR, not all types of anisotropy can give rise
to the effect: a spectrum should not be separable in any sense. More precisely,
the combination , where is the radial
component of the momentum in a cylindrical system with the z-axis along the
magnetic field and ) is the radial (tangential) component
of the velocity, should depend on the momentum along the field. For some
lattice types, this condition is satisfied already at the level of
nearest-neighbor hopping; for others, the required non-separabality occurs only
if next-to-nearest-neighbor hopping is taken into account.Comment: 7 pages, 2 figure
Conserved Spin and Orbital Angular Momentum Hall Current in a Two-Dimensional Electron System with Rashba and Dresselhaus Spin-orbit Coupling
We study theoretically the spin and orbital angular momentum (OAM) Hall
effect in a high mobility two-dimensional electron system with Rashba and
Dresselhuas spin-orbit coupling by introducing both the spin and OAM torque
corrections, respectively, to the spin and OAM currents. We find that when both
bands are occupied, the spin Hall conductivity is still a constant (i.e.,
independent of the carrier density) which, however, has an opposite sign to the
previous value. The spin Hall conductivity in general would not be cancelled by
the OAM Hall conductivity. The OAM Hall conductivity is also independent of the
carrier density but depends on the strength ratio of the Rashba to Dresselhaus
spin-orbit coupling, suggesting that one can manipulate the total Hall current
through tuning the Rashba coupling by a gate voltage. We note that in a pure
Rashba system, though the spin Hall conductivity is exactly cancelled by the
OAM Hall conductivity due to the angular momentum conservation, the spin Hall
effect could still manifest itself as nonzero magnetization Hall current and
finite magnetization at the sample edges because the magnetic dipole moment
associated with the spin of an electron is twice as large as that of the OAM.
We also evaluate the electric field-induced OAM and discuss the origin of the
OAM Hall current. Finally, we find that the spin and OAM Hall conductivities
are closely related to the Berry vector (or gauge) potential.Comment: latest revised version; Accepted for publication in Physical Review
Wave nucleation rate in excitable systems in the low noise limit
Motivated by recent experiments on intracellular calcium dynamics, we study
the general issue of fluctuation-induced nucleation of waves in excitable
media. We utilize a stochastic Fitzhugh-Nagumo model for this study, a
spatially-extended non-potential pair of equations driven by thermal (i.e.
white) noise. The nucleation rate is determined by finding the most probable
escape path via minimization of an action related to the deviation of the
fields from their deterministic trajectories. Our results pave the way both for
studies of more realistic models of calcium dynamics as well as of nucleation
phenomena in other non-equilibrium pattern-forming processes
Geometrical phase effects on the Wigner distribution of Bloch electrons
We investigate the dynamics of Bloch electrons using a density operator
method and connect this approach with previous theories based on wave packets.
We study non-interacting systems with negligible disorder and strong spin-orbit
interactions, which have been at the forefront of recent research on
spin-related phenomena. We demonstrate that the requirement of gauge invariance
results in a shift in the position at which the Wigner function of Bloch
electrons is evaluated. The present formalism also yields the correction to the
carrier velocity arising from the Berry phase. The gauge-dependent shift in
carrier position and the Berry phase correction to the carrier velocity
naturally appear in the charge and current density distributions. In the
context of spin transport we show that the spin velocity may be defined in such
a way as to enable spin dynamics to be treated on the same footing as charge
dynamics. Aside from the gauge-dependent position shift we find additional,
gauge-covariant multipole terms in the density distributions of spin, spin
current and spin torque.Comment: 12 pages, 3 figure
Qualitative and quantitative analysis of stability and instability dynamics of positive lattice solitons
We present a unified approach for qualitative and quantitative analysis of
stability and instability dynamics of positive bright solitons in
multi-dimensional focusing nonlinear media with a potential (lattice), which
can be periodic, periodic with defects, quasiperiodic, single waveguide, etc.
We show that when the soliton is unstable, the type of instability dynamic that
develops depends on which of two stability conditions is violated.
Specifically, violation of the slope condition leads to an amplitude
instability, whereas violation of the spectral condition leads to a drift
instability. We also present a quantitative approach that allows to predict the
stability and instability strength
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