14,038 research outputs found
Symmetric Brownian motor
In this paper we present a model of a symmetric Brownian motor (SBM) which
changes the sign of its velocity when the temperature gradient is inverted. The
velocity, external work and efficiency are studied as a function of the
temperatures of the baths and other relevant parameters. The motor shows a
current reversal when another parameter (a phase shift) is varied. Analytical
predictions and results from numerical simulations are performed and agree very
well. Generic properties of this type of motors are discussed.Comment: 8 pages and 10 figure
Corporate Hierarchies and the Size of Nations: Theory and Evidence
Corporate organization varies within a country and across countries with country size. The paper starts by establishing some facts about corporate organization based on unique data of 660 Austrian and German corporations. The larger country (Germany) has larger firms with flatter more decentral corporate hierarchies compared to the smaller country (Austria). Firms in the larger country change their organization less fast than firms in the smaller country. Over time firms have been introducing less hierarchical organizations by delegating power to lower levels of the corporation. We develop a theory which explains these facts and which links these features to the trade environment that countries and firms face. We introduce firms with internal hierarchies in a Krugman (1980) model of trade. We show that international trade and the toughness of competition in international markets induce a power struggle in firms which eventually leads to decentralized corporate hierarchies. We offer econometric evidence which is consistent with the models predictions
Low temperature crystal structure and local magnetometry for the geometrically frustrated pyrochlore Tb2Ti2O7
We report synchrotron radiation diffraction and muon spin rotation (muSR)
measurements on the frustrated pyrochlore magnet Tb2Ti2O7. The powder
diffraction study of a crushed crystal fragment does not reveal any structural
change down to 4 K. The muSR measurements performed at 20 mK on a mosaic of
single crystals with an external magnetic field applied along a three-fold axis
are consistent with published a.c. magnetic-susceptibility measurements at 16
mK. While an inflection point could be present around an internal field
intensity slightly above 0.3 T, the data barely support the presence of a
magnetization plateau.Comment: To appear in the proceedings of the 13th International Conference on
Muon Spin Rotation, Relaxation and Resonance, Grindelwald, Switzerland, 1-6
June 201
Reciprocal Relations Between Kinetic Curves
We study coupled irreversible processes. For linear or linearized kinetics
with microreversibility, , the kinetic operator is symmetric in
the entropic inner product. This form of Onsager's reciprocal relations implies
that the shift in time, , is also a symmetric operator. This
generates the reciprocity relations between the kinetic curves. For example,
for the Master equation, if we start the process from the th pure state and
measure the probability of the th state (), and,
similarly, measure for the process, which starts at the th pure
state, then the ratio of these two probabilities is constant in
time and coincides with the ratio of the equilibrium probabilities. We study
similar and more general reciprocal relations between the kinetic curves. The
experimental evidence provided as an example is from the reversible water gas
shift reaction over iron oxide catalyst. The experimental data are obtained
using Temporal Analysis of Products (TAP) pulse-response studies. These offer
excellent confirmation within the experimental error.Comment: 6 pages, 1 figure, the final versio
Control of Recoil Losses in Nanomechanical SiN Membrane Resonators
In the context of a recoil damping analysis, we have designed and produced a
membrane resonator equipped with a specific on-chip structure working as a
"loss shield" for a circular membrane. In this device the vibrations of the
membrane, with a quality factor of , reach the limit set by the intrinsic
dissipation in silicon nitride, for all the modes and regardless of the modal
shape, also at low frequency. Guided by our theoretical model of the loss
shield, we describe the design rationale of the device, which can be used as
effective replacement of commercial membrane resonators in advanced
optomechanical setups, also at cryogenic temperatures
Calibrated quantum thermometry in cavity optomechanics
Cavity optomechanics has achieved the major breakthrough of the preparation
and observation of macroscopic mechanical oscillators in peculiarly quantum
states. The development of reliable indicators of the oscillator properties in
these conditions is important also for applications to quantum technologies. We
compare two procedures to infer the oscillator occupation number, minimizing
the necessity of system calibrations. The former starts from homodyne spectra,
the latter is based on the measurement of the motional sidebands asymmetry in
heterodyne spectra. Moreover, we describe and discuss a method to control the
cavity detuning, that is a crucial parameter for the accuracy of the latter,
intrinsically superior procedure
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