9,794 research outputs found
Correction of laser range tracking data for atmospheric refraction at elevations above 10 degrees
A formula for correcting laser measurements of satellite range for the effect of atmospheric refraction is given. The corrections apply above 10 deg elevation to satellites whose heights exceed 70 km. The meteorological measurements required are the temperature, pressure, and relative humidity of the air at the laser site at the time of satellite pass. The accuracy of the formula was tested by comparison with corrections obtained by ray-tracing radiosonde profiles. The standard deviation of the difference between the refractive retardation given by the formula and that calculated by ray-tracing was less than about 0.04% of the retardation or about 0.5 cm at 10 deg elevation, decreasing to 0.04 cm near zenith
First-Principle Description of Correlation Effects in Layered Materials
We present a first-principles description of anisotropic materials
characterized by having both weak (dispersion-like) and strong covalent bonds,
based on the Adiabatic--Connection Fluctuation--Dissipation Theorem within
Density Functional Theory. For hexagonal boron nitride the in-plane and out of
plane bonding as well as vibrational dynamics are well described both at
equilibrium and when the layers are pulled apart. Also bonding in covalent and
ionic solids is described. The formalism allows to ping-down the deficiencies
of common exchange-correlation functionals and provides insight towards the
inclusion of dispersion interactions into the correlation functional.Comment: Accepted for publication in Physical Review Letter
Dynamics in inhomogeneous liquids and glasses via the test particle limit
We show that one may view the self and the distinct part of the van Hove
dynamic correlation function of a simple fluid as the one-body density
distributions of a binary mixture that evolve in time according to dynamical
density functional theory. For a test case of soft core Brownian particles the
theory yields results for the van Hove function that agree quantitatively with
those of our Brownian dynamics computer simulations. At sufficiently high
densities the free energy landscape underlying the dynamics exhibits a barrier
as a function of the mean particle displacement, shedding new light on the
nature of glass formation. For hard spheres confined between parallel planar
walls the barrier height oscillates in-phase with the local density, implying
that the mobility is maximal between layers, which should be experimentally
observable in confined colloidal dispersions.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure
Which is the temperature of granular systems? A mean field model of free cooling inelastic mixtures
We consider a mean field model describing the free cooling process of a two
component granular mixture, a generalization of so called Maxwell model. The
cooling is viewed as an ordering process and the scaling behavior is attributed
to the presence of an attractive fixed point at for the dynamics. By
means of asymptotic analysis of the Boltzmann equation and of numerical
simulations we get the following results: 1)we establish the existence of two
different partial granular temperatures, one for each component, which violates
the Zeroth Law of Thermodynamics; 2) we obtain the scaling form of the two
distribution functions; 3) we prove the existence of a continuous spectrum of
exponents characterizing the inverse-power law decay of the tails of the
velocity, which generalizes the previously reported value 4 for the pure model;
4) we find that the exponents depend on the composition, masses and restitution
coefficients of the mixture; 5) we also remark that the reported distributions
represent a dynamical realization of those predicted by the Non Extensive
Statistical Mechanics, in spite of the fact that ours stem from a purely
dynamical approach.Comment: 23 pages, 9 figures. submitted for publicatio
Anomalous Aharonov--Bohm gap oscillations in carbon nanotubes
The gap oscillations caused by a magnetic flux penetrating a carbon nanotube
represent one of the most spectacular observation of the Aharonov-Bohm effect
at the nano--scale. Our understanding of this effect is, however, based on the
assumption that the electrons are strictly confined on the tube surface, on
trajectories that are not modified by curvature effects. Using an ab-initio
approach based on Density Functional Theory we show that this assumption fails
at the nano-scale inducing important corrections to the physics of the
Aharonov-Bohm effect. Curvature effects and electronic density spilled out of
the nanotube surface are shown to break the periodicity of the gap
oscillations. We predict the key phenomenological features of this anomalous
Aharonov-Bohm effect in semi-conductive and metallic tubes and the existence of
a large metallic phase in the low flux regime of Multi-walled nanotubes, also
suggesting possible experiments to validate our results.Comment: 7 figure
Phase separation in systems with absorbing states
We study the problem of phase separation in systems with a positive definite
order parameter, and in particular, in systems with absorbing states. Owing to
the presence of a single minimum in the free energy driving the relaxation
kinetics, there are some basic properties differing from standard phase
separation. We study analytically and numerically this class of systems; in
particular we determine the phase diagram, the growth laws in one and two
dimensions and the presence of scale invariance. Some applications are also
discussed.Comment: Submitted to Europhysics Let
Approximate Solution of Schrodinger Equation for Modified Poschl-Teller plus Trigonometric Rosen-Morse Non-Central Potentials in Terms of Finite Romanovski Polynomials
Abstract: The energy eigenvalues and eigenfunctions of Schrodinger equation for Modified Poschl-Teller
potential plus trigonometric Rosen-Morse non-central potential are investigated approximately in terms of finite
Romanovski polynomial. The approximation has been made to solve the radial Schrodinger equation. The
approximate bound state energy eigenvalues are given in a closed form and corresponding radial and
eigenfunctions are obtained in terms of Romanovski polynomials. The polar eigenfunctions are obtained in
terms of Romanovski polynomials. The trigonometric Rosen-Morse potential is considered to be perturbation
factor to the modified Poschl-Teller potential since it causes the decrease of the length of angular momentum
vectors
Fluctuation-Induced Casimir Forces in Granular Fluids
We have numerically investigated the behavior of driven non-cohesive granular
media and found that two fixed large intruder particles, immersed in a sea of
small particles, experience, in addition to a short range depletion force, a
long range repulsive force. The observed long range interaction is
fluctuation-induced and we propose a mechanism similar to the Casimir effect
that generates it: the hydrodynamic fluctuations are geometrically confined
between the intruders, producing an unbalanced renormalized pressure. An
estimation based on computing the possible Fourier modes explains the repulsive
force and is in qualitative agreement with the simulations.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures. Accepted in Phys. Rev. Letter
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