Spin-orbit coupling and magnetic spin states in cylindrical quantum dots

We make detailed analysis of each possible spin-orbit coupling of zincblende narrow-gap cylindrical quantum dots built in two-dimensional electron gas. These couplings are related to both bulk (Dresselhaus) and structure (Rashba) inversion asymmetries. We study the competition between electron-electron and spin-orbit interactions on electronic properties of 2-electron quantum dots.Comment: 6 pages, 6 figures, submitted to MR

mfEGRA: Multifidelity Efficient Global Reliability Analysis through Active Learning for Failure Boundary Location

This paper develops mfEGRA, a multifidelity active learning method using data-driven adaptively refined surrogates for failure boundary location in reliability analysis. This work addresses the issue of prohibitive cost of reliability analysis using Monte Carlo sampling for expensive-to-evaluate high-fidelity models by using cheaper-to-evaluate approximations of the high-fidelity model. The method builds on the Efficient Global Reliability Analysis (EGRA) method, which is a surrogate-based method that uses adaptive sampling for refining Gaussian process surrogates for failure boundary location using a single-fidelity model. Our method introduces a two-stage adaptive sampling criterion that uses a multifidelity Gaussian process surrogate to leverage multiple information sources with different fidelities. The method combines expected feasibility criterion from EGRA with one-step lookahead information gain to refine the surrogate around the failure boundary. The computational savings from mfEGRA depends on the discrepancy between the different models, and the relative cost of evaluating the different models as compared to the high-fidelity model. We show that accurate estimation of reliability using mfEGRA leads to computational savings of $\sim$46% for an analytic multimodal test problem and 24% for a three-dimensional acoustic horn problem, when compared to single-fidelity EGRA. We also show the effect of using a priori drawn Monte Carlo samples in the implementation for the acoustic horn problem, where mfEGRA leads to computational savings of 45% for the three-dimensional case and 48% for a rarer event four-dimensional case as compared to single-fidelity EGRA

Phantom black holes and critical phenomena

We consider the two classes cosh and sinh of normal and phantom black holes of Einstein-Maxwell-dilaton theory. The thermodynamics of these holes is characterized by heat capacities that may have both signs depending on the parameters of the theory. Leaving aside the normal Reissner-Nordstr\"om black hole, it is shown that only some phantom black holes of both classes exhibit critical phenomena. The two classes share a nonextremality, but special, critical point where the transition is continuous and the heat capacity, at constant charge, changes sign with an infinite discontinuity. This point yields a classification scheme for critical points. It is concluded that the two unstable and stable phases coexist on one side of the criticality state and disappear on the other side, that is, there is no configuration where only one phase exists. The sinh class has an extremality critical point where the entropy diverges. The transition from extremality to nonextremality with the charge held constant is accompanied by a loss of mass and an increase in the temperature. A special case of this transition is when the hole is isolated (microcanonical ensemble), it will evolve by emission of energy, which results in a decrease of its mass, to the final state of minimum mass and vanishing heat capacity. The Ehrenfest scheme of classification is inaccurate in this case but the generalized one due to Hilfer leads to conclude that the transition is of order less than unity. Fluctuations near criticality are also investigated.Comment: 13 pages, 9 figures. Minor revision. To appear in JCA

Scattering from Solutions of Star Polymers

We calculate the scattering intensity of dilute and semi-dilute solutions of star polymers. The star conformation is described by a model introduced by Daoud and Cotton. In this model, a single star is regarded as a spherical region of a semi-dilute polymer solution with a local, position dependent screening length. For high enough concentrations, the outer sections of the arms overlap and build a semi-dilute solution (a sea of blobs) where the inner parts of the actual stars are embedded. The scattering function is evaluated following a method introduced by Auvray and de Gennes. In the dilute regime there are three regions in the scattering function: the Guinier region (low wave vectors, q R << 1) from where the radius of the star can be extracted; the intermediate region (1 << q R << f^(2/5)) that carries the signature of the form factor of a star with f arms: I(q) ~ q^(-10/3); and a high wavevector zone (q R >> f^(2/5)) where the local swollen structure of the polymers gives rise to the usual q^(-5/3) decay. In the semi-dilute regime the different stars interact strongly, and the scattered intensity acquires two new features: a liquid peak that develops at a reciprocal position corresponding to the star-star distances; and a new large wavevector contribution of the form q^(-5/3) originating from the sea of blobs.Comment: REVTeX, 12 pages, 4 eps figure

Local correlation functional for electrons in two dimensions

We derive a local approximation for the correlation energy in two-dimensional electronic systems. In the derivation we follow the scheme originally developed by Colle and Salvetti for three dimensions, and consider a Gaussian approximation for the pair density. Then, we introduce an ad-hoc modification which better accounts for both the long-range correlation, and the kinetic-energy contribution to the correlation energy. The resulting functional is local, and depends parametrically on the number of electrons in the system. We apply this functional to the homogeneous electron gas and to a set of two-dimensional quantum dots covering a wide range of electron densities and thus various amounts of correlation. In all test cases we find an excellent agreement between our results and the exact correlation energies. Our correlation functional has a form that is simple and straightforward to implement, but broadly outperforms the commonly used local-density approximation

Stress waves in transversely isotropic media: The homogeneous problem

The homogeneous problem of stress wave propagation in unbounded transversely isotropic media is analyzed. By adopting plane wave solutions, the conditions for the existence of the solution are established in terms of phase velocities and directions of particle displacements. Dispersion relations and group velocities are derived from the phase velocity expressions. The deviation angles (e.g., angles between the normals to the adopted plane waves and the actual directions of their propagation) are numerically determined for a specific fiber-glass epoxy composite. A graphical method is introduced for the construction of the wave surfaces using magnitudes of phase velocities and deviation angles. The results for the case of isotropic media are shown to be contained in the solutions for the transversely isotropic media

Electron-acoustic-phonon interaction in core/shell Ge/Si and Si/Ge nanowires

General expressions for the electron- and hole-acoustical-phonon deformation potential Hamiltonian (H_{E-DP}) are derived for the case of Ge/Si and Si/Ge core/shell nanowire structures (NWs) with circular cross section. Based on the short-range elastic continuum approach and on derived analytical results, the spatial confined effects on the vector phonon displacement, the phonon dispersion relation and the electron- and hole-phonon scattering amplitudes are analyzed. It is shown that the acoustical vector displacement, phonon frequencies and H_{E-DP} present mixed torsional, axial, and radial components depending on the angular momentum quantum number and phonon wavector under consideration. The treatment shows that bulk group velocities of the constituent materials are renormalized due to the spatial confinement and intrinsic strain at the interface. The role of insulating shell on the phonon dispersion and electron-phonon coupling in Ge/Si and Si/Ge NWs are discussed