Low-Temperature Long-Time Simulations of Ising Ferromagnets using the Monte Carlo with Absorbing Markov Chains method

The Monte Carlo with Absorbing Markov Chains (MCAMC) method is introduced. This method is a generalization of the rejection-free method known as the $n$-fold way. The MCAMC algorithm is applied to the study of the very low-temperature properties of the lifetime of the metastable state of Ising ferromagnets. This is done both for square-lattice and cubic-lattice nearest-neighbor models. Comparison is made with exact low-temperature predictions, in particular the low-temperature predictions that the metastable lifetime is discontinuous at particular values of the field. This discontinuity for the square lattice is not seen in finite-temperatures studies. For the cubic lattice, it is shown that these `exact predictions' are incorrect near the fields where there are discontinuities. The low-temperature formula must be modified and the corrected low-temperature predictions are not discontinuous in the energy of the nucleating droplet.Comment: Submitted to Computer Physics Communicatinos, for proceedings of the Conference CCP2001, 4 figure

Scanning emitter lifetime imaging microscopy for spontaneous emission control

We report an experimental technique to map and exploit the local density of optical states of arbitrary planar nano-photonic structures. The method relies on positioning a spontaneous emitter attached to a scanning probe deterministically and reversibly with respect to its photonic environment while measuring its lifetime. We demonstrate the method by imaging the enhancement of the local density of optical states around metal nanowires. By nano-positioning, the decay rate of a pointlike source of fluorescence can be reversibly and repeatedly changed by a factor of two by coupling it to the guided plasmonic mode of the wire

A rejection-free Monte Carlo method for the hard-disk system

We construct a rejection-free Monte Carlo method for the hard-disk system. Rejection-free Monte Carlo methods preserve the time-evolution behavior of the standard Monte Carlo method, and this relationship is confirmed for our method by observing nonequilibrium relaxation of a bond-orientational order parameter. The rejection-free method gives a greater computational efficiency than the standard method at high densities. The rejection free method is implemented in a shrewd manner using optimization methods to calculate a rejection probability and to update the system. This method should allow an efficient study of the dynamics of two-dimensional solids at high density.Comment: 8 pages, 9 figures. This paper has been combined into the cond-mat/0508652, and published in Phys. Rev.