3,230 research outputs found
All our yesterdays: a hydrological retrospective
International audienceThis paper traces the development and eventual recognition of hydrology as a scientific subject in its own right in the UK and, later, in the European Geophysical Society (EGS), now the European Geosciences Union (EGU). In the early 1960s, to facilitate decisions of executive government departments in meeting the rapidly increasing demand for industrial and domestic water supplies, a small Hydrological Research Unit (HRU) was established by the UK Department of Scientific and Industrial Research(DSIR) to investigate the comparative water use of forested and grassed upland catchments. These small beginnings in the HRU developed in a few years into the highly multi-disciplinary Institute of Hydrology (IH) as a source of independent advice for policy makers, with a capability to undertake longer term research, monitoring and data collection than was feasible in individual government departments or in the universities. Within IH, the range of specialities included not only engineering, physics, geography, geology, meteorology and instrumentation but also pollution, plant physiology, ecology, chemistry and economics. Said quickly in retrospect, the trajectory of the growth of IH seems smooth but, in reality, it masked many struggles between competing disciplines and departments before hydrology was recognised as a subject in its own right ? the science of water
Warren McCulloch and the British cyberneticians
Warren McCulloch was a significant influence on a number of British cyberneticians, as some British pioneers in this area were on him. He interacted regularly with most of the main figures on the British cybernetics scene, forming close friendships and collaborations with several, as well as mentoring others. Many of these interactions stemmed from a 1949 visit to London during which he gave the opening talk at the inaugural meeting of the Ratio Club, a gathering of brilliant, mainly young, British scientists working in areas related to cybernetics. This paper traces some of these relationships and interaction
Magnetism in the dilute Kondo lattice model
The one dimensional dilute Kondo lattice model is investigated by means of
bosonization for different dilution patterns of the array of impurity spins.
The physical picture is very different if a commensurate or incommensurate
doping of the impurity spins is considered. For the commensurate case, the
obtained phase diagram is verified using a non-Abelian density-matrix
renormalization-group algorithm. The paramagnetic phase widens at the expense
of the ferromagnetic phase as the -spins are diluted. For the incommensurate
case, antiferromagnetism is found at low doping, which distinguishes the dilute
Kondo lattice model from the standard Kondo lattice model.Comment: 11 pages, 2 figure
Matrix product decomposition and classical simulation of quantum dynamics in the presence of a symmetry
We propose a refined matrix product state representation for many-body
quantum states that are invariant under SU(2) transformations, and indicate how
to extend the time-evolving block decimation (TEBD) algorithm in order to
simulate time evolution in an SU(2) invariant system. The resulting algorithm
is tested in a critical quantum spin chain and shown to be significantly more
efficient than the standard TEBD.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure
Symmetry adapted finite-cluster solver for quantum Heisenberg model in two-dimensions: a real-space renormalization approach
We present a quantum cluster solver for spin- Heisenberg model on a
two-dimensional lattice. The formalism is based on the real-space
renormalization procedure and uses the lattice point group-theoretical analysis
and nonabelian SU(2) spin symmetry technique. The exact diagonalization
procedure is used twice at each renormalization group step. The method is
applied to the spin-half antiferromagnet on a square lattice and a calculation
of local observables is demonstrated. A symmetry based truncation procedure is
suggested and verified numerically.Comment: willm appear in J. Phys.
From density-matrix renormalization group to matrix product states
In this paper we give an introduction to the numerical density matrix
renormalization group (DMRG) algorithm, from the perspective of the more
general matrix product state (MPS) formulation. We cover in detail the
differences between the original DMRG formulation and the MPS approach,
demonstrating the additional flexibility that arises from constructing both the
wavefunction and the Hamiltonian in MPS form. We also show how to make use of
global symmetries, for both the Abelian and non-Abelian cases.Comment: Numerous small changes and clarifications, added a figur
The quasi-periodic Bose-Hubbard model and localization in one-dimensional cold atomic gases
We compute the phase diagram of the one-dimensional Bose-Hubbard model with a
quasi-periodic potential by means of the density-matrix renormalization group
technique. This model describes the physics of cold atoms loaded in an optical
lattice in the presence of a superlattice potential whose wave length is
incommensurate with the main lattice wave length. After discussing the
conditions under which the model can be realized experimentally, the study of
the density vs. the chemical potential curves for a non-trapped system unveils
the existence of gapped phases at incommensurate densities interpreted as
incommensurate charge-density wave phases. Furthermore, a localization
transition is known to occur above a critical value of the potential depth V_2
in the case of free and hard-core bosons. We extend these results to soft-core
bosons for which the phase diagrams at fixed densities display new features
compared with the phase diagrams known for random box distribution disorder. In
particular, a direct transition from the superfluid phase to the Mott
insulating phase is found at finite V_2. Evidence for reentrances of the
superfluid phase upon increasing interactions is presented. We finally comment
on different ways to probe the emergent quantum phases and most importantly,
the existence of a critical value for the localization transition. The later
feature can be investigated by looking at the expansion of the cloud after
releasing the trap.Comment: 19 pages, 20 figure
Long-time behavior of the momentum distribution during the sudden expansion of a spin-imbalanced Fermi gas in one dimension
We study the sudden expansion of spin-imbalanced ultracold lattice fermions
with attractive interactions in one dimension after turning off the
longitudinal confining potential. We show that the momentum distribution
functions of majority and minority fermions approach stationary values quickly
due to a quantum distillation mechanism that results in a spatial separation of
pairs and majority fermions. As a consequence, Fulde-Ferrell-Larkin-Ovchinnikov
(FFLO) correlations are lost during the expansion. Furthermore, we argue that
the shape of the stationary momentum distribution functions can be understood
by relating them to the integrals of motion in this integrable quantum system.
We discuss our results in the context of proposals to observe FFLO
correlations, related to recent experiments by Liao et al., Nature 467, 567
(2010).Comment: 8 pages including supplementary material, 9 eps figures, revised
version as published, some text moved to the supplemental materia
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