First principle electronic, structural, elastic, and optical properties of strontium titanate

We report self-consistent ab-initio electronic, structural, elastic, and optical properties of cubic SrTiO$_{3}$ perovskite. Our non-relativistic calculations employed a generalized gradient approximation (GGA) potential and the linear combination of atomic orbitals (LCAO) formalism. The distinctive feature of our computations stem from solving self-consistently the system of equations describing the GGA, using the Bagayoko-Zhao-Williams (BZW) method. Our results are in agreement with experimental ones where the later are available. In particular, our theoretical, indirect band gap of 3.24 eV, at the experimental lattice constant of 3.91 \AA{}, is in excellent agreement with experiment. Our predicted, equilibrium lattice constant is 3.92 \AA{}, with a corresponding indirect band gap of 3.21 eV and bulk modulus of 183 GPa.Comment: 11 pages, 6 figures,Accepted for publication in AIP Advances (2012

The Bak-Sneppen Model on Scale-Free Networks

We investigate by numerical simulations and analytical calculations the Bak-Sneppen model for biological evolution in scale-free networks. By using large scale numerical simulations, we study the avalanche size distribution and the activity time behavior at nodes with different connectivities. We argue the absence of a critical barrier and its associated critical behavior for infinite size systems. These findings are supported by a single site mean-field analytic treatment of the model.Comment: 5 pages and 3 eps figures. Final version appeared in Europhys. Let

Full two-photon downconversion of just a single photon

We demonstrate, both numerically and analytically, that it is possible to generate two photons from one and only one photon. We characterize the output two photon field and make our calculations close to reality by including losses. Our proposal relies on real or artificial three-level atoms with a cyclic transition strongly coupled to a one-dimensional waveguide. We show that close to perfect downconversion with efficiency over 99% is reachable using state-of-the-art Waveguide QED architectures such as photonic crystals or superconducting circuits. In particular, we sketch an implementation in circuit QED, where the three level atom is a transmon

String solutions in Chern-Simons-Higgs model coupled to an axion

We study a d=2+1 dimensional Chern-Simons gauge theory coupled to a Higgs scalar and an axion field, finding the form of the potential that allows the existence of selfdual equations and the corresponding Bogomolny bound for the energy of static configurations. We show that the same conditions allow for the N=2 supersymmetric extension of the model, reobtaining the BPS equations from the supersymmetry requirement. Explicit electrically charged vortex-like solutions to these equations are presented.Comment: 11 pages, 3 figure