Cooling and trapping of ultra-cold strontium isotopic mixtures

We present the simultaneous cooling and trapping of an isotopic mixture in a magneto-optical trap and we describe the transfer of the mixture into a conservative, far-off resonant dipole trap. The mixture is prepared with a new technique that applies to intermediate and heavy alkaline earth like atoms. In this work, 88Sr and 86Sr are simultaneously loaded first into the magneto-optical trap operated on the 1S0-3P1 spin-forbidden line at 689 nm, and then transferred into the dipole trap. We observe fast inter-species thermalization in the dipole trap which allows one to set a lower bound on the 88Sr-86Sr elastic cross section

Non-equilibrium dynamics of spin facilitated glass models

We consider the dynamics of spin facilitated models of glasses in the non-equilibrium aging regime following a sudden quench from high to low temperatures. We briefly review known results obtained for the broad class of kinetically constrained models, and then present new results for the behaviour of the one-spin facilitated Fredrickson-Andersen and East models in various spatial dimensions. The time evolution of one-time quantities, such as the energy density, and the detailed properties of two-time correlation and response functions are studied using a combination of theoretical approaches, including exact mappings of master operators and reductions to integrable quantum spin chains, field theory and renormalization group, and independent interval and timescale separation methods. The resulting analytical predictions are confirmed by means of detailed numerical simulations. The models we consider are characterized by trivial static properties, with no finite temperature singularities, but they nevertheless display a surprising variety of dynamic behaviour during aging, which can be directly related to the existence and growth in time of dynamic lengthscales. Well-behaved fluctuation-dissipation ratios can be defined for these models, and we study their properties in detail. We confirm in particular the existence of negative fluctuation-dissipation ratios for a large number of observables. Our results suggest that well-defined violations of fluctuation-dissipation relations, of a purely dynamic origin and unrelated to the thermodynamic concept of effective temperatures, could in general be present in non-equilibrium glassy materials.Comment: 72 pages, invited contribution to special issue of JSTAT on "Principles of Dynamics of Nonequilibrium Systems" (Programme at Newton Institute Cambridge). v2: New data added to Figs. 11, 23, 24, new Fig. 26 on East model in d=3, minor improvements to tex

Rotating Casimir systems: magnetic-field-enhanced perpetual motion, possible realization in doped nanotubes, and laws of thermodynamics

Recently, we have demonstrated that for a certain class of Casimir-type systems ("devices") the energy of zero-point vacuum fluctuations reaches its global minimum when the device rotates about a certain axis rather than remains static. This rotational vacuum effect may lead to the emergence of permanently rotating objects provided the negative rotational energy of zero-point fluctuations cancels the positive rotational energy of the device itself. In this paper, we show that for massless electrically charged particles the rotational vacuum effect should be drastically (astronomically) enhanced in the presence of a magnetic field. As an illustration, we show that in a background of experimentally available magnetic fields the zero-point energy of massless excitations in rotating torus-shaped doped carbon nanotubes may indeed overwhelm the classical energy of rotation for certain angular frequencies so that the permanently rotating state is energetically favored. The suggested "zero-point driven" devices -- which have no internally moving parts -- correspond to a perpetuum mobile of a new, fourth kind: They do not produce any work despite the fact that their equilibrium (ground) state corresponds to a permanent rotation even in the presence of an external environment. We show that our proposal is consistent with the laws of thermodynamics.Comment: 19 pages, 11 figures; v2: extended discussions; analogy with split-ring metamaterials stressed; comments are always welcom

Stress-driven instability in growing multilayer films

We investigate the stress-driven morphological instability of epitaxially growing multilayer films, which are coherent and dislocation-free. We construct a direct elastic analysis, from which we determine the elastic state of the system recursively in terms of that of the old states of the buried layers. In turn, we use the result for the elastic state to derive the morphological evolution equation of surface profile to first order of perturbations, with the solution explicitly expressed by the growth conditions and material parameters of all the deposited layers. We apply these results to two kinds of multilayer structures. One is the alternating tensile/compressive multilayer structure, for which we determine the effective stability properties, including the effect of varying surface mobility in different layers, its interplay with the global misfit of the multilayer film, and the influence of asymmetric structure of compressive and tensile layers on the system stability. The nature of the asymmetry properties found in stability diagrams is in agreement with experimental observations. The other multilayer structure that we study is one composed of stacked strained/spacer layers. We also calculate the kinetic critical thickness for the onset of morphological instability and obtain its reduction and saturation as number of deposited layers increases, which is consistent with recent experimental results. Compared to the single-layer film growth, the behavior of kinetic critical thickness shows deviations for upper strained layers.Comment: 27 pages, 11 figures; Phys. Rev. B, in pres

Measurement of the WZ production cross section in pp collisions at [Formula: see text] and 8[Formula: see text] and search for anomalous triple gauge couplings at [Formula: see text].

The WZ production cross section is measured by the CMS experiment at the CERN LHC in proton-proton collision data samples corresponding to integrated luminosities of 4.9[Formula: see text] collected at [Formula: see text], and 19.6[Formula: see text] at [Formula: see text]. The measurements are performed using the fully-leptonic WZ decay modes with electrons and muons in the final state. The measured cross sections for [Formula: see text] are [Formula: see text] [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text] [Formula: see text]. Differential cross sections with respect to the [Formula: see text] boson [Formula: see text], the leading jet [Formula: see text], and the number of jets are obtained using the [Formula: see text] data. The results are consistent with standard model predictions and constraints on anomalous triple gauge couplings are obtained

Search for physics beyond the standard model in events with τ leptons, jets, and large transverse momentum imbalance in pp collisions at [Formula: see text].

A search for physics beyond the standard model is performed with events having one or more hadronically decaying τ leptons, highly energetic jets, and large transverse momentum imbalance. The data sample corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 4.98 fb-1 of proton-proton collisions at [Formula: see text] collected with the CMS detector at the LHC in 2011. The number of observed events is consistent with predictions for standard model processes. Lower limits on the mass of the gluino in supersymmetric models are determined

Measurement of double-differential cross sections for top quark pair production in pp collisions at [Formula: see text][Formula: see text] and impact on parton distribution functions.

Normalized double-differential cross sections for top quark pair ([Formula: see text]) production are measured in pp collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 8[Formula: see text] with the CMS experiment at the LHC. The analyzed data correspond to an integrated luminosity of 19.7[Formula: see text]. The measurement is performed in the dilepton [Formula: see text] final state. The [Formula: see text] cross section is determined as a function of various pairs of observables characterizing the kinematics of the top quark and [Formula: see text] system. The data are compared to calculations using perturbative quantum chromodynamics at next-to-leading and approximate next-to-next-to-leading orders. They are also compared to predictions of Monte Carlo event generators that complement fixed-order computations with parton showers, hadronization, and multiple-parton interactions. Overall agreement is observed with the predictions, which is improved when the latest global sets of proton parton distribution functions are used. The inclusion of the measured [Formula: see text] cross sections in a fit of parametrized parton distribution functions is shown to have significant impact on the gluon distribution

A search for new phenomena in pp collisions at [Formula: see text] in final states with missing transverse momentum and at least one jet using the [Formula: see text] variable.

A search for new phenomena is performed in final states containing one or more jets and an imbalance in transverse momentum in pp collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 13[Formula: see text]. The analysed data sample, recorded with the CMS detector at the CERN LHC, corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 2.3[Formula: see text]. Several kinematic variables are employed to suppress the dominant background, multijet production, as well as to discriminate between other standard model and new physics processes. The search provides sensitivity to a broad range of new-physics models that yield a stable weakly interacting massive particle. The number of observed candidate events is found to agree with the expected contributions from standard model processes, and the result is interpreted in the mass parameter space of fourteen simplified supersymmetric models that assume the pair production of gluinos or squarks and a range of decay modes. For models that assume gluino pair production, masses up to 1575 and 975[Formula: see text] are excluded for gluinos and neutralinos, respectively. For models involving the pair production of top squarks and compressed mass spectra, top squark masses up to 400[Formula: see text] are excluded