7,546 research outputs found
Igniting homogeneous nucleation
Transient homogeneous nucleation is studied in the limit of large critical
sizes. Starting from pure monomers, three eras of transient nucleation are
characterized in the classic Becker-D\"oring kinetic equations with two
different models of discrete diffusivity: the classic Turnbull-Fisher formula
and an expression describing thermally driven growth of the nucleus. The latter
diffusivity yields time lags for nucleation which are much closer to values
measured in experiments with disilicate glasses. After an initial stage in
which the number of monomers decreases, many clusters of small size are
produced and a continuous size distribution is created. During the second era,
nucleii are increasing steadily in size in such a way that their distribution
appears as a wave front advancing towards the critical size for steady
nucleation. The nucleation rate at critical size is negligible during this era.
After the wave front reaches critical size, it ignites the creation of
supercritical clusters at a rate that increases monotonically until its steady
value is reached. Analytical formulas for the transient nucleation rate and the
time lag are obtained that improve classical ones and compare very well with
direct numerical solutions.Comment: 32 pages, 6 figures, to appear in Phys. Rev.
Cumulant Expansions and the Spin-Boson Problem
The dynamics of the dissipative two-level system at zero temperature is
studied using three different cumulant expansion techniques. The relative
merits and drawbacks of each technique are discussed. It is found that a new
technique, the non-crossing cumulant expansion, appears to embody the virtues
of the more standard cumulant methods.Comment: 26 pages, LaTe
Driven Tunneling Dynamics: Bloch-Redfield Theory versus Path Integral Approach
In the regime of weak bath coupling and low temperature we demonstrate
numerically for the spin-boson dynamics the equivalence between two widely used
but seemingly different roads of approximation, namely the path integral
approach and the Bloch-Redfield theory. The excellent agreement between these
two methods is corroborated by a novel efficient analytical high-frequency
approach: it well approximates the decay of quantum coherence via a series of
damped coherent oscillations. Moreover, a suitably tuned control field can
selectively enhance or suppress quantum coherence.Comment: 4 pages including 3 figures, submitted for publicatio
Free carrier effects in gallium nitride epilayers: the valence band dispersion
The dispersion of the A-valence-band in GaN has been deduced from the
observation of high-index magneto-excitonic states in polarised interband
magneto-reflectivity and is found to be strongly non-parabolic with a mass in
the range 1.2-1.8 m_{e}. It matches the theory of Kim et al. [Phys. Rev. B 56,
7363 (1997)] extremely well, which also gives a strong k-dependent
A-valence-band mass. A strong phonon coupling leads to quenching of the
observed transitions at an LO-phonon energy above the band gap and a strong
non-parabolicity. The valence band was deduced from subtracting from the
reduced dispersion the electron contribution with a model that includes a full
treatment of the electron-phonon interaction.Comment: Revtex, 4 pages, 5 figure
The Intrinsic Quantum Excitations of Low Temperature Glasses
Several puzzling regularities concerning the low temperature excitations of
glasses are quantitatively explained by quantizing domain wall motions of the
random first order glass transition theory. The density of excitations agrees
with experiment and scales with the size of a dynamically coherent region at
, being about 200 molecules. The phonon coupling depends on the Lindemann
ratio for vitrification yielding the observed universal relation between phonon wavelength and mean free path .
Multilevel behavior is predicted to occur in the temperature range of the
thermal conductivity plateau.Comment: 4 pages, submitted to PR
Phase diffusion as a model for coherent suppression of tunneling in the presence of noise
We study the stabilization of coherent suppression of tunneling in a driven
double-well system subject to random periodic function ``kicks''. We
model dissipation due to this stochastic process as a phase diffusion process
for an effective two-level system and derive a corresponding set of Bloch
equations with phase damping terms that agree with the periodically kicked
system at discrete times. We demonstrate that the ability of noise to localize
the system on either side of the double-well potenital arises from overdamping
of the phase of oscillation and not from any cooperative effect between the
noise and the driving field. The model is investigated with a square wave
drive, which has qualitatively similar features to the widely studied
cosinusoidal drive, but has the additional advantage of allowing one to derive
exact analytic expressions.Comment: 17 pages, 4 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev.
Optical-phonon resonances with saddle-point excitons in twisted-bilayer graphene
Twisted-bilayer graphene (tBLG) exhibits van Hove singularities in the
density of states that can be tuned by changing the twisting angle . A
-defined tBLG has been produced and characterized with optical
reflectivity and resonance Raman scattering. The -engineered optical
response is shown to be consistent with persistent saddle-point excitons.
Separate resonances with Stokes and anti-Stokes Raman scattering components can
be achieved due to the sharpness of the two-dimensional saddle-point excitons,
similar to what has been previously observed for one-dimensional carbon
nanotubes. The excitation power dependence for the Stokes and anti-Stokes
emissions indicate that the two processes are correlated and that they share
the same phonon.Comment: 5 pages, 6 figure
Momentum-space signatures of Berry flux monopoles in the Weyl semimetal TaAs
Since the early days of Dirac flux quantization, magnetic monopoles have been sought after as a potential corollary of quantized electric charge. As opposed to magnetic monopoles embedded into the theory of electromagnetism, Weyl semimetals (WSM) exhibit Berry flux monopoles in reciprocal parameter space. As a function of crystal momentum, such monopoles locate at the crossing point of spin-polarized bands forming the Weyl cone. Here, we report momentum-resolved spectroscopic signatures of Berry flux monopoles in TaAs as a paradigmatic WSM. We carried out angle-resolved photoelectron spectroscopy at bulk-sensitive soft X-ray energies (SX-ARPES) combined with photoelectron spin detection and circular dichroism. The experiments reveal large spin- and orbital-angular-momentum (SAM and OAM) polarizations of the Weyl-fermion states, resulting from the broken crystalline inversion symmetry in TaAs. Supported by first-principles calculations, our measurements image signatures of a topologically non-trivial winding of the OAM at the Weyl nodes and unveil a chirality-dependent SAM of the Weyl bands. Our results provide directly bulk-sensitive spectroscopic support for the non-trivial band topology in the WSM TaAs, promising to have profound implications for the study of quantum-geometric effects in solids
Measurements of the Production, Decay and Properties of the Top Quark: A Review
With the full Tevatron Run II and early LHC data samples, the opportunity for
furthering our understanding of the properties of the top quark has never been
more promising. Although the current knowledge of the top quark comes largely
from Tevatron measurements, the experiments at the LHC are poised to probe
top-quark production and decay in unprecedented regimes. Although no current
top quark measurements conclusively contradict predictions from the standard
model, the precision of most measurements remains statistically limited.
Additionally, some measurements, most notably the forward-backward asymmetry in
top quark pair production, show tantalizing hints of beyond-the-Standard-Model
dynamics. The top quark sample is growing rapidly at the LHC, with initial
results now public. This review examines the current status of top quark
measurements in the particular light of searching for evidence of new physics,
either through direct searches for beyond the standard model phenomena or
indirectly via precise measurements of standard model top quark properties
Lactation and neonatal nutrition: defining and refining the critical questions.
This paper resulted from a conference entitled "Lactation and Milk: Defining and refining the critical questions" held at the University of Colorado School of Medicine from January 18-20, 2012. The mission of the conference was to identify unresolved questions and set future goals for research into human milk composition, mammary development and lactation. We first outline the unanswered questions regarding the composition of human milk (Section I) and the mechanisms by which milk components affect neonatal development, growth and health and recommend models for future research. Emerging questions about how milk components affect cognitive development and behavioral phenotype of the offspring are presented in Section II. In Section III we outline the important unanswered questions about regulation of mammary gland development, the heritability of defects, the effects of maternal nutrition, disease, metabolic status, and therapeutic drugs upon the subsequent lactation. Questions surrounding breastfeeding practice are also highlighted. In Section IV we describe the specific nutritional challenges faced by three different populations, namely preterm infants, infants born to obese mothers who may or may not have gestational diabetes, and infants born to undernourished mothers. The recognition that multidisciplinary training is critical to advancing the field led us to formulate specific training recommendations in Section V. Our recommendations for research emphasis are summarized in Section VI. In sum, we present a roadmap for multidisciplinary research into all aspects of human lactation, milk and its role in infant nutrition for the next decade and beyond
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