1,578 research outputs found
Ehrenfest relations at the glass transition: solution to an old paradox
In order to find out whether there exists a thermodynamic description of the
glass phase, the Ehrenfest relations along the glass transition line are
reconsidered. It is explained that the one involving the compressibility is
always satisfied, and that the one involving the specific heat is principally
incorrect.
Thermodynamical relations are presented for non-ergodic systems with a
one-level tree in phase space. They are derived for a spin glass model, checked
for other models, and expected to apply, e.g., to glass forming liquids. The
second Ehrenfest relation gets a contribution from the configurational entropy.Comment: 4 pages revtex, to appear in Phys. Rev. Let
Thermodynamics of the glassy state: effective temperature as an additional system parameter
A system is glassy when the observation time is much smaller than the
equilibration time. A unifying thermodynamic picture of the glassy state is
presented. Slow configurational modes are in quasi-equilibrium at an effective
temperature. It enters thermodynamic relations with the configurational entropy
as conjugate variable. Slow fluctuations contribute to susceptibilities via
quasi-equilibrium relations, while there is also a configurational term.
Fluctuation-dissipation relations also involve the effective temperature.
Fluctuations in the energy are non-universal, however. The picture is supported
by analytically solving the dynamics of a toy model.Comment: 5 pages, REVTEX. Phys. Rev. Lett, to appea
Third Cumulant of the total Transmission of diffuse Waves
The probability distribution of the total transmission is studied for waves
multiple scattered from a random, static configuration of scatterers. A
theoretical study of the second and third cumulant of this distribution is
presented. Within a diagrammatic approach a theory is developed which relates
the third cumulant normalized to the average, , to the normalized second cumulant . For a broad Gaussian beam profile it is found that .
This is in good agreement with data of optical experiments.Comment: 16 pages revtex, 8 separate postscript figure
Thermodynamic picture of the glassy state
A picture for thermodynamics of the glassy state is introduced. It assumes
that one extra parameter, the effective temperature, is needed to describe the
glassy state. This explains the classical paradoxes concerning the Ehrenfest
relations and the Prigogine-Defay ratio. As a second part, the approach
connects the response of macroscopic observables to a field change with their
temporal fluctuations, and with the fluctuation-dissipation relation, in a
generalized non-equilibrium way.Comment: Proceedings of the Conference "Unifying Concepts in Glass Physics",
ICTP, Trieste, 15 - 18 September 199
Do the Herschel cold clouds in the Galactic halo embody its dark matter?
Recent Herschel/SPIRE maps of the Small and Large Magellanic Clouds (SMC,
LMC) exhibit in each thousands of clouds. Observed at 250 microns, they must be
cold, T ~ 15 K, hence the name "Herschel cold clouds" (HCCs). From the observed
rotational velocity profile and the assumption of spherical symmetry, the
Galactic mass density is modeled in a form close to that of an isothermal
sphere. If the HCCs constitute a certain fraction of it, their angular size
distribution has a specified shape. A fit to the data deduced from the SMC/LMC
maps supports this and yields for their radius 2.5 pc, with a small change when
allowing for a spread in HCC radii. There are so many HCCs that they will make
up all the missing Halo mass density if there is spherical symmetry and their
average mass is of order 15,000 Mo. This compares well with the Jeans mass of
circa 40,000 Mo and puts forward that the HCCs are in fact Jeans clusters,
constituting all the Galactic dark matter and much of its missing baryons, a
conclusion deduced before from a different field of the sky (Nieuwenhuizen,
Schild and Gibson 2011). A preliminary analysis of the intensities yields that
the Jeans clusters themselves may consist of some billion MACHOs of a few dozen
Earth masses. With a size of dozens of solar radii, they would mostly obscure
stars in the LMC, SMC and towards the Galactic center, and may thus have been
overlooked in microlensing.Comment: Revised and corrected version, matches published version. Conclusions
unchange
Changes in Pilot Control Behaviour across Stewart Platform Motion Systems
Low-cost motion systems have been proposed for certain training tasks that would otherwise be performed on high-performance full flight simulators. These systems have shorter stroke actuators, lower bandwidth, and higher noise. The influence of these characteristics on pilot perception and control behaviour is unknown, and can be investigated by simulating a model of a simulator with limited capabilities on a high-end simulator. The platform limitations, such as a platform filter, time delay, and simulator noise characteristics, can then be removed one by one and their effect on control behaviour studied in isolation. By applying a cybernetic approach, human behaviour can be measured objectively in target-following disturbance-rejection control tasks. Experimental results show that small changes in time delay and simulator noise characteristics do not negatively affect human behaviour in these tasks. However, the motion system bandwidth has a significant effect on performance and control behaviour. Participants barely use motion cues when these have a low bandwidth, and instead rely on visual cues to generate lead to perform the control task. Therefore, simulator motion cues must be considered carefully in piloted control tasks in simulators and measured results depend on simulator characteristics as pilots adapt their control behaviour to the available cues
Does the Third Law of Thermodynamics hold in the Quantum Regime?
The first in a long series of papers by John T. Lewis,
G. W. Ford and the present author, considered the problem of the most general
coupling of a quantum particle to a linear passive heat bath, in the course of
which they derived an exact formula for the free energy of an oscillator
coupled to a heat bath in thermal equilibrium at temperature T. This formula,
and its later extension to three dimensions to incorporate a magnetic field,
has proved to be invaluable in analyzing problems in quantum thermodynamics.
Here, we address the question raised in our title viz. Nernst's third law of
thermodynamics
Competition between glassiness and order in a multi-spin glass
A mean-field multi-spin interaction spin glass model is analyzed in the
presence of a ferromagnetic coupling. The static and dynamical phase diagrams
contain four phases (paramagnet, spin glass, ordinary ferromagnet and glassy
ferromagnet) and exhibit reentrant behavior. The glassy ferromagnet phase has
anomalous dynamical properties. The results are consistent with a
nonequilibrium thermodynamics that has been proposed for glasses.Comment: revised version, 4 pages Revtex, 2 eps-figures. Phys. Rev. E, Rapid
Communication, to appea
Exactly solvable model of a quantum spin glass
A mean field spherical model with random couplings between pairs, quartets,
and possibly higher multiplets of spins is considered. It has the same critical
behavior as the Sherrington-Kirkpatrick model. It thus exhibits replica
symmetry breaking. The order parameter function is solved exactly in the whole
low temperature phase. The zero field cooled susceptibility remains finite at
low . Next a quantum version of the system is considered. Whereas the
magnetic properties are not altered qualitatively, the thermodynamics is now
regular at small temperatures.Comment: 4 pages postscript. Revised version, to appear in Phys. Rev. Let
"Optical conductance fluctuations: diagrammatic analysis in Landauer approach and non-universal effects"
The optical conductance of a multiple scattering medium is the total
transmitted light of a diffuse incoming beam. This quantity, very analogous to
the electronic conductance, exhibits universal conductance fluctuations. We
perform a detailed diagrammatic analysis of these fluctuations. With a
Kadanoff-Baym technique all the leading diagrams are systematically generated.
A cancellation of the short distance divergencies occurs, that yields a well
behaved theory. The analytical form of the fluctuations is calculated and
applied to optical systems. Absorption and internal reflections reduce the
fluctuations significantly.Comment: 25 pages Revtex 3.0, 18 seperate postscript figure
- …