1,828 research outputs found
Interplay between shear loading and structural aging in a physical gel
We show that the aging of the mechanical relaxation of a gelatin gel exhibits
the same scaling phenomenology as polymer and colloidal glasses. Besides,
gelatin is known to exhibit logarithmic structural aging (stiffening). We find
that stress accelerates this process. However, this effect is definitely
irreducible to a mere age shift with respect to natural aging. We suggest that
it is interpretable in terms of elastically-aided elementary (coilhelix)
local events whose dynamics gradually slows down as aging increases geometric
frustration
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Estimating cost-offsets of new medications: Use of new antipsychotics and mental health costs for schizophrenia
Estimation of the effect of one treatment compared to another in the absence of randomization is a common problem in biostatistics. An increasingly popular approach involves instrumental variables—variables that are predictive of who received a treatment yet not directly predictive of the outcome. When treatment is binary, many estimators have been proposed: method-of-moments estimators using a two-stage least-squares procedure, generalized-method-of-moments estimators using two-stage predictor substitution or two-stage residual inclusion procedures, and likelihood-based latent variable approaches. The critical assumptions to the consistency of two-stage procedures and of the likelihood-based procedures differ. Because neither set of assumptions can be completely tested from the observed data alone, comparing the results from the different approaches is an important sensitivity analysis. We provide a general statistical framework for estimation of the casual effect of a binary treatment on a continuous outcome using simultaneous equations to specify models. A comparison of health care costs for adults with schizophrenia treated with newer atypical antipsychotics and those treated with conventional antipsychotic medications illustrates our methods. Surprisingly large differences in the results among the methods are investigated using a simulation study. Several new findings concerning the performance in terms of precision and robustness of each approach in different situations are obtained. We illustrate that in general supplemental information is needed to determine which analysis, if any, is trustworthy and reaffirm that comparing results from different approaches is a valuable sensitivity analysis
Electronic and Magnetic Structure of LaCuO
The recently-discovered ``ladder'' compound LaCuO has been found to
admit hole doping without altering its structure of coupled copper oxide
ladders. While susceptibility measurements on the parent compound suggest a
spin gap and a spin-liquid state, NMR results indicate magnetic order at low
temperatures. These seemingly contradictory results may be reconciled if in
fact the magnetic state is near the crossover from spin liquid to
antiferromagnet, and we investigate this possibility. From a tight-binding fit
to the valence LDA bandstructure, we deduce that the strength of the
interladder hopping term is approximately half that of intraladder hopping,
showing that the material is three-dimensional in character. A mean-field
treatment of the insulating magnetic state gives a spin-liquid phase whose spin
gap decreases with increasing interladder coupling, vanishing (signalling a
transition to the ordered phase) at a value somewhat below that obtained for
LaCuO. The introduction of an on-site repulsion term, , to the band
scheme causes a transition to an antiferromagnetic insulator for rather small
but finite values of , reflecting the predominance of (one-dimensional)
ladder behavior, and an absence of any special nesting features.Comment: 8 pages + 5 figure
On possible superconductivity in the doped ladder compound La_(1-x)Sr_xCuO_2.5
LaCuO_2.5 is a system of coupled, two-chain, cuprate ladders which may be
doped systematically by Sr substitution. Motivated by the recent synthesis of
single crystals, we investigate theoretically the possibility of
superconductivity in this compound. We use a model of spin fluctuation-mediated
superconductivity, where the pairing potential is strongly peaked at \pi in the
ladder direction. We solve the coupled gap equations on the bonding and
antibonding ladder bands to find superconducting solutions across the range of
doping, and discuss their relevance to the real material.Comment: RevTex, 4 pages, 7 figure
Block orthogonal polynomials: I. Definition and properties
Constrained orthogonal polynomials have been recently introduced in the study
of the Hohenberg-Kohn functional to provide basis functions satisfying particle
number conservation for an expansion of the particle density. More generally,
we define block orthogonal (BO) polynomials which are orthogonal, with respect
to a first Euclidean scalar product, to a given -dimensional subspace of polynomials associated with the constraints. In addition, they are
mutually orthogonal with respect to a second Euclidean scalar product. We
recast the determination of these polynomials into a general problem of finding
particular orthogonal bases in an Euclidean vector space endowed with distinct
scalar products. An explicit two step Gram-Schmidt orthogonalization (G-SO)
procedure to determine these bases is given. By definition, the standard block
orthogonal (SBO) polynomials are associated with a choice of equal
to the subspace of polynomials of degree less than . We investigate their
properties, emphasizing similarities to and differences from the standard
orthogonal polynomials. Applications to classical orthogonal polynomials will
be given in forthcoming papers.Comment: This is a reduced version of the initial manuscript, the number of
pages being reduced from 34 to 2
Phase Separation, Competition, and Volume Fraction Control in NaFeCoAs
We report a detailed nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) study by combined
Na and As measurements over a broad range of doping to map the
phase diagram of NaFeCoAs. In the underdoped regime (
0.017), we find a magnetic phase with robust antiferromagnetic (AFM) order,
which we denote the {\it s}-AFM phase, cohabiting with a phase of weak and
possibly proximity-induced AFM order ({\it w}-AFM) whose volume fraction \% is approximately constant. Near optimal doping, at , we
observe a phase separation between static antiferromagnetism related to the
{\it s}-AFM phase and a paramagnetic (PM) phase related to {\it w}-AFM. The
volume fraction of AFM phase increases upon cooling, but both the N{\'e}el
temperature and the volume fraction can be suppressed systematically by
applying a -axis magnetic field. On cooling below , superconductivity
occupies the PM region and its volume fraction grows at the expense of the AFM
phase, demonstrating a phase separation of the two types of order based on
volume exclusion. At higher dopings, static antiferromagnetism and even
critical AFM fluctuations are completely suppressed by superconductivity. Thus
the phase diagram we establish contains two distinct types of phase separation
and reflects a strong competition between AFM and superconducting phases both
in real space and in momentum space. We suggest that both this strict mutual
exclusion and the robustness of superconductivity against magnetism are
consequences of the extreme two-dimensionality of NaFeAs.Comment: 12 pages, 6 figure
Dissociative Autoionization in (1+2)-photon Above Threshold Excitation of H2 Molecules
We have theoretically studied the effect of dissociative autoionization on
the photoelectron energy spectrum in (1+2)-photon above threshold
ionization(ATI) of H2 molecules. We have considered excitation from the ground
state X-singlet-Sigma-g+(v=0,j) to the doubly excited autoionizing states of
singlet-Sigma-u+ and singlet-Pi-u+ symmetry, via the intermediate resonant
B-singlet-Sigma-u+(v=5,j) states. We have shown that the photoelectron energy
spectrum is oscillatory in nature and shows three distinct peaks above the
photoelectron energy 0.7 eV. This feature has been observed in a recent
experiment by Rottke et al, J. Phys. B, Vol. 30, p-4049 (1997).Comment: 11 pages and 4 figure
Semiclassical ionization dynamics of the hydrogen molecular ion in an electric field of arbitrary orientation
Quasi-static models of barrier suppression have played a major role in our
understanding of the ionization of atoms and molecules in strong laser fields.
Despite their success, in the case of diatomic molecules these studies have so
far been restricted to fields aligned with the molecular axis. In this paper we
investigate the locations and heights of the potential barriers in the hydrogen
molecular ion in an electric field of arbitrary orientation. We find that the
barriers undergo bifurcations as the external field strength and direction are
varied. This phenomenon represents an unexpected level of intricacy even on
this most elementary level of the dynamics. We describe the dynamics of
tunnelling ionization through the barriers semiclassically and use our results
to shed new light on the success of a recent theory of molecular tunnelling
ionization as well as earlier theories that restrict the electric field to be
aligned with the molecular axis
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