Potential of an ionic impurityin a large 4^4He cluster

This paper presents an analysis of the motion of an impurity ion in a nanometer scale $^4$He cluster. Due to induction forces, ions are strongly localized near the center of the cluster, with a root mean squared thermal displacements of only a few \AA. The trapping potential is found to be nearly harmonic, with a frequency of 2.3(1.0) GHz for a positive (negative) ion in a He cluster of radius 5 nm. The anharmonicity is small and positive (energy increases slightly faster than linear with quantum number). It is suggested that by using frequency sweep microwave radiation, it should be possible to drive the ion center of mass motion up to high quantum numbers, allowing the study of the critical velocity as a function of cluster size.Comment: 14 pages, 0 figures, To be published in Molecular Physic

Basin Hopping with Occasional Jumping

Basin-Hopping (BH) or Monte-Carlo Minimization (MCM) is so far the most reliable algorithms in chemical physics to search for the lowest-energy structure of atomic clusters and macromolecular systems. BH transforms the complex energy landscape into a collection of basins, and explores them by hopping, which is achieved by random Monte Carlo moves and acceptance/rejection using the Metropolis criterion. In this report, we introduce the jumping process in addition to the hopping process in BH. Jumping are invoked when the hopping stagnates by reaching the local optima, and are achieved using the Monte Carlo move at the temperature $T=\infty$ without rejection. Our Basin-Hopping with Occasional Jumping (BHOJ) algorithm is applied to the Lennard-Jones clusters of several notoriously difficult sizes. It was found that the probability of locating the true global optima using BHOJ is significantly higher than the original BH

Global geometry optimization of clusters using a growth strategy optimized by a genetic algorithm

A new strategy for global geometry optimization of clusters is presented. Important features are a restriction of search space to favorable nearest-neighbor distance ranges, a suitable cluster growth representation with diminished correlations, and easy transferability of the results to larger clusters. The strengths and possible limitations of the method are demonstrated for Si10 using an empirical potential.Comment: accepted by Chem.Phys.Letters; 10 pages text, plus 3 pages for Title, abstract, and figure caption; figures 1a and 1

Surface effects in the crystallization process of elastic flexible polymers

Investigating thermodynamic properties of liquid-solid transitions of flexible homopolymers with elastic bonds by means of multicanonical Monte Carlo simulations, we find crystalline conformations that resemble ground-state structures of Lennard-Jones clusters. This allows us to set up a structural classification scheme for finite-length flexible polymers and their freezing mechanism in analogy to atomic cluster formation. Crystals of polymers with "magic length" turn out to be perfectly icosahedral

Vorticity Fluctuations in Turbulent Counterflow of Superfluid Helium

A model of vorticity fluctuations in turbulent helium based on Vinen\u27s dynamical equation is developed. Its predictions are compared with measurements of ⟨δL2⟩ recently reported by Mantese, Bischoff, and Moss. The result is interpreted as supporting the validity of Vinen\u27s equation

Thermodynamic Properties of the Incommensurate Phase of CuGeO_3

We present high resolution measurements of the specific heat and the thermal expansion of the inorganic spin--Peierls cuprate CuGeO_3 in a magnetic field of 16 Tesla. At the transition from the incommensurate to the uniform phase both quantities show pronounced anomalies, which allow to derive the uniaxial pressure dependencies of the transition temperature. In high magnetic fields the specific heat is dominated by magnetic excitations and follows a T^3 law at low temperatures. The thermal expansion measurements show the occurrence of spontaneous strains along all three lattice constants and yield high resolution measurements of the temperature dependence of the incommensurate structural distortion. The sizes of the spontaneous strains in the incommensurate phase are significantly reduced, but both their anisotropy as well as their temperature dependencies are very similar to those in zero field.Comment: 12 pages (Latex), 4 Figs. (PS), to appear in Phys. Rev. B54 (Vol.21

Fragmentation Clusters Formed in Supercritical Expansions of \u3csup\u3e4\u3c/sup\u3eHe

We have measured the mass distribution of cluster ions formed from a supercritical expansion of helium gas. We find two distinct cluster groups which we identify as condensation and fragmentation clusters. The latter first appear when the expansion conditions approach the critical isentrope. The measurements also suggest that the neutral fragmentation cluster mass distribution is a universal function of the source entropy

Charged Droplets in Cryogenic \u3csup\u3e4\u3c/sup\u3eHe Vapor

We have measured the mobility of positive ions in 4He vapor for temperatures between 1.3 and 2.0 K and for saturation ratios between 0.1 and 1.0. We present a model which relates the size of a charged droplet to its mobility and find good quantitative agreement with our data when we calculate the size of the droplet which forms about the ion with classical macroscopic thermodynamic arguments. The radius thus obtained ranges from 7 to 9 Å

Pressure dependence of the spin gap in BaVS_3

We carried out magnetotransport experiments under hydrostatic pressure in order to study the nature of the metal-insulator transition in BaVS$_3$. Scaling relations for $\rho(T,H,p)$ are established and the pressure dependence of the spin gap is determined. Our new results, in conjunction with a re-analysis of earlier specific heat and susceptibility data, demonstrate that the transition is weakly second order. The nature of the phase diagram in the $T$--$p$--$H$ space is discussed.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figures, submitted to PRB Rap. Co

Instability of vortex array and transitions to turbulent states in rotating helium II

We consider superfluid helium inside a container which rotates at constant angular velocity and investigate numerically the stability of the array of quantized vortices in the presence of an imposed axial counterflow. This problem was studied experimentally by Swanson {\it et al.}, who reported evidence of instabilities at increasing axial flow but were not able to explain their nature. We find that Kelvin waves on individual vortices become unstable and grow in amplitude, until the amplitude of the waves becomes large enough that vortex reconnections take place and the vortex array is destabilized. The eventual nonlinear saturation of the instability consists of a turbulent tangle of quantized vortices which is strongly polarized. The computed results compare well with the experiments. Finally we suggest a theoretical explanation for the second instability which was observed at higher values of the axial flow