Radio Frequency Selective Addressing of Localized Particles in a Periodic Potential

We study the localization and addressability of ultra cold atoms in a combined parabolic and periodic potential. Such a potential supports the existence of localized stationary states and we show that using a radio frequency field allows to selectively address the atoms in these states. This method is used to measure the energy and momentum distribution of the atoms in the localized states. We also discuss possible extensions of this scheme to address and manipulate particles in single lattice sites.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

Ambivalence of the anisotropy of the vortex lattice in an anisotropic type-II superconductor

We present a geometry-based discussion of possible vortex configurations in the mixed state of anisotropic type-II superconductors. It is shown that, if energy considerations assign six nearest neighbors to each vortex, two distinct modifications of the vortex lattice are possible. It is expected that certain conditions lead to a first order phase transition from one modification of the vortex lattice to the other upon varying the external magnetic field.Comment: 3 pages, 2 figure

Caustics in turbulent aerosols

Networks of caustics can occur in the distribution of particles suspended in a randomly moving gas. These can facilitate coagulation of particles by bringing them into close proximity, even in cases where the trajectories do not coalesce. We show that the long-time morphology of these caustic patterns is determined by the Lyapunov exponents lambda_1, lambda_2 of the suspended particles, as well as the rate J at which particles encounter caustics. We develop a theory determining the quantities J, lambda_1, lambda_2 from the statistical properties of the gas flow, in the limit of short correlation times.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure

Surface, Water, and Air Biocharacterization (SWAB) Flight Experiment

The determination of risk from infectious disease during spaceflight missions is composed of several factors including both the concentration and characteristics of the microorganisms to which the crew are exposed. Thus, having a good understanding of the microbial ecology aboard spacecraft provides the necessary information to mitigate health risks to the crew. While preventive measures are taken to minimize the presence of pathogens on spacecraft, medically significant organisms have been isolated from both the Mir and International Space Station (ISS). Historically, the method for isolation and identification of microorganisms from spacecraft environmental samples depended upon their growth on culture media. Unfortunately, only a fraction of the organisms may grow on a specific culture medium, potentially omitting those microorganisms whose nutritional and physical requirements for growth are not met. To address this bias in our understanding of the ISS environment, the Surface, Water, and Air Biocharacterization (SWAB) Flight Experiment was designed to investigate and develop monitoring technology to provide better microbial characterization. For the SWAB flight experiment, we hypothesized that environmental analysis using non-culture-based technologies would reveal microorganisms, allergens, and microbial toxins not previously reported in spacecraft, allowing for a more complete health assessment. Key findings during this experiment included: a) Generally, advanced molecular techniques were able to reveal a few organisms not recovered using culture-based methods; however, there is no indication that current monitoring is "missing" any medically significant bacteria or fungi. b) Molecular techniques have tremendous potential for microbial monitoring, however, sample preparation and data analysis present challenges for spaceflight hardware. c) Analytical results indicate that some molecular techniques, such as denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE), can be much less sensitive than culture-based methods. d) More sensitive molecular techniques, such as quantitative polymerase chain reaction (QPCR), were able to identify viral DNA from ISS environments, suggesting potential transfer of the organism between crewmembers. In addition, the hardware selected for this experiment represented advances for next-generation sample collection. The advanced nature of this collection hardware was noted, when the Sartorius MD8 Air Port air sampler from the SWAB experiment remained on board ISS at the request of JAXA investigators, who intend to use it in completion of their microbial ecology experiment

Chaotic saddles in nonlinear modulational interactions in a plasma

A nonlinear model of modulational processes in the subsonic regime involving a linearly unstable wave and two linearly damped waves with different damping rates in a plasma is studied numerically. We compute the maximum Lyapunov exponent as a function of the damping rates in a two-parameter space, and identify shrimp-shaped self-similar structures in the parameter space. By varying the damping rate of the low-frequency wave, we construct bifurcation diagrams and focus on a saddle-node bifurcation and an interior crisis associated with a periodic window. We detect chaotic saddles and their stable and unstable manifolds, and demonstrate how the connection between two chaotic saddles via coupling unstable periodic orbits can result in a crisis-induced intermittency. The relevance of this work for the understanding of modulational processes observed in plasmas and fluids is discussed.Comment: Physics of Plasmas, in pres

Echoes and revival echoes in systems of anharmonically confined atoms

We study echoes and what we call 'revival echoes' for a collection of atoms that are described by a single quantum wavefunction and are confined in a weakly anharmonic trap. The echoes and revival echoes are induced by applying two, successive temporally localized potential perturbations to the confining potential, one at time $t=0$, and a smaller one at time $t=\tau$. Pulse-like responses in the expectation value of position are predicted at $t \approx n\tau$ ($n=2,3,...$) and are particularly evident at $t \approx 2\tau$. A novel result of our study is the finding of 'revival echoes'. Revivals (but not echoes) occur even if the second perturbation is absent. In particular, in the absence of the second perturbation, the response to the first perturbation dies away, but then reassembles, producing a response at revival times $mT_x$ ($m=1,2,...$). Including the second perturbation at $t=\tau$, we find temporally localized responses, revival echoes, both before and after $t\approx mT_x$, e.g., at $t\approx m T_x-n \tau$ (pre-revival echoes) and at $t\approx mT_x+n\tau$, (post-revival echoes), where $m$ and $n$ are $1,2,...$ . Depending on the form of the perturbations, the 'principal' revival echoes at $t \approx T_x \pm \tau$ can be much larger than the echo at $t \approx 2\tau$. We develop a perturbative model for these phenomena, and compare its predictions to the numerical solutions of the time-dependent Schr\"odinger Equation. The scaling of the size of the various echoes and revival echoes as a function of the symmetry and size of the perturbations applied at $t=0$ and $t=\tau$ is investigated. We also study the presence of revivals and revival echoes in higher moments of position, , $p>1$, and the effect of atom-atom interactions on these phenomena.Comment: 33 pages, 13 figures, corrected typos and added reference

Biaxial Strain in the Hexagonal Plane of MnAs Thin Films: The Key to Stabilize Ferromagnetism to Higher Temperature

The alpha-beta magneto-structural phase transition in MnAs/GaAs(111) epilayers is investigated by elastic neutron scattering. The in-plane parameter of MnAs remains almost constant with temperature from 100 K to 420 K, following the thermal evolution of the GaAs substrate. This induces a temperature dependent biaxial strain that is responsible for an alpha-beta phase coexistence and, more important, for the stabilization of the ferromagnetic alpha-phase at higher temperature than in bulk. We explain the premature appearance of the beta-phase at 275 K and the persistence of the ferromagnetic alpha-phase up to 350 K with thermodynamical arguments based on the MnAs phase diagram. It results that the biaxial strain in the hexagonal plane is the key parameter to extend the ferromagnetic phase well over room temperature.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, accepted for publication in Physical Review Letter

Extracting Lyapunov exponents from the echo dynamics of Bose-Einstein condensates on a lattice

We propose theoretically an experimentally realizable method to demonstrate the Lyapunov instability and to extract the value of the largest Lyapunov exponent for a chaotic many-particle interacting system. The proposal focuses specifically on a lattice of coupled Bose-Einstein condensates in the classical regime describable by the discrete Gross-Pitaevskii equation. We suggest to use imperfect time-reversal of system's dynamics known as Loschmidt echo, which can be realized experimentally by reversing the sign of the Hamiltonian of the system. The routine involves tracking and then subtracting the noise of virtually any observable quantity before and after the time-reversal. We support the theoretical analysis by direct numerical simulations demonstrating that the largest Lyapunov exponent can indeed be extracted from the Loschmidt echo routine. We also discuss possible values of experimental parameters required for implementing this proposal