Phase diagram of two-species Bose-Einstein condensates in an optical lattice

The exact macroscopic wave functions of two-species Bose-Einstein condensates in an optical lattice beyond the tight-binding approximation are studied by solving the coupled nonlinear Schrodinger equations. The phase diagram for superfluid and insulator phases of the condensates is determined analytically according to the macroscopic wave functions of the condensates, which are seen to be traveling matter waves.Comment: 13 pages, 2 figure

Retrieving the Size of Deep-subwavelength Objects via Tunable Optical Spin-Orbit Coupling

We propose a scheme to retrieve the size parameters of a nano-particle on a glass substrate at a scale much smaller than the wavelength. This is achieved by illuminating the particle using two plane waves to create rich and non-trivial local polarization distributions, and observing the far-field scattering pattern into the substrate. A simple dipole model which exploits tunneling effect of evanescent field into regions beyond the critical angle, as well as directional scattering due to spin-orbit coupling is developed, to relate the particle's shape, size and position to the far-field scattering with remarkable sensitivity. Our method brings about a far-field super-resolution imaging scheme based on the interaction of vectorial light with nanoparticles

Superluminal Caustics of Close, Rapidly-Rotating Binary Microlenses

The two outer triangular caustics (regions of infinite magnification) of a close binary microlens move much faster than the components of the binary themselves, and can even exceed the speed of light. When $\epsilon > 1$, where $\epsilon c$ is the caustic speed, the usual formalism for calculating the lens magnification breaks down. We develop a new formalism that makes use of the gravitational analog of the Li\'enard-Wiechert potential. We find that as the binary speeds up, the caustics undergo several related changes: First, their position in space drifts. Second, they rotate about their own axes so that they no longer have a cusp facing the binary center of mass. Third, they grow larger and dramatically so for $\epsilon >> 1$. Fourth, they grow weaker roughly in proportion to their increasing size. Superluminal caustic-crossing events are probably not uncommon, but they are difficult to observe.Comment: 12 pages, 7 ps figures, submitted to Ap

Non-negligible magnetic dipole scattering from metallic nanowire for ultrasensitive deflection sensing

It is generally believed that when a single metallic nanowire is sufficiently small, it scatters like a point electric dipole. We show theoretically when a metallic nanowire is placed inside specially designed beams, the non-negligible magnetic dipole contribution along with the electric dipole resonance can lead to unidirectional scattering in the far-field, fulfilling Kerker's condition. Remarkably, this far-field unidirectional scattering encodes information that is highly dependent on the nanowire's deflection at a scale much smaller than the wavelength. The special role of small but non-negligible magnetic response and plasmonic resonance are highlighted for this extreme sensitivity as compared with the dielectric counterpart. Effects such as scattering efficiency and shape of the nanowire's cross section are also discussed.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures. Comments are welcom

Controllable Persistent Atom Current of Bose-Einstein Condensates in an Optical Lattice Ring

In this paper the macroscopic quantum states of Bose-Einstein condensates in optical lattices is studied by solving the periodic Gross-Pitaevskii equation in one-dimensional geometry. It is shown that an exact solution seen to be a travelling wave of excited macroscopic quantum states resultes in a persistent atom current which can be controlled by adjusting of the barrier height of the optical periodic potential. A critical condition to generate the travelling wave is demonstrated and we moreover propose a practical experiment to realize the persistent atom current in a toroidal atom waveguide.Comment: 9 pages, 1 figure

Large-eddy simulation for flow and dispersion in urban streets

Large-eddy simulations (LES) with our recently developed inflow approach (Xie &Castro, 2008a) have been used for flow and dispersion within a genuine city area -the DAPPLE site, located at the intersection of Marylebone Rd and Gloucester Plin Central London. Numerical results up to second-order statistics are reported fora computational domain of 1.2km (streamwise) x 0.8km (lateral) x 0.2km (in fullscale), with a resolution down to approximately one meter in space and one secondin time. They are in reasonable agreement with the experimental data. Such a comprehensiveurban geometry is often, as here, composed of staggered, aligned, squarearrays of blocks with non-uniform height and non-uniform base, street canyons andintersections. Both the integrative and local effect of flow and dispersion to thesegeometrical patterns were investigated. For example, it was found that the peaksof spatially averaged urms, vrms, wrms and < u0w0 > occurred neither at the meanheight nor at the maximum height, but at the height of large and tall buildings. Itwas also found that the mean and fluctuating concentrations in the near-source fieldis highly dependent on the source location and the local geometry pattern, whereasin the far field (e.g. >0.1km) they are not. In summary, it is demonstrated thatfull-scale resolution of around one meter is sufficient to yield accurate prediction ofthe flow and mean dispersion characteristics and to provide reasonable estimationof concentration fluctuation