853 research outputs found
Symmetry-breaking thermally induced collapse of dipolar Bose-Einstein condensates
We investigate a Bose-Einstein condensate with additional long-range dipolar
interaction in a cylindrically symmetric trap within a variational framework.
Compared to the ground state of this system, little attention has as yet been
payed to its unstable excited states. For thermal excitations, however, the
latter is of great interest, because it forms the "activated complex" that
mediates the collapse of the condensate. For a certain value of the s-wave
scatting length our investigations reveal a bifurcation in the transition
state, leading to the emergence of two additional and symmetry-breaking excited
states. Because these are of lower energy than their symmetric counterpart, we
predict the occurrence of a symmetry-breaking thermally induced collapse of
dipolar condensates. We show that its occurrence crucially depends on the trap
geometry and calculate the thermal decay rates of the system within leading
order transition state theory with the help of a uniform rate formula near the
rank-2 saddle which allows to smoothly pass the bifurcation.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figure
Thermodynamic phase transitions and shock singularities
We show that under rather general assumptions on the form of the entropy
function, the energy balance equation for a system in thermodynamic equilibrium
is equivalent to a set of nonlinear equations of hydrodynamic type. This set of
equations is integrable via the method of the characteristics and it provides
the equation of state for the gas. The shock wave catastrophe set identifies
the phase transition. A family of explicitly solvable models of
non-hydrodynamic type such as the classical plasma and the ideal Bose gas are
also discussed.Comment: revised version, 18 pages, 6 figure
Mode Bifurcation and Fold Points of Complex Dispersion Curves for the Metamaterial Goubau Line
In this paper the complex dispersion curves of the four lowest-order
transverse magnetic modes of a dielectric Goubau line () are
compared with those of a dispersive metamaterial Goubau line. The vastly
different dispersion curve structure for the metamaterial Goubau line is
characterized by unusual features such as mode bifurcation, complex fold
points, both proper and improper complex modes, and merging of complex and real
modes
Topological classification of black Hole: Generic Maxwell set and crease set of horizon
The crease set of an event horizon or a Cauchy horizon is an important object
which determines qualitative properties of the horizon. In particular, it
determines the possible topologies of the spatial sections of the horizon. By
Fermat's principle in geometric optics, we relate the crease set and the
Maxwell set of a smooth function in the context of singularity theory. We
thereby give a classification of generic topological structure of the Maxwell
sets and the generic topologies of the spatial section of the horizon.Comment: 22 pages, 6 figure
Stable Topologies of Event Horizon
In our previous work, it was shown that the topology of an event horizon (EH)
is determined by the past endpoints of the EH. A torus EH (the collision of two
EH) is caused by the two-dimensional (one-dimensional) set of the endpoints. In
the present article, we examine the stability of the topology of the EH. We see
that a simple case of a single spherical EH is unstable. Furthermore, in
general, an EH with handles (a torus, a double torus, ...) is structurally
stable in the sense of catastrophe theory.Comment: 21 pages, revtex, five figures containe
Mean-field dynamics of a Bose-Einstein condensate in a time-dependent triple-well trap: Nonlinear eigenstates, Landau-Zener models and STIRAP
We investigate the dynamics of a Bose--Einstein condensate (BEC) in a
triple-well trap in a three-level approximation. The inter-atomic interactions
are taken into account in a mean-field approximation (Gross-Pitaevskii
equation), leading to a nonlinear three-level model. New eigenstates emerge due
to the nonlinearity, depending on the system parameters. Adiabaticity breaks
down if such a nonlinear eigenstate disappears when the parameters are varied.
The dynamical implications of this loss of adiabaticity are analyzed for two
important special cases: A three level Landau-Zener model and the STIRAP
scheme. We discuss the emergence of looped levels for an equal-slope
Landau-Zener model. The Zener tunneling probability does not tend to zero in
the adiabatic limit and shows pronounced oscillations as a function of the
velocity of the parameter variation. Furthermore we generalize the STIRAP
scheme for adiabatic coherent population transfer between atomic states to the
nonlinear case. It is shown that STIRAP breaks down if the nonlinearity exceeds
the detuning.Comment: RevTex4, 7 pages, 11 figures, content extended and title/abstract
change
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
Dynamics and Thermodynamics of Systems with Long Range Interactions: an Introduction
We review theoretical results obtained recently in the framework of
statistical mechanics to study systems with long range forces. This fundamental
and methodological study leads us to consider the different domains of
applications in a trans-disciplinary perspective (astrophysics, nuclear
physics, plasmas physics, metallic clusters, hydrodynamics,...) with a special
emphasis on Bose-Einstein condensates.Comment: Chapter of the forthcoming "Lecture Notes in Physics" volume:
``Dynamics and Thermodynamics of Systems with Long Range Interactions'', T.
Dauxois, S. Ruffo, E. Arimondo, M. Wilkens Eds., Lecture Notes in Physics
Vol. 602, Springer (2002). (see http://link.springer.de/series/lnpp/
Mechanism of Deep-focus Earthquakes Anomalous Statistics
Analyzing the NEIC-data we have shown that the spatial deep-focus earthquake
distribution in the Earth interior over the 1993-2006 is characterized by the
clearly defined periodical fine discrete structure with period L=50 km, which
is solely generated by earthquakes with magnitude M 3.9 to 5.3 and only on the
convergent boundary of plates. To describe the formation of this structure we
used the model of complex systems by A. Volynskii and S. Bazhenov. The key
property of this model consists in the presence of a rigid coating on a soft
substratum. It is shown that in subduction processes the role of a rigid
coating plays the slab substance (lithosphere) and the upper mantle acts as a
soft substratum. Within the framework of this model we have obtained the
estimation of average values of stress in the upper mantle and Young's modulus
for the oceanic slab (lithosphere) and upper mantle.Comment: 9 pages, 7 figure
Soft X-ray harmonic comb from relativistic electron spikes
We demonstrate a new high-order harmonic generation mechanism reaching the
`water window' spectral region in experiments with multi-terawatt femtosecond
lasers irradiating gas jets. A few hundred harmonic orders are resolved, giving
uJ/sr pulses. Harmonics are collectively emitted by an oscillating electron
spike formed at the joint of the boundaries of a cavity and bow wave created by
a relativistically self-focusing laser in underdense plasma. The spike
sharpness and stability are explained by catastrophe theory. The mechanism is
corroborated by particle-in-cell simulations
- …