Conversion of 40^{40}K-87^{87}Rb mixtures into stable molecules

We study the conversion of $^{40}$K and $^{87}$Rb atoms into stable molecules through the stimulated Raman adiabatic passage (STIRAP) in photoassociation assisted with Feshbach resonance. Starting with the mean-field Langrange density, we show that the atom-to-molecule conversion efficiency by STIRAP aided by Feshbach resonance is much larger than that by bare Feshbach resonance. We also study the influence of the population imbalance on the atom-to-molecule conversion.Comment: Revtex, 5 pages, 3 figures; version to appear in PRA (some content changed

Origin of Low Thermal Conductivity in Nuclear Fuels

Using a novel many-body approach, we report lattice dynamical properties of UO2 and PuO2 and uncover various contributions to their thermal conductivities. Via calculated Grueneisen constants, we show that only longitudinal acoustic modes having large phonon group velocities are efficient heat carriers. Despite the fact that some optical modes also show their velocities which are extremely large, they do not participate in the heat transfer due to their unusual anharmonicity. Ways to improve thermal conductivity in these materials are discussed.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, 1 tabl

Axisymmetric reacting gas nonequilibrium performance program

Computer program calculates the inviscid one-dimensional equilibrium, frozen, and nonequilibrium nozzle expansion of propellant exhaust mixtures containing these six elements - carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, fluorine, and chlorine plus either aluminum, beryllium, boron or lithium. This program will perform calculations for contoured and conical nozzles

1I/2017 U1 (`Oumuamua) is Hot: Imaging, Spectroscopy and Search of Meteor Activity

1I/2017 U1 (`Oumuamua), a recently discovered asteroid in a hyperbolic orbit, is likely the first macroscopic object of extrasolar origin identified in the solar system. Here, we present imaging and spectroscopic observations of \textquoteleft Oumuamua using the Palomar Hale Telescope as well as a search of meteor activity potentially linked to this object using the Canadian Meteor Orbit Radar. We find that \textquoteleft Oumuamua exhibits a moderate spectral gradient of $10\%\pm6\%~(100~\mathrm{nm})^{-1}$, a value significantly lower than that of outer solar system bodies, indicative of a formation and/or previous residence in a warmer environment. Imaging observation and spectral line analysis show no evidence that \textquoteleft Oumuamua is presently active. Negative meteor observation is as expected, since ejection driven by sublimation of commonly-known cometary species such as CO requires an extreme ejection speed of $\sim40$ m s$^{-1}$ at $\sim100$ au in order to reach the Earth. No obvious candidate stars are proposed as the point of origin for \textquoteleft Oumuamua. Given a mean free path of $\sim10^9$ ly in the solar neighborhood, \textquoteleft Oumuamua has likely spent a very long time in the interstellar space before encountering the solar system.Comment: ApJL in pres

Geometric phase and quantum phase transition in an inhomogeneous periodic XY spin-1/2 model

The notion of geometric phase has been recently introduced to analyze the quantum phase transitions of many-body systems from the geometrical perspective. In this work, we study the geometric phase of the ground state for an inhomogeneous period-two anisotropic XY model in a transverse field. This model encompasses a group of familiar spin models as its special cases and shows a richer critical behavior. The exact solution is obtained by mapping on a fermionic system through the Jordan-Wigner transformation and constructing the relevant canonical transformation to realize the diagonalization of the Hamiltonian coupled in the $k$-space. The results show that there may exist more than one quantum phase transition point at some parameter regions and these transition points correspond to the divergence or extremum properties of the Berry curvature.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures. As a backup of a previous work and some typos in the published version are fixe