366 research outputs found
The Loschmidt Echo as a robust decoherence quantifier for many-body systems
We employ the Loschmidt Echo, i.e. the signal recovered after the reversal of
an evolution, to identify and quantify the processes contributing to
decoherence. This procedure, which has been extensively used in single particle
physics, is here employed in a spin ladder. The isolated chains have 1/2 spins
with XY interaction and their excitations would sustain a one-body like
propagation. One of them constitutes the controlled system S whose reversible
dynamics is degraded by the weak coupling with the uncontrolled second chain,
i.e. the environment E. The perturbative SE coupling is swept through arbitrary
combinations of XY and Ising like interactions, that contain the standard
Heisenberg and dipolar ones. Different time regimes are identified for the
Loschmidt Echo dynamics in this perturbative configuration. In particular, the
exponential decay scales as a Fermi golden rule, where the contributions of the
different SE terms are individually evaluated and analyzed. Comparisons with
previous analytical and numerical evaluations of decoherence based on the
attenuation of specific interferences, show that the Loschmidt Echo is an
advantageous decoherence quantifier at any time, regardless of the S internal
dynamics.Comment: 12 pages, 6 figure
Circular orbits and spin in black-hole initial data
The construction of initial data for black-hole binaries usually involves the
choice of free parameters that define the spins of the black holes and
essentially the eccentricity of the orbit. Such parameters must be chosen
carefully to yield initial data with the desired physical properties. In this
paper, we examine these choices in detail for the quasiequilibrium method
coupled to apparent-horizon/quasiequilibrium boundary conditions. First, we
compare two independent criteria for choosing the orbital frequency, the
"Komar-mass condition" and the "effective-potential method," and find excellent
agreement. Second, we implement quasi-local measures of the spin of the
individual holes, calibrate these with corotating binaries, and revisit the
construction of non-spinning black hole binaries. Higher-order effects, beyond
those considered in earlier work, turn out to be important. Without those,
supposedly non-spinning black holes have appreciable quasi-local spin;
furthermore, the Komar-mass condition and effective potential method agree only
when these higher-order effects are taken into account. We compute a new
sequence of quasi-circular orbits for non-spinning black-hole binaries, and
determine the innermost stable circular orbit of this sequence.Comment: 24 pages, 17 figures, accepted for publication in Physical Review D,
revtex4; Fixed error in computing proper separation and updated figures and
tables accordingly, added reference to Sec. IV.A, fixed minor error in Sec.
IV.B, added new data to Tables IV and V, fixed 1 reference, fixed error in
Eq. (A7b), included minor changes from PRD editin
Development of next generation tempered and ODS reduced activation ferritic/martensitic steels for fusion energy applications
Exact Eigenstates of Tight-Binding Hamiltonians on the Penrose Tiling
We investigate exact eigenstates of tight-binding models on the planar
rhombic Penrose tiling. We consider a vertex model with hopping along the edges
and the diagonals of the rhombi. For the wave functions, we employ an ansatz,
first introduced by Sutherland, which is based on the arrow decoration that
encodes the matching rules of the tiling. Exact eigenstates are constructed for
particular values of the hopping parameters and the eigenenergy. By a
generalized ansatz that exploits the inflation symmetry of the tiling, we show
that the corresponding eigenenergies are infinitely degenerate. Generalizations
and applications to other systems are outlined.Comment: 24 pages, REVTeX, 13 PostScript figures include
Energy spectra, wavefunctions and quantum diffusion for quasiperiodic systems
We study energy spectra, eigenstates and quantum diffusion for one- and
two-dimensional quasiperiodic tight-binding models. As our one-dimensional
model system we choose the silver mean or `octonacci' chain. The
two-dimensional labyrinth tiling, which is related to the octagonal tiling, is
derived from a product of two octonacci chains. This makes it possible to treat
rather large systems numerically. For the octonacci chain, one finds singular
continuous energy spectra and critical eigenstates which is the typical
behaviour for one-dimensional Schr"odinger operators based on substitution
sequences. The energy spectra for the labyrinth tiling can, depending on the
strength of the quasiperiodic modulation, be either band-like or fractal-like.
However, the eigenstates are multifractal. The temporal spreading of a
wavepacket is described in terms of the autocorrelation function C(t) and the
mean square displacement d(t). In all cases, we observe power laws for C(t) and
d(t) with exponents -delta and beta, respectively. For the octonacci chain,
0<delta<1, whereas for the labyrinth tiling a crossover is observed from
delta=1 to 0<delta<1 with increasing modulation strength. Corresponding to the
multifractal eigenstates, we obtain anomalous diffusion with 0<beta<1 for both
systems. Moreover, we find that the behaviour of C(t) and d(t) is independent
of the shape and the location of the initial wavepacket. We use our results to
check several relations between the diffusion exponent beta and the fractal
dimensions of energy spectra and eigenstates that were proposed in the
literature.Comment: 24 pages, REVTeX, 10 PostScript figures included, major revision, new
results adde
Gravitational radiation reaction in compact binary systems: Contribution of the quadrupole-monopole interaction
The radiation reaction in compact spinning binaries on eccentric orbits due
to the quadrupole-monopole interaction is studied. This contribution is of
second post-Newtonian order. As result of the precession of spins the magnitude
of the orbital angular momentum is not conserved. Therefore a proper
characterization of the perturbed radial motion is provided by the energy
and angular average . As powerful computing tools, the generalized
true and eccentric anomaly parametrizations are introduced. Then the secular
losses in energy and magnitude of orbital angular momentum together with the
secular evolution of the relative orientations of the orbital angular momentum
and spins are found for eccentric orbits by use of the residue theorem. The
circular orbit limit of the energy loss agrees with Poisson's earlier result.Comment: accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.
Spin effects in gravitational radiation backreaction III. Compact binaries with two spinning components
The secular evolution of a spinning, massive binary system in eccentric orbit
is analyzed, expanding and generalizing our previous treatments of the
Lense-Thirring motion and the one-spin limit. The spin-orbit and spin-spin
effects up to the 3/2 post-Newtonian order are considered, both in the
equations of motion and in the radiative losses. The description of the orbit
in terms of the true anomaly parametrization provides a simple averaging
technique, based on the residue theorem, over eccentric orbits. The evolution
equations of the angle variables characterizing the relative orientation of the
spin and orbital angular momenta reveal a speed-up effect due to the
eccentricity. The dissipative evolutions of the relevant dynamical and angular
variables is presented in the form of a closed system of differential
equations.Comment: 10 pages, 1 figur
Spin-spin effects in radiating compact binaries
The dynamics of a binary system with two spinning components on an eccentric
orbit is studied, with the inclusion of the spin-spin interaction terms
appearing at the second post-Newtonian order. A generalized true anomaly
parametrization properly describes the radial component of the motion. The
average over one radial period of the magnitude of the orbital angular momentum
is found to have no nonradiative secular change. All spin-spin terms
in the secular radiative loss of the energy and magnitude of orbital angular
momentum are given in terms of and other constants of the motion.
Among them, self-interaction spin effects are found, representing the second
post-Newtonian correction to the 3/2 post-Newtonian order Lense-Thirring
approximation.Comment: 12 pages, to appear in Phys. Rev.
Effects of neutron irradiation on the brittle to ductile transition in single crystal tungsten
Only limited data exist on the effect of neutron irradiation on the brittle to ductile transition (BDT) in tungsten. This work investigates the increase in brittle to ductile transition temperature (BDTT) following neutron irradiation to 1.67 displacements per atom, using four-point bend tests over a range of temperatures (623â1173âŻK) and strain rates (3.5âŻĂâŻ10â7 - 2.5âŻĂâŻ10â5 sâ1). The BDTT was found to increase by 500âŻK after irradiation. The activation energy for the BDT was determined using Arrhenius analysis of the four-point bend tests. Nanoindentation strain-rate jump tests were used to characterise the activation volume for dislocation motion. These were quantified as 1.05âŻeV and 18âŻb3 respectively, very close to values found for unirradiated tungsten. This suggests that kink-pair formation is the controlling mechanism for the BDT before and after irradiation. This work also carries out a unique verification of inventory-code-modelling (via FISPACT-II) of transmutation of tungsten to rhenium and osmium under neutron irradiation using two independent techniques (X-ray and gamma-ray spectroscopy). These results show that modelling can correctly predict this transmutation, provided that an accurate neutron spectrum is used. This is a critical result given the widespread use of inventory codes such as FISPACT-II, and the associated nuclear data libraries, for modelling transmutation of tungsten
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