10,082 research outputs found
Extracting convergent surface energies from slab calculations
The formation energy of a solid surface can be extracted from slab
calculations if the bulk energy per atom is known. It has been pointed out
previously that the resulting surface energy will diverge with slab thickness
if the bulk energy is in error, in the context of calculations which used
different methods to study the bulk and slab systems. We show here that this
result is equally relevant for state-of-the-art computational methods which
carefully treat bulk and slab systems in the same way. Here we compare
different approaches, and present a solution to the problem that eliminates the
divergence and leads to rapidly convergent and accurate surface energies.Comment: 3 revtex pages, 1 figure, in print on J. Phys. Cond. Mat
Superfluid to Bose-glass transition in a 1D weakly interacting Bose gas
We study the one-dimensional Bose gas in spatially correlated disorder at
zero temperature, using an extended density-phase Bogoliubov method. We analyze
in particular the decay of the one-body density matrix and the behaviour of the
Bogoliubov excitations across the phase boundary. We observe that the
transition to the Bose glass phase is marked by a power-law divergence of the
density of states at low energy. A measure of the localization length displays
a power-law energy dependence in both regions, with the exponent equal to -1 at
the boundary. We draw the phase diagram of the superfluid-insulator transition
in the limit of small interaction strength.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure
Composite Majorana Fermion Wavefunctions in Nanowires
We consider Majorana fermions (MFs) in quasi-one-dimensional nanowire systems
containing normal and superconducting sections where the topological phase
based on Rashba spin orbit interaction can be tuned by magnetic fields. We
derive explicit analytic solutions of the MF wavefunction in the weak and
strong spin orbit interaction regimes. We find that the wavefunction for one
single MF is a composite object formed by superpositions of different MF
wavefunctions which have nearly disjoint supports in momentum space. These
contributions are coming from the extrema of the spectrum, one centered around
zero momentum and the other around the two Fermi points. As a result, the
various MF wavefunctions have different localization lengths in real space and
interference among them leads to pronounced oscillations of the MF probability
density. For a transparent normal-superconducting junction we find that in the
topological phase the MF leaks out from the superconducting into the normal
section of the wire and is delocalized over the entire normal section, in
agreement with recent numerical results by Chevallier et al. (arXiv:1203.2643)
Mean-field phase diagram of the 1-D Bose gas in a disorder potential
We study the quantum phase transition of the 1D weakly interacting Bose gas
in the presence of disorder. We characterize the phase transition as a function
of disorder and interaction strengths, by inspecting the long-range behavior of
the one-body density matrix as well as the drop in the superfluid fraction. We
focus on the properties of the low-energy Bogoliubov excitations that drive the
phase transition, and find that the transition to the insulator state is marked
by a diverging density of states and a localization length that diverges as a
power-law with power 1. We draw the phase diagram and we observe that the
boundary between the superfluid and the Bose glass phase is characterized by
two different algebraic relations. These can be explained analytically by
considering the limiting cases of zero and infinite disorder correlation
length.Comment: 10 pages, 10 figure
Controlled Environmental Effects on Creep Test Data of Woven Fabric Webbings for Inflatable Space Modules
eveloping technologies for proposed lunar and Mars space exploration missions. Enhanced habitation sy g studied as potential habitats due to their inherent low mass and small launch volume. One goal of inflatable module research is quantification of the safe-life and end-of-life creep-strain spectrum. Full-scale pressurized inflatable modules are large, costly, and difficult to experimentally study. Therefore, material subcomponents are often studied as an alternative. An experimental thermally controlled long-term creep study of VectranTM webbings for application to inflatable modules is presented. Vectran fibers have high strength and low creep properties. High strength webbing materials are desirable for the load bearing restraint layer of inflatable modules because they are strong, flexible, and lightweight. Characterization of the creep behavior, safe-life, and end-of- life of webbing specimens will help quantify comparable life properties for inflatable modules. Several experimental multiple-year creep studies of webbing specimens in uncontrolled thermal environments have been conducted at NASA Langley Research Center. Experimental data obtained exhibits the classic creep-strain curve due to load, coupled with unique sinusoidal variation due to variation in temperature and humidity over daily and annual time periods. Results also have indicated that specimens fail within a year if the applied load is greater than 50 percent of the rated load. The primary goal of this study is to eliminate thermal effects from the creep data for a group of webbing specimens, and to allow uncontrolled thermal effects to influence the creep data of a second group of webbing specimens. Comparison of both sets of data will define how temperature influences creep data. A unique creep test facility was fabricated to facilitate the generation and comparison of the two sets of data. The facility consists of five creep test stands with an integrated heating and cooling system, and four creep test stands exposed to external environmental or ambient conditions. The facility contains displacement, temperature, humidity, and load sensors. Test specimens consist of one- inch wide, 48-inch long Vectran webbings rated at 12,500 pounds-per-inch. Experimental thermally controlled creep-strain data has been generated for two groups of webbing specimens. Applied load for all test stands was above 9000 lbs and greater than 50 percent of the rated load. Temperatures varied between 58F and 83F for the four test stands exposed to ambient conditions. Associated creep data exhibited the classic creep- strain profiles. The temperature was set to 72F for the five test stands in the controlled temperature environment. Creep data for tests with temperature control also exhibited the classic strain profiles. Data indicated that if the load is greater n thermal effects do not manifest. Therefore, creep tests with loads less than 50 percent of the rated load are planned for in the near future
Minimizing Flow Time in the Wireless Gathering Problem
We address the problem of efficient data gathering in a wireless network
through multi-hop communication. We focus on the objective of minimizing the
maximum flow time of a data packet. We prove that no polynomial time algorithm
for this problem can have approximation ratio less than \Omega(m^{1/3) when
packets have to be transmitted, unless . We then use resource
augmentation to assess the performance of a FIFO-like strategy. We prove that
this strategy is 5-speed optimal, i.e., its cost remains within the optimal
cost if we allow the algorithm to transmit data at a speed 5 times higher than
that of the optimal solution we compare to
Cosmography beyond standard candles and rulers
We perform a cosmographic analysis using several cosmological observables
such as the luminosity distance moduli, the volume distance, the angular
diameter distance and the Hubble parameter. These quantities are determined
using different data sets: Supernovae type Ia and Gamma Ray Bursts, the
Baryonic Acoustic Oscillations, the cosmic microwave background power spectrum
and the Hubble parameter as measured from surveys of galaxies. This data set
allows to put constraints on the cosmographic expansion with unprecedented
precision. We also present forecasts for the coefficients of the kinematic
expansion using future but realistic data sets: constraints on the coefficients
of the expansions are likely to improve by a factor ten with the upcoming large
scale structure probes. Finally, we derive the set of the cosmographic
parameters for several cosmological models (including CDM) and compare
them with our best fit set. While distance measurements are unable to
discriminate among these models, we show that the inclusion of the Hubble data
set leads to strong constraints on the lowest order coefficients and in
particular it is incompatible with CDM at 3- confidence level.
We discuss the reliability of this determination and suggest further
observations which might be of crucial importance for the viability of
cosmographic tests in the next future.Comment: 15 pages, 2 figures, 2 tables, Accepted for publication in PR
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