20 research outputs found
Efficiency of free energy calculations of spin lattices by spectral quantum algorithms
Quantum algorithms are well-suited to calculate estimates of the energy
spectra for spin lattice systems. These algorithms are based on the efficient
calculation of the discrete Fourier components of the density of states. The
efficiency of these algorithms in calculating the free energy per spin of
general spin lattices to bounded error is examined. We find that the number of
Fourier components required to bound the error in the free energy due to the
broadening of the density of states scales polynomially with the number of
spins in the lattice. However, the precision with which the Fourier components
must be calculated is found to be an exponential function of the system size.Comment: 9 pages, 4 figures; corrected typographical and minor mathematical
error
Montecarlo simulation of the role of defects as the melting mechanism
We study in this paper the melting transition of a crystal of fcc structure
with the Lennard-Jones potential, by using isobaric-isothermal Monte Carlo
simulations.
Local and collective updates are sequentially used to optimize the
convergence. We show the important role played by defects in the melting
mechanism in favor of modern melting theories.Comment: 6 page, 10 figures included. Corrected version to appear in Phys.
Rev.
Vibrational Properties of Nanoscale Materials: From Nanoparticles to Nanocrystalline Materials
The vibrational density of states (VDOS) of nanoclusters and nanocrystalline
materials are derived from molecular-dynamics simulations using empirical
tight-binding potentials. The results show that the VDOS inside nanoclusters
can be understood as that of the corresponding bulk system compressed by the
capillary pressure. At the surface of the nanoparticles the VDOS exhibits a
strong enhancement at low energies and shows structures similar to that found
near flat crystalline surfaces. For the nanocrystalline materials an increased
VDOS is found at high and low phonon energies, in agreement with experimental
findings. The individual VDOS contributions from the grain centers, grain
boundaries, and internal surfaces show that, in the nanocrystalline materials,
the VDOS enhancements are mainly caused by the grain-boundary contributions and
that surface atoms play only a minor role. Although capillary pressures are
also present inside the grains of nanocrystalline materials, their effect on
the VDOS is different than in the cluster case which is probably due to the
inter-grain coupling of the modes via the grain-boundaries.Comment: 10 pages, 7 figures, accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.
Molecular dynamics study of melting of a bcc metal-vanadium II : thermodynamic melting
We present molecular dynamics simulations of the thermodynamic melting
transition of a bcc metal, vanadium using the Finnis-Sinclair potential. We
studied the structural, transport and energetic properties of slabs made of 27
atomic layers with a free surface. We investigated premelting phenomena at the
low-index surfaces of vanadium; V(111), V(001), and V(011), finding that as the
temperature increases, the V(111) surface disorders first, then the V(100)
surface, while the V(110) surface remains stable up to the melting temperature.
Also, as the temperature increases, the disorder spreads from the surface layer
into the bulk, establishing a thin quasiliquid film in the surface region. We
conclude that the hierarchy of premelting phenomena is inversely proportional
to the surface atomic density, being most pronounced for the V(111) surface
which has the lowest surface density
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Statics and adiabatic dynamics of nonlinear excitations in defected polyacetylene
Within the Su, Schrieffer and Heeger model we have calculated, both analytically and numerically, the effects of model impurities on the electronic structure and lattice distortion of trans-polyacetylene. We find that the electron-phonon coupling may result in a fundamental alteration of the impurity level location. In simulated photoexcitation experiments on the defected system we find that, in addition to the kinks and breathers produced in the undefected system, ''trapped kinks'', excitons and polarons may also be produced. We suggest that the polarons produced in this novel way may be unusually stable and play an important role in hopping conduction mechanisms
Phonon lifetime investigation of anharmonicity and thermal conductivity of UO2 by neutron scattering and theory
Inelastic neutron scattering measurements of individual phonon lifetimes and dispersion at 295 and 1200 K have been used to probe anharmonicity and thermal conductivity in UO2. They show that longitudinal optic phonon modes carry the largest amount of heat, in contrast to past simulations and that the total conductivity demonstrates a quantitative correspondence between microscopic and macroscopic phonon physics. We have further performed first-principles simulations for UO2 showing semiquantitative agreement with phonon lifetimes at 295 K, but larger anharmonicity than measured at 1200 K. \ua9 2013 American Physical Society.Peer reviewed: YesNRC publication: Ye
The conundrum of relaxation volumes in first-principles calculations of charged defects in UO2
The defect relaxation volumes obtained from density-functional theory (DFT) calculations of charged vacancies and interstitials are much larger than their neutral counterparts, seemingly unphysically large. We focus on UO 2 as our primary material of interest, but also consider Si and GaAs to reveal the generality of our results. In this work, we investigate the possible reasons for this and revisit the methods that address the calculation of charged defects in periodic DFT. We probe the dependence of the proposed energy corrections to charged defect formation energies on relaxation volumes and find that corrections such as potential alignment remain ambiguous with regards to its contribution to the charged defect relaxation volume. We also investigate the volume for the net neutral defect reactions comprising individual charged defects, and find that the aggregate formation volumes have reasonable magnitudes. This work highlights the issue that, as is well-known for defect formation energies, the defect formation volumes depend on the choice of reservoir. We show that considering the change in volume of the electron reservoir in the formation reaction of the charged defects, analogous to how volumes of atoms are accounted for in defect formation volumes, can renormalize the formation volumes of charged defects such that they are comparable to neutral defects. This approach enables the description of the elastic properties of isolated charged defects within an overall neutral material