56,288 research outputs found
Non-equilibrium tube length fluctuations of entangled polymers
We investigate the nonequilibrium tube length fluctuations during the
relaxation of an initially stretched, entangled polymer chain. The
time-dependent variance of the tube length follows in the early-time
regime a simple universal power law originating in the
diffusive motion of the polymer segments. The amplitude is calculated
analytically both from standard reptation theory and from an exactly solvable
lattice gas model for reptation and its dependence on the initial and
equilibrium tube length respectively is discussed. The non-universality
suggests the measurement of the fluctuations (e.g. using flourescence
microscopy) as a test for reptation models.Comment: 12 pages, 2 figures. Minor typos correcte
Negative modes and the thermodynamics of Reissner-Nordstr\"om black holes
We analyse the problem of negative modes of the Euclidean section of the
Reissner-Nordstr\"om black hole in four dimensions. We find analytically that a
negative mode disappears when the specific heat at constant charge becomes
positive. The sector of perturbations analysed here is included in the
canonical partition function of the magnetically charged black hole. The result
obeys the usual rule that the partition function is only well-defined when
there is local thermodynamical equilibrium. We point out the difficulty in
quantising Einstein-Maxwell theory, where the so-called conformal factor
problem is considerably more intricate. Our method, inspired by hep-th/0608001,
allows us to decouple the divergent gauge volume and treat the metric
perturbations sector in a gauge-invariant way.Comment: 24 pages, 1 figure; v2 minor changes to fit published versio
Evidence for an inflationary phase transition from the LSS and CMB anisotropy data
In the light of the recent Boomerang and Maxima observations of the CMB which
show an anomalously low second acoustic peak, we reexamine the prediction by
Adams et al (1997) that this would be the consequence of a 'step' in the
primordial spectrum induced by a spontaneous symmetry breaking phase transition
during primordial inflation. We demonstrate that a deviation from
scale-invariance around ~Mpc can simultaneously explain both
the feature identified earlier in the APM galaxy power spectrum as well the
recent CMB anisotropy data, with a baryon density consistent with the BBN
value. Such a break also allows a good fit to the data on cluster abundances
even for a critical density matter-dominated universe with zero cosmological
constant.Comment: 4 pages with 3 figures, LaTeX file using espcrc2.sty to appear on the
Proceedings of "Euroconference on Frontiers in Particle Astrophysics and
Cosmology",Sant Feliu de Guixols,Spain,30th September-5th October of 200
Holographic Description of Finite Size Effects in Strongly Coupled Superconductors
Despite its fundamental and practical interest, the understanding of
mesoscopic effects in strongly coupled superconductors is still limited. Here
we address this problem by studying holographic superconductivity in a disk and
a strip of typical size . For , where depends on
the chemical potential and temperature, we have found that the order parameter
vanishes. The superconductor-metal transition at is controlled
by mean-field critical exponents which suggests that quantum and thermal
fluctuations induced by finite size effects are suppressed in holographic
superconductors. Intriguingly, the effective interactions that bind the order
parameter increases as decreases. Most of these results are consistent
with experimental observations in Pb nanograins at low temperature and
qualitatively different from the ones expected in a weakly coupled
superconductor.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure
Lorentz-violating dimension-five operator contribution to the black body radiation
We investigate the thermodynamics of a photon gas in an effective field
theory model that describes Lorentz violations through dimension-five operators
and Horava-Lifshitz theory. We explore the electrodynamics of the model which
includes higher order derivatives in the Lagrangian that can modify the
dispersion relation for the propagation of the photons. We shall focus on the
deformed black body radiation spectrum and modified Stefan-Boltzmann law to
address the allowed bounds on the Lorentz-violating parameter.Comment: 8 pages, 6 figures. Version published in PL
Coherent State Path Integrals in the Weyl Representation
We construct a representation of the coherent state path integral using the
Weyl symbol of the Hamiltonian operator. This representation is very different
from the usual path integral forms suggested by Klauder and Skagerstan in
\cite{Klau85}, which involve the normal or the antinormal ordering of the
Hamiltonian. These different representations, although equivalent quantum
mechanically, lead to different semiclassical limits. We show that the
semiclassical limit of the coherent state propagator in Weyl representation is
involves classical trajectories that are independent on the coherent states
width. This propagator is also free from the phase corrections found in
\cite{Bar01} for the two Klauder forms and provides an explicit connection
between the Wigner and the Husimi representations of the evolution operator.Comment: 23 page
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