1,150 research outputs found
Rapidly rotating Bose-Einstein condensates in anharmonic potentials
Rapidly rotating Bose-Einstein condensates confined in anharmonic traps can
exhibit a rich variety of vortex phases, including a vortex lattice, a vortex
lattice with a hole, and a giant vortex. Using an augmented Thomas-Fermi
variational approach to determine the ground state of the condensate in the
rotating frame -- valid for sufficiently strongly interacting condensates -- we
determine the transitions between these three phases for a
quadratic-plus-quartic confining potential. Combining the present results with
previous numerical simulations of small rotating condensates in such anharmonic
potentials, we delineate the general structure of the zero temperature phase
diagram.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figure
Theory of vortex-lattice melting in a one-dimensional optical lattice
We investigate quantum and temperature fluctuations of a vortex lattice in a
one-dimensional optical lattice. We discuss in particular the Bloch bands of
the Tkachenko modes and calculate the correlation function of the vortex
positions along the direction of the optical lattice. Because of the small
number of particles in the pancake Bose-Einstein condensates at every site of
the optical lattice, finite-size effects become very important. Moreover, the
fluctuations in the vortex positions are inhomogeneous due to the inhomogeneous
density. As a result, the melting of the lattice occurs from the outside
inwards. However, tunneling between neighboring pancakes substantially reduces
the inhomogeneity as well as the size of the fluctuations. On the other hand,
nonzero temperatures increase the size of the fluctuations dramatically. We
calculate the crossover temperature from quantum melting to classical melting.
We also investigate melting in the presence of a quartic radial potential,
where a liquid can form in the center instead of at the outer edge of the
pancake Bose-Einstein condensates.Comment: 17 pages, 17 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev. A, references update
Strain versus stress in a model granular material: a Devil's staircase
The series of equilibrium states reached by disordered packings of rigid,
frictionless discs in two dimensions, under gradually varying stress, are
studied by numerical simulations. Statistical properties of trajectories in
configuration space are found to be independent of specific assumptions ruling
granular dynamics, and determined by geometry only. A monotonic increase in
some macroscopic loading parameter causes a discrete sequence of
rearrangements. For a biaxial compression, we show that, due to the statistical
importance of such events of large magnitudes, the dependence of the resulting
strain on stress direction is a Levy flight in the thermodynamic limit.Comment: REVTeX, 4 pages, 5 included PostScript figures. New version altered
throughout text, very close to published pape
Transition from single-file to two-dimensional diffusion of interacting particles in a quasi-one-dimensional channel
Diffusive properties of a monodisperse system of interacting particles
confined to a \textit{quasi}-one-dimensional (Q1D) channel are studied using
molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. We calculate numerically the mean-squared
displacement (MSD) and investigate the influence of the width of the channel
(or the strength of the confinement potential) on diffusion in finite-size
channels of different shapes (i.e., straight and circular). The transition from
single-file diffusion (SFD) to the two-dimensional diffusion regime is
investigated. This transition (regarding the calculation of the scaling
exponent () of the MSD ) as a
function of the width of the channel, is shown to change depending on the
channel's confinement profile. In particular the transition can be either
smooth (i.e., for a parabolic confinement potential) or rather sharp/stepwise
(i.e., for a hard-wall potential), as distinct from infinite channels where
this transition is abrupt. This result can be explained by qualitatively
different distributions of the particle density for the different confinement
potentials.Comment: 13 pages, 11 figure
Polarizational stopping power of heavy-ion diclusters in two-dimensional electron liquids
The in-plane polarizational stopping power of heavy-ion diclusters in a
two-dimensional strongly coupled electron liquid is studied. Analytical
expressions for the stopping power of both fast and slow projectiles are
derived. To go beyond the random-phase approximation we make use of the inverse
dielectric function obtained by means of the method of moments and some recent
analytical expressions for the static local-field correction factor.Comment: 9 pages, 5 figures. Published in Physical Review B
http://link.aps.org/abstract/PRB/v75/e11510
Coherence simplices
Coherence simplices are generic topological correlation-function defects
supported by a hierarchy of coherence functions. We classify coherence
simplices based on their topology and discuss their structure and dynamics,
together with their relevance to several physical systems.Comment: 15 pages, 4 figures, to appear in New Journal of Physic
Green's function probe of a static granular piling
We present an experiment which aim is to investigate the mechanical
properties of a static granular assembly. The piling is an horizontal 3D
granular layer confined in a box, we apply a localized extra force at the
surface and the spatial distribution of stresses at the bottom is obtained (the
mechanical Green's function). For different types of granular media, we observe
a linear pressure response which profile shows one peak centered at the
vertical of the point of application. The peak's width increases linearly when
increasing the depth. This green function seems to be in -at least- qualitative
agreement with predictions of elastic theory.Comment: 9 pages, 3 .eps figures, submitted to PR
Force distributions in 3D granular assemblies: Effects of packing order and inter-particle friction
We present a systematic investigation of the distribution of normal forces at
the boundaries of static packings of spheres. A new method for the efficient
construction of large hexagonal-close-packed crystals is introduced and used to
study the effect of spatial ordering on the distribution of forces. Under
uniaxial compression we find that the form for the probability distribution of
normal forces between particles does not depend strongly on crystallinity or
inter-particle friction. In all cases the distribution decays exponentially at
large forces and shows a plateau or possibly a small peak near the average
force but does not tend to zero at small forces.Comment: 9 pages including 8 figure
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