1,782 research outputs found
Incoherent dynamics in neutron-matter interaction
Coherent and incoherent neutron-matter interaction is studied inside a
recently introduced approach to subdynamics of a macrosystem. The equation
describing the interaction is of the Lindblad type and using the Fermi
pseudopotential we show that the commutator term is an optical potential
leading to well-known relations in neutron optics. The other terms, usually
ignored in optical descriptions and linked to the dynamic structure function of
the medium, give an incoherent contribution to the dynamics, which keeps
diffuse scattering and attenuation of the coherent beam into account, thus
warranting fulfilment of the optical theorem. The relevance of this analysis to
experiments in neutron interferometry is briefly discussed.Comment: 15 pages, revtex, no figures, to appear in Phys. Rev.
Energetics and dynamics of H adsorbed in a nanoporous material at low temperature
Molecular hydrogen adsorption in a nanoporous metal organic framework
structure (MOF-74) was studied via van der Waals density-functional
calculations. The primary and secondary binding sites for H were confirmed.
The low-lying rotational and translational energy levels were calculated, based
on the orientation and position dependent potential energy surface at the two
binding sites. A consistent picture is obtained between the calculated
rotational-translational transitions for different H loadings and those
measured by inelastic neutron scattering exciting the singlet to triplet (para
to ortho) transition in H. The H binding energy after zero point energy
correction due to the rotational and translational motions is predicted to be
100 meV in good agreement with the experimental value of 90 meV.Comment: 5 pagers, 4 figures. added reference
Direct evidence for the magnetic ordering of Nd ions in NdFeAsO by high resolution inelastic neutron scattering
We investigated the low energy excitations in the parent compound NdFeAsO of
the Fe-pnictide superconductor in the eV range by a back scattering
neutron spectrometer. The energy scans on a powder NdFeAsO sample revealed
inelastic peaks at E = 1.600 eV at T = 0.055 K on both energy
gain and energy loss sides. The inelastic peaks move gradually towards lower
energy with increasing temperature and finally merge with the elastic peak at
about 6 K. We interpret the inelastic peaks to be due to the transition between
hyperfine-split nuclear level of the Nd and Nd isotopes with
spin . The hyperfine field is produced by the ordering of the
electronic magnetic moment of Nd at low temperature and thus the present
investigation gives direct evidence of the ordering of the Nd magnetic
sublattice of NdFeAsO at low temperature
On the Decoherence of Primordial Fluctuations During Inflation
We study the process whereby quantum cosmological perturbations become
classical within inflationary cosmology. By setting up a master-equation
formulation we show how quantum coherence for super-Hubble modes can be
destroyed by their coupling to the environment provided by sub-Hubble modes. We
identify what features the sub-Hubble environment must have in order to
decohere the longer wavelengths, and identify how the onset of decoherence (and
how long it takes) depends on the properties of the sub-Hubble physics which
forms the environment. Our results show that the decoherence process is largely
insensitive to the details of the coupling between the sub- and super-Hubble
scales. They also show how locality implies, quite generally, that the
decohered density matrix at late times is diagonal in the field representation
(as is implicitly assumed by extant calculations of inflationary density
perturbations). Our calculations also imply that decoherence can arise even for
couplings which are as weak as gravitational in strength.Comment: 31 pages, 1 figur
Mirrors for slow neutrons from holographic nanoparticle-polymer free-standing film-gratings
We report on successful tests of holographically arranged grating-structures
in nanoparticle-polymer composites in the form of 100 microns thin
free-standing films, i.e. without sample containers or covers that could cause
unwanted absorption/incoherent scattering of very-cold neutrons. Despite their
large diameter of 2 cm, the flexible materials are of high optical quality and
yield mirror-like reflectivity of about 90% for neutrons of 4.1 nm wavelength
Formalism for obtaining nuclear momentum distributions by the Deep Inelastic Neutron Scattering technique
We present a new formalism to obtain momentum distributions in condensed
matter from Neutron Compton Profiles measured by the Deep Inelastic Neutron
Scattering technique. The formalism describes exactly the Neutron Compton
Profiles as an integral in the momentum variable . As a result we obtain a
Volterra equation of the first kind that relates the experimentally measured
magnitude with the momentum distributions of the nuclei in the sample. The
integration kernel is related with the incident neutron spectrum, the total
cross section of the filter analyzer and the detectors efficiency function. A
comparison of the present formalism with the customarily employed approximation
based on a convolution of the momentum distribution with a resolution function
is presented. We describe the inaccuracies that the use of this approximation
produces, and propose a new data treatment procedure based on the present
formalism.Comment: 11 pages, 8 figure
Thermocurrents and their Role in high Q Cavity Performance
Over the past years it became evident that the quality factor of a
superconducting cavity is not only determined by its surface preparation
procedure, but is also influenced by the way the cavity is cooled down.
Moreover, different data sets exists, some of them indicate that a slow
cool-down through the critical temperature is favourable while other data
states the exact opposite. Even so there where speculations and some models
about the role of thermo-currents and flux-pinning, the difference in behaviour
remained a mystery. In this paper we will for the first time present a
consistent theoretical model which we confirmed by data that describes the role
of thermo-currents, driven by temperature gradients and material transitions.
We will clearly show how they impact the quality factor of a cavity, discuss
our findings, relate it to findings at other labs and develop mitigation
strategies which especially addresses the issue of achieving high quality
factors of so-called nitrogen doped cavities in horizontal test
Precision Measurement of the n-3He Incoherent Scattering Length Using Neutron Interferometry
We report the first measurement of the low-energy neutron-He incoherent
scattering length using neutron interferometry: fm. This is in good agreement with a
recent calculation using the AV18+3N potential. The neutron-He scattering
lengths are important for testing and developing nuclear potential models that
include three nucleon forces, effective field theories for few-body nuclear
systems, and neutron scattering measurements of quantum excitations in liquid
helium. This work demonstrates the first use of a polarized nuclear target in a
neutron interferometer.Comment: 4 figure
Complete positivity and entangled degrees of freedom
We study how some recently proposed noncontextuality tests based on quantum
interferometry are affected if the test particles propagate as open systems in
presence of a gaussian stochastic background. We show that physical consistency
requires the resulting markovian dissipative time-evolution to be completely
positive.Comment: 23 pages, plain-TeX, no figure
Neutron optical beam splitter from holographically structured nanoparticle-polymer composites
We report a breakthrough in the search for versatile diffractive elements for
cold neutrons. Nanoparticles are spatially arranged by holographical means in a
photopolymer. These grating structures show remarkably efficient diffraction of
cold neutrons up to about 50% for effective thicknesses of only 200 micron.
They open up a profound perspective for next generation neutron-optical devices
with the capability to tune or modulate the neutron diffraction efficiency.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figure
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