Temperature Dependence of the Cu(2) NQR Line Width in YBa2_2Cu3_3O7−y_{7-y}

Systematic measurements of the $^{63}$Cu(2) NQR line width were performed in underdoped YBa$_2$Cu$_3$O$_{7-y}$ samples over the temperature range 4.2 K $<T<300$ K. It was shown that the copper NQR line width monotonically increases upon lowering temperature in the below-critical region, resembling temperature behavior of the superconducting gap. The observed dependence is explained by the fact that the energy of a condensate of sliding charge-current states of the charge-density-wave type depends on the phase of order parameter. Calculations show that this dependence appears only at $T<T_c$. Quantitative estimates of the line broadening at $T<T_c$ agree with the measurement results.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figure

Propagation of sound in a Bose Einstein condensate in an optical lattice

We study the propagation of sound waves in a Bose-Einstein condensate trapped in a one-dimensional optical lattice. We find that the velocity of propagation of sound wavepackets decreases with increasing optical lattice depth, as predicted by the Bogoliubov theory. The strong interplay between nonlinearities and the periodicity of the external potential raise new phenomena which are not present in the uniform case. Shock waves, for instance, can propagate slower than sound waves, due to the negative curvature of the dispersion relation. Moreover, nonlinear corrections to the Bogoliubov theory appear to be important even with very small density perturbations, inducing a saturation on the amplitude of the sound signal

U(1)-Symmetry breaking and violation of axial symmetry in TlCuCl3 and other insulating spin systems

We describe the Bose-Einstein condensate of magnetic bosonic quasiparticles in insulating spin systems using a phenomenological standard functional method for T = 0. We show that results that are already known from advanced computational techniques immediately follow. The inclusion of a perturbative anisotropy term that violates the axial symmetry allows us to remarkably well explain a number of experimental features of the dimerized spin-1/2 system TlCuCl3. Based on an energetic argument we predict a general intrinsic instability of an axially symmetric magnetic condensate towards a violation of this symmetry, which leads to the spontaneous formation of an anisotropy gap in the energy spectrum above the critical field. We, therefore, expect that a true Goldstone mode in insulating spin systems, i.e., a strictly linear energy-dispersion relation down to arbitrarily small excitations energies, cannot be observed in any real material.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figure

Microwave-induced Hall resistance in bilayer electron systems

The influence of microwave irradiation on dissipative and Hall resistance in high-quality bilayer electron systems is investigated experimentally. We observe a deviation from odd symmetry under magnetic field reversal in the microwave-induced Hall resistance $\Delta R_{xy}$ whereas the dissipative resistance $\Delta R_{xx}$ obeys even symmetry. Studies of $\Delta R_{xy}$ as a function of the microwave electric field and polarization exhibit a strong and non-trivial power and polarization dependence. The obtained results are discussed in connection to existing theoretical models of microwave-induced photoconductivity.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figure

Prediction of Aerodynamic Coefficients of Road Vehicles on Bridge Deck with and without Wind Protection by Means of CFD for Crosswind Stability Investigations

While planning a new bridge construction the risk of traffic accidents due to critical wind conditions should be carefully considered. The determination of aerodynamic forces and moments on vehicles is indispensable for stability investigations. However, the aerodynamic coefficients of vehicle-bridge systems depend on many factors which make it difficult to generalise the procedure. This paper is focusing on analysing a particular bridge geometry whereby aerodynamic coefficients were predicted by means of CFD. The accuracy of the numerical model was validated with the aid of experimental data from wind tunnel tests. Specifically, this work was conducted to investigate the effect of the wind barrier considering various wind flow angles and vehicle speeds. Mean forces and moments on the vehicle were analysed depending on both absolute and relative wind flows. The impact of performing relative motion between vehicle and bridge deck was investigated. Simulation results without wind barrier are qualitatively in good agreement with results found in literature. Nevertheless, the flow situation with wind barrier and relative motion is significantly more complex. Thus, CFD modelling has dominating advantages over wind tunnel tests in terms of both parameter variation and model accuracy. In this particular case CFD modelling is indeed essential in order to represent all possible wind flow angles and the relative motion between the vehicle and the bridge deck which remains difficult or rather hardly possible to perform in the wind tunnel

Heavy Flavour Production in Two-Photon Collisions

We review the production of charm and bottom quarks in two-photon collisions at e+e- colliders. The next-to-leading order QCD predictions for total cross sections and differential distributions are compared with recent experimental results.Comment: 6 pages, 2 figures. Talk given at the UK Phenomenology Workshop on Collider Physics, Durham, England, 19-24 Sep 199

Spinon localization in the heat transport of the spin-1/2 ladder compound (C5_5H12_{12}N)2_2CuBr4_4

We present experiments on the magnetic field-dependent thermal transport in the spin-1/2 ladder system (C$_5$H$_{12}$N)$_2$CuBr$_4$. The thermal conductivity $\kappa(B)$ is only weakly affected by the field-induced transitions between the gapless Luttinger-liquid state realized for $B_{c1}< B < B_{c2}$ and the gapped states, suggesting the absence of a direct contribution of the spin excitations to the heat transport. We observe, however, that the thermal conductivity is strongly suppressed by the magnetic field deeply within the Luttinger-liquid state. These surprising observations are discussed in terms of localization of spinons within finite ladder segments and spinon-phonon umklapp scattering of the predominantly phononic heat transport.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure

Ballistic resistivity in aluminum nanocontacts

One of the major industrial challenges is to profit from some fascinating physical features present at the nanoscale. The production of dissipationless nanoswitches (or nanocontacts) is one of such attractive applications. Nevertheless, the lack of knowledge of the real efficiency of electronic ballistic/non dissipative transport limits future innovations. For multi-valent metallic nanosystems -where several transport channels per atom are involved- the only experimental technique available for statistical transport characterization is the conductance histogram. Unfortunately its interpretation is difficult because transport and mechanical properties are intrinsically interlaced. We perform a representative series of semiclassical molecular dynamics simulations of aluminum nanocontact breakages, coupled to full quantum conductance calculations, and put in evidence a linear relationship between the conductance and the contact minimum cross-section for the geometrically favored aluminum nanocontact configurations. Valid in a broad range of conductance values, such relation allows the definition of a transport parameter for nanomaterials, that represents the novel concept of ballistic resistivity