28,365 research outputs found
Energy transfer in finite-size exciton-phonon systems : confinement-enhanced quantum decoherence
Based on the operatorial formulation of the perturbation theory, the
exciton-phonon problem is revisited for investigating exciton-mediated energy
flow in a finite-size lattice. Within this method, the exciton-phonon
entanglement is taken into account through a dual dressing mechanism so that
exciton and phonons are treated on an equal footing. In a marked contrast with
what happens in an infinite lattice, it is shown that the dynamics of the
exciton density is governed by several time scales. The density evolves
coherently in the short-time limit whereas a relaxation mechanism occurs over
intermediated time scales. Consequently, in the long-time limit, the density
converges toward a nearly uniform distributed equilibrium distribution. Such a
behavior results from quantum decoherence that originates in the fact that the
phonons evolve differently depending on the path followed by the exciton to
tunnel along the lattice. Although the relaxation rate increases with the
temperature and with the coupling, it decreases with the lattice size,
suggesting that the decoherence is inherent to the confinement
Thermal Casimir drag in fluctuating classical fields
A uniformly moving inclusion which locally suppresses the fluctuations of a
classical thermally excited field is shown to experience a drag force which
depends on the dynamics of the field. It is shown that in a number of cases the
linear friction coefficient is dominated by short distance fluctuations and
takes a very simple form. Examples where this drag can occur are for stiff
objects, such as proteins, nonspecifically bound to more flexible ones such as
polymers and membranes.Comment: 4 pages RevTex, 2 figure
Aging phenomena in spin glass and ferromagnetic phases: domain growth and wall dynamics
We compare aging in a disordered ferromagnet and in a spin glass, by studying
the different phases of a reentrant system. We have measured the relaxation of
the low-frequency ac susceptibility, in both the ferromagnetic and spin-glass
phases of a CdCr_{1.9}In_{0.1}S_4 sample. A restart of aging processes when the
temperature is lowered (`chaos-like' effect) is observed in both phases. The
memory of previous aging at a higher temperature can be retrieved upon
re-heating, but in the ferromagnetic phase it can rapidly be erased by the
growth of ferromagnetic domains. We interpret the behaviour observed in the
ferromagnetic phase in terms of a combination of domain growth and pinned wall
reconformations, and suggest that aging in spin glasses is dominated by such
wall reconformation processes.Comment: SPEC, CEA Saclay, 91191 Gif sur Yvette Cedex, France, to appear in
Europhys. Lett. (2000
Composition and concentration anomalies for structure and dynamics of Gaussian-core mixtures
We report molecular dynamics simulation results for two-component fluid
mixtures of Gaussian-core particles, focusing on how tracer diffusivities and
static pair correlations depend on temperature, particle concentration, and
composition. At low particle concentrations, these systems behave like simple
atomic mixtures. However, for intermediate concentrations, the single-particle
dynamics of the two species largely decouple, giving rise to the following
anomalous trends. Increasing either the concentration of the fluid (at fixed
composition) or the mole fraction of the larger particles (at fixed particle
concentration) enhances the tracer diffusivity of the larger particles, but
decreases that of the smaller particles. In fact, at sufficiently high particle
concentrations, the larger particles exhibit higher mobility than the smaller
particles. Each of these dynamic behaviors is accompanied by a corresponding
structural trend that characterizes how either concentration or composition
affects the strength of the static pair correlations. Specifically, the dynamic
trends observed here are consistent with a single empirical scaling law that
relates an appropriately normalized tracer diffusivity to its pair-correlation
contribution to the excess entropy.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure
Impact of surface roughness on diffusion of confined fluids
Using event-driven molecular dynamics simulations, we quantify how the self
diffusivity of confined hard-sphere fluids depends on the nature of the
confining boundaries. We explore systems with featureless confining boundaries
that treat particle-boundary collisions in different ways and also various
types of physically (i.e., geometrically) rough boundaries. We show that, for
moderately dense fluids, the ratio of the self diffusivity of a rough wall
system to that of an appropriate smooth-wall reference system is a linear
function of the reciprocal wall separation, with the slope depending on the
nature of the roughness. We also discuss some simple practical ways to use this
information to predict confined hard-sphere fluid behavior in different
rough-wall systems
Structural precursor to the metal-insulator transition in V_2O_3
The temperature dependence of the local structure of V_2O_3 in the vicinity
of the metal to insulator transition (MIT) has been investigated using hard
X-ray absorption spectroscopy. It is shown that the vanadium pair distance
along the hexagonal c-axis changes abruptly at the MIT as expected. However, a
continuous increase of the tilt of these pairs sets in already at higher
temperatures and reaches its maximum value at the onset of the electronic and
magnetic transition. These findings confirm recent theoretical results which
claim that electron-lattice coupling is important for the MIT in V_2O_3. Our
results suggest that interactions in the basal plane play a decisive role for
the MIT and orbital degrees of freedom drive the MIT via changes in
hybridization.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figures, 2 table
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