Effect of quantum fluctuations on structural phase transitions in SrTiO_3 and BaTiO_3

Using path-integral Monte Carol simulations and an ab initio effective Hamiltonian, we study the effects of quantum fluctuations on structural phase transitions in the cubic perovskite compounds SrTiO3 and BaTiO3. We find quantum fluctuations affect ferroelectric (FE) transitions more strongly than antiferrodistortive (AFD) ones, even though the effective mass of a single FE local mode is larger. For SrTiO3 we find that the quantum fluctuations suppress the FE transition completely, and reduce the AFD transition temperature from 130K to 110K. For BaTiO3, quantum fluctuations do not affect the order of the transition, but do reduce the transition temperature by 35-50 K. The implications of the calculations are discussed.Comment: Revtex (preprint style, 14 pages) + 2 postscript figures. A version in two-column article style with embedded figures is available at http://electron.rutgers.edu/~dhv/preprints/index.html#wz_qs

Optimization of robustness of scale-free network to random and targeted attacks

The scale-fee networks, having connectivity distribution $P(k)\sim k^{-\alpha}$ (where $k$ is the site connectivity), is very resilient to random failures but fragile to intentional attack. The purpose of this paper is to find the network design guideline which can make the robustness of the network to both random failures and intentional attack maximum while keeping the average connectivity per node constant. We find that when $=3$ the robustness of the scale-free networks reach its maximum value if the minimal connectivity $m=1$, but when is larger than four, the networks will become more robust to random failures and targeted attacks as the minimal connectivity $m$ gets larger

In situ imaging of field emission from individual carbon nanotubes and their structural damage

©2002 American Institute of Physics. The electronic version of this article is the complete one and can be found online at: http://link.aip.org/link/?APPLAB/80/856/1DOI:10.1063/1.1446994Field emission of individual carbon nanotubes was observed by in situ transmission electron microscopy. A fluctuation in emission current was due to a variation in distance between the nanotube tip and the counter electrode owing to a "head-shaking" effect of the nanotube during field emission. Strong field-induced structural damage of a nanotube occurs in two ways: a piece-by-piece and segment-by-segment pilling process of the graphitic layers, and a concentrical layer-by-layer stripping process. The former is believed owing to a strong electrostatic force, and the latter is likely due to heating produced by emission current that flowed through the most outer graphitic layers

Extra Dimensions: A View from the Top

In models with compact extra dimensions, where the Standard Model fields are confined to a 3+1 dimensional hyperplane, the $t \bar t$ production cross-section at a hadron collider can receive significant contributions from multiple exchange of KK modes of the graviton. These are carefully computed in the well-known ADD and RS scenarios, taking the energy dependence of the sum over graviton propagators into account. Using data from Run-I of the Tevatron, 95% C.L. bounds on the parameter space of both models are derived. For Run-II of the Tevatron and LHC, discovery limits are estimated.Comment: Typos corrected, references added. 12 pages, LaTeX, 2 ps figure

Lensless high-resolution on-chip optofluidic microscopes for Caenorhabditis elegans and cell imaging

Low-cost and high-resolution on-chip microscopes are vital for reducing cost and improving efficiency for modern biomedicine and bioscience. Despite the needs, the conventional microscope design has proven difficult to miniaturize. Here, we report the implementation and application of two high-resolution (≈0.9 μm for the first and ≈0.8 μm for the second), lensless, and fully on-chip microscopes based on the optofluidic microscopy (OFM) method. These systems abandon the conventional microscope design, which requires expensive lenses and large space to magnify images, and instead utilizes microfluidic flow to deliver specimens across array(s) of micrometer-size apertures defined on a metal-coated CMOS sensor to generate direct projection images. The first system utilizes a gravity-driven microfluidic flow for sample scanning and is suited for imaging elongate objects, such as Caenorhabditis elegans; and the second system employs an electrokinetic drive for flow control and is suited for imaging cells and other spherical/ellipsoidal objects. As a demonstration of the OFM for bioscience research, we show that the prototypes can be used to perform automated phenotype characterization of different Caenorhabditis elegans mutant strains, and to image spores and single cellular entities. The optofluidic microscope design, readily fabricable with existing semiconductor and microfluidic technologies, offers low-cost and highly compact imaging solutions. More functionalities, such as on-chip phase and fluorescence imaging, can also be readily adapted into OFM systems. We anticipate that the OFM can significantly address a range of biomedical and bioscience needs, and engender new microscope applications

Exploring the quantum critical behaviour in a driven Tavis-Cummings circuit

Quantum phase transitions play an important role in many-body systems and have been a research focus in conventional condensed matter physics over the past few decades. Artificial atoms, such as superconducting qubits that can be individually manipulated, provide a new paradigm of realising and exploring quantum phase transitions by engineering an on-chip quantum simulator. Here we demonstrate experimentally the quantum critical behaviour in a highly-controllable superconducting circuit, consisting of four qubits coupled to a common resonator mode. By off-resonantly driving the system to renormalise the critical spin-field coupling strength, we have observed a four-qubit non-equilibrium quantum phase transition in a dynamical manner, i.e., we sweep the critical coupling strength over time and monitor the four-qubit scaled moments for a signature of a structural change of the system's eigenstates. Our observation of the non-equilibrium quantum phase transition, which is in good agreement with the driven Tavis-Cummings theory under decoherence, offers new experimental approaches towards exploring quantum phase transition related science, such as scaling behaviours, parity breaking and long-range quantum correlations.Comment: Main text with 3 figure

Exclusive B-meson Rare Decays and General Relations of Form Factors in Effective Field Theory of Heavy Quarks

B meson rare decays ($B\to K(K^{*})l\bar l$ and $B\to K^*\gamma$) are analyzed in the framework of effective field theory of heavy quarks. The semileptonic and penguin type form factors for these decays are calculated by using the light cone sum rules method at the leading order of $1/m_Q$ expansion. Four exact relations between the two types of form factors are obtained at the leading order of $1/m_Q$ expansion. Of particular, the relations are found to hold for whole momentum transfer region. We also investigate the validity of the relations resulted from the large energy effective theory based on the general relations obtained in the present approach. The branching ratios of the rare decays are presented and their potential importance for extracting the CKM matrix elements and probing new physics is emphasized.Comment: 23 pages, Revtex, 32 figures, published version with the errors of numerical results caused by the computer program are correcte