Dispersion and transitions of dipolar plasmon modes in graded plasmonic waveguides

Coupled plasmon modes are studied in graded plasmonic waveguides, which are periodic chains of metallic nanoparticles embedded in a host with gradually varying refractive indices. We identify three types of localized modes called "light", "heavy", and "light-heavy" plasmonic gradons outside the passband, according to various degrees of localization. We also demonstrate new transitions among extended and localized modes when the interparticle separation $d$ is smaller than a critical $d_c$, whereas the three types of localized modes occur for $d>d_c$, with no extended modes. The transitions can be explained with phase diagrams constructed for the lossless metallic systems.Comment: Preliminary results have been presented at ETOPIM 7. Submitted to Appl. Phys. Let

Orbital magnetization and Chern number in a supercell framework: Single k-point formula

The key formula for computing the orbital magnetization of a crystalline system has been recently found [D. Ceresoli, T. Thonhauser, D. Vanderbilt, R. Resta, Phys. Rev. B {\bf 74}, 024408 (2006)]: it is given in terms of a Brillouin-zone integral, which is discretized on a reciprocal-space mesh for numerical implementation. We find here the single ${\bf k}$-point limit, useful for large enough supercells, and particularly in the framework of Car-Parrinello simulations for noncrystalline systems. We validate our formula on the test case of a crystalline system, where the supercell is chosen as a large multiple of the elementary cell. We also show that--somewhat counterintuitively--even the Chern number (in 2d) can be evaluated using a single Hamiltonian diagonalization.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures; appendix adde

Constraining supersymmetry from the satellite experiments

In this paper we study the detectability of $\gamma$-rays from dark matter annihilation in the subhalos of the Milky Way by the satellite-based experiments, EGRET and GLAST. We work in the frame of supersymmetric extension of the standard model and assume the lightest neutralino being the dark matter particles. Based on the N-body simulation of the evolution of dark matter subhalos we first calculate the average intensity distribution of this new class of $\gamma$-ray sources by neutralino annihilation. It is possible to detect these $\gamma$-ray sources by EGRET and GLAST. Conversely, if these sources are not detected the nature of the dark matter particls will be constrained by these experiments, which, however, depending on the uncertainties of the subhalo profile.Comment: 19 pages, 5 gigures; references added, more discussions adde

Surface-mode microcavity

Optical microcavities based on zero-group-velocity surface modes in photonic crystal slabs are studied. It is shown that high quality factors can be easily obtained for such microcavities in photonic crystal slabs. With increasing of the cavity length, the quality factor is gradually enhanced and the resonant frequency converges to that of the zero-group-velocity surface mode in the photonic crystal. The number of the resonant modes with high quality factors is mainly determined by the number of surface modes with zero-group velocity.Comment: 11 pages, 4 figure

Exact Algorithms for Maximum Independent Set

We show that the maximum independent set problem (MIS) on an $n$-vertex graph can be solved in $1.1996^nn^{O(1)}$ time and polynomial space, which even is faster than Robson's $1.2109^{n}n^{O(1)}$-time exponential-space algorithm published in 1986. We also obtain improved algorithms for MIS in graphs with maximum degree 6 and 7, which run in time of $1.1893^nn^{O(1)}$ and $1.1970^nn^{O(1)}$, respectively. Our algorithms are obtained by using fast algorithms for MIS in low-degree graphs in a hierarchical way and making a careful analyses on the structure of bounded-degree graphs