Exotic quantum phase transitions in a Bose-Einstein condensate coupled to an optical cavity

A new extended Dicke model, which includes atom-atom interactions and a driving classical laser field, is established for a Bose-Einstein condensate inside an ultrahigh-finesse optical cavity. A feasible experimental setup with a strong atom-field coupling is proposed, where most parameters are easily controllable and thus the predicted second-order superradiant-normal phase transition may be detected by measuring the ground-state atomic population. More intriguingly, a novel second-order phase transition from the superradiant phase to the \textquotedblleft Mott" phase is also revealed. In addition, a rich and exotic phase diagram is presented.Comment: 4 pages; figures 1 and 3 are modified; topos are correcte

Revisiting individual and group differences in thermal comfort based on ASHRAE database

Different thermal demands and preferences between individuals lead to a low occupant satisfaction rate, despite the high energy consumption by HVAC system. This study aims to quantify the difference in thermal demands, and to compare the influential factors which might lead to those differences. With the recently released ASHRAE Database, we quantitatively answered the following two research questions: which factors would lead to marked individual difference, and what the magnitude of this difference is. Linear regression has been applied to describe the macro-trend of how people feel thermally under different temperatures. Three types of factors which might lead to different thermal demands have been studied and compared in this study, i.e. individual factors, building characteristics and geographical factors. It was found that the local climate has the most marked impact on the neutral temperature, with an effect size of 3.5 °C; followed by country, HVAC operation mode and body built, which lead to a difference of more than 1 °C. In terms of the thermal sensitivity, building type and local climate are the most influential factors. Subjects in residential buildings or coming from Dry climate zone could accept 2.5 °C wider temperature range than those in office, education buildings or from Continental climate zone. The findings of this research could help thermal comfort researchers and designers to identify influential factors that might lead to individual difference, and could shed light on the feature selection for the development of personal comfort models

Dynamical Computation on Coefficients of Electroweak Chiral Lagrangian from One-doublet and Topcolor-assisted Technicolor Models

Based on previous studies deriving the chiral Lagrangian for pseudo scalar mesons from the first principle of QCD, we derive the electroweak chiral Lagrangian and build up a formulation for computing its coefficients from one-doublet technicolor model and a schematic topcolor-assisted technicolor model. We find that the coefficients of the electroweak chiral Lagrangian for the topcolor-assisted technicolor model are divided into three parts: direct TC2 interaction part, TC1 and TC2 induced effective Z' particle contribution part, and ordinary quarks contribution part. The first two parts are computed in this paper and we show that the direct TC2 interaction part is the same as that in the one-doublet technicolor model, while effective Z' contributions are at least proportional to the p^2 order parameter \beta_1 in the electroweak chiral Lagrangian and typical features of topcolor-assisted technicolor model are that it only allows positive T and U parameters and the T parameter varies in the range 0\sim 1/(25\alpha), the upper bound of T parameter will decrease as long as Z' mass become large. The S parameter can be either positive or negative depending on whether the Z' mass is large or small. The Z' mass is also bounded above and the upper bound depend on value of T parameter. We obtain the values for all the coefficients of the electroweak chiral Lagrangian up to order of p^4.Comment: 52 pages, 15 figure

Laser opacity in underdense preplasma of solid targets due to quantum electrodynamics effects

We investigate how next-generation laser pulses at 10 PW $-$ 200 PW interact with a solid target in the presence of a relativistically underdense preplasma produced by amplified spontaneous emission (ASE). Laser hole boring and relativistic transparency are strongly restrained due to the generation of electron-positron pairs and $\gamma$-ray photons via quantum electrodynamics (QED) processes. A pair plasma with a density above the initial preplasma density is formed, counteracting the electron-free channel produced by the hole boring. This pair-dominated plasma can block the laser transport and trigger an avalanche-like QED cascade, efficiently transfering the laser energy to photons. This renders a 1-$\rm\mu m$-scalelength, underdense preplasma completely opaque to laser pulses at this power level. The QED-induced opacity therefore sets much higher contrast requirements for such pulse in solid-target experiments than expected by classical plasma physics. Our simulations show for example, that proton acceleration from the rear of a solid with a preplasma would be strongly impaired.Comment: 5 figure

Observation of Terahertz Radiation via the Two-Color Laser Scheme with Uncommon Frequency Ratios

In the widely-studied two-color laser scheme for terahertz (THz) radiation from a gas, the frequency ratio of the two lasers is usually fixed at $\omega_2/\omega_1=$1:2. We investigate THz generation with uncommon frequency ratios. Our experiments show, for the first time, efficient THz generation with new ratios of $\omega_2/\omega_1=$1:4 and 2:3. We observe that the THz polarization can be adjusted by rotating the longer-wavelength laser polarization and the polarization adjustment becomes inefficient by rotating the other laser polarization; the THz energy shows similar scaling laws with different frequency ratios. These observations are inconsistent with multi-wave mixing theory, but support the gas-ionization model. This study pushes the development of the two-color scheme and provides a new dimension to explore the long-standing problem of the THz generation mechanism.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figure

Understanding the aqueous phase ozonolysis of isoprene: distinct product distribution and mechanism from the gas phase reaction

The aqueous phase reaction of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) has not been considered in most analyses of atmospheric chemical processes. However, some experimental evidence has shown that, compared to the corresponding gas phase reaction, the aqueous chemical processes of VOCs in the bulk solutions and surfaces of ambient wet particles (cloud, fog, and wet aerosols) may potentially contribute to the products and formation of secondary organic aerosol (SOA). In the present study, we performed a laboratory experiment of the aqueous ozonolysis of isoprene at different pHs (3–7) and temperatures (4–25 °C). We detected three important kinds of products, including carbonyl compounds, peroxide compounds, and organic acids. Our results showed that the molar yields of these products were nearly independent of the investigated pHs and temperatures, those were (1) carbonyls: 56.7 ± 3.7 % formaldehyde, 42.8 ± 2.5 % methacrolein (MAC), and 57.7 ± 3.4 % methyl vinyl ketone (MVK); (2) peroxides: 53.4 ± 4.1 % hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂) and 15.1 ± 3.1 % hydroxylmethyl hydroperoxide (HMHP); and (3) organic acids: undetectable (<1 % estimated by the detection limit). Based on the amounts of products formed and the isoprene consumed, the total carbon yield was estimated to be 94.8 ± 4.1 %. This implied that most of the products in the reaction system were detected. The combined yields of both MAC + MVK and H₂O₂ + HMHP in the aqueous isoprene ozonolysis were much higher than those observed in the corresponding gas phase reaction. We suggest that these unexpected high yields of carbonyls and peroxides are related to the greater capability of condensed water, compared to water vapor, to stabilize energy-rich Criegee radicals. This aqueous ozonolysis of isoprene (and possibly other biogenic VOCs) could potentially occur on the surfaces of ambient wet particles and plants. Moreover, the high-yield carbonyl and peroxide products might provide a considerable source of aqueous phase oxidants and SOA precursors

A new understanding of the effect of filler minerals on the precipitation of synthetic C–S–H

The filler effect is the most important physical mechanism of mineral admixtures in the early hydration of cement whose chemical properties greatly affect the precipitation of C–S–H. In this study, calcite, strontianite, magnesite, dolomite, quartz, whewellite and whitlockite were selected as the fillers. The morphology and reaction kinetics of synthetic C–S–H precipitated on the surfaces of different fillers were studied via electron microscopy observations and electrical conductivity and ion concentration measurements. The precipitation rate of C–S–H has a positive correlation with the affinity of Ca2+ for adsorption on the fillers, which can be explained by the nucleation barrier of C–S–H. Extremely ordered honeycomb-like morphology of the C–S–H is found on calcite and strontianite surfaces, while less regular leaf-like or honeycomb-like C–S–H is found on whewellite and whitlockite. The ordered C–S–H pattern is related to the lattice cleavage of the ionic compound filler. In the case of quartz, C–S–H prefers growth along the tangential direction, which is quite different from the normal-direction growth on ionic compounds. The in-plane growth of C–S–H on quartz is believed to be induced by a layer of loosely physically adsorbed Ca2+

Study of f_0(980) and f_0(1500) from B_s \to f_0(980)K, f_0(1500)K Decays

In this paper, we calculate the branching ratios and CP-violating asymmetries for \bar B^0_s \to f_0(980)K, f_0(1500)K within Perturbative QCD approach based on k_T factorization. If the mixing angle $\theta$ falls into the range of 25^\circ<\theta<40^\circ, the branching ratio of \bar B^0_s\to f_0(980)K is 2.0\times 10^{-6}<{\cal B}(\bar B^0_s\to f_0(980)K)<2.6\times 10^{-6}, while $\theta$ lies in the range of 140^\circ<\theta<165^\circ, {\cal B}(\bar B^0_s\to f_0(980)K) is about 6.5\times 10^{-7}. As to the decay {\cal B}(\bar B^0_s\to f_0(1500)K), when the mixing scheme \mid f_0(1500)>=0.84\mid s\bar s>-0.54\mid n\bar n> for f_0(1500) is used, it is difficult to determine which scenario is more preferable than the other one from the branching ratios for these two scenarios, because they are both close to 1.0\times10^{-6}. But there exists large difference in the form factor F^{\bar B_s^0\to f_0(1500)} for two scenarios.Comment: 14 pages, 3 figures, submitted to J. Phys.