9,553 research outputs found
Spin-polarized stable phases of the 2-D electron fluid at finite temperatures
The Helmholtz free energy F of the interacting 2-D electron fluid is
calculated nonperturbatively using a mapping of the quantum fluid to a
classical Coulomb fluid [Phys. Rev. Letters, vol. 87, 206404 (2001)]. For
density parameters rs such that rs<~25, the fluid is unpolarized at all
temperatures t=T/EF where EF is the Fermi energy. For lower densities, the
system becomes fully spin polarized for t<~0.35, and partially polarized for
0.35<t< 2, depending on the density. At rs ~25-30, and t ~0.35, an ''ambispin''
phase where F is almost independent of the spin polarization is found. These
results support recent claims, based on quantum Monte Carlo results, for a
stable, fully spin-polarized fluid phase at T = 0 for rs larger than about
25-26.Comment: Latex manuscript (4-5 pages) and two postscript figures; see also
http://nrcphy1.phy.nrc.ca/ims/qp/chandre/chnc
Total energies from variational functionals of the Green function and the renormalized four-point vertex
We derive variational expressions for the grand potential or action in terms
of the many-body Green function which describes the propagation of
particles and the renormalized four-point vertex which describes the
scattering of two particles in many-body systems. The main ingredient of the
variational functionals is a term we denote as the -functional which plays
a role analogously to the usual -functional studied by Baym (G.Baym,
Phys.Rev. 127, 1391 (1962)) in connection with the conservation laws in
many-body systems. We show that any -derivable theory is also
-derivable and therefore respects the conservation laws. We further set
up a computational scheme to obtain accurate total energies from our
variational functionals without having to solve computationally expensive sets
of self-consistent equations. The input of the functional is an approximate
Green function and an approximate four-point vertex
obtained at a relatively low computational cost. The
variational property of the functional guarantees that the error in the total
energy is only of second order in deviations of the input Green function and
vertex from the self-consistent ones that make the functional stationary. The
functionals that we will consider for practical applications correspond to
infinite order summations of ladder and exchange diagrams and are therefore
particularly suited for applications to highly correlated systems. Their
practical evaluation is discussed in detail.Comment: 21 pages, 10 figures. Physical Review B (accepted
A charged particle in a magnetic field - Jarzynski Equality
We describe some solvable models which illustrate the Jarzynski theorem and
related fluctuation theorems. We consider a charged particle in the presence of
magnetic field in a two dimensional harmonic well. In the first case the centre
of the harmonic potential is translated with a uniform velocity, while in the
other case the particle is subjected to an ac force. We show that Jarzynski
identity complements Bohr-van Leeuwen theorem on the absence of diamagnetism in
equilibrium classical system.Comment: 5 pages, minor corrections made and journal reference adde
Correlated errors in Hipparcos parallaxes towards the Pleiades and the Hyades
We show that the errors in the Hipparcos parallaxes towards the Pleiades and
the Hyades open clusters are spatially correlated over angular scales of 2 to 3
deg, with an amplitude of up to 2 mas. This correlation is stronger than
expected based on the analysis of the Hipparcos catalog. We predict the
parallaxes of individual cluster members, pi_pm, from their Hipparcos proper
motions, assuming that all cluster members have the same space velocity. We
compare pi_pm with their Hipparcos parallaxes, pi_Hip, and find that there are
significant spatial correlations in pi_Hip. We derive a distance modulus to the
Pleiades of 5.58 +- 0.18 mag using the radial-velocity gradient method. This
value, agrees very well with the distance modulus of 5.60 +- 0.04 mag
determined using the main-sequence fitting technique, compared with the value
of 5.33 +- 0.06 inferred from the average of the Hipparcos parallaxes of the
Pleiades members. We show that the difference between the main-sequence fitting
distance and the Hipparcos parallax distance can arise from spatially
correlated errors in the Hipparcos parallaxes of individual Pleiades members.
Although the Hipparcos parallax errors towards the Hyades are spatially
correlated in a manner similar to those of the Pleiades, the center of the
Hyades is located on a node of this spatial structure. Therefore, the parallax
errors cancel out when the average distance is estimated, leading to a mean
Hyades distance modulus that agrees with the pre-Hipparcos value. We speculate
that these spatial correlations are also responsible for the discrepant
distances that are inferred using the mean Hipparcos parallaxes to some open
clusters. Finally, we note that our conclusions are based on a purely geometric
method and do not rely on any models of stellar isochrones.Comment: 33 pages including 10 Figures, revised version accepted for
publication in Ap
Time correlations in a confined magnetized free-electron gas
The time-dependent pair correlation functions for a degenerate ideal quantum
gas of charged particles in a uniform magnetic field are studied on the basis
of equilibrium statistics. In particular, the influence of a flat hard wall on
the correlations is investigated, both for a perpendicular and a parallel
orientation of the wall with respect to the field. The coherent and incoherent
parts of the time-dependent structure function in position space are determined
from an expansion in terms of the eigenfunctions of the one-particle
Hamiltonian. For the bulk of the system, the intermediate scattering function
and the dynamical structure factor are derived by taking successive Fourier
transforms. In the vicinity of the wall the time-dependent coherent structure
function is found to decay faster than in the bulk. For coinciding positions
near the wall the form of the structure function turns out to be independent of
the orientation of the wall. Numerical results are shown to corroborate these
findings.Comment: 25 pages, 14 figures, to be published in Journal of Physics
Investigating the Effect of a Visual Search Task for Simulator-Based Driver Training
Novice drivers tend to direct their gaze to the road ahead and not scan the environment properly. This study investigated the training effectiveness of a visual search task in a driving simulator, aimed at increasing young drivers\u27 spread of visual search. Two groups of inexperienced drivers were instructed to drive as accurately as possible in the center of the right lane in a self-paced driving task of four 6-min sessions in a rural environment. While driving, one group performed a visual search task, consisting of detecting and fixating on visual stimuli in the peripheral area. The stimuli were purple dots that faded in slowly and disappeared when fixated by the participant. After training, both groups drove a transfer session in an urban environment, in which various hazardous situations occurred. Results showed that both groups improved their lane keeping performance, whereas the training group became more proficient in the visual search task. However, in the transfer session no group differences were detected. In conclusion, despite improvements in visual search performance during a relatively short training period, the visual search training did not detectibly influence the spread of visual search of novice drivers during a post training transfer session
Food sharing with friends and acquaintances:A study in preschool boys and girls
IntroductionThe current study examined whether preschoolers in a (semi-)natural situation shared more food with friends or acquaintances, and whether this was different between boys and girls, older and younger children, and for preferred and non- preferred food. In order to do so, we replicated and extended the classical work of Birch and Billman in a Dutch sample.MethodsParticipants included 91 children aged between 3 to 6 years (52.7% boys, 93.4% Western European) from a middle- to upper-middle-class neighborhood in the Netherlands.ResultsThe results revealed that children shared more non-preferred than preferred food with others. Girls gave more non-preferred food to acquaintances than to friends, whereas boys gave more to friends than to acquaintances. No effect of relationship was found for preferred food. Older children shared more food than younger children. Compared to acquaintances, friends made more active attempts to get food. Moreover, children who were not shared with were just as likely to share food as children who were shared with.DiscussionOverall, only a small degree of agreement with the original study was found: Some significant findings could not be replicated, and some unconfirmed hypotheses of the original study were supported. The results underscore both the need for replications and studying the effect of social-contextual factors in natural settings
Conserving approximations in time-dependent quantum transport: Initial correlations and memory effects
We study time-dependent quantum transport in a correlated model system by
means of time-propagation of the Kadanoff-Baym equations for the nonequilibrium
many-body Green function. We consider an initially contacted equilibrium system
of a correlated central region coupled to tight-binding leads. Subsequently a
time-dependent bias is switched on after which we follow in detail the
time-evolution of the system. Important features of the Kadanoff-Baym approach
are 1) the possibility of studying the ultrafast dynamics of transients and
other time-dependent regimes and 2) the inclusion of exchange and correlation
effects in a conserving approximation scheme. We find that initial correlation
and memory terms due to many-body interactions have a large effect on the
transient currents. Furthermore the value of the steady state current is found
to be strongly dependent on the approximation used to treat the electronic
interactions.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figure
Phase Coexistence of a Stockmayer Fluid in an Applied Field
We examine two aspects of Stockmayer fluids which consists of point dipoles
that additionally interact via an attractive Lennard-Jones potential. We
perform Monte Carlo simulations to examine the effect of an applied field on
the liquid-gas phase coexistence and show that a magnetic fluid phase does
exist in the absence of an applied field. As part of the search for the
magnetic fluid phase, we perform Gibbs ensemble simulations to determine phase
coexistence curves at large dipole moments, . The critical temperature is
found to depend linearly on for intermediate values of beyond the
initial nonlinear behavior near and less than the where no
liquid-gas phase coexistence has been found. For phase coexistence in an
applied field, the critical temperatures as a function of the applied field for
two different are mapped onto a single curve. The critical densities
hardly change as a function of applied field. We also verify that in an applied
field the liquid droplets within the two phase coexistence region become
elongated in the direction of the field.Comment: 23 pages, ReVTeX, 7 figure
Tool use for corpse cleaning in chimpanzees
For the first time, chimpanzees have been observed using tools to clean the corpse of a deceased group member. A female chimpanzee sat down at the dead body of a young male, selected a firm stem of grass, and started to intently remove debris from his teeth. This report contributes novel behaviour to the chimpanzee’s ethogram, and highlights how crucial information for reconstructing the evolutionary origins of human mortuary practices may be missed by refraining from developing adequate observation techniques to capture non-human animals’ death responses.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe
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