Applicability of Taylor's hypothesis in thermally driven turbulence

In this paper, we show that in the presence of large-scale circulation (LSC), Taylor's hypothesis can be invoked to deduce the energy spectrum in thermal convection using real space probes, a popular experimental tool. We perform numerical simulation of turbulent convection in a cube and observe that the velocity field follows Kolmogorov's spectrum ($k^{-5/3}$). We also record the velocity time series using real space probes near the lateral walls. The corresponding frequency spectrum exhibits Kolmogorov's spectrum ($f^{-5/3}$), thus validating Taylor's hypothesis with the steady LSC playing the role of a mean velocity field. The aforementioned findings based on real space probes provide valuable inputs for experimental measurements used for studying the spectrum of convective turbulence

Excitation Functions of Stopping Power and Flow in Relativistic Heavy-Ion Collisions

Using a relativistic transport (ART) model, we study the stopping power, the formation of superdense hadronic matter as well as the strength of transverse and radial flow in central Au+Au collisions at beam momentum from 2 to 12 GeV/c per nucleon. We find that complete stopping is achieved in the whole beam momentum range. In particular, the proton rapidity distribution scaled by the beam rapidity is independent of the beam momentum, and this is in agreement with the experimental findings. Also, a large volume of superdense hadronic matter with a local energy density exceeding that expected for the transition of a hadronic matter to the quark-gluon plasma is formed in collisions at beam momenta greater than 8 GeV/c per nucleon. Furthermore, it is found that the transverse flow in these collisions is sensitive to the nuclear equation of state and decreases with increasing beam momentum. On the other hand, the radial flow is insensitive to the equation of state, and its strength increases with beam momentum.Comment: Talk given at NN97, Gatlinburg, Tennessee June 2-6,1997. To appear in the proc. in Nucl. Phys.

Superradiant Solid in Cavity QED Coupled to a Lattice of Rydberg Gas

We study an optical cavity coupled to a lattice of Rydberg atoms, which can be represented by a generalized Dicke model. We show that the competition between the atomic interaction and atom-light coupling induces a rich phase diagram. A novel "superradiant solid" (SRS) phase is found, where both the superradiance and crystalline orders coexist. Different from the normal second order superradiance (SR) transition, here both the Solid-1/2 and SRS to SR phase transitions are first order. These results are confirmed by the large scale quantum Monte Carlo simulations.Comment: 5 pages,4 figure

NEW TOPOLOGIES IN THE PHASE DIAGRAM OF THE SEMI-INFINITE BLUME-CAPEL MODEL

The phase diagram of the Blume--Capel model on a semi--infinite simple cubic lattice with a (100) free surface is studied in the pair approximation of the cluster variation method. Six main topologies are found, of which two are new, due to the occurrence of a first order surface transition in the phase with ordered bulk, separating two phases with large and small surface order parameters. The latter is a new phase and is studied in some detail, giving the behaviour of the order parameter profiles in two typical cases. A comparison is made with the results of a low temperature expansion, where these are available, showing a great increase in accuracy with respect to the mean field approximation.Comment: RevTeX, 13 pages + 7 uuencoded PostScript figures (substituted raw with encoded PostScript

Strongly anisotropic media: the THz perspectives of left-handed materials

We demonstrate that non-magnetic ($\mu \equiv 1$) left-handed materials can be effectively used for waveguide imaging systems. We also propose a specific THz realization of the non-magnetic left-handed material based on homogeneous, naturally-occurring media

Exact wave-packet decoherence dynamics in a discrete spectrum environment

We find an exact analytical solution of the reduced density matrix from the Feynman-Vernon influence functional theory for a wave packet influenced by an environment containing a few discrete modes. We obtain two intrinsic energy scales relating to the time scales of the system and the environment. Different relationship between these two scales alters the overall form of the solution of the system. We also introduce a decoherence measure for a single wave packet which is defined as the ratio of Schr\"odinger uncertainty over the delocalization extension of the wave packet and characterizes the time-evolution behavior of the off-diagonal reduced density matrix element. We utilize the exact solution and the docherence measure to study the wave packet decoherence dynamics. We further demonstrate how the dynamical diffusion of the wave packet leads to non-Markovian decoherence in such a microscopic environment.Comment: 12 pages, 2 figure

Constraining the Symmetry Energy: A Journey in the Isospin Physics from Coulomb Barrier to Deconfinement

Heavy Ion Collisions (HIC) represent a unique tool to probe the in-medium nuclear interaction in regions away from saturation. In this work we present a selection of reaction observables in dissipative collisions particularly sensitive to the isovector part of the interaction, i.e. to the symmetry term of the nuclear Equation of State (EoS). At low energies the behavior of the symmetry energy around saturation influences dissipation and fragment production mechanisms. We will first discuss the recently observed Dynamical Dipole Radiation, due to a collective neutron-proton oscillation during the charge equilibration in fusion and deep-inelastic collisions. Important Iso-EOS effects are stressed. Reactions induced by unstable 132Sn beams appear to be very promising tools to test the sub-saturation Isovector EoS. New Isospin sensitive observables are also presented for deep-inelastic, fragmentation collisions and Isospin equilibration measurements (Imbalance Ratios). The high density symmetry term can be derived from isospin effects on heavy ion reactions at relativistic energies (few AGeV range), that can even allow a ``direct'' study of the covariant structure of the isovector interaction in the hadron medium. Rather sensitive observables are proposed from collective flows and from pion/kaon production. The possibility of the transition to a mixed hadron-quark phase, at high baryon and isospin density, is finally suggested. Some signatures could come from an expected ``neutron trapping'' effect. The importance of studying violent collisions with radioactive beams from low to relativistic energies is finally stressed.Comment: 15 pages, 5 figures, Int.Workshop on Nuclear Dynamics in Heavy Ion Reactions and Neutron Stars, Beijing Normal Univ. July 07, to appear in Int.Journ.Modern Physics E (2008

The Phase Diagram of the Gonihedric 3d Ising Model via CVM

We use the cluster variation method (CVM) to investigate the phase structure of the 3d gonihedric Ising actions defined by Savvidy and Wegner. The geometrical spin cluster boundaries in these systems serve as models for the string worldsheets of the gonihedric string embedded in ${\bf Z}^3$. The models are interesting from the statistical mechanical point of view because they have a vanishing bare surface tension. As a result the action depends only on the angles of the discrete surface and not on the area, which is the antithesis of the standard 3d Ising model. The results obtained with the CVM are in good agreement with Monte Carlo simulations for the critical temperatures and the order of the transition as the self-avoidance coupling $\kappa$ is varied. The value of the magnetization critical exponent $\beta = 0.062 \pm 0.003$, calculated with the cluster variation--Pad\`e approximant method, is also close to the simulation results.Comment: 8 pages text (LaTex) + 3 eps figures bundled together with uufile

Nuclear fragmentation: sampling the instabilities of binary systems

We derive stability conditions of Asymmetric Nuclear Matter ($ANM$) and discuss the relation to mechanical and chemical instabilities of general two-component systems. We show that the chemical instability may appear as an instability of the system against isoscalar-like rather than isovector-like fluctuations if the interaction between the two constituent species has an attractive character as in the case of $ANM$. This leads to a new kind of liquid-gas phase transition, of interest for fragmentation experiments with radioactive beams.Comment: 4 pages (LATEX), 3 Postscript figures, improved version, added reference

Excitation functions in central Au+Au collisions from SIS/GSI to AGS/Brookhaven

Using the relativistic transport model (ART), we predict the energy dependence of the stopping power, maximum baryon and energy densities, the population of resonance matter as well as the strength of the transverse and radial flow for central Au+Au reactions at beam momentum from 2 to 12 GeV/c available at Brookhaven's AGS. The maximum baryon and energy densities are further compared to the predictions of relativistic hydrodynamics assuming the formation of shock waves. We also discuss the Fermi-Landau scaling of the pion multiplicity in these reactions.Comment: 20 pages, latex, 10 figures available upon request from the authors, Nucl. Phys. A in pres