Autoresonant control of the many-electron dynamics in nonparabolic quantum wells

The optical response of nonparabolic quantum wells is dominated by a strong peak at the plasmon frequency. When the electrons reach the anharmonic regions, resonant absorption becomes inefficient. This limitation is overcome by using a chirped laser pulse in the autoresonant regime. By direct simulations using the Wigner phase-space approach, the authors prove that, with a sequence of just a few pulses, electrons can be efficiently detrapped from a nonparabolic well. For an array of multiple quantum wells, they can create and control an electronic current by suitably applying an autoresonant laser pulse and a slowly varying dc electric field.Comment: 3 page

Fidelity decay in trapped Bose-Einstein condensates

The quantum coherence of a Bose-Einstein condensate is studied using the concept of quantum fidelity (Loschmidt echo). The condensate is confined in an elongated anharmonic trap and subjected to a small random potential such as that created by a laser speckle. Numerical experiments show that the quantum fidelity stays constant until a critical time, after which it drops abruptly over a single trap oscillation period. The critical time depends logarithmically on the number of condensed atoms and on the perturbation amplitude. This behavior may be observable by measuring the interference fringes of two condensates evolving in slightly different potentials.Comment: 4 pages, to appear in Physical Review Letters, February 200

Bose-Einstein condensation of positronium: modification of the s-wave scattering length below the critical temperature

The production of a Bose-Einstein condensate made of positronium may be feasible in the near future. Below the condensation temperature, the positronium collision process is modified by the presence of the condensate. This makes the theoretical description of the positronium kinetics at low temperature challenging. Based on the quasi-particle Bogoliubov theory, we describe the many-body particle-particle collision in a simple manner. We find that, in a good approximation, the full positronium-positronium interaction can be described by an effective scattering length. Our results are general and apply to different species of bosons. The correction to the bare scattering length is expressed in terms of a single dimensionless parameter that completely characterizes the condensate

Changing the University System Management: a study of the Italian scenario

Over recent years, the Italian University System has been handling a phase of deep changes, which have had significant impact on its mission and on the way it operates. The most important of these changes have been to the organisation of universities, their recruitment procedures and in terms of improvements to the quality and efficiency of the university system itself. In this perspective, the objective of this research was to carry out a critical analysis of the process of change, with special reference to improving efficiency by making the transition from cash-based accounting to accrual accounting. In order to achieve this objective, the starting point was the legislation of reference that sets out the terms for the move to financial accrual accounting. A comparative analysis was then carried out at an international level, with the purpose of highlighting the strengths and weaknesses identified during the implementation of these new procedures within the public field. This was followed by an analysis of the details of the theory defining the accounting principles to be used in the process of preparing university’s financial statements. Finally, the study identified the main critical points relating to implementation of the new accounting system, offering, at the same time, several thoughts concerning possible subsequent analyses on this topic

Energy Level Quasi-Crossings: Accidental Degeneracies or Signature of Quantum Chaos?

In the field of quantum chaos, the study of energy levels plays an important role. The aim of this review paper is to critically discuss some of the main contributions regarding the connection between classical dynamics, semi-classical quantization and spectral statistics of energy levels. In particular, we analyze in detail degeneracies and quasi-crossings in the eigenvalues of quantum Hamiltonians which are classically non-integrable. Summary: 1. Introduction; 2. Quasi-Crossing and Chaos; 3. Molecular Spectroscopy; 4. Nuclear Models; 4.1 Zirnbauer-Verbaashot-Weidenmuller Model; 4.2 Lipkin-Meshow-Glick Model; 5. Particle Physics and Field Theory; 6. Conclusions.Comment: 26 pages, Latex, 9 figures, to be published in International Journal of Modern Physics

Pathological Behavior in the Spectral Statistics of the Asymmetric Rotor Model

The aim of this work is to study the spectral statistics of the asymmetric rotor model (triaxial rigid rotator). The asymmetric top is classically integrable and, according to the Berry-Tabor theory, its spectral statistics should be Poissonian. Surprisingly, our numerical results show that the nearest neighbor spacing distribution $P(s)$ and the spectral rigidity $\Delta_3(L)$ do not follow Poisson statistics. In particular, $P(s)$ shows a sharp peak at $s=1$ while $\Delta_3(L)$ for small values of $L$ follows the Poissonian predictions and asymptotically it shows large fluctuations around its mean value. Finally, we analyze the information entropy, which shows a dissolution of quantum numbers by breaking the axial symmetry of the rigid rotator.Comment: 11 pages, 7 figures, to be published in Phys. Rev.

Ultrafast Magnetization Dynamics in Diluted Magnetic Semiconductors

We present a dynamical model that successfully explains the observed time evolution of the magnetization in diluted magnetic semiconductor quantum wells after weak laser excitation. Based on the pseudo-fermion formalism and a second order many-particle expansion of the exact p-d exchange interaction, our approach goes beyond the usual mean-field approximation. It includes both the sub-picosecond demagnetization dynamics and the slower relaxation processes which restore the initial ferromagnetic order in a nanosecond time scale. In agreement with experimental results, our numerical simulations show that, depending on the value of the initial lattice temperature, a subsequent enhancement of the total magnetization may be observed within a time scale of few hundreds of picoseconds.Comment: Submitted to PR

A perturbative approach to predict eye diagram degradation in differential interconnects subject to asymmetry and nonuniformity

This paper proposes a novel framework for the signal integrity (SI) analysis of differential interconnects affected by nonuniformity and geometrical asymmetry. The pertinent nonuniform transmission-line (TL) equations are solved in the frequency domain by means of a perturbation technique, which allows interpreting the resulting response degradation as a perturbation with respect to the response of a reference uniform differential line (DL) with averaged per-unit-length (p.u.l.) parameters. Following this interpretation, the problem is recast as a standard TL equation for the reference uniform line with additional equivalent distributed sources that account for the perturbative effect of asymmetric nonuniformity. This equivalent perturbation problem is solved iteratively in the frequency domain, and the corresponding time-domain behavior is obtained via inverse Fourier transform. Moreover, upon consideration that local perturbations negligibly impact on far-end differential mode (DM) quantities, the uniform DL model with averaged p.u.l. parameters is used for the SI performance evaluation of transmitted DM voltages in SPICE, showing that comparable results can be obtained while avoiding the cumbersome implementation of a nonuniform transmission line topology. The methodology is applied to the prediction of the eye diagram degradation for a 20 Gbps transmission through a microstrip DL subject to geometrical asymmetry and nonuniformity

Macrophages in Injured Skeletal Muscle: A Perpetuum Mobile Causing and Limiting Fibrosis, Prompting or Restricting Resolution and Regeneration

Macrophages are present in regenerating skeletal muscles and participate in the repair process. This is due to a unique feature of macrophages, i.e., their ability to perceive signals heralding ongoing tissue injury and to broadcast the news to cells suited at regenerating the tissue such as stem and progenitor cells. Macrophages play a complex role in the skeletal muscle, probably conveying information on the pattern of healing which is appropriate to ensure an effective healing of the tissue, yielding novel functional fibers. Conversely, they are likely to be involved in limiting the efficacy of regeneration, with formation of fibrotic scars and fat replacement of the tissue when the original insult persists. In this review we consider the beneficial versus the detrimental actions of macrophages during the response to muscle injury, with attention to the available information on the molecular code macrophages rely on to guide, throughout the various phases of muscle healing, the function of conventional and unconventional stem cells. Decrypting this code would represent a major step forward toward the establishment of novel targeted therapies for muscle diseases