Stability of the superfluid state in a disordered 1D ultracold fermionic gas

We study a 1D Fermi gas with attractive short range-interactions in a disordered potential by the density matrix renormalization group (DMRG) technique. This setting can be implemented experimentally by using cold atom techniques. We identify a region of parameters for which disorder enhances the superfluid state. As disorder is further increased, global superfluidity eventually breaks down. However this transition occurs before the transition to the insulator state takes place. This suggests the existence of an intermediate metallic `pseudogap' phase characterized by strong pairing but no quasi long-range order.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figure

The white dwarf population within 40 pc of the Sun

The white dwarf luminosity function is an important tool to understand the properties of the Solar neighborhood, like its star formation history, and its age. Here we present a population synthesis study of the white dwarf population within 40~pc from the Sun, and compare the results of this study with the properties of the observed sample. We use a state-of-the-art population synthesis code based on Monte Carlo techniques, that incorporates the most recent and reliable white dwarf cooling sequences, an accurate description of the Galactic neighborhood, and a realistic treatment of all the known observational biases and selection procedures. We find a good agreement between our theoretical models and the observed data. In particular, our simulations reproduce a previously unexplained feature of the bright branch of the white dwarf luminosity function, which we argue is due to a recent episode of star formation. We also derive the age of the Solar neighborhood employing the position of the observed cut-off of the white dwarf luminosity function, obtaining ~8.9+-0.2 Gyr. We conclude that a detailed description of the ensemble properties of the population of white dwarfs within 40pc of the Sun allows us to obtain interesting constraints on the history of the Solar neighborhood.Comment: 8 pages, 7 figures, accepted for publication in A&

The Ellis semigroup of a nonautonomous discrete dynamical system

We introduce the {\it Ellis semigroup} of a nonautonomous discrete dynamical system $(X,f_{1,\infty})$ when $X$ is a metric compact space. The underlying set of this semigroup is the pointwise closure of \{f\sp{n}_1 \, |\, n\in \mathbb{N}\} in the space X\sp{X}. By using the convergence of a sequence of points with respect to an ultrafilter it is possible to give a precise description of the semigroup and its operation. This notion extends the classical Ellis semigroup of a discrete dynamical system. We show several properties that connect this semigroup and the topological properties of the nonautonomous discrete dynamical system

Symmetry limit properties of a priori mixing amplitudes for non-leptonic and weak radiative decays of hyperons

We show that the so-called parity-conserving amplitudes predicted in the a priori mixing scheme for non-leptonic and weak radiative decays of hyperons vanish in the strong-flavor symmetry limit