6,657 research outputs found
Strong-field dipole resonance. I. Limiting analytical cases
We investigate population dynamics in N-level systems driven beyond the
linear regime by a strong external field, which couples to the system through
an operator with nonzero diagonal elements. As concrete example we consider the
case of dipolar molecular systems. We identify limiting cases of the
Hamiltonian leading to wavefunctions that can be written in terms of ordinary
exponentials, and focus on the limits of slowly and rapidly varying fields of
arbitrary strength. For rapidly varying fields we prove for arbitrary that
the population dynamics is independent of the sign of the projection of the
field onto the dipole coupling. In the opposite limit of slowly varying fields
the population of the target level is optimized by a dipole resonance
condition. As a result population transfer is maximized for one sign of the
field and suppressed for the other one, so that a switch based on flopping the
field polarization can be devised. For significant sign dependence the
resonance linewidth with respect to the field strength is small. In the
intermediate regime of moderate field variation, the integral of lowest order
in the coupling can be rewritten as a sum of terms resembling the two limiting
cases, plus correction terms for N>2, so that a less pronounced sign-dependence
still exists.Comment: 34 pages, 1 figur
Statistical Mechanics for Unstable States in Gel'fand Triplets and Investigations of Parabolic Potential Barriers
Free energies and other thermodynamical quantities are investigated in
canonical and grand canonical ensembles of statistical mechanics involving
unstable states which are described by the generalized eigenstates with complex
energy eigenvalues in the conjugate space of Gel'fand triplet. The theory is
applied to the systems containing parabolic potential barriers (PPB's). The
entropy and energy productions from PPB systems are studied. An equilibrium for
a chemical process described by reactions is also
discussed.Comment: 14 pages, AmS-LaTeX, no figur
The quality of different types of child care at 10 and 18 months. A comparison between types and factors related to quality.
The quality of care offered in four different types of non-parental child care to 307 infants at 10 months old and 331 infants at 18 months old was compared and factors associated with higher quality were identified. Observed quality was lowest in nurseries at each age point, except that at 18 months they offered more learning activities. There were few differences in the observed quality of care by child-minders, grandparents and nannies, although grandparents had somewhat lower safety and health scores and offered children fewer activities. Cost was largely unrelated to quality of care except in child-minding, where higher cost was associated with higher quality. Observed ratios of children to adults had a significant impact on quality of nursery care; the more infants or toddlers each adult had to care for, the lower the quality of the care she gave them. Mothers' overall satisfaction with their child's care was positively associated with its quality for home-based care but not for nursery settings
Non-Adiabatic Potential-Energy Surfaces by Constrained Density-Functional Theory
Non-adiabatic effects play an important role in many chemical processes. In
order to study the underlying non-adiabatic potential-energy surfaces (PESs),
we present a locally-constrained density-functional theory approach, which
enables us to confine electrons to sub-spaces of the Hilbert space, e.g. to
selected atoms or groups of atoms. This allows to calculate non-adiabatic PESs
for defined charge and spin states of the chosen subsystems. The capability of
the method is demonstrated by calculating non-adiabatic PESs for the scattering
of a sodium and a chlorine atom, for the interaction of a chlorine molecule
with a small metal cluster, and for the dissociation of an oxygen molecule at
the Al(111) surface.Comment: 11 pages including 7 figures; related publications can be found at
http://www.fhi-berlin.mpg.de/th/th.htm
Gastrointestinal Symptoms in Marfan Syndrome and Hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome.
Objective: Marfan syndrome (MS) is a multisystem disorder caused by a mutation in FBN1 gene. It shares some phenotypic features with hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (EDS) such as joint hypermobility. EDS is a group of inherited heterogenous multisystem disorders characterized by skin hyperextensibility, atrophic scarring, joint hypermobility, and generalized tissue fragility. Hypermobile EDS (hEDS) is thought to be the most common type. Recent studies have suggested an association between connective tissue hypermobility and functional gastrointestinal disorders (FGDs). The aim of this study is to determine the prevalence of gastrointestinal symptoms in patients with Marfan syndrome and hypermobile EDS. Method: Patients with a diagnosis of either MS or hEDS attending cardiology or rheumatology outpatients at our hospital were asked to complete SF36 RAND and Rome IV Diagnostic questionnaires. Questionnaires were also completed by patients who are members of Marfan Association UK. The same questionnaires were also completed by age- and gender-matched controls attending fracture clinic without existing diagnoses of MS or hEDS. Results: Data were collected from 45 MS patients (12 males and 33 females, age range 19-41 years, mean 28 years) and 45 hEDS patients (6 males and 39 females, age range 18-32 years, mean 24 years). None had a previous organic gastrointestinal diagnosis. The control group was matched for age and sex (18 males and 72 females, age range 18-45, mean 29 years). Both MS and hEDS groups showed a higher prevalence of abdominal symptoms compared to the control group; however, the hEDS group not only showed a higher prevalence but more frequent and severe symptoms meeting Rome IV criteria for diagnosis of FGIDs. Nearly half of the hEDS patients met the criteria for more than one FGID. The hEDS group also scored lower on quality of life (QOL) scores in comparison to either of the other groups with a mean score of 48.6 as compared to 54.2 in the Marfan group and 78.6 in the control group. Conclusion: FGIDs are reported in both Marfan syndrome and hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos syndrome but appear to be more common and severe in hEDS. These patients score lower on quality of life scores as well despite hypermobility being a common feature of both conditions. Further work is needed to understand the impact of connective tissue disorders on gastrointestinal symptoms
Differential and integral cross sections for the rotationally inelastic scattering of methyl radicals with H-2 and D-2
Landau-Zener-St\"uckelberg interferometry in pair production from counterpropagating lasers
The rate of electron-positron pair production in linearly polarized
counter-propagating lasers is evaluated from a recently discovered solution of
the time-dependent Dirac equation. The latter is solved in momentum space where
it is formally equivalent to the Schr\"odinger equation describing a strongly
driven two-level system. The solution is found from a simple transformation of
the Dirac equation and is given in compact form in terms of the
doubly-confluent Heun's function. By using the analogy with the two-level
system, it is shown that for high-intensity lasers, pair production occurs
through periodic non-adiabatic transitions when the adiabatic energy gap is
minimal. These transitions give rise to an intricate interference pattern in
the pair spectrum, reminiscent of the Landau-Zener-St\"uckelberg phenomenon in
molecular physics: the accumulated phase result in constructive or destructive
interference. The adiabatic-impulse model is used to study this phenomenon and
shows an excellent agreement with the exact result.Comment: 22 pages, 7 figure
Pulse-driven near-resonant quantum adiabatic dynamics: lifting of quasi-degeneracy
We study the quantum dynamics of a two-level system driven by a pulse that
starts near-resonant for small amplitudes, yielding nonadiabatic evolution, and
induces an adiabatic evolution for larger amplitudes. This problem is analyzed
in terms of lifting of degeneracy for rising amplitudes. It is solved exactly
for the case of linear and exponential rising. Approximate solutions are given
in the case of power law rising. This allows us to determine approximative
formulas for the lineshape of resonant excitation by various forms of pulses
such as truncated trig-pulses. We also analyze and explain the various
superpositions of states that can be obtained by the Half Stark Chirped Rapid
Adiabatic Passage (Half-SCRAP) process.Comment: 21 pages, 12 figure
Two-dimensional atom trapping in field-induced adiabatic potentials
We show how to create a novel two-dimensional trap for ultracold atoms from a conventional magnetic trap. We achieve this by utilizing rf-induced adiabatic potentials to enhance the trapping potential in one direction. We demonstrate the loading process and discuss the experimental conditions under which it might be possible to prepare a 2D Bose condensate. A scheme for the preparation of coherent matterwave bubbles is also discussed
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