514 research outputs found

    Collective dynamics of fermion clouds in cigar-shaped traps

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    The propagation of zero sound in a spin-polarized Fermi gas under harmonic confinement is studied as a function of the mean-field interactions with a second Fermi gas. A local-density treatment is compared with the numerical solution of the Vlasov-Landau equations for the propagation of density distortions in a trapped two-component Fermi gas at temperature T=0.2 Tf. The response of the gas to the sudden creation of a sharp hole at its centre is also studied numerically.Comment: 15 pages, 6 figure

    Time-dependent linear response of an inhomogeneous Bose superfluid: Microscopic theory and connection to current-density functional theory

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    The dynamics of a confined fluid of Bose atoms is treated within the linear response regime, with a view to establishing a current-density functional formalism for an inhomogeneous superfluid state. After evaluating in full detail a simplified case of an external coupling to the density and phase of the condensate, the theory is extended to include the coupling to the total current density. The Kohn-Sham response functions of the condensate and all the exchange-correlation kernels for the superfluid are introduced from the microscopic equations of motion and are expressed in a physically transparent way through functional derivatives of correlation functions. A microscopic formula for the superfluid density is derived and used to introduce a generalized hydrodynamic approach for a weakly inhomogeneous two-fluid model in isothermal conditions. Local-density expressions are thereby derived for the velocities of first and second sound in the weakly inhomogeneous superfluid and for visco-elastic functions describing the transition from the hydrodynamic to the collisionless regime. Landau's hydrodynamic theory and known results in Green's functions language are recovered in the limiting case of a homogeneous superfluid.Comment: 25 pages, no figures, Postscript fil

    Explicit finite-difference and direct-simulation-MonteCarlo method for the dynamics of mixed Bose-condensate and cold-atom clouds

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    We present a new numerical method for studying the dynamics of quantum fluids composed of a Bose-Einstein condensate and a cloud of bosonic or fermionic atoms in a mean-field approximation. It combines an explicit time-marching algorithm, previously developed for Bose-Einstein condensates in a harmonic or optical-lattice potential, with a particle-in-cell MonteCarlo approach to the equation of motion for the one-body Wigner distribution function in the cold-atom cloud. The method is tested against known analytical results on the free expansion of a fermion cloud from a cylindrical harmonic trap and is validated by examining how the expansion of the fermionic cloud is affected by the simultaneous expansion of a condensate. We then present wholly original calculations on a condensate and a thermal cloud inside a harmonic well and a superposed optical lattice, by addressing the free expansion of the two components and their oscillations under an applied harmonic force. These results are discussed in the light of relevant theories and experiments.Comment: 33 pages, 13 figures, 1 tabl

    Possible origins of macroscopic left-right asymmetry in organisms

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    I consider the microscopic mechanisms by which a particular left-right (L/R) asymmetry is generated at the organism level from the microscopic handedness of cytoskeletal molecules. In light of a fundamental symmetry principle, the typical pattern-formation mechanisms of diffusion plus regulation cannot implement the "right-hand rule"; at the microscopic level, the cell's cytoskeleton of chiral filaments seems always to be involved, usually in collective states driven by polymerization forces or molecular motors. It seems particularly easy for handedness to emerge in a shear or rotation in the background of an effectively two-dimensional system, such as the cell membrane or a layer of cells, as this requires no pre-existing axis apart from the layer normal. I detail a scenario involving actin/myosin layers in snails and in C. elegans, and also one about the microtubule layer in plant cells. I also survey the other examples that I am aware of, such as the emergence of handedness such as the emergence of handedness in neurons, in eukaryote cell motility, and in non-flagellated bacteria.Comment: 42 pages, 6 figures, resubmitted to J. Stat. Phys. special issue. Major rewrite, rearranged sections/subsections, new Fig 3 + 6, new physics in Sec 2.4 and 3.4.1, added Sec 5 and subsections of Sec

    Acoustic and optical variations during rapid downward motion episodes in the deep north-western Mediterranean Sea

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    An Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler (ADCP) was moored at the deep-sea site of the ANTARES neutrino telescope near Toulon, France, thus providing a unique opportunity to compare high-resolution acoustic and optical observations between 70 and 170 m above the sea bed at 2475 m. The ADCP measured downward vertical currents of magnitudes up to 0.03 m s-1 in late winter and early spring 2006. In the same period, observations were made of enhanced levels of acoustic reflection, interpreted as suspended particles including zooplankton, by a factor of about 10 and of horizontal currents reaching 0.35 m s-1. These observations coincided with high light levels detected by the telescope, interpreted as increased bioluminescence. During winter 2006 deep dense-water formation occurred in the Ligurian subbasin, thus providing a possible explanation for these observations. However, the 10-20 days quasi-periodic episodes of high levels of acoustic reflection, light and large vertical currents continuing into the summer are not direct evidence of this process. It is hypothesized that the main process allowing for suspended material to be moved vertically later in the year is local advection, linked with topographic boundary current instabilities along the rim of the 'Northern Current'.Comment: 30 pages, 7 figure

    Model-independent search for CP violation in D0→K−K+π−π+ and D0→π−π+π+π− decays

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    A search for CP violation in the phase-space structures of D0 and View the MathML source decays to the final states K−K+π−π+ and π−π+π+π− is presented. The search is carried out with a data set corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 1.0 fb−1 collected in 2011 by the LHCb experiment in pp collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 7 TeV. For the K−K+π−π+ final state, the four-body phase space is divided into 32 bins, each bin with approximately 1800 decays. The p-value under the hypothesis of no CP violation is 9.1%, and in no bin is a CP asymmetry greater than 6.5% observed. The phase space of the π−π+π+π− final state is partitioned into 128 bins, each bin with approximately 2500 decays. The p-value under the hypothesis of no CP violation is 41%, and in no bin is a CP asymmetry greater than 5.5% observed. All results are consistent with the hypothesis of no CP violation at the current sensitivity

    Search for the lepton-flavor-violating decays Bs0→e±Ό∓ and B0→e±Ό∓

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    A search for the lepton-flavor-violating decays Bs0→e±Ό∓ and B0→e±Ό∓ is performed with a data sample, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 1.0  fb-1 of pp collisions at √s=7  TeV, collected by the LHCb experiment. The observed number of Bs0→e±Ό∓ and B0→e±Ό∓ candidates is consistent with background expectations. Upper limits on the branching fractions of both decays are determined to be B(Bs0→e±Ό∓)101  TeV/c2 and MLQ(B0→e±Ό∓)>126  TeV/c2 at 95% C.L., and are a factor of 2 higher than the previous bounds

    BB flavour tagging using charm decays at the LHCb experiment

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    An algorithm is described for tagging the flavour content at production of neutral BB mesons in the LHCb experiment. The algorithm exploits the correlation of the flavour of a BB meson with the charge of a reconstructed secondary charm hadron from the decay of the other bb hadron produced in the proton-proton collision. Charm hadron candidates are identified in a number of fully or partially reconstructed Cabibbo-favoured decay modes. The algorithm is calibrated on the self-tagged decay modes B+→J/ψ K+B^+ \to J/\psi \, K^+ and B0→J/ψ K∗0B^0 \to J/\psi \, K^{*0} using 3.0 fb−13.0\mathrm{\,fb}^{-1} of data collected by the LHCb experiment at pppp centre-of-mass energies of 7 TeV7\mathrm{\,TeV} and 8 TeV8\mathrm{\,TeV}. Its tagging power on these samples of B→J/ψ XB \to J/\psi \, X decays is (0.30±0.01±0.01)%(0.30 \pm 0.01 \pm 0.01) \%.Comment: All figures and tables, along with any supplementary material and additional information, are available at http://lhcbproject.web.cern.ch/lhcbproject/Publications/LHCbProjectPublic/LHCb-PAPER-2015-027.htm

    Branching fraction and CP asymmetry of the decays B+→K0Sπ+ and B+→K0SK+

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    An analysis of B+ → K0 Sπ+ and B+ → K0 S K+ decays is performed with the LHCb experiment. The pp collision data used correspond to integrated luminosities of 1 fb−1 and 2 fb−1 collected at centre-ofmass energies of √ s = 7 TeV and √ s = 8 TeV, respectively. The ratio of branching fractions and the direct CP asymmetries are measured to be B(B+ → K0 S K+ )/B(B+ → K0 Sπ+ ) = 0.064 ± 0.009 (stat.) ± 0.004 (syst.), ACP(B+ → K0 Sπ+ ) = −0.022 ± 0.025 (stat.) ± 0.010 (syst.) and ACP(B+ → K0 S K+ ) = −0.21 ± 0.14 (stat.) ± 0.01 (syst.). The data sample taken at √ s = 7 TeV is used to search for B+ c → K0 S K+ decays and results in the upper limit ( fc · B(B+ c → K0 S K+ ))/( fu · B(B+ → K0 Sπ+ )) < 5.8 × 10−2 at 90% confidence level, where fc and fu denote the hadronisation fractions of a ÂŻb quark into a B+ c or a B+ meson, respectively
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