The electronic structure of amorphous silica: A numerical study

We present a computational study of the electronic properties of amorphous SiO2. The ionic configurations used are the ones generated by an earlier molecular dynamics simulations in which the system was cooled with different cooling rates from the liquid state to a glass, thus giving access to glass-like configurations with different degrees of disorder [Phys. Rev. B 54, 15808 (1996)]. The electronic structure is described by a tight-binding Hamiltonian. We study the influence of the degree of disorder on the density of states, the localization properties, the optical absorption, the nature of defects within the mobility gap, and on the fluctuations of the Madelung potential, where the disorder manifests itself most prominently. The experimentally observed mismatch between a photoconductivity threshold of 9 eV and the onset of the optical absorption around 7 eV is interpreted by the picture of eigenstates localized by potential energy fluctuations in a mobility gap of approximately 9 eV and a density of states that exhibits valence and conduction band tails which are, even in the absence of defects, deeply located within the former band gap.Comment: 21 pages of Latex, 5 eps figure

Fracture Mechanics-Based Simulation of PV Module Delamination

Photovoltaic (PV) cells are rapidly growing as a renewable alternative to fossil fuels like coal, oil, and natural gas. However, greater adoption has also reduced government subsidies, placing the onus of making solar panels economically competitive on innovative research. While multiple methods have been considered for reducing costs, with each reduction in cost comes the associated peril of reduction in quality and useful lifetime. Several problems considered solved have now resurfaced as potential failure mechanisms with the introduction of cheaper PV cell technologies. However, to remain economically viable, PV modules will not only have to become cheaper, they will have to maintain 25-year lifetimes. To help predict the impact of design changes on PV module lifetimes, we designed a software tool that models the growth of delamination, one of the most common pathways to failure within a PV module. We use a simplified model of a PV cell, examining the stress and strain distributions in a vertical slice of a representative cell, and have based our code on pre-existing fracture mechanics software that simulates crack propagation in plane stress or plane strain using the finite volume method (FVM). This simplification of a real PV cell is expected to allow researchers to identify effective material candidates more quickly and cheaply

Spectra of magnetic perturbations triggered by pellets in JET plasmas

Aiming at investigating edge localised mode (ELM) pacing for future application on ITER, experiments have been conducted on JET injecting pellets in different plasma configurations, including high confinement regimes with type-I and type-III ELMs, low confinement regimes and Ohmically heated plasmas. The magnetic perturbations spectra and the toroidal mode number, n, of triggered events are compared with those of spontaneous ELMs using a wavelet analysis to provide good time resolution of short-lived coherent modes. It is found that—in all these configurations—triggered events have a coherent mode structure, indicating that pellets can trigger an MHD event basically in every background plasma. Two components have been found in the magnetic perturbations induced by pellets, with distinct frequencies and toroidal mode numbers. In high confinement regimes triggered events have similarities with spontaneous ELMs: both are seen to start from low toroidal mode numbers, then the maximum measured n increases up to about 10 within 0.3 ms before the ELM burst

From the discrete to the continuous - towards a cylindrically consistent dynamics

Discrete models usually represent approximations to continuum physics. Cylindrical consistency provides a framework in which discretizations mirror exactly the continuum limit. Being a standard tool for the kinematics of loop quantum gravity we propose a coarse graining procedure that aims at constructing a cylindrically consistent dynamics in the form of transition amplitudes and Hamilton's principal functions. The coarse graining procedure, which is motivated by tensor network renormalization methods, provides a systematic approximation scheme towards this end. A crucial role in this coarse graining scheme is played by embedding maps that allow the interpretation of discrete boundary data as continuum configurations. These embedding maps should be selected according to the dynamics of the system, as a choice of embedding maps will determine a truncation of the renormalization flow.Comment: 22 page

Three-Dimensional Quantum Percolation Studied by Level Statistics

Three-dimensional quantum percolation problems are studied by analyzing energy level statistics of electrons on maximally connected percolating clusters. The quantum percolation threshold \pq, which is larger than the classical percolation threshold \pc, becomes smaller when magnetic fields are applied, i.e., \pq(B=0)>\pq(B\ne 0)>\pc. The critical exponents are found to be consistent with the recently obtained values of the Anderson model, supporting the conjecture that the quantum percolation is classified onto the same universality classes of the Anderson transition. Novel critical level statistics at the percolation threshold is also reported.Comment: to appear in the May issue of J. Phys. Soc. Jp

Electron Impact Ionization Close to the Threshold: Classical Calculations

In this paper we present Classical Trajectory Monte Carlo (CTMC) calculations for single and multiple electron ionization of Argon atoms and ions in the threshold region. We are able to recover the Wannier exponents a for the power-law behavior of the cross section s versus excess energy: the exact value of the exponent as well as the existence of its saturation for multiple ionization appear to be related to how the total binding energy is shared between target electrons.Comment: 9 pages. To be published in Journal of Physics

Einstein gravity as a 3D conformally invariant theory

We give an alternative description of the physical content of general relativity that does not require a Lorentz invariant spacetime. Instead, we find that gravity admits a dual description in terms of a theory where local size is irrelevant. The dual theory is invariant under foliation preserving 3-diffeomorphisms and 3D conformal transformations that preserve the 3-volume (for the spatially compact case). Locally, this symmetry is identical to that of Horava-Lifshitz gravity in the high energy limit but our theory is equivalent to Einstein gravity. Specifically, we find that the solutions of general relativity, in a gauge where the spatial hypersurfaces have constant mean extrinsic curvature, can be mapped to solutions of a particular gauge fixing of the dual theory. Moreover, this duality is not accidental. We provide a general geometric picture for our procedure that allows us to trade foliation invariance for conformal invariance. The dual theory provides a new proposal for the theory space of quantum gravity.Comment: 27 pages. Published version (minor changes and corrections

Equivalent Fixed-Points in the Effective Average Action Formalism

Starting from a modified version of Polchinski's equation, Morris' fixed-point equation for the effective average action is derived. Since an expression for the line of equivalent fixed-points associated with every critical fixed-point is known in the former case, this link allows us to find, for the first time, the analogous expression in the latter case.Comment: 30 pages; v2: 29 pages - major improvements to section 3; v3: published in J. Phys. A - minor change