1,709 research outputs found
Interplay between shear loading and structural aging in a physical gel
We show that the aging of the mechanical relaxation of a gelatin gel exhibits
the same scaling phenomenology as polymer and colloidal glasses. Besides,
gelatin is known to exhibit logarithmic structural aging (stiffening). We find
that stress accelerates this process. However, this effect is definitely
irreducible to a mere age shift with respect to natural aging. We suggest that
it is interpretable in terms of elastically-aided elementary (coilhelix)
local events whose dynamics gradually slows down as aging increases geometric
frustration
Activated sampling in complex materials at finite temperature: the properly-obeying-probability activation-relaxation technique
While the dynamics of many complex systems is dominated by activated events,
there are very few simulation methods that take advantage of this fact. Most of
these procedures are restricted to relatively simple systems or, as with the
activation-relaxation technique (ART), sample the conformation space
efficiently at the cost of a correct thermodynamical description. We present
here an extension of ART, the properly-obeying-probability ART (POP-ART), that
obeys detailed balance and samples correctly the thermodynamic ensemble.
Testing POP-ART on two model systems, a vacancy and an interstitial in
crystalline silicon, we show that this method recovers the proper
thermodynamical weights associated with the various accessible states and is
significantly faster than MD in the diffusion of a vacancy below 700 K.Comment: 10 pages, 3 figure
Thermodynamics of the Spin Luttinger-Liquid in a Model Ladder Material
The phase diagram in temperature and magnetic field of the metal-organic,
two-leg, spin-ladder compound (C5H12N)2CuBr4 is studied by measurements of the
specific heat and the magnetocaloric effect. We demonstrate the presence of an
extended spin Luttinger-liquid phase between two field-induced quantum critical
points and over a broad range of temperature. Based on an ideal spin-ladder
Hamiltonian, comprehensive numerical modelling of the ladder specific heat
yields excellent quantitative agreement with the experimental data across the
complete phase diagram.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, updated refs and minor changes to the text,
version accepted for publication in Phys. Rev. Let
Magnetic properties of (VO)_2P_2O_7: two-plane structure and spin-phonon interactions
Detailed experiments on single-crystal (VO)_2P_2O_7 continue to reveal new
and unexpected features. We show that a model composed of two, independent
planes of spin chains with frustrated magnetic coupling is consistent with
nuclear magnetic resonance and inelastic neutron scattering measurements. The
pivotal role of PO_4 groups in mediating intrachain exchange interactions
explains both the presence of two chain types and their extreme sensitivity to
certain lattice vibrations, which results in the strong magnetoelastic coupling
observed by light scattering. We compute the respective modifications of the
spin and phonon dynamics due to this coupling, and illustrate their observable
consequences on the phonon frequencies, magnon dispersions, static
susceptibility and specific heat.Comment: 10 pages, 9 figure
Physics of the Insulating Phase in the Dilute Two-Dimensional Electron Gas
We propose to use the radio-frequency single-electron transistor as an
extremely sensitive probe to detect the time-periodic ac signal generated by
sliding electron lattice in the insulating state of the dilute two-dimensional
electron gas. We also propose to use the optically-pumped NMR technique to
probe the electron spin structure of the insulating state. We show that the
electron effective mass and spin susceptibility are strongly enhanced by
critical fluctuations of electron lattice in the vicinity of the
metal-insulator transition, as observed in experiment.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures, uses jetpl.cls (included). v.4: After publication
in JETP Letters, two plots comparing theory and experiment are added, and a
minor error is correcte
Self-organization with equilibration: a model for the intermediate phase in rigidity percolation
Recent experimental results for covalent glasses suggest the existence of an
intermediate phase attributed to the self-organization of the glass network
resulting from the tendency to minimize its internal stress. However, the exact
nature of this experimentally measured phase remains unclear. We modify a
previously proposed model of self-organization by generating a uniform sampling
of stress-free networks. In our model, studied on a diluted triangular lattice,
an unusual intermediate phase appears, in which both rigid and floppy networks
have a chance to occur, a result also observed in a related model on a Bethe
lattice by Barre et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 94, 208701 (2005)]. Our results for
the bond-configurational entropy of self-organized networks, which turns out to
be only about 2% lower than that of random networks, suggest that a
self-organized intermediate phase could be common in systems near the rigidity
percolation threshold.Comment: 9 pages, 6 figure
Magnetic Properties of (VO)_2P_2O_7 from Frustrated Interchain Coupling
Neutron-scattering experiments on (VO)_2P_2O_7 reveal both a gapped magnon
dispersion and an unexpected, low-lying second mode. The proximity and
intensity of these modes suggest a frustrated coupling between the alternating
spin chains. We deduce the minimal model containing such a frustration, and
show that it gives an excellent account of the magnon dispersion, static
susceptibility and electron spin resonance absorption. We consider two-magnon
states which bind due to frustration, and demonstrate that these may provide a
consistent explanation for the second mode.Comment: RevTeX, 5 pages, 6 figures, compressed from first versio
Self-organized criticality in the intermediate phase of rigidity percolation
Experimental results for covalent glasses have highlighted the existence of a
new self-organized phase due to the tendency of glass networks to minimize
internal stress. Recently, we have shown that an equilibrated self-organized
two-dimensional lattice-based model also possesses an intermediate phase in
which a percolating rigid cluster exists with a probability between zero and
one, depending on the average coordination of the network. In this paper, we
study the properties of this intermediate phase in more detail. We find that
microscopic perturbations, such as the addition or removal of a single bond,
can affect the rigidity of macroscopic regions of the network, in particular,
creating or destroying percolation. This, together with a power-law
distribution of rigid cluster sizes, suggests that the system is maintained in
a critical state on the rigid/floppy boundary throughout the intermediate
phase, a behavior similar to self-organized criticality, but, remarkably, in a
thermodynamically equilibrated state. The distinction between percolating and
non-percolating networks appears physically meaningless, even though the
percolating cluster, when it exists, takes up a finite fraction of the network.
We point out both similarities and differences between the intermediate phase
and the critical point of ordinary percolation models without
self-organization. Our results are consistent with an interpretation of recent
experiments on the pressure dependence of Raman frequencies in chalcogenide
glasses in terms of network homogeneity.Comment: 20 pages, 18 figure
Structure of 12Be: intruder d-wave strength at N=8
The breaking of the N=8 shell-model magic number in the 12Be ground state has
been determined to include significant occupancy of the intruder d-wave
orbital. This is in marked contrast with all other N=8 isotones, both more and
less exotic than 12Be. The occupancies of the 0 hbar omega neutron p1/2-orbital
and the 1 hbar omega, neutron d5/2 intruder orbital were deduced from a
measurement of neutron removal from a high-energy 12Be beam leading to bound
and unbound states in 11Be.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figure
Search for the \pi Resonance in Two Particle Tunneling Experiments of YBCO Superconductors
A recent theory of the resonant neutron scattering peaks in YBCO
superconductors predicts the existence of a sharp spin triplet two particle
collective mode (the ``\pi resonance") in the normal state. In this paper, we
propose an experiment in which the \pi resonance could be probed directly in a
two particle tunneling measurement.Comment: 10 pages, LATEX , 3 ps figure
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