Low Density Regime Research Articles

MeV-Proton Induced Effect on Mesophase Structure of Polyethylene Terephthalate

High crystalline polyethylene terephthalate (PET) microfibres were irradiated (at low energy density regime, De ~10 23 eV/cm) with 2.4 MeV proton beam at 3 different fluences: 1×10 p/cm,1×10 p/cm and 1×10 p/cm. Because of irradiation, the fibre gets amorphized from its highly crystalline state after passing through an intermediate mesophase stage. The mesophase of polymers is well studied using wide-angle X-ray scattering, small-angle X-ray scattering, FTRaman scattering and nuclear magnetic resonance techniques. In the present paper, ion (proton) induced mesophase structure of PET was observed. X-ray fiber diffraction was carried out by adopting a special fiber mounting technique and using a diffractometer having Bragg-Brentano parafocusing optics. The sample irradiated at the lowest fluence showed the maximum percentage (7.05%) of mesophase.

From atoms to steps: The microscopic origins of crystal evolution

The Burton–Cabrera–Frank (BCF) theory of crystal growth has been successful in describing a wide range of phenomena in surface physics. Typical crystal surfaces are slightly misoriented with respect to a facet plane; thus, the BCF theory views such systems as composed of staircase-like structures of steps separating terraces. Adsorbed atoms (adatoms), which are represented by a continuous density, diffuse on terraces, and steps move by absorbing or emitting these adatoms. Here we shed light on the microscopic origins of the BCF theory by deriving a simple, one-dimensional (1D) version of the theory from an atomistic, kinetic restricted solid-on-solid (KRSOS) model without external material deposition. We define the time-dependent adatom density and step position as appropriate ensemble averages in the KRSOS model, thereby exposing the non-equilibrium statistical mechanics origins of the BCF theory. Our analysis reveals that the BCF theory is valid in a low adatom-density regime, much in the same way that an ideal gas approximation applies to dilute gasses. We find conditions under which the surface remains in a low-density regime and discuss the microscopic origin of corrections to the BCF model.

Quantum Quenches and Work Distributions in Ultralow-Density Systems

We present results on quantum quenches in lattice systems with a fixed number of particles in a much larger number of sites. Both local and global quenches in this limit generically have power-law work distributions ("edge singularities"). We show that this regime allows for large edge singularity exponents beyond that allowed by the constraints of the usual thermodynamic limit. This large-exponent singularity has observable consequences in the time evolution, leading to a distinct intermediate power-law regime in time. We demonstrate these results first using local quantum quenches in a low-density Kondo-like system, and additionally through global and local quenches in Bose-Hubbard, Aubry-Andre, and hard-core boson systems at low densities.

Theoretical and experimental study of the role of cell-cell dipole interaction in dielectrophoretic devices: application to polynomial electrodes.

BackgroundWe aimed to investigate the effect of cell-cell dipole interactions in the equilibrium distributions in dielectrophoretic devices.MethodsWe used a three dimensional coupled Monte Carlo-Poisson method to theoretically study the final distribution of a system of uncharged polarizable particles suspended in a static liquid medium under the action of an oscillating non-uniform electric field generated by polynomial electrodes. The simulated distributions have been compared with experimental ones observed in the case of MDA-MB-231 cells in the same operating conditions.ResultsThe real and simulated distributions are consistent. In both cases the cells distribution near the electrodes is dominated by cell-cell dipole interactions which generate long chains.ConclusionsThe agreement between real and simulated cells’ distributions demonstrate the method’s reliability. The distribution are dominated by cell-cell dipole interactions even at low density regimes (105 cell/ml). An improved estimate for the density threshold governing the interaction free regime is suggested.

Hadron yield ratios in an effective relativistic equation of state

We investigate an effective relativistic equation of state at finite values of tem- perature and baryon chemical potential with the inclusion of the full octet of baryons, the Delta-isobars and the lightest pseudoscalar and vector meson degrees of freedom. These last particles have been introduced within a phenomenological approach by taking into account of an effective chemical potential and mass depending on the self-consistent interaction between baryons. In this framework, we study of the hadron yield ratios mea- sured in central heavy ion collisions over a broad energy range. It is well known that mesons play a crucial role in the hadronic Equation of State (EOS) especially in the regime of low baryon density and high temperature. Such particles are strongly interacting in the environment with the other particles. In this contribution, we are going to study an effective relativistic mean field model with the inclusion of the full octet of baryons, the Δ-isobars and the lightest pseudoscalar and vector mesons, by requiring the global conservation of baryon number, electric charge fraction and zero net strangeness. The meson degrees of freedom are incorporated in the EOS as a quasi-particle Bose gas with an effective meson chemical potential μ ∗ and an effective mass m ∗ expressed in terms of the σ, ω, ρ meson fields, responsible for the self-consistent mean field interaction (1). In this framework the hadron yield ratios have been studied and compared with the experimental ratios measured in central heavy ion collisions from AGS to RHIC energy range.

Modelling baryon acoustic oscillations with perturbation theory and stochastic halo biasing

Abstract In this work we investigate the generation of mock halo catalogues based on perturbation theory and non-linear stochastic biasing with the novel patchy code. In particular, we use Augmented Lagrangian Perturbation Theory (ALPT) to generate a dark matter density field on a mesh starting from Gaussian fluctuations and to compute the peculiar velocity field. ALPT is based on a combination of second order LPT (2LPT) on large scales and the spherical collapse model on smaller scales. We account for the systematic deviation of perturbative approaches from N-body simulations together with halo biasing adopting an exponential bias model. We then account for stochastic biasing by defining three regimes: a low-, an intermediate- and a high-density regime, using a Poisson distribution in the intermediate regime and the negative binomial distribution – including an additional parameter – to model over-dispersion in the high-density regime. Since we focus in this study on massive haloes, we suppress the generation of haloes in the low-density regime. The various non-linear and stochastic biasing parameters, and density thresholds, are calibrated with the large BigMultiDark N-body simulation to match the power spectrum of the corresponding halo population. Our model effectively includes only five parameters, as they are additionally constrained by the halo number density. Our mock catalogues show power spectra, in both real- and redshift-space, which are compatible with N-body simulations within about 2 per cent up to k ∼ 1 h Mpc−1 at z = 0.577 for a sample of haloes with the typical Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS) CMASS (constant stellar mass galaxy sample) galaxy number density. The corresponding correlation functions are compatible down to a few Mpc. We also find that neglecting over-dispersion in high-density regions produces power spectra with deviations of 10 per cent at k ∼ 0.4 h Mpc−1. These results indicate the need to account for an accurate statistical description of the galaxy clustering for precise studies of large-scale surveys.

Quantum efficiency affected by localized carrier distribution near the V-defect in GaN based quantum well

It is known that due to the formation of in-plane local energy barrier, V-defects can screen the carriers which non-radiatively recombine in threading dislocations (TDs) and hence, enhance the internal quantum efficiency in GaN based light-emitting diodes. By a theoretical modeling capable of describing the inhomogeneous carrier distribution near the V-defect in GaN based quantum wells, we show that the efficient suppression of non-radiative (NR) recombination via TD requires the local energy barrier height of V-defect larger than ∼80 meV. The NR process in TD combined with V-defect influences the quantum efficiency mainly in the low injection current density regime suitably described by the linear dependence of carrier density. We provide a simple phenomenological expression for the NR recombination rate based on the model result.

Suppression of the Aharonov-Bohm effect in hexagonal quantum rings

Few-electron states of AlAs-GaAs-AlAs hexagonal quantum rings pierced by an axial magnetic field are computed through full configuration interaction calculations. The quantum ring is in the low-density regime, populated with N = 1 up to N = 7 electrons. Similar to circular rings, the energy spectra of the hexagonal ones reflect an integer and fractional Aharonov-Bohm regular oscillation pattern for N = 1 and , respectively. Deviations from the regular fractional period with increasing electron density become apparent for larger N. Remarkably, for N = 6 the Aharonov-Bohm effect is completely suppressed. This is a unique symmetry-related feature of hexagonal rings that only can emerge in the low-density regime.

Investigation of laser ion acceleration in low-density targets using exploded foils

Intense research is being conducted into sources of laser-accelerated ions and their application. Particular attention is now given to the low-density regime of laser ion acceleration. In this regime, volume effects are expected to dominate, while for solid foils, ion acceleration is directly related to the electron surface density and the number of accelerated ions is limited. Simulations therefore show that it is possible to reach high ion energies with a high number of accelerated ions and a high conversion efficiency. This scheme also leads to less debris than solid foils and is more adapted to high repetition lasers. Due to the difficulty in generating short and dense gas jets experimentally, we have decided to study this regime using very thin foils exploded by a longer, lower intensity pulse. As this regime scales well with laser energy, experiments were recently performed with a high laser energy (∼180 J) on the LLNL Titan laser. A secondary long pulse laser was used to control the density profile of the target. Preliminary analysis suggests that, in this high-energy regime, protons of high energies and with good beam quality were obtained when exploding the foil. We present new simulation results exploring the laser ion acceleration mechanism in laser and plasma conditions close to those of these experiments. These results demonstrate that low-density targets are a promising candidate for an efficient proton source. This source can be optimized by choosing appropriate plasma conditions.

Experimental characterization of anomalous strong scattering of mm-waves in TEXTOR plasmas with rotating islands

Anomalous scattering of high power millimetre waves from gyrotrons at 140 and 110 GHz is investigated for plasma with rotating islands at TEXTOR. The magnetic field and plasma density influence the spectral content of the scattered waves and their power levels significantly. Anomalous strong scattering occurs in two density regimes, one at low densities and one at high densities, that also depend on the magnetic field. The two regimes are separated by a quiescent regime without anomalous scattering. Investigations suggest that scattering in the high-density regime is generated at the low-field side intersection of the gyrotron beam and the island position. The transition from the quiescent regime to the high-density regime occurs when the gyrotron frequency is twice the upper hybrid frequency at this position. There is some evidence that the scattering in the low-density regime is generated near the plasma centre. Under this assumption all the observed scattering is generated when the gyrotron frequency is near or below twice the upper hybrid frequency.

Chemical sputtering of graphite by low temperature nitrogen plasmas at various substrate temperatures and ion flux densities

We report measurements of chemical sputtering yields of graphite exposed to low temperature nitrogen plasmas. The influence of surface temperature and incoming ion energy on the sputtering yields has been investigated in two distinct ion flux density regimes. Sputtering yields grow consistently with increasing temperatures in experiments with low flux density (Γi≈1020 m−2s−1−1021 m−2s−1) and high flux density (Γi≈1023 m−2s−1). Moreover, empirical fitting of the data suggests that the temperature of 670 °C is optimal for chemical sputtering at high flux density. Negative biasing of the samples was used to vary the ion energy in the low flux density regime. The sputtering yield in this case increases from 0.07 atoms/ion for Ei = 1.5 eV to 0.19 atoms/ion for Ei = 35 eV. After taking into account the dependence of the yields on temperature and ion energy, we evidenced a flux dependence of sputtering, similar to that found for chemical sputtering of carbon by hydrogen.

Dark energy from cosmological fluids obeying a Shan-Chen nonideal equation of state

We consider a Friedmann-Robertson-Walker universe with a fluid source obeying a non-ideal equation of state with "asymptotic freedom," namely ideal gas behavior (pressure changes directly proportional to density changes) both at low and high density regimes, following a fluid dynamical model due to Shan and Chen. It is shown that, starting from an ordinary energy density component, such fluids naturally evolve towards a universe with a substantial "dark energy" component at the present time, with no need of invoking any cosmological constant. Moreover, we introduce a quantitative indicator of darkness abundance, which provides a consistent picture of the actual matter-energy content of the universe.

Shock ionization in the extended emission-line region of 3C 305: the last piece of the (optical) puzzle

We present new Gemini spectroscopical data of the Extended Emission-Line Region of 3C~305 radio galaxy in order to achieve the final answer of the long-standing question about the ionizing mechanism. The spectra show strong kinematic disturbances within the most intense line-emitting region. The relative intensities amongst the emission lines agree with the gas being shocked during the interaction of the powerful radio jets with the ambient medium. The emission from the recombination region acts as a very effective cooling mechanism, which is supported by the presence of a neutral outflow. However, the observed intensity is almost an order of magnitude lower than expected in a pure shock model. So auto-ionizing shock models, in low-density and low-abundance regime, are required in order to account for the observed emission within the region. This scenario also supports the hypothesis that the optical emitting gas and the X-ray plasma are in pressure balance.

Cosmological structure formation with augmented Lagrangian perturbation theory

AbstractWe present a new fast and efficient approach to model structure formation with augmented Lagrangian perturbation theory (ALPT). Our method is based on splitting the displacement field into a long- and a short-range component. The long-range component is computed by second-order LPT (2LPT). This approximation contains a tidal non-local and non-linear term. Unfortunately, 2LPT fails on small scales due to severe shell crossing and a crude quadratic behaviour in the low-density regime. The spherical collapse (SC) approximation has been recently reported to correct for both effects by adding an ideal collapse truncation. However, this approach fails to reproduce the structures on large scales where it is significantly less correlated with the N-body result than 2LPT or linear LPT (the Zel'dovich approximation). We propose to combine both approximations using for the short-range displacement field the SC solution. A Gaussian filter with a smoothing radius rS is used to separate between both regimes. We use the result of 25 dark-matter-only N-body simulations to benchmark at z = 0 the different approximations: first-, second-, third-order LPT, SC and our novel combined ALPT model. This comparison demonstrates that our method improves previous approximations at all scales showing ∼25 and ∼75 per cent higher correlation than 2LPT with the N-body solution at k = 1 and 2 h Mpc−1, respectively. We conduct a parameter study to determine the optimal range of smoothing radii and find that the maximum correlation is achieved with rS = 4–5 h−1 Mpc. This structure formation approach could be used for various purposes, such as setting-up initial conditions for N-body simulations, generating mock galaxy catalogues, cosmic web analysis or for reconstructions of the primordial density fluctuations.

Predicting the thermodynamics by using state-dependent interactions

We reconsider the structure-based route to coarse graining in which the coarse-grained model is defined in such a way to reproduce some distribution functions of the original system as accurately as possible. We consider standard expressions for pressure and chemical potential applied to this family of coarse-grained models with density-dependent interactions and show that they only provide approximations to the pressure and chemical potential of the underlying original system. These approximations are then carefully compared in two cases: we consider a generic microscopic system in the low-density regime and polymer solutions under good-solvent conditions. Moreover, we show that the state-dependent potentials depend on the ensemble in which they have been derived. Therefore, care must be used in applying canonical state-dependent potentials to predict phase lines, which is typically performed in other ensembles.

T-Matrix Approximation to Two-Dimensional Hubbard Model

The low-density regime of the two-dimensional Hubbard model has been investigated by the t-matrix approximation, i.e., by taking into account the particle-particle ladder processes represented in terms of particle-particle correlation function, K(q, x+iδ). The q-dependence of K(q, x+iδ) in the region of small x has been examined in detail and it is found that the imaginary part of self-energy function of electrons depends on excitation energy, ε, as ε2ln|ε| which are due to contributions involving K(q, x+iδ) with q≃2kF, kF being the fermi momentum. The existence of the upper Hubbard band for the case of large U has also been demonstrated.

Lieb's soliton-like excitations in harmonic traps

We study the solitonic Lieb II branch of excitations in the one-dimensional Bose gas in homogeneous and trapped geometry. Using Bethe-ansatz Lieb's equations we calculate the “effective number of atoms” and the “effective mass” of the excitation. The equations of motion of the excitation are defined by the ratio of these quantities. The frequency of oscillations of the excitation in a harmonic trap is calculated. It changes continuously from its “soliton-like” value in the high-density mean-field regime to in the low-density Tonks-Girardeau regime with the frequency of the harmonic trapping. Particular attention is paid to the effective mass of a soliton with velocity near the speed of sound.

Uniform electron gases. I. Electrons on a ring

We introduce a new paradigm for one-dimensional uniform electron gases (UEGs). In this model, n electrons are confined to a ring and interact via a bare Coulomb operator. We use Rayleigh-Schrödinger perturbation theory to show that, in the high-density regime, the ground-state reduced (i.e., per electron) energy can be expanded as ε(r(s),n)=ε0(n)r(s)(-2)+ε1(n)r(s)(-1)+ε2(n)+ε3(n)r(s+)⋯ , where r(s) is the Seitz radius. We use strong-coupling perturbation theory and show that, in the low-density regime, the reduced energy can be expanded as ε(r(s),n)=η0(n)r(s)(-1)+η1(n)r(s)(-3/2)+η2(n)r(s)(-2)+⋯ . We report explicit expressions for ε0(n), ε1(n), ε2(n), ε3(n), η0(n), and η1(n) and derive the thermodynamic (large-n) limits of each of these. Finally, we perform numerical studies of UEGs with n = 2, 3, [ellipsis (horizontal)], 10, using Hylleraas-type and quantum Monte Carlo methods, and combine these with the perturbative results to obtain a picture of the behavior of the new model over the full range of n and r(s) values.

Long wavelength gravity anomalies over India: Crustal and lithospheric structures and its flexure

Long wavelength gravity anomalies over India were obtained from terrestrial gravity data through two independent methods: (i) wavelength filtering and (ii) removing crustal effects. The gravity fields due to the lithospheric mantle obtained from two methods were quite comparable. The long wavelength gravity anomalies were interpreted in terms of variations in the depth of the lithosphere–asthenosphere boundary (LAB) and the Moho with appropriate densities, that are constrained from seismic results at certain points. Modeling of the long wavelength gravity anomaly along a N–S profile (77°E) suggest that the thickness of the lithosphere for a density contrast of 0.05g/cm3 with the asthenosphere is maximum of ∼190km along the Himalayan front that reduces to ∼155km under the southern part of the Ganga and the Vindhyan basins increasing to ∼175km south of the Satpura Mobile belt, reducing to ∼155–140km under the Eastern Dharwar craton (EDC) and from there consistently decreasing south wards to ∼120km under the southernmost part of India, known as Southern Granulite Terrain (SGT).The crustal model clearly shows three distinct terrains of different bulk densities, and thicknesses, north of the SMB under the Ganga and the Vindhyan basins, and south of it the Eastern Dharwar Craton (EDC) and the Southern Granulite Terrain (SGT) of bulk densities 2.87, 2.90 and 2.96g/cm3, respectively. It is confirmed from the exposed rock types as the SGT is composed of high bulk density lower crustal rocks and mafic/ultramafic intrusives while the EDC represent typical granite/gneisses rocks and the basement under the Vindhyan and Ganga basins towards the north are composed of Bundelkhand granite massif of the lower density. The crustal thickness along this profile varies from ∼37–38km under the EDC, increasing to ∼40–45km under the SGT and ∼40–42km under the northern part of the Ganga basin with a bulge up to ∼36km under its southern part. Reduced lithospheric and crustal thicknesses under the Vindhyan and the Ganga basins are attributed to the lithospheric flexure of the Indian plate due to Himalaya. Crustal bulge due to lithospheric flexure is well reflected in isostatic Moho based on flexural model of average effective elastic thickness of ∼40km. Lithospheric flexure causes high heat flow that is aided by large crustal scale fault system of mobile belts and their extensions northwards in this section, which may be responsible for lower crustal bulk density in the northern part. A low density and high thermal regime in north India north of the SMB compared to south India, however does not conform to the high S-wave velocity in the northern part and thus it is attributed to changes in composition between the northern and the southern parts indicating a reworked lithosphere. Some of the long wavelength gravity anomalies along the east and the west coasts of India are attributed to the intrusives that caused the breakup of India from Antarctica, and Africa, Madagascar and Seychelles along the east and the west coasts of India, respectively.

Landau levels, edge states, and magnetoconductance in GaAs/AlGaAs core-shell nanowires

Magnetic states of the electron gas confined in modulation-doped core-shell nanowires are calculated for a transverse field of arbitrary strength and orientation. Magnetoconductance is predicted within the Landauer approach. The modeling takes fully into account the radial material modulation, the prismatic symmetry, and the doping profile of realistic GaAs/AlGaAs devices within an envelope-function approach, and electron-electron interaction is included in a mean-field self-consistent approach. Calculations show that in the low free-carrier density regime, magnetic states can be described in terms of Landau levels and edge states, similar to planar two-dimensional electron gases in a Hall bar. However, at higher carrier density, the dominating electron-electron interaction leads to a strongly inhomogeneous localization at the prismatic heterointerface. This gives rise to a complex band dispersion, with local minima at finite values of the longitudinal wave vector, and a region of negative magnetoresistance. The predicted marked anisotropy of the magnetoconductance with field direction is a direct probe of the inhomogeneous electron gas localization of the conductive channel induced by the prismatic geometry.