Self-consistent Mean-field Approximation Research Articles

Optical bistability in two-dimensional nonlinear composites of coated cylinders with nonlinear core and graded shell

The intrinsic optical bistability of the nonlinear composite consisting of coated cylinders with nonlinear core and graded Drude shell is investigated with self-consistent mean-field approximation. We derive the nonlinear equation of near field for such graded composite in the quasistatic limit. We demonstrate that the bistability threshold and the bistable width are highly dependent on the core radius, the incident frequency, and the graded coefficient of the coated cylinder inclusion. It is found that the optical bistability appears only when the core radius and the incident frequency satisfy some specific conditions. Therefore, the optical bistability for nonlinear composite materials may be optimized by the suitable adjustment of the physical and geometrical parameters. Our results may be helpful for the design of the nonlinear device with appropriate bistability.

QCD phase diagram in chiral imbalance with self-consistent mean field approximation

We employ a new self-consistent mean field approximation of NJL model, which introduces a free parameter $\alpha$ ($\alpha$ reflects the weight of different interaction channels), to study the effects of the chiral chemical potential $\mu_5$ on QCD phase structure, especially the location of the QCD critical end point (CEP). We find that, at a high temperature, the critical temperature of QCD phase transition smoothly increases with $\mu_5$ at the beginning, and then decreases rapidly. At low temperature and high baryon density region, the increase of the chiral chemical potential will reduce the critical chemical potential of phase transition. The temperature of the CEP shows a non-monotonic dependence on the chiral chemical potential with a long plateau around the maximum. At $\mu_5=0$, we found that the CEP will disappear when the $\alpha$ value is larger than 0.71 and will reappear when the $\mu_5$ increases. This study is important for exploring the QCD phase structure and the location of CEP in chiral imbalanced systems.

Do current astronomical observations exclude the existence of nonstrange quark stars?

As is pointed out in a recent work (Phys. Rev. Lett. 120, 222001), quark matter may not be strange. Inspired by this argument, we use a new self-consistent mean field approximation method to study the equation of state of cold dense matter within the framework of the two-flavor NJL model. Then the mass-radius relationship of two-flavor pure quark stars is studied. In the new self-consistent mean field approximation method we introduced, there is a free parameter $\alpha$, which reflects the weight of different interaction channels. In principal, $\alpha$ should be determined by experiments rather than the self-consistent mean field approximation itself. In this paper, thus, the influence of the variation of $\alpha$ on the critical chemical potential of chiral phase transition and the stiffness of the EOS are thoroughly explored. It is found that the stiffness of EOS can be increased greatly to support a two-solar-mass pure quark star when $\alpha$ is greater than 0.95. This means that current theoretical calculations and astronomical observations cannot rule out the possibility of a two-flavor pure quark star.

Novel self-consistent mean field approximation and its application in strong interaction phase transitions * * Supported in part by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (11690030, 11475085, 11535005) and National Major state Basic Research and Development of China (2016YFE0129300)

We propose a novel self-consistent mean field approximation method by means of a Fierz transformation, taking the Nambu-Jona-Lasinio model as an example. This new self-consistent mean field approximation introduces a new free parameter α to be determined experimentally. When α assumes the value of 0.5, the approximation reduces to the mean field calculation commonly used in the past. Subsequently, we study the influence of the undetermined parameter α on the phase diagram of the two-flavor strong interaction matter. The value of α plays a crucial role in the strong interaction phase diagram, as it not only changes the position of the phase transition point of strong interaction matter, but also affects the order of the phase transition. For example, when α is greater than the critical value , then the strong interaction matter phase diagram no longer has a critical end point. In addition, in the case of zero temperature and finite density, we found that when α > 1.044, the pseudo-critical chemical potential corresponds to ~4–5 times the saturation density of the nuclear matter, which agrees with the expected results from the picture of the hadrons degree of freedom. The resulting equations of state of strong interaction matter at low temperatures and high densities will have an important impact on studies concerning the mass radius relationship of neutron stars and the merging process of binary neutron stars.

Assessment of the Linearized GW Density Matrix for Molecules.

The GW approximation is well-known for the calculation of high-quality ionization potentials and electron affinities in solids and molecules. Recently, it has been identified that the density matrix that is obtained from the contraction of the GW Green's function allows one to include Feynman diagrams that are significant for the ionization potentials. However, the Green's function contains much more information than the mere quasi-particle energies. Here, we test and assess the quality of this so-called linearized GW density matrix for several molecular properties. First of all, we extend the original formulation to perform the linearization starting from any self-consistent mean-field approximation, and not only from Hartree-Fock. We then demonstrate the reliability and the stability of the linearized GW density matrix to evaluate the total energy out of a non-self-consistent GW calculation. Based on a comprehensive benchmark of 34 molecules, we compare the quality of the electronic density, Hartree energy, exchange energy, and the Fock operator expectation values against other well-established techniques. In particular, we show that the obtained linearized GW densities markedly differ from those calculated within the widespread quasi-particle self-consistent GW approximation.

Canonical pair condensation in a flat-band BCS superconductor

The standard approach of the Bardeen–Cooper–Schrieffer (BCS) theory of superconductivity is to introduce a self-consistent mean-field approximation, and a variational ansatz for the many-body ground state. The resulting mean-field Hamiltonian no longer commutes with the total number operator, and the variational search takes place in Fock space rather than in a Hilbert space of states with fixed number of particles. This is a disadvantage when studying small systems where the canonical ensemble predictions differ from the corresponding grand-canonical results. To remedy this, alternative approaches such as Richardson’s method have been put forward. Here, we derive the exact many-body ground state of a model Hamiltonian corresponding to the deep-BCS or flat-band regime, without having to resort to Richardson’s set of coupled nonlinear equations. This allows to write the exact many-body ground state in a way that makes the difference with the BCS variational wave function particularly clear. We show that the exact wave function consists of a superposition of many-pair states in such a way that the mean-field averaging corresponds to a summation over these many-pair states. This explains why many expectation values calculated with the BCS variational wave function give the same result as when calculated with the exact wave function, even though these wave functions are different. In the canonical (fixed-number) approach, pairing is investigated using the second-order reduced density matrix and calculating its largest eigenvalue. When interpreted as the order parameter of the superconducting state, this can be compared directly to the behavior of the mean-field gap. Finally, we show that a clear difference between the canonical approach and the BCS grand canonical estimates appears when evaluating pair condensate fluctuations as well as the pair entanglement entropy.

The equation of state of dark matter superfluids

We derive the finite-temperature equation of state of dark matter superfluids with 2-body and 3-body contact interactions. The latter case is relevant to a recently proposed model of dark matter superfluidity that unifies the collisionless aspects of dark matter with the empirical success of MOdified Newtonian Dynamics at fitting galactic rotation curves. The calculation uses a self-consistent mean-field approximation. It relies on the Hartree-Fock-Bogoliubov approximation and follows the Yukalov-Yukalova proposal to circumvent the well-known Hohenberg-Martin dilemma. The resulting equation of state is consistent with a gapless spectrum, and simultaneously satisfies the condition for thermodynamic equilibrium. As an application, we derive the finite-temperature density profile for dark matter superfluids, assuming spherical symmetry and uniform temperature. The density profiles consist of a nearly homogeneous superfluid core, surrounded by an isothermal “atmosphere” of normal particles, with the transition taking place at the critical density.

Finite-temperature correlations in a two-dimensional electron gas within a dynamical self-consistent mean-field approximation

We have studied the effect of temperature on density-density correlations in a two-dimensional quantum electron gas by using the dynamical Singwi-Tosi-Land-Sjölander (STLS) theory. Static correlation functions viz. structure factor S(q; T), pair-correlation function g(r; T), and static density susceptibility χ(q, 0; T) are calculated over a wide range of temperature and electron density. The inclusion of the dynamics of correlations is found to cause a strong peak in S(q; T) at q ∼ 2.5kF for low densities. Correspondingly, there develops a sharp peak in χ(q, 0; T) that diverges below a critical density. This divergence is interpreted as a precursor of transition to finite-temperature Wigner crystal state. Rise in temperature tends to oppose the crystallization, with critical transition density decreasing with temperature. It is rather found that the dynamical correction to the conventional (static) STLS theory becomes small at a sufficiently high temperature. We have also calculated the plasmon dispersion for the GaAs quantum well based electron system and found that, except at ultra-low densities, agreement with the experimental data of Hirjibehedin et al. is reasonably good. Our results show a red shift in plasmon frequency over the predictions of the STLS and dynamical Hubbard approaches.

Broadened region for robust optical bistability in a nonlocal core and Kerr shell nanoparticle.

With the self-consistent mean field approximation in the framework of full-wave nonlocal scattering theory, we carry out a theoretical study on the optical bistability in a nonlocal nanoparticle coated with a Kerr-type nonlinear shell. A nonlocality-enhanced Fano profile is found in its scattering spectrum. We demonstrate the nonlocality-broadened bistable region in the geometrical parameter space. We perform the investigation of the nonlinear dependences of the near-field intensity and far-field scattering on the incident wavelength and find the input-wavelength-controllable as well as the input-field-intensity-controllable scattering. We check the stability of the nonlinear steady states and perform its temporal dynamical evolutions.

Bistable near field and bistable transmittance in 2D composite slab consisting of nonlocal core-Kerr shell inclusions.

We carry out a theoretical study on optical bistability of near field intensity and transmittance in two-dimensional nonlinear composite slab. This kind of 2D composite is composed of nonlocal metal/Kerr-type dielectric core-shell inclusions randomly embedded in the host medium, and we derivate the nonlinear relation between the field intensity in the shell of inclusions and the incident field intensity with self-consistent mean field approximation. Numerical demonstration has been performed to show the viable parameter space for the bistable near field. We show that nonlocality can provide broader region in geometric parameter space for bistable near field as well as bistable transmittance of the nonlocal composite slab compared to local case. Furthermore, we investigate the bistable transmittance in wavelength spectrum, and find that besides the input intensity, the wavelength operation could as well make the transmittance jump from a high value to a low one. This kind of self-tunable nano-composite slab might have potential application in optical switching devices.

Pair entanglement in dimerized spin-schains

We examine the pair entanglement in the ground state of finite dimerized spin-$s$ chains interacting through anisotropic $XY$ couplings immersed in a transverse magnetic field by means of a self-consistent pair mean-field approximation. The approach, which makes no a priori assumptions on the pair states, predicts, for sufficiently low coupling between pairs, $2s$ distinct dimerized phases for increasing fields below the pair factorizing field, separated by spin-parity-breaking phases. The dimerized phases lead to approximate magnetization and pair entanglement plateaus, while the parity-breaking phases are characterized by weak pair entanglement but non-negligible entanglement of the pair with the rest of the system. These predictions are confirmed by the exact results obtained in finite $s=1$ and $s=3/2$ chains. It is also shown that for increasing values of the spin $s$, the entanglement of an isolated pair, as measured by the negativity, rapidly saturates in the anisotropic $XY$ case but increases as ${s}^{1/2}$ in the $XX$ case, reflecting a distinct single-spin entanglement spectrum.

Structural evolution inA≈100nuclei within the mapped interacting boson model based on the Gogny energy density functional

The structure of even-even neutron-rich Ru, Mo, Zr and Sr nuclei in the $A\approx 100$ mass region is studied within the interacting boson model (IBM) with microscopic input from the self-consistent mean-field approximation based on the Gogny-D1M energy density functional. The deformation energy surface in the quadrupole deformation space $(\beta,\gamma)$, computed within the constrained Hartree-Fock-Bogoliubov framework, is mapped onto the expectation value of the appropriately chosen IBM Hamiltonian with configuration mixing in the boson condensate state. The mapped IBM Hamiltonian is used to study the spectroscopic properties of $^{98-114}$Ru, $^{96-112}$Mo, $^{94-110}$Zr and $^{92-108}$Sr. Several cases of $\gamma$-soft behavior are predicted in Ru and Mo nuclei while a pronounced coexistence between strongly-prolate and weakly-oblate deformed shapes is found for Zr and Sr nuclei. The method describes well the evolution of experimental yrast and non-yrast states as well as selected $B$(E2) transition probabilities.

Effects of order parameter self-consistency in as±−sjunction

The properties of Josephson tunneling between a single band s-wave superconductor and a two band $s_\pm$ superconductor are studied, in relation to recent experiments involving iron-based superconductors. We study a single junction and tune the order parameter (OP) phase difference across the junction. We find a variety of behaviors which are characterized by their energy-phase difference relation. The system is modeled on a lattice and treated in self-consistent mean field approximation. We also study a loop structure made with s-wave and $s_\pm$ parts with two junctions between the parts. The phase of the order parameter is then controlled by a magnetic flux threading the loop. Our analysis suggests four types of junction behaviors which are characterized by the dependence of the junction energy on the phase difference between the s-wave and the $s_\pm$ superconductors. The energy vs. phase difference curve has either one minimum at $\Delta\phi = 0,\pi$ or somewhere in between, or a double minimum structure. This leads to four different behaviors in a loop structure as a function of the flux threaded through the loop.

Genesis of electroweak and dark matter scales from a bilinear scalar condensate

The condensation of scalar bilinear in a classically scale invariant strongly interacting hidden sector is used to generate the electroweak scale, where the excitation of the condensate is identified as dark matter. We formulate an effective theory for the condensation of the scalar bilinear and find in the self-consistent mean field approximation that the dark matter mass is of $O(1)$ TeV with the spin-independent elastic cross section off the nucleon slightly below the LUX upper bound.

Optical bistability in a nonlinear-shell-coated metallic nanoparticle.

We provide a self-consistent mean field approximation in the framework of Mie scattering theory to study the optical bistability of a metallic nanoparticle coated with a nonlinear shell. We demonstrate that the nanoparticle coated with a weakly nonlinear shell exhibits optical bistability in a broad range of incident optical intensity. This optical bistability critically relies on the geometry of the shell-coated nanoparticle, especially the fractional volume of the metallic core. The incident wavelength can also affect the optical bistability. Through an optimization-like process, we find a design with broader bistable region and lower threshold field by adjusting the size of the nonlinear shell, the fractional volume of the metallic core, and the incident wavelength. These results may find potential applications in optical bistable devices such as all-optical switches, optical transistors and optical memories.

Clusterized nuclear matter in the (proto-)neutron star crust and the symmetry energy

Though generally agreed that the symmetry energy plays a dramatic role in determining the structure of neutron stars and the evolution of core-collapsing supernovae, little is known in what concerns its value away from normal nuclear matter density and, even more important, the correct definition of this quantity in the case of unhomogeneous matter. Indeed, nuclear matter traditionally addressed by mean-field models is uniform while clusters are known to exist in the dilute baryonic matter which constitutes the main component of compact objects outer shells. In the present work we investigate the meaning of symmetry energy in the case of clusterized systems and the sensitivity of the proto-neutron star composition and equation of state to the effective interaction. To this aim an improved Nuclear Statistical Equilibrium (NSE) model is developed, where the same effective interaction is consistently used to determine the clusters and unbound particles energy functionals in the self-consistent mean-field approximation. In the same framework, in-medium modifications to the cluster energies due to the presence of the nuclear gas are evaluated. We show that the excluded volume effect does not exhaust the in-medium effects and an extra isospin and density dependent energy shift has to be considered to consistently determine the composition of subsaturation stellar matter. The symmetry energy of diluted matter is seen to depend on the isovector properties of the effective interaction, but its behavior with density and its quantitative value are strongly modified by clusterization.

Independently Tunable Coupled Electron Quantum Layers

In the recent years, coupled electron quantum layers have gained considerable theoretical and experimental attention due to the existence of various new interesting phenomena. In the present work, we investigate the effects of independently tunable layer density on pair-correlation function of coupled electron layers at zero-temperature and zero-magnetic field. The quantum or dynamical version of self-consistent mean-field approximation of Singwi, Tosi, Land and Sjölander (qSTLS) is used to study the intralayer and interlayer pair-correlation functions, gll(r) and g12(r), over a wide range of density parameter rsl and interlayer spacing d. The pronounced oscillatory behaviour in g22(r) has been found at critical density with sufficiently lower interlayer spacing d. To find the resultant effects of independently tunable layer density on the intralayer and interlayer pair-correlation functions, we have compared our results with that of the recent dependently tunable coupled electron quantum layers and single electron quantum layer.

Quantum Monte Carlo studies of edge magnetism in chiral graphene nanoribbons

We investigate chiral graphene nanoribbons using projective quantum Monte Carlo simulations within the local Hubbard model description and study the effects of electron-electron interactions on the electronic and magnetic properties at the ribbon edges. Static and dynamical properties are analyzed for nanoribbons of varying width and edge chirality, and compared to a self-consistent Hartee-Fock mean-field approximation. Our results show that for chiral ribbons of sufficient width, the spin correlations exhibit exceedingly long correlation lengths, even between zigzag segments that are well separated by periodic armchair regions. Characteristic enhancements in the magnetic correlations for distinct ribbon widths and chiralities are associated with energy gaps in the tight-binding limit of such ribbons. We identify specific signatures in the local density of states and low- energy modes in the local spectral function which directly relate to enhanced electronic correlations along graphene nanoribbons and which can be accessed scanning tunneling spectroscopy.

Periodic ordering of clusters in a one-dimensional lattice model.

A generic lattice model for systems containing particles interacting with short-range attraction long-range repulsion (SALR) potential that can be solved exactly in one dimension is introduced. We assume attraction J1 between the first neighbors and repulsion J2 between the third neighbors. The ground state of the model shows existence of two homogeneous phases (gas and liquid) for J2/J1 <1/3. In addition to the homogeneous phases, the third phase with periodically distributed clusters appears for J2/J1 > 1/3. Phase diagrams obtained in the self-consistent mean-field approximation for a range of values of J2/J1 show very rich behavior, including reentrant melting, and coexistence of two periodic phases (one with strong and the other one with weak order) terminated at a critical point. We present exact solutions for the equation of state as well as for the correlation function for characteristic values of J2/J1. Based on the exact results, for J2/J1 > 1/3 we predict pseudo-phase transitions to the ordered cluster phase indicated by a rapid change of density for a very narrow range of pressure, and by a very large correlation length for thermodynamic states where the periodic phase is stable in mean field. For 1/9 < J2/J1 < 1/3 the correlation function decays monotonically below certain temperature, whereas above this temperature exponentially damped oscillatory behavior is obtained. Thus, even though macroscopic phase separation is energetically favored and appears for weak repulsion at T = 0, local spatial inhomogeneities appear for finite T. Monte Carlo simulations in canonical ensemble show that specific heat has a maximum for low density ρ that we associate with formation of living clusters, and if the repulsion is strong, another maximum for ρ = 1/2.

Gene Expression in Self-repressing System with Multiple Gene Copies

We analyze a simple model of a self-repressing system with multiple gene copies. Protein molecules may bound to DNA promoters and block their own transcription. We derive analytical expressions for the variance of the number of protein molecules in the stationary state in the self-consistent mean-field approximation. We show that the Fano factor (the variance divided by the mean value) is bigger for the one-gene case than for two gene copies and the difference decreases to zero as frequencies of binding and unbinding increase to infinity.