Physics Commons^™

Cooperative Self-Propulsion Of Active And Passive Rotors, Yaouen Fily, Aparna Baskaran, M. Cristina Marchetti

Physics - All Scholarship

Using minimal models for low Reynolds number passive and active rotors in a fluid, we characterize the hydrodynamic interactions among rotors and the resulting dynamics of a pair of interacting rotors. This allows us to treat in a common framework passive or externally driven rotors, such as magnetic colloids driven by a rotating magnetic field, and active or internally driven rotors, such as sperm cells confined at boundaries. The hydrodynamic interaction of passive rotors contains an azimuthal component 1/r2 to dipolar order that can yield the recently discovered “cooperative self-propulsion” of a pair of rotors of opposite vorticity. While this …

Motor-Driven Dynamics Of Cytoskeletal Filaments In Motility Assays, Shiladitya Banerjee, M. Cristina Marchetti, Kristian Muller-Nedebock

Physics - All Scholarship

We model analytically the dynamics of a cytoskeletal filament in a motility assay. The filament is described as rigid rod free to slide in two dimensions. The motor proteins consist of polymeric tails tethered to the plane and modeled as linear springs and motor heads that bind to the filament. As in related models of rigid and soft two-state motors, the binding/unbinding dynamics of the motor heads and the dependence of the transition rates on the load exerted by the motor tails play a crucial role in controlling the filament's dynamics. Our work shows that the filament effectively behaves as …

Polar Patterns In Active Fluids, Luca Giomi, M. Cristina Marchetti

Physics - All Scholarship

We study the spatio-temporal dynamics of a model of polar active fluid in two dimensions. The system exhibits a transition from an isotropic to a polarized state as a function of density. The uniform polarized state is, however, unstable above a critical value of activity. Upon increasing activity, the active fluids displays increasingly complex patterns, including traveling bands, traveling vortices and chaotic behavior. The advection arising from the particles self-propulsion and unique to polar fluids yields qualitatively new behavior as compared to that obtain in active nematic, yielding traveling-wave structures. We show that the nonlinear hydrodynamic equations can be mapped …

Dynamical Critical Scaling And Effective Thermalization In Quantum Quenches: Role Of The Initial State, Shusa Deng, Gerardo Ortiz, Lorenza Viola

Dartmouth Scholarship

We explore the robustness of universal dynamical scaling behavior in a quantum system near criticality with respect to initialization in a large class of states with finite energy. By focusing on a homogeneous XY quantum spin chain in a transverse field, we characterize the nonequilibrium response under adiabatic and sudden quench processes originating from a pure as well as a mixed excited initial state, and involving either a regular quantum critical or a multicritical point. We find that the critical exponents of the ground-state quantum phase transition can be encoded in the dynamical scaling exponents despite the finite energy of …

Superlattice Ultrasonic Generation, Thomas E. Wilson, M. Oehme, E. Kasper, H-J. L. Gossmann

Physics Faculty Research

We report the first experimental evidence for the resonant excitation of coherent high-frequency acoustic phonons in semiconducting doping superstructures by far-infrared laser radiation. After a grating-coupled delta-doped silicon doping superlattice is illuminated with ~1 kW/mm² nanosecond-pulsed 246 GHz laser radiation, a delayed nanosecond pulse is detected by a superconducting bolometer at a time corresponding to the appropriate time-of-flight for ballistic longitudinal acoustic phonons across the (100) silicon substrate. The absorbed phonon power density in the microbolometer is observed to be ~10 μW/mm², in agreement with theory. The phonon pulse duration also matches the laser pulse duration. The …

Pauli Spin Blockade And Lifetime-Enhanced Transport In A Si/Sige Double Quantum Dot, C. B. Simmons, Teck Seng Koh, Nakul Shaji, Madhu Thalakulam, L. J. Klein, Hua Qin, H. Luo, D. E. Savage, M. G. Lagally, A. J. Rimberg

Dartmouth Scholarship

We analyze electron-transport data through a Si/SiGe double quantum dot in terms of spin blockade and lifetime-enhanced transport (LET), which is transport through excited states that is enabled by long spin-relaxation times. We present a series of low-bias voltage measurements showing the sudden appearance of a strong tail of current that we argue is an unambiguous signature of LET appearing when the bias voltage becomes greater than the singlet-triplet splitting for the (2,0) electron state. We present eight independent data sets, four in the forward-bias (spin-blockade) regime and four in the reverse-bias (lifetime-enhanced transport) regime and show that all eight …

Instabilities And Oscillations In Isotropic Active Gels, Shiladitya Banerjee, M. Cristina Marchetti

Physics - All Scholarship

We present a generic formulation of the continuum elasticity of an isotropic crosslinked active gel. The gel is described by a two-component model consisting of an elastic network coupled frictionally to a permeating fluid. Activity is induced by active crosslinkers that undergo an ATP-activated cycle and transmit forces to the network. The on/off dynamics of the active crosslinkers is described via rate equations for unbound and bound motors. For large activity motors yield a contractile instability of the network. At smaller values of activity, the on/off motor dynamics provides an effective inertial drag on the network that opposes elastic restoring …

The Trilinear Hamiltonian: A Zero-Dimensional Model Of Hawking Radiation From A Quantized Source, Paul D. Nation, Miles P. Blencowe

Dartmouth Scholarship

We investigate a quantum parametric amplifier with dynamical pump mode, viewed as a zero-dimensional model of Hawking radiation from an evaporating black hole. We derive the conditions under which the spectrum of particles generated from vacuum fluctuations deviates from the thermal spectrum predicted for the conventional parametric amplifier. We find that significant deviations arise when the pump mode (black hole) has emitted nearly half of its initial energy into the signal (Hawking radiation) and idler (in-falling particle) modes. As a model of black hole dynamics, this finding lends support to the view that late-time Hawking radiation contains information about the …

Fluctuations And Pattern Formation In Self-Propelled Particles, Shradha Mishra, Aparna Baskaran, M. Cristina Marchetti

Physics - All Scholarship

We consider a coarse-grained description of a system of self-propelled particles given by hydrodynamic equations for the density and polarization fields. We find that the ordered moving or flocking state of the system is unstable to spatial fluctuations beyond a threshold set by the self-propulsion velocity of the individual units. In this region, the system organizes itself into an inhomogeneous state of well-defined propagating stripes of flocking particles interspersed with low density disordered regions. Further, we find that even in the regime where the homogeneous flocking state is stable, the system exhibits large fluctuations in both density and orientational order. …

Paraboloidal Crystals, Mark Bowick, Luca Giomi

Physics - All Scholarship

The interplay between order and geometry in soft condensed matter systems is an active field with many striking results and even more open problems. Ordered structures on curved surfaces appear in multi-electron helium bubbles, viral and bacteriophage protein capsids, colloidal self-assembly at interfaces and in physical membranes. Spatial curvature can lead to novel ground state configurations featuring arrays of topological defects that would be excited states in planar systems. We illustrate this with a sequence of images showing the Voronoi lattice (in gold) and the corresponding Delaunay triangulations (in green) for ten low energy configurations of a system of classical …

Equilibrium States Of A Test Particle Coupled To Finite-Size Heat Baths, Qun Wei, S. Taylor Smith, Roberto Onofrio

Dartmouth Scholarship

We report on numerical simulations of the dynamics of a test particle coupled to competing Boltzmann heat baths of finite size. After discussing some features of the single bath case, we show that the presence of two heat baths further constrains the conditions necessary for the test particle to thermalize with the heat baths. We find that thermalization is a spectral property in which the oscillators of the bath with frequencies in the range of the test particle characteristic frequency determine its degree of thermalization. We also find an unexpected frequency shift of the test particle response with respect to …

Nonequilibrium Statistical Mechanics Of Self-Propelled Hard Rods, Aparna Baskaran, M. Cristina Marchetti

Physics - All Scholarship

Using tools of nonequilibirum mechanics, we study a model of self-propelled hard rods on a substrate in two dimensions to quantify the interplay of self-propulsion and excluded-volume effects. We derive of a Smoluchowski equation for the configurational probability density of self-propelled rods that contains several modifications as compared to the familiar Smoluchowski equation for thermal rods. As a side-product of out work, we also present a purely dynamical derivation of the Onsager form of the mean field excluded volume interaction among thermal hard rods.

Sheared Active Fluids: Thickening, Thinning And Vanishing Viscosity, Luca Giomi, Tanniemola B. Liverpool, M. Cristina Marchetti

Physics - All Scholarship

We analyze the behavior of a suspension of active polar particles under shear. In the absence of external forces, orientationally ordered active particles are known to exhibit a transition to a state of non-uniform polarization and spontaneous flow. Such a transition results from the interplay between elastic stresses, due to the liquid crystallinity of the suspension, and internal active stresses. In the presence of an external shear we find an extremely rich variety of phenomena, including an effective reduction (increase) in the apparent viscosity depending on the nature of the active stresses and the flow-alignment property of the particles, as …

Damping And Decoherence Of A Nanomechanical Resonator Due To A Few Two-Level Systems, Laura G. Remus, Miles P. Blencowe, Yukihiro Tanaka

Dartmouth Scholarship

We consider a quantum model of a nanomechanical flexing beam resonator interacting with a bath comprising a few damped tunneling two-level systems. In contrast with a resonator interacting bilinearly with an ohmic free oscillator bath (modeling clamping loss, for example), the mechanical resonator damping is amplitude dependent, while the decoherence of quantum superpositions of mechanical position states depends only weakly on their spatial separation.

Dynamical Non-Ergodic Scaling In Continuous Finite-Order Quantum Phase Transitions, S. Deng, G. Ortiz, L. Viola

Dartmouth Scholarship

We investigate the emergence of universal dynamical scaling in quantum critical spin systems adiabatically driven out of equilibrium, with emphasis on quench dynamics which involves non-isolated critical points (i.e., critical regions) and cannot be a priori described through standard scaling arguments nor time-dependent perturbative approaches. Comparing to the case of an isolated quantum critical point, we find that non-equilibrium scaling behavior of a large class of physical observables may still be explained in terms of equilibrium critical exponents. However, the latter are in general non-trivially path-dependent, and detailed knowledge about the time-dependent excitation process becomes essential. In particular, …

Decoherence In Semiconductor Solid-State Quantum Computers, Diego Valente

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In this dissertation we discuss decoherence in charge qubits formed by multiple lateral quantum dots in the framework of the spin-boson model and the Born-Markov approximation. We consider the intrinsic decoherence caused by the coupling to bulk phonon modes and electromagnetic environmental fluctuations. In the case of decoherence caused by phonon coupling, two distinct quantum dot configurations are studied and proposed as setups that mitigate its nocive effects : (i) Three quantum dots in a ring geometry with one excess electron in total and (ii) arrays of quantum dots where the computational basis states form multipole charge configurations. For the …

Comment On "On The Theory Of Nuclear Resonant Forward Scattering Of Synchrotron Radiation", Gilbert R. Hoy, Jos Odeurs

Physics Faculty Publications

Recently, in a paper by Kohn and Smirnov, a formula previously derived by Kagan et al. was developed to explain the forward scattering of gamma radiation by a nuclear-resonant sample excited by pulsed synchrotron radiation. Their derivation followed, directly, a procedure developed by Heitler, Harris, and Hoy. Previously, a completely different formula was developed by Hoy et al. to explain the same process. As a result, Kohn and Smirnov discuss the correctness and validity of the two models. In this Comment a detailed numerical comparison of the two theories has also been made. It is shown that their comparison is …

Probing The Quantum Coherence Of A Nanomechanical Resonator Using A Superconducting Qubit: Ii. Implementation, M. P. Blencowe, A. D. Armour

Dartmouth Scholarship

We describe a possible implementation of the nanomechanical quantum superposition generation and detection scheme described in the preceding, companion paper (Armour A D and Blencowe M P 2008 New. J. Phys. 10 095004). The implementation is based on the circuit quantum electrodynamics (QED) set-up, with the addition of a mechanical degree of freedom formed out of a suspended, doubly-clamped segment of the superconducting loop of a dc SQUID located directly opposite the centre conductor of a coplanar waveguide (CPW). The relative merits of two SQUID based qubit realizations are addressed, in particular a capacitively coupled charge qubit and inductively coupled …

Probing The Quantum Coherence Of A Nanomechanical Resonator Using A Superconducting Qubit: I. Echo Scheme, A. D. Armour, M. P. Blencowe

Dartmouth Scholarship

We propose a scheme in which the quantum coherence of a nanomechanical resonator can be probed using a superconducting qubit. We consider a mechanical resonator coupled capacitively to a Cooper pair box and assume that the superconducting qubit is tuned to the degeneracy point so that its coherence time is maximized and the electro-mechanical coupling can be approximated by a dispersive Hamiltonian. When the qubit is prepared in a superposition of states, this drives the mechanical resonator progressively into a superposition which in turn leads to apparent decoherence of the qubit. Applying a suitable control pulse to the qubit allows …

Quantum Analysis Of A Nonlinear Microwave Cavity-Embedded Dc Squid Displacement Detector, P. D. Nation, M. P. Blencowe, E. Buks

Dartmouth Scholarship

We carry out a quantum analysis of a dc superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID) mechanical displacement detector, comprising a SQUID with mechanically compliant loop segment, which is embedded in a microwave transmission line resonator. The SQUID is approximated as a nonlinear current-dependent inductance, inducing an external flux tunable nonlinear Duffing self-interaction term in the microwave resonator mode equation. Motion of the compliant SQUID loop segment is transduced inductively through changes in the external flux threading SQUID loop, giving a ponderomotive radiation pressure-type coupling between the microwave and mechanical resonator modes. Expressions are derived for the detector signal response and noise, …

Mechanical Response Of Active Gels, Tanniemola B. Liverpool, M. Cristina Marchetti, J-F. Joanny, J. Prost

Physics - All Scholarship

We study a model of an active gel of cross-linked semiflexible filaments with additional active linkers such as myosin II clusters. We show that the coupling of the elasticity of the semiflexible filaments to the mechanical properties of the motors leads to contractile behavior of the gel, in qualitative agreement with experimental observations. The motors, however, soften the zero frequency elastic constant of the gel. When the collective motor dynamics is incorporated in the model, a stiffening of the network at high frequencies is obtained. The frequency controlling the crossover between low and high frequency network elasticity is estimated in …

Thermodynamical Approaches To Efficient Sympathetic Cooling In Ultracold Fermi-Bose Atomic Mixtures, Michael Brown-Hayes, Qun Wei, Carlo Presilla, Roberto Onofrio

Dartmouth Scholarship

We discuss the cooling efficiency of ultracold Fermi-Bose mixtures in species-selective traps using a thermodynamical approach. The dynamics of evaporative cooling trajectories is analyzed in the specific case of bichromatic optical dipole traps also taking into account the effect of partial spatial overlap between the Fermi gas and the thermal component of the Bose gas. We show that large trapping frequency ratios between the Fermi and the Bose species allow for the achievement of a deeper Fermi degeneracy, consolidating in a thermodynamic setting earlier arguments based on more restrictive assumptions. In particular, we confirm that the minimum temperature of the …

Enhanced Diffusion And Ordering Of Self-Propelled Rods, Aparna Baskaran, M. Cristina Marchetti

Physics - All Scholarship

Starting from a minimal physical model of self propelled hard rods on a substrate in two dimensions, we derive a modified Smoluchowski equation for the system. Self -propulsion enhances longitudinal diffusion and modifies the mean field excluded volume interaction. From the Smoluchowski equation we obtain hydrodynamic equations for rod concentration, polarization and nematic order parameter. New results at large scales are a lowering of the density of the isotropic-nematic transition and a strong enhancement of boundary effects in confined self-propelled systems.

Complex Spontaneous Flows And Concentration Banding In Active Polar Films, Luca Giomi, M. Cristina Marchetti, Tanniemola B. Liverpool

Physics - All Scholarship

We study the dynamical properties of active polar liquid crystalline films. Like active nematic films, active polar films undergo a dynamical transitions to spontaneously flowing steady-states. Spontaneous flow in polar fluids is, however, always accompanied by strong concentration inhomogeneities or "banding" not seen in nematics. In addition, a spectacular property unique to polar active films is their ability to generate spontaneously oscillating and banded flows even at low activity. The oscillatory flows become increasingly complicated for strong polarity.

Structural Identification Of Cubic Iron-Oxide Nanocrystal Mixtures: X-Ray Powder Diffraction Versus Quasi-Kinematic Transmission Electron Microscopy, Peter Moeck

Physics Faculty Publications and Presentations

Two novel (and proprietary) strategies for the structural identification of a nanocrystal from either a single high-resolution (HR) transmission electron microscopy (TEM) image or a single precession electron diffraction pattern are proposed and their advantages discussed in comparison to structural fingerprinting from powder X-ray diffraction patterns. Simulations for cubic magnetite and maghemite nanocrystals are used as examples.

Poisson-Bracket Approach To The Dynamics Of Bent-Core Molecules, William Kung, M. Cristina Marchetti

Physics - All Scholarship

We generalize our previous work on the phase stability and hydrodynamic of polar liquid crystals possessing local uniaxial

C1v-symmetry to biaxial systems exhibiting local C2v -symmetry. Our work is motivated by the recently discovered examples of thermotropic biaxial nematic liquid crystals comprising bent-core mesogens, whose molecular structure is characterized by a non-polar body axis (n) as well as a polar axis (p) along the bisector of the bent mesogenic core which is coincident with a large, transverse dipole moment. The free energy for this system differs from that of biaxial nematic liquid crystals in that it contains terms violating the …

Mode-Locking In Driven Disordered Systems As A Boundary-Value Problem, William Kung, M. Cristina Marchetti

Physics - All Scholarship

We study mode-locking in disordered media as a boundary-value problem. Focusing on the simplest class of mode-locking models which consists of a single driven overdamped degree-of-freedom, we develop an analytical method to obtain the shape of the Arnol'd tongues in the regime of low ac-driving amplitude or high ac-driving frequency. The method is exact for a scalloped pinning potential and easily adapted to other pinning potentials. It is complementary to the analysis based on the well-known Shapiro's argument that holds in the perturbative regime of large driving amplitudes or low driving frequency, where the effect of pinning is weak.

Depinning And Plasticity Of Driven Disordered Lattices, M. Cristina Marchetti

Physics - All Scholarship

We review in these notes the dynamics of extended condensed matter systesm, such as vortex lattices in type-II superconductors and charge density waves in anisotropic metals, driven over quenched disorder. We focus in particular on the case of strong disorder, where topological defects are generated in the driven lattice. In this case the repsonse is plastic and the depinning transition may become discontinuous and hysteretic.

Driven Depinning Of Strongly Disordered Media And Anisotropic Mean-Field Limits, M. Cristina Marchetti, Alan Middleton, Karl Saunders, J. M. Schwarz

Physics - All Scholarship

Extended systems driven through strong disorder are modeled generically using coarse-grained degrees of freedom that interact elastically in the directions parallel to the driving force and that slip along at least one of the directions transverse to the motion. A realization of such a model is a collection of elastic channels with transverse viscous couplings. In the infinite range limit this model has a tricritical point separating a region where the depinning is continuous, in the universality class of elastic depinning, from a region where depinning is hysteretic. Many of the collective transport models discussed in the literature are special …

Mean Field Theory Of Collective Transport With Phase Slips, Karl Saunders, J. M. Schwarz, M. Cristina Marchetti, Alan Middleton

Physics - All Scholarship

The driven transport of plastic systems in various disordered backgrounds is studied within mean field theory. Plasticity is modeled using non-convex interparticle potentials that allow for phase slips. This theory most naturally describes sliding charge density waves; other applications include flow of colloidal particles or driven magnetic flux vortices in disordered backgrounds. The phase diagrams exhibit generic phases and phase boundaries, though the shapes of the phase boundaries depend on the shape of the disorder potential. The phases are distinguished by their velocity and coherence: the moving phase generically has finite coherence, while pinned states can be coherent or incoherent. …