Specific heats of quantum double-well systems

Specific heats of quantum systems with symmetric and asymmetric double-well potentials have been calculated. In numerical calculations of their specific heats, we have adopted the combined method which takes into account not only eigenvalues of $\epsilon_n$ for $0 \leq n \leq N_m$ obtained by the energy-matrix diagonalization but also their extrapolated ones for $N_m+1 \leq n < \infty$ ($N_m=20$ or 30). Calculated specific heats are shown to be rather different from counterparts of a harmonic oscillator. In particular, specific heats of symmetric double-well systems at very low temperatures have the Schottky-type anomaly, which is rooted to a small energy gap in low-lying two-level eigenstates induced by a tunneling through the potential barrier. The Schottky-type anomaly is removed when an asymmetry is introduced into the double-well potential. It has been pointed out that the specific-heat calculation of a double-well system reported by Feranchuk, Ulyanenkov and Kuz'min [Chem. Phys. 157, 61 (1991)] is misleading because the zeroth-order operator method they adopted neglects crucially important off-diagonal contributions.Comment: 27 pages, 12 figures; Correted figure numbers (accepted in Phys. Rev. E

Specific heat and entropy of NN-body nonextensive systems

We have studied finite $N$-body $D$-dimensional nonextensive ideal gases and harmonic oscillators, by using the maximum-entropy methods with the $q$- and normal averages ($q$: the entropic index). The validity range, specific heat and Tsallis entropy obtained by the two average methods are compared. Validity ranges of the $q$- and normal averages are $0 q_L$, respectively, where $q_U=1+(\eta DN)^{-1}$, $q_L=1-(\eta DN+1)^{-1}$ and $\eta=1/2$ ($\eta=1$) for ideal gases (harmonic oscillators). The energy and specific heat in the $q$- and normal averages coincide with those in the Boltzmann-Gibbs statistics, % independently of $q$, although this coincidence does not hold for the fluctuation of energy. The Tsallis entropy for $N |q-1| \gg 1$ obtained by the $q$-average is quite different from that derived by the normal average, despite a fairly good agreement of the two results for $|q-1 | \ll 1$. It has been pointed out that first-principles approaches previously proposed in the superstatistics yield $additive$ $N$-body entropy ($S^{(N)}= N S^{(1)}$) which is in contrast with the $nonadditive$ Tsallis entropy.Comment: 27 pages, 8 figures: augmented the tex

Continuous Transition of Defect Configuration in a Deformed Liquid Crystal Film

We investigate energetically favorable configurations of point disclinations in nematic films having a bump geometry. Gradual expansion in the bump width {\Delta} gives rise to a sudden shift in the stable position of the disclinations from the top to the skirt of the bump. The positional shift observed across a threshold {\Delta}th obeys a power law function of |{\Delta}-{\Delta}th|, indicating a new class of continuous phase transition that governs the defect configuration in curved nematic films.Comment: 8pages, 3figure

Superconductivity of Quasi-One-Dimensional Electrons in Strong Magnetic Field

The superconductivity of quasi-one-dimensional electrons in the magnetic field is studied. The system is described as the one-dimensional electrons with no frustration due to the magnetic field. The interaction is assumed to be attractive between electrons in the nearest chains, which corresponds to the lines of nodes of the energy gap in the absence of the magnetic field. The effective interaction depends on the magnetic field and the transverse momentum. As the magnetic field becomes strong, the transition temperature of the spin-triplet superconductivity oscillates, while that of the spin-singlet increases monotonically.Comment: 15 pages, RevTeX, 3 PostScript figures in uuencoded compressed tar file are appende

Numerical Methods for Stochastic Differential Equations

Stochastic differential equations (sdes) play an important role in physics but existing numerical methods for solving such equations are of low accuracy and poor stability. A general strategy for developing accurate and efficient schemes for solving stochastic equations in outlined here. High order numerical methods are developed for integration of stochastic differential equations with strong solutions. We demonstrate the accuracy of the resulting integration schemes by computing the errors in approximate solutions for sdes which have known exact solutions

Recombination kinetics of a dense electron-hole plasma in strontium titanate

We investigated the nanosecond-scale time decay of the blue-green light emitted by nominally pure SrTiO$_3$ following the absorption of an intense picosecond laser pulse generating a high density of electron-hole pairs. Two independent components are identified in the fluorescence signal that show a different dynamics with varying excitation intensity, and which can be respectively modeled as a bimolecular and unimolecolar process. An interpretation of the observed recombination kinetics in terms of interacting electron and hole polarons is proposed