The method of collective variables: a link with the density functional theory

Recently, based on the method of collective variables the statistical field theory for multicomponent inhomogeneous systems was formulated [O. Patsahan, I. Mryglod, J.-M. Caillol, Journal of Physical Studies, 2007, 11, 133]. In this letter we establish a link between this approach and the classical density functional theory for inhomogeneous fluids.Comment: 6 page

Spatiotemporal pattern formation in a three-variable CO oxidation reaction model

The spatiotemporal pattern formation is studied in the catalytic carbon monoxide oxidation reaction that takes into account the diffusion processes over the Pt(110) surface, which may contain structurally different areas. These areas are formed during CO-induced transition from a reconstructed phase with $1\times2$ geometry of the overlayer to a bulk-like ($1\times1$) phase with square atomic arrangement. Despite the CO oxidation reaction being non-autocatalytic, we have shown that the analytic conditions of the existence of the Turing and the Hopf bifurcations can be satisfied in such systems. Thus, the system may lose its stability in two ways --- either through the Hopf bifurcation leading to the formation of temporal patterns in the system or through the Turing bifurcation leading to the formation of regular spatial patterns. At a simultaneous implementation of both scenarios, spatiotemporal patterns for CO and oxygen coverages are obtained in the system.Comment: 11 pages, 6 figures, 1 tabl

A mesoscopic field theory of ionic systems versus a collective variable approach

We establish a link between the two functional approaches: a mesoscopic field theory developed recently by A.Ciach and G.Stell [A. Ciach and G. Stell, J. Mol. Liq. 87 (2000) 253] for the study of ionic models and an exact statistical field theory based on the method of collective variables.Comment: 7 page

A simple ansatz for the study of velocity autocorrelation functions in fluids at different timescales

A simple ansatz for the study of velocity autocorrelation functions in fluids at different timescales is proposed. The ansatz is based on an effective summation of the infinite continued fraction at a reasonable assumption about convergence of relaxation times of the higher order memory functions, which have a purely kinetic origin. The VAFs obtained within our approach are compared with the results of the Markovian approximation for memory kernels. It is shown that although in the "overdamped" regime both approaches agree to a large extent at the initial and intermediate times of the system evolution, our formalism yields power law relaxation of the VAFs which is not observed at the description with a finite number of the collective modes. Explicit expressions for the transition times from kinetic to hydrodynamic regimes are obtained from the analysis of the singularities of spectral functions in the complex frequency plane.Comment: 14 pages, 2 figure

XY Spin Fluid in an External Magnetic Field

A method of integral equations is developed to study inhomogeneous fluids with planar spins in an external field. As a result, the calculations for these systems appear to be no more difficult than those for ordinary homogeneous liquids. The approach proposed is applied to the ferromagnetic XY spin fluid in a magnetic field using a soft mean spherical closure and the Born-Green-Yvon equation. This provides an accurate reproduction of the complicated phase diagram behavior obtained by cumbersome Gibbs ensemble simulation and multiple histogram reweighting techniques.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev. Let

Academic research groups: evaluation of their quality and quality of their evaluation

In recent years, evaluation of the quality of academic research has become an increasingly important and influential business. It determines, often to a large extent, the amount of research funding flowing into universities and similar institutes from governmental agencies and it impacts upon academic careers. Policy makers are becoming increasingly reliant upon, and influenced by, the outcomes of such evaluations. In response, university managers are increasingly attracted to simple indicators as guides to the dynamics of the positions of their various institutions in league tables. However, these league tables are frequently drawn up by inexpert bodies such as newspapers and magazines, using rather arbitrary measures and criteria. Terms such as "critical mass' and "metrics" are often bandied about without proper understanding of what they actually mean. Rather than accepting the rise and fall of universities, departments and individuals on a turbulent sea of arbitrary measures, we suggest it is incumbent upon the scientific community itself to clarify their nature. Here we report on recent attempts to do that by properly defining critical mass and showing how group size influences research quality. We also examine currently predominant metrics and show that these fail as reliable indicators of group research quality.Comment: Presented at the International Conference on Computer Simulation in Physics and Beyond in Moscow, 2015. The Proceedings will appear in Journal of Physics: Conference Series (JPCS

Conservation-laws-preserving algorithms for spin dynamics simulations

We propose new algorithms for numerical integration of the equations of motion for classical spin systems with fixed spatial site positions. The algorithms are derived on the basis of a mid-point scheme in conjunction with the multiple time staging propagation. Contrary to existing predictor-corrector and decomposition approaches, the algorithms introduced preserve all the integrals of motion inherent in the basic equations. As is demonstrated for a lattice ferromagnet model, the present approach appears to be more efficient even over the recently developed decomposition method.Comment: 13 pages, 2 figure