Faraday waves in elongated superfluid fermionic clouds

We use hydrodynamic equations to study the formation of Faraday waves in a superfluid Fermi gas at zero temperature confined in a strongly elongated cigar-shaped trap. First, we treat the role of the radial density profile in the limit of an infinite cylindrical geometry and analytically evaluate the wavelength of the Faraday pattern. The effect of the axial confinement is fully taken into account in the numerical solution of hydrodynamic equations and shows that the infinite cylinder geometry provides a very good description of the phenomena.Comment: 6 pages, 7 figures. Figures 4 and 6 in high resolution on reques

Destruction of Anderson localization by a weak nonlinearity

We study numerically a spreading of an initially localized wave packet in a one-dimensional discrete nonlinear Schr\"odinger lattice with disorder. We demonstrate that above a certain critical strength of nonlinearity the Anderson localization is destroyed and an unlimited subdiffusive spreading of the field along the lattice occurs. The second moment grows with time $\propto t^\alpha$, with the exponent $\alpha$ being in the range $0.3 - 0.4$. For small nonlinearities the distribution remains localized in a way similar to the linear case.Comment: 4 pages, 5 fig

Massive Black Hole Binary Systems in Hierarchical Scenario of Structure Formation

The hierarchical scenario of structure formation describes how objects like galaxies and galaxy clusters are formed by mergers of small objects. In this scenario, mergers of galaxies can lead to the formation of massive black hole (MBH) binary systems. On the other hand, the merger of two MBH could produce a gravitational wave signal detectable, in principle, by the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA). In the present work, we use the Press-Schechter formalism, and its extension, to describe the merger rate of haloes which contain massive black holes. Here, we do not study the gravitational wave emission of these systems. However, we present an initial study to determine the number of systems formed via mergers that could permit, in a future extension of this work, the calculation of the signature in gravitational waves of these systems.Comment: to match the published version in International Journal of Modern Physics

Optimal Cosmic-Ray Detection for Nondestructive Read Ramps

Cosmic rays are a known problem in astronomy, causing both loss of data and data inaccuracy. The problem becomes even more extreme when considering data from a high-radiation environment, such as in orbit around Earth or outside the Earth's magnetic field altogether, unprotected, as will be the case for the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). For JWST, all the instruments employ nondestructive readout schemes. The most common of these will be "up the ramp" sampling, where the detector is read out regularly during the ramp. We study three methods to correct for cosmic rays in these ramps: a two-point difference method, a deviation from the fit method, and a y-intercept method. We apply these methods to simulated nondestructive read ramps with single-sample groups and varying combinations of flux, number of samples, number of cosmic rays, cosmic-ray location in the exposure, and cosmic-ray strength. We show that the y-intercept method is the optimal detection method in the read-noise-dominated regime, while both the y-intercept method and the two-point difference method are best in the photon-noise-dominated regime, with the latter requiring fewer computations.Comment: To be published in PASP. This paper is 12 pages long and includes 15 figure

Relaxation to quantum equilibrium for Dirac fermions in the de Broglie-Bohm pilot-wave theory

Numerical simulations indicate that the Born rule does not need to be postulated in the de Broglie-Bohm pilot-wave theory, but arises dynamically (relaxation to quantum equilibrium). These simulations were done for a particle in a two-dimensional box whose wave-function obeys the non-relativistic Schroedinger equation and is therefore scalar. The chaotic nature of the de Broglie-Bohm trajectories, thanks to the nodes of the wave-function which act as vortices, is crucial for a fast relaxation to quantum equilibrium. For spinors, we typically do not expect any node. However, in the case of the Dirac equation, the de Broglie-Bohm velocity field has vorticity even in the absence of nodes. This observation raises the question of the origin of relaxation to quantum equilibrium for fermions. In this article, we provide numerical evidence to show that Dirac particles also undergo relaxation, by simulating the evolution of various non-equilibrium distributions for two-dimensional systems (the 2D Dirac oscillator and the Dirac particle in a spherical 2D box).Comment: 11 pages, 9 figure

A study of binary constraints for seismology of delta Scuti stars

Seismology of single delta Scuti stars has mainly been inhibited by failing to detect many of the theoretically predicted pulsation modes, resulting in difficulties with mode identification. Theoretical and observational advances have, however, helped to overcome this problem, but the following questions then remain: do we know enough about the star to either use the (few) identified mode(s) to probe the structure of the star? or improve the determination of the stellar parameters? It is now generally accepted that for the observed frequencies to be used successfully as seismic probes for these objects, we need to concentrate on stars where we can constrain the number of free parameters in the problem, such as in binary systems or open clusters. The work presented here, investigates how much is gained in our understanding of the star, by comparing the information we obtain from a single star with that of an eclipsing binary system. Singular Value Decomposition is the technique used to explore the precision we expect in terms of stellar parameters (such as mass, age and chemical composition).Comment: v2: error in equation corrected. HELAS II Conference: Helioseismology, Asteroseismology and MHD Connections, August 2007 Goettingen, German

Hydrodynamic orienting of asymmetric microobjects under gravity

It is shown that nonsymmetric microobjects orient while settling under gravity in a viscous fluid. To analyze this process, a simple shape is chosen: a non-deformable `chain'. The chain consists of two straight arms, made of touching solid spheres. In the absence of external torques, the spheres are free to spin along the arms. The motion of the chain is evaluated by solving the Stokes equations with the use of the multipole method. It is demonstrated that the spinning beads speed up sedimentation by a small amount, and increase the orientation rate significantly in comparison to the corresponding rigid chain. It is shown that chains orient towards the V-shaped stable stationary configuration. In contrast, rods and star-shaped microobjects do not rotate. The hydrodynamic orienting is relevant for efficient swimming of non-symmetric microobjects, and for sedimenting suspensions.Comment: 9 page

New set of measures to analyze non-equilibrium structures

We introduce a set of statistical measures that can be used to quantify non-equilibrium surface growth. They are used to deduce new information about spatiotemporal dynamics of model systems for spinodal decomposition and surface deposition. Patterns growth in the Cahn-Hilliard Equation (used to model spinodal decomposition) are shown to exhibit three distinct stages. Two models of surface growth, namely the continuous Kardar-Parisi-Zhang (KPZ) model and the discrete Restricted-Solid-On-Solid (RSOS) model are shown to have different saturation exponents

Boundary hopping and the mobility edge in the Anderson model in three dimensions

It is shown, using high-precision numerical simulations, that the mobility edge of the 3d Anderson model depends on the boundary hopping term t in the infinite size limit. The critical exponent is independent of it. The renormalized localization length at the critical point is also found to depend on t but not on the distribution of on-site energies for box and Lorentzian distributions. Implications of results for the description of the transition in terms of a local order-parameter are discussed

Wavelet transforms in a critical interface model for Barkhausen noise

We discuss the application of wavelet transforms to a critical interface model, which is known to provide a good description of Barkhausen noise in soft ferromagnets. The two-dimensional version of the model (one-dimensional interface) is considered, mainly in the adiabatic limit of very slow driving. On length scales shorter than a crossover length (which grows with the strength of surface tension), the effective interface roughness exponent $\zeta$ is $\simeq 1.20$, close to the expected value for the universality class of the quenched Edwards-Wilkinson model. We find that the waiting times between avalanches are fully uncorrelated, as the wavelet transform of their autocorrelations scales as white noise. Similarly, detrended size-size correlations give a white-noise wavelet transform. Consideration of finite driving rates, still deep within the intermittent regime, shows the wavelet transform of correlations scaling as $1/f^{1.5}$ for intermediate frequencies. This behavior is ascribed to intra-avalanche correlations.Comment: RevTeX, 10 pages, 9 .eps figures; Physical Review E, to be publishe