Aspect ratio analysis for ground states of bosons in anisotropic traps

Characteristics of the initial condensate in the recent experiment on Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC) of ${}^{87}$Rb atoms in an anisotropic magnetic trap is discussed. Given the aspect ratio $R$, the quality of BEC is estimated. A simple analytical Ansatz for the initial condensate wave function is proposed as a function of the aspect ratio which, in contrast to the Baym-Pethick trial wave function, reproduces both the weak and the strong intaraction limits and which is in better agreement with numerical results than the latter.Comment: 12 pages, latex, 3 figures added, minor corrections; to appear in J. Res. Nat. Inst. of Standards and Technolog

Photonic crystals of coated metallic spheres

It is shown that simple face-centered-cubic (fcc) structures of both metallic and coated metallic spheres are ideal candidates to achieve a tunable complete photonic bandgap (CPBG) for optical wavelengths using currently available experimental techniques. For coated microspheres with the coating width to plasma wavelength ratio $l_c/\lambda_p \leq 10$ and the coating and host refractive indices $n_c$ and $n_h$, respectively, between 1 and 1.47, one can always find a sphere radius $r_s$ such that the relative gap width $g_w$ (gap width to the midgap frequency ratio) is larger than 5% and, in some cases, $g_w$ can exceed 9%. Using different coatings and supporting liquids, the width and midgap frequency of a CPBG can be tuned considerably.Comment: 14 pages, plain latex, 3 ps figures, to appear in Europhys. Lett. For more info on this subject see http://www.amolf.nl/research/photonic_materials_theory/moroz/moroz.htm

Viscosity in the excluded volume hadron gas model

The shear viscosity $\eta$ in the van der Waals excluded volume hadron-resonance gas model is considered. For the shear viscosity the result of the non-relativistic gas of hard-core particles is extended to the mixture of particles with different masses, but equal values of hard-core radius r. The relativistic corrections to hadron average momenta in thermal equilibrium are also taken into account. The ratio of the viscosity $\eta$ to the entropy density s is studied. It monotonously decreases along the chemical freeze-out line in nucleus-nucleus collisions with increasing collision energy. As a function of hard-core radius r, a broad minimum of the ratio $\eta/s\approx 0.3$ near $r \approx 0.5$ fm is found at high collision energies. For the charge-neutral system at $T=T_c=180$ MeV, a minimum of the ratio $\eta/s\cong 0.24$ is reached for $r\cong 0.53$ fm. To justify a hydrodynamic approach to nucleus-nucleus collisions within the hadron phase the restriction from below, $r~ \ge ~0.2$ fm, on the hard-core hadron radius should be fulfilled in the excluded volume hadron-resonance gas.Comment: 12 pages, 3 figure

Photonic Band Gaps of Three-Dimensional Face-Centered Cubic Lattices

We show that the photonic analogue of the Korringa-Kohn-Rostocker method is a viable alternative to the plane-wave method to analyze the spectrum of electromagnetic waves in a three-dimensional periodic dielectric lattice. Firstly, in the case of an fcc lattice of homogeneous dielectric spheres, we reproduce the main features of the spectrum obtained by the plane wave method, namely that for a sufficiently high dielectric contrast a full gap opens in the spectrum between the eights and ninth bands if the dielectric constant $\epsilon_s$ of spheres is lower than the dielectric constant $\epsilon_b$ of the background medium. If $\epsilon_s> \epsilon_b$, no gap is found in the spectrum. The maximal value of the relative band-gap width approaches 14% in the close-packed case and decreases monotonically as the filling fraction decreases. The lowest dielectric contrast $\epsilon_b/\epsilon_s$ for which a full gap opens in the spectrum is determined to be 8.13. Eventually, in the case of an fcc lattice of coated spheres, we demonstrate that a suitable coating can enhance gap widths by as much as 50%.Comment: 19 pages, 6 figs., plain latex - a section on coated spheres, two figures, and a few references adde

Non-perturbative results for the spectrum of surface-disordered waveguides

We calculated the spectrum of normal scalar waves in a planar waveguide with absolutely soft randomly rough boundaries beyond the perturbation theories in the roughness heights and slopes, basing on the exact boundary scattering potential. The spectrum is proved to be a nearly real non-analytic function of the dispersion $\zeta^2$ of the roughness heights (with square-root singularity) as $\zeta^2 \to 0$. The opposite case of large boundary defects is summarized.Comment: REVTEX 3, OSA style, 9 pages, no figures. Submitted to Optics Letter

Spectrophotometric experiment on the Verera-11 and Venera-12 descent vehicles: Some results of the analysis of the spectrum of the daytime sky of Venus

The spectra of the daytime sky of Venus were recorded on the Venera-11 and Venera-12 descent vehicles at various altitudes above the planet's surface, within the interval of 4500 to 12,000 Angstroms. The angular distribution of the brightness of the scattered radiation was recorded and the ratio of water and carbon dioxide were studied, with respect to the cloud cover boundaries

A simple formula for the L-gap width of a face-centered-cubic photonic crystal

The width $\triangle_L$ of the first Bragg's scattering peak in the (111) direction of a face-centered-cubic lattice of air spheres can be well approximated by a simple formula which only involves the volume averaged $\epsilon$ and $\epsilon^2$ over the lattice unit cell, $\epsilon$ being the (position dependent) dielectric constant of the medium, and the effective dielectric constant $\epsilon_{eff}$ in the long-wavelength limit approximated by Maxwell-Garnett's formula. Apparently, our formula describes the asymptotic behaviour of the absolute gap width $\triangle_L$ for high dielectric contrast $\delta$ exactly. The standard deviation $\sigma$ steadily decreases well below 1% as $\delta$ increases. For example $\sigma< 0.1$ for the sphere filling fraction $f=0.2$ and $\delta\geq 20$. On the interval $\delta\in(1,100)$, our formula still approximates the absolute gap width $\triangle_L$ (the relative gap width $\triangle_L^r$) with a reasonable precision, namely with a standard deviation 3% (4.2%) for low filling fractions up to 6.5% (8%) for the close-packed case. Differences between the case of air spheres in a dielectric and dielectric spheres in air are briefly discussed.Comment: 13 pages, 4 figs., RevTex, two references added. For more info see http://www.amolf.nl/external/wwwlab/atoms/theory/index.htm

Plasmonic rod dimers as elementary planar chiral meta-atoms

Electromagnetic response of metallic rod dimers is theoretically calculated for arbitrary planar arrangement of rods in the dimer. It is shown that dimers without an in-plane symmetry axis exhibit elliptical dichroism and act as "atoms" in planar chiral metamaterials. Due to a very simple geometry of the rod dimer, such planar metamaterials are much easier in fabrication than conventional split-ring or gammadion-type structures, and lend themselves to a simple analytical treatment based on coupled dipole model. Dependencies of metamaterial's directional asymmetry on the dimer's geometry are established analytically and confirmed in numerical simulations.Comment: 3 page

Persistent currents in multicomponent Tomonaga-Luttinger liquid: application to mesoscopic semiconductor ring with spin-orbit interaction

We study persistent currents in semiconductor ballistic rings with spin-orbit Rashba interaction. We use as a working model the multicomponent Tomonaga-Luttinger liquid which arises due to the nonparabolic dispersion relations of electrons in the rings with rather strong spin-orbit coupling. This approach predicts some new characteristic features of persistent currents, which may be observed in experimental studies of semiconductor ballistic rings.Comment: 13 pages, 8 figure