Fluctuations in fluid invasion into disordered media

Interfaces moving in a disordered medium exhibit stochastic velocity fluctuations obeying universal scaling relations related to the presence or absence of conservation laws. For fluid invasion of porous media, we show that the fluctuations of the velocity are governed by a geometry-dependent length scale arising from fluid conservation. This result is compared to the statistics resulting from a non-equilibrium (depinning) transition between a moving interface and a stationary, pinned one.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

Inelastic semiclassical Coulomb scattering

We present a semiclassical S-matrix study of inelastic collinear electron-hydrogen scattering. A simple way to extract all necessary information from the deflection function alone without having to compute the stability matrix is described. This includes the determination of the relevant Maslov indices. Results of singlet and triplet cross sections for excitation and ionization are reported. The different levels of approximation -- classical, semiclassical, and uniform semiclassical -- are compared among each other and to the full quantum result.Comment: 9 figure

The nodal structure of doubly-excited resonant states of helium

The authors examine the nodal structure of accurate helium wavefunctions calculated by direct diagonalization of the full six-dimensional problem. It is shown that for fixed interelectronic distance R (or hyperspherical radius R) the symmetric doubly-excited resonant states have well defined lambda , mu nodal structure indicating a near separability in prolate spheroidal coordinates. For fixed lambda , however, a clear mixing of R, mu nodes is demonstrated. This corresponds to a breakdown of the adiabatic approximation and can be understood in terms of the classical two-electron motion

Husimi-Wigner representation of chaotic eigenstates

Just as a coherent state may be considered as a quantum point, its restriction to a factor space of the full Hilbert space can be interpreted as a quantum plane. The overlap of such a factor coherent state with a full pure state is akin to a quantum section. It defines a reduced pure state in the cofactor Hilbert space. The collection of all the Wigner functions corresponding to a full set of parallel quantum sections defines the Husimi-Wigner reresentation. It occupies an intermediate ground between drastic suppression of nonclassical features, characteristic of Husimi functions, and the daunting complexity of higher dimensional Wigner functions. After analysing these features for simpler states, we exploit this new representation as a probe of numerically computed eigenstates of chaotic Hamiltonians. The individual two-dimensional Wigner functions resemble those of semiclassically quantized states, but the regular ring pattern is broken by dislocations.Comment: 21 pages, 7 figures (6 color figures), submitted to Proc. R. Soc.

Comment on: `Pipe Network Model for Scaling of Dynamic Interfaces in Porous Media'

We argue that a proposed exponent identity [Phys. Rev. Lett 85, 1238 (2000)] for interface roughening in spontaneous imbibition is wrong. It rests on the assumption that the fluctuations are controlled by a single time scale, but liquid conservation imposes two distinct time scales.Comment: 1 page, to appear in Phys. Rev. Let

Effects of precipitation uncertainty on discharge calculations for main river basins

This study quantifies the uncertainty in discharge calculations caused by uncertainty in precipitation input for 294 river basins worldwide. Seven global gridded precipitation datasets are compared at river basin scale in terms of mean annual and seasonal precipitation. The representation of seasonality is similar in all datasets, but the uncertainty in mean annual precipitation is large, especially in mountainous, arctic, and small basins. The average precipitation uncertainty in a basin is 30%, but there are strong differences between basins. The effect of this precipitation uncertainty on mean annual and seasonal discharge was assessed using the uncalibrated dynamic global vegetation and hydrology model Lund-Potsdam-Jena managed land (LPJmL), yielding even larger uncertainties in discharge (average 90%). For 95 basins (out of 213 basins for which measurements were available) calibration of model parameters is problematic because the observed discharge falls within the uncertainty of the simulated discharge. A method is presented to account for precipitation uncertainty in discharge simulations

Multiple ionization of neon by soft X-rays at ultrahigh intensity

At the free-electron laser FLASH, multiple ionization of neon atoms was quantitatively investigated at 93.0 eV and 90.5 eV photon energy. For ion charge states up to 6+, we compare the respective absolute photoionization yields with results from a minimal model and an elaborate description. Both approaches are based on rate equations and take into acccout a Gaussian spatial intensity distribution of the laser beam. From the comparison we conclude, that photoionization up to a charge of 5+ can be described by the minimal model. For higher charges, the experimental ionization yields systematically exceed the elaborate rate based prediction.Comment: 10 pages, 3 figure

Ionization of clusters in intense laser pulses through collective electron dynamics

The motion of electrons and ions in medium-sized rare gas clusters (1000 atoms) exposed to intense laser pulses is studied microscopically by means of classical molecular dynamics using a hierarchical tree code. Pulse parameters for optimum ionization are found to be wavelength dependent. This resonant behavior is traced back to a collective electron oscillation inside the charged cluster. It is shown that this dynamics can be well described by a driven and damped harmonic oscillator allowing for a clear discrimination against other energy absorption mechanisms.Comment: 4 pages (4 figures

Status of Nucleon Resonances with Masses M<MN+MπM<M_N+M_{\pi}

We discuss different interpretations of peaks observed a few years ago by Tatischeff et al. in missing mass spectra of the reaction $pp->pi^+pX$, which were declared as new exited nucleon states with small masses. A study of the possible production of such states in the process $\gamma p->pi^+N^*->pi^+ +\gamma\gamma n$ by analyzing the invariant mass spectrum of $\gamma\gamma n$ is proposed. It is shown that the data, obtained recently at MAMI-B, can allow to analyze this process and to get information about an existence of exited nucleon states with small masses.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, LaTeX with ws-p8-50x6-00.cls. Talk presented at the NSTAR2001 Workshop, Mainz, Germany, March 7-10, 200