Dynamic criticality far-from-equilibrium: one-loop flow of Burgers-Kardar-Parisi-Zhang systems with broken Galilean invariance

Burgers-Kardar-Parisi-Zhang (KPZ) scaling has recently (re-) surfaced in a variety of physical contexts, ranging from anharmonic chains to quantum systems such as open superfluids, in which a variety of random forces may be encountered and/or engineered. Motivated by these developments, we here provide a generalization of the KPZ universality class to situations with long-ranged temporal correlations in the noise, which purposefully break the Galilean invariance that is central to the conventional KPZ solution. We compute the phase diagram and critical exponents of the KPZ equation with $1/f$-noise (KPZ$_{1/f}$) in spatial dimensions $1\leq d < 4$ using the dynamic renormalization group with a frequency cutoff technique in a one-loop truncation. Distinct features of KPZ$_{1/f}$ are: (i) a generically scale-invariant, rough phase at high noise levels that violates fluctuation-dissipation relations and exhibits hyperthermal statistics {\it even in d=1}, (ii) a fine-tuned roughening transition at which the flow fulfills an emergent thermal-like fluctuation-dissipation relation, that separates the rough phase from (iii) a {\it massive phase} in $1< d < 4$ (in $d=1$ the interface is always rough). We point out potential connections to nonlinear hydrodynamics with a reduced set of conservation laws and noisy quantum liquids.Comment: 29 pages, 11 figures, 1 table, 54 references, v2 as publishe

Gambling in Contests

This paper presents a strategic model of risk-taking behavior in contests. Formally, we analyze an n-player winner-take-all contest in which each player decides when to stop a privately observed Brownian Motion with drift. A player whose process reaches zero has to stop. The player with the highest stopping point wins. Contrary to the explicit cost for a higher stopping time in a war of attrition, here, higher stopping times are riskier, because players can go bankrupt. We derive a closed-form solution of the unique Nash equilibrium outcome of the game. In equilibrium, the trade-off between risk and reward causes a non-monotonicity: highest expected losses occur if the process decreases only slightly in expectation

Preliminary performance appraisal of Navy V/STOL transport and search-type airplanes using hydrogen fuel

First-cut estimates are given of the performance advantages of liquid-hydrogen-fueled, ejector wing, V/STOL aircraft designed for shipboard delivery and search-type missions. Results indicate that the use of LH2 could reduce gross weights 30 percent, empty weights 15 percent, and energy consumption 10 percent for a fixed payload and mission. If gross weight is fixed, the delivery range could be increased about 60 percent or the hover time during a search mission doubled. No analysis or discussion of the economic and operational disadvantages is presented

General Aviation Turbine Engine (GATE) Overview

When all the technology studies were done and the accompanying market analyses were complete, the conclusion was that it is indeed possible to reduce the cost of turbine engines by a factor of 3 using low-cost manufacturing techniques and increased production rates. In the interest of reducing engine cost, some performance was sacrificed. Yet we ended up with about a 20 percent predicted improvement in SFC over current technology turboprops. However, even this level of improvement does not match the low SFC of reciprocating powerplants--particularly those advanced concepts described earlier. The 20 percent better SFC and much lower weight of a turboprop does mean that if such a powerplant were installed in a resized small airplane, one could save between 10 and 30 percent fuel relative to existing recip engines, depending on different mission and airplane combinations. The price of the aircraft would go down about 15 percent in the case of a high powered single, or 25 percent in the case of a normal size twin. The operating costs would decrease about 10 percent in the case of the single, and as much as 35 percent in the case of the twin

Solar-Electric Propulsion Probes for Exploring the Solar System

Payload capability of unmanned interplanetary probes using solar electric propulsio

FFLO strange metal and quantum criticality in two dimensions: theory and application to organic superconductors

Increasing the spin imbalance in superconductors can spatially modulate the gap by forming Cooper pairs with finite momentum. For large imbalances compared to the Fermi energy, the inhomogeneous FFLO superconductor ultimately becomes a normal metal. There is mounting experimental evidence for this scenario in 2D organic superconductors in large in-plane magnetic fields; this is complemented by ongoing efforts to realize this scenario in coupled tubes of atomic Fermi gases with spin imbalance. Yet, a theory for the phase transition from a metal to an FFLO superconductor has not been developed so far and the universality class has remained unknown. Here we propose and analyze a spin imbalance driven quantum critical point between a 2D metal and an FFLO phase in anisotropic electron systems. We derive the effective action for electrons and bosonic FFLO pairs at this quantum phase transition. Using this action, we predict non-Fermi liquid behavior and the absence of quasi-particles at a discrete set of hot spots on the Fermi surfaces. This results in strange power-laws in thermodynamics and response functions, which are testable with existing experimental set-ups on 2D organic superconductors and may also serve as signatures of the elusive FFLO phase itself. The proposed universality class is distinct from previously known quantum critical metals and, because its critical fluctuations appear already in the pairing channel, a promising candidate for naked metallic quantum criticality over extended temperature ranges.Comment: 3+1 figure

Many-Body Quantum Optics with Decaying Atomic Spin States: (γ\gamma, κ\kappa) Dicke model

We provide a theory for quantum-optical realizations of the open Dicke model with internal, atomic spin states subject to spontaneous emission with rate $\gamma$. This introduces a second decay channel for excitations to irreversibly dissipate into the environment, in addition to the photon loss with rate $\kappa$, which is composed of individual atomic decay processes and a collective atomic decay mechanism. The strength of the latter is determined by the cavity geometry. We compute the mean-field non-equilibrium steady states for spin and photon observables in the long-time limit, $t\rightarrow \infty$. Although $\gamma$ does not conserve the total angular momentum of the spin array, we argue that our solution is exact in the thermodynamic limit, for the number of atoms $N\rightarrow \infty$. In light of recent and upcoming experiments realizing superradiant phase transitions using internal atomic states with pinned atoms in optical lattices, our work lays the foundation for the pursuit of a new class of open quantum magnets coupled to quantum light.Comment: 17 pages, 6 figures; added appendix for the derivation of a collective atomic decay mechanism in a Lindblad formalism; version as published in Physical Review

Quantum criticality of reconstructing Fermi surfaces in antiferromagnetic metals

We present a functional renormalization group analysis of a quantum critical point in two-dimensional metals involving Fermi surface reconstruction due to the onset of spin-density wave order. Its critical theory is controlled by a fixed point in which the order parameter and fermionic quasiparticles are strongly coupled and acquire spectral functions with a common dynamic critical exponent. We obtain results for critical exponents and for the variation in the quasiparticle spectral weight around the Fermi surface. Our analysis is implemented on a two-band variant of the spin-fermion model which will allow comparison with sign-problem-free quantum Monte Carlo simulations.Comment: 9 pages, 7 figure