Binding energy and momentum distribution of nuclear matter using Green's functions methods

The influence of hole-hole (h-h) propagation in addition to the conventional particle-particle (p-p) propagation, on the energy per particle and the momentum distribution is investigated for the v2 central interaction which is derived from Reid¿s soft-core potential. The results are compared to Brueckner-Hartree-Fock calculations with a continuous choice for the single-particle (SP) spectrum. Calculation of the energy from a self-consistently determined SP spectrum leads to a lower saturation density. This result is not corroborated by calculating the energy from the hole spectral function, which is, however, not self-consistent. A generalization of previous calculations of the momentum distribution, based on a Goldstone diagram expansion, is introduced that allows the inclusion of h-h contributions to all orders. From this result an alternative calculation of the kinetic energy is obtained. In addition, a direct calculation of the potential energy is presented which is obtained from a solution of the ladder equation containing p-p and h-h propagation to all orders. These results can be considered as the contributions of selected Goldstone diagrams (including p-p and h-h terms on the same footing) to the kinetic and potential energy in which the SP energy is given by the quasiparticle energy. The results for the summation of Goldstone diagrams leads to a different momentum distribution than the one obtained from integrating the hole spectral function which in general gives less depletion of the Fermi sea. Various arguments, based partly on the results that are obtained, are put forward that a self-consistent determination of the spectral functions including the p-p and h-h ladder contributions (using a realistic interaction) will shed light on the question of nuclear saturation at a nonrelativistic level that is consistent with the observed depletion of SP orbitals in finite nuclei.

Empirical determination of the very high energy heavy quark cross section from nonaccelerator data

To cosmic rays incident near the horizon the Earth's atmosphere represents a beam dump with a slant depth reaching 36 000 g cm-2 at 90. The prompt decay of a heavy quark produced by very high energy cosmic ray showers will leave an unmistakable signature in this dump. We translate the failure of experiments to detect such a signal into an upper limit on the heavy quark hadroproduction cross section in the energy region beyond existing accelerators. Our results disfavor any rapid growth of the cross section or the gluon structure function beyond conservative estimates based on perturbative QCD.

Energy and structure of dilute hard- and soft-sphere gases

The energy and structure of dilute hard- and soft-sphere Bose gases are systematically studied in the framework of several many-body approaches, such as the variational correlated theory, the Bogoliubov model, and the uniform limit approximation, valid in the weak-interaction regime. When possible, the results are compared with the exact diffusion Monte Carlo ones. Jastrow-type correlation provides a good description of the systems, both hard- and soft-spheres, if the hypernetted chain energy functional is freely minimized and the resulting Euler equation is solved. The study of the soft-sphere potentials confirms the appearance of a dependence of the energy on the shape of the potential at gas paremeter values of x~0.001. For quantities other than the energy, such as the radial distribution functions and the momentum distributions, the dependence appears at any value of x. The occurrence of a maximum in the radial distribution function, in the momentum distribution, and in the excitation spectrum is a natural effect of the correlations when x increases. The asymptotic behaviors of the functions characterizing the structure of the systems are also investigated. The uniform limit approach is very easy to implement and provides a good description of the soft-sphere gas. Its reliability improves when the interaction weakens.

Precision determination of r(0)Lambda((MS)over-bar) from the QCD static energy

We use the recently obtained theoretical expression for the complete QCD static energy at next-to-next-to-next-to leading-logarithmic accuracy to determine r(0)Lambda((MS) over bar) by comparison with available lattice data, where r(0) is the lattice scale and Lambda((MS) over bar) is the QCD scale. We obtain r(0)Lambda((MS) over bar) = 0.622(-0.015)(+0.019) for the zero-flavor case. The procedure we describe can be directly used to obtain r(0)Lambda((MS) over bar) in the unquenched case, when unquenched lattice data for the static energy at short distances becomes available. Using the value of the strong coupling alpha(s) as an input, the unquenched result would provide a determination of the lattice scale r(0).

Energy-weighted sum rules for mesons in hot and dense matter

We study energy-weighted sum rules of the pion and kaon propagator in nuclear matter at finite temperature. The sum rules are obtained from matching the Dyson form of the meson propagator with its spectral Lehmann representation at low and high energies. We calculate the sum rules for specific models of the kaon and pion self-energy. The in-medium spectral densities of the K and (K) over bar mesons are obtained from a chiral unitary approach in coupled channels that incorporates the S and P waves of the kaon-nucleon interaction. The pion self-energy is determined from the P-wave coupling to particle-hole and Delta-hole excitations, modified by short-range correlations. The sum rules for the lower-energy weights are fulfilled satisfactorily and reflect the contributions from the different quasiparticle and collective modes of the meson spectral function. We discuss the sensitivity of the sum rules to the distribution of spectral strength and their usefulness as quality tests of model calculations.

The Gibbs free energy of formation of a glass alloy

A simple expression for the Gibbs free energy of formation of a pure component or a eutectic alloy glass, relative to the stable crystalline phase (or phases) at the same temperature is deduced by use of thermodynamic arguments. The expression obtained is supposed to apply to both monocomponent and multicomponent liquid alloys that might become glasses from the supercooled liquid state, irrespective of the critical cooling rate needed to avoid crystallization.

Dual-Regge approach to high-energy, low-mass diffraction dissociation

A dual-Regge model with a nonlinear proton Regge trajectory in the missing mass (MX2) channel, describing the experimental data on low-mass single diffraction dissociation (SDD), is constructed. Predictions for the LHC energies are given.

Slow Dynamics of Ising Models with Energy Barriers

Using Monte Carlo simulations we study the dynamics of three-dimensional Ising models with nearest-, next-nearest-, and four-spin (plaquette) interactions. During coarsening, such models develop growing energy barriers, which leads to very slow dynamics at low temperature. As already reported, the model with only the plaquette interaction exhibits some of the features characteristic of ordinary glasses: strong metastability of the supercooled liquid, a weak increase of the characteristic length under cooling, stretched-exponential relaxation, and aging. The addition of two-spin interactions, in general, destroys such behavior: the liquid phase loses metastability and the slow-dynamics regime terminates well below the melting transition, which is presumably related with a certain corner-rounding transition. However, for a particular choice of interaction constants, when the ground state is strongly degenerate, our simulations suggest that the slow-dynamics regime extends up to the melting transition. The analysis of these models leads us to the conjecture that in the four-spin Ising model domain walls lose their tension at the glassy transition and that they are basically tensionless in the glassy phase.

Nonparabolicity and dielectric effects on addition energy spectra of spherical nanocrystals

An extension of the spin density functional theory simultaneously accounting for dielectric mismatch between neighboring materials and nonparabolicity corrections originating from interactions between conduction and valence bands is presented. This method is employed to calculate ground state and addition energy spectra of homogeneous and multishell spherical quantum dots. Our calculations reveal that corrections become especially relevant when they come into play simultaneously in strong regimes of spatial confinement.

The influence of the symmetry energy on the giant monopole resonance of neutron-rich nuclei analyzed in Thomas-Fermi theory

We analyze the influence of the density dependence of the symmetry energy on the average excitation energy of the isoscalar giant monopole resonance (GMR) in stable and exotic neutron-rich nuclei by applying the relativistic extended Thomas-Fermi method in scaling and constrained calculations. For the effective nuclear interaction, we employ the relativistic mean field model supplemented by an isoscalar-isovector meson coupling that allows one to modify the density dependence of the symmetry energy without compromising the success of the model for binding energies and charge radii. The semiclassical estimates of the average energy of the GMR are known to be in good agreement with the results obtained in full RPA calculations. The present analysis is performed along the Pb and Zr isotopic chains. In the scaling calculations, the excitation energy is larger when the symmetry energy is softer. The same happens in the constrained calculations for nuclei with small and moderate neutron excess. However, for nuclei of large isospin the constrained excitation energy becomes smaller in models having a soft symmetry energy. This effect is mainly due to the presence of loosely-bound outer neutrons in these isotopes. A sharp increase of the estimated width of the resonance is found in largely neutron-rich isotopes, even for heavy nuclei, which is enhanced when the symmetry energy of the model is soft. The results indicate that at large neutron numbers the structure of the low-energy region of the GMR strength distribution changes considerably with the density dependence of the nuclear symmetry energy, which may be worthy of further characterization in RPA calculations of the response function.

Model-independent bounds for the potential and kinetic energy of liquid 4He at zero temperature

Using the experimental values of the chemical potentials of liquid 4He and of a 3He impurity in liquid 4He, we derive a model-independent lower (upper) bound to the kinetic (potential) energy per particle at zero temperature. The values of the bounds at the experimental saturation density are 13.42 K for the kinetic energy and -20.59 K for the potential energy. All the theoretical calculations based on the Lennard-Jones potential violate the upper-bound condition for the potential energy.

Exact lower bounds to the ground-state energy of spin systems: The two-dimensional S=1/2 antiferromagnetic Heisenberg model

We present a very simple but fairly unknown method to obtain exact lower bounds to the ground-state energy of any Hamiltonian that can be partitioned into a sum of sub-Hamiltonians. The technique is applied, in particular, to the two-dimensional spin-1/2 antiferromagnetic Heisenberg model. Reasonably good results are easily obtained and the extension of the method to other systems is straightforward.

Microstructure of highly oriented, hexagonal, boron nitride thin films grown on crystalline silicon by radio frequency plasma-assisted chemical vapor deposition

We present a high‐resolution electron microscopy study of the microstructure of boron nitride thin films grown on silicon (100) by radio‐frequency plasma‐assisted chemical vapor deposition using B2H6 (1% in H2) and NH3 gases. Well‐adhered boron nitride films grown on the grounded electrode show a highly oriented hexagonal structure with the c‐axis parallel to the substrate surface throughout the film, without any interfacial amorphous layer. We ascribed this textured growth to an etching effect of atomic hydrogen present in the gas discharge. In contrast, films grown on the powered electrode, with compressive stress induced by ion bombardment, show a multilayered structure as observed by other authors, composed of an amorphous layer, a hexagonal layer with the c‐axis parallel to the substrate surface and another layer oriented at random