We study the transport of Brownian particles through a corrugated channel caused by a force field containing curl-free (scalar potential) and divergence-free (vector potential) parts. We develop a generalized Fick-Jacobs approach leading to an effective one-dimensional description involving the potential of mean force. As an application, the interplay of a pressure-driven flow and an oppositely oriented constant bias is considered. We show that for certain parameters, the particle diffusion is significantly suppressed via the property of hydrodynamically enforced entropic particle trapping.

A bounded random walk exhibits strong correlations between collisions with a boundary. For a one-dimensional walk, we obtain the full statistical distribution of the number of such collisions in a time $t$. In the large $t$ limit, the fluctuations in the number of collisions are found to be size independent (independent of the distance between boundaries). This occurs for any interboundary distance, from less to greater than the mean free path, and means that this boundary effect does not decay with increasing system size. As an application, we consider spin-polarized gases, such as 3-helium, in the three-dimensional diffusive regime. The above results mean that the depolarizing effect of rare magnetic impurities in the container walls is orders of magnitude larger than a Smoluchowski assumption (to neglect correlations) would imply. This could explain why depolarization is so sensitive to the container’s treatment with magnetic fields prior to its use.

Large pulsar frequency glitches are generally interpreted as sudden transfers of angular momentum between the neutron superfluid permeating the inner crust and the rest of the star. Despite the absence of viscous drag, the neutron superfluid is strongly coupled to the crust due to nondissipative entrainment effects. These effects are shown to severely limit the maximum amount of angular momentum that can possibly be transferred during glitches. In particular, it is found that the glitches observed in the Vela pulsar require an additional reservoir of angular momentum.

It has been suggested that maximally spinning black holes can serve as particle accelerators, reaching arbitrarily high center-of-mass energies. Despite several objections regarding the practical achievability of such high energies, and demonstrations past and present that such large energies could never reach a distant observer, interest in this problem has remained substantial. We show that, unfortunately, a maximally spinning black hole can never serve as a probe of high energy collisions, even in principle and despite the correctness of the original diverging energy calculation. Black holes can indeed facilitate dark matter annihilation, but the most energetic photons can carry little more than the rest energy of the dark matter particles to a distant observer, and those photons are actually generated relatively far from the black hole where relativistic effects are negligible. Therefore, any strong gravitational potential could probe dark matter equally well, and an appeal to black holes for facilitating such collisions is unnecessary.

Non-Gaussianity in the inflationary perturbations can couple observable scales to modes of much longer wavelength (even superhorizon), leaving as a signature a large-angle modulation of the observed cosmic microwave background power spectrum. This provides an alternative origin for a power asymmetry that is otherwise often ascribed to a breaking of statistical isotropy. The non-Gaussian modulation effect can be significant even for typical $\sim {10}^{-5}$ perturbations while respecting current constraints on non-Gaussianity if the squeezed limit of the bispectrum is sufficiently infrared divergent. Just such a strongly infrared-divergent bispectrum has been claimed for inflation models with a non-Bunch-Davies initial state, for instance. Upper limits on the observed cosmic microwave background power asymmetry place stringent constraints on the duration of inflation in such models.

We present a higher dimensional model where gravity is bound to a brane due to Anderson localization. The extra dimensions are taken to be a disordered crystal of branes, with randomly distributed tensions of order the fundamental scale. Such geometries bind the graviton and thus allow for arbitrarily large extra dimensions even when the curvature is small. Thus this model is quite distinct from that of Randall and Sundrum where localization is a consequence of curvature effects in the bulk. The hierarchy problem can be solved by having the standard model brane live a distance away from the brane on which the graviton is localized. The statistical properties of the system are worked out and it is shown that the scenario leads to a continuum of four dimensional theories with differing strengths of gravitational interactions. We live on one particular brane whose gravitational constant is $G_N$.

We adapt the Goldstone theorem to study spontaneous symmetry breaking in relativistic theories at finite charge density. It is customary to treat systems at finite density via nonrelativistic Hamiltonians. Here, we highlight the importance of the underlying relativistic dynamics. This leads to seemingly new results whenever the charge in question is spontaneously broken and does not commute with other broken charges. We find that that the latter interpolate gapped excitations. In contrast, all existing versions of the Goldstone theorem predict the existence of gapless modes. We derive exact nonperturbative expressions for their gaps, in terms of the chemical potential and of the symmetry algebra.

We consider all possible dynamical theories which evolve two transverse vector fields out of a three-dimensional Euclidean hyperplane, subject to only two assumptions: (i) the evolution is local in space, and (ii) the theory is invariant under “duality rotations” of the vector fields into one another. The commutators of the Hamiltonian and momentum densities are shown to be necessarily those of the Poincaré group or its zero signature contraction. Space-time structure thus emerges out of the principle of duality.

Measurements of charge-dependent azimuthal correlations with the ALICE detector at the LHC are reported for Pb-Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}=2.76\mathrm{TeV}$. Two- and three-particle charge-dependent azimuthal correlations in the pseudorapidity range $|\eta |<0.8$ are presented as a function of the collision centrality, particle separation in pseudorapidity, and transverse momentum. A clear signal compatible with a charge-dependent separation relative to the reaction plane is observed, which shows little or no collision energy dependence when compared to measurements at RHIC energies. This provides a new insight for understanding the nature of the charge-dependent azimuthal correlations observed at RHIC and LHC energies.

Anisotropic flow coefficients $v_1–v_5$ in heavy ion collisions are computed by combining a classical Yang-Mills description of the early time Glasma flow with the subsequent relativistic viscous hydrodynamic evolution of matter through the quark-gluon plasma and hadron gas phases. The Glasma dynamics, as realized in the impact parameter dependent Glasma (IP-Glasma) model, takes into account event-by-event geometric fluctuations in nucleon positions and intrinsic subnucleon scale color charge fluctuations; the preequilibrium flow of matter is then matched to the music algorithm describing viscous hydrodynamic flow and particle production at freeze-out. The IP-$\mathrm{\text{Glasma}}+\mathrm{MUSIC}$ model describes well both transverse momentum dependent and integrated $v_n$ data measured at the Large Hadron Collider and the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider. The model also reproduces the event-by-event distributions of $v_2$, $v_3$ and $v_4$ measured by the ATLAS Collaboration. The implications of our results for better understanding of the dynamics of the Glasma and for the extraction of transport properties of the quark-gluon plasma are outlined.

In anticipation of results from current and future double-$\beta$ decay studies, we report a measurement resulting in a ${}^{82}\mathrm{Se}$ double-$\beta$ decay $Q$ value of 2997.9(3) keV, an order of magnitude more precise than the currently accepted value. We also present preliminary results of a calculation of the ${}^{82}\mathrm{Se}$ neutrinoless double-$\beta$ decay nuclear matrix element that corrects in part for the small size of the shell model single-particle space. The results of this work are important for designing next generation double-$\beta$ decay experiments and for the theoretical interpretations of their observations.

An experiment with a newly developed high-resolution kaon spectrometer and a scattered electron spectrometer with a novel configuration was performed in Hall C at Jefferson Lab. The ground state of a neutron-rich hypernucleus, ${}_{\Lambda }{}^7\mathrm{He}$, was observed for the first time with the ($e$, $e^{\prime }{K}^{+}$) reaction with an energy resolution of $\sim 0.6\mathrm{MeV}$. This resolution is the best reported to date for hypernuclear reaction spectroscopy. The ${}_{\Lambda }{}^7\mathrm{He}$ binding energy supplies the last missing information of the $A=7$, $T=1$ hypernuclear isotriplet, providing a new input for the charge symmetry breaking effect of the $\Lambda N$ potential.

A calculation of the second-order (rescattering) term in the $S$-matrix expansion of above-threshold ionization is presented for the case when the binding potential is the unscreened Coulomb potential. Technical problems related to the divergence of the Coulomb scattering amplitude are avoided in the theory by considering the depletion of the atomic ground state due to the applied laser field, which is well defined and does not require the introduction of a screening constant. We focus on the low-energy structure, which was observed in recent experiments with a midinfrared wavelength laser field. Both the spectra and, in particular, the observed scaling versus the Keldysh parameter and the ponderomotive energy are reproduced. The theory provides evidence that the origin of the structure lies in the long-range Coulomb interaction.

A new mechanism for the production of electron-positron pairs from the interaction of a laser field and a fully ionized diatomic molecule in the tunneling regime is presented. When the laser field is turned off, the Dirac operator has resonances in both the positive and the negative energy continua while bound states are in the mass gap. When this system is immersed in a strong laser field, the resonances move in the complex energy plane: the negative energy resonances are pushed to higher energies while the bound states are Stark shifted [F. Fillion-Gourdeau et al., J. Phys. A 45, 215304 (2012)]. It is argued here that there is a pair production enhancement at the crossing of resonances by looking at a simple one-dimensional model: the nuclei are modeled simply by Dirac delta potential wells while the laser field is assumed to be static and of finite spatial extent. The average rate for the number of electron-positron pairs produced is evaluated and the results are compared to the one and zero nucleus cases. It is shown that positrons are produced by the resonantly enhanced pair production mechanism, which is analogous to the resonantly enhanced ionization of molecular physics. This phenomenon could be used to increase the number of pairs produced at low field strength, allowing the study of the Dirac vacuum.

We propose a scheme to control cavity quantum electrodynamics in the single photon limit by delayed feedback. In our approach a single emitter-cavity system, operating in the weak coupling limit, can be driven into the strong coupling-type regime by an external mirror: The external loop produces Rabi oscillations directly connected to the electron-photon coupling strength. As an expansion of typical cavity quantum electrodynamics, we treat the quantum correlation of external and internal light modes dynamically and demonstrate a possible way to implement a fully quantum mechanical time-delayed feedback. Our theoretical approach proposes a way to experimentally feedback control quantum correlations in the single photon limit.

The excitation of near-infrared $(2+1)\mathrm{D}$ solitons in liquid carbon disulfide is demonstrated due to the simultaneous contribution of the third- and fifth-order susceptibilities. Solitons propagating free from diffraction for more than 10 Rayleigh lengths although damped, were observed to support the proposed soliton behavior. Numerical calculations using a nonlinear Schrödinger-type equation were also performed.

We fabricate and characterize a metal-dielectric nanostructure with an effective refractive index $n=0$ in the visible spectral range. Light is excited in the material at deep subwavelength resolution by a 30-keV electron beam. From the measured spatially and angle-resolved emission patterns, a vanishing phase advance, corresponding to an effective $ϵ=0$ and $n=0$, is directly observed at the cutoff frequency. The wavelength at which this condition is observed can be tuned over the entire visible or near-infrared spectral range by varying the waveguide width. This $n=0$ plasmonic nanostructure may serve as a new building block in nanoscale optical integrated circuits and to control spontaneous emission as experimentally demonstrated by the strongly enhanced radiative optical density of states over the entire $n=0$ structure.

We report on a novel behavior of solitary localized structures in a real Swift-Hohenberg equation subjected to a delayed feedback. We shall show that variation in the product of the delay time and the feedback strength leads to nontrivial instabilities resulting in the formation of oscillons, soliton rings, labyrinth patterns, or moving structures. We provide a bifurcation analysis of the delayed system and derive a system of order parameter equations explicitly describing the temporal behavior of the localized structure in the vicinity of the bifurcation point. We demonstrate that a normal form of the bifurcation, responsible for the emergence of moving solitary structures, can be obtained and show that spontaneous motion to the lowest order occurs without change of the shape.

We predict that the near-field radiative heat-transfer rate between a cylinder and a perforated surface depends nonmonotonically on their separation. This anomalous behavior, which arises due to evanescent-wave effects, is explained using a heuristic model based on the interaction of a dipole with a plate. We show that nonmonotonicity depends not only on geometry and temperature but also on material dispersion—for micron and submicron objects, nonmonotonicity is present in polar dielectrics but absent in metals with small skin depths.

Minimizing transverse emittance is essential in linear accelerators designed to deliver very high brightness electron beams. Emission of coherent synchrotron radiation (CSR), as a contributing factor to emittance degradation, is an important phenomenon to this respect. A manner in which to cancel this perturbation by imposing certain symmetric conditions on the electron transport system has been suggested.We first expand on this idea by quantitatively relating the beam Courant-Snyder parameters to the emittance growth and by providing a general scheme of CSR suppression with asymmetric optics, provided it is properly balanced along the line. We present the first experimental evidence of this cancellation with the resultant optics balance of multiple CSR kicks: the transverse emittance of a 500 pC, sub-picosecond, high brightness electron beam is being preserved after the passage through the achromatic transfer line of the FERMI@Elettra free electron laser, and emittance growth is observed when the optics balance is intentionally broken. We finally show the agreement between the theoretical model and the experimental results. This study holds the promise of compact dispersive lines with relatively large bending angles, thus reducing costs for future electron facilities.