The 2x3 channel pseudo Vertex Position Detector (pVPD) in the STAR experiment at RHIC has been upgraded to a 2x19 channel detector in the same acceptance, called the Vertex Position Detector (VPD). This detector is fully integrated into the STAR trig
ger system and provides the primary input to the minimum-bias trigger in Au+Au collisions. The information from the detector is used both in the STAR Level-0 trigger and offline to measure the location of the primary collision vertex along the beam pipe and the event start time needed by other fast-timing detectors in STAR. The offline timing resolution of single detector channels in full-energy Au+Au collisions is ~100 ps, resulting in a start time resolution of a few tens of picoseconds and a resolution on the primary vertex location of ~1 cm.
With Monte Carlo simulations, we systematically investigate the depinning phase transition in the two-dimensional driven random-field clock model. Based on the short-time dynamic approach, we determine the transition field and critical exponents. The
results show that the critical exponents vary with the form of the random-field distribution and the strength of the random fields, and the roughening dynamics of the domain interface belongs to the new subclass with $zeta eq zeta_{loc} eq zeta_s$ and $zeta_{loc} eq 1$. More importantly, we find that the transition field and critical exponents change with the initial orientations of the magnetization of the two ordered domains.
As an elementary particle the electron carries spin hbar/2 and charge e. When binding to the atomic nucleus it also acquires an angular momentum quantum number corresponding to the quantized atomic orbital it occupies (e.g., s, p or d). Even if elect
rons in solids form bands and delocalize from the nuclei, in Mott insulators they retain their three fundamental quantum numbers: spin, charge and orbital[1]. The hallmark of one-dimensional (1D) physics is a breaking up of the elementary electron into its separate degrees of freedom[2]. The separation of the electron into independent quasi-particles that carry either spin (spinons) or charge (holons) was first observed fifteen years ago[3]. Using Resonant Inelastic X-ray Scattering on the 1D Mott-insulator Sr2CuO3 we now observe also the orbital degree of freedom separating. We resolve an orbiton liberating itself from spinons and propagating through the lattice as a distinct quasi-particle with a substantial dispersion of ~0.2 eV.
With Monte Carlo methods, we investigate the universality class of the depinning transition in the two-dimensional Ising model with quenched random fields. Based on the short-time dynamic approach, we accurately determine the depinning transition fie
ld and both static and dynamic critical exponents. The critical exponents vary significantly with the form and strength of the random fields, but exhibit independence on the updating schemes of the Monte Carlo algorithm. From the roughness exponents $zeta, zeta_{loc}$ and $zeta_s$, one may judge that the depinning transition of the random-field Ising model belongs to the new dynamic universality class with $zeta eq zeta_{loc} eq zeta_s$ and $zeta_{loc} eq 1$. The crossover from the second-order phase transition to the first-order one is observed for the uniform distribution of the random fields, but it is not present for the Gaussian distribution.
With Monte Carlo methods we study the dynamic relaxation of a vortex state at the Kosterlitz-Thouless phase transition of the two-dimensional XY model. A local pseudo-magnetization is introduced to characterize the symmetric structure of the dynamic
systems. The dynamic scaling behavior of the pseudo-magnetization and Binder cumulant is carefully analyzed, and the critical exponents are determined. To illustrate the dynamic effect of the topological defect, similar analysis for the the dynamic relaxation with a spin-wave initial state is also performed for comparison. We demonstrate that a limited amount of quenched disorder in the core of the vortex state may alter the dynamic universality class. Further, theoretical calculations based on the long-wave approximation are presented.
We demonstrate numerically and experimentally a conjugated gammadion chiral metamaterial that uniaxially exhibits huge optical activity and circular dichroism, and gives a negative refractive index. This chiral design provides smaller unit cell size
and larger chirality compared with other published planar designs. Experiments are performed at GHz frequencies (around 6GHz) and in good agreement with the numerical simulations.
Much progress has been made recently in the study of the effects of electron-phonon (el-ph) coupling in doped insulators using angle resolved photoemission (ARPES), yielding evidence for the dominant role of el-ph interactions in underdoped cuprates.
As these studies have been limited to doped Mott insulators, the important question arises how this compares with doped band insulators where similar el-ph couplings should be at work. The archetypical case is the perovskite SrTiO$_3$ (STO), well known for its giant dielectric constant of 10000 at low temperature, exceeding that of La$_2$CuO$_4$ by a factor of 500. Based on this fact, it has been suggested that doped STO should be the archetypical bipolaron superconductor. Here we report an ARPES study from high-quality surfaces of lightly doped SrTiO$_3$. Comparing to lightly doped Mott insulators, we find the signatures of only moderate electron-phonon coupling: a dispersion anomaly associated with the low frequency optical phonon with a $lambdasim0.3$ and an overall bandwidth renormalization suggesting an overall $lambdasim0.7$ coming from the higher frequency phonons. Further, we find no clear signatures of the large pseudogap or small polaron phenomena. These findings demonstrate that a large dielectric constant itself is not a good indicator of el-ph coupling and highlight the unusually strong effects of the el-ph coupling in doped Mott insulators.
We demonstrate theoretically that one can obtain repulsive Casimir forces and stable nanolevitations by using chiral metamaterials. By extending the Lifshitz theory to treat chiral metamaterials, we find that a repulsive force and a minimum of the in
teraction energy exist for strong chirality, under realistic frequency dependencies and correct limiting values (for zero and infinite frequencies) of the permittivity, permeability, and chiral coefficients.
Using density functional theory we show that an applied electric field substantially improves the hydrogen storage properties of a BN sheet by polarizing the hydrogen molecules as well as the substrate. The adsorption energy of a single H2 molecule i
n the presence of an electric field of 0.05 a.u. is 0.48 eV compared to 0.07 eV in its absence. When one layer of H2 molecules is adsorbed, the binding energy per H2 molecule increases from 0.03 eV in the field-free case to 0.14 eV/H2 in the presence of an electric field of 0.045 a.u. The corresponding gravimetric density of 7.5 wt % is consistent with the 6 wt % system target set by DOE for 2010. Once the applied electric field is removed, the stored H2 molecules can be easily released, thus making the storage reversible.
We have studied the spin dynamics of a high-mobility two-dimensional electron system in a GaAs/Al_{0.3}Ga_{0.7}As single quantum well by time-resolved Faraday rotation and time-resolved Kerr rotation in dependence on the initial degree of spin polari
zation, P, of the electrons. By increasing the initial spin polarization from the low-P regime to a significant P of several percent, we find that the spin dephasing time, $T_2^ast$, increases from about 20 ps to 200 ps; Moreover, $T_2^ast$ increases with temperature at small spin polarization but decreases with temperature at large spin polarization. All these features are in good agreement with theoretical predictions by Weng and Wu [Phys. Rev. B {bf 68}, 075312 (2003)]. Measurements as a function of spin polarization at fixed electron density are performed to further confirm the theory. A fully microscopic calculation is performed by setting up and numerically solving the kinetic spin Bloch equations, including the Dyakonov-Perel and the Bir-Aronov-Pikus mechanisms, with {em all} the scattering explicitly included. We reproduce all principal features of the experiments, i.e., a dramatic decrease of spin dephasing with increasing $P$ and the temperature dependences at different spin polarizations.
