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At least 145 records · Page 8

Decoherence in Molecular Electron Spin Qubits: Insights from Quantum Many-Body Simulations

Quantum states are described by wave functions whose phases cannot be directly measured, but which play a vital role in quantum effects such as interference and entanglement. The loss of the relative phase information, termed decoherence, arises from the interactions between a quantum system and its environment. Decoherence is perhaps the biggest obstacle on the path to reliable quantum computing. Here we show that decoherence occurs even in an isolated molecule although not all phase information is lost via a theoretical study of a central electron spin qubit interacting with nearby nuclear spins in prototypical magnetic molecules. The residual coherence, which is molecule-dependent, provides a microscopic rationalization for the nuclear spin diffusion barrier proposed to explain experiments. The contribution of nearby molecules to the decoherence has a non-trivial dependence on separation, peaking at intermediate distances. Molecules that are far away only affect the long-time behavior. Because the residual coherence is simple to calculate and correlates well with the coherence time, it can be used as a descriptor for coherence in magnetic molecules. This work will help establish design principles for enhancing coherence in molecular spin qubits and serve to motivate further theoretical work

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

Nucleation and Growth of PbBrF Crystals at the Liquid Mercury–Electrolyte Interface Studied by Operando X-ray Scattering

In this work, detailed in operando studies of electrochemically induced PbBrF deposition at the liquid mercury/liquid electrolyte interface are presented. The nucleation and growth were monitored using time-resolved X-ray diffraction and reflectivity combined with electrochemical measurements, revealing a complex potential-dependent behavior. PbBrF deposition commences at potentials above –0.7 V with the rapid formation of an ultrathin adlayer of one unit cell thickness, on top of which (001)-oriented three-dimensional crystallites are formed. Two potential regimes are identified. At low overpotentials, slow growth of a low surface density film of large crystals is observed. At high overpotentials, crossover to a potential-independent morphology occurs, consisting of a compact PbBrF deposit with a saturation thickness of 25 nm, which forms within a few minutes. This potential behavior can be rationalized by the increasing supersaturation near the interface, caused by the potential-dependent Pb2+ deamalgamation, which changes from a slow reaction-controlled process to a fast transport-controlled process in this range of overpotentials. In addition, growth on the liquid substrate is found to involve complex micromechanical effects, such as crystal reorientation and film breakup during dissolution.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Nonlinear harmonics coupled by parallel wave propagations in a time-dependent plasma flow

In a time-dependent flow, nonlinear harmonics can be excited by coupling between linear waves and flow-induced harmonic waves. Examining the dispersion relations and selection rules for the coupling, we investigate nonlinearly coupled harmonics for waves propagating along the magnetic field line in a magnetized plasma, as well as waves in an unmagnetized plasma. The coupled harmonics in a plasma flow are described by analytic dispersion relations and selection rules. This nonlinear coupling is corroborated by the particle-in-cell simulation. Here, the coupled-harmonics model describes a mechanism for the excitation of nonlinear harmonics from linear waves in a time-dependent flow. The spectral analysis of the dispersion relation provides a useful way to evaluate the spatiotemporal behavior of a plasma flow.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

High Dose and Dose Rate 60 Co γ-Irradiation of High-Density Polyethylene

We have irradiated high-density polyethylene ribbons and cylinders to ~200 kGy at a dose rate of ~5 kGy day -1 , using a 60 Co source. The radiolytically-generated gas consists almost entirely of H 2 . Based on the time- and dose-dependence of the outgassing, we have determined the radiation- chemical yield for the evolved H 2 , as well as the diffusion coefficient of H 2 in HDPE. We find that the evolved gas yield G evolved depends on the interplay of sample geometry, experimental timescale, and the diffusion coefficient of H 2 in HDPE. When these factors facilitate completion of diffusion prior to gas quantification, such as for sub-mm-thickness ribbons, we measure a time- and dose-invariant value of G evolved = 0.0076 cm 3 std. H 2 J -1 that is in agreement with literature reports. When sample geometry and experiment timescale do not permit completion of diffusion, we measure a time- and dose-dependent value of G evolved . We have developed a model for the transient outgassing behavior of the cylinders, and fitted it to the experimental data. Based on these fits, we estimate a room-temperature diffusivity of D H 2 /HDPE ≈ 1.67 ± 0.12 x 10 -6 cm 2 s -1 for H 2 in HDPE, in good agreement with literature values. At present, the effects of dose rate and γ-photon energy on HDPE gas yield are not known and require further investigation.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

A Model for Pair Production Limit Cycles in Pulsar Magnetospheres

Abstract It was recently proposed that the electric field oscillation as a result of self-consistent e ± pair production may be the source of coherent radio emission from pulsars. Direct particle-in-cell simulations of this process have shown that the screening of the parallel electric field by this pair cascade manifests as a limit cycle, as the parallel electric field is recurrently induced when pairs produced in the cascade escape from the gap region. In this work, we develop a simplified time-dependent kinetic model of e ± pair cascades in pulsar magnetospheres that can reproduce the limit-cycle behavior of pair production and electric field screening. This model includes the effects of a magnetospheric current, the escape of e ± , as well as the dynamic dependence of pair production rate on the plasma density and energy. Using this simple theoretical model, we show that the power spectrum of electric field oscillations averaged over many limit cycles is compatible with the observed pulsar radio spectrum.

Astronomy & Astrophysics↗

Time-dependent experimental identification of inter-ELM microtearing modes in the tokamak edge on DIII-D

In a series of discharges on the DIII-D tokamak, fast vertical plasma jogs are used to induce current perturbations in the steep gradient region of the H-mode edge. These current perturbations directly influence the edge q profile, decoupling the resonant location and instability drive of pedestal-localized microtearing modes (MTMs.) By exploiting this effect, we develop and apply a new experimental technique to track the dynamical frequency evolution of MTMs in the pedestal region, providing a compelling validation of the MTM model. The frequency of potential MTMs is calculated as the Doppler-shifted electron diamagnetic frequency at rational q=m/n surfaces, showing remarkable agreement with chirped frequency behavior of n=3, 4 and 5 modes detected with fast magnetics. Data is collected throughout multiple ELM cycles in order to build robust statistics describing the time-dependent frequency evolution of MTMs, which can be explained by examining the recovery of pedestal gradients after an ELM event. MTMs have a dominant transport contribution in the electron thermal channel, so the presented results indicate that reduced models of pedestal transport must be electromagnetic in nature and constructed with accurate calculations of MTM stability; inclusion of this physics is essential for accurate predictions of the electron temperature pedestal profile. Supporting measurements of mode saturation, propagation direction and transport fingerprints are made to support the dynamic frequency determination, unambiguously and experimentally identifying MTMs in the pedestal region of DIII-D.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

Exploring the Origins of Anti-Ambipolarity in BBL Polymer: Links to Redox Chemistry, Electronic Structure, and Structural Dynamics

We examine the intrinsic physical-chemical properties of the conjugated ladder-type polymer poly(benzimidazobenzophenanthroline) (BBL) in response to electron transfer. We aim at explaining the origin of the anti-ambipolar behavior behind the observed BBL nonlinear response associated with specific device architectures. To elucidate this point, we use theory and computation based on first principles, including density functional theory optimizations, ab initio molecular dynamics, time-dependent DFT, and Marcus-theory analysis. Our results reveal that this redox response is not simply monotonic but follows an alternating odd/even pattern in which gap narrowing and reopening occur sequentially before near-gapless behavior emerges at high charging. Converging theoretical evidence in this work demonstrates that bell shaped conductivity in BBL originates in its fundamental electronic structure and supramolecular organization.

FOS: Physical sciences↗

Kinetics of Shear-Induced Structural Ordering in Dense Colloids

The macroscopic rheological response of a colloidal solution is highly correlated with the local microscopic structure, as revealed by an in situ Rheo-SAXS experiment with a high temporal resolution. Oscillatory shear can induce a strain-controlled ordering-to-disorder transition, resulting in a shear-thickening process that is different from the normal shear-thickening behavior that is driven by hydrodynamics and particle friction. Here, we reveal that there is a complex time-dependent kinetics toward structural ordering under different applied strains. When the strain amplitude reaches a critical value that starts to induce disordering in the system, the pathway toward the dynamic equilibrium can also become highly non-monotonic. Within the same oscillatory cycle, there is a strong correlation of ordering with different phases of the oscillation, with the system oscillating between two dynamic metastable states.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

The nonlinear rheology of complex yield stress foods

Many foods have a yield stress that allows them to retain a desired shape at rest, but transition into a viscous fluid when being served or consumed. The determination of the yield stress of the food dictates how the foods are formed and packaged, how they are served, and how they are perceived when being eaten. Oscillatory shearing provides an ideal test protocol to map the rheology across a range of time and flow strength scales. We couple oscillatory shearing and an iterative recovery procedure to show that the yielding process is a continuous transition for two common yield stress foods. We show that unrecoverable processes from oscillatory tests are equivalent to the steady shear flow behavior. We show that this yielding behavior can be well approximated by a recently published model that treats yield stress materials as continuous viscoelastic fluids with a rate-dependent relaxation time and has parameters that can be obtained from the linear viscoelastic oscillatory frequency sweep and the steady shear flow curve.

Griebler, James J.↗

Hidden domain boundary dynamics toward crystalline perfection

A central paradigm of nonequilibrium physics concerns the dynamics of heterogeneity and disorder, impacting processes ranging from the behavior of glasses to the emergent functionality of active matter. Understanding these complex mesoscopic systems requires probing the microscopic trajectories associated with irreversible processes, the role of fluctuations and entropy growth, and the timescales on which nonequilibrium responses are ultimately maintained. Approaches that illuminate these processes in model systems may enable a more general understanding of other heterogeneous nonequilibrium phenomena, and potentially define ultimate speed and energy cost limits for information processing technologies. Here, we apply ultrafast single-shot X-ray photon correlation spectroscopy to resolve the nonequilibrium, heterogeneous, and irreversible mesoscale dynamics during a light-induced phase transition in a (PbTiO 3 ) 16 /(SrTiO 3 ) 16 superlattice. Such ferroelectric superlattice systems are a useful platform to study phase transitions and topological dynamics due to their high degree of tunability. This provides an approach for capturing the nucleation of the light-induced phase, the formation of transient mesoscale defects at the boundaries of the nuclei, and the eventual annihilation of these defects, even in systems with complex polarization topologies. We identify a nonequilibrium correlation response spanning >10 orders of magnitude in timescales, with multistep behavior similar to the plateaus observed in supercooled liquids and glasses. We further show how the observed time-dependent long-time correlations can be understood in terms of stochastic and non-Markovian dynamics of domain walls, encoded in waiting-time distributions with power-law tails. This work defines possibilities for probing the nonequilibrium and correlated dynamics of disordered and heterogeneous media.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

A Model Predictive Control to Improve Grid Resilience

The following article details a model predictive control (MPC) to improve grid resilience when faced with variable generation resources. This topic is of significant interest to utility power systems where distributed intermittent energy sources will increase significantly and be relied on for electric grid ancillary services. Previous work on MPCs has focused on narrowly targeted control applications such as improving electric vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure or reducing the cost of integrating Energy Storage Systems (ESSs) into the grid. In contrast, this article develops a comprehensive treatment of the construction of an MPC tailored to electric grids and then applies it integration of intermittent energy resources. To accomplish this, the following article includes a description of a reduced order model (ROM) of an electric power grid based on a circuit model, an optimization formulation that describes the MPC, a collocation method for solving linear time-dependent differential algebraic equations (DAEs) that result from the ROM, and an overall strategy for iteratively refining the behavior of the MPC. Next, the algorithm is validated using two separate numerical experiments. First, the algorithm is compared to an existing MPC code and the results are verified by a numerically precise simulation. It is shown that this algorithm produces a control comparable to existing algorithms and the behavior of the control carefully respects the bounds specified. Second, the MPC is applied to a small nine bus system that contains a mix of turbine-spinning-machine-based and intermittent generation in order to demonstrate the algorithm’s utility for resource planning and control of intermittent resources. This study demonstrates how the MPC can be tuned to change the behavior of the control, which can then assist with the integration of intermittent resources into the grid. The emphasis throughout the paper is to provide systematic treatment of the topic and produce a novel nonlinear control compatible design framework applicable to electric grids and the control of variable resources. This differs from the more targeted application-based focus in most presentations.

microgrid↗

Analytical solution for nonadiabatic quantum annealing to arbitrary Ising spin Hamiltonian

Abstract Ising spin Hamiltonians are often used to encode a computational problem in their ground states. Quantum Annealing (QA) computing searches for such a state by implementing a slow time-dependent evolution from an easy-to-prepare initial state to a low energy state of a target Ising Hamiltonian of quantum spins, H I . Here, we point to the existence of an analytical solution for such a problem for an arbitrary H I beyond the adiabatic limit for QA. This solution provides insights into the accuracy of nonadiabatic computations. Our QA protocol in the pseudo-adiabatic regime leads to a monotonic power-law suppression of nonadiabatic excitations with time T of QA, without any signature of a transition to a glass phase, which is usually characterized by a logarithmic energy relaxation. This behavior suggests that the energy relaxation can differ in classical and quantum spin glasses strongly, when it is assisted by external time-dependent fields. In specific cases of H I , the solution also shows a considerable quantum speedup in computations.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗

Soft gluon emission at two loops in full color

The soft emission factor is a central ingredient in the factorization of generic n-particle gauge theory amplitudes with one soft gluon in the external state. We present the complete two-loop soft factor, capturing the leading power behavior in the soft-gluon momentum. At two loops, the color structure and the kinematic dependence of the soft factor become nontrivial as the soft gluon can couple to three hard partons for the first time (tripole terms). The nontrivial kinematic dependence of the tripole terms is of uniform, maximal transcendental weight, and can be expressed (in a “Euclidean” region) in terms of single-valued harmonic polylogarithms. Our results are consistent with the behavior of the recently computed symbol of the two-loop five-particle amplitude in $Ν$ = 4 super-Yang-Mills theory. In the limit where the outgoing soft gluon is also collinear with an incoming hard parton, potentially dangerous factorization-violating terms can arise.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

Modeling kinetic effects of charged vacancies on electromechanical responses of ferroelectrics: Rayleighian approach

Understanding the time-dependent effects of charged vacancies on the electromechanical responses of materials is at the forefront of research for designing materials exhibiting metal-insulator transitions and memristive behavior. A Rayleighian approach is used to develop a model for studying the nonlinear kinetics of the reaction leading to generation of vacancies and electrons via the dissociation of vacancy-electron pairs. Also, diffusion and elastic effects of charged vacancies are considered to model polarization-electric potential and strain-electric potential hysteresis loops. The model captures multiphysics phenomena by introducing couplings among polarization, the electric potential, stress, strain, and concentrations of charged (multivalent) vacancies and electrons (treated as classical negatively charged particles), where the concentrations can vary due to association-dissociation reactions. A derivation of coupled time-dependent equations based on the Rayleighian approach is presented. Three limiting cases of the governing equations are considered, highlighting the effects of (1) nonlinear reaction kinetics on the generation of charged vacancies and electrons, (2) Vegard's law (i.e., the concentration-dependent local strain) on asymmetric strain-electric potential relations, and (3) coupling between a fast component and the slow component of the net polarization on the polarization-electric-field relations. The Rayleighian approach discussed in this work should pave the way for developing a multiscale modeling framework in a thermodynamically consistent manner while capturing multiphysics phenomena in ferroelectric materials. Published by the American Physical Society 2025

Kumar, Rajeev (ORCID:0000000194943488)↗

Neuromorphic learning with Mott insulator NiO

Habituation and sensitization (nonassociative learning) are among the most fundamental forms of learning and memory behavior present in organisms that enable adaptation and learning in dynamic environments. Emulating such features of intelligence found in nature in the solid state can serve as inspiration for algorithmic simulations in artificial neural networks and potential use in neuromorphic computing. In this work, we demonstrate nonassociative learning with a prototypical Mott insulator, nickel oxide (NiO), under a variety of external stimuli at and above room temperature. Similar to biological species such as Aplysia, habituation and sensitization of NiO possess time-dependent plasticity relying on both strength and time interval between stimuli. A combination of experimental approaches and first-principles calculations reveals that such learning behavior of NiO results from dynamic modulation of its defect and electronic structure. An artificial neural network model inspired by such nonassociative learning is simulated to show advantages for an unsupervised clustering task in accuracy and reducing catastrophic interference, which could help mitigate the stability–plasticity dilemma. Mott insulators can therefore serve as building blocks to examine learning behavior noted in biology and inspire new learning algorithms for artificial intelligence.

42 ENGINEERING↗

Transition between protein-like and polymer-like dynamic behavior: Internal friction in unfolded apomyoglobin depends on denaturing conditions

Equilibrium dynamics of different folding intermediates and denatured states is strongly connected to the exploration of the conformational space on the nanosecond time scale and might have implications in understanding protein folding. For the first time, the same protein system apomyoglobin has been investigated using neutron spin-echo spectroscopy in different states: native-like, partially folded (molten globule) and completely unfolded, following two different unfolding paths: using acid or guanidinium chloride (GdmCl). While the internal dynamics of the native-like state can be understood using normal mode analysis based on high resolution structural information of myoglobin, for the unfolded and even for the molten globule states, models from polymer science are employed. The Zimm model accurately describes the slowly-relaxing, expanded GdmCl-denaturated state, ignoring the individuality of the different aminoacid side chain. The dynamics of the acid unfolded and molten globule state are similar in the framework of the Zimm model with internal friction, where the chains still interact and hinder each other: the first Zimm relaxation time is as large as the internal friction time. Transient formation of secondary structure elements in the acid unfolded and presence of α-helices in the molten globule state lead to internal friction to a similar extent.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

Effect of Mg doping on carrier recombination in GaN

Time-resolved photoluminescence measurements have been performed on Mg-doped GaN for Mg concentrations in the low- to mid-10 19 cm -3 . As-grown and annealed (600–675 °C) samples were studied. In the as-grown samples, the nonradiative carrier lifetime was found to be about 200 ps and nearly independent of the Mg concentration. Upon annealing, the carrier lifetimes shorten to ~150 ps but, again, show little dependence on the annealing temperature. The analysis of possible Shockley–Read–Hall recombination centers and their behavior during doping and annealing suggests that the main nonradiative recombination center is the Mg–nitrogen vacancy complex. The weak dependence of the PL decay times on temperature indicates that carrier capture into this center has a very low potential barrier, and the nonradiative recombination dominates even at low temperatures.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗