Electrodynamical Light Trapping Using Whispering-Gallery Resonances in Hyperbolic Cavities
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We develop a numerical approach for simulating light-induced charge transport dynamics across a metal-molecule-metal conductance junction. The finite-difference time-domain method is used to simulate the plasmonic response of the metal structures. The Huygens subgridding technique, as adapted to Lorentz media, is used to bridge the vastly disparate length scales of the plasmonic metal electrodes and the molecular system, maintaining accuracy. The charge and current densities calculated with classical electrodynamics are transformed to an electronic wavefunction, which is then propagated through the molecular linker via the Heisenberg equations of motion. We focus mainly on development of the theory and exemplify our approach by a numerical illustration of a simple system consisting of two silver cylinders bridged by a three-site molecular linker. The electronic subsystem exhibits fascinating light driven dynamics, wherein the charge density oscillates at the driving optical frequency, exhibiting also the natural system timescales, and a resonance phenomenon leads to strong conductance enhancement.
We show how quantum many-body systems on hyperbolic lattices with nearest-neighbor hopping and local interactions can be mapped onto quantum field theories in continuous negatively curved space. Here, the underlying lattices have recently been realized experimentally with superconducting resonators and therefore allow for a table-top quantum simulation of quantum physics in curved background. Our mapping provides a computational tool to determine observables of the discrete system even for large lattices, where exact diagonalization fails. As an application and proof of principle we quantitatively reproduce the ground state energy, spectral gap, and correlation functions of the noninteracting lattice system by means of analytic formulas on the Poincaré disk, and show how conformal symmetry emerges for large lattices. This sets the stage for studying interactions and disorder on hyperbolic graphs in the future. Importantly, our analysis reveals that even relatively small discrete hyperbolic lattices emulate the continuous geometry of negatively curved space, and thus can be used to experimentally resolve fundamental open problems at the interface of interacting many-body systems, quantum field theory in curved space, and quantum gravity.
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In this work, we consider a theory of a two-component Dirac fermion localized on a (2+1) dimensional brane coupled to a (3+1) dimensional bulk. Using the fermionic particle-vortex duality, we show that the theory has a strong-weak duality that maps the coupling e to $\tilde{e}$=(8π)/e. We explore the theory at e 2 =8π where it is self-dual. The electrical conductivity of the theory is a constant independent of frequency. When the system is at finite density and magnetic field at filling factor ν=$\frac{1}{2}$, the longitudinal and Hall conductivity satisfies a semicircle law, and the ratio of the longitudinal and Hall thermal electric coefficients is completely determined by the Hall angle. Lastly, the thermal Hall conductivity is directly related to the thermal electric coefficients.
Strong ionization on close-in extrasolar giant planets (EGPs) suggests that their atmospheres may be affected by ion drag and resistive heating arising from wind-driven electrodynamics. Recent models of ion drag on these planets, however, are based on thermal ionization only and do not include the upper atmosphere above the 1 mbar level. These models are also based on simplified equations of resistive magnetohydrodynamics that are not always valid in extrasolar planet atmospheres. We show that photoionization dominates over thermal ionization over much of the dayside atmosphere above the 100 mbar level, creating an upper ionosphere dominated by ionization of H and He and a lower ionosphere dominated by ionization of metals such as Na, K, and Mg. The resulting dayside electron densities on close-in exoplanets are higher than those encountered in any planetary ionosphere of the solar system, and the conductivities are comparable to the chromosphere of the Sun. Based on these results and assumed magnetic fields, we constrain the conductivity regimes on close-in EGPs and use a generalized Ohm's law to study the basic effects of electrodynamics in their atmospheres. We find that ion drag is important above the 10 mbar level where it can also significantly alter the energy balance through resistive heating. Due to frequent collisions of the electrons and ions with the neutral atmosphere, however, ion drag is largely negligible in the lower atmosphere below the 10 mbar level for a reasonable range of planetary magnetic moments. We find that the atmospheric conductivity decreases by several orders of magnitude in the night side of tidally locked planets, leading to a potentially interesting large-scale dichotomy in electrodynamics between the day and night sides. A combined approach that relies on UV observations of the upper atmosphere, phase curve and Doppler measurements of global dynamics, and visual transit observations to probe the alkali metals can potentially be used to constrain electrodynamics in the future.
Standard axion electrodynamics has two closely related features. First, the coupling of a massless axion field to photons is quantized, in units proportional to the electric gauge coupling squared. Second, the equations of motion tell us that a time-dependent axion field in a background magnetic field sources an effective electric current, but a time-dependent axion field in a background electric field has no effect. These properties, which manifestly violate electric-magnetic duality, play a crucial role in experimental searches for axions. Recently, electric-magnetic duality has been used to motivate the possible existence of non-standard axion couplings, which can both violate the usual quantization rule and exchange the roles of electric and magnetic fields in axion electrodynamics. We show that these non-standard couplings can be derived from SL(2,Z) duality, but that they come at a substantial cost: in non-standard axion electrodynamics, all electrically charged particles become dyons when the axion traverses its field range, in a dual form of the standard Witten effect monodromy. This implies that there are dyons near the weak scale, leads to a large axion mass induced by Standard Model fermion loops, and dramatically alters Higgs physics. We conclude that non-standard axion electrodynamics, although interesting to consider in abstract quantum field theory, is not phenomenologically viable.
Purpose: To develop a simulation to catalyze a reevaluation of common assumptions about 3 dimensional diffusive processes and help cell biologists gain a more nuanced, intuitive understanding of the true physical hurdles of protein signaling cascades. Furthermore, to discuss the possibility of intracellular electrodynamics as a critical, unrecognized component of cellular biology and protein dynamics that is necessary for optimal information flow from the cell membrane to the nucleus. Methods: The Unity 3D gaming physics engine was used to build an accurate virtual scale model of the cytoplasm within a few hundred nanometers of the nuclear membrane. A cloud of simulated pERK proteins is controlled by the physics simulation, where diffusion is based on experimentally measured values and the electrodynamics are based on theoretical nano-fluid dynamics. The trajectories of pERK within the cytoplasm and through the 1250 nuclear pores on the nuclear surface is recorded and analyzed. Results: The simulation quickly demonstrates that pERKs moving solely by diffusion will rarely locate and come within capture distance of a nuclear pore. The addition of intracellular electrodynamics between charges on the nuclear pore complexes and on pERKs increases the number of successful translocations by allowing the electro-physical attractive effects to draw in pERKs from the cytoplasm. The effects of changes in intracellular shielding ion concentrations allowed for estimation of the “capture radius” under varying conditions. Conclusion: The simulation allows a shift in perspective that is paramount in attempting to communicate the scale and dynamics of intracellular protein cascade mechanics. This work has allowed researchers to more fully understand the parameters involved in intracellular electrodynamics, such as shielding anion concentration and protein charge. As these effects are still far below the spatial resolution of currently available measurement technology this simulation is invaluable to researchers to visualize and study current hypotheses concerning protein dynamics.
The parametrized Dirac wave equation represents position and time as operators, and can be formulated for many particles. It thus provides, unlike field-theoretic Quantum Electrodynamics (QED), an elementary and unrestricted representation of electrons entangled in space or time. The parametrized formalism leads directly and without further conjecture to the Bethe–Salpeter equation for bound states. The formalism also yields the Uehling shift of the hydrogenic spectrum, the anomalous magnetic moment of the electron to leading order in the fine structure constant, the Lamb shift and the axial anomaly of QED. -- Highlights: •First-quantized electrodynamics of the parametrized Dirac equation is developed. •Unrestricted entanglement in time is made explicit. •Bethe and Salpeter’s equation for relativistic bound states is derived without further conjecture. •One-loop scattering corrections and the axial anomaly are derived using a partial summation. •Wide utility of semi-classical Quantum Electrodynamics is argued.
We analyze the behavior of shock waves in nonlinear theories of electrodynamics. For this, by use of generalized Hadamard step functions of increasing order, the electromagnetic potential is developed in a series expansion near the shock wave front. This brings about a corresponding expansion of the respective electromagnetic field equations which allows for deriving relations that determine the jump coefficients in the expansion series of the potential. We compute the components of a suitable gauge-normalized version of the jump coefficients given for a prescribed tetrad compatible with the shock front foliation. The solution of the first-order jump relations shows that, in contrast to linear Maxwell’s electrodynamics, in general the propagation of shock waves in nonlinear theories is governed by optical metrics and polarization conditions describing the propagation of two differently polarized waves (leading to a possible appearance of birefringence). In detail, shock waves are analyzed in the Born and Born–Infeld theories verifying that the Born–Infeld model exhibits no birefringence and the Born model does. The obtained results are compared to those ones found in literature. New results for the polarization of the two different waves are derived for Born-type electrodynamics.
We review a relationship between cosmological vacuum energy and massive gravitons as given by Garattini and also the nonlinear electrodynamics of Camara et.al (2004) for a non singular universe and NLED. . In evaluating the Garattini result, we find that having the scale factor close to zero due to a given magnetic field value in, an early universe magnetic field affects how we would interpret Garattini’s linkage of the ‘cosmological constant’ value and non zero graviton mass.. We close as to how these initial conditions affect the issue of an early universe initial pressure and its experimental similarities and differences with results by Corda and Questa as to negative pressure at the surface of a star. Note, that in theDupays et.al. article , the star in question is rapidly spinning, which is not. assumed in the Camara et.al article , for an early universe. Also, Corda and Questa do not assume a spinning star. We conclude with a comparison between the Lagrangian Dupays and other authors bring up for non linear electrodynamics which is for rapidly spinning neutron stars , and a linkage between the Goldstone theorem and NLED. Our conclusion is for generalizing results seen in the Dupays neutron star Lagrangian with conditions which may confirm C. A. Escobar and L. F. Urrutia’s work on the Goldstone theorem and non linear electrodynamics, for some future projects we have in mind. If the universe does not spin, then we will stick with the density analogy given by adapting density as proportional to one over the fourth power of the minimum value of the scale factor as computed by adaptation of the Camara et.al.(2004) theory for non spinning universes. What may happen is that the Camara (2004) density and Quintessential density are both simultaneously satisfied, which would put additional restrictions on the magnetic field, which is one of our considerations, regardless if a universe spins, akin to spinning neutron stars. The spinning universe though may allow for easier reconciliation of the ‘Goldstone’ behavior of gravity and NLED though.
The nonlinear electrodynamics influence of pulsar magnetic field on the electromagnetic pulse polarization is discussed from the point of observation interpretation. The calculations of pulsar magnetic field impact on the electromagnetic pulse polarization are made in such a way to make it easier to interpret these effects in space experiments. The law of hard emission pulse propagation in the pulsar magnetic field according to the vacuum (nonlinear electrodynamics is obtained. It has been shown, that due to the birefringence in the vacuum the front part of any hard emission pulse coming from a pulsar should be linearly polarized and the rest of pulse can have arbitrary polarization. The observational possibilities of vacuum birefringence are discussed. In this paper we give the estimations of detector parameters such as effective area, exposure time and necessity of polarization measurements with high accuracy. The combination of large area and extremely long exposure time gives the good opportunity to search the fine polarization effects like vacuum nonlinear electrodynamics birefringence.
Over the past decade, techno-economical advancements in solar energy systems, particularly the improvement in the conversion efficiency of PV modules made with mono-crystalline silicon solar cells from 12% to 20%, as well as the cost reduction in manufacturing by a factor of about 10%, have made it possible to achieve a levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) in PV plants that is comparable to, or less than, the cost of deriving electricity from fossil fuels. Operating PV plants in mid-latitude sun-belt regions, where the solar irradiance level is highest, provides a high annual energy-yield (kWh/kWp) due to two factors: (1) the availability of predictable high solar irradiance throughout the year with the fewest interruptions in solar flux from clouds and rain, and (2) the increased conversion efficiency of crystalline solar cells, as recombination loss has decreased with increased intensity of the sunlight that illuminates the silicon solar cells. Semi-arid and desert regions, however, are plagued by high atmospheric dust concentrations and frequent sand storms. The deposition of a layer of dust on the optical surfaces of solar collectors such as PV modules and concentrating mirrors reduces the transmission efficiency of sunlight that actually reaches the solar cells or receivers, resulting in high energy-yield soiling loss. There are two major cost components to operating a solar plant: (1) installation costs, and (2) operation-and-maintenance (O&M) costs. There is no fuel cost; hence operating a solar plant in a semi-arid or desert region provides high returns on investment if soiling losses are mitigated via efficient cleaning methods and optimized cleaning frequency. If solar collectors are not cleaned, the accumulation of dust layers on solar collectors may cause the operation of such plants in arid regions to become economically unviable. Washing solar collectors with water and detergent, as is most commonly done now, is an efficient method for cleaning. The conventional approach in utility-scale solar plants is to use a large truck with a water tank and pump system for spraying deionized water on the surface of the solar collectors. Robotic cleaning with brushes, used for many solar plants, requires lesser water for cleaning. The water consumed using semi-automated cleaning of PV modules in utility-scale solar plants is approximately 2 liters/m 2 per cleaning cycle. The total optical surface area of the solar collectors in 1 TW-scale solar installation will be more than 3 × 109 m 2 ; hence an enormous amount of water be needed for cleaning. There simply is not enough fresh water in the sun-belt areas of the world for predicted cleaning needs. In solar power plants, the estimated cost of cleaning solar collectors includes expenses related to the equipment used, labor, cost of transportation of water, the energy required for cleaning, plus ancillary costs whereas the cost of water is not considered. The water used is obtained from sources located close to plant sites, unmindful of the environmental and societal impact as the power plants are oftentimes located in regions that face severe drought. This practice is very similar to the cost calculations in deriving the levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) in conventional power plants based on burning fossil fuel such as coal and gas, while disregarding the cost of climate change and health effects. Unless a water-free or low-water cleaning method is established, the expansion of solar plants may lose public support in areas suffering long intervals of drought. The goal of this research project has been the development and application of the Electrodynamic Screen (EDS) as a means for a water-free, scalable cleaning process applicable to solar-power installations, including rooftop applications. We describe here the development of an EDS film-based cleaning process as an emerging method for use on PV modules, parabolic troughs, and heliostats. This report aims to show the feasibility of integrating or retrofitting EDS films onto the optical surfaces of solar collectors (both PV and CSP) while maintaining high transmission or reflection efficiency. The cleaning action provided by the EDS film is an active method to remove dust deposits by electrodynamic force. Current lab-scale prototype EDS films, retrofitted onto solar panels and mirrors, have shown to be capable of maintaining optical transmission or specular-reflection efficiencies higher than 90% of initial values under clean conditions. The optical surfaces of solar collectors laminated with EDS films can remove more than 90% of deposited dust when the EDS is activated for less than two minutes. As an electrodynamic dust removal process, the EDS film-based method is designed primarily for the removal of dust in solar installations located in semi-arid and desert areas, where the atmosphere is often dry and dusty and rainfall is infrequent. While EDS film application minimizes water consumption and facilitates cleaning as frequently as needed, it has limitations in removing contaminants such as soot, organic pollutants deposited as fine films on the surface, and bird droppings. The dust removal efficiency of the EDS is maximum at relative humidity RH is 40 to 50% and decreases at when RH > 65%. Many solar plant sites undergo diurnal and seasonal cycles of high ambient, early afternoon temperatures and an RH that reaches the dew point early in the morning. These variations in atmospheric conditions do not limit the operation of the EDS film. This report presents a brief review of the progress and the potential of EDS film technology for mitigating the impact of dust on solar collectors via water-free cleaning, as well as current technical challenges regarding efficiency and durability. Our experimental data on the performance of EDS films show that: (1) the dust-removal efficiency (DRE) can reach levels higher than 90%, (2) the specular reflectivity (SR) of EDS film-laminated second-surface mirrors reach levels in excess of 90%, (3) the specular reflectivity restoration (SRR) can exceed 90%, (4) the output-power restoration (OPR) of PV modules can exceed 95%, and (5) the optical transmission efficiency (TE) of the EDS films can be greater than 90%. Working with Sandia National Laboratories (NM), Corning Research and Development Corporation (NY), Eastman Kodak (NY), Tomark-Worthen Industries (NH), and EDS Chile SPA (Chile), we have produced EDS film-laminated PV modules and demonstrated their self-cleaning functions without requiring water. We have demonstrated that the operational range of EDS films will cover the expected ambient temperature of solar fields at RH cycling varying from 20 to 95% as long as the EDS films are activated in the RH range 20 to 50%. (Typical solar-field climates in deserts and semi-arid lands often reach near dew point in coastal areas.) Our experiments on the application of hydrophobic-fluorinated nanoparticle coatings on EDS film surfaces show that the EDS operational range can be extended to higher RH levels that approach the dew point. At Eastman Kodak, as one of our industrial partners, we were able to establish a process for manufacturing EDS films using flexographic printing of the electrodes onto transparent polymer films. This process utilizes an existing manufacturing line at Eastman Kodak that allows fabrication of medium-scale EDS films (26 cm × 30 cm). The manufacturing process has the capacity to produce EDS films at high production speeds. The medium-scale EDS films that have been printed at Kodak were evaluated in the lab at Boston University. The EDS films produced at Kodak were laminated at Tomark-Worthen using an industrial scale vacuum laminator to produce EDS film stacks, which can be affixed onto the optical surfaces of PV modules or concentrating mirrors. The EDS film stack consists of the EDS films that have Willow® Glass (WG) which has a thickness of 100 μm as the front surface. The WG sheets obtained from Corning Research and Development Corporation are customized in size and shape to cover the active area of the EDS films. The back surface of the EDS film stack is integrated onto the optical surface of the solar panel or mirror using optically clear adhesive (OCA) films or silicone adhesives. The OCA films (thickness 25 μm) are produced by 3M. The EDS film stacks have the architecture: WG/OCA/EDS Film/OCA/ over PV module or solar mirror. The power-supply units needed for activating the electrodes of the EDS film were designed and produced at Boston University. These power supply units provide three-phase, 1.2 kV voltage pulses at a very low current (micro-ampere) level and at a low frequency (≈ 5 Hz). The voltage pulses are applied to the electrodes in a sequence such that the train of pulses resembles a unidirectional traveling wave of electrical field on the surface of the EDS film. The dust particles on the surface become charged electrostatically and are levitated by the Coulomb force. The lateral sweeping action of the traveling electric field created by the three-phase voltages pulses then sweeps the dust off the surface. The energy consumed by the EDS electrodes is less than 0.2 Wh/m 2 /cleaning cycle, enabling energy-efficient restoration of output power (OPR) of PV module or specular reflectivity restoration (SRR) for solar mirrors. The EDS system consists of (1) an EDS film stack laminated onto the solar collectors, (2) connection of the EDS film to its power supply unit and (3) Interconnection of the power supply to PV modules or solar mirrors. Design, construction and assessment of field-testing units that have EDS stack laminated PV modules for evaluating the performance of the EDS films in solar fields is being carried out at BU. Our progress under this project, aimed at the advancement of EDS film technology, has reached DOE Technology Readiness Level (TRL) 6. Based on the extensive laboratory evaluations and limited field trials, as well as contacts with potential users, we believe that the technology has reached its commercial stage. We are conducting a cost analysis using the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) System Advisory Model (SAM) and are preparing for field trials of EDS films in different solar fields in the US, Chile, India and in the Middle East. A brief description of EDS film performance, construction and testing of the field-test unit, autonomous operation of the field-test unit for evaluating EDS performance in increasing energy yield, associated revenue savings, and water conservation is presented.