Condensed Matter Theory

Abstract:

Signal propagation in the nonequilibrium evolution after quantum quenches has recently attracted much experimental and theoretical interest. A key question arising in this context is what principles, and which of the properties of the quench, determine the characteristic propagation velocity. Here we investigate such issues for a class of quench protocols in one of the central paradigms of interacting many-particle quantum systems, the spin-1/2 Heisenberg XXZ chain. We consider quenches from a variety of initial thermal density matrices to the same final Hamiltonian using matrix product state methods. The spreading velocities are observed to vary substantially with the initial density matrix. However, we achieve a striking data collapse when the spreading velocity is considered to be a function of the excess energy. Using the fact that the XXZ chain is integrable, we present an explanation of the observed velocities in terms of "excitations" in an appropriately defined generalized Gibbs ensemble.

Abstract:

For ion channel gating, the appearance of two distinct conformational states and the discrete transitions between them are essential, and therefore of crucial importance to all living organisms. We show that the physical interplay between two structural elements that are commonly present in bacterial mechanosensitive channels--namely, a charged vestibule and a hydrophobic constriction--creates two distinct conformational states, open and closed, as well as the gating between them. We solve the nonequilibrium Stokes-Poisson-Nernst-Planck equations, extended to include a molecular potential of mean force, and show that a first order transition between the closed and open states arises naturally from the diffusio-osmotic stress caused by the ions and the water inside the channel and the elastic restoring force from the membrane.

Abstract:

The recent synthesis and characterisation of bilayers of vitreous silica has produced valuable new information on ring sizes and distributions. In this paper, we compare the ring statistics of experimental samples with computer generated samples. The average ring size is fixed at six by topology, but the width, skewness and other moments of the distribution of ring edges are characteristics of particular samples. We examine the Aboav-Weaire law that quantifies the propensity of smaller rings to be adjacent to larger rings, and find similar results for available experimental samples which however differ somewhat from computer-generated bilayers. We introduce a new law for the areas of rings of various sizes.