Star polymers with tunable number and size of arms, and thus interactions, represent ideal model systems for exploring the regime of soft material behaviour that interpolates between hard spheres and polymeric coils. This regime is characterized by a rich variety of properties that reflect the combination of polymeric and colloidal features. In this review we discuss some of these properties, a...

We present a numerical method for simulations of spinodal decomposition of liquid-vapor systems. The results are in excellent agreement with theoretical predictions for all expected time regimes from the initial growth of "homophase fluctuations" up to the inertial hydrodynamics regime. The numerical approach follows a modern formulation of the smoothed particle hydrodynamics method with a van ...

We study a minimal non-Markovian model of superdiffusion which originates from long-range velocity correlations within the generalized Langevin equation approach. The model allows for a three-dimensional Markovian embedding. The emergence of a transient hyperdiffusion, (Δx2(t))∝t(2+λ), with λ∼1-3 is detected in tilted washboard potentials before it ends up in a ballistic asymptotic regime. We r...

We study energetics of a Josephson tunnel junction connecting a superconducting loop pierced by an external magnetic flux (an rf SQUID) and coupled to two independent thermal reservoirs of different temperature. In the framework of the theory of quantum dissipative systems, we analyze energy currents in stationary states. The stationary energy flow can be periodically modulated by the external ...

We have investigated the superfluid properties of a ring of weakly interacting and degenerate 1D Bose gas at thermal equilibrium with a rotating vessel. The conventional definition of superfluidity predicts that the gas has a significant superfluid fraction only in the Bose condensed regime. In the opposite regime, it is found that a superfluid behaviour can still be identified when the probabi...

Coherent Rayleigh scattering (CRS) is studied in the high intensity regime, where the optical lattice potential approaches the thermal energy of the gas particles. We describe this optical-kinetic process using a 1-D Boltzmann equation with an arbitrary strong optical force and show that in this regime a line shape narrowing phenomenon is predicted and that the signal intensity saturates when c...

We consider the analytical investigation of the heat current in the steady state of the quantum harmonic chain of oscillators with alternate masses and self-consistent reservoirs. We analyze the thermal conductivity kappa and obtain interesting properties: in the high temperature regime, where quantum and classical descriptions coincide, kappa does not change with temperature, but it is quite s...

We present simulation results on the equilibrium relaxation of Brownian planar rotors based on a uniformly frustrated XY model on a square lattice. The rotational relaxation exhibits typical dynamic features of fragile supercooled liquids including the two-step relaxation. We observe a dynamic cross-over from high temperature regime with Arrhenius behavior to low temperaure regime with temeratu...

We present an extensive study of the unique thermal and mechanical dynamics for narrow-line cooling on the 1S0-3P1 88Sr transition. For negative detuning, trap dynamics reveal a transition from the semiclassical regime to the photon-recoil-dominated quantum regime, yielding an absolute minima in the equilibrium temperature below the single-photon-recoil limit. For positive detuning, the cloud d...

The linear stability of a shear layer in a highly diffusive stably stratified atmosphere has been investigated. This study completes and extends previous works by Dudis (1974) and Jones (1977). We show that (i) an asymptotic regime is reached in the limit of large thermal diffusivity, (ii) there exists two different types of unstable modes. The slowest growing modes correspond to predominantly ...