@misc{FeldmannMaduarSanteretal.2016, author = {Feldmann, David and Maduar, Salim R. and Santer, Mark and Lomadze, Nino and Vinogradova, Olga I. and Santer, Svetlana}, title = {Manipulation of small particles at solid liquid interface}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-100338}, pages = {10}, year = {2016}, abstract = {The strong adhesion of sub-micron sized particles to surfaces is a nuisance, both for removing contaminating colloids from surfaces and for conscious manipulation of particles to create and test novel micro/nano-scale assemblies. The obvious idea of using detergents to ease these processes suffers from a lack of control: the action of any conventional surface-modifying agent is immediate and global. With photosensitive azobenzene containing surfactants we overcome these limitations. Such photo-soaps contain optical switches (azobenzene molecules), which upon illumination with light of appropriate wavelength undergo reversible trans-cis photo-isomerization resulting in a subsequent change of the physico-chemical molecular properties. In this work we show that when a spatial gradient in the composition of trans- and cis- isomers is created near a solid-liquid interface, a substantial hydrodynamic flow can be initiated, the spatial extent of which can be set, e.g., by the shape of a laser spot. We propose the concept of light induced diffusioosmosis driving the flow, which can remove, gather or pattern a particle assembly at a solid-liquid interface. In other words, in addition to providing a soap we implement selectivity: particles are mobilized and moved at the time of illumination, and only across the illuminated area.}, language = {en} } @misc{deCarvalhoMetzlerCherstvy2016, author = {de Carvalho, Sidney J. and Metzler, Ralf and Cherstvy, Andrey G.}, title = {Critical adsorption of polyelectrolytes onto planar and convex highly charged surfaces}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-100295}, pages = {17}, year = {2016}, abstract = {We study the adsorption-desorption transition of polyelectrolyte chains onto planar, cylindrical and spherical surfaces with arbitrarily high surface charge densities by massive Monte Carlo computer simulations. We examine in detail how the well known scaling relations for the threshold transition—demarcating the adsorbed and desorbed domains of a polyelectrolyte near weakly charged surfaces—are altered for highly charged interfaces. In virtue of high surface potentials and large surface charge densities, the Debye-H{\"u}ckel approximation is often not feasible and the nonlinear Poisson-Boltzmann approach should be implemented. At low salt conditions, for instance, the electrostatic potential from the nonlinear Poisson-Boltzmann equation is smaller than the Debye-H{\"u}ckel result, such that the required critical surface charge density for polyelectrolyte adsorption σc increases. The nonlinear relation between the surface charge density and electrostatic potential leads to a sharply increasing critical surface charge density with growing ionic strength, imposing an additional limit to the critical salt concentration above which no polyelectrolyte adsorption occurs at all. We contrast our simulations findings with the known scaling results for weak critical polyelectrolyte adsorption onto oppositely charged surfaces for the three standard geometries. Finally, we discuss some applications of our results for some physical-chemical and biophysical systems.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Daschewski2016, author = {Daschewski, Maxim}, title = {Thermophony in real gases}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-98866}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {79}, year = {2016}, abstract = {A thermophone is an electrical device for sound generation. The advantages of thermophones over conventional sound transducers such as electromagnetic, electrostatic or piezoelectric transducers are their operational principle which does not require any moving parts, their resonance-free behavior, their simple construction and their low production costs. In this PhD thesis, a novel theoretical model of thermophonic sound generation in real gases has been developed. The model is experimentally validated in a frequency range from 2 kHz to 1 MHz by testing more then fifty thermophones of different materials, including Carbon nano-wires, Titanium, Indium-Tin-Oxide, different sizes and shapes for sound generation in gases such as air, argon, helium, oxygen, nitrogen and sulfur hexafluoride. Unlike previous approaches, the presented model can be applied to different kinds of thermophones and various gases, taking into account the thermodynamic properties of thermophone materials and of adjacent gases, degrees of freedom and the volume occupied by the gas atoms and molecules, as well as sound attenuation effects, the shape and size of the thermophone surface and the reduction of the generated acoustic power due to photonic emission. As a result, the model features better prediction accuracy than the existing models by a factor up to 100. Moreover, the new model explains previous experimental findings on thermophones which can not be explained with the existing models. The acoustic properties of the thermophones have been tested in several gases using unique, highly precise experimental setups comprising a Laser-Doppler-Vibrometer combined with a thin polyethylene film which acts as a broadband and resonance-free sound-pressure detector. Several outstanding properties of the thermophones have been demonstrated for the first time, including the ability to generate arbitrarily shaped acoustic signals, a greater acoustic efficiency compared to conventional piezoelectric and electrostatic airborne ultrasound transducers, and applicability as powerful and tunable sound sources with a bandwidth up to the megahertz range and beyond. Additionally, new applications of thermophones such as the study of physical properties of gases, the thermo-acoustic gas spectroscopy, broad-band characterization of transfer functions of sound and ultrasound detection systems, and applications in non-destructive materials testing are discussed and experimentally demonstrated.}, language = {en} } @misc{CherstvyMetzler2016, author = {Cherstvy, Andrey G. and Metzler, Ralf}, title = {Anomalous diffusion in time-fluctuating non-stationary diffusivity landscapes}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-95901}, pages = {23840 -- 23852}, year = {2016}, abstract = {We investigate the ensemble and time averaged mean squared displacements for particle diffusion in a simple model for disordered media by assuming that the local diffusivity is both fluctuating in time and has a deterministic average growth or decay in time. In this study we compare computer simulations of the stochastic Langevin equation for this random diffusion process with analytical results. We explore the regimes of normal Brownian motion as well as anomalous diffusion in the sub- and superdiffusive regimes. We also consider effects of the inertial term on the particle motion. The investigation of the resulting diffusion is performed for unconfined and confined motion.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Breitling2016, author = {Breitling, Frank}, title = {Propagation of energetic electrons in the solar corona observed with LOFAR}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-396893}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {xiii, 101}, year = {2016}, abstract = {This work reports about new high-resolution imaging and spectroscopic observations of solar type III radio bursts at low radio frequencies in the range from 30 to 80 MHz. Solar type III radio bursts are understood as result of the beam-plasma interaction of electron beams in the corona. The Sun provides a unique opportunity to study these plasma processes of an active star. Its activity appears in eruptive events like flares, coronal mass ejections and radio bursts which are all accompanied by enhanced radio emission. Therefore solar radio emission carries important information about plasma processes associated with the Sun's activity. Moreover, the Sun's atmosphere is a unique plasma laboratory with plasma processes under conditions not found in terrestrial laboratories. Because of the Sun's proximity to Earth, it can be studied in greater detail than any other star but new knowledge about the Sun can be transfer to them. This "solar stellar connection" is important for the understanding of processes on other stars. The novel radio interferometer LOFAR provides imaging and spectroscopic capabilities to study these processes at low frequencies. Here it was used for solar observations. LOFAR, the characteristics of its solar data and the processing and analysis of the latter with the Solar Imaging Pipeline and Solar Data Center are described. The Solar Imaging Pipeline is the central software that allows using LOFAR for solar observations. So its development was necessary for the analysis of solar LOFAR data and realized here. Moreover a new density model with heat conduction and Alfv{\´e}n waves was developed that provides the distance of radio bursts to the Sun from dynamic radio spectra. Its application to the dynamic spectrum of a type III burst observed on March 16, 2016 by LOFAR shows a nonuniform radial propagation velocity of the radio emission. The analysis of an imaging observation of type III bursts on June 23, 2012 resolves a burst as bright, compact region localized in the corona propagating in radial direction along magnetic field lines with an average velocity of 0.23c. A nonuniform propagation velocity is revealed. A new beam model is presented that explains the nonuniform motion of the radio source as a propagation effect of an electron ensemble with a spread velocity distribution and rules out a monoenergetic electron distribution. The coronal electron number density is derived in the region from 1.5 to 2.5 R☉ and fitted with the newly developed density model. It determines the plasma density for the interplanetary space between Sun and Earth. The values correspond to a 1.25- and 5-fold Newkirk model for harmonic and fundamental emission, respectively. In comparison to data from other radio instruments the LOFAR data shows a high sensitivity and resolution in space, time and frequency. The new results from LOFAR's high resolution imaging spectroscopy are consistent with current theories of solar type III radio bursts and demonstrate its capability to track fast moving radio sources in the corona. LOFAR solar data is found to be a valuable source for solar radio physics and opens a new window for studying plasma processes associated with highly energetic electrons in the solar corona.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Brauer2016, author = {Brauer, Doroth{\´e}e}, title = {Chemo-kinematic constraints on Milky Way models from the spectroscopic surveys SEGUE \& RAVE}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-403968}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {vii, 197}, year = {2016}, abstract = {The Milky Way is only one out of billions of galaxies in the universe. However, it is a special galaxy because it allows to explore the main mechanisms involved in its evolution and formation history by unpicking the system star-by-star. Especially, the chemical fingerprints of its stars provide clues and evidence of past events in the Galaxy's lifetime. These information help not only to decipher the current structure and building blocks of the Milky Way, but to learn more about the general formation process of galaxies. In the past decade a multitude of stellar spectroscopic Galactic surveys have scanned millions of stars far beyond the rim of the solar neighbourhood. The obtained spectroscopic information provide unprecedented insights to the chemo-dynamics of the Milky Way. In addition analytic models and numerical simulations of the Milky Way provide necessary descriptions and predictions suited for comparison with observations in order to decode the physical properties that underlie the complex system of the Galaxy. In the thesis various approaches are taken to connect modern theoretical modelling of galaxy formation and evolution with observations from Galactic stellar surveys. With its focus on the chemo-kinematics of the Galactic disk this work aims to determine new observational constraints on the formation of the Milky Way providing also proper comparisons with two different models. These are the population synthesis model TRILEGAL based on analytical distribution functions, which aims to simulate the number and distribution of stars in the Milky Way and its different components, and a hybrid model (MCM) that combines an N-body simulation of a Milky Way like galaxy in the cosmological framework with a semi-analytic chemical evolution model for the Milky Way. The major observational data sets in use come from two surveys, namely the "Radial Velocity Experiment" (RAVE) and the "Sloan Extension for Galactic Understanding and Exploration" (SEGUE). In the first approach the chemo-kinematic properties of the thin and thick disk of the Galaxy as traced by a selection of about 20000 SEGUE G-dwarf stars are directly compared to the predictions by the MCM model. As a necessary condition for this, SEGUE's selection function and its survey volume are evaluated in detail to correct the spectroscopic observations for their survey specific selection biases. Also, based on a Bayesian method spectro-photometric distances with uncertainties below 15\% are computed for the selection of SEGUE G-dwarfs that are studied up to a distance of 3 kpc from the Sun. For the second approach two synthetic versions of the SEGUE survey are generated based on the above models. The obtained synthetic stellar catalogues are then used to create mock samples best resembling the compiled sample of observed SEGUE G-dwarfs. Generally, mock samples are not only ideal to compare predictions from various models. They also allow validation of the models' quality and improvement as with this work could be especially achieved for TRILEGAL. While TRILEGAL reproduces the statistical properties of the thin and thick disk as seen in the observations, the MCM model has shown to be more suitable in reproducing many chemo-kinematic correlations as revealed by the SEGUE stars. However, evidence has been found that the MCM model may be missing a stellar component with the properties of the thick disk that the observations clearly show. While the SEGUE stars do indicate a thin-thick dichotomy of the stellar Galactic disk in agreement with other spectroscopic stellar studies, no sign for a distinct metal-poor disk is seen in the MCM model. Usually stellar spectroscopic surveys are limited to a certain volume around the Sun covering different regions of the Galaxy's disk. This often prevents to obtain a global view on the chemo-dynamics of the Galactic disk. Hence, a suitable combination of stellar samples from independent surveys is not only useful for the verification of results but it also helps to complete the picture of the Milky Way. Therefore, the thesis closes with a comparison of the SEGUE G-dwarfs and a sample of RAVE giants. The comparison reveals that the chemo-kinematic relations agree in disk regions where the samples of both surveys show a similar number of stars. For those parts of the survey volumes where one of the surveys lacks statistics they beautifully complement each other. This demonstrates that the comparison of theoretical models on the one side, and the combined observational data gathered by multiple surveys on the other side, are key ingredients to understand and disentangle the structure and formation history of the Milky Way.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Bojahr2016, author = {Bojahr, Andre}, title = {Hypersound interaction studied by time-resolved inelastic light and x-ray scattering}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-93860}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {xxiii, 201}, year = {2016}, abstract = {This publications-based thesis summarizes my contribution to the scientific field of ultrafast structural dynamics. It consists of 16 publications, about the generation, detection and coupling of coherent gigahertz longitudinal acoustic phonons, also called hypersonic waves. To generate such high frequency phonons, femtosecond near infrared laser pulses were used to heat nanostructures composed of perovskite oxides on an ultrashort timescale. As a consequence the heated regions of such a nanostructure expand and a high frequency acoustic phonon pulse is generated. To detect such coherent acoustic sound pulses I use ultrafast variants of optical Brillouin and x-ray scattering. Here an incident optical or x-ray photon is scattered by the excited sound wave in the sample. The scattered light intensity measures the occupation of the phonon modes. The central part of this work is the investigation of coherent high amplitude phonon wave packets which can behave nonlinearly, quite similar to shallow water waves which show a steepening of wave fronts or solitons well known as tsunamis. Due to the high amplitude of the acoustic wave packets in the solid, the acoustic properties can change significantly in the vicinity of the sound pulse. This may lead to a shape change of the pulse. I have observed by time-resolved Brillouin scattering, that a single cycle hypersound pulse shows a wavefront steepening. I excited hypersound pulses with strain amplitudes until 1\% which I have calibrated by ultrafast x-ray diffraction (UXRD). On the basis of this first experiment we developed the idea of the nonlinear mixing of narrowband phonon wave packets which we call "nonlinear phononics" in analogy with the nonlinear optics, which summarizes a kaleidoscope of surprising optical phenomena showing up at very high electric fields. Such phenomena are for instance Second Harmonic Generation, four-wave-mixing or solitons. But in case of excited coherent phonons the wave packets have usually very broad spectra which make it nearly impossible to look at elementary scattering processes between phonons with certain momentum and energy. For that purpose I tested different techniques to excite narrowband phonon wave packets which mainly consist of phonons with a certain momentum and frequency. To this end epitaxially grown metal films on a dielectric substrate were excited with a train of laser pulses. These excitation pulses drive the metal film to oscillate with the frequency given by their inverse temporal displacement and send a hypersonic wave of this frequency into the substrate. The monochromaticity of these wave packets was proven by ultrafast optical Brillouin and x-ray scattering. Using the excitation of such narrowband phonon wave packets I was able to observe the Second Harmonic Generation (SHG) of coherent phonons as a first example of nonlinear wave mixing of nanometric phonon wave packets.}, language = {en} } @misc{BodrovaChechkinCherstvyetal.2016, author = {Bodrova, Anna S. and Chechkin, Aleksei V. and Cherstvy, Andrey G. and Safdari, Hadiseh and Sokolov, Igor M. and Metzler, Ralf}, title = {Underdamped scaled Brownian motion}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-97158}, pages = {16}, year = {2016}, abstract = {It is quite generally assumed that the overdamped Langevin equation provides a quantitative description of the dynamics of a classical Brownian particle in the long time limit. We establish and investigate a paradigm anomalous diffusion process governed by an underdamped Langevin equation with an explicit time dependence of the system temperature and thus the diffusion and damping coefficients. We show that for this underdamped scaled Brownian motion (UDSBM) the overdamped limit fails to describe the long time behaviour of the system and may practically even not exist at all for a certain range of the parameter values. Thus persistent inertial effects play a non-negligible role even at significantly long times. From this study a general questions on the applicability of the overdamped limit to describe the long time motion of an anomalously diffusing particle arises, with profound consequences for the relevance of overdamped anomalous diffusion models. We elucidate our results in view of analytical and simulations results for the anomalous diffusion of particles in free cooling granular gases.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Bendre2016, author = {Bendre, Abhijit B.}, title = {Growth and saturation of dynamo in spiral galaxies via direct simulations}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-407517}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {xviii, 133}, year = {2016}, abstract = {We do magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) simulations of local box models of turbulent Interstellar Medium (ISM) and analyse the process of amplification and saturation of mean magnetic fields with methods of mean field dynamo theory. It is shown that the process of saturation of mean fields can be partially described by the prolonged diffusion time scales in presence of the dynamically significant magnetic fields. However, the outward wind also plays an essential role in the saturation in higher SN rate case. Algebraic expressions for the back reaction of the magnetic field onto the turbulent transport coefficients are derived, which allow a complete description of the nonlinear dynamo. We also present the effects of dynamically significant mean fields on the ISM configuration and pressure distribution. We further add the cosmic ray component in the simulations and investigate the kinematic growth of mean fields with a dynamo perspective.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Ata2016, author = {Ata, Metin}, title = {Phase-space reconstructions of cosmic velocities and the cosmic web}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-403565}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {xi, 155}, year = {2016}, abstract = {In the current paradigm of cosmology, the formation of large-scale structures is mainly driven by non-radiating dark matter, making up the dominant part of the matter budget of the Universe. Cosmological observations however, rely on the detection of luminous galaxies, which are biased tracers of the underlying dark matter. In this thesis I present cosmological reconstructions of both, the dark matter density field that forms the cosmic web, and cosmic velocities, for which both aspects of my work are delved into, the theoretical formalism and the results of its applications to cosmological simulations and also to a galaxy redshift survey.The foundation of our method is relying on a statistical approach, in which a given galaxy catalogue is interpreted as a biased realization of the underlying dark matter density field. The inference is computationally performed on a mesh grid by sampling from a probability density function, which describes the joint posterior distribution of matter density and the three dimensional velocity field. The statistical background of our method is described in Chapter "Implementation of argo", where the introduction in sampling methods is given, paying special attention to Markov Chain Monte-Carlo techniques. In Chapter "Phase-Space Reconstructions with N-body Simulations", I introduce and implement a novel biasing scheme to relate the galaxy number density to the underlying dark matter, which I decompose into a deterministic part, described by a non-linear and scale-dependent analytic expression, and a stochastic part, by presenting a negative binomial (NB) likelihood function that models deviations from Poissonity. Both bias components had already been studied theoretically, but were so far never tested in a reconstruction algorithm. I test these new contributions againstN-body simulations to quantify improvements and show that, compared to state-of-the-art methods, the stochastic bias is inevitable at wave numbers of k≥0.15h Mpc^-1 in the power spectrum in order to obtain unbiased results from the reconstructions. In the second part of Chapter "Phase-Space Reconstructions with N-body Simulations" I describe and validate our approach to infer the three dimensional cosmic velocity field jointly with the dark matter density. I use linear perturbation theory for the large-scale bulk flows and a dispersion term to model virialized galaxy motions, showing that our method is accurately recovering the real-space positions of the redshift-space distorted galaxies. I analyze the results with the isotropic and also the two-dimensional power spectrum.Finally, in Chapter "Phase-space Reconstructions with Galaxy Redshift Surveys", I show how I combine all findings and results and apply the method to the CMASS (for Constant (stellar) Mass) galaxy catalogue of the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS). I describe how our method is accounting for the observational selection effects inside our reconstruction algorithm. Also, I demonstrate that the renormalization of the prior distribution function is mandatory to account for higher order contributions in the structure formation model, and finally a redshift-dependent bias factor is theoretically motivated and implemented into our method. The various refinements yield unbiased results of the dark matter until scales of k≤0.2 h Mpc^-1in the power spectrum and isotropize the galaxy catalogue down to distances of r∼20h^-1 Mpc in the correlation function. We further test the results of our cosmic velocity field reconstruction by comparing them to a synthetic mock galaxy catalogue, finding a strong correlation between the mock and the reconstructed velocities. The applications of both, the density field without redshift-space distortions, and the velocity reconstructions, are very broad and can be used for improved analyses of the baryonic acoustic oscillations, environmental studies of the cosmic web, the kinematic Sunyaev-Zel'dovic or integrated Sachs-Wolfe effect.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{AmaroSeoane2016, author = {Amaro-Seoane, Pau}, title = {Dense stellar systems and massive black holes}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-95439}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {239}, year = {2016}, abstract = {Gravity dictates the structure of the whole Universe and, although it is triumphantly described by the theory of General Relativity, it is the force that we least understand in nature. One of the cardinal predictions of this theory are black holes. Massive, dark objects are found in the majority of galaxies. Our own galactic center very contains such an object with a mass of about four million solar masses. Are these objects supermassive black holes (SMBHs), or do we need alternatives? The answer lies in the event horizon, the characteristic that defines a black hole. The key to probe the horizon is to model the movement of stars around a SMBH, and the interactions between them, and look for deviations from real observations. Nuclear star clusters harboring a massive, dark object with a mass of up to ~ ten million solar masses are good testbeds to probe the event horizon of the potential SMBH with stars. The channel for interactions between stars and the central MBH are the fact that (a) compact stars and stellar-mass black holes can gradually inspiral into the SMBH due to the emission of gravitational radiation, which is known as an "Extreme Mass Ratio Inspiral" (EMRI), and (b) stars can produce gases which will be accreted by the SMBH through normal stellar evolution, or by collisions and disruptions brought about by the strong central tidal field. Such processes can contribute significantly to the mass of the SMBH. These two processes involve different disciplines, which combined will provide us with detailed information about the fabric of space and time. In this habilitation I present nine articles of my recent work directly related with these topics.}, language = {en} }