@misc{Haakh2009, type = {Master Thesis}, author = {Haakh, Harald Richard}, title = {Cavity QED with superconductors and its application to the Casimir effect}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-32564}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, year = {2009}, abstract = {Diese Diplomarbeit untersucht den Casimir-Effekt zwischen normal- und supraleitenden Platten {\"u}ber einen weiten Temperaturbereich, sowie die Casimir-Polder-Wechselwirkung zwischen einem Atom und einer solchen Oberfl{\"a}che. Hierzu wurden vorwiegend numerische und asymptotische Rechnungen durchgef{\"u}hrt. Die optischen Eigenschaften der Oberfl{\"a}chen werden dann aus dielektrischen Funktionen oder optischen Leitf{\"a}higkeiten erhalten. Wichtige Modellen werden vorgestellt und insbesondere im Hinblick auf ihre analytischen und kausalen Eigenschaften untersucht. Es wird vorgestellt, wie sich die Casimir-Energie zwischen zwei normalleitenden Platten berechnen l{\"a}sst. Fr{\"u}here Arbeiten {\"u}ber den in allen metallischen Kavit{\"a}ten vorhandenen Beitrag von Oberfl{\"a}chenplasmonen zur Casimir-Wechselwirkung wurden zum ersten mal auf endliche Temperaturen erweitert. F{\"u}r Supraleiter wird eine analytische Fortsetzung der BCS-Leitf{\"a}higkeiten zu rein imagin{\"a}ren Frequenzen, sowohl innerhalb wie außerhalb des schmutzigen Grenzfalles verschwindender mittlerer freier Wegl{\"a}nge vorgestellt. Es wird gezeigt, dass die aus dieser neuen Beschreibung erhaltene freie Casimir-Energie in bestimmten Bereichen der Materialparameter hervorragend mit der im Rahmen des Zwei-Fluid-Modells f{\"u}r den Supraleiter berechneten {\"u}bereinstimmt. Die Casimir-Entropie einer supraleitenden Kavit{\"a}t erf{\"u}llt den Nernstschen W{\"a}rmesatz und weist einen charakteristischen Sprung beim Erreichen des supraleitenden Phasen{\"u}bergangs auf. Diese Effekte treten ebenfalls in der magnetischen Casimir-Polder-Wechselwirkung eines Atoms mit einer supraleitenden Oberfl{\"a}che auf. Es wird ferner gezeigt, dass die magnetische Dipol-Wechselwirkung eines Atomes mit einem Metall sehr stark von den dissipativen Eigenschaften und insbesondere von den Oberfl{\"a}chenstr{\"o}men abh{\"a}ngt. Dies f{\"u}hrt zu einer starken Unterdr{\"u}ckung der magnetischen Casimir-Polder-Energie bei endlichen Temperaturen und Abst{\"a}nden oberhalb der thermischen Wellenl{\"a}nge. Die Casimir-Polder-Entropie verletzt in einigen Modellen den Nernstschen W{\"a}rmesatz.{\"A}hnliche Effekte werden f{\"u}r den Casimir-Effekt zwischen Platten kontrovers diskutiert. In den entsprechenden elektrischen Dipol-Wechselwirkungen tritt keiner dieser Effekte auf. Die Ergebnisse dieser Arbeit legen nahe, das bekannte Plasma-Modells als Grenzfall eines Supraleiters bei niedrigen Temperaturen (bekannt als London-Theorie) zu betrachten, statt als Beschreibung eines normales Metalles. Supraleiter bieten die M{\"o}glichkeit, die Dissipation der Oberfl{\"a}chenstr{\"o}me in hohem Maße zu steuern. Dies k{\"o}nnte einen experimentellen Zugang zu den optischen Eigenschaften von Metallen bei niedrigen Frequenzen erlauben, die eng mit dem thermischen Casimir-Effekt verkn{\"u}pft sind. Anders als in entsprechenden Mikrowellen-Experimenten sind hierbei die Energien und Impulse unabh{\"a}ngige Gr{\"o}ßen. Die Messung der Oberfl{\"a}chenwechselwirkung zwischen Atomen und Supraleitern ist mit den heute verf{\"u}gbaren Atomfallen auf Mikrochips m{\"o}glich und der magnetische Anteil der Wechselwirkung sollte spektroskopischen Techniken zug{\"a}nglich sein}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Haakh2012, author = {Haakh, Harald Richard}, title = {Fluctuation-mediated interactions of atoms and surfaces on a mesoscopic scale}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-61819}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, year = {2012}, abstract = {Thermal and quantum fluctuations of the electromagnetic near field of atoms and macroscopic bodies play a key role in quantum electrodynamics (QED), as in the Lamb shift. They lead, e.g., to atomic level shifts, dispersion interactions (Van der Waals-Casimir-Polder interactions), and state broadening (Purcell effect) because the field is subject to boundary conditions. Such effects can be observed with high precision on the mesoscopic scale which can be accessed in micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) and solid-state-based magnetic microtraps for cold atoms ('atom chips'). A quantum field theory of atoms (molecules) and photons is adapted to nonequilibrium situations. Atoms and photons are described as fully quantized while macroscopic bodies can be included in terms of classical reflection amplitudes, similar to the scattering approach of cavity QED. The formalism is applied to the study of nonequilibrium two-body potentials. We then investigate the impact of the material properties of metals on the electromagnetic surface noise, with applications to atomic trapping in atom-chip setups and quantum computing, and on the magnetic dipole contribution to the Van der Waals-Casimir-Polder potential in and out of thermal equilibrium. In both cases, the particular properties of superconductors are of high interest. Surface-mode contributions, which dominate the near-field fluctuations, are discussed in the context of the (partial) dynamic atomic dressing after a rapid change of a system parameter and in the Casimir interaction between two conducting plates, where nonequilibrium configurations can give rise to repulsion.}, language = {en} } @misc{Guehr2016, author = {G{\"u}hr, Markus}, title = {Ultrafast Soft X-ray Probing of Gas Phase Molecular Dynamics}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-97215}, year = {2016}, abstract = {The molecular ability to selectively and efficiently convert sunlight into other forms of energy like heat, bond change, or charge separation is truly remarkable. The decisive steps in these transformations often happen on a femtosecond timescale and require transitions among different electronic states that violate the Born-Oppenheimer approximation (BOA). Non-BOA transitions pose challenges to both theory and experiment. From a theoretical point of view, excited state dynamics and nonadiabatic transitions both are difficult problems (see Figure 1(a)). However, the theory on non-BOA dynamics has advanced significantly over the last two decades. Full dynamical simulations for molecules of the size of nucleobases have been possible for a couple of years and allow predictions of experimental observables like photoelectron energy or ion yield. The availability of these calculations for isolated molecules has spurred new experimental efforts to develop methods that are sufficiently different from all optical techniques. For determination of transient molecular structure, femtosecond X-ray diffraction and electron diffraction have been implemented on optically excited molecules.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{GamezLopez2006, author = {G{\´a}mez L{\´o}pez, Antonio Juan}, title = {Application of nonlinear dimensionality reduction to climate data for prediction}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-10956}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, year = {2006}, abstract = {This Thesis was devoted to the study of the coupled system composed by El Ni{\~n}o/Southern Oscillation and the Annual Cycle. More precisely, the work was focused on two main problems: 1. How to separate both oscillations into an affordable model for understanding the behaviour of the whole system. 2. How to model the system in order to achieve a better understanding of the interaction, as well as to predict future states of the system. We focused our efforts in the Sea Surface Temperature equations, considering that atmospheric effects were secondary to the ocean dynamics. The results found may be summarised as follows: 1. Linear methods are not suitable for characterising the dimensionality of the sea surface temperature in the tropical Pacific Ocean. Therefore they do not help to separate the oscillations by themselves. Instead, nonlinear methods of dimensionality reduction are proven to be better in defining a lower limit for the dimensionality of the system as well as in explaining the statistical results in a more physical way [1]. In particular, Isomap, a nonlinear modification of Multidimensional Scaling methods, provides a physically appealing method of decomposing the data, as it substitutes the euclidean distances in the manifold by an approximation of the geodesic distances. We expect that this method could be successfully applied to other oscillatory extended systems and, in particular, to meteorological systems. 2. A three dimensional dynamical system could be modeled, using a backfitting algorithm, for describing the dynamics of the sea surface temperature in the tropical Pacific Ocean. We observed that, although there were few data points available, we could predict future behaviours of the coupled ENSO-Annual Cycle system with an accuracy of less than six months, although the constructed system presented several drawbacks: few data points to input in the backfitting algorithm, untrained model, lack of forcing with external data and simplification using a close system. Anyway, ensemble prediction techniques showed that the prediction skills of the three dimensional time series were as good as those found in much more complex models. This suggests that the climatological system in the tropics is mainly explained by ocean dynamics, while the atmosphere plays a secondary role in the physics of the process. Relevant predictions for short lead times can be made using a low dimensional system, despite its simplicity. The analysis of the SST data suggests that nonlinear interaction between the oscillations is small, and that noise plays a secondary role in the fundamental dynamics of the oscillations [2]. A global view of the work shows a general procedure to face modeling of climatological systems. First, we should find a suitable method of either linear or nonlinear dimensionality reduction. Then, low dimensional time series could be extracted out of the method applied. Finally, a low dimensional model could be found using a backfitting algorithm in order to predict future states of the system.}, subject = {Nichtlineare Dynamik}, language = {en} } @book{Gutlederer2007, author = {Gutlederer, Erwin Johann}, title = {On the morphology of vesicles. - [{\"u}berarb. Diss.]}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-15065}, publisher = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, year = {2007}, abstract = {This dissertation contains theoretical investigations on the morphology and statistical mechanics of vesicles. The shapes of homogeneous fluid vesicles and inhomogeneous vesicles with fluid and solid membrane domains are calculated. The influence of thermal fluctuations is investigated. The obtained results are valid on mesoscopic length scales and are based on a geometrical membrane model, where the vesicle membrane is described as either a static or a thermal fluctuating surface. The thesis consists of three parts. In the first part, homogeneous vesicles are considered. The focus in this part is on the thermally induced morphological transition between vesicles with prolate and oblate shape. With the help of Monte Carlo simulations, the free energy profile of these vesicles is determined. It can be shown that the shape transformation between prolate and oblate vesicles proceeds continuously and is not hampered by a free energy barrier. The second and third part deal with inhomogeneous vesicles which contain intramembrane domains. These investigations are motivated by experimental results on domain formation in single or multicomponent vesicles, where phase separation occurs and different membrane phases coexist. The resulting domains differ with regard to their membrane structure (solid, fluid). The membrane structure has a distinct effect on the form of the domain and the morphology of the vesicle. In the second part, vesicles with coexisting solid and fluid membrane domains are studied, while the third part addresses vesicles with coexisting fluid domains. The equilibrium morphology of vesicles with simple and complex domain forms, derived through minimisation of the membrane energy, is determined as a function of material parameters. The results are summarised in morphology diagrams. These diagrams show previously unknown morphological transitions between vesicles with different domain shapes. The impact of thermal fluctuations on the vesicle and the form of the domains is investigated by means of Monte Carlo simulations.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Gutjahr2007, author = {Gutjahr, Petra}, title = {Conformations of semiflexible polymers and filaments}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-15918}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, year = {2007}, abstract = {The biological function and the technological applications of semiflexible polymers, such as DNA, actin filaments and carbon nanotubes, strongly depend on their rigidity. Semiflexible polymers are characterized by their persistence length, the definition of which is the subject of the first part of this thesis. Attractive interactions, that arise e.g.~in the adsorption, the condensation and the bundling of filaments, can change the conformation of a semiflexible polymer. The conformation depends on the relative magnitude of the material parameters and can be influenced by them in a systematic manner. In particular, the morphologies of semiflexible polymer rings, such as circular nanotubes or DNA, which are adsorbed onto substrates with three types of structures, are studied: (i) A topographical channel, (ii) a chemically modified stripe and (iii) a periodic pattern of topographical steps. The results are compared with the condensation of rings by attractive interactions. Furthermore, the bundling of two individual actin filaments, whose ends are anchored, is analyzed. This system geometry is shown to provide a systematic and quantitative method to extract the magnitude of the attraction between the filaments from experimentally observable conformations of the filaments.}, language = {en} } @misc{GuggenbergerPagniniVojtaetal.2019, author = {Guggenberger, Tobias and Pagnini, Gianni and Vojta, Thomas and Metzler, Ralf}, title = {Fractional Brownian motion in a finite interval}, series = {Postprints der Universit{\"a}t Potsdam Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftliche Reihe}, journal = {Postprints der Universit{\"a}t Potsdam Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftliche Reihe}, number = {755}, issn = {1866-8372}, doi = {10.25932/publishup-43666}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-436665}, pages = {13}, year = {2019}, abstract = {Fractional Brownian motion (FBM) is a Gaussian stochastic process with stationary, long-time correlated increments and is frequently used to model anomalous diffusion processes. We study numerically FBM confined to a finite interval with reflecting boundary conditions. The probability density function of this reflected FBM at long times converges to a stationary distribution showing distinct deviations from the fully flat distribution of amplitude 1/L in an interval of length L found for reflected normal Brownian motion. While for superdiffusion, corresponding to a mean squared displacement (MSD) 〈X² (t)〉 ⋍ tᵅ with 1 < α < 2, the probability density function is lowered in the centre of the interval and rises towards the boundaries, for subdiffusion (0 < α < 1) this behaviour is reversed and the particle density is depleted close to the boundaries. The MSD in these cases at long times converges to a stationary value, which is, remarkably, monotonically increasing with the anomalous diffusion exponent α. Our a priori surprising results may have interesting consequences for the application of FBM for processes such as molecule or tracer diffusion in the confines of living biological cells or organelles, or other viscoelastic environments such as dense liquids in microfluidic chambers.}, language = {en} } @unpublished{GuastiEngbertKrampeetal.2000, author = {Guasti, Giovanna and Engbert, Ralf and Krampe, Ralf T. and Kurths, J{\"u}rgen}, title = {Phase transitions, complexity, and stationarity in the production of polyrhythms}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-14933}, year = {2000}, abstract = {Contents: 1 Introduction 2 Experiment 3 Data 4 Symbolic dynamics 4.1 Symbolic dynamics as a tool for data analysis 4.2 2-symbols coding 4.3 3-symbols coding 5 Measures of complexity 5.1 Word statistics 5.2 Shannon entropy 6 Testing for stationarity 6.1 Stationarity 6.2 Time series of cycle durations 6.3 Chi-square test 7 Control parameters in the production of rhythms 8 Analysis of relative phases 9 Discussion 10 Outlook}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Griesel2005, author = {Griesel, Alexa}, title = {Modelling large scale ocean circulation : the role of mixing location and meridional pressure gradients for the Atlantic overturning dynamics}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-2609}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, year = {2005}, abstract = {Due to its relevance for global climate, the realistic representation of the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (AMOC) in ocean models is a key task. In recent years, two paradigms have evolved around what are its driving mechanisms: diapycnal mixing and Southern Ocean winds. This work aims at clarifying what sets the strength of the Atlantic overturning components in an ocean general circulation model and discusses the role of spatially inhomogeneous mixing, numerical diffusion and winds. Furthermore, the relation of the AMOC with a key quantity, the meridional pressure difference is analyzed. Due to the application of a very low diffusive tracer advection scheme, a realistic Atlantic overturning circulation can be obtained that is purely wind driven. On top of the winddriven circulation, changes of density gradients are caused by increasing the parameterized eddy diffusion in the North Atlantic and Southern Ocean. The linear relation between the maximum of the Atlantic overturning and the meridional pressure difference found in previous studies is confirmed and it is shown to be due to one significant pressure gradient between the average pressure over high latitude deep water formation regions and a relatively uniform pressure between 30°N and 30°S, which can directly be related to a zonal flow through geostrophy. Under constant Southern Ocean windstress forcing, a South Atlantic outflow in the range of 6-16 Sv is obtained for a large variety of experiments. Overall, the circulation is winddriven but its strength not uniquely determined by the Southern Ocean windstress. The scaling of the Atlantic overturning components is linear with the background vertical diffusivity, not confirming the 2/3 power law for one-hemisphere models without wind forcing. The pycnocline depth is constant in the coarse resolution model with large vertical grid extends. It suggests the ocean model operates like the Stommel box model with a linear relation of the pressure difference and fixed vertical scale for the volume transport. However, this seems only valid for vertical diffusivities smaller 0.4 cm²/s, when the dominant upwelling within the Atlantic occurs along the boundaries. For larger vertical diffusivities, a significant amount of interior upwelling occurs. It is further shown that any localized vertical mixing in the deep to bottom ocean cannot drive an Atlantic overturning. However, enhanced boundary mixing at thermocline depths is potentially important. The numerical diffusion is shown to have a large impact on the representation of the Atlantic overturning in the model. While the horizontal numerical diffusion tends to destabilize the Atlantic overturning the verital numerical diffusion denotes an amplifying mechanism.}, subject = {Thermohaline Zirkulation}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Grenzer2007, author = {Grenzer, Marina}, title = {Photoinduced material transport in amorphous azobenzene polymer films}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-15771}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, year = {2007}, abstract = {The role played by azobenzene polymers in the modern photonic, electronic and opto-mechanical applications cannot be underestimated. These polymers are successfully used to produce alignment layers for liquid crystalline fluorescent polymers in the display and semiconductor technology, to build waveguides and waveguide couplers, as data storage media and as labels in quality product protection. A very hot topic in modern research are light-driven artificial muscles based on azobenzene elastomers. The incorporation of azobenzene chromophores into polymer systems via covalent bonding or even by blending gives rise to a number of unusual effects under visible (VIS) and ultraviolet light irradiation. The most amazing effect is the inscription of surface relief gratings (SRGs) onto thin azobenzene polymer films. At least seven models have been proposed to explain the origin of the inscribing force but none of them describes satisfactorily the light induced material transport on the molecular level. In most models, to explain the mass transport over micrometer distances during irradiation at room temperature, it is necessary to assume a considerable degree of photoinduced softening, at least comparable with that at the glass transition. Contrary to this assumption, we have gathered a convincing evidence that there is no considerable softening of the azobenzene layers under illumination. Presently we can surely say that light induced softening is a very weak accompanying effect rather than a necessary condition for the formation of SRGs. This means that the inscribing force should be above the yield point of the azobenzene polymer. Hence, an appropriate approach to describe the formation and relaxation of SRGs is a viscoplastic theory. It was used to reproduce pulse-like inscription of SRGs as measured by VIS light scattering. At longer inscription times the VIS scattering pattern exhibits some peculiarities which can be explained by the appearance of a density grating that will be shown to arise due to the final compressibility of the polymer film. As a logical consequence of the aforementioned research, a thermodynamic theory explaining the light-induced deformation of free standing films and the formation of SRGs is proposed. The basic idea of this theory is that under homogeneous illumination an initially isotropic sample should stretch itself along the polarization direction to compensate the entropy decrease produced by the photoinduced reorientation of azobenzene chromophores. Finally, some ideas about further development of this controversial topic will be discussed.}, language = {en} }