Computational nanofluidics: Nonlocal transport and the glass transition

Cooperative phenomena in strongly correlated electron systemsIn this review we present results of our theoretical study of cooperative phenomena in strongly correlated electron systems obtained within various generalizations of the Falicov-Kimball model. The primary goal of this study was to identify crucial interactions that lead to the stabilization of the specific cooperative phenomenon, and then try to elaborate its comprehensive microscopic description. The main attention is devoted to a discussion of valence and metal-insulator transitions, formation of charge and spin ordering, electronic ferroelectricity, itinerant ferromagmetism and mechanisms leading to their stabilization. Among the major mechanisms we examine the effect of local and nonlocal Coulomb interaction between localized and itinerant electrons, local and nonlocal hybridization, long-range and correlated hopping of itinerant electrons and spin-dependent interaction between localized and itinerant electrons, both for zero and nonzero temperatures, as well as for doped and undoped systems. Finally, the relevance of resultant solutions for a description of rare-earth and transition-metal compounds is discussed.

Statistical physics of hard optimization problemsOptimization is fundamental in many areas of science, from computer science and information theory to engineering and statistical physics, as well as to biology or social sciences. It typically involves a large number of variables and a cost function depending on these variables. Optimization problems in the non-deterministic polynomial (NP)-complete class are particularly difficult, it is believed that the number of operations required to minimize the cost function is in the most difficult cases exponential in the system size. However, even in an NP-complete problem the practically arising instances might, in fact, be easy to solve. The principal question we address in this article is: How to recognize if an NP-complete constraint satisfaction problem is typically hard and what are the main reasons for this? We adopt approaches from the statistical physics of disordered systems, in particular the cavity method developed originally to describe glassy systems. We describe new properties of the space of solutions in two of the most studied constraint satisfaction problems - random satisfiability and random graph coloring. We suggest a relation between the existence of the so-called frozen variables and the algorithmic hardness of a problem. Based on these insights, we introduce a new class of problems which we named "locked" constraint satisfaction, where the statistical description is easily solvable, but from the algorithmic point of view they are even more challenging than the canonical satisfiability.

Top quark propertiesThere is tremendous progress in the study of top quark properties from time when the top quark was discovered by CDF and D0 collaboration in 1995 at TEVATRON collider. In this review we try to summarize results and methods how these results have been achieved. Aim is to emphasize problems and how these problems have been solved. We stay in the Standard model framework and demonstrate how the experimental results give support to this framework.

Light front field theory: An advanced PrimerWe present an elementary introduction to quantum field theory formulated in terms of Dirac's light front variables. In addition to general principles and methods, a few more specific topics and approaches based on the author's work will be discussed. Most of the discussion deals with massive two-dimensional models formulated in a finite spatial volume starting with a detailed comparison between quantization of massive free fields in the usual field theory and the light front (LF) quantization. We discuss basic properties such as relativistic invariance and causality. After the LF treatment of the soluble Federbush model, a LF approach to spontaneous symmetry breaking is explained and a simple gauge theory - the massive Schwinger model in various gauges is studied. A LF version of bosonization and the massive Thirring model are also discussed. A special chapter is devoted to the method of discretized light cone quantization and its application to calculations of the properties of quantum solitons. The problem of LF zero modes is illustrated with the example of the two-dimensional Yukawa model. Hamiltonian perturbation theory in the LF formulation is derived and applied to a few simple processes to demonstrate its advantages. As a byproduct, it is shown that the LF theory cannot be obtained as a "light-like" limit of the usual field theory quantized on an initial space-like surface. A simple LF formulation of the Higgs mechanism is then given. Since our intention was to provide a treatment of the light front quantization accessible to postgradual students, an effort was made to discuss most of the topics pedagogically and a number of technical details and derivations are contained in the appendices.