Seminars
Regular seminars are held on Fridays at the scientific council of the Landau Institute in Chernogolovka. Also joint ITP - Chinese Academy of Sciences online colloquium is held online.
Departments of the institute hold their own seminars; the topic are determined by the scientific orientation of the related department.
Seminars information is also sent via e-mail. If you want to receive seminar announcements, please subscribe.
Nonlinear stages of pattern formation in nematics.
31 October in 11:30 at scientific council
E.S. Pikina, A.R. Muratov, E.I. Kats, and V. V. Lebedev.
We study triggered by an a.c. external electric field weakly nonlinear stages of flexoelectric instability in nematic liquid crystals. The instability occurs at a finite wave vector. We analyze behavior on time scales much larger than the period of the external electric field. We focus on the case where the increment of the most-unstable mode has an imaginary part, so-called Hopf bifurcation. The existence of such regime was established in our previous work [E.S. Pikina, A.R. Muratov, E.I.Kats, V.V. Lebedev, Dynamic flexoelectric instabilities in nematic liquid crystals, Phys. Rev. E, 110, 024701 (2024)]. Then above the instability threshold a variety patterns of nematic director distortions could appear including standing and travelling structures. Our numerical simulations based on the full nonlinear electro-nematodynamics system of equations. We found that the stable dynamic pattern in the vicinity of the Hopf bifurcation travelling oblique rolls of the nematic director distortions. The establishment of this regime occurs abnormally slowly, which is determined not only by the critical Landau-like slowdown of dynamics, but also by the presence of a long-lived intermediate unstable but long-lived dynamic patterns oscillating in time (standing but not traveleling rolls). Depending on liquid crystal material parameters, the bifurcation corresponding to the formation of the travelling oblique rolls, can be soft (i.e.continues, ‘’critical’’ or close to ‘’tricritical’’ one), or hard (discontinues).
Spin dynamics of fermions in external fields
31 October in 12:30 at scientific council
Yuri N. Obukhov (Nuclear Safety Institute (IBRAE), Russian Academy of Sciences)
This talk presents results of a comprehensive study of the classical and
quantum dynamics of spin 1/2 Dirac fermion particles with dipole moments
under the action of arbitrary external fields (including gravitational,
inertial, electromagnetic, axion ones). The gauge-theoretic framework of
the general-relativistically covariant Dirac theory is used to describe
in a consistent way the minimal and nonminimal couplings of fermions to
external fields of different physical nature. The quantum and
quasiclassical equations of motion are derived and a complete consistency
of the quantum and classical spin dynamics is demonstrated. Applications
range from astrophysics, to precision experiments with polarized particles
in accelerators and storage rings, to the heavy-ion collisions.
A few comments on the fully heavy tetraquark systems
14 November in 11:30 at scientific council (short)
Oleg Andreev
I will make a few comments on heavy tetraquarks using the gauge/string duality. In particular, I describe the structure of the two low-lying Born-Oppenheimer potentials.
All fractional Shapiro steps in the RSJ model with two Josephson harmonics
14 November in 12:30 at scientific council
Pavel N. Tsarev, Yakov V. Fominov
Synchronization between the internal dynamics of the superconducting phase in a Josephson junction (JJ) and an external ac signal is a fundamental physical phenomenon, manifesting as constant-voltage Shapiro steps in the current-voltage characteristic. Mathematically, this phase-locking effect is captured by the Resistively Shunted Junction (RSJ) model, an important example of a nonlinear dynamical system. The standard RSJ model considers an overdamped JJ with a sinusoidal (single-harmonic) current-phase relation (CPR) in the current-driven regime with a monochromatic ac component. While this model predicts only integer Shapiro steps, the inclusion of higher Josephson harmonics is known to generate fractional Shapiro steps. In this paper, we show that only two Josephson harmonics in the CPR are sufficient to produce all possible fractional Shapiro steps within the RSJ framework. Using perturbative methods, we analyze amplitudes of these fractional steps. Furthermore, by introducing a phase shift between the two Josephson harmonics, we reveal an asymmetry between positive and negative fractional steps — a signature of the Josephson diode effect.
Diode effect in Shapiro steps in an asymmetric SQUID with a superconducting nanobridge
21 November in 11:30 at scientific council
G.S. Seleznev, Ya.V. Fominov
We develop a theoretical framework, using the slow variables method in the RSJ model, and perform numerical simulations to explain the peculiarities of the Josephson diode effect observed in an asymmetric SQUID with a superconducting nanobridge and an SNS junction in recent experiments by Vasiliy Stolyarov’s group at MIPT. For this case we predict the new (amplitude) mechanism of the diode effect which originates from the presence of a superconducting nanobridge exhibiting a multivalued current-phase relation (CPR). Theoretically, this mechanism manifests itself in the dependence of the amplitude of the first Josephson harmonic in the CPR of the SQUID on the current direction. We demonstrate that this mechanism accounts for the experimentally observed pronounced asymmetry of the Shapiro steps, which coexists with a relatively small asymmetry in the critical current. Additionally, we investigate how the diode efficiency (quantified via the Shapiro steps asymmetry) depends on both the magnetic flux through the superconducting loop and the power of the external microwave irradiation. Our theoretical predictions are found to be in good agreement with the experimental observations.
This talk is based on the article Phys. Rev. B 112, 144504 (2025).