arXiv subjects

M. Moreau

Publications and source records attributed to M. Moreau.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2021

Internal rubble properties of asteroid (101955) Bennu

Exploration of asteroid (101955) Bennu by the OSIRIS-REx mission has provided an in-depth look at this rubble-pile near-Earth asteroid. In particular, the measured gravity field and the detailed shape model of Bennu indicate significant heterogeneities in its interior structure, compatible with a lower density at its center. Here we combine gravity inversion methods with a statistical rubble-pile model to determine the density and size-frequency distribution (SFD) index of the rubble that constitutes Bennu. The best-fitting models indicate that the SFD of the interior is consistent with that observed on the surface, with a cumulative SFD index of approximately $-2.9$. The rubble bulk density is approximately $1.35$ g/cm$^3$, corresponding to a $12$% macro-porosity. We find the largest rubble particle to be approximately $145$ m, whereas the largest void is approximately $10$ m.

astro-ph.EP↗

arXiv2020

Uniaxial N\'eel Vector Control in Perovskite Oxide Thin Films by Anisotropic Strain Engineering

Antiferromagnetic thin films typically exhibit a multi-domain state, and control of the antiferromagnetic N\'eel vector is challenging as antiferromagnetic materials are robust to magnetic perturbations. By relying on anisotropic in-plane strain engineering of epitaxial thin films of the prototypical antiferromagnetic material LaFeO3, uniaxial N\'eel vector control is demonstrated. Orthorhombic (011)- and (101)-oriented DyScO3, GdScO3 and NdGaO3 substrates are used to engineer different anisotropic in-plane strain states. The anisotropic in-plane strain stabilises structurally monodomain monoclinic LaFeO3 thin films. The uniaxial N\'eel vector is found along the tensile strained b axis, contrary to bulk LaFeO3 having the N\'eel vector along the shorter a axis, and no magnetic domains are found. Hence, anisotropic strain engineering is a viable tool for designing unique functional responses, further enabling antiferromagnetic materials for mesoscopic device technology.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2017

Goldstone-like phonon modes in a (111)-strained perovskite

Goldstone modes are massless particles resulting from spontaneous symmetry breaking. Although such modes are found in elementary particle physics as well as in condensed matter systems like superfluid helium, superconductors and magnons - structural Goldstone modes are rare. Epitaxial strain in thin films can induce structures and properties not accessible in bulk and has been intensively studied for (001)-oriented perovskite oxides. Here we predict Goldstone-like phonon modes in (111)-strained SrMnO3 by first-principles calculations. Under compressive strain the coupling between two in-plane rotational instabilities give rise to a Mexican hat shaped energy surface characteristic of a Goldstone mode. Conversely, large tensile strain induces in-plane polar instabilities with no directional preference, giving rise to a continuous polar ground state. Such phonon modes with U(1) symmetry could emulate structural condensed matter Higgs modes. The mass of this Higgs boson, given by the shape of the Mexican hat energy surface, can be tuned by strain through proper choice of substrate.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2014

Relative entropy, interaction energy and the nature of dissipation

Many thermodynamic relations involve inequalities, with equality if a process does not involve dissipation. In this article we provide equalities in which the dissipative contribution is shown to involve the relative entropy (a.k.a. Kullback-Leibler divergence). The processes considered are general time evolutions both in classical and quantum mechanics, and the initial state is sometimes thermal, sometimes partially so. By calculating a transport coefficient we show that indeed---at least in this case---the source of dissipation in that coefficient is the relative entropy.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2013

Dissipation, interaction and relative entropy

Many thermodynamic relations involve inequalities, with equality if a process does not involve dissipation. In this article we provide equalities in which the dissipative contribution is shown to involve the relative entropy (a.k.a. Kullback-Leibler divergence). The processes considered are general time evolutions both in classical and quantum mechanics, and the initial state is sometimes thermal, sometimes partially so. As an application, the relative entropy is related to transport coefficients.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2011

Efficiency of a thermodynamic motor at maximum power

Several recent theories address the efficiency of a macroscopic thermodynamic motor at maximum power and question the so-called "Curzon-Ahlborn (CA) efficiency." Considering the entropy exchanges and productions in an n-sources motor, we study the maximization of its power and show that the controversies are partly due to some imprecision in the maximization variables. When power is maximized with respect to the system temperatures, these temperatures are proportional to the square root of the corresponding source temperatures, which leads to the CA formula for a bi-thermal motor. On the other hand, when power is maximized with respect to the transitions durations, the Carnot efficiency of a bi-thermal motor admits the CA efficiency as a lower bound, which is attained if the duration of the adiabatic transitions can be neglected. Additionally, we compute the energetic efficiency, or "sustainable efficiency," which can be defined for n sources, and we show that it has no other universal upper bound than 1, but that in certain situations, favorable for power production, it does not exceed 1/2.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2011

Intermittent search strategies

This review examines intermittent target search strategies, which combine phases of slow motion, allowing the searcher to detect the target, and phases of fast motion during which targets cannot be detected. We first show that intermittent search strategies are actually widely observed at various scales. At the macroscopic scale, this is for example the case of animals looking for food ; at the microscopic scale, intermittent transport patterns are involved in reaction pathway of DNA binding proteins as well as in intracellular transport. Second, we introduce generic stochastic models, which show that intermittent strategies are efficient strategies, which enable to minimize the search time. This suggests that the intrinsic efficiency of intermittent search strategies could justify their frequent observation in nature. Last, beyond these modeling aspects, we propose that intermittent strategies could be used also in a broader context to design and accelerate search processes.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2009

Robustness of optimal intermittent search strategies in dimension 1, 2 and 3

Search problems at various scales involve a searcher, be it a molecule before reaction or a foraging animal, which performs an intermittent motion. Here we analyze a generic model based on such type of intermittent motion, in which the searcher alternates phases of slow motion allowing detection, and phases of fast motion without detection. We present full and systematic results for different modeling hypotheses of the detection mechanism in space dimension 1, 2 and 3. Our study completes and extends the results of our recent letter [Loverdo {\it et al.} Nature Physics {\bf 4}, 134 (2008)] and gives the necessary calculation details. In addition, a new modeling of the detection phase is presented. We show that the mean target detection time can be minimized as a function of the mean duration of each phase in dimension 1, 2 and 3. Importantly, this optimal strategy does not depend on the details of the modeling of the slow detection phase, which shows the robustness of our results. We believe that this systematic analysis can be used as a basis to study quantitatively various real search problems involving intermittent behaviors.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2008

Generalized Clausius relation and power dissipation in non equilibrium stochastic systems

We extend certain basic and general concepts of thermodynamics to discrete Markov systems exchanging work and heat with reservoirs. In this framework we show that the celebrated Clausius inequality can be generalized and becomes an equality, significantly extending several recent results. We further show that achieving zero dissipation in a system implies that detailed balance obtains, and as a consequence there is zero power production. We obtain inequalities for power production under more general circumstances and show that near equilibrium obtaining maximum power production requires dissipation to be of the same order of magnitude.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2008

Enhanced reaction kinetics in biological cells

The cell cytoskeleton is a striking example of "active" medium driven out-of-equilibrium by ATP hydrolysis. Such activity has been shown recently to have a spectacular impact on the mechanical and rheological properties of the cellular medium, as well as on its transport properties : a generic tracer particle freely diffuses as in a standard equilibrium medium, but also intermittently binds with random interaction times to motor proteins, which perform active ballistic excursions along cytoskeletal filaments. Here, we propose for the first time an analytical model of transport limited reactions in active media, and show quantitatively how active transport can enhance reactivity for large enough tracers like vesicles. We derive analytically the average interaction time with motor proteins which optimizes the reaction rate, and reveal remarkable universal features of the optimal configuration. We discuss why active transport may be beneficial in various biological examples: cell cytoskeleton, membranes and lamellipodia, and tubular structures like axons.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2006

Bidimensional intermittent search processes: an alternative to Levy flights strategies

Levy flights are known to be optimal search strategies in the particular case of revisitable targets. In the relevant situation of non revisitable targets, we propose an alternative model of bidimensional search processes, which explicitly relies on the widely observed intermittent behavior of foraging animals. We show analytically that intermittent strategies can minimize the search time, and therefore do constitute real optimal strategies. We study two representative modes of target detection, and determine which features of the search time are robust and do not depend on the specific characteristics of detection mechanisms. In particular, both modes lead to a global minimum of the search time as a function of the typical times spent in each state, for the same optimal duration of the ballistic phase. This last quantity could be a universal feature of bidimensional intermittent search strategies.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2005

First-passage times for random walks in bounded domains

We present a novel computational method of first-passage times between a starting site and a target site of regular bounded lattices. We derive accurate expressions for all the moments of this first-passage time, validated by numerical simulations. Their range of validity is discussed. We also consider the case of a starting site and two targets. In addition, we present the extension to continuous Brownian motion. These results are of great relevance to any system involving diffusion in confined media.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2005

First exit times and residence times for discrete random walks on finite lattices

In this paper, we derive explicit formulas for the surface averaged first exit time of a discrete random walk on a finite lattice. We consider a wide class of random walks and lattices, including random walks in a non-trivial potential landscape. We also compute quantities of interest for modelling surface reactions and other dynamic processes, such as the residence time in a subvolume, the joint residence time of several particles and the number of hits on a reflecting surface.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2005

Averaged residence times of stochastic motions in bounded domains

Two years ago, Blanco and Fournier (Blanco S. and Fournier R., Europhys. Lett. 2003) calculated the mean first exit time of a domain of a particle undergoing a randomly reoriented ballistic motion which starts from the boundary. They showed that it is simply related to the ratio of the volume's domain over its surface. This work was extended by Mazzolo (Mazzolo A., Europhys. Lett. 2004) who studied the case of trajectories which start inside the volume. In this letter, we propose an alternative formulation of the problem which allows us to calculate not only the mean exit time, but also the mean residence time inside a sub-domain. The cases of any combinations of reflecting and absorbing boundary conditions are considered. Lastly, we generalize our results for a wide class of stochastic motions.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2005

Mean joint residence time of two Brownian particles in a sphere

We calculate the mean joint residence time of two Brownian particles in a sphere, for very general initial conditions. In particular, we focus on the dependence of this residence time as a function of the diffusion coefficients of the two particles. Our results can be useful for describing kinetics of bimolecular diffusion controlled reactions activated by catalytic sites.

cond-mat.soft↗

arXiv2005

Microscopic Model of Charge Carrier Transfer in Complex Media

We present a microscopic model of a charge carrier transfer under an action of a constant electric field in a complex medium. Generalizing previous theoretical approaches, we model the dynamical environment hindering the carrier motion by dynamic percolation, i.e., as a medium comprising particles which move randomly on a simple cubic lattice, constrained by hard-core exclusion, and may spontaneously annihilate and re-appear at some prescribed rates. We determine analytically the density profiles of the "environment" particles, as seen from the stationary moving charge carrier, and calculate its terminal velocity as the function of the applied field and other system parameters. We realize that for sufficiently small external fields the force exerted on the carrier by the "environment" particles shows a viscous-like behavior and define an analog of the Stokes formula for such dynamic percolative environments. The corresponding friction coefficient is also derived.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2005

Optimal search strategies for hidden targets

What is the fastest way of finding a randomly hidden target? This question of general relevance is of vital importance for foraging animals. Experimental observations reveal that the search behaviour of foragers is generally intermittent: active search phases randomly alternate with phases of fast ballistic motion. In this letter, we study the efficiency of this type of two states search strategies, by calculating analytically the mean first passage time at the target. We model the perception mecanism involved in the active search phase by a diffusive process. In this framework, we show that the search strategy is optimal when the average duration of "motion phases" varies like the power either 3/5 or 2/3 of the average duration of "search phases", depending on the regime. This scaling accounts for experimental data over a wide range of species, which suggests that the kinetics of search trajectories is a determining factor optimized by foragers and that the perception activity is adequately described by a diffusion process.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2005

Corrections to the Law of Mass Action and Properties of the Asymptotic $t = \infty$ State for Reversible Diffusion-Limited Reactions

On example of diffusion-limited reversible $A+A \rightleftharpoons B$ reactions we re-examine two fundamental concepts of classical chemical kinetics - the notion of "Chemical Equilibrium" and the "Law of Mass Action". We consider a general model with distance-dependent reaction rates, such that any pair of $A$ particles, performing standard random walks on sites of a $d$-dimensional lattice and being at a distance $μ$ apart of each other at time moment $t$, may associate forming a $B$ particle at the rate $k_+(μ)$. In turn, any randomly moving $B$ particle may spontaneously dissociate at the rate $k_-(λ)$ into a geminate pair of $A$s "born" at a distance $λ$ apart of each other. Within a formally exact approach based on Gardiner's Poisson representation method we show that the asymptotic $t = \infty$ state attained by such diffusion-limited reactions is generally \textit{not a true thermodynamic equilibrium}, but rather a non-equilibrium steady-state, and that the Law of Mass Action is invalid. The classical concepts hold \text{only} in case when the ratio $k_+(μ)/k_-(μ)$ does not depend on $μ$ for any $μ$.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗