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In this thesis, we show for the first time how it is possible to calculated fully from first-principles the diabatic free-energy surfaces of electron-transfer reactions. The excitation energy corresponding to the transfer ...

We explore the use of ab initio, density-functional methods for the study of large-scale materials problems. Three examples are presented: (i) the interplay of surface and edge reconstructions in long silicon nanowires, ...

The physics of blackbodies has been an ongoing source of fascination and scientific research for over a hundred years. Kirchhoff's law states that emissivity and absorptivity are equal for an object in thermal equilibrium. ...

In this thesis we study the D-brane physics in the context of Witten's cubic string field theory. We compute first few terms the low energy effective action for the non-abelian gauge field A, from Witten's action. We show ...

Charged-hadron pseudorapidity densities and multiplicity distributions in protonproton collisions at [the square root of sigma] = 0.9, 2.36, 7.0 TeV were measured with the inner tracking system of the CMS detector at the ...

In this thesis, we present our observational and evolutionary studies of neutron stars in X-ray binary systems. A variety of topics are discussed, which are all related by a single scientific theme, namely, helping to set ...

Magnetic reconnection is an important process in magnetized plasmas ranging from the laboratory to astrophysical scales. It enables the release of magnetic energy believed to power solar flares and magnetospheric substorms. ...