Linear perturbations in Eddington-inspired Born-Infeld gravity

We study the full linear perturbations of a homogeneous and isotropic spacetime in the Eddington-inspired Born-Infeld gravity. The stability of the perturbations are analyzed in the Eddington regime. We find that, for positive $\kappa$, the scalar modes are stable in the infinite wavelength limit ($k=0$) but unstable for $k\neq0$. The vector modes are stable and the tensor mode is unstable in the Eddington regime, independent of the wave vector $k$. However, these modes are unstable and hence cause the instabilities for negative $\kappa$.Comment: 11 pages, no figures, published versio

Scalar perturbations of Eddington-inspired Born-Infeld braneworld

We consider the scalar perturbations of Eddington-inspired Born-Infeld braneworld models in this paper. The dynamical equation for the physical propagating degree of freedom $\xi(x^\mu,y)$ is achieved by using the Arnowitt-Deser-Misner decomposition method: $F_1(y) {\partial_y^2 \xi} + F_2(y){\partial_y \xi } + {\partial^{\mu}\partial_{\mu}}\xi=0$. We conclude that the solution is tachyonic-free and stable under scalar perturbations for $F_1(y)>0$ but unstable for $F_1(y)< 0$. The stability of a known analytic domain wall solution with the warp factor given by $a(y)= \text{sech}^{\frac{3}{{4p}}}(ky)$ is analyzed and it is shown that only the solution for $0<p<\sqrt{8/3}$ is stable.Comment: 16 pages, 1 figure, accepted by Physical Review

Magnetosome Gene Duplication as an Important Driver in the Evolution of Magnetotaxis in the Alphaproteobacteria

The evolution of microbial magnetoreception (or magnetotaxis) is of great interest in the fields of microbiology, evolutionary biology, biophysics, geomicrobiology, and geochemistry. Current genomic data from magnetotactic bacteria (MTB), the only prokaryotes known to be capable of sensing the Earth’s geomagnetic field, suggests an ancient origin of magnetotaxis in the domain Bacteria. Vertical inheritance, followed by multiple independent magnetosome gene cluster loss, is considered to be one of the major forces that drove the evolution of magnetotaxis at or above the class or phylum level, although the evolutionary trajectories at lower taxonomic ranks (e.g., within the class level) remain largely unstudied. Here we report the isolation, cultivation, and sequencing of a novel magnetotactic spirillum belonging to the genus Terasakiella (Terasakiella sp. strain SH-1) within the class Alphaproteobacteria. The complete genome sequence of Terasakiella sp. strain SH-1 revealed an unexpected duplication event of magnetosome genes within the mamAB operon, a group of genes essential for magnetosome biomineralization and magnetotaxis. Intriguingly, further comparative genomic analysis suggests that the duplication of mamAB genes is a common feature in the genomes of alphaproteobacterial MTB. Taken together, with the additional finding that gene duplication appears to have also occurred in some magnetotactic members of the Deltaproteobacteria, our results indicate that gene duplication plays an important role in the evolution of magnetotaxis in the Alphaproteobacteria and perhaps the domain Bacteria

Ground-state Properties and Bogoliubov Modes of a Harmonically Trapped One-Dimensional Quantum Droplet

We study the stationary and excitation properties of a one-dimensional quantum droplet in the two-component Bose mixture trapped in a harmonic potential. By constructing the energy functional for the inhomogeneous mixture, we elaborate the extended the Gross-Pitaevskii equation applicable to both symmetric and asymmetric mixtures into a universal form, and the equations in two different dimensionless schemes are in a duality relation, i.e. the unique parameters left are inverse of each other. The Bogoliubov equations for the trapped droplet are obtained by linearizing the small density fluctuation around the ground state and the low-lying excitation modes are calculated numerically.It is found that the confinement trap changes easily the flat-top structure for large droplets and alters the mean square radius and the chemical potential intensively. The breathing mode of the confined droplet connects the self-bound and ideal gas limits, with the excitation in the weakly interacting Bose condensate for large particle numbers lying in between. We explicitly show how the continuum spectrum of the excitation is split into discrete modes, and finally taken over by the harmonic trap. Two critical particle numbers are identified by the minimum size of the trapped droplet and the maximum breathing mode energy, both of which are found to decrease exponentially with the trapping parameter.Comment: 11 pages, 7 figure

Magnetic light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation in subwavelength systems of a dielectric cavity and magnetic quantum emitters

We propose a magnetic laser in a subwavelength system consisting of a high-refractive-index dielectric cavity and an active medium formed by magnetic quantum emitters. Stimulated emissions of magnetic quantum emitters induced by their coherent interactions with quantized magnetic fields of a cavity are theoretically considered. The condition to archive such a magnetic laser is obtained. Numerical results show that magnetic lasers are feasible in some realistic systems, for example, a silicon disk of high-quality whispering gallery modes with embedded emitters. Furthermore, the competitions between the electric interaction and magnetic one in terms of their Purcell factors are also considered in some magnetic laser achievable systems. In a wavelength-scale silicon block of a high-order magnetic mode, the ratio of magnetic Purcell factor to the electric one can reach more than ~10^3 large. Our results open up ways to enhanced magnetic light-matter interactions.Comment: 21 pages, 5 figure