292 research outputs found
Spin Orientation of Holes in Quantum Wells
This paper reviews the spin orientation of spin-3/2 holes in quantum wells.
We discuss the Zeeman and Rashba spin splitting in hole systems that are
qualitatively different from their counterparts in electron systems. We show
how a systematic understanding of the unusual spin-dependent phenomena in hole
systems can be gained using a multipole expansion of the spin density matrix.
As an example we discuss spin precession in hole systems that can give rise to
an alternating spin polarization. Finally, we discuss the qualitatively
different regimes of hole spin polarization decay in clean and dirty samples.Comment: 14 pages, 8 figure
The role of medial entorhinal cortex activity in hippocampal CA1 spatiotemporally correlated sequence generation and object selectivity for memory function
The hippocampus is crucial for episodic memory and certain forms of spatial navigation. Firing activity of hippocampal principal neurons contains environmental information, including the presence of specific objects, as well as the animalâs spatial and temporal position relative to environmental and behavioral cues. The organization of these firing correlates may allow the formation of memory traces through the integration of object and event information onto a spatiotemporal framework of cell assemblies. Characterizing how external inputs guide internal dynamics in the hippocampus to enable this process across different experiences is crucial to understanding hippocampal function. A body of literature implicates the medial entorhinal cortex (MEC) in supplying spatial and temporal information to the hippocampus. Here we develop a protocol utilizing bilaterally implanted custom designed triple fiber optic arrays and the red-shifted inhibitory opsin JAWS to transiently inactivate large volumes of MEC in freely behaving rats. This was coupled with extracellular tetrode recording of ensembles in CA1 of the hippocampus during a novel memory task involving temporal, spatial and object related epochs, in order to assess the importance of MEC activity for hippocampal feature selectivity during a rich and familiar experience.
We report that inactivation of MEC during a mnemonic temporal delay disrupts the existing temporal firing field sequence in CA1 both during and following the inactivation period. Neurons with firing fields prior to the inactivation on each trial remained relatively stable. The disruption of CA1 temporal firing field sequences was accompanied by a behavioral deficit implicating MEC activity and hippocampal temporal field sequences in effective memory across time. Inactivating MEC during the object or spatial epochs of the task did not significantly alter CA1 object selective or spatial firing fields and behavioral performance remained stable. Our findings suggest that MEC is crucial specifically for temporal field organization and expression during a familiar and rich experience. These results support a role for MEC in guiding hippocampal cell assembly sequences in the absence of salient changing stimuli, which may extend to the navigation of cognitive organization in humans and support memory formation and retrieval
Secular Stellar Dynamics near a Massive Black Hole
The angular momentum evolution of stars close to massive black holes (MBHs)
is driven by secular torques. In contrast to two-body relaxation, where
interactions between stars are incoherent, the resulting resonant relaxation
(RR) process is characterized by coherence times of hundreds of orbital
periods. In this paper, we show that all the statistical properties of RR can
be reproduced in an autoregressive moving average (ARMA) model. We use the ARMA
model, calibrated with extensive N-body simulations, to analyze the long-term
evolution of stellar systems around MBHs with Monte Carlo simulations.
We show that for a single-mass system in steady-state, a depression is carved
out near an MBH as a result of tidal disruptions. Using Galactic center
parameters, the extent of the depression is about 0.1 pc, of similar order to
but less than the size of the observed "hole" in the distribution of bright
late-type stars. We also find that the velocity vectors of stars around an MBH
are locally not isotropic. In a second application, we evolve the highly
eccentric orbits that result from the tidal disruption of binary stars, which
are considered to be plausible precursors of the "S-stars" in the Galactic
center. We find that RR predicts more highly eccentric (e > 0.9) S-star orbits
than have been observed to date.Comment: 24 pages, 31 figures; final version as published in Ap
Debris Disks: Probing Planet Formation
Debris disks are the dust disks found around ~20% of nearby main sequence
stars in far-IR surveys. They can be considered as descendants of
protoplanetary disks or components of planetary systems, providing valuable
information on circumstellar disk evolution and the outcome of planet
formation. The debris disk population can be explained by the steady
collisional erosion of planetesimal belts; population models constrain where
(10-100au) and in what quantity (>1Mearth) planetesimals (>10km in size)
typically form in protoplanetary disks. Gas is now seen long into the debris
disk phase. Some of this is secondary implying planetesimals have a Solar
System comet-like composition, but some systems may retain primordial gas.
Ongoing planet formation processes are invoked for some debris disks, such as
the continued growth of dwarf planets in an unstirred disk, or the growth of
terrestrial planets through giant impacts. Planets imprint structure on debris
disks in many ways; images of gaps, clumps, warps, eccentricities and other
disk asymmetries, are readily explained by planets at >>5au. Hot dust in the
region planets are commonly found (<5au) is seen for a growing number of stars.
This dust usually originates in an outer belt (e.g., from exocomets), although
an asteroid belt or recent collision is sometimes inferred.Comment: Invited review, accepted for publication in the 'Handbook of
Exoplanets', eds. H.J. Deeg and J.A. Belmonte, Springer (2018
Quantitative Susceptibility Mapping: Contrast Mechanisms and Clinical Applications.
Quantitative susceptibility mapping (QSM) is a recently developed MRI technique for quantifying the spatial distribution of magnetic susceptibility within biological tissues. It first uses the frequency shift in the MRI signal to map the magnetic field profile within the tissue. The resulting field map is then used to determine the spatial distribution of the underlying magnetic susceptibility by solving an inverse problem. The solution is achieved by deconvolving the field map with a dipole field, under the assumption that the magnetic field is a result of the superposition of the dipole fields generated by all voxels and that each voxel has its unique magnetic susceptibility. QSM provides improved contrast to noise ratio for certain tissues and structures compared to its magnitude counterpart. More importantly, magnetic susceptibility is a direct reflection of the molecular composition and cellular architecture of the tissue. Consequently, by quantifying magnetic susceptibility, QSM is becoming a quantitative imaging approach for characterizing normal and pathological tissue properties. This article reviews the mechanism generating susceptibility contrast within tissues and some associated applications
Quantum Computation and Spin Electronics
In this chapter we explore the connection between mesoscopic physics and
quantum computing. After giving a bibliography providing a general introduction
to the subject of quantum information processing, we review the various
approaches that are being considered for the experimental implementation of
quantum computing and quantum communication in atomic physics, quantum optics,
nuclear magnetic resonance, superconductivity, and, especially, normal-electron
solid state physics. We discuss five criteria for the realization of a quantum
computer and consider the implications that these criteria have for quantum
computation using the spin states of single-electron quantum dots. Finally, we
consider the transport of quantum information via the motion of individual
electrons in mesoscopic structures; specific transport and noise measurements
in coupled quantum dot geometries for detecting and characterizing
electron-state entanglement are analyzed.Comment: 28 pages RevTeX, 4 figures. To be published in "Quantum Mesoscopic
Phenomena and Mesoscopic Devices in Microelectronics," eds. I. O. Kulik and
R. Ellialtioglu (NATO Advanced Study Institute, Turkey, June 13-25, 1999
Dynamic Quantum Vacuum and Relativity
A model of a three-dimensional dynamic quantum vacuum with variable energy density is proposed. In this model, time we measure with clocks is only a mathematical parameter of changes running in quantum vacuum. Mass and gravity are carried by the variable energy density of quantum vacuum. Each elementary particle is a structure of quantum vacuum and diminishes the quantum vacuum energy density. Symmetry âparticle â diminished energy density of quantum vacuumâ is the fundamental symmetry of the universe which gives origin to the inertial and gravitational mass. Special relativityâs Sagnac effect in GPS system and important predictions of general relativity such as precessions of the planets, the Shapiro time delay of light signals in a gravitational field and the geodetic and frame-dragging effects recently tested by Gravity Probe B, have origin in the dynamics of the quantum vacuum which rotates with the earth
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