Contractor-Renormalization approach to frustrated magnets in magnetic field

We propose to use the Contractor Renormalization (CORE) technique in order to derive effective models for quantum magnets in a magnetic field. CORE is a powerful non-perturbative technique that can reduce the complexity of a given microscopic model by focusing on the low-energy part. We provide a detailed analysis of frustrated spin ladders which have been widely studied in the past: in particular, we discuss how to choose the building block and emphasize the use of their reduced density matrix. With a good choice of basis, CORE is able to reproduce the existence or not of magnetization plateaux in the whole phase diagram contrary to usual perturbation theory. We also address the issue of plateau formation in two-dimensional bilayers and point out the analogy between non-frustrated strongly anisotropic models and frustrated SU(2) ones.Comment: 13 pages, 20 figures; published version with minor change

Effective Theory of Magnetization Plateaux in the Shastry-Sutherland Lattice

We use the non-perturbative Contractor-Renormalization method (CORE) in order to derive an effective model for triplet excitations on the Shastry-Sutherland lattice. For strong enough magnetic fields, various magnetization plateaux are observed, e.g. at 1/8, 1/4, 1/3 of the saturation, as found experimentally in a related compound. Moreover, other stable plateaux are found at 1/9, 1/6 or 2/9. We give a critical review of previous works and try to resolve some apparent inconsistencies between various theoretical approaches.Comment: published version with minor change

Protection of Ischemic Myocardium by Whole-Body Hypothermia After Coronary Artery Occlusion in Dogs

Anesthetized dogs were cooled to a core body temperature of 26°C or maintained at a body temperature of 37°C during periods of 5 and 10 hours of LAD coronary artery occlusion. Subsequent macroscopic dehydrogenase enzyme mapping showed that ischemic injury was 25 per cent less after 5 hours of coronary occlusion and 20 per cent less after 10 hours of occlusion in hypothermic dogs than in normothermic controls. The heart rate and left ventricular minute work in hypothermic dogs decreased to roughly half the levels measured in normothermic animals, while left ventricular contractility was 10 to 40 per cent lower in hypothermic dogs than in normothermic dogs. However, cardiac index and left ventricular end-diastolic pressure were unchanged by whole body cooling. Thus, hypothermia appeared to diminish the oxygen requirements of the ischemic myocardium without reducing the performance of the heart as a pump. Hypothermia may be useful as a therapeutic adjunct to myocardial revascularization or pharmacologrc interventions

Natriuretic peptide receptor-C is up-regulated in the intima of advanced carotid artery atherosclerosis

OBJECTIVE: Natriuretic peptide receptor-C (NPR-C/NPR-3) is a cell surface protein involved in vascular remodelling that is up-regulated in atherosclerosis. NPR-C expression has not been well characterized in human carotid artery occlusive lesions. We hypothesized that NPR-C expression correlates with intimal features of vulnerable atherosclerotic carotid artery plaque. METHODS: To test this hypothesis, we evaluated NPR-C expression by immunohistochemistry (IHC) in carotid endarterectomy (CEA) specimens isolated from 18 patients. The grade, location, and co-localization of NPR-C in CEA specimens were evaluated using two tissue analysis techniques. RESULTS: Relative to minimally diseased CEA specimens, we observed avid NPR-C tissue staining in the intima of maximally diseased CEA specimens (65%; p=0.06). Specifically, maximally diseased CEA specimens demonstrated increased NPR-C expression in the superficial intima (61%, p=0.17), and deep intima (138% increase; p=0.05). In the superficial intima, NPR-C expression significantly co-localized with vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs) and macrophages. The intensity of NPR-C expression was also higher in the superficial intima plaque shoulder and cap regions, and significantly correlated with atheroma and fibroatheroma vulnerable plaque regions (β=1.04, 95% CI=0.46, 1.64). CONCLUSION: These findings demonstrate significant NPR-C expression in the intima of advanced carotid artery plaques. Furthermore, NPR-C expression was higher in vulnerable carotid plaque intimal regions, and correlate with features of advanced disease. Our findings suggest that NPR-C may serve as a potential biomarker for carotid plaque vulnerability and progression, in patients with advanced carotid artery occlusive disease

Transchest defibrillation under conditions of hypothermia

This study was conducted to determine whether or not hypothermia changes ventricular defibrillation threshold. Ventricular fibrillation was induced by electrical stimulation of the endocardium in pentobarbital anesthetized dogs, both during normothermia and hypothermia produced by circulating 8 °C water through a rubber bladder implanted in the peritoneal cavity. Defibrillation threshold was determined as the shock strength needed to defibrillate the ventricles and differing no more than 10 percent from a shock strength that failed to defibrillate. Defibrillation threshold current was stable for body temperatures ranging from 37 oC to 22 oC. Threshold energy increased linearly with decreasing temperature in keeping with the expected temperature-dependent changes in body fluid resistance. Normothermic electrical doses are probably appropriate for defibrillation of hypothermic children

Noninvasive imaging of focal atherosclerotic lesions using fluorescence molecular tomography

Insights into the etiology of stroke and myocardial infarction suggest that rupture of unstable atherosclerotic plaque is the precipitating event. Clinicians lack tools to detect lesion instability early enough to intervene, and are often left to manage patients empirically, or worse, after plaque rupture. Noninvasive imaging of the molecular events signaling prerupture plaque progression has the potential to reduce the morbidity and mortality associated with myocardial infarction and stroke by allowing early intervention. Here, we demonstrate proof-of-principle in vivo molecular imaging of C-type natriuretic peptide receptor in focal atherosclerotic lesions in the femoral arteries of New Zealand white rabbits using a custom built fiber-based, fluorescence molecular tomography (FMT) system. Longitudinal imaging showed changes in the fluorescence signal intensity as the plaque progressed in the air-desiccated vessel compared to the uninjured vessel, which was validated by ex vivo tissue studies. In summary, we demonstrate the potential of FMT for noninvasive detection of molecular events leading to unstable lesions heralding plaque rupture

Magnetization plateaux in an extended Shastry-Sutherland model

We study an extended two-dimensional Shastry-Sutherland model in a magnetic field where besides the usual Heisenberg exchanges of the Shastry-Sutherland model two additional SU(2) invariant couplings are included. Perturbative continous unitary transformations are used to determine the leading order effects of the additional couplings on the pure hopping and on the long-range interactions between the triplons which are the most relevant terms for small magnetization. We then compare the energy of various magnetization plateaux in the classical limit and we discuss the implications for the two-dimensional quantum magnet SrCu$_2$(BO$_3$)$_2$.Comment: 8 pages, Proceedings of the HFM2008 Conferenc

Coulomb parameters and photoemission for the molecular metal TTF-TCNQ

We employ density-functional theory to calculate realistic parameters for an extended Hubbard model of the molecular metal TTF-TCNQ. Considering both intra- and intermolecular screening in the crystal, we find significant longer-range Coulomb interactions along the molecular stacks, as well as inter-stack coupling. We show that the long-range Coulomb term of the extended Hubbard model leads to a broadening of the spectral density, likely resolving the problems with the interpretation of photoemission experiments using a simple Hubbard model only.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figure

Magnetostriction and magnetic texture to 97.4 Tesla in frustrated SrCu2(BO3)2

Strong geometrical frustration in magnets leads to exotic states, such as spin liquids, spin supersolids and complex magnetic textures. SrCu2(BO3)2, a spin-1/2 Heisenberg antiferromagnet in the archetypical Shastry-Sutherland lattice, exhibits a rich spectrum of magnetization plateaus and stripe-like magnetic textures in applied fields. The structure of these plateaus is still highly controversial due to the intrinsic complexity associated with frustration and competing length scales. We reveal new magnetic textures in SrCu2(BO3)2 via magnetostriction and magnetocaloric measurements in fields up to 97.4 Tesla. In addition to observing the low-field fine structure of the plateaus with unprecedented resolution, the data also reveal lattice responses at 82 T and at 73.6 T which we attribute, using a controlled density matrix renormalization group approach, to the long-predicted 1/2-saturation plateau, and to a new 2/5 plateau.Comment: 12 pages, 4 figures, submitte