883 research outputs found
High-Temperature Atomic Superfluidity in Lattice Boson-Fermion Mixtures
We consider atomic Bose-Fermi mixtures in optical lattices and study the
superfluidity of fermionic atoms due to s-wave pairing induced by boson-fermion
interactions. We prove that the induced fermion-fermion coupling is always {\it
attractive} if the boson-boson on site interaction is repulsive, and predict
the existence of an enhanced BEC--BCS crossover as the strength of the lattice
potential is varied. We show that for direct on-site fermion-fermion {\it
repulsion}, the induced attraction can give rise to superfluidity via s-wave
pairing, at striking variance with the case of pure systems of fermionic atoms
with direct repulsive interactions.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, final versio
Thermodynamics of a Trapped Bose-Fermi Mixture
By using the Hartree-Fock-Bogoliubov equations within the Popov
approximation, we investigate the thermodynamic properties of a dilute binary
Bose-Fermi mixture confined in an isotropic harmonic trap. For mixtures with an
attractive Bose-Fermi interaction we find a sizable enhancement of the
condensate fraction and of the critical temperature of Bose-Einstein
condensation with respect to the predictions for a pure interacting Bose gas.
Conversely, the influence of the repulsive Bose-Fermi interaction is less
pronounced. The possible relevance of our results in current experiments on
trapped {\rm K} mixtures is discussed.Comment: 5 pages + 4 figures; minor changes, final version to appear in Phys.
Rev. A; the extension work on the finite-temperature low-lying excitations
can be found in cond-mat/030763
Mixing-Demixing transition in 1D boson-fermion mixture at low fermion densities
We numerically investigated the mixing-demixing transition of the
boson-fermion mixture on a 1D lattice at an incommensurate filling with the
fermion density being kept below the boson density. The phase diagram we
obtained suggested that the decrease of the number of the fermions drove the
system into the demixing phase
Controlling ultracold atoms in multi-band optical lattices for simulation of Kondo physics
We show that ultracold atoms can be controlled in multi-band optical lattices
through spatially periodic Raman pulses for investigation of a class of
strongly correlated physics related to the Kondo problem. The underlying
dynamics of this system is described by a spin-dependent fermionic or bosonic
Kondo-Hubbard lattice model even if we have only spin-independent atomic
collision interaction. We solve the bosonic Kondo-Hubbard lattice model through
a mean-field approximation, and the result shows a clear phase transition from
the ferromagnetic superfluid to the Kondo-signet insulator at the integer
filling.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figure
Mixtures of Bosonic and Fermionic Atoms in Optical Lattices
We discuss the theory of mixtures of Bosonic and Fermionic atoms in periodic
potentials at zero temperature. We derive a general Bose--Fermi Hubbard
Hamiltonian in a one--dimensional optical lattice with a superimposed harmonic
trapping potential. We study the conditions for linear stability of the mixture
and derive a mean field criterion for the onset of a Bosonic superfluid
transition. We investigate the ground state properties of the mixture in the
Gutzwiller formulation of mean field theory, and present numerical studies of
finite systems. The Bosonic and Fermionic density distributions and the onset
of quantum phase transitions to demixing and to a Bosonic Mott--insulator are
studied as a function of the lattice potential strength. The existence is
predicted of a disordered phase for mixtures loaded in very deep lattices. Such
a disordered phase possessing many degenerate or quasi--degenerate ground
states is related to a breaking of the mirror symmetry in the lattice.Comment: 11 pages, 8 figures; added discussions; conclusions and references
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Quantum phases of atomic boson-fermion mixtures in optical lattices
The zero-temperature phase diagram of a binary mixture of bosonic and
fermionic atoms in an one-dimensional optical lattice is studied in the
framework of the Bose-Fermi-Hubbard model. By exact numerical solution of the
associated eigenvalue problems, ground state observables and the response to an
external phase twist are evaluated. The stiffnesses under phase variations
provide measures for the boson superfluid fraction and the fermionic Drude
weight. Several distinct quantum phases are identified as function of the
strength of the repulsive boson-boson and the boson-fermion interaction.
Besides the bosonic Mott-insulator phase, two other insulating phases are
found, where both the bosonic superfluid fraction and the fermionic Drude
weight vanish simultaneously. One of these double-insulator phases exhibits a
crystalline diagonal long-range order, while the other is characterized by
spatial separation of the two species.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, using REVTEX
Y3IP1, A nucleus-encoded Thylakoid Protein, Cooperates with the Plastid-Encoded YCf3 Protein in Photosystem I Assembly of Tobacco and Arabidopsis
The intricate assembly of photosystem I (PSI), a large multiprotein complex in the thylakoid membrane, depends on auxiliary protein factors. One of the essential assembly factors for PSI is encoded by ycf3 (hypothetical chloroplast reading frame number 3) in the chloroplast genome of algae and higher plants. To identify novel factors involved in PSI assembly, we constructed an epitope-tagged version of ycf3 from tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum) and introduced it into the tobacco chloroplast genome by genetic transformation. Immunoaffinity purification of Ycf3 complexes from the transplastomic plants identified a novel nucleus-encoded thylakoid protein, Y3IP1 (for Ycf3-interacting protein 1), that specifically interacts with the Ycf3 protein. Subsequent reverse genetics analysis of Y3IP1 function in tobacco and Arabidopsis thaliana revealed that knockdown of Y3IP1 leads to a specific deficiency in PSI but does not result in loss of Ycf3. Our data indicate that Y3IP1 represents a novel factor for PSI biogenesis that cooperates with the plastid genome-encoded Ycf3 in the assembly of stable PSI units in the thylakoid membrane
Toxoplasma ceramide synthases: Gene duplication, functional divergence, and roles in parasite fitness.
Toxoplasma gondii is an obligate, intracellular apicomplexan protozoan parasite of both humans and animals that can cause fetal damage and abortion and severe disease in the immunosuppressed. Sphingolipids have indispensable functions as signaling molecules and are essential and ubiquitous components of eukaryotic membranes that are both synthesized and scavenged by the Apicomplexa. Ceramide is the precursor for all sphingolipids, and here we report the identification, localization and analyses of the Toxoplasma ceramide synthases TgCerS1 and TgCerS2. Interestingly, we observed that while TgCerS1 was a fully functional orthologue of the yeast ceramide synthase (Lag1p) capable of catalyzing the conversion of sphinganine to ceramide, in contrast TgCerS2 was catalytically inactive. Furthermore, genomic deletion of TgCerS1 using CRISPR/Cas-9 led to viable but slow-growing parasites indicating its importance but not indispensability. In contrast, genomic knock out of TgCerS2 was only accessible utilizing the rapamycin-inducible Cre recombinase system. Surprisingly, the results demonstrated that this "pseudo" ceramide synthase, TgCerS2, has a considerably greater role in parasite fitness than its catalytically active orthologue (TgCerS1). Phylogenetic analyses indicated that, as in humans and plants, the ceramide synthase isoforms found in Toxoplasma and other Apicomplexa may have arisen through gene duplication. However, in the Apicomplexa the duplicated copy is hypothesized to have subsequently evolved into a non-functional "pseudo" ceramide synthase. This arrangement is unique to the Apicomplexa and further illustrates the unusual biology that characterize these protozoan parasites. [Abstract copyright: © 2023 The Authors. The FASEB Journal published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology.
LCAA, a Novel Factor Required for Magnesium Protoporphyrin Monomethylester Cyclase Accumulation and Feedback Control of Aminolevulinic Acid Biosynthesis in Tobacco
Low Chlorophyll Accumulation A (LCAA) antisense plants were obtained from a screen for genes whose partial down-regulation results in a strong chlorophyll deficiency in tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum). The LCAA mutants are affected in a plastid-localized protein of unknown function, which is conserved in cyanobacteria and all photosynthetic eukaryotes. They suffer from drastically reduced light-harvesting complex (LHC) contents, while the accumulation of all other photosynthetic complexes per leaf area is less affected. As the disturbed accumulation of LHC proteins could be either attributable to a defect in LHC biogenesis itself or to a bottleneck in chlorophyll biosynthesis, chlorophyll synthesis rates and chlorophyll synthesis intermediates were measured. LCAA antisense plants accumulate magnesium (Mg) protoporphyrin monomethylester and contain reduced protochlorophyllide levels and a reduced content of CHL27, a subunit of the Mg protoporphyrin monomethylester cyclase. Bimolecular fluorescence complementation assays confirm a direct interaction between LCAA and CHL27. 5-Aminolevulinic acid synthesis rates are increased and correlate with an increased content of glutamyl-transfer RNA reductase. We suggest that LCAA encodes an additional subunit of the Mg protoporphyrin monomethylester cyclase, is required for the stability of CHL27, and contributes to feedback-control of 5-aminolevulinic acid biosynthesis, the rate-limiting step of chlorophyll biosynthesis
Osmotic pressure of matter and vacuum energy
The walls of the box which contains matter represent a membrane that allows
the relativistic quantum vacuum to pass but not matter. That is why the
pressure of matter in the box may be considered as the analog of the osmotic
pressure. However, we demonstrate that the osmotic pressure of matter is
modified due to interaction of matter with vacuum. This interaction induces the
nonzero negative vacuum pressure inside the box, as a result the measured
osmotic pressure becomes smaller than the matter pressure. As distinct from the
Casimir effect, this induced vacuum pressure is the bulk effect and does not
depend on the size of the box. This effect dominates in the thermodynamic limit
of the infinite volume of the box. Analog of this effect has been observed in
the dilute solution of 3He in liquid 4He, where the superfluid 4He plays the
role of the non-relativistic quantum vacuum, and 3He atoms play the role of
matter.Comment: 5 pages, 1 figure, JETP Lett. style, version accepted in JETP Letter
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