14,782 research outputs found
On giant piezoresistance effects in silicon nanowires and microwires
The giant piezoresistance (PZR) previously reported in silicon nanowires is
experimentally investigated in a large number of surface depleted silicon nano-
and micro-structures. The resistance is shown to vary strongly with time due to
electron and hole trapping at the sample surfaces. Importantly, this time
varying resistance manifests itself as an apparent giant PZR identical to that
reported elsewhere. By modulating the applied stress in time, the true PZR of
the structures is found to be comparable with that of bulk silicon
An exactly solvable model of a superconducting to rotational phase transition
We consider a many-fermion model which exhibits a transition from a
superconducting to a rotational phase with variation of a parameter in its
Hamiltonian. The model has analytical solutions in its two limits due to the
presence of dynamical symmetries. However, the symmetries are basically
incompatible with one another; no simple solution exists in intermediate
situations. Exact (numerical) solutions are possible and enable one to study
the behavior of competing but incompatible symmetries and the phase transitions
that result in a semirealistic situation. The results are remarkably simple and
shed light on the nature of phase transitions.Comment: 11 pages including 1 figur
Erosion/corrosion of turbine airfoil materials in the high-velocity effluent of a pressurized fluidized coal combustor
Four candidate turbine airfoil superalloys were exposed to the effluent of a pressurized fluidized bed with a solids loading of 2 to 4 g/scm for up to 100 hours at two gas velocities, 150 and 270 m/sec, and two temperatures, 730 deg and 795 C. Under these conditions, both erosion and corrosion occurred. The damaged specimens were examined by cross-section measurements, scanning electron and light microscopy, and X-ray analysis to evaluate the effects of temperature, velocity, particle loading, and alloy material. Results indicate that for a given solids loading the extent of erosion is primarily dependent on gas velocity. Corrosion occurred only at the higher temperature. There was little difference in the erosion/corrosion damage to the four alloys tested under these severe conditions
Experimental Determination of the Lorenz Number in Cu0.01Bi2Te2.7Se0.3 and Bi0.88Sb0.12
Nanostructuring has been shown to be an effective approach to reduce the
lattice thermal conductivity and improve the thermoelectric figure of merit.
Because the experimentally measured thermal conductivity includes contributions
from both carriers and phonons, separating out the phonon contribution has been
difficult and is mostly based on estimating the electronic contributions using
the Wiedemann-Franz law. In this paper, an experimental method to directly
measure electronic contributions to the thermal conductivity is presented and
applied to Cu0.01Bi2Te2.7Se0.3, [Cu0.01Bi2Te2.7Se0.3]0.98Ni0.02, and
Bi0.88Sb0.12. By measuring the thermal conductivity under magnetic field,
electronic contributions to thermal conductivity can be extracted, leading to
knowledge of the Lorenz number in thermoelectric materials
Revivals of Coherence in Chaotic Atom-Optics Billiards
We investigate the coherence properties of thermal atoms confined in optical
dipole traps where the underlying classical dynamics is chaotic. A perturbative
expression derived for the coherence of the echo scheme of [Andersen et. al.,
Phys. Rev. Lett. 90, 023001 (2003)] shows it is a function of the survival
probability or fidelity of eigenstates of the motion of the atoms in the trap.
The echo coherence and the survival probability display "system specific"
features, even when the underlying classical dynamics is chaotic. In
particular, partial revivals in the echo signal and the survival probability
are found for a small shift of the potential. Next, a "semi-classical"
expression for the averaged echo signal is presented and used to calculate the
echo signal for atoms in a light sheet wedge billiard. Revivals in the echo
coherence are found in this system, indicating they may be a generic feature of
dipole traps
Electromagnetic Transition Strengths in Heavy Nuclei
We calculate reduced B(E2) and B(M1) electromagnetic transition strengths
within and between K-bands in support of a recently proposed model for the
structure of heavy nuclei. Previously, only spectra and a rough indication of
the largest B(E2) strengths were reported. The present more detailed
calculations should aid the experimental identification of the predicted ,
and bands and, in particular, act to confirm or refute the
suggestion that the model and bands correspond to the well known
and widespread beta and gamma bands. Furthermore they pinpoint transitions
which can indicate the presence of a so far elusive band by feeding
relatively strongly into or out of it. Some of these transitions may already
have been measured in Th, Th and U.Comment: 10 pages, 1 Figure, submitted to Physical Review
Effect of the Pauli principle on photoelectron spin transport in GaAs
In p+ GaAs thin films, the effect of photoelectron degeneracy on spin
transport is investigated theoretically and experimentally by imaging the spin
polarization profile as a function of distance from a tightly-focussed light
excitation spot. Under degeneracy of the electron gas (high concentration, low
temperature), a dip at the center of the polarization profile appears with a
polarization maximum at a distance of about from the center. This
counterintuitive result reveals that photoelectron diffusion depends on spin,
as a direct consequence of the Pauli principle. This causes a concentration
dependence of the spin stiffness while the spin dependence of the mobility is
found to be weak in doped material. The various effects which can modify spin
transport in a degenerate electron gas under local laser excitation are
considered. A comparison of the data with a numerical solution of the coupled
diffusion equations reveals that ambipolar coupling with holes increases the
steady-state photo-electron density at the excitation spot and therefore the
amplitude of the degeneracy-induced polarization dip. Thermoelectric currrents
are predicted to depend on spin under degeneracy (spin Soret currents), but
these currents are negligible except at very high excitation power where they
play a relatively small role. Coulomb spin drag and bandgap renormalization are
negligible due to electrostatic screening by the hole gas
Combining genome-wide association mapping and transcriptional networks to identify novel genes controlling glucosinolates in Arabidopsis thaliana.
BackgroundGenome-wide association (GWA) is gaining popularity as a means to study the architecture of complex quantitative traits, partially due to the improvement of high-throughput low-cost genotyping and phenotyping technologies. Glucosinolate (GSL) secondary metabolites within Arabidopsis spp. can serve as a model system to understand the genomic architecture of adaptive quantitative traits. GSL are key anti-herbivory defenses that impart adaptive advantages within field trials. While little is known about how variation in the external or internal environment of an organism may influence the efficiency of GWA, GSL variation is known to be highly dependent upon the external stresses and developmental processes of the plant lending it to be an excellent model for studying conditional GWA.Methodology/principal findingsTo understand how development and environment can influence GWA, we conducted a study using 96 Arabidopsis thaliana accessions, >40 GSL phenotypes across three conditions (one developmental comparison and one environmental comparison) and ∼230,000 SNPs. Developmental stage had dramatic effects on the outcome of GWA, with each stage identifying different loci associated with GSL traits. Further, while the molecular bases of numerous quantitative trait loci (QTL) controlling GSL traits have been identified, there is currently no estimate of how many additional genes may control natural variation in these traits. We developed a novel co-expression network approach to prioritize the thousands of GWA candidates and successfully validated a large number of these genes as influencing GSL accumulation within A. thaliana using single gene isogenic lines.Conclusions/significanceTogether, these results suggest that complex traits imparting environmentally contingent adaptive advantages are likely influenced by up to thousands of loci that are sensitive to fluctuations in the environment or developmental state of the organism. Additionally, while GWA is highly conditional upon genetics, the use of additional genomic information can rapidly identify causal loci en masse
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