Revealing the Exciton Fine Structure in PbSe Nanocrystal Quantum Dots

We measure the photoluminescence (PL) lifetime, $\tau$, of excitons in colloidal PbSe nanocrystals (NCs) at low temperatures to 270~mK and in high magnetic fields to 15~T. For all NCs (1.3-2.3~nm radii), $\tau$ increases sharply below 10~K but saturates by 500~mK. In contrast to the usual picture of well-separated ``bright" and ``dark" exciton states (found, e.g., in CdSe NCs), these dynamics fit remarkably well to a system having two exciton states with comparable - but small - oscillator strengths that are separated by only 300-900 $\mu$eV. Importantly, magnetic fields reduce $\tau$ below 10~K, consistent with field-induced mixing between the two states. Magnetic circular dichroism studies reveal exciton g-factors from 2-5, and magneto-PL shows $>$10\% circularly polarized emission.Comment: To appear in Physical Review Letter

Stochastic theory of spin-transfer oscillator linewidths

We present a stochastic theory of linewidths for magnetization oscillations in spin-valve structures driven by spin-polarized currents. Starting from a nonlinear oscillator model derived from spin-wave theory, we derive Langevin equations for amplitude and phase fluctuations due to the presence of thermal noise. We find that the spectral linewidths are inversely proportional to the spin-wave intensities with a lower bound that is determined purely by modulations in the oscillation frequencies. Reasonable quantitative agreement with recent experimental results from spin-valve nanopillars is demonstrated.Comment: Submitted to Physical Review

Dynamical influence of vortex-antivortex pairs in magnetic vortex oscillators

We study the magnetization dynamics in a nanocontact magnetic vortex oscillators as function of temperature. Low temperature experiments reveal that the dynamics at low and high currents differ qualitatively. At low currents, we excite a temperature independent standard oscillation mode, consisting in the gyrotropic motion of a free layer vortex about the nanocontact. Above a critical current, a sudden jump of the frequency is observed, concomitant with a substantial increase of the frequency versus current slope factor. Using micromagnetic simulation and analytical modeling, we associate this new regime to the creation of a vortex-antivortex pair in the pinned layer of the spin valve. The vortex-antivortex distance depends on the Oersted field which favors a separation, and on the exchange bias field, which favors pair merging. The pair in the pinned layer provides an additional spin torque altering the dynamics of the free layer vortex, which can be quantitatively accounted for by an analytical model

Synthesis and bioactivity of a conjugate composed of green tea catechins and hyaluronic acid

(-)-Epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG) is a green tea polyphenol that has several biological activities, including anti-cancer activity and anti-inflammation. Hyaluronic acid (HA) is a naturally-occurring polysaccharide that is widely used as a biomaterial for drug delivery and tissue engineering due to its viscoelastic, biocompatible and biodegradable properties. By conjugating HA with EGCG, the resulting HA-EGCG conjugate is expected to exhibit not only the inherent properties of HA but also the bioactivities of EGCG. Toward this end, we report the synthesis of an amine-functionalized EGCG as an intermediate compound for conjugation to HA. EGCG was reacted with 2,2-diethoxyethylamine (DA) under acidic conditions, forming ethylamine-bridged EGCG dimers. The EGCG dimers were composed of four isomers, which were characterized by HPLC, high-resolution mass spectrometry and NMR spectroscopy. The amine-functionalized EGCG dimers were conjugated to hyaluronic acid (HA) through the formation of amide bonds. HA-EGCG conjugates demonstrated several bioactivities which were not present in unmodified HA, including resistance to hyaluronidase-mediated degradation, inhibition of cell growth and scavenging of radicals. The potential applications of HA-EGCG conjugates are discussed

Generation of Three-Qubit Entangled W-State by Nonlinear Optical State Truncation

We propose an alternative scheme to generate W state via optical state truncation using quantum scissors. In particular, these states may be generated through three-mode optical state truncation in a Kerr nonlinear coupler. The more general three-qubit state may be also produced if the system is driven by external classical fields.Comment: 7 pages, 2 figur

Simulations of black hole air showers in cosmic ray detectors

We present a comprehensive study of TeV black hole events in Earth's atmosphere originated by cosmic rays of very high energy. An advanced fortran Monte Carlo code is developed and used to simulate black hole extensive air showers from ultrahigh-energy neutrino-nucleon interactions. We investigate the characteristics of these events, compare the black hole air showers to standard model air showers, and test different theoretical and phenomenological models of black hole formation and evolution. The main features of black hole air showers are found to be independent of the model considered. No significant differences between models are likely to be observed at fluorescence telescopes and/or ground arrays. We also discuss the tau ``double bang'' signature in black hole air showers. We find that the energy deposited in the second bang is too small to produce a detectable peak. Our results show that the theory of TeV-scale black holes in ultrahigh-energy cosmic rays leads to robust predictions, but the fine prints of new physics are hardly to be investigated through atmospheric black hole events in the near future.Comment: 18 pages, 9 figure

The states of W-class as shared resources for perfect teleportation and superdense coding

As we know, the states of triqubit systems have two important classes: GHZ-class and W-class. In this paper, the states of W-class are considered for teleportation and superdense coding, and are generalized to multi-particle systems. First we describe two transformations of the shared resources for teleportation and superdense coding, which allow many new protocols from some known ones for that. As an application of these transformations, we obtain a sufficient and necessary condition for a state of W-class being suitable for perfect teleportation and superdense coding. As another application, we find that state $|W>_{123}={1/2}(|100>_{123}+|010>_{123}+\sqrt{2}|001>_{123})$ can be used to transmit three classical bits by sending two qubits, which was considered to be impossible by P. Agrawal and A. Pati [Phys. Rev. A to be published]. We generalize the states of W-class to multi-qubit systems and multi-particle systems with higher dimension. We propose two protocols for teleportation and superdense coding by using W-states of multi-qubit systems that generalize the protocols by using $|W>_{123}$ proposed by P. Agrawal and A. Pati. We obtain an optimal way to partition some W-states of multi-qubit systems into two subsystems, such that the entanglement between them achieves maximum value.Comment: 10 pages, critical comments and suggestions are welcom

The strong coupling constant from lattice QCD with N_f=2 dynamical quarks

We compute $\Lambda_{\bar{MS}}$ for two flavors of light dynamical quarks using non-perturbatively $O(a)$ improved Wilson fermions. We improve on a recent calculation by employing Pad\'e-improved two-loop and three-loop perturbation theory to convert the lattice numbers to the $\bar{MS}$ scheme.Comment: Contribution to Lattice 2001 (matrix elements), typo correcte