Frustration and thermalization in an artificial magnetic quasicrystal

Artificial frustrated systems offer a playground to study the emergent properties of interacting systems. Most work to date has been on spatially periodic systems, known as artificial spin ices when the interacting elements are magnetic. Here we have studied artificial magnetic quasicrystals based on quasiperiodic Penrose tiling patterns of interacting nanomagnets. We construct a low-energy configuration from a step-by-step approach that we propose as a ground state. Topologically induced emergent frustration means that this configuration cannot be constructed from vertices in their ground states. It has two parts, a quasi-one-dimensional ‘skeleton’ that spans the entire pattern and is capable of long-range order, surrounding ‘flippable’ clusters of macrospins that lead to macroscopic degeneracy. Magnetic force microscopy imaging of Penrose tiling arrays revealed superdomains that are larger for more strongly coupled arrays, especially after annealing the array above its blocking temperature

Nernst-Ettingshausen effect in two-component electronic liquids

A simple model describing the Nernst-Ettingshausen effect (NEE) in two-component electronic liquids is formulated. The examples considered include graphite, where the normal and Dirac fermions coexist, superconductor in fluctuating regime, with coexisting Cooper pairs and normal electrons, and the inter-stellar plasma of electrons and protons. We give a general expression for the Nernst constant and show that the origin of a giant NEE is in the strong dependence of the chemical potential on temperature in all cases

Critical depinning force and vortex lattice order in disordered superconductors

We simulate the ordering of vortices and its effects on the critical current in superconductors with varied vortex-vortex interaction strength and varied pinning strengths for a two-dimensional system. For strong pinning the vortex lattice is always disordered and the critical depinning force only weakly increases with decreasing vortex-vortex interactions. For weak pinning the vortex lattice is defect free until the vortex-vortex interactions have been reduced to a low value, when defects begin to appear with a simultaneous rapid increase in the critical depinning force. In each case the depinning force shows a maximum for non-interacting vortices. The relative height of the peak increases and the peak width decreases for decreasing pinning strength in excellent agreement with experimental trends associated with the peak effect. We show that scaling relations exist between the distance between defects in the vortex lattice and the critical depinning force.Comment: 5 pages, 6 figure

Homoclinic standing waves in focussing DNLS equations --Variational approach via constrained optimization

We study focussing discrete nonlinear Schr\"{o}dinger equations and present a new variational existence proof for homoclinic standing waves (bright solitons). Our approach relies on the constrained maximization of an energy functional and provides the existence of two one-parameter families of waves with unimodal and even profile function for a wide class of nonlinearities. Finally, we illustrate our results by numerical simulations.Comment: new version with revised introduction and improved condition (A3); 16 pages, several figure

Long-range correlation and multifractality in Bach's Inventions pitches

We show that it can be considered some of Bach pitches series as a stochastic process with scaling behavior. Using multifractal deterend fluctuation analysis (MF-DFA) method, frequency series of Bach pitches have been analyzed. In this view we find same second moment exponents (after double profiling) in ranges (1.7-1.8) in his works. Comparing MF-DFA results of original series to those for shuffled and surrogate series we can distinguish multifractality due to long-range correlations and a broad probability density function. Finally we determine the scaling exponents and singularity spectrum. We conclude fat tail has more effect in its multifractality nature than long-range correlations.Comment: 18 page, 6 figures, to appear in JSTA

Cascaded two-photon nonlinearity in a one-dimensional waveguide with multiple two-level emitters

We propose and theoretically investigate a model to realize cascaded optical nonlinearity with few atoms and photons in one-dimension (1D). The optical nonlinearity in our system is mediated by resonant interactions of photons with two-level emitters, such as atoms or quantum dots in a 1D photonic waveguide. Multi-photon transmission in the waveguide is nonreciprocal when the emitters have different transition energies. Our theory provides a clear physical understanding of the origin of nonreciprocity in the presence of cascaded nonlinearity. We show how various two-photon nonlinear effects including spatial attraction and repulsion between photons, background fluorescence can be tuned by changing the number of emitters and the coupling between emitters (controlled by the separation).Comment: 6 pages, 4 figure

Stimulation of Na⁺/H⁺ Exchanger Isoform 1 Promotes Microglial Migration

Regulation of microglial migration is not well understood. In this study, we proposed that Na+/H+ exchanger isoform 1 (NHE-1) is important in microglial migration. NHE-1 protein was co-localized with cytoskeletal protein ezrin in lamellipodia of microglia and maintained its more alkaline intracellular pH (pHi). Chemoattractant bradykinin (BK) stimulated microglial migration by increasing lamellipodial area and protrusion rate, but reducing lamellipodial persistence time. Interestingly, blocking NHE-1 activity with its potent inhibitor HOE 642 not only acidified microglia, abolished the BK-triggered dynamic changes of lamellipodia, but also reduced microglial motility and microchemotaxis in response to BK. In addition, NHE-1 activation resulted in intracellular Na+ loading as well as intracellular Ca2+ elevation mediated by stimulating reverse mode operation of Na+/Ca2+ exchange (NCXrev). Taken together, our study shows that NHE-1 protein is abundantly expressed in microglial lamellipodia and maintains alkaline pHi in response to BK stimulation. In addition, NHE-1 and NCXrev play a concerted role in BK-induced microglial migration via Na+ and Ca2+ signaling. © 2013 Shi et al

Common Origin for the Solar and Atmospheric Neutrino Deficits

Some typos corrected, slightly different abstract, same plots, results and conclusions.Comment: 14 Latex pages, 3 figures attached as postscript files, IFP-472-UNC, PRL-TH-93/1

Renewable Energy (RE): Bioenergy -Feedstocks and Pretreatment-

The Department for Pulsed Power Technology is focusing on research and development of pulsed power technologies and related applications. The applications involves the electroporation of biological cells for extraction of cell contents (PEF- process), dewatering and drying of green biomass, pre-treatment of micro algae for energetic use and sustainable reduction of bacteria in contaminated effluents. Another key research topic is devoted to the development of corrosion barriers and materials for improved compatibility of structural materials in contact with liquid metal coolants. This year\u27s report focuses primarily on the activities and results of ongoing third-party funded projects of the department

Constraints on Three-Neutrino Mixing from Atmospheric and Reactor Data

Observations of atmospheric neutrinos are usually analyzed using the simplifying approximation that either $\nu_\mu \leftrightarrow \nu_\tau$ or $\nu_e \leftrightarrow \nu_\mu$ two-flavor mixing is relevant. Here we instead consider the data using the simplifying approximation that only one neutrino mass scale is relevant. This approximation is the minimal three-flavor notation that includes the two relevant two-flavor approximations. The constraints in the parameter space orthogonal to the usual, two-flavor analyses are studied.Comment: 15 pages, preprint IUHET-26