1,365 research outputs found
Influence of Magnetism on Phonons in CaFe2As2 Via Inelastic X-ray Scattering
In the iron pnictides, the strong sensitivity of the iron magnetic moment to
the arsenic position suggests a significant relationship between phonons and
magnetism. We measured the phonon dispersion of several branches in the high
temperature tetragonal phase of CaFe2As2 using inelastic x-ray scattering on
single-crystal samples. These measurements were compared to ab initio
calculations of the phonons. Spin polarized calculations imposing the
antiferromagnetic order present in the low temperature orthorhombic phase
dramatically improve agreement between theory and experiment. This is discussed
in terms of the strong antiferromagnetic correlations that are known to persist
in the tetragonal phase.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures; added additional information and references about
spin fluctuation
Solving the Klein-Gordon equation using Fourier spectral methods: A benchmark test for computer performance
The cubic Klein-Gordon equation is a simple but non-trivial partial
differential equation whose numerical solution has the main building blocks
required for the solution of many other partial differential equations. In this
study, the library 2DECOMP&FFT is used in a Fourier spectral scheme to solve
the Klein-Gordon equation and strong scaling of the code is examined on
thirteen different machines for a problem size of 512^3. The results are useful
in assessing likely performance of other parallel fast Fourier transform based
programs for solving partial differential equations. The problem is chosen to
be large enough to solve on a workstation, yet also of interest to solve
quickly on a supercomputer, in particular for parametric studies. Unlike other
high performance computing benchmarks, for this problem size, the time to
solution will not be improved by simply building a bigger supercomputer.Comment: 10 page
A constrained Potts antiferromagnet model with an interface representation
We define a four-state Potts model ensemble on the square lattice, with the
constraints that neighboring spins must have different values, and that no
plaquette may contain all four states. The spin configurations may be mapped
into those of a 2-dimensional interface in a 2+5 dimensional space. If this
interface is in a Gaussian rough phase (as is the case for most other models
with such a mapping), then the spin correlations are critical and their
exponents can be related to the stiffness governing the interface fluctuations.
Results of our Monte Carlo simulations show height fluctuations with an
anomalous dependence on wavevector, intermediate between the behaviors expected
in a rough phase and in a smooth phase; we argue that the smooth phase (which
would imply long-range spin order) is the best interpretation.Comment: 61 pages, LaTeX. Submitted to J. Phys.
Inelastic x-ray study of phonon broadening and charge-density wave formation in ortho-II-ordered YBa<sub>2</sub>Cu<sub>3</sub>O<sub>6.54</sub>
Inelastic x-ray scattering is used to investigate charge-density wave (CDW) formation and the low-energy lattice dynamics of the underdoped high-temperature superconductor ortho-II YBa2Cu3O6.54. We find that, for a temperature similar to 1/3 of the CDW onset temperature (approximate to 155 K), the CDW order is static within the resolution of the experiment, that is the inverse lifetime is less than 0.3 meV. In the same temperature region, low-energy phonons near the ordering wave vector of the CDW show large increases in their linewidths. This contrasts with the usual behavior in CDW systems where the phonon anomalies are strongest near the CDW onset temperature
Paternal Poly (ADP-ribose) Metabolism Modulates Retention of Inheritable Sperm Histones and Early Embryonic Gene Expression
To achieve the extreme nuclear condensation necessary for sperm function, most histones are replaced with protamines during spermiogenesis in mammals. Mature sperm retain only a small fraction of nucleosomes, which are, in part, enriched on gene regulatory sequences, and recent findings suggest that these retained histones provide epigenetic information that regulates expression of a subset of genes involved in embryo development after fertilization. We addressed this tantalizing hypothesis by analyzing two mouse models exhibiting abnormal histone positioning in mature sperm due to impaired poly(ADP-ribose) (PAR) metabolism during spermiogenesis and identified altered sperm histone retention in specific gene loci genome-wide using MNase digestion-based enrichment of mononucleosomal DNA. We then set out to determine the extent to which expression of these genes was altered in embryos generated with these sperm. For control sperm, most genes showed some degree of histone association, unexpectedly suggesting that histone retention in sperm genes is not an all-or-none phenomenon and that a small number of histones may remain associated with genes throughout the genome. The amount of retained histones, however, was altered in many loci when PAR metabolism was impaired. To ascertain whether sperm histone association and embryonic gene expression are linked, the transcriptome of individual 2-cell embryos derived from such sperm was determined using microarrays and RNA sequencing. Strikingly, a moderate but statistically significant portion of the genes that were differentially expressed in these embryos also showed different histone retention in the corresponding gene loci in sperm of their fathers. These findings provide new evidence for the existence of a linkage between sperm histone retention and gene expression in the embryo
Selection for Replicases in Protocells
PMCID: PMC3649988This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited
Spin states of the first four holes in a silicon nanowire quantum dot
We report measurements on a silicon nanowire quantum dot with a clarity that
allows for a complete understanding of the spin states of the first four holes.
First, we show control of the hole number down to one. Detailed measurements at
perpendicular magnetic fields reveal the Zeeman splitting of a single hole in
silicon. We are able to determine the ground-state spin configuration for one
to four holes occupying the quantum dot and find a spin filling with
alternating spin-down and spin-up holes, which is confirmed by
magnetospectroscopy up to 9T. Additionally, a so far inexplicable feature in
single-charge quantum dots in many materials systems is analyzed in detail. We
observe excitations of the zero-hole ground-state energy of the quantum dot,
which cannot correspond to electronic or Zeeman states. We show that the most
likely explanation is acoustic phonon emission to a cavity between the two
contacts to the nanowire.Comment: 24 pages, 8 figures, both including supporting informatio
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