Noise Correlations of Hard-core Bosons: Quantum Coherence and Symmetry Breaking

Noise correlations, such as those observable in the time of flight images of a released cloud, are calculated for hard-core bosonic (HCB) atoms. We find that the standard mapping of HCB systems onto spin-1/2 XY models fails in application to computation of noise correlations due to the contribution of multiply occupied virtual states in HCB systems. Such states do not exist in spin models. An interesting manifestation of such states is the breaking of particle-hole symmetry in HCB. We use noise correlations to explore quantum coherence of strongly correlated bosons in the fermionized regime with and without external parabolic confinement. Our analysis points to distinctive new experimental signatures of the Mott phase.Comment: 17 pages, 6 figures. This is a detailed revised version of quant-ph/0507153. It has been submitted to Journal of Physics B: the special edition for the Cortona BEC worksho

Evidence for 5d-σ and 5d-π covalency in lanthanide sesquioxides from oxygen K-edge X-ray absorption spectroscopy.

The electronic structure in the complete series of stable lanthanide sesquioxides, Ln2O3 (Ln = La to Lu, except radioactive Pm), has been evaluated using oxygen K-edge X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) with a scanning transmission X-ray microscope (STXM). The experimental results agree with recent synthetic, spectroscopic and theoretical investigations that provided evidence for 5d orbital involvement in lanthanide bonding, while confirming the traditional viewpoint that there is little Ln 4f and O 2p orbital mixing. However, the results also showed that changes in the energy and occupancy of the 4f orbitals can impact Ln 5d and O 2p mixing, leading to several different bonding modes for seemingly identical Ln2O3 structures. On moving from left to right in the periodic table, abrupt changes were observed for the energy and intensity of transitions associated with Ln 5d and O 2p antibonding states. These changes in peak intensity, which were directly related to the amounts of O 2p and Ln 5d mixing, were closely correlated to the well-established trends in the chemical accessibility of the 4f orbitals towards oxidation or reduction. The unique insight provided by the O K-edge XAS is discussed in the context of several recent theoretical and physical studies on trivalent lanthanide compounds

Effects of random localizing events on matter waves: formalism and examples

A formalism is introduced to describe a number of physical processes that may break down the coherence of a matter wave over a characteristic length scale l. In a second-quantized description, an appropriate master equation for a set of bosonic "modes" (such as atoms in a lattice, in a tight-binding approximation) is derived. Two kinds of "localizing processes" are discussed in some detail and shown to lead to master equations of this general form: spontaneous emission (more precisely, light scattering), and modulation by external random potentials. Some of the dynamical consequences of these processes are considered: in particular, it is shown that they generically lead to a damping of the motion of the matter-wave currents, and may also cause a "flattening" of the density distribution of a trapped condensate at rest.Comment: v3; a few corrections, especially in Sections IV and

Regulators of G-Protein signaling RGS10 and RGS17 regulate chemoresistance in ovarian cancer cells

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>A critical therapeutic challenge in epithelial ovarian carcinoma is the development of chemoresistance among tumor cells following exposure to first line chemotherapeutics. The molecular and genetic changes that drive the development of chemoresistance are unknown, and this lack of mechanistic insight is a major obstacle in preventing and predicting the occurrence of refractory disease. We have recently shown that Regulators of G-protein Signaling (RGS) proteins negatively regulate signaling by lysophosphatidic acid (LPA), a growth factor elevated in malignant ascites fluid that triggers oncogenic growth and survival signaling in ovarian cancer cells. The goal of this study was to determine the role of RGS protein expression in ovarian cancer chemoresistance.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>In this study, we find that RGS2, RGS5, RGS10 and RGS17 transcripts are expressed at significantly lower levels in cells resistant to chemotherapy compared with parental, chemo-sensitive cells in gene expression datasets of multiple models of chemoresistance. Further, exposure of SKOV-3 cells to cytotoxic chemotherapy causes acute, persistent downregulation of RGS10 and RGS17 transcript expression. Direct inhibition of RGS10 or RGS17 expression using siRNA knock-down significantly reduces chemotherapy-induced cell toxicity. The effects of cisplatin, vincristine, and docetaxel are inhibited following RGS10 and RGS17 knock-down in cell viability assays and phosphatidyl serine externalization assays in SKOV-3 cells and MDR-HeyA8 cells. We further show that AKT activation is higher following RGS10 knock-down and RGS 10 and RGS17 overexpression blocked LPA mediated activation of AKT, suggesting that RGS proteins may blunt AKT survival pathways.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Taken together, our data suggest that chemotherapy exposure triggers loss of RGS10 and RGS17 expression in ovarian cancer cells, and that loss of expression contributes to the development of chemoresistance, possibly through amplification of endogenous AKT signals. Our results establish RGS10 and RGS17 as novel regulators of cell survival and chemoresistance in ovarian cancer cells and suggest that their reduced expression may be diagnostic of chemoresistance.</p

Phase diagram of two-component bosons on an optical lattice

We present a theoretical analysis of the phase diagram of two--component bosons on an optical lattice. A new formalism is developed which treats the effective spin interactions in the Mott and superfluid phases on the same footing. Using the new approach we chart the phase boundaries of the broken spin symmetry states up to the Mott to superfluid transition and beyond. Near the transition point, the magnitude of spin exchange can be very large, which facilitates the experimental realization of spin-ordered states. We find that spin and quantum fluctuations have a dramatic effect on the transition making it first order in extended regions of the phase diagram. For Mott states with even occupation we find that the competition between effective Heisenberg exchange and spin-dependent on--site interaction leads to an additional phase transition from a Mott insulator with no broken symmetries into a spin-ordered insulator

The in- or exclusion of non-breast cancer related death and contralateral breast cancer significantly affects estimated outcome probability in early breast cancer

A wide variation of definitions of recurrent disease and survival are used in the analyses of outcome of patients with early breast cancer. Explicit definitions with details both on endpoints and censoring are provided in less than half of published studies. We evaluated the effects of various definitions of survival and recurrent disease on estimated outcome in a prospectively determined cohort of 463 patients with primary breast cancer. Outcome estimates were determined both by the Kaplan–Meier and a competing risk method. In- or exclusion of contralateral breast cancer or non-disease related death in the definition of recurrent disease or survival significantly affects estimated outcome probability. The magnitude of this finding was dependent on patient-, tumour-, and treatment characteristics. Knowledge of the contribution of non-disease related death or contralateral breast cancer to estimated recurrent disease rate and overall death rate is indispensable for a correct interpretation and comparison of outcome analyses

PTH1-34 Alleviates RadioTherapy-Induced Local Bone Loss by Improving Osteoblast and Osteocyte Survival

Cancer radiotherapy is often complicated by a spectrum of changes in the neighboring bone from mild osteopenia to osteoradionecrosis. We previously reported that parathyroid hormone (PTH, 1-34), an anabolic agent for osteoporosis, reversed bone structural deterioration caused by multiple microcomputed tomography (microCT) scans in adolescent rats. To simulate clinical radiotherapy for cancer patients and to search for remedies, we focally irradiated the tibial metaphyseal region of adult rats with a newly available small animal radiation research platform (SARRP) and treated these rats with intermittent injections of PTH1-34. Using a unique 3D image registration method that we recently developed, we traced the local changes of the same trabecular bone before and after treatments, and observed that, while radiation caused a loss of small trabecular elements leading to significant decreases in bone mass and strength, PTH1-34 preserved all trabecular elements in irradiated bone with remarkable increases in bone mass and strength. Histomorphometry demonstrated that SARRP radiation severely reduced osteoblast number and activity, which were impressively reversed by PTH treatment. In contrast, suppressing bone resorption by alendronate failed to rescue radiation-induced bone loss and to block the rescue effect of PTH1-34. Furthermore, histological analyses revealed that PTH1-34 protected osteoblasts and osteocytes from radiation-induced apoptosis and attenuated radiation-induced bone marrow adiposity. Taken together, our data strongly support a robust radioprotective effect of PTH on trabecular bone integrity through preserving bone formation and shed light on further investigations of an anabolic therapy for radiation-induced bone damage. © 2014 Elsevier Inc

Superconducting charge-ordered states in cuprates

Motivated by recent neutron scattering and scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) experiments on cuprate superconductors, we discuss charge-ordered states, in particular with two-dimensional charge modulation patterns, co-existing with superconductivity. We extend previous studies of a large-N mean-field formulation of the t-J model. In addition to bond-centered superconducting stripe states at low doping, we find checkerboard-modulated superconducting states which are favorable in an intermediate doping interval. We also analyze the energy dependence of the Fourier component of the local density of states at the ordering wavevector for several possible modulation patterns, and compare with STM results.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figs; (v2) extended discussion; final version as publishe

Dephasing-induced diffusive transport in anisotropic Heisenberg model

We study transport properties of anisotropic Heisenberg model in a disordered magnetic field experiencing dephasing due to external degrees of freedom. In the absence of dephasing the model can display, depending on parameter values, the whole range of possible transport regimes: ideal ballistic conduction, diffusive, or ideal insulating behavior. We show that the presence of dephasing induces normal diffusive transport in a wide range of parameters. We also analyze the dependence of spin conductivity on the dephasing strength. In addition, by analyzing the decay of spin-spin correlation function we discover a presence of long-range order for finite chain sizes. All our results for a one-dimensional spin chain at infinite temperature can be equivalently rephrased for strongly-interacting disordered spinless fermions.Comment: 15 pages, 9 PS figure