147 research outputs found
Quantum whistling in superfluid 4He
Fundamental considerations predict that macroscopic quantum systems such as
superfluids and the electrons in superconductors will exhibit oscillatory
motion when pushed through a small constriction. Here we report the observation
of these oscillations between two reservoirs of superfluid 4He partitioned by
an array of nanometer-sized apertures. They obey the Josephson frequency
equation and are coherent amongst all the apertures. This discovery at the
relatively high temperature of 2K (2000 times higher than related phenomena in
3He) may pave the way for a new class of practical rotation sensors of
unprecedented precision.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures, to be published in Natur
Contribution of toxicological analysis to the care of dimethyl fumarate dermatitis
Background:
Dimethyl fumarate (DMFu) is a fungicide which is used in Chinese manufactures of furniture and shoes to avoid mould spoiling of fabrics. In 2008, DMFu was found the responsible allergen for several cases of contact dermatitis from armchairs and shoes observed in Europe. In France a national toxicovigilance survey was set up and importation of products containing dimethyl fumarate is now forbidden. Case report: a 36 year-old woman, with no history of previous allergy, was hospitalized because of a severe acute eczema of her feet after wearing a new pair of boots inside which she had noticed desiccant sachets. She strongly reacted on patch testing to DMFu and to the content of a sachet which was identified as DMFu, both at 0.01%, 0.1%, 1% in petrolatum, and also to a piece of the fabric of her boots, patch tested as is.
Materials and method:
Boot fabrics and mould-proof sachets found in the boots were analysed by HPLC/UV/DAD and GC/MS after methanol extraction. Further samples of anti mould agent sachets or shoe fabrics from 5 other patients with suspicion of DMFu dermatitis were analysed with the same procedure. Some of them were transferred to the laboratory several months after healing of the dermatitis.
Results:
DMFu was found in all the samples from 1 to 100% in sachets or from 20 to 2000 μg/g in the fabrics of shoes, even after one year. These findings contributed to ensure the responsibility of DMFu in the dermatitis of the patients and demonstrate that DMFu may remain a long time in the contaminated fabrics after removal of the sachets. This study also points out the usefulness of the collaboration between dermatologists, biologists and poison centre practitioners
Search for supersolidity in 4He in low-frequency sound experiments
We present results of the search for supersolid 4He using low-frequency,
low-level mechanical excitation of a solid sample grown and cooled at fixed
volume. We have observed low frequency non-linear resonances that constitute
anomalous features. These features, which appear below about 0.8 K, are absent
in 3He. The frequency, the amplitude at which the nonlinearity sets in, and the
upper temperature limit of existence of these resonances depend markedly on the
sample history.Comment: Submitted to the Quantum Fluids and Solids Conf. Aug. 2006 Kyot
Characterization of SiC ceramics with complex porosity by capillary infiltration: Part A - Filling by hexadecane at 20 °C
The characterization of the porosity of ceramic materials is of prime importance for numerous applications. The work is being presented in two parts: A and B. In this part (Part A), several porous SiC samples exhibiting different sizes and porosity spectra were characterizedby capillary infiltration of hexadecane at room temperature.The model materials contain a bimodal pore population generated by cracks and porogens. The monitoring of the weight increase in time for each sample evidence the occurrence of two successive filling stages with specific kinetics, except for the reference samples which contain only one kind of pore. The first kinetic is found clearly larger than the second. A new analytical function was used to identify the transition times and the kinetics of each stage. The various values of the kinetics revealed the occurrence of different infiltration mechanisms. The same model correlates silicon infiltration observations as well (Part B)
Geometric Laws of Vortex Quantum Tunneling
In the semiclassical domain the exponent of vortex quantum tunneling is
dominated by a volume which is associated with the path the vortex line traces
out during its escape from the metastable well. We explicitly show the
influence of geometrical quantities on this volume by describing point vortex
motion in the presence of an ellipse. It is argued that for the semiclassical
description to hold the introduction of an additional geometric constraint, the
distance of closest approach, is required. This constraint implies that the
semiclassical description of vortex nucleation by tunneling at a boundary is in
general not possible. Geometry dependence of the tunneling volume provides a
means to verify experimental observation of vortex quantum tunneling in the
superfluid Helium II.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, revised version to appear in Phys. Rev.
Analytical Estimate of the Critical Velocity for Vortex Pair Creation in Trapped Bose Condensates
We use a modified Thomas-Fermi approximation to estimate analytically the
critical velocity for the formation of vortices in harmonically trapped BEC. We
compare this analytical estimate to numerical calculations and to recent
experiments on trapped alkali condensates.Comment: 12 page
Field induced long-range-ordering in an S=1 quasi-one-dimensional Heisenberg antiferromagnet
We have measured the heat capacity and magnetization of the spin one
one-dimensional Heisenberg antiferromagnet NDMAP and constructed a magnetic
field versus temperature phase diagram. We found a field induced long-range
magnetic ordering. We have been successful in explaining the phase diagram
theoretically.Comment: 6 pages, 18 figure
Discovery of the Acoustic Faraday Effect in Superfluid 3He-B
We report the discovery of the acoustic Faraday effect in superfluid 3He-B.
The observation of this effect provides the first direct evidence for
propagating transverse acoustic waves in liquid 3He, a mode first predicted by
Landau in 1957. The Faraday rotation is large and observable because of
spontaneously broken spin-orbit symmetry in 3He-B. We compare the experimental
observations with a simulation of the transverse acoustic impedance that
includes the field-induced circular birefringence of transverse waves.Comment: 4 pages in RevTex plus 3 postscript figures; new version includes:
minor corrections to the text and an updated of list of reference
The geometry of Schr\"odinger symmetry in non-relativistic CFT
The non-relativistic conformal "Schroedinger" symmetry of some gravity
backgrounds proposed recently in the AdS/CFT context, is explained in the
"Bargmann framework". The formalism incorporates the Equivalence Principle.
Newton-Hooke conformal symmetries, which are analogs of those of Schroedinger
in the presence of a negative cosmological constant, are discussed in a similar
way. Further examples include topologically massive gravity with negative
cosmological constant and the Madelung hydrodynamical description.Comment: RevTex, 7 pages, no figures. Presentation rearranged, minor
corrections, some more references adde
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