1,080 research outputs found
Vacuum Energy Density Fluctuations in Minkowski and Casimir States via Smeared Quantum Fields and Point Separation
We present calculations of the variance of fluctuations and of the mean of
the energy momentum tensor of a massless scalar field for the Minkowski and
Casimir vacua as a function of an intrinsic scale defined by a smeared field or
by point separation. We point out that contrary to prior claims, the ratio of
variance to mean-squared being of the order unity is not necessarily a good
criterion for measuring the invalidity of semiclassical gravity. For the
Casimir topology we obtain expressions for the variance to mean-squared ratio
as a function of the intrinsic scale (defined by a smeared field) compared to
the extrinsic scale (defined by the separation of the plates, or the
periodicity of space). Our results make it possible to identify the spatial
extent where negative energy density prevails which could be useful for
studying quantum field effects in worm holes and baby universe, and for
examining the design feasibility of real-life `time-machines'.
For the Minkowski vacuum we find that the ratio of the variance to the
mean-squared, calculated from the coincidence limit, is identical to the value
of the Casimir case at the same limit for spatial point separation while
identical to the value of a hot flat space result with a temporal
point-separation. We analyze the origin of divergences in the fluctuations of
the energy density and discuss choices in formulating a procedure for their
removal, thus raising new questions into the uniqueness and even the very
meaning of regularization of the energy momentum tensor for quantum fields in
curved or even flat spacetimes when spacetime is viewed as having an extended
structure.Comment: 41 pages, 2 figure
The colonic macrophage transcription factor RBP-J orchestrates intestinal immunity against bacterial pathogens
Macrophages play pleiotropic roles in maintaining the balance between immune tolerance and inflammatory responses in the gut. Here, we identified transcription factor RBP-J as a crucial regulator of colonic macrophage-mediated immune responses against the enteric pathogen Citrobacter rodentium. In the immune response phase, RBP-J promoted pathogen clearance by enhancing intestinal macrophage-elicited Th17 cell immune responses, which was achieved by maintenance of C/EBPβ-dependent IL-6 production by overcoming miRNA-17∼92-mediated suppressive effects. RBP-J deficiency-associated phenotypes could be genetically corrected by further deleting miRNA-17∼92 in macrophages. In the late phase, noneradicated pathogens in RBP-J KO mice recruited abundant IL-1β-expressing CD64+Ly6C+ colonic macrophages and thereby promoted persistence of ILC3-derived IL-22 to compensate for the impaired innate and adaptive immune responses, leading to ultimate clearance of pathogens. These results demonstrated that colonic macrophage-intrinsic RBP-J dynamically orchestrates intestinal immunity against pathogen infections by interfacing with key immune cells of T and innate lymphoid cell lineages
New Family of Robust 2D Topological Insulators in van der Waals Heterostructures
We predict a new family of robust two-dimensional (2D) topological insulators
in van der Waals heterostructures comprising graphene and chalcogenides BiTeX
(X=Cl, Br and I). The layered structures of both constituent materials produce
a naturally smooth interface that is conducive to proximity induced new
topological states. First principles calculations reveal intrinsic
topologically nontrivial bulk energy gaps as large as 70-80 meV, which can be
further enhanced up to 120 meV by compression. The strong spin-orbit coupling
in BiTeX has a significant influence on the graphene Dirac states, resulting in
the topologically nontrivial band structure, which is confirmed by calculated
nontrivial Z2 index and an explicit demonstration of metallic edge states. Such
heterostructures offer an unique Dirac transport system that combines the 2D
Dirac states from graphene and 1D Dirac edge states from the topological
insulator, and it offers new ideas for innovative device designs
Crossover from thermal hopping to quantum tunneling in Mn_{12}Ac
The crossover from thermal hopping to quantum tunneling is studied. We show
that the decay rate with dissipation can accurately be determined near
the crossover temperature. Besides considering the Wentzel-Kramers-Brillouin
(WKB) exponent, we also calculate contribution of the fluctuation modes around
the saddle point and give an extended account of a previous study of crossover
region. We deal with two dangerous fluctuation modes whose contribution can't
be calculated by the steepest descent method and show that higher order
couplings between the two dangerous modes need to be taken into considerations.
At last the crossover from thermal hopping to quantum tunneling in the
molecular magnet Mn_{12}Ac is studied.Comment: 10 pages, 3 figure
Quantum-Classical Phase Transition of Escape rate in Biaxial Spin Particles
The escape rates of the biaxial single domain spin particles with and without
an applied magnetic field are investigated. Using the strict potential field
description of spin systems developed by Ulyanov and Zaslavskii we obtain new
effective Hamiltonians which are considered to be in exact spin-coordinate
correspondence unlike the well studied effective Hamiltonians with the
approximate correspondence. The sharp first-order transition is found in both
cases. The phase diagram of the transitions depending on the anisotropy
constant and the external field is also given.Comment: 15 pages, 8 figure
The Northern Eurasia Earth Science Partnership: An Example of Science Applied to Societal Needs
Northern Eurasia, the largest landmass in the northern extratropics, accounts for ~20% of the global land area. However, little is known about how the biogeochemical cycles, energy and water cycles, and human activities specific to this carbon-rich, cold region interact with global climate. A major concern is that changes in the distribution of land-based life, as well as its interactions with the environment, may lead to a self-reinforcing cycle of accelerated regional and global warming. With this as its motivation, the Northern Eurasian Earth Science Partnership Initiative (NEESPI) was formed in 2004 to better understand and quantify feedbacks between northern Eurasian and global climates. The first group of NEESPI projects has mostly focused on assembling regional databases, organizing improved environmental monitoring of the region, and studying individual environmental processes. That was a starting point to addressing emerging challenges in the region related to rapidly and simultaneously changing climate, environmental, and societal systems. More recently, the NEESPI research focus has been moving toward integrative studies, including the development of modeling capabilities to project the future state of climate, environment, and societies in the NEESPI domain. This effort will require a high level of integration of observation programs, process studies, and modeling across disciplines
Macroscopic quantum coherence in mesoscopic ferromagnetic systems
In this paper we study the Macroscopic Quantum Oscillation (MQO) effect in
ferromagnetic single domain magnets with a magnetic field applied along the
hard anistropy axis. The level splitting for the ground state, derived with the
conventional instanton method, oscillates with the external field and is
quenched at some field values. A formula for quantum tunneling at excited
levels is also obtained. The existence of topological phase accounts for this
kind of oscillation and the corresponding thermodynamical quantities exhibit
similar interference effects which resembles to some extent the electron
quantum phase interference induced by gauge potential in the Aharonov-Bohm
effect and the -vacuum in Yang-Mills field theory..Comment: 12 pages, 4 figures, to appear in Phys. Rev.
Charmless decays using flavor SU(3) symmetry
The decays of mesons to a pair of charmless pseudoscalar () mesons are
analyzed within a framework of flavor SU(3). Symmetry breaking is taken into
account in tree () amplitudes through ratios of decay constants; exact SU(3)
is assumed elsewhere. Acceptable fits to and
branching ratios and CP asymmetries are obtained with tree, color-suppressed
(), penguin (), and electroweak penguin () amplitudes. Crucial
additional terms for describing processes involving and include
a large flavor-singlet penguin amplitude () as proposed earlier and a
penguin amplitude associated with intermediate and quarks. For
the mode a term associated with intermediate
and quarks also may be needed. Values of the weak phase are
obtained consistent with an earlier analysis of decays, where
denotes a vector meson, and with other analyses of CKM parameters.Comment: 26 pages, 1 figure. To be submitted to Phys. Rev. D. Reference
update
Study of pure annihilation type decays
In this work, we calculate the rare decays and in perturbative QCD approach with Sudakov resummation.
We give the branching ratio of for , which will
be tested soon in factories.
The decay has a very small branching ratio at
, due to the suppression from CKM matrix elements . It may be sensitive to new physics contributions.Comment: 14 pages, 1 figur
High energy pseudogap and its evolution with doping in Fe-based superconductors as revealed by optical spectroscopy
We report optical spectroscopic measurements on electron- and hole-doped
BaFe2As2. We show that the compounds in the normal state are not simple metals.
The optical conductivity spectra contain, in addition to the free carrier
response at low frequency, a temperature-dependent gap-like suppression at
rather high energy scale near 0.6 eV. This suppression evolves with the
As-Fe-As bond angle induced by electron- or hole-doping. Furthermore, the
feature becomes much weaker in the Fe-chalcogenide compounds. We elaborate that
the feature is caused by the strong Hund's rule coupling effect between the
itinerant electrons and localized electron moment arising from the multiple Fe
3d orbitals. Our experiments demonstrate the coexistence of itinerant and
localized electrons in iron-based compounds, which would then lead to a more
comprehensive picture about the metallic magnetism in the materials.Comment: 6 pages, 7 figure
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