70,327 research outputs found
Quantum Spin Hall Effect and Topological Phase Transition in HgTe Quantum Wells
We show that the Quantum Spin Hall Effect, a state of matter with topological
properties distinct from conventional insulators, can be realized in HgTe/CdTe
semiconductor quantum wells. By varying the thickness of the quantum well, the
electronic state changes from a normal to an "inverted" type at a critical
thickness . We show that this transition is a topological quantum phase
transition between a conventional insulating phase and a phase exhibiting the
QSH effect with a single pair of helical edge states. We also discuss the
methods for experimental detection of the QSH effect.Comment: 22 pages. Submitted to Science for publication on Aug 14, 200
Coexistence and competition of multiple charge-density-wave orders in rare-earth tri-telluride RTe3
The occurrences of collective quantum states, such as superconductivity (SC)
and charge- or spin-densitywaves (CDWs or SDWs), are among the most fascinating
phenomena in solids. To date much effort has been made to explore the interplay
between different orders, yet little is known about the relationship of
multiple orders of the same type. Here we report optical spectroscopy study on
CDWs in the rare-earth tri-telluride compounds RTe3 (R = rare earth elements).
Besides the prior reported two CDW orders, the study reveals unexpectedly the
presence of a third CDW order in the series which evolves systematically with
the size of R element. With increased chemical pressure, the first and third
CDW orders are both substantially suppressed and compete with the second one by
depleting the low energy spectral weight. A complete phase diagram for the
multiple CDW orders in this series is established.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures, 1 tabl
CP violation and final state interactions in B --> K pi pi decays
Effects of CP violation and of final state interactions between pairs of
pseudoscalar mesons are studied in three-body B+, B-, B0 and antiB0 decays into
K pi pi. An alternative approach to the isobar model for three-body B decays is
proposed. It is based on the QCD factorization approximation and the knowledge
of the meson-meson form factors. Some phenomenological charming penguin
amplitudes are needed to describe the branching fractions, direct CP
asymmetries of the quasi-two-body B --> K*(892) pi and B --> K0*(1430) pi
decays as well as the K pi effective mass and the helicity angle distributions.
The experimental branching fractions for the B --> K0*(1430) pi decay, obtained
by the Belle and BaBar collaborations using the isobar model, are larger than
our predictions by about 52 per cent.Comment: 3 pages, contribution to International Europhysics Conference on High
Energy Physics HEP 2007, Manchester (England), July 19-25, 200
Boundary effect on CDW: Friedel oscillations, STM image
We study the effect of open boundary condition on charge density waves (CDW).
The electron density oscillates rapidly close to the boundary, and additional
non-oscillating terms (~ln(r)) appear. The Friedel oscillations survive beyond
the CDW coherence length (v_F/Delta), but their amplitude gets heavily
suppressed. The scanning tunneling microscopy image (STM) of CDW shows clear
features of the boundary. The local tunneling conductance becomes asymmetric
with respect to the Fermi energy, and considerable amount of spectral weight is
transferred to the lower gap edge. Also it exhibits additional zeros reflecting
the influence of the boundary.Comment: 7 pages, 6 figure
Frequent mild head injury promotes trigeminal sensitivity concomitant with microglial proliferation, astrocytosis, and increased neuropeptide levels in the trigeminal pain system.
BACKGROUND: Frequent mild head injuries or concussion along with the presence of headache may contribute to the persistence of concussion symptoms.
METHODS: In this study, the acute effects of recovery between mild head injuries and the frequency of injuries on a headache behavior, trigeminal allodynia, was assessed using von Frey testing up to one week after injury, while histopathological changes in the trigeminal pain pathway were evaluated using western blot, ELISA and immunohistochemistry. RESULTS: A decreased recovery time combined with an increased mild closed head injury (CHI) frequency results in reduced trigeminal allodynia thresholds compared to controls. The repetitive CHI group with the highest injury frequency showed the greatest reduction in trigeminal thresholds along with greatest increased levels of calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) in the trigeminal nucleus caudalis. Repetitive CHI resulted in astrogliosis in the central trigeminal system, increased GFAP protein levels in the sensory barrel cortex, and an increased number of microglia cells in the trigeminal nucleus caudalis.
CONCLUSIONS: Headache behavior in rats is dependent on the injury frequency and recovery interval between mild head injuries. A worsening of headache behavior after repetitive mild head injuries was concomitant with increases in CGRP levels, the presence of astrocytosis, and microglia proliferation in the central trigeminal pathway. Signaling between neurons and proliferating microglia in the trigeminal pain system may contribute to the initiation of acute headache after concussion or other traumatic brain injuries
Matter-wave localization in a random potential
By numerical and variational solution of the Gross-Pitaevskii equation, we
studied the localization of a noninteracting and weakly-interacting
Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) in a disordered cold atom lattice and a speckle
potential. In the case of a single BEC fragment, the variational analysis
produced good results. For a weakly disordered potential, the localized BECs
are found to have an exponential tail as in weak Anderson localization. We also
investigated the expansion of a noninteracting BEC in these potential. We find
that the BEC will be locked in an appropriate localized state after an initial
expansion and will execute breathing oscillation around a mean shape when a BEC
at equilibrium in a harmonic trap is suddenly released into a disorder
potential
Self-management of context-aware overlay ambient networks
Ambient Networks (ANs) are dynamically changing and heterogeneous as they consist of potentially large numbers of independent, heterogeneous mobile nodes, with spontaneous topologies that can logically interact with each other to share a common control space, known as the Ambient Control Space. ANs are also flexible i.e. they can compose and decompose dynamically and automatically, for supporting the deployment of cross-domain (new) services. Thus, the AN architecture must be sophisticatedly designed to support such high level of dynamicity, heterogeneity and flexibility. We advocate the use of service specific overlay networks in ANs, that are created on-demand according to specific service requirements, to deliver, and to automatically adapt services to the dynamically changing user and network context. This paper presents a self-management approach to create, configure, adapt, contextualise, and finally teardown service specific overlay networks
Matching Stages of Heavy Ion Collision Models
Heavy ion reactions and other collective dynamical processes are frequently
described by different theoretical approaches for the different stages of the
process, like initial equilibration stage, intermediate locally equilibrated
fluid dynamical stage and final freeze-out stage. For the last stage the best
known is the Cooper-Frye description used to generate the phase space
distribution of emitted, non-interacting, particles from a fluid dynamical
expansion/explosion, assuming a final ideal gas distribution, or (less
frequently) an out of equilibrium distribution. In this work we do not want to
replace the Cooper-Frye description, rather clarify the ways how to use it and
how to choose the parameters of the distribution, eventually how to choose the
form of the phase space distribution used in the Cooper-Frye formula. Moreover,
the Cooper-Frye formula is used in connection with the freeze-out problem,
while the discussion of transition between different stages of the collision is
applicable to other transitions also. More recently hadronization and molecular
dynamics models are matched to the end of a fluid dynamical stage to describe
hadronization and freeze-out. The stages of the model description can be
matched to each other on spacetime hypersurfaces (just like through the
frequently used freeze-out hypersurface). This work presents a generalized
description of how to match the stages of the description of a reaction to each
other, extending the methodology used at freeze-out, in simple covariant form
which is easily applicable in its simplest version for most applications.Comment: 9 pages, 2 figure
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