Properties of the Optokinetic Motor Fibres in the Rock Lobster: Build-Up, Flipback, Afterdischarge and Memory, Shown by Their Firing Patterns

The properties of sets of motor fibres responding to both clockwise and anticlockwise rotation have been studied in the oculomotor nerve of the rock lobster. There are probably three, but perhaps four, units in each set. None of these fibres has statocyst input, but there is weak input onto the tonic fibres from the antennal joints such that the eye turns in the direction toward which the antenna points. Many preparations show bilateral visual input onto all fibres but the degree of coupling between the eyes is very variable, and at times can be nearly totally absent. Depending on the speed of rotation the fibres show a gradual build-up in frequency, during rotation in the preferred direction, interrupted by flipbacks. During the fast stage of the resulting nystagmic movements all agonistic fibres can be completely inhibited and all antagonistic ones can be activated, usually for a period of about 0.5 sec. Fibre activity is demonstrated which appears to underlie an ‘optokinetic memory’ of contrasting target position in the visual field. It consists of (a) very prolonged after-discharges for a stationary striped pattern (b) resumption of discharges at an appropriate frequency after dark periods up to 2 min, and (c) adjustment of such frequencies to changes in stripe position during the dark period. The fibres show habituation to repeated stripe movement but the response can be dishabituated by passive rotation of the animal. The largest visual responses were obtained to intermediate speeds of stripe rotation (about 2°/sec)

Input Sources and Properties of Position-Sensitive Oculomotor Fibres in the Rock Lobster, Panulirus Interruptus (Randall)

Sets of head-up, head-down, eye-up and eye-down motor fibres were studied in the oculomotor nerve of the rock lobster. An eye-withdrawal fibre was also investigated. Apart from the statocyst input, light distribution on the eyes has the strongest influence on the position-sensitive fibres. Weaker optokinetic input from moving targets is also present. Strongly habituating input is obtained from the antennal joints. This input causes orientation of the eye toward the direction in which the antenna points. The same antennule movement in the vertical plane can result in either excitation or inhibition of the head-down fibre, suggesting the presence of two opposing inputs, presumably from the statocysts and basal joint receptors of the antennule. The inputs on to the position-sensitive fibres which indicate body position are such as to stabilize the eye position in space during body movement. The optokinetic and antennal joint inputs are probably involved in tracking and antennal pointing reactions. The eye-withdrawal fibre is stimulated by touch of the head and around the eye, but is inhibited by the excited state

Locally Optimal Control of Quantum Systems with Strong Feedback

For quantum systems with high purity, we find all observables that, when continuously monitored, maximize the instantaneous reduction in the von Neumann entropy. This allows us to obtain all locally optimal feedback protocols with strong feedback, and explicit expressions for the best such protocols for systems of size N <= 4. We also show that for a qutrit the locally optimal protocol is the optimal protocol for a given range of control times, and derive an upper bound on all optimal protocols with strong feedback.Comment: 4 pages, Revtex4. v2: published version (some errors corrected

Effects of energy dependence in the quasiparticle density of states on far-infrared absorption in the pseudogap state

We derive a relationship between the optical conductivity scattering rate 1/\tau(\omega) and the electron-boson spectral function \alpha^2F(\Omega) valid for the case when the electronic density of states, N(\epsilon), cannot be taken as constant in the vicinity of the Fermi level. This relationship turned out to be useful for analyzing the experimental data in the pseudogap state of cuprate superconductors.Comment: 8 pages, RevTeX4, 1 EPS figure; final version published in PR

Pairing effects on the collectivity of quadrupole states around 32Mg

The first 2+ states in N=20 isotones including neutron-rich nuclei 32Mg and 30Ne are studied by the Hartree-Fock-Bogoliubov plus quasiparticle random phase approximation method based on the Green's function approach. The residual interaction between the quasiparticles is consistently derived from the hamiltonian density of Skyrme interactions with explicit velocity dependence. The B(E2) transition probabilities and the excitation energies of the first 2+ states are well described within a single framework. We conclude that pairing effects account largely for the anomalously large B(E2) value and the very low excitation energy in 32Mg.Comment: 14 pages, 9 figure

Superconductivity, magnetic order, and quadrupolar order in the filled skutterudite system Pr1−x_{1-x}Ndx_{x}Os4_4Sb12_{12}

Superconductivity, magnetic order, and quadrupolar order have been investigated in the filled skutterudite system Pr$_{1-x}$Nd$_{x}$Os$_4$Sb$_{12}$ as a function of composition $x$ in magnetic fields up to 9 tesla and at temperatures between 50 mK and 10 K. Electrical resistivity measurements indicate that the high field ordered phase (HFOP), which has been identified with antiferroquadruoplar order, persists to $x$ $\sim$ 0.5. The superconducting critical temperature $T_c$ of PrOs$_4$Sb$_{12}$ is depressed linearly with Nd concentration to $x$ $\sim$ 0.55, whereas the Curie temperature $T_{FM}$ of NdOs$_4$Sb$_{12}$ is depressed linearly with Pr composition to ($1-x$) $\sim$ 0.45. In the superconducting region, the upper critical field $H_{c2}(x,0)$ is depressed quadratically with $x$ in the range 0 $<$ $x$ $\lesssim$ 0.3, exhibits a kink at $x$ $\approx$ 0.3, and then decreases linearly with $x$ in the range 0.3 $\lesssim$ $x$ $\lesssim$ 0.6. The behavior of $H_{c2}(x,0)$ appears to be due to pair breaking caused by the applied magnetic field and the exhange field associated with the polarization of the Nd magnetic moments, in the superconducting state. From magnetic susceptibility measurements, the correlations between the Nd moments in the superconducting state appear to change from ferromagnetic in the range 0.3 $\lesssim$ $x$ $\lesssim$ 0.6 to antiferromagnetic in the range 0 $<$ $x$ $\lesssim$ 0.3. Specific heat measurements on a sample with $x$ $=$ 0.45 indicate that magnetic order occurs in the superconducting state, as is also inferred from the depression of $H_{c2}(x,0)$ with $x$.Comment: 7 pages, 7 figures, currently submitted to Phys. Rev.