269 research outputs found
Structural and electronic properties of Al nanowires: an ab initio pseudopotential study
The stability and electronic structure of a single monatomic Al wire has been
studied using the ab initio pseudopotential method. The Al wire undergoes two
structural rearrangements under compression, i.e., zigzag configurations at
angles of and . The evolution of electronic structures of the Al
chain as a function of structural phase transition has been investigated. The
relationship between electronic structure and geometric stability is also
discussed. The 2p bands in the Al nanowire are shown to play a critical role in
its stability. The effects of density functionals (GGA and LDA) on cohesive
energy and bond length of Al nanostructures (dimmer, chains, and monolayers)
are also examined. The link between low dimensional 0D structure (dimmer) to
high dimensional 3D bulk Al is estimated. An example of optimized tip-suspended
finite atomic chain is presented to bridge the gap between hypothetical
infinite chains and experimental finite chains.Comment: 11 pages, 5 figure
Eta-Helium Quasi-Bound States
The cross section and tensor analysing power t_20 of the d\vec{d}->eta 4He
reaction have been measured at six c.m. momenta, 10 < p(eta) < 90 MeV/c. The
threshold value of t_20 is consistent with 1/\sqrt{2}, which follows from
parity conservation and Bose symmetry. The much slower momentum variation
observed for the reaction amplitude, as compared to that for the analogous
pd->eta 3He case, suggests strongly the existence of a quasi-bound state in the
eta-4He system and optical model fits indicate that this probably also the case
for eta-3He.Comment: LaTeX, uses elsart.sty, 10 pages, 3 Postscript figures, Submitted to
Physics Letters
Water Vapor Measurements by Howard University Raman Lidar during the WAVES 2006 Campaign
Retrieval of water vapor mixing ratio using the Howard University Raman Lidar is presented with emphasis on three aspects: i) performance of the lidar against collocated radiosondes and Raman lidar, ii) investigation of the atmospheric state variables when poor agreement between lidar and radiosondes values occurred and iii) a comparison with satellite-based measurements. The measurements were acquired during the Water Vapor Validation Experiment Sondes/Satellites 2006 field campaign. Ensemble averaging of water vapor mixing ratio data from ten night-time comparisons with Vaisala RS92 radiosondes shows on average an agreement within 10 % up to approx. 8 km. A similar analysis of lidar-to-lidar data of over 700 profiles revealed an agreement to within 20 % over the first 7 km (10 % below 4 km). A grid analysis, defined in the temperature - relative humidity space, was developed to characterize the lidar - radiosonde agreement and quantitatively localizes regions of strong and weak correlations as a function of altitude, temperature or relative humidity. Three main regions of weak correlation emerge: i) regions of low relative humidity and low temperature, ii) moderate relative humidity at low temperatures and iii) low relative humidity at moderate temperatures. Comparison of Atmospheric InfraRed Sounder and Tropospheric Emission Sounder satellites retrievals of moisture with that of Howard University Raman Lidar showed a general agreement in the trend but the formers miss a lot of the details in atmospheric structure due to their low resolution. A relative difference of about 20 % is usually found between lidar and satellites measurements
Stiff monatomic gold wires with a spinning zigzag geometry
Using first principles density functional calculations, gold monatomic wires
are found to exhibit a zigzag shape which remains under tension, becoming
linear just before breaking. At room temperature they are found to spin, what
explains the extremely long apparent interatomic distances shown by electron
microscopy.The zigzag structure is stable if the tension is relieved, the wire
holding its chainlike shape even as a free-standing cluster. This unexpected
metallic-wire stiffness stems from the transverse quantization in the wire, as
shown in a simple free electron model.Comment: 4 pages, latex, 5 figures, submitted to PR
Generally Deformed Oscillator, Isospectral Oscillator System and Hermitian Phase Operator
The generally deformed oscillator (GDO) and its multiphoton realization as
well as the coherent and squeezed vacuum states are studied. We discuss, in
particular, the GDO depending on a complex parameter q (therefore we call it
q-GDO) together with the finite dimensional cyclic representations. As a
realistic physical system of GDO the isospectral oscillator system is studied
and it is found that its coherent and squeezed vacuum states are closely
related to those of the oscillator. It is pointed out that starting from the
q-GDO with q root of unity one can define the hermitian phase operators in
quantum optics consistently and algebraically. The new creation and
annihilation operators of the Pegg-Barnett type phase operator theory are
defined by using the cyclic representations and these operators degenerate to
those of the ordinary oscillator in the classical limit q->1.Comment: 21 pages, latex, no figure
CP Violation in Neutrinoless Double Beta Decay and Neutrino Oscillation
Taking account of possible CP violation, we discuss about the constraints on
the lepton mixing angles from the neutrinoless double beta decay and from the
neutrino oscillation for the three flavour Majorana neutrinos. From the CHORUS
oscillation experiment, combined with the data of neutrinoless double beta
decay, we show that the large angle solution of (\theta_{23}) is improbable if
the neutrino mass (m_3) of the third generation is a candidate of hot dark
matters.Comment: 14pp, REVTeX, 6 Figure
Competitiveness and communication for effective inoculation byRhizobium, Bradyrhizobium and vesicular-arbuscular mycorrhiza fungi
After a short summary on the ecology and rhizosphere biology of symbiotic bacteria and vesicular-arbuscular (VA) mycorrhiza fungi and their application as microbial inocula, results on competitiveness and communication are summarized. Stress factors such as high temperature, low soil pH, aluminium concentrations and phytoalexins produced by the host plants were studied withRhizobium leguminosarum bv.phaseoli andRhizobium tropici onPhaseolus beans. Quantitative data for competitiveness were obtained by usinggus + (glucoronidase) labelled strains, which produce blue-coloured nodules. ForPhaseolus-nodulating rhizobia, a group specific DNA probe was also developed, which did not hybridize with more than 20 other common soil and rhizosphere bacteria. Results from several laboratories contributing to knowledge of signal exchange and communication in theRhizobium/Bradyrhizobium legume system are summarized in a new scheme, including also defense reactions at the early stages of legume nodule initiation. Stimulating effects of flavonoids on germination and growth of VA mycorrhiza fungi were also found. A constitutive antifungal compound in pea roots, -isoxazolinonyl-alanine, was characterized
Two-Component Direct Fluorescent-Antibody Assay for Rapid Identification of Bacillus anthracis
A two-component direct fluorescent-antibody (DFA) assay, using fluorescein-labeled monoclonal antibodies specific to the Bacillus anthracis cell wall (CW-DFA) and capsule (CAP-DFA) antigens, was evaluated and validated for rapid identification of B. anthracis. We analyzed 230 B. anthracis isolates; 228 and 229 were positive by CW-DFA and CAP-DFA assays, respectively. We also tested 56 non–B. anthracis strains; 10 B. cereus and 2 B. thuringiensis were positive by the CW-DFA assay, and 1 B. megaterium strain was positive by CAP-DFA. Analysis of the combined DFA results identified 227 of 230 B. anthracis isolates; all 56 strains of the other Bacillus spp. were negative. Both DFA assays tested positive on 14 of 26 clinical specimens from the 2001 anthrax outbreak investigation. The two-component DFA assay is a sensitive, specific, and rapid confirmatory test for B. anthracis in cultures and may be useful directly on clinical specimens
The IceCube Neutrino Observatory: Instrumentation and Online Systems
The IceCube Neutrino Observatory is a cubic-kilometer-scale high-energy
neutrino detector built into the ice at the South Pole. Construction of
IceCube, the largest neutrino detector built to date, was completed in 2011 and
enabled the discovery of high-energy astrophysical neutrinos. We describe here
the design, production, and calibration of the IceCube digital optical module
(DOM), the cable systems, computing hardware, and our methodology for drilling
and deployment. We also describe the online triggering and data filtering
systems that select candidate neutrino and cosmic ray events for analysis. Due
to a rigorous pre-deployment protocol, 98.4% of the DOMs in the deep ice are
operating and collecting data. IceCube routinely achieves a detector uptime of
99% by emphasizing software stability and monitoring. Detector operations have
been stable since construction was completed, and the detector is expected to
operate at least until the end of the next decade.Comment: 83 pages, 50 figures; updated with minor changes from journal review
and proofin
Planet Hunters Tess I: TOI 813, a subgiant hosting a transiting Saturn-sized planet on an 84-day orbit
We report on the discovery and validation of TOI 813 b (TIC55525572b), a transiting exoplanet identified by citizen scientists in data from NASA\u27s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) and the first planet discovered by the Planet Hunters TESS project. The host star is a bright (V = 10.3 mag) subgiant (R* = 1.94 R☉, M☉ = 1.32 M☉). It was observed almost continuously by TESS during its first year of operations, during which time four individual transit events were detected. The candidate passed all the standard light curve-based vetting checks, and ground-based follow-up spectroscopy and speckle imaging enabled us to place an upper limit of 2 MJup (99 per cent confidence) on the mass of the companion, and to statistically validate its planetary nature. Detailed modelling of the transits yields a period of 83.8911+0.0027-0.0031 d, a planet radius of 6.71 ± 0.38 R⊕ and a semimajor axis of 0.423+0031-0.037 AU. The planet\u27s orbital period combined with the evolved nature of the host star places this object in a relatively underexplored region of parameter space. We estimate that TOI 813 b induces a reflex motion in its host star with a semi-amplitude of ∼6 m s−1, making this a promising system to measure the mass of a relatively long-period transiting planet
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