Diagnostic criterion for crystallized beams

Small ion crystals in a Paul trap are stable even in the absence of laser cooling. Based on this theoretically and experimentally well-established fact we propose the following diagnostic criterion for establishing the presence of a crystallized beam: Absence of heating following the shut-down of all cooling devices. The validity of the criterion is checked with the help of detailed numerical simulations.Comment: REVTeX, 11 pages, 4 figures; submitted to PR

In-vitro resistance of cloned human glioma cells to natural killer activity of allogeneic peripheral lymphocytes.

Cells from an established culture of a human astrocytoma were incubated with normal allogeneic peripheral lymphocytes (PBL) in order to study the natural killer (NK) sensitivity of the in vitro propagated cell line. A proportion of cells in culture formed halos, into which lymphocytes did not penetrate. These cells were successfully cloned and showed a decreased susceptibility to NK cytolysis compared with the parent line. Both cell lines could be transplanted into athymic nude mice. The cloned NK-resistant cells underwent a frequent spontaneous regression in nu/nu mice, despite the fact that when used as targets for nu/nu NK cells in vitro they were only moderately susceptible. Phase-contrast microscopy of the mass-cultured cells co-cultivated with lymphocytes suggested that their morphology and ability to form inpenetrable translucent halos might influence their susceptibility to NK lysis. Experiments performed on this assumption revealed that quiescent and halo forming tumour cells were not the primary targets for NK lysis. Cells in mass culture, although tumorigenic, were thus heterogeneous in respect of susceptibility to NK attack. These findings might be relevant to the mechanism of immune escape and tumour heterogeneity in respect of spontaneous cell-mediated lysis

Explicitly solvable cases of one-dimensional quantum chaos

We identify a set of quantum graphs with unique and precisely defined spectral properties called {\it regular quantum graphs}. Although chaotic in their classical limit with positive topological entropy, regular quantum graphs are explicitly solvable. The proof is constructive: we present exact periodic orbit expansions for individual energy levels, thus obtaining an analytical solution for the spectrum of regular quantum graphs that is complete, explicit and exact

Quantum Fractal Fluctuations

We numerically analyse quantum survival probability fluctuations in an open, classically chaotic system. In a quasi-classical regime, and in the presence of classical mixed phase space, such fluctuations are believed to exhibit a fractal pattern, on the grounds of semiclassical arguments. In contrast, we work in a classical regime of complete chaoticity, and in a deep quantum regime of strong localization. We provide evidence that fluctuations are still fractal, due to the slow, purely quantum algebraic decay in time produced by dynamical localization. Such findings considerably enlarge the scope of the existing theory.Comment: revtex, 4 pages, 5 figure