The structure of borders in a small world

Geographic borders are not only essential for the effective functioning of government, the distribution of administrative responsibilities and the allocation of public resources, they also influence the interregional flow of information, cross-border trade operations, the diffusion of innovation and technology, and the spatial spread of infectious diseases. However, as growing interactions and mobility across long distances, cultural, and political borders continue to amplify the small world effect and effectively decrease the relative importance of local interactions, it is difficult to assess the location and structure of effective borders that may play the most significant role in mobility-driven processes. The paradigm of spatially coherent communities may no longer be a plausible one, and it is unclear what structures emerge from the interplay of interactions and activities across spatial scales. Here we analyse a multi-scale proxy network for human mobility that incorporates travel across a few to a few thousand kilometres. We determine an effective system of geographically continuous borders implicitly encoded in multi-scale mobility patterns. We find that effective large scale boundaries define spatially coherent subdivisions and only partially coincide with administrative borders. We find that spatial coherence is partially lost if only long range traffic is taken into account and show that prevalent models for multi-scale mobility networks cannot account for the observed patterns. These results will allow for new types of quantitative, comparative analyses of multi-scale interaction networks in general and may provide insight into a multitude of spatiotemporal phenomena generated by human activity.Comment: 9 page

Strain-Dependence of Surface Diffusion: Ag on Ag(111) and Pt(111)

Using density-functional theory with the local-density approximation and the generalized gradient approximation we compute the energy barriers for surface diffusion for Ag on Pt(111), Ag on one monolayer of Ag on Pt(111), and Ag on Ag(111). The diffusion barrier for Ag on Ag(111) is found to increase linearly with increasing lattice constant. We also discuss the reconstruction that has been found experimentally when two Ag layers are deposited on Pt(111). Our calculations explain why this strain driven reconstruction occurs only after two Ag layers have been deposited.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, Phys. Rev. B 55 (1997), in pres

REACTIVITY OF CHLOROPHYLL a/b-PROTEINS AND MICELLAR TRITON X-100 COMPLEXES OF CHLOROPHYLLS a OR b WITH BOROHYDRIDE

The reaction of several plant chlorophyll-protein complexes with NaBH4 has been studied by absorption spectroscopy. In all the complexes studied, chlorophyll b is more reactive than Chi a, due to preferential reaction of its formyl substituent at C-7. The complexes also show large variations in reactivity towards NaBH4 and the order of reactivity is: LHCI > PSII complex > LHCII > PSI > P700 (investigated as a component of PSI). Differential pools of the same type of chlorophyll have been observed in several complexes. Parallel work was undertaken on the reactivity of micellar complexes of chlorophyll a and of chlorophyll b with NaBH4 to study the effect of aggregation state on this reactivity. In these complexes, both chlorophyll a and b show large variations in reactivity in the order monomer > oligomer > polymer with chlorophyll b generally being more reactive than chlorophyll a. It is concluded that aggregation decreases the reactivity of chlorophylls towards NaBH4 in vitro, and may similarly decrease reactivity in naturally-occurring chlorophyll-protein complexes

Precision Measurements of d(d,p)t and d(d,n)^3He Total Cross Sections at Big-Bang Nucleosynthesis Energies

Recent Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) measurements have determined the baryon density of the Universe $\Omega_b$ with a precision of about 4%. With $\Omega_b$ tightly constrained, comparisons of Big Bang Nucleosynthesis (BBN) abundance predictions to primordial abundance observations can be made and used to test BBN models and/or to further constrain abundances of isotopes with weak observational limits. To push the limits and improve constraints on BBN models, uncertainties in key nuclear reaction rates must be minimized. To this end, we made new precise measurements of the d(d,p)t and d(d,n)^3He total cross sections at lab energies from 110 keV to 650 keV. A complete fit was performed in energy and angle to both angular distribution and normalization data for both reactions simultaneously. By including parameters for experimental variables in the fit, error correlations between detectors, reactions, and reaction energies were accurately tabulated by computational methods. With uncertainties around 2% +/- 1% scale error, these new measurements significantly improve on the existing data set. At relevant temperatures, using the data of the present work, both reaction rates are found to be about 7% higher than those in the widely used Nuclear Astrophysics Compilation of Reaction Rates (NACRE). These data will thus lead not only to reduced uncertainties, but also to modifications in the BBN abundance predictions.Comment: 15 pages, 11 figures, minor editorial change

Quantum-state synthesis of multi-mode bosonic fields: Preparation of arbitrary states of 2-D vibrational motion of trapped ions

We present a universal algorithm for an efficient deterministic preparation of an arbitrary two--mode bosonic state. In particular, we discuss in detail preparation of entangled states of a two-dimensional vibrational motion of a trapped ion via a sequence of laser stimulated Raman transitions. Our formalism can be generalized for multi-mode bosonic fields. We examine stability of our algorithm with respect to a technical noise.Comment: 8 pages, revtex, including 2 ps-figures, section about physical implementation added, references updated, submitted to Phys. Rev. A, computer program available at http://www.savba.sk/sav/inst/fyzi/qo

Spin excitations in a 4f-3d heterodimer on MgO

We report on the magnetic properties of HoCo dimers as a model system for the smallest intermetallic transition metal-lanthanide compound. The dimers are adsorbed on ultrathin MgO(100) films grown on Ag(100). New for $4f$ elements, we detect inelastic excitations with scanning tunneling microscopy and prove by their behaviour in applied magnetic field that they are spin-excitations. In combination with density functional theory and spin Hamiltonian analysis we determine the magnetic level distribution, as well as sign and magnitude of the exchange interaction between the two atoms. In contrast to typical $4f-3d$ bulk compounds, we find ferromagnetic coupling in the dimer

Evidence for Three Nucleon Force Effects in p-d Elastic Scattering

A new measurement of the p-d differential cross section at Ep= 1 MeV has been performed. These new data and older data sets at energies below the deuteron breakup are compared to calculations using the two-nucleon Argonne v18 and the three-nucleon Urbana IX potentials. A quantitative estimate of the capability of these interactions to describe the data is given in terms of a chi^2 analysis. The chi^2 per datum drastically improves when the three-nucleon interaction is included in the Hamiltonian.Comment: 13 pages, 5 figures, to be published in Phys. Rev.

Multi-particle entanglement of hot trapped ions

We propose an efficient method to produce multi-particle entangled states of ions in an ion trap for which a wide range of interesting effects and applications have been suggested. Our preparation scheme exploits the collective vibrational motion of the ions, but it works in such a way that this motion need not be fully controlled in the experiment. The ions may, e.g., be in thermal motion and exchange mechanical energy with a surrounding heat bath without detrimental effects on the internal state preparation. Our scheme does not require access to the individual ions in the trap.Comment: 4 pages, including 3 figures. To appear in Phys. Rev. Lett. This paper previously appeared under the name "Schrodingers cat in a hot trap". The paper has been revised according to Phys. Rev. policy on Schrodinger cats. No cats were harmed during the production of this manuscrip

Coherent Superposition States as Quantum Rulers

We explore the sensitivity of an interferometer based on a quantum circuit for coherent states. We show that its sensitivity is at the Heisenberg limit. Moreover we show that this arrangement can measure very small length intervals