Observation of backscattering-immune chiral electromagnetic modes without time reversal breaking

A strategy is proposed to realize robust transport in time reversal invariant photonic system. Using numerical simulation and microwave experiment, we demonstrate that a chiral guided mode in the channel of a three-dimensional dielectric woodpile photonic crystal is immune to the scattering of a square patch of metal or dielectric inserted to block the channel. The chirality based robust transport can be realized in nonmagnetic dielectric materials without any external field.Comment: 16 pages, 5 figure

Neuronal activity (c-Fos) delineating interactions of the cerebral cortex and basal ganglia

The cerebral cortex and basal ganglia (BG) form a neural circuit that is disrupted in disorders such as Parkinson’s disease. We found that neuronal activity (c-Fos) in the BG followed cortical activity, i.e., high in arousal state and low in sleep state. To determine if cortical activity is necessary for BG activity, we administered atropine to rats to induce a dissociative state resulting in slow-wave electroencephalography but hyperactive motor behaviors. Atropine blocked c-Fos expression in the cortex and BG, despite high c-Fos expression in the sub-cortical arousal neuronal groups and thalamus, indicating that cortical activity is required for BG activation. To identify which glutamate receptors in the BG that mediate cortical inputs, we injected ketamine [N-methyl-d-aspartate (NMDA) receptor antagonist] and 6-cyano-nitroquinoxaline-2, 3-dione (CNQX, a non-NMDA receptor antagonist). Systemic ketamine and CNQX administration revealed that NMDA receptors mediated subthalamic nucleus (STN) input to internal globus pallidus (GPi) and substantia nigra pars reticulata (SNr), while non-NMDA receptor mediated cortical input to the STN. Both types of glutamate receptors were involved in mediating cortical input to the striatum. Dorsal striatal (caudoputamen, CPu) dopamine depletion by 6-hydroxydopamine resulted in reduced activity of the CPu, globus pallidus externa (GPe), and STN but increased activity of the GPi, SNr, and putative layer V neurons in the motor cortex. Our results reveal that the cortical activity is necessary for BG activity and clarifies the pathways and properties of the BG-cortical network and their putative role in the pathophysiology of BG disorders

PT Symmetry as a Generalization of Hermiticity

The Hilbert space in PT-symmetric quantum mechanics is formulated as a linear vector space with a dynamic inner product. The most general PT-symmetric matrix Hamiltonians are constructed for 2*2 and 3*3 cases. In the former case, the PT-symmetric Hamiltonian represents the most general matrix Hamiltonian with a real spectrum. In both cases, Hermitian matrices are shown to be special cases of PT-symmetric matrices. This finding confirms and strengthens the early belief that the PT-symmetric quantum mechanics is a generalization of the conventional Hermitian quantum mechanics.Comment: 13 page

A Three-Flavor AdS/QCD Model with a Back-Reacted Geometry

A fully back-reaction geometry model of AdS/QCD including the strange quark is described. We find that with the inclusion of the strange quark the impact on the metric is very small and the final predictions are changed only negligibly.Comment: 10 pages, 2 figures; references revised, minor change for caption of fig

Analysis of Y(4660) and related bound states with QCD sum rules

In this article, we take the vector charmonium-like state Y(4660) as a $\psi'f_0(980)$ bound state (irrespective of the hadro-charmonium and the molecular state) tentatively, study its mass using the QCD sum rules, the numerical value $M_Y=4.71\pm0.26 \rm{GeV}$ is consistent with the experimental data. Considering the SU(3) symmetry of the light flavor quarks and the heavy quark symmetry, we also study the bound states $\psi'\sigma(400-1200)$, $\Upsilon'"f_0(980)$ and $\Upsilon"'\sigma(400-1200)$ with the QCD sum rules, and make reasonable predictions for their masses.Comment: 18 pages, 32 figures, revised versio

Gapped Topological Kink States and Topological Corner States in Graphene

Based on the tight-binding model calculations and photonic experimental visualization on graphene, we report the domain-wall-induced gapped topological kink states and topological corner states. In graphene, domain walls with gapless topological kink states could be induced either by sublattice symmetry breaking or by lattice deformation. We find that the coexistence of these two mechanisms will induce domain walls with gapped topological kink states. Significantly, the intersection of these two types of domain wall gives rise to topological corner state localized at the crossing point. Through the manipulation of domain walls, we show graphene not only a versatile platform supporting multiple topological corner modes in a controlled manner, but also possessing promising applications such as fabricating topological quantum dots composed of gapped topological kink states and topological corner states.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figures, supplementary includ

The effect of different baryons impurities

We demonstrate the different effect of different baryons impurities on the static properties of nuclei within the framework of the relativistic mean-field model. Systematic calculations show that $\Lambda_c^+$ and $\Lambda_b$ has the same attracting role as $\Lambda$ hyperon does in lighter hypernuclei. $\Xi^-$ and $\Xi_c^0$ hyperon has the attracting role only for the protons distribution, and has a repulsive role for the neutrons distribution. On the contrary, $\Xi^0$ and $\Xi^+_c$ hyperon attracts surrounding neutrons and reveals a repulsive force to the protons. We find that the different effect of different baryons impurities on the nuclear core is due to the different third component of their isospin.Comment: 9 page