Investigation of the coupling asymmetries at double-slit interference experiments

Double-slit experiments inferring the phase and the amplitude of the transmission coefficient performed at quantum dots (QD), in the Coulomb blockade regime, present anomalies at the phase changes depending on the number of electrons confined. This phase change cannot be explained if one neglects the electron-electron interactions. Here, we present our numerical results, which simulate the real sample geometry by solving the Poisson equation in 3D. The screened potential profile is used to obtain energy eigenstates and eigenvalues of the QD. We find that, certain energy levels are coupled to the leads stronger compared to others. Our results give strong support to the phenomenological models in the literature describing the charging of a QD and the abrupt phase changes.Comment: conference paper, 50th anniversary of Aharonov-Bohm effec

Surface groups acting on CAT(−1) spaces

Harmonic map theory is used to show that a convex cocompact surface group action on a CAT(-1) metric space fixes a convex copy of the hyperbolic plane (i.e. the action is Fuchsian) if and only if the Hausdorff dimension of the limit set of the action is equal to 1. This provides another proof of a result of Bonk and Kleiner. More generally, we show that the limit set of every convex cocompact surface group action on a CAT(-1) space has Hausdorff dimension ≥1, where the inequality is strict unless the action is Fuchsian

Regularity of harmonic discs in spaces with quadratic isoperimetric inequality

We study harmonic and quasi-harmonic discs in metric spaces admitting a uniformly local quadratic isoperimetric inequality for curves. The class of such metric spaces includes compact Lipschitz manifolds, metric spaces with upper or lower curvature bounds in the sense of Alexandrov, some sub-Riemannian manifolds, and many more. In this setting, we prove local Hölder continuity and continuity up to the boundary of harmonic and quasi-harmonic discs

Area minimizing discs in metric spaces

We solve the classical problem of Plateau in the setting of proper metric spaces. Precisely, we prove that among all disc-type surfaces with prescribed Jordan boundary in a proper metric space there exists an area minimizing disc which moreover has a quasi-conformal parametrization. If the space supports a local quadratic isoperimetric inequality for curves we prove that such a solution is locally Hölder continuous in the interior and continuous up to the boundary. Our results generalize corresponding results of Douglas Radò and Morrey from the setting of Euclidean space and Riemannian manifolds to that of proper metric spaces

An application of EMS98 in a medium-sized city: The case of L’Aquila (Central Italy) after the April 6, 2009 Mw 6.3 earthquake

This paper describes the damage survey in the city of L’Aquila after the 6 April 2009 earthquake. The earthquake, whose magnitude and intensity reached Mw=6.3 and Imax=9–10 MCS, struck the Abruzzi region of Central Italy producing severe damage in L’Aquila and in many villages along theMiddle Aterno River valley. After the event, a building- to-building survey was performed in L’Aquila downtown aiming to collect data in order to perform a strict evaluation of the damage. The survey was carried out under the European Macroseismic Scale (EMS98) to evaluate the local macroseismic intensity. This damage survey represents the most complex application of the EMS98 in Italy since it became effective. More than 1,700 buildings (99% of the building stock) were taken into account during the survey at L’Aquila downtown, highlighting the difficult application of the macroseismic scale in a large urban context. The EMS98 revealed itself to be the best tool to perform such kind of analysis in urban settings. The complete survey displayed evidence of peculiar features in the damage distribution. Results revealed that the highest rate of collapses occurred within a delimited area of the historical centre and along the SW border of the fluvial terrace on which the city is settled. Intensity assessed for L’Aquila downtown was 8–9 EMS.Published67-801.11. TTC - Osservazioni e monitoraggio macrosismico del territorio nazionaleJCR Journalrestricte

Enhanced antiviral function of magnesium chloride-modified Heparin on a broad spectrum of viruses

Previous studies reported on the broad-spectrum antiviral function of heparin. Here we investigated the antiviral function of magnesium-modified heparin and found that modified heparin displayed a significantly enhanced antiviral function against human adenovirus (HAdV) in immortalized and primary cells. Nuclear magnetic resonance analyses revealed a conformational change of heparin when complexed with magnesium. To broadly explore this discovery, we tested the antiviral function of modified heparin against herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1) and found that the replication of HSV-1 was even further decreased compared to aciclovir. Moreover, we investigated the antiviral effect against the new severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus type 2 (SARS-CoV-2) and measured a 55-fold decreased viral load in the supernatant of infected cells associated with a 38-fold decrease in virus growth. The advantage of our modified heparin is an increased antiviral effect compared to regular heparin