509 research outputs found
Lattice effects on the current-voltage characteristics of superconducting arrays
The lattice effects on the current-voltage characteristics of two-dimensional
arrays of resistively shunted Josephson junctions are investigated. The lattice
potential energies due to the discrete lattice structure are calculated for
several geometries and directions of current injection. We compare the energy
barrier for vortex-pair unbinding with the lattice pinning potential, which
shows that lattice effects are negligible in the low-current limit as well as
in the high-current limit. At intermediate currents, on the other hand, the
lattice potential becomes comparable to the barrier height and the lattice
effects may be observed in the current-voltage characteristics.Comment: 5 pages including 5 figures in two columns, to appear in Phys. Rev.
Strange quarks and lattice QCD
The last few years have seen a dramatic improvement in our knowledge of the
strange form factors of the nucleon. With regard to the vector from factors the
level of agreement between theory and experiment gives us considerable
confidence in our ability to calculate with non-perturbative QCD. The
calculation of the strange scalar form factor has moved significantly in the
last two years, with the application of new techniques which yield values
considerably smaller than believed for the past 20 years. These new values turn
out to have important consequences for the detection of neutralinos, a
favourite dark matter candidate. Finally, very recent lattice studies have
resurrected interest in the famed H-dibaryon, with modern chiral extrapolation
of lattice data suggesting that it may be only slightly unbound. We review some
of the major sources of uncertainty in that chiral extrapolation.Comment: Invited talk at the Asia-Pacific few Body Conference, Seoul Kore
All-electron magnetic response with pseudopotentials: NMR chemical shifts
A theory for the ab initio calculation of all-electron NMR chemical shifts in
insulators using pseudopotentials is presented. It is formulated for both
finite and infinitely periodic systems and is based on an extension to the
Projector Augmented Wave approach of Bloechl [P. E. Bloechl, Phys. Rev. B 50,
17953 (1994)] and the method of Mauri et al [F. Mauri, B.G. Pfrommer, and S.G.
Louie, Phys. Rev. Lett. 77, 5300 (1996)]. The theory is successfully validated
for molecules by comparison with a selection of quantum chemical results, and
in periodic systems by comparison with plane-wave all-electron results for
diamond.Comment: 25 pages, 4 tables, submitted to Physical Review
Topological quantization and degeneracy in Josephson-junction arrays
We consider the conductivity quantization in two-dimensional arrays of
mesoscopic Josephson junctions, and examine the associated degeneracy in
various regimes of the system. The filling factor of the system may be
controlled by the gate voltage as well as the magnetic field, and its
appropriate values for quantization is obtained by employing the Jain hierarchy
scheme both in the charge description and in the vortex description. The
duality between the two descriptions then suggests the possibility that the
system undergoes a change in degeneracy while the quantized conductivity
remains fixed.Comment: To appear in Phys. Rev.
Orientational pinning and transverse voltage: Simulations and experiments in square Josephson junction arrays
We study the dependence of the transport properties of square Josephson
Junctions arrays with the direction of the applied dc current, both
experimentally and numerically. We present computational simulations of
current-voltage curves at finite temperatures for a single vortex in the array
(), and experimental measurements in
arrays under a low magnetic field corresponding to . We find that
the transverse voltage vanishes only in the directions of maximum symmetry of
the square lattice: the [10] and [01] direction (parallel bias) and the [11]
direction (diagonal bias). For orientations different than the symmetry
directions, we find a finite transverse voltage which depends strongly on the
angle of the current. We find that vortex motion is pinned in the [10]
direction (), meaning that the voltage response is insensitive to small
changes in the orientation of the current near . We call this
phenomenon orientational pinning. This leads to a finite transverse critical
current for a bias at and to a transverse voltage for a bias at
. On the other hand, for diagonal bias in the [11] direction the
behavior is highly unstable against small variations of , leading to a
rapid change from zero transverse voltage to a large transverse voltage within
a few degrees. This last behavior is in good agreement with our measurements in
arrays with a quasi-diagonal current drive.Comment: 9 pages, 9 figure
Non-Abelian dynamics and heavy multiquarks, Steiner-tree confinement in hadron spectroscopy
A brief review is first presented of attempts to predict stable multiquark
states within current models of hadron spectroscopy. Then a model combining
flip-flop and connected Steiner trees is introduced and shown to lead to stable
multiquarks, in particular for some configurations involving several heavy
quarks and bearing exotic quantum numbers.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figures, Invited talk at the 21st European Conference on
Few-Body Problems in Physics, Salamanca, Spain, August 29th--September 3rd,
2010, to appear in the Proceedings, ed.~A.~Valcarce et al., to appear in
Few-Body Syste
Comprehensive molecular characterization of mitochondrial genomes in human cancers.
Mitochondria are essential cellular organelles that play critical roles in cancer. Here, as part of the International Cancer Genome Consortium/The Cancer Genome Atlas Pan-Cancer Analysis of Whole Genomes Consortium, which aggregated whole-genome sequencing data from 2,658 cancers across 38 tumor types, we performed a multidimensional, integrated characterization of mitochondrial genomes and related RNA sequencing data. Our analysis presents the most definitive mutational landscape of mitochondrial genomes and identifies several hypermutated cases. Truncating mutations are markedly enriched in kidney, colorectal and thyroid cancers, suggesting oncogenic effects with the activation of signaling pathways. We find frequent somatic nuclear transfers of mitochondrial DNA, some of which disrupt therapeutic target genes. Mitochondrial copy number varies greatly within and across cancers and correlates with clinical variables. Co-expression analysis highlights the function of mitochondrial genes in oxidative phosphorylation, DNA repair and the cell cycle, and shows their connections with clinically actionable genes. Our study lays a foundation for translating mitochondrial biology into clinical applications
Horizontal Branch Stars: The Interplay between Observations and Theory, and Insights into the Formation of the Galaxy
We review HB stars in a broad astrophysical context, including both variable
and non-variable stars. A reassessment of the Oosterhoff dichotomy is
presented, which provides unprecedented detail regarding its origin and
systematics. We show that the Oosterhoff dichotomy and the distribution of
globular clusters (GCs) in the HB morphology-metallicity plane both exclude,
with high statistical significance, the possibility that the Galactic halo may
have formed from the accretion of dwarf galaxies resembling present-day Milky
Way satellites such as Fornax, Sagittarius, and the LMC. A rediscussion of the
second-parameter problem is presented. A technique is proposed to estimate the
HB types of extragalactic GCs on the basis of integrated far-UV photometry. The
relationship between the absolute V magnitude of the HB at the RR Lyrae level
and metallicity, as obtained on the basis of trigonometric parallax
measurements for the star RR Lyrae, is also revisited, giving a distance
modulus to the LMC of (m-M)_0 = 18.44+/-0.11. RR Lyrae period change rates are
studied. Finally, the conductive opacities used in evolutionary calculations of
low-mass stars are investigated. [ABRIDGED]Comment: 56 pages, 22 figures. Invited review, to appear in Astrophysics and
Space Scienc
- …