2,044 research outputs found
Decoupling of silicon carbide optical sensor response for temperature and pressure measurements (Erratum)
Single crystal silicon carbide is a chemically inert transparent material with superior oxidation-resistant properties at elevated temperatures compared to black polycrystalline silicon carbide substrates. These improved properties make crystalline silicon carbide a good optical sensor material for harsh environments such as combustion chambers and turbine systems. Interferometric optical sensors are orders of magnitude more sensitive than electrical sensors and are proposed for these applications. Silicon carbide itself behaves as a Fabry-Perot etalon eliminating the need for an external interferometer for any measurement using this silicon carbide as a sensor. The principle of the optical sensor in this study is the temperature- and pressure-dependent refractive index of silicon carbide, which can be used to determine the temperatures and pressures of gases that are in contact with silicon carbide. Interference patterns produced by a silicon carbide (4H-SiC) wafer due to multiple reflections of a helium-neon laser beam of wavelength of 632.8 nm have been obtained at temperatures up to 500 degrees C and pressures up to 600 psi. The pattern changes for the same gas at different temperatures and pressures and for different gases at the same temperature and pressure. The refractive index at the wafer-gas interface is calculated from the interference pattern and the refractive index gradients with respect to temperature and pressure, respectively, are also determined. Decoupling temperature and pressure using these gradients and the measured reflectivity data are discussed in this paper
The Hyperfine Molecular Hubbard Hamiltonian
An ultracold gas of heteronuclear alkali dimer molecules with hyperfine
structure loaded into a one-dimensional optical lattice is investigated. The
\emph{Hyperfine Molecular Hubbard Hamiltonian} (HMHH), an effective low-energy
lattice Hamiltonian, is derived from first principles. The large permanent
electric dipole moment of these molecules gives rise to long range
dipole-dipole forces in a DC electric field and allows for transitions between
rotational states in an AC microwave field. Additionally, a strong magnetic
field can be used to control the hyperfine degrees of freedom independently of
the rotational degrees of freedom. By tuning the angle between the DC electric
and magnetic fields and the strength of the AC field it is possible to control
the number of internal states involved in the dynamics as well as the degree of
correlation between the spatial and internal degrees of freedom. The HMHH's
unique features have direct experimental consequences such as quantum
dephasing, tunable complexity, and the dependence of the phase diagram on the
molecular state
Analyses of microstructural variation in the human striatum using non-negative matrix factorization
The striatum is a major subcortical connection hub that has been heavily implicated in a wide array of motor and cognitive functions. Here, we developed a normative multimodal, data-driven microstructural parcellation of the striatum using non-negative matrix factorization (NMF) based on multiple magnetic resonance imaging-based metrics (mean diffusivity, fractional anisotropy, and the ratio between T1- and T2-weighted structural scans) from the Human Connectome Project Young Adult dataset (n = 329 unrelated participants, age range: 22–35, F/M: 185/144). We further explored the biological and functional relationships of this parcellation by relating our findings to motor and cognitive performance in tasks known to involve the striatum as well as demographics. We identified 5 spatially distinct striatal components for each hemisphere. We also show the gain in component stability when using multimodal versus unimodal metrics. Our findings suggest distinct microstructural patterns in the human striatum that are largely symmetric and that relate mostly to age and sex. Our work also highlights the putative functional relevance of these striatal components to different designations based on a Neurosynth meta-analysis
Extrapyramidal plasticity predicts recovery after spinal cord injury
Spinal cord injury (SCI) leads to wide-spread neurodegeneration across the neuroaxis. We explored trajectories of surface morphology, demyelination and iron concentration within the basal ganglia-thalamic circuit over 2 years post-SCI. This allowed us to explore the predictive value of neuroimaging biomarkers and determine their suitability as surrogate markers for interventional trials. Changes in markers of surface morphology, myelin and iron concentration of the basal ganglia and thalamus were estimated from 182 MRI datasets acquired in 17 SCI patients and 21 healthy controls at baseline (1-month post injury for patients), after 3, 6, 12, and 24 months. Using regression models, we investigated group difference in linear and non-linear trajectories of these markers. Baseline quantitative MRI parameters were used to predict 24-month clinical outcome. Surface area contracted in the motor (i.e. lower extremity) and pulvinar thalamus, and striatum; and expanded in the motor thalamus and striatum in patients compared to controls over 2-years. In parallel, myelin-sensitive markers decreased in the thalamus, striatum, and globus pallidus, while iron-sensitive markers decreased within the left caudate. Baseline surface area expansions within the striatum (i.e. motor caudate) predicted better lower extremity motor score at 2-years. Extensive extrapyramidal neurodegenerative and reorganizational changes across the basal ganglia-thalamic circuitry occur early after SCI and progress over time; their magnitude being predictive of functional recovery. These results demonstrate a potential role of extrapyramidal plasticity during functional recovery after SCI
Long-range order versus random-singlet phases in quantum antiferromagnetic systems with quenched disorder
The stability of antiferromagnetic long-range order against quenched disorder
is considered. A simple model of an antiferromagnet with a spatially varying
Neel temperature is shown to possess a nontrivial fixed point corresponding to
long-range order that is stable unless either the order parameter or the
spatial dimensionality exceeds a critical value. The instability of this fixed
point corresponds to the system entering a random-singlet phase. The
stabilization of long-range order is due to quantum fluctuations, whose role in
determining the phase diagram is discussed.Comment: 5 pp., REVTeX, epsf, 3 eps figs, final version as published,
including erratu
Theory of the c-Axis Penetration Depth in the Cuprates
Recent measurements of the London penetration depth tensor in the cuprates
find a weak temperature dependence along the c-direction which is seemingly
inconsistent with evidence for d-wave pairing deduced from in-plane
measurements. We demonstrate in this paper that these disparate results are not
in contradiction, but can be explained within a theory based on incoherent
quasiparticle hopping between the CuO2 layers. By relating the calculated
temperature dependence of the penetration depth \lambda_c(T) to the c-axis
resistivity, we show how the measured ratio \lambda_c^2(0) / \lambda_c^2(T) can
provide insight into the behavior of c-axis transport below Tc and the related
issue of ``confinement.''Comment: 4 pages, REVTEX with psfig, 3 PostScript figures included in
compressed for
On the nature of the transition from the spontaneously dimerized to the Neel phase in the two-dimensional J1-J2 model
We analyze the spectrum of the 2D S=1/2 frustrated Heisenberg model near the
transition from the spontaneously dimerized spin-liquid phase into the Neel
ordered phase. Two excitation branches: the triplet magnon, and the collective
singlet mode, both become gapless at the transition point. However we find that
the length scales associated with these modes are well separated at the quantum
transition. While in the quantum disordered phase the singlet excitation has
finite spectral weight and reflects the existence of spontaneous dimer order,
near the transition point the size of the singlet bound state grows
exponentially with the correlation length, and hence the quasiparticle residue
is exponentially small. Therefore the critical dynamics remains in the O(3)
universality class in spite of the four gapless modes.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figure
Copper complexes as chemical nucleases
Redox active mononuclear and binuclear copper(II) complexes have been prepared and structurally characterized. The complexes have planar N-donor heterocyclic bases like 1,10-phenanthroline (phen), dipyridoquinoxaline (dpq) and dipyridophenazine (dppz) ligands that are suitable for intercalation to B-DNA. Complexes studied for nuclease activity have the formulations [Cu(dpq)2(H2O)] (ClO4)2.H2O (1), [CuL(H2O)2(μ-ox)](ClO4)2 (L = bpy,2; phen,3; dpq,4; and dppz,5) and [Cu(L)(salgly)] (L = bpy,6; phen,7; dpq,8; and dppz,9), where salgly is a tridentate Schiff base obtained from the condensation of glycine and salicylaldehyde. The dpq complexes are efficient DNA binding and cleavage active species. The dppz complexes show good binding ability but poor nuclease activity. The cleavage activity of thebis-dpq complex is significantly higher than thebis-phen complex of copper(II). The nuclease activity is found to be dependent on the intercalating nature of the complex and on the redox potential of the copper(II)/copper(I) couple. The ancillary ligand plays a significant role in binding and cleavage activity
Theory of d-density wave viewed from a vertex model and its implications
The thermal disordering of the -density wave, proposed to be the origin of
the pseudogap state of high temperature superconductors, is suggested to be the
same as that of the statistical mechanical model known as the 6-vertex model.
The low temperature phase consists of a staggered order parameter of
circulating currents, while the disordered high temperature phase is a
power-law phase with no order. A special feature of this transition is the
complete lack of an observable specific heat anomaly at the transition. There
is also a transition at a even higher temperature at which the magnitude of the
order parameter collapses. These results are due to classical thermal
fluctuations and are entirely unrelated to a quantum critical point in the
ground state. The quantum mechanical ground state can be explored by
incorporating processes that causes transitions between the vertices, allowing
us to discuss quantum phase transition in the ground state as well as the
effect of quantum criticality at a finite temperature as distinct from the
power-law fluctuations in the classical regime. A generalization of the model
on a triangular lattice that leads to a 20-vertex model may shed light on the
Wigner glass picture of the metal-insulator transition in two-dimensional
electron gas. The power-law ordered high temperature phase may be generic to a
class of constrained systems and its relation to recent advances in the quantum
dimer models is noted.Comment: RevTex4, 10 pages, 11 figure
Off-diagonal Interactions, Hund's Rules and Pair-binding in Hubbard Molecules
We have studied the effect of including nearest-neighbor, electron-electron
interactions, in particular the off-diagonal (non density-density) terms, on
the spectra of truncated tetrahedral and icosahedral ``Hubbard molecules,''
focusing on the relevance of these systems to the physics of doped C.
Our perturbation theoretic and exact diagonalization results agree with
previous work in that the density-density term suppresses pair-binding.
However, we find that for the parameter values of interest for the
off-diagonal terms {\em enhance} pair-binding, though not enough to offset the
suppression due to the density-density term. We also find that the critical
interaction strengths for the Hund's rules violating level crossings in
C, C and C are quite insensitive to the
inclusion of these additional interactions.Comment: 20p + 5figs, Revtex 3.0, UIUC preprint P-94-10-08
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