1,766 research outputs found
The Significance of Multiple Saturation Points in the Context of Polybaric Near-fractional Melting
Experimental petrologists have successfully located basaltic liquid compositions parental to mid-ocean ridge basalt that are, within experimental resolution, multiply saturated with three-phase harzburgite or four-phase lherzolite assemblages on their liquidus at some elevated pressure. Such an experimental result is a necessary consequence of any paradigm in which erupted basalts derive from single-batch primary liquids that equilibrate with a mantle residue and undergo no subsequent magma mixing before differentiation and eruption. Here we investigate whether, conversely, such evidence of multiple saturation is sufficient to exclude dynamic melting models wherein increments of melt are mixed after segregation from residues, during melt transport or in magma chambers. Using two independent models of crystal–liquid equilibria to simulate polybaric near-fractional peridotite melting, we find that aggregate liquids from such melting processes can display near-intersections of liquidus surfaces too close to distinguish experimentally from exact multiple saturation points. Given uncertainties in glass compositions, fractionation corrections, experimental temperature and pressure conditions, and achievement of equilibrium, these results suggest that polybaric mixtures can in fact masquerade as mantle-equilibrated single-batch primary liquids. Multiple saturation points on the liquidus surfaces of primitive basalts do, however, preserve information about the average pressure of extraction of their constituent increments of liquid
Optical analogue of population trapping in the continuum: classical and quantum interference effects
A quantum theory of light propagation in two optical channel waveguides
tunnelling-coupled to a common continuum of modes (such as those of a slab
waveguide) is presented, and classical and quantum interference effects are
investigated. For classical light, the photonic system realizes an optical
analogue of coherent population trapping in the continuum encountered in atomic
physics, where destructive interference between different light leakage
channels leads to the appearance of a trapped state embedded in the continuum.
For nonclassical light, two-photon interference effects are predicted, such as
the tendency of photon pairs to bunch when decaying into the continuum.Comment: 12 pages, 2 figure
Experimental petrology and origin of Fra Mauro rocks and soil
Melting experiments over the pressure range 0 to 20 kilobars were conducted on Apollo 14 igneous rocks 14310 and 14072 and on comprehensive fines 14259. The mineralogy and textures of rocks 14310 and 14072 are presumed to be the result of near-surface crystallization. The chemical compositions of the samples show special relationships to multiply-saturated liquids in the system: anorthite-forsterite-fayalite-silica at low pressure. Partial melting of a lunar crust consisting largely of plagioclase, low calcium pyroxene, and olivine, followed by crystal fractionation at the lunar surface is proposed as a mechanism for the production of the igneous rocks and soil glasses sampled by Apollo 14
Spectral-discrete solitons and localization in frequency space
We report families of discrete optical solitons in frequency space, or
spectral-discrete solitons existing in a dispersive Raman medium, where
individual side-bands are coupled by coherence. The associated time-domain
patterns correspond to either trains of ultrashort pulses, or weakly modulated
waves. We describe the physics behind the spectral localization and study
soliton bifurcations, stability and dynamics.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, submitted to Opt. Let
A folding inhibitor of the HIV-1 Protease
Being the HIV-1 Protease (HIV-1-PR) an essential enzyme in the viral life
cycle, its inhibition can control AIDS. The folding of single domain proteins,
like each of the monomers forming the HIV-1-PR homodimer, is controlled by
local elementary structures (LES, folding units stabilized by strongly
interacting, highly conserved, as a rule hydrophobic, amino acids). These LES
have evolved over myriad of generations to recognize and strongly attract each
other, so as to make the protein fold fast and be stable in its native
conformation. Consequently, peptides displaying a sequence identical to those
segments of the monomers associated with LES are expected to act as competitive
inhibitors and thus destabilize the native structure of the enzyme. These
inhibitors are unlikely to lead to escape mutants as they bind to the protease
monomers through highly conserved amino acids which play an essential role in
the folding process. The properties of one of the most promising inhibitors of
the folding of the HIV-1-PR monomers found among these peptides is demonstrated
with the help of spectrophotometric assays and CD spectroscopy
Classical realization of two-site Fermi-Hubbard systems
A classical wave optics realization of the two-site Hubbard model, describing
the dynamics of interacting fermions in a double-well potential, is proposed
based on light transport in evanescently-coupled optical waveguides.Comment: 4 page
Field-induced decay of quantum vacuum: visualizing pair production in a classical photonic system
The phenomenon of vacuum decay, i.e. electron-positron pair production due to
the instability of the quantum electrodynamics vacuum in an external field, is
a remarkable prediction of Dirac theory whose experimental observation is still
lacking. Here a classic wave optics analogue of vacuum decay, based on light
propagation in curved waveguide superlattices, is proposed. Our photonic
analogue enables a simple and experimentally-accessible visualization in space
of the process of pair production as break up of an initially negative-energy
Gaussian wave packet, representing an electron in the Dirac sea, under the
influence of an oscillating electric field
Multistable Pulse-like Solutions in a Parametrically Driven Ginzburg-Landau Equation
It is well known that pulse-like solutions of the cubic complex
Ginzburg-Landau equation are unstable but can be stabilised by the addition of
quintic terms. In this paper we explore an alternative mechanism where the role
of the stabilising agent is played by the parametric driver. Our analysis is
based on the numerical continuation of solutions in one of the parameters of
the Ginzburg-Landau equation (the diffusion coefficient ), starting from the
nonlinear Schr\"odinger limit (for which ). The continuation generates,
recursively, a sequence of coexisting stable solutions with increasing number
of humps. The sequence "converges" to a long pulse which can be interpreted as
a bound state of two fronts with opposite polarities.Comment: 13 pages, 6 figures; to appear in PR
Coupled-mode theory for photonic band-gap inhibition of spatial instabilities
We study the inhibition of pattern formation in nonlinear optical systems using intracavity photonic crystals. We consider mean-field models for singly and doubly degenerate optical parametric oscillators. Analytical expressions for the new (higher) modulational thresholds and the size of the "band gap" as a function of the system and photonic crystal parameters are obtained via a coupled-mode theory. Then, by means of a nonlinear analysis, we derive amplitude equations for the unstable modes and find the stationary solutions above threshold. The form of the unstable mode is different in the lower and upper parts of the band gap. In each part there is bistability between two spatially shifted patterns. In large systems stable wall defects between the two solutions are formed and we provide analytical expressions for their shape. The analytical results are favorably compared with results obtained from the full system equations. Inhibition of pattern formation can be used to spatially control signal generation in the transverse plane
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