QCD: Challenges for the Future

Despite many experimental verifications of the correctness of our basic understanding of QCD, there remain numerous open questions in strong interaction physics and we focus on the role of future colliders in addressing these questions. We discuss possible advances in the measurement of $\alpha_s$, in the study of parton distribution functions, and in the understanding of low $x$ physics at present colliders and potential new facilities. We also touch briefly on the role of spin physics in advancing our understanding of QCD.Comment: 12 pages, LATEX2e with snow2e, epsfig and 2 figures. Also available at http://penguin.phy.bnl.gov/~dawson/qcdsnow.ps . QCD working group summary at DPF/DPB Summer Study on New Directions for High Energy Physics, Snowmass, CO, June 25- July 12, 199

Vagus nerve stimulation paired with tactile training improved sensory function in a chronic stroke patient

Background: Recent studies indicate that vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) paired with rehabilitation can enhance neural plasticity in the primary sensory and motor cortices, improve forelimb function after stroke in animal models and improve motor function in patients with arm weakness after stroke. OBJECTIVE:To gain “first-in-man” experience of VNS paired with tactile training in a patient with severe sensory impairment after stroke. Methods: During the long-term follow-up phase of a clinical trial of VNS paired with motor rehabilitation, a 71-year-old man who had made good motor recovery had ongoing severe sensory loss in his left hand and arm. He received VNS paired with tactile therapy in an attempt to improve his sensory function. During twenty 2-hour sessions, each passive and active tactile event was paired with a 0.5 second burst of 0.8 mA VNS. Sensory function was measured before, halfway through, and after this therapy. Results: The patient did not report any side effects during or following VNS+Tactile therapy. Quantitative measures revealed lasting and clinically meaningful improvements in tactile threshold, proprioception, and stereognosis. After VNS+Tactile therapy, the patient was able to detect tactile stimulation to his affected hand that was eight times less intense, identify the joint position of his fingers in the affected hand three times more often, and identify everyday objects using his affected hand seven times more often, compared to baseline. Conclusions: Sensory function significantly improved in this man following VNS paired with tactile stimulation. This approach merits further study in controlled clinical trials

Investigation of phase-separated electronic states in 1.5µm GaInNAs/GaAs heterostructures by optical spectroscopy

We report on the comparative electronic state characteristics of particular GaInNAs/GaAs quantum well structures that emit near 1.3 and 1.5 µm wavelength at room temperature. While the electronic structure of the 1.3 µm sample is consistent with a standard quantum well, the 1.5 µm sample demonstrate quite different characteristics. By using photoluminescence sPLd excitation spectroscopy at various detection wavelengths, we demonstrate that the macroscopic electronic states in the 1.5 µm structures originate from phase-separated quantum dots instead of quantum wells. PL measurements with spectrally selective excitation provide further evidence for the existence of composition-separated phases. The evidence is consistent with phase segregation during the growth leading to two phases, one with high In and N content which accounts for the efficient low energy 1.5 µm emission, and the other one having lower In and N content which contributes metastable states and only emits under excitation in a particular wavelength range

A quantum mechanical model of the upper bounds of the cascading contribution to the second hyperpolarizability

Microscopic cascading of second-order nonlinearities between two molecules has been proposed to yield an enhanced third-order molecular nonlinear-optical response. In this contribution, we investigate the two-molecule cascaded second hyperpolarizability and show that it will never exceed the fundamental limit of a single molecule with the same number of electrons as the two-molecule system. We show the apparent divergence behavior of the cascading contribution to the second hyperpolarizability vanishes when properly taking into account the intermolecular interactions. Although cascading can never lead to a larger nonlinear-optical response than a single molecule, it provides alternative molecular design configurations for creating materials with large third-order susceptibilities that may be difficult to design into a single molecule.Comment: 13 pages, 9 figures, 1 tabl

Star polymers: A study of the structural arrest in presence of attractive interactions

Simulations and Mode-Coupling Theory calculations, for a large range of the arm number $f$ and packing fraction $\eta$ have shown that the structural arrest and the dynamics of star polymers in a good solvent are extremely rich: the systems show a reentrant melting of the disordered glass nested between two stable fluid phases that strongly resemble the equilibrium phase diagram. Starting from a simple model potential we investigate the effect of the interplay between attractive interactions of different range and ultrasoft core repulsion, on the dynamics and on the occurrence of the ideal glass transition line. In the two cases considered so far, we observed some significant differences with respect to the purely repulsive pair interaction. We also discuss the interplay between equilibrium and non equilibrium phase behavior. The accuracy of the theoretical tools we utilized in our investigation has been checked by comparing the results with molecular dynamics simulations.Comment: 24 pages, 14 figures, accepted for publication in Physical Review

Entanglement Sharing and Decoherence in the Spin-Bath

The monogamous nature of entanglement has been illustrated by the derivation of entanglement sharing inequalities - bounds on the amount of entanglement that can be shared amongst the various parts of a multipartite system. Motivated by recent studies of decoherence, we demonstrate an interesting manifestation of this phenomena that arises in system-environment models where there exists interactions between the modes or subsystems of the environment. We investigate this phenomena in the spin-bath environment, constructing an entanglement sharing inequality bounding the entanglement between a central spin and the environment in terms of the pairwise entanglement between individual bath spins. The relation of this result to decoherence will be illustrated using simplified system-bath models of decoherence.Comment: 5 pages, 1 figure v2: 6 pages 2 figures, additional example and reference