Magnetic structure of EuFe2As2 determined by single crystal neutron diffraction

Among various parent compounds of iron pnictide superconductors, EuFe2As2 stands out due to the presence of both spin density wave of Fe and antiferromagnetic ordering (AFM) of the localized Eu2+ moment. Single crystal neutron diffraction studies have been carried out to determine the magnetic structure of this compound and to investigate the coupling of two magnetic sublattices. Long range AFM ordering of Fe and Eu spins was observed below 190 K and 19 K, respectively. The ordering of Fe2+ moments is associated with the wave vector k = (1,0,1) and it takes place at the same temperature as the tetragonal to orthorhombic structural phase transition, which indicates the strong coupling between structural and magnetic components. The ordering of Eu moment is associated with the wave vector k = (0,0,1). While both Fe and Eu spins are aligned along the long a axis as experimentally determined, our studies suggest a weak coupling between the Fe and Eu magnetism.Comment: 7 pages, 7 figure

Field induced spin reorientation and giant spin-lattice coupling in EuFe2As2

We have studied a EuFe2As2 single crystal by neutron diffraction under magnetic fields up to 3.5 T and temperatures down to 2 K. A field induced spin reorientation is observed in the presence of a magnetic field along both the a and c axes, respectively. Above critical field, the ground state antiferromagnetic configuration of Eu$^{2+}$ moments transforms into a ferromagnetic structure with moments along the applied field direction. The magnetic phase diagram for Eu magnetic sublattice in EuFe2As2 is presented. A considerable strain ($\sim$0.9%) is induced by the magnetic field, caused by the realignment of the twinning structure. Furthermore, the realignment of the twinning structure is found to be reversible with the rebound of magnetic field, which suggested the existence of magnetic shape-memory effect. The Eu moment ordering exhibits close relationship with the twinning structure. We argue that the Zeeman energy in combined with magnetic anisotropy energy is responsible for the observed spin-lattice coupling.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure

Helicity skewed quark distributions of the nucleon and chiral symmetry

We compute the helicity skewed quark distributions $\widetilde{H}$ and $\widetilde{E}$ in the chiral quark-soliton model of the nucleon. This model emphasizes correctly the role of spontaneously broken chiral symmetry in structure of nucleon. It is based on the large-N_c picture of the nucleon as a soliton of the effective chiral lagrangian and allows to calculate the leading twist quark- and antiquark distributions at a low normalization point. We discuss the role of chiral symmetry in the helicity skewed quark distributions $\widetilde{H}$ and $\widetilde{E}$. We show that generalization of soft pion theorems, based on chiral Ward identities, leads in the region of -\xi < x < \xi to the pion pole contribution to $\widetilde{E}$ which dominates at small momentum transfer.Comment: 22 pages, 5 figure

Pressure dependence of phonon modes across the tetragonal to collapsed tetragonal phase transition in CaFe2As2

The pressure dependence of a large number of phonon modes in CaFe2As2 with energies covering the full range of the phonon spectrum has been studied using inelastic x-ray and neutron scattering. The observed phonon frequency changes are in general rather small despite the sizable changes of the lattice parameters at the phase transition. This indicates that the bonding properties are not profoundly altered by the phase transition. The transverse acoustic phonons propagating along the c-direction are an exception because they stiffen very significantly in response to the large contraction of the c-axis. The lattice parameters are found to change significantly as a function of pressure before, during and after the first-order phase transition. However, the frequencies change nearly uniformly with the change in the lattice parameters due to pressure, with no regard specifically to the first-order phase transition. Density functional theory describes the frequencies in both the zero pressure and in the collapsed phase in a satisfactory way if based on the respective crystal structures

Stimulus-preceding negativity in ADHD

Children with ADHD often show disrupted response preparation as indicated by attenuated stimulus-preceding negativity (SPN). This study examined response preparation in a relatively short cue-stimulus interval. No differences in SPN occurred between children with ADHD and their normal peers. A strong positive relationship was found between SPN and mean reaction time in both groups. Children with ADHD are able to mentally prepare themselves for upcoming events in short cue-stimulus intervals. © 2013 Springer-Verlag Wien

Baryons as non-topological chiral solitons

The present review gives a survey of recent developments and applications of the Nambu--Jona-Lasinio model with $N_f=2$ and $N_f=3$ quark flavors for the structure of baryons. The model is an effective chiral quark theory which incorporates the SU(N$_f$)$_L\otimes$SU(N$_f$)$_R\otimes$U(1)$_V$ approximate symmetry of Quantum chromodynamics. The approach describes the spontaneous chiral symmetry breaking and dynamical quark mass generation. Mesons appear as quark-antiquark excitations and baryons arise as non-topological solitons with three valence quarks and a polarized Dirac sea. For the evaluation of the baryon properties the present review concentrates on the non-linear Nambu--Jona-Lasinio model with quark and Goldstone degrees of freedom which is identical to the Chiral quark soliton model obtained from the instanton liquid model of the QCD vacuum. In this non-linear model, a wide variety of observables of baryons of the octet and decuplet is considered. These include, in particular, electromagnetic, axial, pseudoscalar and pion nucleon form factors and the related static properties like magnetic moments, radii and coupling constants of the nucleon as well as the mass splittings and electromagnetic form factors of hyperons. Predictions are given for the strange form factors, the scalar form factor and the tensor charge of the nucleon.Comment: 104 pages, 27 figures as uuencoded and compressed postscript files , hardcopy available upon request; Prog.Part.Nucl.Phys. 37 (1996) (in print

Scheme dependence of NLO corrections to exclusive processes

We apply the so-called conformal subtraction scheme to predict perturbatively exclusive processes beyond leading order. Taking into account evolution effects, we study the scheme dependence for the photon-to-pion transition form factor and the electromagnetic pion form factor at next-to-leading order for different pion distribution amplitudes. Relying on the conformally covariant operator product expansion and using the known higher order results for polarized deep inelastic scattering, we are able to predict perturbative corrections to the hard-scattering amplitude of the photon-to-pion transition form factor beyond next-to-leading order in the conformal scheme restricted to the conformal limit of the theory.Comment: RevTeX, 25 pages, 2 figures, 5 tables, minor changes, to be published in Phys. Rev.

A 3′ UTR SNP in COL18A1 Is Associated with Susceptibility to HBV Related Hepatocellular Carcinoma in Chinese: Three Independent Case-Control Studies

BACKGROUND: Accumulated evidences indicate that single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) in angiogenesis and tumorigenesis related genes are associated with risk of Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). COL18A1 encodes the precursor of endostatin, which is a broad-spectrum angiogenesis inhibitor, and we speculate that SNPs in COL18A1 may be associated with susceptibility to HCC. METHODS AND FINDINGS: We carried out a 2-stage association study in 3 independent case-control groups in a total of 1067 chronic hepatitis B (CHB) patients and 808 hepatitis B virus (HBV) related HCC patients in Han Chinese. Four SNPs which can represent all potential functional SNPs with MAF>0.1 recorded in HapMap database were genotyped using TaqMan methods. Levels of total COL18A1 mRNA were also examined using quantitative real-time RT-PCR. We found that rs7499 located in 3'-UTR to be strongly associated with HBV related HCC (P(combined) = 0.0000005, OR = 0.72, 95%CI = 0.63-0.82). COL18A1 mRNA expression was significantly decreased as the disease progressed (P = 0.000026). CONCLUSION: These findings indicate that COL18A1 rs7499 may contribute to the risk of HCC in Han Chinese