11,006 research outputs found
Immersion microscopy based on photonic crystal materials
Theoretical model of the enhanced optical resolution of the surface plasmon
immersion microscope is developed, which is based on the optics of surface
plasmon Bloch waves in the tightly bound approximation. It is shown that a
similar resolution enhancement may occur in a more general case of an immersion
microscope based on photonic crystal materials with either positive or negative
effective refractive index. Both signs of the effective refractive index have
been observed in our experiments with surface plasmon immersion microscope,
which is also shown to be capable of individual virus imaging.Comment: 23 pages, 10 figure
Bubbles and Filaments: Stirring a Cahn-Hilliard Fluid
The advective Cahn-Hilliard equation describes the competing processes of
stirring and separation in a two-phase fluid. Intuition suggests that bubbles
will form on a certain scale, and previous studies of Cahn-Hilliard dynamics
seem to suggest the presence of one dominant length scale. However, the
Cahn-Hilliard phase-separation mechanism contains a hyperdiffusion term and we
show that, by stirring the mixture at a sufficiently large amplitude, we excite
the diffusion and overwhelm the segregation to create a homogeneous liquid. At
intermediate amplitudes we see regions of bubbles coexisting with regions of
hyperdiffusive filaments. Thus, the problem possesses two dominant length
scales, associated with the bubbles and filaments. For simplicity, we use use a
chaotic flow that mimics turbulent stirring at large Prandtl number. We compare
our results with the case of variable mobility, in which growth of bubble size
is dominated by interfacial rather than bulk effects, and find qualitatively
similar results.Comment: 20 pages, 27 figures. RevTeX
A new type of charged defect in amorphous chalcogenides
We report on density-functional-based tight-binding (DFTB) simulations of a
series of amorphous arsenic sulfide models. In addition to the charged
coordination defects previously proposed to exist in chalcogenide glasses, a
novel defect pair, [As4]--[S3]+, consisting of a four-fold coordinated arsenic
site in a seesaw configuration and a three-fold coordinated sulfur site in a
planar trigonal configuration, was found in several models. The
valence-alternation pairs S3+-S1- are converted into [As4]--[S3]+ pairs under
HOMO-to-LUMO electronic excitation. This structural transformation is
accompanied by a decrease in the size of the HOMO-LUMO band gap, which suggests
that such transformations could contribute to photo-darkening in these
materials.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figure
Influence of copper on the electronic properties of amorphous chalcogenides
We have studied the influence of alloying copper with amorphous arsenic
sulfide on the electronic properties of this material. In our
computer-generated models, copper is found in two-fold near-linear and
four-fold square-planar configurations, which apparently correspond to Cu(I)
and Cu(II) oxidation states. The number of overcoordinated atoms, both arsenic
and sulfur, grows with increasing concentration of copper. Overcoordinated
sulfur is found in trigonal planar configuration, and overcoordinated
(four-fold) arsenic is in tetrahedral configuration. Addition of copper
suppresses the localization of lone-pair electrons on chalcogen atoms, and
localized states at the top of the valence band are due to Cu 3d orbitals.
Evidently, these additional Cu states, which are positioned at the same
energies as the states due to ([As4]-)-([S_3]+) pairs, are responsible for
masking photodarkening in Cu chalcogenides
Linking routinely collected social work, education and health data to enable monitoring of the health and health care of school-aged children in state care (âlooked after childrenâ) in Scotland: a national demonstration project
Background and objectives: Children in state care (âlooked after childrenâ) have poorer health than children who are not looked after. Recent developments in Scotland and elsewhere have aimed to improve services and outcomes for looked after children. Routine monitoring of the health outcomes of looked after children compared to those of their non-looked after peers is currently lacking. Developing capacity for comparative monitoring of population based outcomes based on linkage of routinely collected administrative data has been identified as a priority. To our knowledge there are no existing population based data linkage studies providing data on the health of looked after and non-looked after children at national level. Smaller scale studies that are available generally provide very limited information on linkage methods and hence do not allow scrutiny of bias that may be introduced through the linkage process. Study design and methods: National demonstration project testing the feasibility of linking routinely collected looked after children, education, and health data. Participants: All children in publicly funded school in Scotland in 2011/12. Results: Linkage between looked after children data and the national pupil census classified 10,009 (1.5%) and 1,757 (0.3%) of 670,952 children as, respectively, currently and previously looked after. Recording of the unique pupil identifier (Scottish Candidate Number, SCN) on looked after children returns is incomplete, with 66% of looked after records for 2011/12 for children of possible school age containing a valid SCN. This will have resulted in some under-ascertainment of currently and, particularly, previously looked after children within the general pupil population. Further linkage of the pupil census to the NHS Scotland master patient index demonstrated that a safe link to the childâs unique health service (Community Health Index, CHI) number could be obtained for a very high proportion of children in each group (94%, 95%, and 95% of children classified as currently, previously, and non-looked after respectively). In general linkage rates were higher for older children and those living in more affluent areas. Within the looked after group, linkage rates were highest for children with the fewest placements and for those in permanent fostering. Conclusions: This novel data linkage demonstrates the feasibility of monitoring population based health outcomes of school aged looked after and non-looked after children using linked routine administrative data. Improved recording of the unique pupil identifier number on looked after data returns would be beneficial. Extending the range of personal identifiers on looked after children returns would enable linkage to health data for looked after children who are not in publicly funded schooling (i.e. those who are pre- or post-school, home schooled, or in independent schooling)
Bi-Polaron and N-Polaron Binding Energies
The binding of polarons, or its absence, is an old and subtle topic. Here we
prove two things rigorously. First, the transition from many-body collapse to
the existence of a thermodynamic limit for N polarons occurs precisely at
U=2\alpha, where U is the electronic Coulomb repulsion and \alpha is the
polaron coupling constant. Second, if U is large enough, there is no
multi-polaron binding of any kind. Considering the known fact that there is
binding for some U>2\alpha, these conclusions are not obvious and their proof
has been an open problem for some time.Comment: 4 page
Electrowetting of liquid marbles
Electrowetting of water drops on structured superhydrophobic surfaces are known to cause an irreversible change from a slippy (Cassie-Baxter) to a sticky (Wenzel) regime. An alternative approach to using a water drop on a superhydrophobic surface to obtain a non-wetting system is to use a liquid marble on a smooth solid substrate. A liquid marble is a droplet coated in hydrophobic grains, which therefore carries its own solid surface structure as a conformal coating. Such droplets can be considered as perfect non-wetting systems having contact angles to smooth solid substrates of close to 180 degrees. In this work we report the electrowetting of liquid marbles made of water coated with hydrophobic lycopodium grains and show that the electrowetting is completely reversible. Marbles are shown to return to their initial contact angle for both ac and dc electrowetting and without requiring a threshold voltage to be exceeded. Furthermore, we provide a proof-of-principle demonstration that controlled motion of marbles on a finger electrode structure is possible
Black Holes in Einstein-Aether Theory
We study black hole solutions in general relativity coupled to a unit
timelike vector field dubbed the "aether". To be causally isolated a black hole
interior must trap matter fields as well as all aether and metric modes. The
theory possesses spin-0, spin-1, and spin-2 modes whose speeds depend on four
coupling coefficients. We find that the full three-parameter family of local
spherically symmetric static solutions is always regular at a metric horizon,
but only a two-parameter subset is regular at a spin-0 horizon. Asymptotic
flatness imposes another condition, leaving a one-parameter family of regular
black holes. These solutions are compared to the Schwarzschild solution using
numerical integration for a special class of coupling coefficients. They are
very close to Schwarzschild outside the horizon for a wide range of couplings,
and have a spacelike singularity inside, but differ inside quantitatively. Some
quantities constructed from the metric and aether oscillate in the interior as
the singularity is approached. The aether is at rest at spatial infinity and
flows into the black hole, but differs significantly from the the 4-velocity of
freely-falling geodesics.Comment: 22 pages, 6 figures; v2: minor editing; v3: corrected overall sign in
twist formula and an error in the equation for the aether stress tensor.
Results unchanged since correct form was used in calculations; v4: corrected
minor typ
Correlation equalities and upper bounds for the transverse Ising model
Starting from an exact formal identity for the two-state transverse Ising
model and using correlation inequalities rigorous upper bounds for the critical
temperature and the critical transverse field are obtained which improve
effective results.Comment: 8 pages, 1 figur
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