808 research outputs found
Nonradiative Electronic Deexcitation Time Scales in Metal Clusters
The life-times due to Auger-electron emission for a hole on a deep electronic
shell of neutral and charged sodium clusters are studied for different sizes.
We consider spherical clusters and calculate the Auger-transition probabilities
using the energy levels and wave functions calculated in the
Local-Density-Approximation (LDA).
We obtain that Auger emission processes are energetically not allowed for
neutral and positively charged sodium clusters. In general, the Auger
probabilities in small Na clusters are remarkably different from the
atomic ones and exhibit a rich size dependence.
The Auger decay times of most of the cluster sizes studied are orders of
magnitude larger than in atoms and might be comparable with typical
fragmentation times.Comment: 11 pages, 4 figures. Accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.
Gauge Theories with Cayley-Klein and Gauge Groups
Gauge theories with the orthogonal Cayley-Klein gauge groups and
are regarded. For nilpotent values of the contraction
parameters these groups are isomorphic to the non-semisimple Euclid,
Newton, Galilei groups and corresponding matter spaces are fiber spaces with
degenerate metrics. It is shown that the contracted gauge field theories
describe the same set of fields and particle mass as gauge
theories, if Lagrangians in the base and in the fibers all are taken into
account. Such theories based on non-semisimple contracted group provide more
simple field interactions as compared with the initial ones.Comment: 14 pages, 5 figure
Competing Ultrafast Energy Relaxation Pathways in Photoexcited Graphene
For most optoelectronic applications of graphene a thorough understanding of
the processes that govern energy relaxation of photoexcited carriers is
essential. The ultrafast energy relaxation in graphene occurs through two
competing pathways: carrier-carrier scattering -- creating an elevated carrier
temperature -- and optical phonon emission. At present, it is not clear what
determines the dominating relaxation pathway. Here we reach a unifying picture
of the ultrafast energy relaxation by investigating the terahertz
photoconductivity, while varying the Fermi energy, photon energy, and fluence
over a wide range. We find that sufficiently low fluence ( 4
J/cm) in conjunction with sufficiently high Fermi energy (
0.1 eV) gives rise to energy relaxation that is dominated by carrier-carrier
scattering, which leads to efficient carrier heating. Upon increasing the
fluence or decreasing the Fermi energy, the carrier heating efficiency
decreases, presumably due to energy relaxation that becomes increasingly
dominated by phonon emission. Carrier heating through carrier-carrier
scattering accounts for the negative photoconductivity for doped graphene
observed at terahertz frequencies. We present a simple model that reproduces
the data for a wide range of Fermi levels and excitation energies, and allows
us to qualitatively assess how the branching ratio between the two distinct
relaxation pathways depends on excitation fluence and Fermi energy.Comment: Nano Letters 201
An infrared probe of the insulator-to-metal transition in GaMnAs and GaBeAs
We report infrared studies of the insulator-to-metal transition (IMT) in GaAs
doped with either magnetic (Mn) or non-magnetic acceptors (Be). We observe a
resonance with a natural assignment to impurity states in the insulating regime
of GaMnAs, which persists across the IMT to the highest doping
(16%). Beyond the IMT boundary, behavior combining insulating and metallic
trends also persists to the highest Mn doping. Be doped samples however,
display conventional metallicity just above the critical IMT concentration,
with features indicative of transport within the host valence band
Mechanisms for Stable Sonoluminescence
A gas bubble trapped in water by an oscillating acoustic field is expected to
either shrink or grow on a diffusive timescale, depending on the forcing
strength and the bubble size. At high ambient gas concentration this has long
been observed in experiments. However, recent sonoluminescence experiments show
that in certain circumstances when the ambient gas concentration is low the
bubble can be stable for days. This paper presents mechanisms leading to
stability which predict parameter dependences in agreement with the
sonoluminescence experiments.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures on request (2 as .ps files
Observability of the Bulk Casimir Effect: Can the Dynamical Casimir Effect be Relevant to Sonoluminescence?
The experimental observation of intense light emission by acoustically
driven, periodically collapsing bubbles of air in water (sonoluminescence) has
yet to receive an adequate explanation. One of the most intriguing ideas is
that the conversion of acoustic energy into photons occurs quantum
mechanically, through a dynamical version of the Casimir effect. We have argued
elsewhere that in the adiabatic approximation, which should be reliable here,
Casimir or zero-point energies cannot possibly be large enough to be relevant.
(About 10 MeV of energy is released per collapse.) However, there are
sufficient subtleties involved that others have come to opposite conclusions.
In particular, it has been suggested that bulk energy, that is, simply the
naive sum of , which is proportional to the volume, could
be relevant. We show that this cannot be the case, based on general principles
as well as specific calculations. In the process we further illuminate some of
the divergence difficulties that plague Casimir calculations, with an example
relevant to the bag model of hadrons.Comment: 13 pages, REVTe
miR-346 controls release of TNF-alpha protein and stability of its mRNA in rheumatoid arthritis via tristetraprolin stabilization
TNF-alpha is a major cytokine implicated in rheumatoid arthritis. Its expression is regulated both at the transcriptional and posttranscriptional levels and recent data demonstrated that miRNAs are implicated in TNF-alpha response in macrophages. LPS-activated FLS isolated from RA patients express TNF-alpha mRNA but not the mature protein. This prompted us to look for miRNAs which could be implicated in this anti-inflammatory effect. Using a microarray, we found two miRNAs, miR-125b and miR-939 predicted to target the 3'-UTR of TNF-alpha mRNA, to be up-regulated in RA FLS in response to LPS, but their repression did not restore mature TNF-alpha expression in FLS. We showed previously that miR-346, which is upregulated in LPS-activated FLS, inhibited Btk expression that stabilized TNF-alpha mRNA. Blocking miR-346 reestablished TNF-alpha expression in activated FLS. Interestingly, transfection of miR-346 in LPS-activated THP-1 cells inhibited TNF-alpha secretion. We also demonstrated that TTP, a RNA binding protein which inhibited TNF-alpha synthesis, is overexpressed in activated FLS and that inhibition of miR-346 decreases its expression. Conversely, transfection of miR-346 in LPS-activated THP-1 cells increased TTP mRNA expression and inhibited TNF-alpha release. These results indicate that miR-346 controls TNF-alpha synthesis by regulating TTP expression
Theory of quantum radiation observed as sonoluminescence
Sonoluminescence is explained in terms of quantum radiation by moving
interfaces between media of different polarizability. In a stationary
dielectric the zero-point fluctuations of the electromagnetic field excite
virtual two-photon states which become real under perturbation due to motion of
the dielectric. The sonoluminescent bubble is modelled as an optically empty
cavity in a homogeneous dielectric. The problem of the photon emission by a
cavity of time-dependent radius is handled in a Hamiltonian formalism which is
dealt with perturbatively up to first order in the velocity of the bubble
surface over the speed of light. A parameter-dependence of the zero-order
Hamiltonian in addition to the first-order perturbation calls for a new
perturbative method combining standard perturbation theory with an adiabatic
approximation. In this way the transition amplitude from the vacuum into a
two-photon state is obtained, and expressions for the single-photon spectrum
and the total energy radiated during one flash are given both in full and in
the short-wavelengths approximation when the bubble is larger than the
wavelengths of the emitted light. It is shown analytically that the spectral
density has the same frequency-dependence as black-body radiation; this is
purely an effect of correlated quantum fluctuations at zero temperature. The
present theory clarifies a number of hitherto unsolved problems and suggests
explanations for several more. Possible experiments that discriminate this from
other theories of sonoluminescence are proposed.Comment: Latex file, 28 pages, postscript file with 3 figs. attache
Casimir Energy for a Spherical Cavity in a Dielectric: Applications to Sonoluminescence
In the final few years of his life, Julian Schwinger proposed that the
``dynamical Casimir effect'' might provide the driving force behind the
puzzling phenomenon of sonoluminescence. Motivated by that exciting suggestion,
we have computed the static Casimir energy of a spherical cavity in an
otherwise uniform material. As expected the result is divergent; yet a
plausible finite answer is extracted, in the leading uniform asymptotic
approximation. This result agrees with that found using zeta-function
regularization. Numerically, we find far too small an energy to account for the
large burst of photons seen in sonoluminescence. If the divergent result is
retained, it is of the wrong sign to drive the effect. Dispersion does not
resolve this contradiction. In the static approximation, the Fresnel drag term
is zero; on the mother hand, electrostriction could be comparable to the
Casimir term. It is argued that this adiabatic approximation to the dynamical
Casimir effect should be quite accurate.Comment: 23 pages, no figures, REVTe
Perceptions of the targets and sources of COVID-19 threat are structured by group memberships and responses are influenced by identification with humankind
This research was supported by a grant from the German Research Foundation awarded to RvD, NMJ, and JAH (DI 848/15-1 and HA 6455/4-1). Data collection for this study was supported by a grant from the association of friends and supporters (Freunde & Förderer) at Goethe University.The purpose of this study was to investigate which social groups are perceived as a threat target and which are perceived as a threat source during the COVID-19 outbreak. In a German sample (N = 1454) we examined perceptions of social groups ranging from those that are psychologically close and smaller (family, friends, neighbors) to those that are more distal and larger (people living in Germany, humankind). We hypothesized that psychologically closer groups would be perceived as less affected by COVID-19 as well as less threatening than more psychologically distal groups. Based on social identity theorizing, we also hypothesized that stronger identification with humankind would change these patterns. Furthermore, we explored how these threat perceptions relate to adherence to COVID-19 health guidelines. In line with our hypotheses, latent random-slope modelling revealed that psychologically distal and larger groups were perceived as more affected by COVID-19 and as more threatening than psychologically closer and smaller groups. Including identification with humankind as a predictor into the threat target model resulted in a steeper increase in threat target perception patterns, whereas identification with humankind did not predict differences in threat source perceptions. Additionally, an increase in threat source perceptions across social groups was associated with more adherence to health guidelines, whereas an increase in threat target perceptions was not. We fully replicated these findings in a subgroup from the original sample (N = 989) four weeks later. We argue that societal recovery from this and other crises will be supported by an inclusive approach informed by a sense of our common identity as human beings.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe
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