4,560 research outputs found
Kinetic Energy Density Study of Some Representative Semilocal Kinetic Energy Functionals
There is a number of explicit kinetic energy density functionals for
non-interacting electron systems that are obtained in terms of the electron
density and its derivatives. These semilocal functionals have been widely used
in the literature. In this work we present a comparative study of the kinetic
energy density of these semilocal functionals, stressing the importance of the
local behavior to assess the quality of the functionals. We propose a quality
factor that measures the local differences between the usual orbital-based
kinetic energy density distributions and the approximated ones, allowing to
ensure if the good results obtained for the total kinetic energies with these
semilocal functionals are due to their correct local performance or to error
cancellations. We have also included contributions coming from the laplacian of
the electron density to work with an infinite set of kinetic energy densities.
For all the functionals but one we have found that their success in the
evaluation of the total kinetic energy are due to global error cancellations,
whereas the local behavior of their kinetic energy density becomes worse than
that corresponding to the Thomas-Fermi functional.Comment: 12 pages, 3 figure
Serotonin is required for exercise-induced adult hippocampal neurogenesis
Voluntary wheel running has long been known to induce precursor cell proliferation in adult hippocampal neurogenesis in rodents. However, mechanisms that couple activity with the promitotic effect are not yet fully understood. Using tryptophan hydroxylase (TPH) 2 deficient (Tph2-deficient) mice that lack brain serotonin, we explored the relationship between serotonin signaling and exercise-induced neurogenesis. Surprisingly, Tph2-deficient mice exhibit normal baseline hippocampal neurogenesis but impaired activity-induced proliferation. Our data demonstrate that the proproliferative effect of running requires the release of central serotonin in young-adult and aged mice. Lack of brain serotonin further results in alterations at the stage of Sox2-positive precursor cells, suggesting physiological adaptations to changes in serotonin supply to maintain homeostasis in the neurogenic niche. We conclude that serotonin plays a direct and acute regulatory role in activity-dependent hippocampal neurogenesis. The understanding of exercise-induced neurogenesis might offer preventive but also therapeutic opportunities in depression and age-related cognitive decline
The absence of serotonin in the brain alters acute stress responsiveness by interfering with the genomic function of the glucocorticoid receptors
Alterations in serotonergic transmission have been related to a major predisposition to develop psychiatric pathologies, such as depression. We took advantage of tryptophan hydroxylase (TPH) 2 deficient rats, characterized by a complete absence of serotonin in the brain, to evaluate whether a vulnerable genotype may influence the reaction to an acute stressor. In this context, we investigated if the glucocorticoid receptor (GR) genomic pathway activation was altered by the lack of serotonin in the central nervous system. Moreover, we analyzed the transcription pattern of the clock genes that can be affected by acute stressors. Adult wild type (TPH2(+/+)) and TPH2-deficient (TPH2(-/-)) male rats were sacrificed after exposure to one single session of acute restraint stress. Protein and gene expression analyses were conducted in the prefrontal cortex (PFC). The acute stress enhanced the translocation of GRs in the nucleus of TPH2(+/+) animals. This effect was blunted in TPH2(-/-) rats, suggesting an impairment of the GR genomic mechanism. This alteration was mirrored in the expression of GR-responsive genes: acute stress led to the up-regulation of GR-target gene expression in TPH2(+/+), but not in TPH2(-/-) animals. Finally, clock genes were differently modulated in the two genotypes after the acute restraint stress. Overall our findings suggest that the absence of serotonin within the brain interferes with the ability of the HPA axis to correctly modulate the response to acute stress, by altering the nuclear mechanisms of the GR and modulation of clock genes expression
Magnetically asymmetric interfaces in a (LaMnO)/(SrMnO) superlattice due to structural asymmetries
Polarized neutron reflectivity measurements of a ferromagnetic
[(LaMnO)/(SrMnO)] superlattice reveal a modulated
magnetic structure with an enhanced magnetization at the interfaces where
LaMnO was deposited on SrMnO (LMO/SMO). However, the opposite
interfaces (SMO/LMO) are found to have a reduced ferromagnetic moment. The
magnetic asymmetry arises from the difference in lateral structural roughness
of the two interfaces observed via electron microscopy, with strong
ferromagnetism present at the interfaces that are atomically smooth over tens
of nanometers. This result demonstrates that atomic-scale roughness can
destabilize interfacial phases in complex oxide heterostructures.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure
Surface spin-flop transition in a uniaxial antiferromagnetic Fe/Cr superlattice induced by a magnetic field of arbitrary direction
We studied the transition between the antiferromagnetic and the surface
spin-flop phases of a uniaxial antiferromagnetic [Fe(14 \AA)/Cr(11 \AA] superlattice. For external fields applied parallel to the in-plane easy
axis, the layer-by-layer configuration, calculated in the framework of a
mean-field one-dimensional model, was benchmarked against published polarized
neutron reflectivity data. For an in-plane field applied at an angle with the easy axis, magnetometry shows that the magnetization
vanishes at H=0, then increases slowly with increasing . At a critical value
of , a finite jump in is observed for , while a
smooth increase of is found for . A dramatic
increase in the full width at half maximum of the magnetic susceptibility is
observed for . The phase diagram obtained from
micromagnetic calculations displays a first-order transition to a surface
spin-flop phase for low values, while the transition becomes continuous
for greater than a critical angle, . This is in fair agreement with the experimentally observed results.Comment: 24 pages, 7 figure
Exploration of Non-Resonant Divertor Features on the Compact Toroidal Hybrid
Non-resonant divertors (NRDs) separate the confined plasma from the
surrounding plasma facing components (PFCs). The resulting striking field line
intersection pattern on these PFCs is insensitive to plasma equilibrium
effects. However, a complex scrape-off layer (SOL), created by chaotic magnetic
topology in the plasma edge, connects the core plasma to the PFCs through
varying magnetic flux tubes. The Compact Toroidal Hybrid (CTH) serves as a
test-bed to study this by scanning across its inductive current. Simulations
observe a significant change of the chaotic edge structure and an effective
distance between the confined plasma and the instrumented wall targets. The
intersection pattern is observed to be a narrow helical band, which we claim is
a resilient strike line pattern. However, signatures of finger-like structures,
defined as heteroclinic tangles in chaotic domains, within the plasma edge
connect the island chains to this resilient pattern. The dominant connection
length field lines intersecting the targets are observed via heat flux
modelling with EMC3-EIRENE. At low inductive current levels, the excursion of
the field lines resembles a limited plasma wall scenario. At high currents, a
private flux region is created in the area where the helical strike line
pattern splits into two bands. These bands are divertor legs with distinct SOL
parallel particle flow channels. The results demonstrate the NRD strike line
pattern resiliency within CTH, but also show the underlying chaotic edge
structure determining if the configuration is diverted or limited. This work
supports future design efforts for a mechanical structure for the NRD.Comment: 26 pages, 16 figure
Time-resolved density correlations as probe of squeezing in toroidal Bose-Einstein condensates
I study the evolution of mean field and linear quantum fluctuations in a
toroidal Bose-Einstein condensate, whose interaction strength is quenched from
a finite (repulsive) value to zero. The azimuthal equal-time density-density
correlation function is calculated and shows temporal oscillations with twice
the (final) excitation frequencies after the transition. These oscillations are
a direct consequence of positive and negative frequency mixing during
non-adiabatic evolution. I will argue that a time-resolved measurement of the
equal-time density correlator might be used to calculate the moduli of the
Bogoliubov coefficients and thus the amount of squeezing imposed on a mode,
i.e., the number of atoms excited out of the condensate.Comment: 18 pages, IOP styl
Property (T) and rigidity for actions on Banach spaces
We study property (T) and the fixed point property for actions on and
other Banach spaces. We show that property (T) holds when is replaced by
(and even a subspace/quotient of ), and that in fact it is
independent of . We show that the fixed point property for
follows from property (T) when 1
. For simple Lie groups and their lattices, we prove that the fixed point property for holds for any if and only if the rank is at least two. Finally, we obtain a superrigidity result for actions of irreducible lattices in products of general groups on superreflexive Banach spaces.Comment: Many minor improvement
Cytophagic histiocytic panniculitis: is it a macrophage activation syndrome in situ?
International audiencepas de résum
R-matrix Floquet theory for laser-assisted electron-atom scattering
A new version of the R-matrix Floquet theory for laser-assisted electron-atom
scattering is presented. The theory is non-perturbative and applicable to a
non-relativistic many-electron atom or ion in a homogeneous linearly polarized
field. It is based on the use of channel functions built from field-dressed
target states, which greatly simplifies the general formalism.Comment: 18 pages, LaTeX2e, submitted to J.Phys.
- …