789 research outputs found
Magnetically induced chessboard pattern in the conductance of a Kondo quantum dot
We quantitatively describe the main features of the magnetically induced
conductance modulation of a Kondo quantum dot -- or chessboard pattern -- in
terms of a constant-interaction double quantum dot model. We show that the
analogy with a double dot holds down to remarkably low magnetic fields. The
analysis is extended by full 3D spin density functional calculations.
Introducing an effective Kondo coupling parameter, the chessboard pattern is
self-consistently computed as a function of magnetic field and electron number,
which enables us to quantitatively explain our experimental data.Comment: 4 pages, 3 color figure
Gauge invariant grid discretization of Schr\"odinger equation
Using the Wilson formulation of lattice gauge theories, a gauge invariant
grid discretization of a one-particle Hamiltonian in the presence of an
external electromagnetic field is proposed. This Hamiltonian is compared both
with that obtained by a straightforward discretization of the continuous
Hamiltonian by means of balanced difference methods, and with a tight-binding
Hamiltonian. The proposed Hamiltonian and the balanced difference one are used
to compute the energy spectrum of a charged particle in a two-dimensional
parabolic potential in the presence of a perpendicular, constant magnetic
field. With this example we point out how a "naive" discretization gives rise
to an explicit breaking of the gauge invariance and to large errors in the
computed eigenvalues and corresponding probability densities; in particular,
the error on the eigenfunctions may lead to very poor estimates of the mean
values of some relevant physical quantities on the corresponding states. On the
contrary, the proposed discretized Hamiltonian allows a reliable computation of
both the energy spectrum and the probability densities.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures, discussion about tight-binding Hamiltonians adde
Metal-insulator transition in a two-dimensional electron system: the orbital effect of in-plane magnetic field
The conductance of an open quench-disordered two-dimensional (2D) electron
system subject to an in-plane magnetic field is calculated within the framework
of conventional Fermi liquid theory applied to actually a three-dimensional
system of spinless electrons confined to a highly anisotropic (planar)
near-surface potential well. Using the calculation method suggested in this
paper, the magnetic field piercing a finite range of infinitely long system of
carriers is treated as introducing the additional highly non-local scatterer
which separates the circuit thus modelled into three parts -- the system as
such and two perfect leads. The transverse quantization spectrum of the inner
part of the electron waveguide thus constructed can be effectively tuned by
means of the magnetic field, even though the least transverse dimension of the
waveguide is small compared to the magnetic length. The initially finite
(metallic) value of the conductance, which is attributed to the existence of
extended modes of the transverse quantization, decreases rapidly as the
magnetic field grows. This decrease is due to the mode number reduction effect
produced by the magnetic field. The closing of the last current-carrying mode,
which is slightly sensitive to the disorder level, is suggested as the origin
of the magnetic-field-driven metal-to-insulator transition widely observed in
2D systems.Comment: 19 pages, 7 eps figures, the extension of cond-mat/040613
The longitudinal conductance of mesoscopic Hall samples with arbitrary disorder and periodic modulations
We use the Kubo-Landauer formalism to compute the longitudinal (two-terminal)
conductance of a two dimensional electron system placed in a strong
perpendicular magnetic field, and subjected to periodic modulations and/or
disorder potentials. The scattering problem is recast as a set of
inhomogeneous, coupled linear equations, allowing us to find the transmission
probabilities from a finite-size system computation; the results are exact for
non-interacting electrons. Our method fully accounts for the effects of the
disorder and the periodic modulation, irrespective of their relative strength,
as long as Landau level mixing is negligible. In particular, we focus on the
interplay between the effects of the periodic modulation and those of the
disorder. This appears to be the relevant regime to understand recent
experiments [S. Melinte {\em et al}, Phys. Rev. Lett. {\bf 92}, 036802 (2004)],
and our numerical results are in qualitative agreement with these experimental
results. The numerical techniques we develop can be generalized
straightforwardly to many-terminal geometries, as well as other multi-channel
scattering problems.Comment: 13 pages, 11 figure
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Noninvasive fractal biomarker of clock neurotransmitter disturbance in humans with dementia
Human motor activity has a robust, intrinsic fractal structure with similar patterns from minutes to hours. The fractal activity patterns appear to be physiologically important because the patterns persist under different environmental conditions but are significantly altered/reduced with aging and Alzheimer's disease (AD). Here, we report that dementia patients, known to have disrupted circadian rhythmicity, also have disrupted fractal activity patterns and that the disruption is more pronounced in patients with more amyloid plaques (a marker of AD severity). Moreover, the degree of fractal activity disruption is strongly associated with vasopressinergic and neurotensinergic neurons (two major circadian neurotransmitters) in postmortem suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN), and can better predict changes of the two neurotransmitters than traditional circadian measures. These findings suggest that the SCN impacts human activity regulation at multiple time scales and that disrupted fractal activity may serve as a non-invasive biomarker of SCN neurodegeneration in dementia
Effect of confinement potential shape on exchange interaction in coupled quantum dots
Exchange interaction has been studied for electrons in coupled quantum dots
(QD's) by a configuration interaction method using confinement potentials with
different profiles. The confinement potential has been parametrized by a
two-centre power-exponential function, which allows us to investigate various
types of QD's described by either soft or hard potentials of different range.
For the soft (Gaussian) confinement potential the exchange energy decreases
with increasing interdot distance due to the decreasing interdot tunnelling.
For the hard (rectangular-like) confinement potential we have found a
non-monotonic behaviour of the exchange interaction as a function of distance
between the confinement potential centres. In this case, the exchange
interaction energy exhibits a pronounced maximum for the confinement potential
profile which corresponds to the nanostructure composed of the small inner QD
with a deep potential well embedded in the large outer QD with a shallow
potential well. This effect results from the strong localization of electrons
in the inner QD, which leads to the large singlet-triplet splitting.
Implications of this finding for quantum logic operations have been discussed.Comment: 16 pages, including 11 figure
Targeting the choroid plexus-CSF-brain nexus using peptides identified by phage display.
Drug delivery to the central nervous system requires the use of specific portals to enable drug entry into the brain and, as such, there is a growing need to identify processes that can enable drug transfer across both blood-brain and blood-cerebrospinal fluid barriers. Phage display is a powerful combinatorial technique that identifies specific peptides that can confer new activities to inactive particles. Identification of these peptides is directly dependent on the specific screening strategies used for their selection and retrieval. This chapter describes three selection strategies, which can be used to identify peptides that target the choroid plexus (CP) directly or for drug translocation across the CP and into cerebrospinal fluid
Wigner Crystallization in a Quasi-3D Electronic System
When a strong magnetic field is applied perpendicularly (along z) to a sheet
confining electrons to two dimensions (x-y), highly correlated states emerge as
a result of the interplay between electron-electron interactions, confinement
and disorder. These so-called fractional quantum Hall (FQH) liquids form a
series of states which ultimately give way to a periodic electron solid that
crystallizes at high magnetic fields. This quantum phase of electrons has been
identified previously as a disorder-pinned two-dimensional Wigner crystal with
broken translational symmetry in the x-y plane. Here, we report our discovery
of a new insulating quantum phase of electrons when a very high magnetic field,
up to 45T, is applied in a geometry parallel (y-direction) to the
two-dimensional electron sheet. Our data point towards this new quantum phase
being an electron solid in a "quasi-3D" configuration induced by orbital
coupling with the parallel field
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