4,002 research outputs found
Quantum Effects in the Spacetime of a Magnetic Flux Cosmic String
In this work we compute the vacuum expectation values of the energy-momentum
tensor and the average value of a massive, charged scalar field in the presence
of a magnetic flux cosmic string for both zero- and finite-temperature cases.Comment: To appear in the Int. Journal of Modern Phys. A (special issue).
Proceedings of the Second International Londrina Winter School on
Mathematical Methods in Physics, Londrina, Brazil, August 200
Fast pick up technique for high quality heterostructures of bilayer graphene and hexagonal boron nitride
We present a fast method to fabricate high quality heterostructure devices by
picking up crystals of arbitrary sizes. Bilayer graphene is encapsulated with
hexagonal boron nitride to demonstrate this approach, showing good electronic
quality with mobilities ranging from 17 000 cm^2/V/s at room temperature to 49
000 cm^2/V/s at 4.2 K, and entering the quantum Hall regime below 0.5 T. This
method provides a strong and useful tool for the fabrication of future high
quality layered crystal devices.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figure
Cosmic String in Scalar-Tensor Gravity
The gravitational properties of a local cosmic string in the framework of
scalar-tensor gravity are examined. We find the metric in the weak-field
approximation and we show that, contrary to the General Relativity case, the
cosmic string in scalar-tensor gravitation exerces a force on non-relativistic,
neutral test particle. This force is proportional to the derivative of the
conformal factor and it is always attractive. Moreover, this
force could have played an important role at the Early Universe, although
nowadays it can be neglegible. It is also shown that the angular separation
remains unaltered for scalar-tensor cosmic strings.Comment: 15 pages, LATEX, no figure
Controlling spin relaxation in hexagonal BN-encapsulated graphene with a transverse electric field
We experimentally study the electronic spin transport in hBN encapsulated
single layer graphene nonlocal spin valves. The use of top and bottom gates
allows us to control the carrier density and the electric field independently.
The spin relaxation times in our devices range up to 2 ns with spin relaxation
lengths exceeding 12 m even at room temperature. We obtain that the ratio
of the spin relaxation time for spins pointing out-of-plane to spins in-plane
is 0.75 for zero applied perpendicular
electric field. By tuning the electric field this anisotropy changes to
0.65 at 0.7 V/nm, in agreement with an electric field tunable in-plane
Rashba spin-orbit coupling
Local cosmic string in generalised scalar tensor theory
A recent investigation shows that a local gauge string with a
phenomenological energy momentum tensor, as prescribed by Vilenkin, is
inconsistent in Brans-Dicke theory. In this work it has been shown that such a
string is consistent in a more general scalar tensor theory where is
function of the scalar field.A set of solutions of full nonlinear Einstein's
equations for interior region of such a string are presented.Comment: 7 pages, latex format, minor changes according to referee's
suggestions, revised version submitted in Phys.Rev.
Massive scalar field near a cosmic string
The function of a massive scalar field near a cosmic string is
computed and then employed to find the vacuum fluctuation of the field. The
vacuum expectation value of the energy-momentum tensor is also computed using a
point-splitting approach. The obtained results could be useful also for the
case of self-interacting scalar fields and for the finite-temperature Rindler
space theory.Comment: 15 pages, standard LaTeX, no figures. Reference [14] correcte
3D-QSARpy: Combining variable selection strategies and machine learning techniques to build QSAR models
Quantitative Structure-Activity Relationship (QSAR) is a computer-aided technology in the field of medicinal chemistry that seeks to clarify the relationships between molecular structures and their biological activities. Such technologies allow for the acceleration of the development of new compounds by reducing the costs of drug design. This work presents 3D-QSARpy, a flexible, user-friendly and robust tool, freely available without registration, to support the generation of QSAR 3D models in an automated way. The user only needs to provide aligned molecular structures and the respective dependent variable. The current version was developed using Python with packages such as scikit-learn and includes various techniques of machine learning for regression. The diverse techniques employed by the tool is a differential compared to known methodologies, such as CoMFA and CoMSIA, because it expands the search space of possible solutions, and in this way increases the chances of obtaining relevant models. Additionally, approaches for select variables (dimension reduction) were implemented in the tool. To evaluate its potentials, experiments were carried out to compare results obtained from the proposed 3D-QSARpy tool with the results from already published works. The results demonstrated that 3D-QSARpy is extremely useful in the field due to its expressive results
Field and Molecular Epidemiology: How Viral Sequencing Changed Transmission Inferences in the First Portuguese SARS-CoV-2 Infection Cluster
Field epidemiology and viral sequencing provide a comprehensive characterization of transmission chains and allow a better identification of superspreading events. However, very few examples have been presented to date during the COVID-19 pandemic. We studied the first COVID-19 cluster detected in Portugal (59 individuals involved amongst extended family and work environments), following the return of four related individuals from work trips to Italy. The first patient to introduce the virus would be misidentified following the traditional field inquiry alone, as shown by the viral sequencing in isolates from 23 individuals. The results also pointed out family, and not work environment, as the primary mode of transmission.This work was funded by Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT; Research4COVID19 projects 198_596862267, 617_613735895, 186_596855206). FCT also financed the PhD grant to NP (SFRH/BD/136299/2018) and post-doc grant to VF (SFRH/BPD/114927/2016)
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