406 research outputs found
Stabilizing quantum metastable states in a time-periodic potential
Metastability of a particle trapped in a well with a time-periodically
oscillating barrier is studied in the Floquet formalism. It is shown that the
oscillating barrier causes the system to decay faster in general. However,
avoided crossings of metastable states can occur with the less stable states
crossing over to the more stable ones. If in the static well there exists a
bound state, then it is possible to stabilize a metastable state by
adiabatically increasing the oscillating frequency of the barrier so that the
unstable state eventually cross-over to the stable bound state. It is also
found that increasing the amplitude of the oscillating field may change a
direct crossing of states into an avoided one.Comment: 7 pages, 6 figure
Directed transport and localization in phase-modulated driven lattices
We explore the dynamics of non-interacting particles loaded into a
phase-modulated one-dimensional lattice formed by laterally oscillating square
barriers. Tuning the parameters of the driven unit cell of the lattice selected
parts of the classical phase space can be manipulated in a controllable manner.
We find superdiffusion in position space for all parameters regimes. A directed
current of an ensemble of particles can be created through locally breaking the
spatiotemporal symmetries of the time-driven potential. Magnitude and direction
of the current are tunable. Several mechanisms for transient localization and
trapping of particles in different wells of the driven unit cell are presented
and analyzed
Decay versus survival of a localized state subjected to harmonic forcing: exact results
We investigate the survival probability of a localized 1-d quantum particle
subjected to a time dependent potential of the form with
or . The particle is
initially in a bound state produced by the binding potential . We
prove that this probability goes to zero as for almost all values
of , , and . The decay is initially exponential followed by a
law if is not close to resonances and is small; otherwise
the exponential disappears and Fermi's golden rule fails. For exceptional sets
of parameters and the survival probability never decays to zero,
corresponding to the Floquet operator having a bound state. We show similar
behavior even in the absence of a binding potential: permitting a free particle
to be trapped by harmonically oscillating delta function potential
Simple proof of gauge invariance for the S-matrix element of strong-field photoionization
The relationship between the length gauge (LG) and the velocity gauge (VG)
exact forms of the photoionization probability amplitude is considered. Our
motivation for this paper comes from applications of the Keldysh-Faisal-Reiss
(KFR) theory, which describes atoms (or ions) in a strong laser field (in the
nonrelativistic approach, in the dipole approximation). On the faith of a
certain widely-accepted assumption, we present a simple proof that the
well-known LG form of the exact photoionization (or photodetachment)
probability amplitude is indeed the gauge-invariant result. In contrast, to
obtain the VG form of this probability amplitude, one has to either (i) neglect
the well-known Goeppert-Mayer exponential factor (which assures gauge
invariance) during all the time evolution of the ionized electron or (ii) put
some conditions on the vector potential of the laser field.Comment: The paper was initially submitted (in a previous version) on 16
October 2006 to J. Phys. A and rejected. This is the extended version (with 2
figures), which is identical to the paper published online on 12 December
2007 in Physica Script
Double-stranded RNA-mediated suppression of Period2 expression in the suprachiasmatic nucleus disrupts circadian locomotor activity in rats
Circadian behavioral rhythms in mammals are controlled by a central clock located in the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN). PER2, the protein product of the clock gene, Period 2 (Per2), is expressed rhythmically in the SCN [Beaule C, Houle LM, Amir S (2003) Expression profiles of PER2 immunoreactivity within the shell and core regions of the rat suprachiasmatic nucleus: Lack of effect of photic entrainment and disruption by constant light. J Mol Neurosci 21:133-148] and has been implicated in the control of circadian behavioral rhythms based on the evidence that genetic mutations in Per2 abolish free running locomotor activity rhythms in mice [Zheng B, Larkin DW, Albrecht U, Sun ZS, Sage M, Eichele G, Lee CC, Bradley A (1999) The mPer2 gene encodes a functional component of the mammalian circadian clock. Nature 400:169-173; Bae K, Jin X, Maywood ES, Hastings MH, Reppert SM, Weaver DR (2001) Differential functions of mPer1, mPer2, and mPer3 in the SCN circadian clock. Neuron 30:525-536]. Such mutations eradicate PER2 expression in the SCN and disrupt the SCN molecular clockwork, however, they also affect PER2 in the rest of the brain and body leaving open the possibility that the changes in behavioral rhythms might be influenced, at least in part, by disruptions in PER2 functioning outside the SCN. We used RNA interference-mediated transient knockdown of Per2 to study the effect of selective suppression of PER2 expression in the SCN, per se, on behavioral circadian rhythms. We found that transient suppression of PER2 in the SCN disrupted free running locomotor activity rhythms for up to 10 days in rats. Infusions of control dsRNA into the SCN or infusions of dsRNA to Per2 immediately dorsal to the SCN had no effect. These results constitute evidence for a direct link between PER2 expression in the SCN and the expression of behavioral circadian rhythms in mammals
The Alignment Between 3-D Data and Articulated Shapes with Bending Surfaces
International audienceIn this paper we address the problem of aligning 3-D data with articulated shapes. This problem resides at the core of many motion tracking methods with applications in human motion capture, action recognition, medical-image analysis, etc. We describe an articulated and bending surface representation well suited for this task as well as a method which aligns (or registers) such a surface to 3-D data. Articulated objects, e.g., humans and animals, are covered with clothes and skin which may be seen as textured surfaces. These surfaces are both articulated and deformable and one realistic way to model them is to assume that they bend in the neighborhood of the shape's joints. We will introduce a surface-bending model as a function of the articulated-motion parameters. This combined articulated-motion and surface-bending model better predicts the observed phenomena in the data and therefore is well suited for surface registration. Given a set of sparse 3-D data (gathered with a stereo camera pair) and a textured, articulated, and bending surface, we describe a register-and-fit method that proceeds as follows. First, the data-to-surface registration problem is formalized as a classifier and is carried out using an EM algorithm. Second, the data-to-surface fitting problem is carried out by minimizing the distance from the registered data points to the surface over the joint variables. In order to illustrate the method we applied it to the problem of hand tracking. A hand model with 27 degrees of freedom is successfully registered and fitted to a sequence of 3-D data points gathered with a stereo camera pair
Dispersion force for materials relevant for micro and nanodevices fabrication
The dispersion (van der Waals and Casimir) force between two semi-spaces are
calculated using the Lifshitz theory for different materials relevant for micro
and nanodevices fabrication, namely, gold, silicon, gallium arsenide, diamond
and two types of diamond-like carbon (DLC), silicon carbide, silicon nitride
and silicon dioxide. The calculations were performed using recent experimental
optical data available in the literature, usually ranging from the far infrared
up to the extreme ultraviolet bands of the electromagnetic spectrum. The
results are presented in the form of a correction factor to the Casimir force
predicted between perfect conductors, for the separation between the
semi-spaces varying from 1 nanometre up to 1 micrometre. The relative
importance of the contributions to the dispersion force of the optical
properties in different spectral ranges is analyzed. The role of the
temperature for semiconductors and insulators is also addressed. The results
are meant to be useful for the estimation of the impact of the Casimir and van
der Waals forces on the operational parameters of micro and nanodevices
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