258 research outputs found
The intrinsic features of the specific heat at half-filled Landau levels of two-dimensional electron systems
The specific heat capacity of a two-dimensional electron gas is derived for
two types of the density of states, namely, the Dirac delta function spectrum
and that based on a Gaussian function. For the first time, a closed form
expression of the specific heat for each case is obtained at half-filling. When
the chemical potential is temperature-independent, the temperature is
calculated at which the specific heat is a maximum. Here the effects of the
broadening of the Landau levels are distinguished from those of the different
filling factors. In general, the results derived herein hold for any
thermodynamic system having similar resonant states.Comment: 11 pages, 1 figure, to appear in J Low Temp Phys (2010
Generation of coherent terahertz pulses in Ruby at room temperature
We have shown that a coherently driven solid state medium can potentially
produce strong controllable short pulses of THz radiation. The high efficiency
of the technique is based on excitation of maximal THz coherence by applying
resonant optical pulses to the medium. The excited coherence in the medium is
connected to macroscopic polarization coupled to THz radiation. We have
performed detailed simulations by solving the coupled density matrix and
Maxwell equations. By using a simple -type energy scheme for ruby, we have
demonstrated that the energy of generated THz pulses ranges from hundreds of
pico-Joules to nano-Joules at room temperature and micro-Joules at liquid
helium temperature, with pulse durations from picoseconds to tens of
nanoseconds. We have also suggested a coherent ruby source that lases on two
optical wavelengths and simultaneously generates THz radiation. We discussed
also possibilities of extension of the technique to different solid-state
materials
Why Nature has made a choice of one time and three space coordinates?
We propose a possible answer to one of the most exciting open questions in
physics and cosmology, that is the question why we seem to experience four-
dimensional space-time with three ordinary and one time dimensions. We have
known for more than 70 years that (elementary) particles have spin degrees of
freedom, we also know that besides spin they also have charge degrees of
freedom, both degrees of freedom in addition to the position and momentum
degrees of freedom. We may call these ''internal degrees of freedom '' the
''internal space'' and we can think of all the different particles, like quarks
and leptons, as being different internal states of the same particle. The
question then naturally arises: Is the choice of the Minkowski metric and the
four-dimensional space-time influenced by the ''internal space''?
Making assumptions (such as particles being in first approximation massless)
about the equations of motion, we argue for restrictions on the number of space
and time dimensions. (Actually the Standard model predicts and experiments
confirm that elementary particles are massless until interactions switch on
masses.)
Accepting our explanation of the space-time signature and the number of
dimensions would be a point supporting (further) the importance of the
''internal space''.Comment: 13 pages, LaTe
Plasma instability and amplification of electromagnetic waves in low-dimensional electron systems
A general electrodynamic theory of a grating coupled two dimensional electron
system (2DES) is developed. The 2DES is treated quantum mechanically, the
grating is considered as a periodic system of thin metal strips or as an array
of quantum wires, and the interaction of collective (plasma) excitations in the
system with electromagnetic field is treated within the classical
electrodynamics. It is assumed that a dc current flows in the 2DES. We consider
a propagation of an electromagnetic wave through the structure, and obtain
analytic dependencies of the transmission, reflection, absorption and emission
coefficients on the frequency of light, drift velocity of 2D electrons, and
other physical and geometrical parameters of the system. If the drift velocity
of 2D electrons exceeds a threshold value, a current-driven plasma instability
is developed in the system, and an incident far infrared radiation is
amplified. We show that in the structure with a quantum wire grating the
threshold velocity of the amplification can be essentially reduced, as compared
to the commonly employed metal grating, down to experimentally achievable
values. Physically this is due to a considerable enhancement of the grating
coupler efficiency because of the resonant interaction of plasma modes in the
2DES and in the grating. We show that tunable far infrared emitters, amplifiers
and generators can thus be created at realistic parameters of modern
semiconductor heterostructures.Comment: 28 pages, 15 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev.
The effect of oscillating Fermi energy on the line shape of the Shubnikov-de Haas oscillation in a two dimensional electron gas
The line shape of the Shubnikov-de Haas (SdH) oscillation has been analyzed
in detail for a GaAs/AlGaAs two-dimensional electron gas. The line shape, or
equivalently the behavior of the Fourier components, of the experimentally
observed SdH oscillation is well reproduced by the sinusoidal density of states
at the Fermi energy that oscillates with a magnetic field in a saw-tooth shape
to keep the electron density constant. This suggests that the broadening of
each Landau level by disorder is better described by a Gaussian than by a
Lorentzian.Comment: 7 pages,6 figures, minor revision
IgG N-glycans are associated with prevalent and incident complications of type 2 diabetes
Aims/Hypothesis:Inflammation is important in the development of type 2 diabetes complications. The N-glycosylation of IgG influences its role in inflammation. To date, the association of plasma IgG N-glycosylation with type 2 diabetes complications has not been extensively investigated. We hypothesised that N-glycosylation of IgG may be related to the development of complications of type 2 diabetes. Methods: In three independent type 2 diabetes cohorts, plasma IgG N-glycosylation was measured using ultra performance liquid chromatography (DiaGene n = 1815, GenodiabMar n = 640) and mass spectrometry (Hoorn Diabetes Care Study n = 1266). We investigated the associations of IgG N-glycosylation (fucosylation, galactosylation, sialylation and bisection) with incident and prevalent nephropathy, retinopathy and macrovascular disease using Cox- and logistic regression, followed by meta-analyses. The models were adjusted for age and sex and additionally for clinical risk factors. Results: IgG galactosylation was negatively associated with prevalent and incident nephropathy and macrovascular disease after adjustment for clinical risk factors. Sialylation was negatively associated with incident diabetic nephropathy after adjustment for clinical risk factors. For incident retinopathy, similar associations were found for galactosylation, adjusted for age and sex. Conclusions: We showed that IgG N-glycosylation, particularly galactosylation and to a lesser extent sialylation, is associated with a higher prevalence and future development of macro- and microvascular complications of diabetes. These findings indicate the predictive potential of IgG N-glycosylation in diabetes complications and should be analysed further in additional large cohorts to obtain the power to solidify these conclusions.</p
Changes in total plasma and serum N-glycome composition and patient-controlled analgesia after major abdominal surgery
Systemic inflammation participates to the complex healing process occurring after major surgery, thus directly affecting the surgical outcome and patient recovery. Total plasma N-glycome might be an indicator of inflammation after major surgery, as well as an anti-inflammatory therapy response marker, since protein glycosylation plays an essential role in the inflammatory cascade. Therefore, we assessed the effects of surgery on the total plasma N-glycome and the association with self-administration of postoperative morphine in two cohorts of patients that underwent major abdominal surgery. We found that plasma N-glycome undergoes significant changes one day after surgery and intensifies one day later, thus indicating a systemic physiological response. In particular, we observed the increase of bisialylated biantennary glycan, A2G2S[3,6]2, 12 hours after surgery, which progressively increased until 48 postoperative hours. Most changes occurred 24 hours after surgery with the decrease of most core-fucosylated biantennary structures, as well as the increase in sialylated tetraantennary and FA3G3S[3,3,3]3 structures. Moreover, we observed a progressive increase of sialylated triantennary and tetraantennary structures two days after surgery, with a concomitant decrease of the structures containing bisecting N-acetylglucosamine along with bi- and trisialylated triantennary glycans. We did not find any statistically significant association between morphine consumption and plasma N-glycome
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