Extraction of Step-Repulsion Strengths from Terrace Width Distributions: Statistical and Analytic Considerations

Recently it has been recognized that the so-called generalized Wigner distribution may provide at least as good a description of terrace width distributions (TWDs) on vicinal surfaces as the standard Gaussian fit and is particularly applicable for weak repulsions between steps, where the latter fails. Subsequent applications to vicinal copper surfaces at various temperatures confirmed the serviceability of the new analysis procedure but raised some theoretical questions. Here we address these issues using analytical, numerical, and statistical methods. We propose an extension of the generalized Wigner distribution to a two-parameter fit that allows the terrace widths to be scaled by an optimal effective mean width. We discuss quantitatively the approach of a Wigner distribution to a Gaussian form for strong repulsions, how errors in normalization or mean affect the deduced interaction, and how optimally to extract the interaction from the variance and mean of the TWD. We show that correlations reduce by two orders of magnitude the number of {\em independent} measurements in a typical STM image. We also discuss the effect of the discreteness ("quantization") of terrace widths, finding that for high misorientation (small mean width) the standard continuum analysis gives faulty estimates of step interactions.Comment: 13 pages, 7 figures; info added on # ind. measurements/STM imag

The spread of epidemic disease on networks

The study of social networks, and in particular the spread of disease on networks, has attracted considerable recent attention in the physics community. In this paper, we show that a large class of standard epidemiological models, the so-called susceptible/infective/removed (SIR) models can be solved exactly on a wide variety of networks. In addition to the standard but unrealistic case of fixed infectiveness time and fixed and uncorrelated probability of transmission between all pairs of individuals, we solve cases in which times and probabilities are non-uniform and correlated. We also consider one simple case of an epidemic in a structured population, that of a sexually transmitted disease in a population divided into men and women. We confirm the correctness of our exact solutions with numerical simulations of SIR epidemics on networks.Comment: 12 pages, 3 figure

Spin Resolution of the Electron-Gas Correlation Energy: Positive same-spin contribution

The negative correlation energy per particle of a uniform electron gas of density parameter $r_s$ and spin polarization $\zeta$ is well known, but its spin resolution into up-down, up-up, and down-down contributions is not. Widely-used estimates are incorrect, and hamper the development of reliable density functionals and pair distribution functions. For the spin resolution, we present interpolations between high- and low-density limits that agree with available Quantum Monte Carlo data. In the low-density limit for $\zeta = 0$, we find that the same-spin correlation energy is unexpectedly positive, and we explain why. We also estimate the up and down contributions to the kinetic energy of correlation.Comment: new version, to appear in PRB Rapid Communicatio

Using the Wigner-Ibach Surmise to Analyze Terrace-Width Distributions: History, User's Guide, and Advances

A history is given of the applications of the simple expression generalized from the surmise by Wigner and also by Ibach to extract the strength of the interaction between steps on a vicinal surface, via the terrace width distribution (TWD). A concise guide for use with experiments and a summary of some recent extensions are provided.Comment: 11 pages, 4 figures, reformatted (with revtex) version of refereed paper for special issue of Applied Physics A entitled "From Surface Science to Device Physics", in honor of the retirements of Prof. H. Ibach and Prof. H. L\"ut

Strong-correlation effects in Born effective charges

Large values of Born effective charges are generally considered as reliable indicators of the genuine tendency of an insulator towards ferroelectric instability. However, these quantities can be very much influenced by strong electron correlation and metallic behavior, which are not exclusive properties of ferroelectric materials. In this paper we compare the Born effective charges of some prototypical ferroelectrics with those of magnetic, non-ferroelectric compounds using a novel, self-interaction free methodology that improves on the local-density approximation description of the electronic properties. We show that the inclusion of strong-correlation effects systermatically reduces the size of the Born effective charges and the electron localization lengths. Furthermore we give an interpretation of the Born effective charges in terms of band energy structure and orbital occupations which can be used as a guideline to rationalize their values in the general case.Comment: 10 pages, 4 postscript figure

Characterization of a Mixed Methanotrophic Culture Capable of Chloroethylene Degradation

A consortium of methanotrophs cultured from the St. Joseph's aquifer in Schoolcraft, MI, was found to exhibit similar methane consumption rates as pure cultures of methanotrophs. The methanotrophic consortium resides within a portion of the aquifer contaminated with a mixed waste plume of perchloroethylene (PCE) and its reductive dechlorination products from natural attenuation, trichloroethylene (TCE), cis-dichloroethylene (c-DCE), and vinyl chloride (VC). Oxidation kinetics for TCE, c-DCE, and VC were measured for the mixed methanotroph consortium and compared to reported rate parameters for degradation of these chloroethylene compounds by pure methanotrophic cultures. The results demonstrate that the kinetics of chloroethylene oxidation by the Schoolcraft methanotroph population mimic the degradation rates of pure methanotrophic cultures that primarily express particulate methane monooxygenase (pMMO). Molecular and biochemical analyses confirmed that sMMO was not being expressed by these cells. Rather, using competitive reverse transcriptionpolymerase chain reaction, pmoA, a gene encoding one of the polypeptides of the pMMO was found at a level of (1.57 ± 0.10) × 10–17 mol pmoA mRNA/g wet soil in soil slurries and (2.65 ± 0.43) × 10–17 mol pmoA mRNA/μl in groundwater. No expression of mmoX, a gene encoding one of the polypeptides of the sMMO, was detected.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/63398/1/ees.2005.22.177.pd

MSSM Higgs-Boson Production at Hadron Colliders with Explicit CP Violation

Gluon fusion is the main production mechanism for Higgs bosons with masses up to several hundred GeV in $pp$ collisions at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. We investigate the effects of the CP-violating phases on the fusion process including both the sfermion-loop contributions and the one-loop induced CP-violating scalar-pseudoscalar mixing in the minimal supersymmetric standard model. With a universal trilinear parameter assumed, every physical observable involves only the sum of the phases of the universal trilinear parameter $A$ and the higgsino mass parameter $\mu$. The phase affects the lightest Higgs-boson production rate significantly through the neutral Higgs-boson mixing and, for the masses around the lightest stop-pair threshold, it also changes the production rate of the heavy Higgs bosons significantly through both the stop and sbottom loops and the neutral Higgs-boson mixing.Comment: 28 pages, 8 figures. Some references and comments added. Typos corrected. To appear in Phys. Rev.

‘An uglier duckling than before’: Reclaiming agency and visibility amongst facially-wounded ex-servicemen in Britain after the First World War

In total, 60,500 British soldiers were wounded in the head or eyes during the First World War. Despite these numbers facially-wounded ex-servicemen, in particular their post-war experiences, are largely overlooked in the social history of the conflict. Whilst part of a wider constituency of war-wounded veterans, owing to the value ascribed to the face in terms of personal identity and socio-economic values, disfigured veterans were excluded from the discourse of masculine heroism in which other war wounds were framed. Narratives of facial injury emphasised despairing passivity, which acted to emasculate and ‘other’ the facially-wounded. How accurately though does this reflect their lived experiences? Using first-hand testimony from facially-injured ex-servicemen this article challenges the representation of the disfigured veteran as passive, arguing that men exercised agency through their self-representations and behavioural responses. Drawing on normative conceptions of masculinity, and on idealised images of war-wounded veterans, facially-wounded ex-servicemen constructed counter-narratives of their emotional response to facial injury which emphasised conformity to these ideals. The conceptualisation of disfigurements as war wounds, and the high cultural status of the war-disabled, allowed facially-wounded ex-servicemen to reclaim the masculine status which they were denied in popular representations, and to assert their right to social visibility in post-war Britain