436 research outputs found

    Linking Ultracold Polar Molecules

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    We predict that pairs of polar molecules can be weakly bound together in an ultracold environment, provided that a dc electric field is present. The field that links the molecules together also strongly influences the basic properties of the resulting dimer, such as its binding energy and predissociation lifetime. Because of their long-range character these dimers will be useful in disentangling cold collision dynamics of polar molecules. As an example, we estimate the microwave photoassociation yield for OH-OH cold collisions.Comment: 4 pages 2 figure

    Multi-channel scattering and Feshbach resonances: Effective theory, phenomenology, and many-body effects

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    A low energy effective theory based on a microscopic multi-channel description of the atom-atom interaction is derived for the scattering of alkali atoms in different hyperfine states. This theory describes all scattering properties, including medium effects, in terms of the singlet and triplet scattering lengths and the range of the atom-atom potential and provides a link between a microscopic description of Feshbach scattering and more phenomenological approaches. It permits the calculation of medium effects on the resonance coming from the occupation of closed channel states. The examination of such effects are demonstrated to be of particular relevance to an experimentally important Feshbach resonance for 40^{40}K atoms. We analyze a recent rethermalization rate experiment on 40^{40}K and demonstrate that a measurement of the temperature dependence of this rate can determine the magnetic moment of the Feshbach molecule. Finally, the energy dependence of the Feshbach interaction is shown to introduce a negative effective range inversely proportional to the width of the resonance. Since our theory is based on a microscopic multi-channel picture, it allows the explicit calculation of corrections to commonly used approximations such as the neglect of the effective range and the treatment of the Feshbach molecule as a point boson.Comment: 10 pages, 5 figures. Typos corrected. Accepted for PR

    Theoretical model for ultracold molecule formation via adaptive feedback control

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    We investigate pump-dump photoassociation of ultracold molecules with amplitude- and phase-modulated femtosecond laser pulses. For this purpose a perturbative model for the light-matter interaction is developed and combined with a genetic algorithm for adaptive feedback control of the laser pulse shapes. The model is applied to the formation of 85Rb2 molecules in a magneto-optical trap. We find for optimized pulse shapes an improvement for the formation of ground state molecules by more than a factor of 10 compared to unshaped pulses at the same pump-dump delay time, and by 40% compared to unshaped pulses at the respective optimal pump-dump delay time. Since our model yields directly the spectral amplitudes and phases of the optimized pulses, the results are directly applicable in pulse shaping experiments

    Stimulated Raman adiabatic passage from an atomic to a molecular Bose-Einstein condensate

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    The process of stimulated Raman adiabatic passage (STIRAP) provides a possible route for the generation of a coherent molecular Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) from an atomic BEC. We analyze this process in a three-dimensional mean-field theory, including atom-atom interactions and non-resonant intermediate levels. We find that the process is feasible, but at larger Rabi frequencies than anticipated from a crude single-mode lossless analysis, due to two-photon dephasing caused by the atomic interactions. We then identify optimal strategies in STIRAP allowing one to maintain high conversion efficiencies with smaller Rabi frequencies and under experimentally less demanding conditions.Comment: Final published versio

    Controlling two-species Mott-insulator phses in an optical lattice to form an array of dipolar molecules

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    We consider the transfer of a two-species Bose-Einstein condensate into an optical lattice with a density such that that a Mott-insulator state with one atom per species per lattice site is obtained in the deep lattice regime. Depending on collision parameters the result could be either a `mixed' or a `separated' Mott-insulator phase. Such a `mixed' two-species insulator could then be photo-associated into an array of dipolar molecules suitable for quantum computation or the formation of a dipolar molecular condensate. For the case of a 87^{87}Rb-41^{41}K two-species BEC, however, the large inter-species scattering length makes obtaining the desired `mixed' Mott insulator phase difficult. To overcome this difficulty we investigate the effect of varying the lattice frequency on the mean-field interaction and find a favorable parameter regime under which a lattice of dipolar molecules could be generated

    Phosphorus fractions in sandy soils of vineyards in Southern Brazil.

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    As aplicações de fósforo (P) em vinhedos podem causar o acúmulo desse nutriente no solo e maximizar seu potencial poluente. Este trabalho objetivou quantificar as frações de acumulação de P em solos arenosos cultivados com videiras na região Sul do Brasil. Para isso, amostras de solo foram coletadas nas camadas de 0-5, 6-10 e 11-20 cm em uma área de campo nativo e em dois vinhedos: um com 14 anos de cultivo (vinhedo 1) e outro com 30 anos (vinhedo 2), localizados no município de Santana do Livramento, Rio Grande do Sul (RS), Brasil. As amostras foram secas, moídas e submetidas ao fracionamento químico de P. Os resultados evidenciaram que os teores de P inorgânico aumentaram até 20 cm de profundidade, principalmente no vinhedo 2, em especial nas frações lábeis extraídas por resina de troca aniônica e por NaHCO3, na fração moderadamente lábil, extraída por NaOH 0,1 e 0,5 mol L-1, e na fração não lábil, extraída por HCl 1 mol L-1, representando potencial de eutroficação das águas. As aplicações de fertilizantes fosfatados na adubação de correção e de manutenção nos vinhedos com maior tempo de cultivo aumentaram os teores de P na fração orgânica extraída por NaHCO3 na camada de 0-5 cm, e na fração moderadamente lábil extraída por NaOH 0,1 mol L-1, até 20 cm de profundidade

    Exome sequencing followed by large-scale genotyping suggests a limited role for moderately rare risk factors of strong effect in schizophrenia.

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    Schizophrenia is a severe psychiatric disorder with strong heritability and marked heterogeneity in symptoms, course, and treatment response. There is strong interest in identifying genetic risk factors that can help to elucidate the pathophysiology and that might result in the development of improved treatments. Linkage and genome-wide association studies (GWASs) suggest that the genetic basis of schizophrenia is heterogeneous. However, it remains unclear whether the underlying genetic variants are mostly moderately rare and can be identified by the genotyping of variants observed in sequenced cases in large follow-up cohorts or whether they will typically be much rarer and therefore more effectively identified by gene-based methods that seek to combine candidate variants. Here, we consider 166 persons who have schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder and who have had either their genomes or their exomes sequenced to high coverage. From these data, we selected 5,155 variants that were further evaluated in an independent cohort of 2,617 cases and 1,800 controls. No single variant showed a study-wide significant association in the initial or follow-up cohorts. However, we identified a number of case-specific variants, some of which might be real risk factors for schizophrenia, and these can be readily interrogated in other data sets. Our results indicate that schizophrenia risk is unlikely to be predominantly influenced by variants just outside the range detectable by GWASs. Rather, multiple rarer genetic variants must contribute substantially to the predisposition to schizophrenia, suggesting that both very large sample sizes and gene-based association tests will be required for securely identifying genetic risk factors. © 2012 The American Society of Human Genetics

    Formation of Pairing Fields in Resonantly Coupled Atomic and Molecular Bose-Einstein Condensates

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    In this paper, we show that pair-correlations may play an important role in the quantum statistical properties of a Bose-Einstein condensed gas composed of an atomic field resonantly coupled with a corresponding field of molecular dimers. Specifically, pair-correlations in this system can dramatically modify the coherent and incoherent transfer between the atomic and molecular fields.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

    Identification of Anaplasma marginale Type IV Secretion System Effector Proteins

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    Anaplasma marginale, an obligate intracellular alphaproteobacterium in the order Rickettsiales, is a tick-borne pathogen and the leading cause of anaplasmosis in cattle worldwide. Complete genome sequencing of A. marginale revealed that it has a type IV secretion system (T4SS). The T4SS is one of seven known types of secretion systems utilized by bacteria, with the type III and IV secretion systems particularly prevalent among pathogenic Gram-negative bacteria. The T4SS is predicted to play an important role in the invasion and pathogenesis of A. marginale by translocating effector proteins across its membrane into eukaryotic target cells. However, T4SS effector proteins have not been identified and tested in the laboratory until now.Published copyLockwood, S., D. E. Voth, K. A. Brayton, P. A. Beare, W. C. Brown, R. A. Heinzen, and S. L. Broschat, Identification of Anaplasma marginale type IV secretion system effector proteins, PLoS ONE, Vol. 6, No. 11, e7724, Nov. 2011. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0027724
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