2,235 research outputs found
Electron-phonon heat transfer in monolayer and bilayer graphene
We calculate the heat transfer between electrons to acoustic and optical
phonons in monolayer and bilayer graphene (MLG and BLG) within the
quasiequilibrium approximation. For acoustic phonons, we show how the
temperature-power laws of the electron-phonon heat current for BLG differ from
those previously derived for MLG and note that the high-temperature
(neutral-regime) power laws for MLG and BLG are also different, with a weaker
dependence on the electronic temperature in the latter. In the general case we
evaluate the heat current numerically. We suggest that a measurement of the
heat current could be used for an experimental determination of the
electron-acoustic phonon coupling constants, which are not accurately known.
However, in a typical experiment heat dissipation by electrons at very low
temperatures is dominated by diffusion, and we estimate the crossover
temperature at which acoustic-phonon coupling takes over in a sample with Joule
heating. At even higher temperatures optical phonons begin to dominate. We
study some examples of potentially relevant types of optical modes, including
in particular the intrinsic in-plane modes, and additionally the remote surface
phonons of a possible dielectric substrate.Comment: 13 pages, 8 figures; moved details to appendixes, added discussion of
remote phonon
Energy relaxation in graphene and its measurement with supercurrent
We study inelastic energy relaxation in graphene for low energies to find out
how electrons scatter with acoustic phonons and other electrons. By coupling
the graphene to superconductors, we create a strong dependence of the measured
signal, i.e.,\ critical Josephson current, on the electron population on
different energy states. Since the relative population of high- and low-energy
states is determined by the inelastic scattering processes, the critical
current becomes an effective probe for their strength. We argue that the
electron-electron interaction is the dominant relaxation method and, in our
model of two-dimensional electron-electron scattering, we find a scattering
time ps at T=500 mK, 1-2 orders of magnitude smaller than
predicted by theory.Comment: 10 pages, 13 figures submitted to Physical Review
Cosmogenic Radionuclides as an Extension of the Neutron Monitor Era into the Past: Potential and Limitations
The cosmogenic radionuclides, 10Be, 14C and others, provide a record of the paleo-cosmic radiation that extends >10,000 years into the past. They are the only quantitative means at our disposal to study the heliosphere prior to the commencement of routine sunspot observations in the 17th century. The cosmogenic radionuclides are primarily produced by secondary neutrons generated by the galactic cosmic radiation, and can be regarded, in a sense, as providing an extrapolation of the neutron monitor era into the past. However, their characteristics are quite different from the man-made neutron monitor in several important respects: (1)they are sensitive to somewhat lower cosmic ray energies; (2)their temporal resolution is ∼1 to 2 years, being determined by the rapidity with which they are sequestered in ice, biological, or other archives; (3)the statistical precision for annual data is very poor (∼19%); however it is quite adequate (∼5% for 22-year averages) to study the large variations (±40%) that have occurred in the paleo-cosmic ray record in the past between grand solar minima and maxima. The data contains "noise” caused by local meteorological effects, and longer-term climate effects, and the use of principal component analysis to separate these "system” effects from production effects is outlined. The concentrations of 10Be decreased by a factor of two at the commencement of Holocene, the present-day "interglacial”, due to a 100% increase in the ice accumulation rates in polar regions. The use of the 10Be flux to study heliospheric properties during the last glacial is discussed briefl
Nonlinear shot noise in mesoscopic diffusive normal-superconducting systems
We study differential shot noise in mesoscopic diffusive
normal-superconducting (NS) heterostructures at finite voltages where nonlinear
effects due to the superconducting proximity effect arise. A numerical
scattering-matrix approach is adopted. Through an NS contact, we observe that
the shot noise shows a reentrant dependence on voltage due to the
superconducting proximity effect but the differential Fano factor stays
approximately constant. Furthermore, we consider differential shot noise in the
structures where an insulating barrier is formed between normal and
superconducting regions and calculate the differential Fano factor as a
function of barrier height.Comment: 4 pages, 6 figure
Physical activity and peripheral artery disease: Two prospective cohort studies and a systematic review
Background and aims
Physical activity is a modifiable risk factor for cardiovascular disease and an important therapy in individuals with intermittent claudication. However, its role in the development of peripheral artery disease (PAD) is unclear. We have examined the evidence of the association between physical activity and development of PAD.
Methods
We searched PubMed, EMBASE and CINAHL Plus in August 2018 for original studies of physical activity and PAD. Studies reporting prevalence or incidence of PAD by categories of physical activity (an amount of activity per unit of time) were included. In addition, we analysed unpublished individual-level data from two register-linked cohort studies, Finnish Public Sector Study (n = 63,924) and Whitehall II (n = 10,200). Due to heterogeneity in the assessment of physical activity and PAD, we provide a qualitative synthesis of the findings.
Results
Evidence from 18 studies (15 cross-sectional/case-control and 7 prospective studies) of the association between physical activity and PAD in total of 152,188 participants, including 3971 PAD patients, suggests that individuals with a diagnosis or clinical findings of PAD were less physically active, regardless of whether activity was self-reported or measured using accelerometers. The findings from the longitudinal studies point to more intense physical activity being associated with lower odds of developing PAD; however, the study-specific findings lacked power to precisely estimate this relationship.
Conclusions
Individuals with PAD were less physically active than those without PAD. The longitudinal findings suggest that physical activity decreases the risk of PAD, although better powered studies are needed to confirm this
Observation of shot-noise-induced asymmetry in the Coulomb blockaded Josephson junction
We have investigated the influence of shot noise on the IV-curves of a single
mesoscopic Josephson junction. We observe a linear enhancement of zero-bias
conductance of the Josephson junction with increasing shot noise power.
Moreover, the IV-curves become increasingly asymmetric. Our analysis on the
asymmetry shows that the Coulomb blockade of Cooper pairs is strongly
influenced by the non-Gaussian character of the shot noise.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figures, RevTE
Preterm birth and the risk of multimorbidity in adolescence: a multiregister-based cohort study
BACKGROUND: Multimorbidity affects people of all ages, but the risk factors of multimorbidity in adolescence are unclear. The aim of this study was to examine preterm birth (<37 weeks) as a shared risk factor for multiple health outcomes and the role of gestational age (degree of prematurity) in the development of increasingly complex multimorbidity (two, three, or four health outcomes) in adolescence (age 10-18 years). METHODS: We used population-wide data from Finland (1 187 610 adolescents born 1987-2006) and Norway (555 431 adolescents born 1998-2007). Gestational age at birth was ascertained from medical birth registers and categorised as 23-27 weeks (extremely preterm), 28-31 weeks (very preterm), 32-33 weeks (moderately preterm), 34-36 weeks (late preterm), 37-38 weeks (early term), 39-41 weeks (term, reference category) and 42-44 weeks (post-term). Children who died or emigrated before their 10th birthday, and those with missing or implausible data on gestational age, birthweight, or covariates, were excluded. Health outcomes at age 10-18 years were ascertained from specialised health care and mortality registers. We calculated hazard ratios (HRs) and population attributable fractions (PAFs) with 95% CIs for multiple health outcomes during adolescence. FINDINGS: Individuals were followed up from age 10 to 18 years (mean follow-up: 6 years, SD: 3 years). Preterm birth was associated with increased risks of 20 hospital-treated malignant, cardiovascular, endocrinological, neuropsychiatric, respiratory, genitourinary, and congenital health outcomes, after correcting for multiple testing and ignoring small effects (HR <1·2). Confounder-adjusted HRs comparing preterm with term-born adolescents were 2·29 (95% CI 2·19-2·39) for two health outcomes (PAF 9·0%; 8·3-9·6), and 4·22 (3·66-4·87) for four health outcomes (PAF 22·7%; 19·4-25·8) in the Finnish data. Results in the Norwegian data showed a similar pattern. We observed a consistent dose-response relationship between an earlier gestational age and elevated risks of increasingly complex multimorbidity in both datasets. INTERPRETATION: Preterm birth is associated with increased risks of diverse multimorbidity patterns at age 10-18 years. Adolescents with a preterm-born background could benefit from diagnostic vigilance directed at multimorbidity and a multidisciplinary approach to health care. FUNDING: European Union Horizon 2020, Academy of Finland, Foundation for Pediatric Research, Sigrid Jusélius Foundation, Signe and Ane Gyllenberg Foundation
Andreev bound states and -junction transition in a superconductor / quantum-dot / superconductor system
We study Andreev bound states and -junction transition in a
superconductor / quantum-dot / superconductor (S-QD-S) system by Green function
method. We derive an equation to describe the Andreev bound states in S-QD-S
system, and provide a unified understanding of the -junction transition
caused by three different mechanisms: (1) {\it Zeeman splitting.} For QD with
two spin levels and , we find that the surface
of the Josephson current vs the configuration of
exhibits interesting profile: a sharp peak
around ; a positive ridge in the region of
; and a {\em % negative}, flat, shallow
plain in the region of . (2){\it \
Intra-dot interaction.} We deal with the intra-dot Coulomb interaction by
Hartree-Fock approximation, and find that the system behaves as a -junction when QD becomes a magnetic dot due to the interaction. The
conditions for -junction transition are also discussed. (3) {\it \
Non-equilibrium distribution.} We replace the Fermi distribution by
a non-equilibrium one , and allow
Zeeman splitting in QD where The curves of
vs show the novel effect of interplay of
non-equilibrium distribution with magnetization in QD.Comment: 18 pages, 8 figures, Late
Non-equilibrium supercurrent through mesoscopic ferromagnetic weak links
We consider a mesoscopic normal metal, where the spin degeneracy is lifted by
a ferromagnetic exchange field or Zeeman splitting, coupled to two
superconducting reservoirs. As a function of the exchange field or the distance
between the reservoirs, the supercurrent through this device oscillates with an
exponentially decreasing envelope. This phenomenon is similar to the tuning of
a supercurrent by a non-equilibrium quasiparticle distribution between two
voltage-biased reservoirs. We propose a device combining the exchange field and
non-equilibrium effects, which allows us to observe a range of novel phenomena.
For instance, part of the field-suppressed supercurrent can be recovered by a
voltage between the additional probes.Comment: 7 pages, 8 figures, Europhys. Lett., to be published, corrected two
reference
Inverse proximity effect in superconductors near ferromagnetic material
We study the electronic density of states in a mesoscopic superconductor near
a transparent interface with a ferromagnetic metal. In our tunnel spectroscopy
experiment, a substantial density of states is observed at sub-gap energies
close to a ferromagnet. We compare our data with detailed calculations based on
the Usadel equation, where the effect of the ferromagnet is treated as an
effective boundary condition. We achieve an excellent agreement with theory
when non-ideal quality of the interface is taken into account.Comment: revised, 7 pages, 3 figure
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