Electronic structure and superconductivity of BiS2-based compounds LaO1-xFxBiS2

Using the density-functional perturbation theory with structural optimization, we investigate the electronic structure, phonon spectra, and superconductivity of BiS2-based layered compounds LaO1-xFxBiS2. For LaO0.5F0.5BiS2, the calculated electron-phonon coupling constant is equal to lambda = 0.8, and obtained Tc = 9.1 K is very close to its experimental value, indicating that it is a conventional electron-phonon superconductor

Agegraphic Chaplygin gas model of dark energy

We establish a connection between the agegraphic models of dark energy and Chaplygin gas energy density in non-flat universe. We reconstruct the potential of the agegraphic scalar field as well as the dynamics of the scalar field according to the evolution of the agegraphic dark energy. We also extend our study to the interacting agegraphic generalized Chaplygin gas dark energy model.Comment: 8 page

Dust-to-gas ratio, XCOX_{\rm CO} factor and CO-dark gas in the Galactic anticentre: an observational study

We investigate the correlation between extinction and H~{\sc i} and CO emission at intermediate and high Galactic latitudes (|b|>10\degr) within the footprint of the Xuyi Schmidt Telescope Photometric Survey of the Galactic anticentre (XSTPS-GAC) on small and large scales. In Paper I (Chen et al. 2014), we present a three-dimensional dust extinction map within the footprint of XSTPS-GAC, covering a sky area of over 6,000\,deg$^2$ at a spatial angular resolution of 6\,arcmin. In the current work, the map is combined with data from gas tracers, including H~{\sc i} data from the Galactic Arecibo L-band Feed Array H~{\sc i} survey and CO data from the Planck mission, to constrain the values of dust-to-gas ratio $DGR=A_V/N({\rm H})$ and CO-to-$\rm H_2$ conversion factor $X_{\rm CO}=N({\rm H_2})/W_{\rm CO}$ for the entire GAC footprint excluding the Galactic plane, as well as for selected star-forming regions (such as the Orion, Taurus and Perseus clouds) and a region of diffuse gas in the northern Galactic hemisphere. For the whole GAC footprint, we find $DGR=(4.15\pm0.01) \times 10^{-22}$\,$\rm mag\,cm^{2}$ and $X_{\rm CO}=(1.72 \pm 0.03) \times 10^{20}$\,$\rm cm^{-2}\,(K\,km\,s^{-1})^{-1}$. We have also investigated the distribution of "CO-dark" gas (DG) within the footprint of GAC and found a linear correlation between the DG column density and the $V$-band extinction: $N({\rm DG}) \simeq 2.2 \times 10^{21} (A_V - A^{c}_{V})\,\rm cm^{-2}$. The mass fraction of DG is found to be $f_{\rm DG}\sim 0.55$ toward the Galactic anticentre, which is respectively about 23 and 124 per cent of the atomic and CO-traced molecular gas in the same region. This result is consistent with the theoretical work of Papadopoulos et al. but much larger than that expected in the $\rm H_2$ cloud models by Wolfire et al.Comment: 11 pages, 7 figures, accepted for publication in MNRA

Combinations of antioxidants and/or of epigenetic enzyme inhibitors allow for enhanced collection of mouse bone marrow hematopoietic stem cells in ambient air

Hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT) is a treatment for malignant and non-malignant disorders. However, sometimes the numbers of donor hematopoietic stem cells (HSC) are limiting, which can compromise the success of HCT. We recently published that collection and processing of mouse bone marrow (BM) and human cord blood cells in a hypoxic atmosphere of 3% O2 or in ambient air (~21% O2) in the presence of cyclosporine A yields increased numbers of HSC. We now show that collection and processing of mouse BM cells in ambient air in the presence of specific combinations of anti-oxidants and/or inhibitors of epigenetic enzymes can also enhance the collection of HSC, information of potential relevance for enhanced efficacy of HCT

Nanoindentation Of Si Nanostructures: Buckling And Friction At Nanoscales

A nanoindentation system was employed to characterize mechanical properties of silicon nanolines (SiNLs), which were fabricated by an anisotropic wet etching (AWE) process. The SiNLs had the linewidth ranging from 24 nm to 90 nm, having smooth and vertical sidewalls and the aspect ratio (height/linewidth) from 7 to 18. During indentation, a buckling instability was observed at a critical load, followed by a displacement burst without a load increase, then a full recovery of displacement upon unloading. This phenomenon was explained by two bucking modes. It was also found that the difference in friction at the contact between the indenter and SiNLs directly affected buckling response of these nanolines. The friction coefficient was estimated to be in a range of 0.02 to 0.05. For experiments with large indentation displacements, irrecoverable indentation displacements were observed due to fracture of Si nanolines, with the strain to failure estimated to be from 3.8% to 9.7%. These observations indicated that the buckling behavior of SiNLs depended on the combined effects of load, line geometry, and the friction at contact. This study demonstrated a valuable approach to fabrication of well-defined Si nanoline structures and the application of the nanoindentation method for investigation of their mechanical properties at the nanoscale.Microelectronics Research Cente

The Measure for the Multiverse and the Probability for Inflation

We investigate the measure problem in the framework of inflationary cosmology. The measure of the history space is constructed and applied to inflation models. Using this measure, it is shown that the probability for the generalized single field slow roll inflation to last for $N$ e-folds is suppressed by a factor $\exp(-3N)$, and the probability for the generalized $n$-field slow roll inflation is suppressed by a much larger factor $\exp(-3nN)$. Some non-inflationary models such as the cyclic model do not suffer from this difficulty.Comment: 16 page

Holographic modified gravity

In this paper we study cosmological application of holographic dark energy density in the modified gravity framework. We employ the holographic model of dark energy to obtain the equation of state for the holographic energy density in spatially flat universe. Our calculation show, taking $\Omega_{\Lambda}=0.73$ for the present time, it is possible to have $w_{\rm \Lambda}$ crossing -1. This implies that one can generate phantom-like equation of state from a holographic dark energy model in flat universe in the modified gravity cosmology framework. Also we develop a reconstruction scheme for the modified gravity with $f(R)$ action.Comment: 10 pages, no gigur

A Novel Large Moment Antiferromagnetic Order in K0.8Fe1.6Se2 Superconductor

The discovery of cuprate high Tc superconductors has inspired searching for unconventional su- perconductors in magnetic materials. A successful recipe has been to suppress long-range order in a magnetic parent compound by doping or high pressure to drive the material towards a quantum critical point, which is replicated in recent discovery of iron-based high TC superconductors. The long-range magnetic order coexisting with superconductivity has either a small magnetic moment or low ordering temperature in all previously established examples. Here we report an exception to this rule in the recently discovered potassium iron selenide. The superconducting composition is identified as the iron vacancy ordered K0.8Fe1.6Se2 with Tc above 30 K. A novel large moment 3.31 {\mu}B/Fe antiferromagnetic order which conforms to the tetragonal crystal symmetry has the unprecedentedly high an ordering temperature TN = 559 K for a bulk superconductor. Staggeredly polarized electronic density of states thus is suspected, which would stimulate further investigation into superconductivity in a strong spin-exchange field under new circumstance.Comment: 5 figures, 5 pages, and 2 tables in pdf which arXiv.com cannot tak

Thermodynamics of interacting entropy-corrected holographic dark energy in a non-flat FRW universe

A so-called "entropy-corrected holographic dark energy" (ECHDE), was recently proposed to explain the dark energy-dominated universe with the help of quantum corrections to the entropy-area relation in the setup of loop quantum cosmology. Using this new definition, we investigate its thermodynamical features including entropy and energy conservation. We describe the thermodynamical interpretation of the interaction between ECHDE and dark matter in a non-flat universe. We obtain a relation between the interaction term of the dark components and thermal fluctuation. Our study further generalizes the earlier works [M.R. Setare and E.C. Vagenas, Phys. Lett. B 666 (2008) 111; B. Wang et al., Phys. Lett. B 662 (2008) 1] in this direction.Comment: 14 pages, no figure, accepted by Int. J. Mod. Phys.

A Tracker Solution for a Holographic Dark Energy Model

We investigate a kind of holographic dark energy model with the future event horizon the IR cutoff and the equation of state -1. In this model, the constraint on the equation of state automatically specifies an interaction between matter and dark energy. With this interaction included, an accelerating expansion is obtained as well as the transition from deceleration to acceleration. It is found that there exists a stable tracker solution for the numerical parameter $d>1$, and $d$ smaller than one will not lead to a physical solution. This model provides another possible phenomenological framework to alleviate the cosmological coincidence problem in the context of holographic dark energy. Some properties of the evolution which are relevant to cosmological parameters are also discussed.Comment: 10 pages, 3 figures; accepted for publication in Int.J.Mod.Phys.