Initial stages of dead fallen wood decomposition in the gradient of pollution with copper smelter emissions

The rate of dead fallen wood decomposition varies across the sections of trunk and the tree species: most rapid decomposition occurs in the upper part of the trunk (the loss of basic density on average is 4.4 % for spruce and 2.0 % for fir per year), most slowly — in the bottom parts (2.7 % and 0.4 % respectively). The rate of coarse woody debris (CWD) decomposition did not depend from the influence of industrial pollution. The share of spruce CWD, inhabited by wood-destroying fungi, was significantly higher (р<0.01) in background area as compared to polluted one; the share of fir CWD did not differ significantly among the areas of investigation.Работа выполнена при финансовой поддержке РФФИ (проект 14–04–31488) и программы фундаментальных исследований УрО РАН (проект 15–12–4–27)

Plasmonic atoms and plasmonic molecules

The proposed paradigm of plasmonic atoms and plasmonic molecules allows one to describe and predict the strongly localized plasmonic oscillations in the clusters of nanoparticles and some other nanostructures in uniform way. Strongly localized plasmonic molecules near the contacting surfaces might become the fundamental elements (by analogy with Lego bricks) for a construction of fully integrated opto-electronic nanodevices of any complexity and scale of integration.Comment: 30 pages, 16 figure

Inverse magnetic catalysis in field theory and gauge-gravity duality

We investigate the surface of the chiral phase transition in the three-dimensional parameter space of temperature, baryon chemical potential and magnetic field in two different approaches, the field-theoretical Nambu-Jona-Lasinio (NJL) model and the holographic Sakai-Sugimoto model. The latter is a top-down approach to a gravity dual of QCD with an asymptotically large number of colors and becomes, in a certain limit, dual to an NJL-like model. Our main observation is that, at nonzero chemical potential, a magnetic field can restore chiral symmetry, in apparent contrast to the phenomenon of magnetic catalysis. This "inverse magnetic catalysis" occurs in the Sakai-Sugimoto model and, for sufficiently large coupling, in the NJL model and is related to the physics of the lowest Landau level. While in most parts our discussion is a pedagogical review of previously published results, we include new analytical results for the NJL approach and a thorough comparison of inverse magnetic catalysis in the two approaches.Comment: 37 pages, 11 figures, to appear in Lect. Notes Phys. "Strongly interacting matter in magnetic fields" (Springer), edited by D. Kharzeev, K. Landsteiner, A. Schmitt, H.-U. Ye