26 research outputs found
Electronic damping of molecular motion at metal surfaces
A method for the calculation of the damping rate due to electron-hole pair
excitation for atomic and molecular motion at metal surfaces is presented. The
theoretical basis is provided by Time Dependent Density Functional Theory
(TDDFT) in the quasi-static limit and calculations are performed within a
standard plane-wave, pseudopotential framework. The artificial periodicity
introduced by using a super-cell geometry is removed to derive results for the
motion of an isolated atom or molecule, rather than for the coherent motion of
an ordered over-layer. The algorithm is implemented in parallel, distributed
across both and space, and in a form compatible with the
CASTEP code. Test results for the damping of the motion of hydrogen atoms above
the Cu(111) surface are presented.Comment: 10 pages, 3 figure
Diffusion quantum Monte Carlo study of three-dimensional Wigner crystals
We report diffusion quantum Monte Carlo calculations of three-dimensional
Wigner crystals in the density range r_s=100-150. We have tested different
types of orbital for use in the approximate wave functions but none improve
upon the simple Gaussian form. The Gaussian exponents are optimized by directly
minimizing the diffusion quantum Monte Carlo energy. We have carefully
investigated and sought to minimize the potential biases in our Monte Carlo
results. We conclude that the uniform electron gas undergoes a transition from
a ferromagnetic fluid to a body-centered-cubic Wigner crystal at r_s=106+/-1.
The diffusion quantum Monte Carlo results are compared with those from
Hartree-Fock and Hartree theory in order to understand the role played by
exchange and correlation in Wigner crystals. We also study "floating" Wigner
crystals and give results for their pair-correlation functions
GW190814: gravitational waves from the coalescence of a 23 solar mass black hole with a 2.6 solar mass compact object
We report the observation of a compact binary coalescence involving a 22.2–24.3 Me black hole and a compact object with a mass of 2.50–2.67 Me (all measurements quoted at the 90% credible level). The gravitational-wave signal, GW190814, was observed during LIGO’s and Virgo’s third observing run on 2019 August 14 at 21:10:39 UTC and has a signal-to-noise ratio of 25 in the three-detector network. The source was localized to 18.5 deg2 at a distance of - + 241 45
41 Mpc; no electromagnetic counterpart has been confirmed to date. The source has the most unequal mass ratio yet measured with gravitational waves, - + 0.112 0.009 0.008, and its secondary component is either the lightest black hole or the heaviest neutron star ever discovered in a double compact-object system. The
dimensionless spin of the primary black hole is tightly constrained to �0.07. Tests of general relativity reveal no measurable deviations from the theory, and its prediction of higher-multipole emission is confirmed at high confidence. We estimate a merger rate density of 1–23 Gpc−3 yr−1 for the new class of binary coalescence sources
that GW190814 represents. Astrophysical models predict that binaries with mass ratios similar to this event can form through several channels, but are unlikely to have formed in globular clusters. However, the combination of mass ratio, component masses, and the inferred merger rate for this event challenges all current models of the formation and mass distribution of compact-object binaries
The fusarium graminearum genome reveals a link between localized polymorphism and pathogen specialization
We sequenced and annotated the genome of the filamentous fungus Fusarium graminearum, a major pathogen of cultivated cereals. Very few repetitive sequences were detected, and the process of repeat-induced point mutation, in which duplicated sequences are subject to extensive mutation, may partially account for the reduced repeat content and apparent low number of paralogous (ancestrally duplicated) genes. A second strain of F. graminearum contained more than 10,000 single-nucleotide polymorphisms, which were frequently located near telomeres and within other discrete chromosomal segments. Many highly polymorphic regions contained sets of genes implicated in plant-fungus interactions and were unusually divergent, with higher rates of recombination. These regions of genome innovation may result from selection due to interactions of F. graminearum with its plant host