Energy and Mass Generation

Modifications in the energy momentum dispersion laws due to a noncommutative geometry, have been considered in recent years. We examine the oscillations of extended objects in this perspective and find that there is now a "generation" of energy.Comment: 13 pages Late

Long Term H-Release from Amorphous Carbon Evidenced by in Situ Raman Microscopy under Isothermal Heating

We study the kinetics of the H release from plasma-deposited hydrogenated amorphous carbon films under isothermal heating at 450, 500 and 600 {\degree}C for long times up to several days using in situ Raman microscopy. Four Raman parameters are analyzed. They allow the identification of different processes such as the carbon network reorganization and the H release from sp3 or sp2 carbon atoms and the corresponding timescales. Carbon reorganization with aromatization and loss of sp3 hybridization occurs first in 100 minutes at 500 {\degree}C. The final organization is similar at all investigated temperatures. Full H release from sp3 carbon occurs on a longer timescale of about 10 hours while H release from sp2 carbon atoms is only partial, even after several days. All these processes occur more rapidly with higher initial H content, in agreement with what is known about the stability of these types of films. A quantitative analysis of these kinetics studies gives valuable information about the microscopic processes at the origin of the H release through the determination of activation energies

Raman study of CFC tiles extracted from the toroidal pump limiter of Tore Supra

International audienceThe structure of six tiles extracted from the erosion and deposition zones (thin and thick deposition) of the Tore Supra toroidal pump limiter (TPL) have been analysed in the framework of the DITS campaign using micro-Raman spectroscopy. This post-mortem analysis gives information on both carbon structure and D content. We have found that the carbon structure is most often similar to that of plasma-deposited hard amorphous carbon layers. The role of the surface temperature during the discharge in the D content is investigated: in all locations where the temperature does not reach more than 500°C the D content seems to be roughly uniform with D/D+C ≈ 20%

GluN2A NMDA Receptor Enhancement Improves Brain Oscillations, Synchrony, and Cognitive Functions in Dravet Syndrome and Alzheimer's Disease Models.

NMDA receptors (NMDARs) play subunit-specific roles in synaptic function and are implicated in neuropsychiatric and neurodegenerative disorders. However, the in vivo consequences and therapeutic potential of pharmacologically enhancing NMDAR function via allosteric modulation are largely unknown. We examine the in vivo effects of GNE-0723, a positive allosteric modulator of GluN2A-subunit-containing NMDARs, on brain network and cognitive functions in mouse models of Dravet syndrome (DS) and Alzheimer's disease (AD). GNE-0723 use dependently potentiates synaptic NMDA receptor currents and reduces brain oscillation power with a predominant effect on low-frequency (12-20 Hz) oscillations. Interestingly, DS and AD mouse models display aberrant low-frequency oscillatory power that is tightly correlated with network hypersynchrony. GNE-0723 treatment reduces aberrant low-frequency oscillations and epileptiform discharges and improves cognitive functions in DS and AD mouse models. GluN2A-subunit-containing NMDAR enhancers may have therapeutic benefits in brain disorders with network hypersynchrony and cognitive impairments

High-Energy gamma-ray Astronomy and String Theory

There have been observations, first from the MAGIC Telescope (July 2005) and quite recently (September 2008) from the FERMI Satellite Telescope, on non-simultaneous arrival of high-energy photons from distant celestial sources. In each case, the highest energy photons were delayed, as compared to their lower-energy counterparts. Although the astrophysics at the source of these energetic photons is still not understood, and such non simultaneous arrival might be due to non simultaneous emission as a result of conventional physics effects, nevertheless, rather surprisingly, the observed time delays can also fit excellently some scenarios in quantum gravity, predicting Lorentz violating space-time "foam" backgrounds with a non-trivial subluminal vacuum refractive index suppressed linearly by a quantum gravity scale of the order of the reduced Planck mass. In this pedagogical talk, I discuss the MAGIC and FERMI findings in this context and I argue on a theoretical model of space-time foam in string/brane theory that can accommodate the findings of those experiments in agreement with all other stringent tests of Lorentz invariance. However, I stress the current ambiguities/uncertainties on the source mechanisms, which need to be resolved first before definite conclusions are reached regarding quantum gravity foam scenarios.Comment: 34 pages latex, 12 eps figures incorporated, uses special macros. Based on invited plenary talk at DICE 2008 Conference (Castiglioncello, Italy), September 22-26 200

Flux-Induced Vortex in Mesoscopic Superconducting Loops

We predict the existence of a quantum vortex for an unusual situation. We study the order parameter in doubly connected superconducting samples embedded in a uniform magnetic field. For samples with perfect cylindrical symmetry, the order parameter has been known for long and no vortices are present in the linear regime. However, if the sample is not symmetric, there exist ranges of the field for which the order parameter vanishes along a line, parallel to the field. In many respects, the behavior of this line is qualitatively different from that of the vortices encountered in type II superconductivity. For samples with mirror symmetry, this flux-induced vortex appears at the thin side for small fluxes and at the opposite side for large fluxes. We propose direct and indirect experimental methods which could test our predictions.Comment: 6 pages, Latex, 4 figs., uses RevTex, extended to situations far from cylindrical symmetr

Entangled Stories: The Red Jews in Premodern Yiddish and German Apocalyptic Lore

“Far, far away from our areas, somewhere beyond the Mountains of Darkness, on the other side of the Sambatyon River…there lives a nation known as the Red Jews.” The Red Jews are best known from classic Yiddish writing, most notably from Mendele's Kitser masoes Binyomin hashlishi (The Brief Travels of Benjamin the Third). This novel, first published in 1878, represents the initial appearance of the Red Jews in modern Yiddish literature. This comical travelogue describes the adventures of Benjamin, who sets off in search of the legendary Red Jews. But who are these Red Jews or, in Yiddish, di royte yidelekh? The term denotes the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel, the ten tribes that in biblical times had composed the Northern Kingdom of Israel until they were exiled by the Assyrians in the eighth century BCE. Over time, the myth of their return emerged, and they were said to live in an uncharted location beyond the mysterious Sambatyon River, where they would remain until the Messiah's arrival at the end of time, when they would rejoin the rest of the Jewish people. This article is part of a broader study of the Red Jews in Jewish popular culture from the Middle Ages through modernity. It is partially based on a chapter from my book, Umstrittene Erlöser: Politik, Ideologie und jüdisch-christlicher Messianismus in Deutschland, 1500–1600 (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2011). Several postdoctoral fellowships have generously supported my research on the Red Jews: a Dr. Meyer-Struckmann-Fellowship of the German Academic Foundation, a Harry Starr Fellowship in Judaica/Alan M. Stroock Fellowship for Advanced Research in Judaica at Harvard University, a research fellowship from the Heinrich Hertz-Foundation, and a YIVO Dina Abramowicz Emerging Scholar Fellowship. I thank the organizers of and participants in the colloquia and conferences where I have presented this material in various forms as well as the editors and anonymous reviewers of AJS Review for their valuable comments and suggestions. I am especially grateful to Jeremy Dauber and Elisheva Carlebach of the Institute for Israel and Jewish Studies at Columbia University, where I was a Visiting Scholar in the fall of 2009, for their generous encouragement to write this article. Sue Oren considerably improved my English. The style employed for Romanization of Yiddish follows YIVO's transliteration standards. Unless otherwise noted, translations from the Yiddish, Hebrew, German, and Latin are my own. Quotations from the Bible follow the JPS translation, and those from the Babylonian Talmud are according to the Hebrew-English edition of the Soncino Talmud by Isidore Epstein