4,146 research outputs found
Transport and thermoelectric properties of the LaAlO/SrTiO interface
The transport and thermoelectric properties of the interface between
SrTiO and a 26-monolayer thick LaAlO-layer grown at high
oxygen-pressure have been investigated at temperatures from 4.2 K to 100 K and
in magnetic fields up to 18 T. For 4.2 K, two different electron-like
charge carriers originating from two electron channels which contribute to
transport are observed. We probe the contributions of a degenerate and a
non-degenerate band to the thermoelectric power and develop a consistent model
to describe the temperature dependence of the thermoelectric tensor. Anomalies
in the data point to an additional magnetic field dependent scattering.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figure
The G protein-gated potassium current I(K,ACh) is constitutively active in patients with chronic atrial fibrillation
Background— The molecular mechanism of increased background inward rectifier current (IK1) in atrial fibrillation (AF) is not fully understood. We tested whether constitutively active acetylcholine (ACh)-activated IK,ACh contributes to enhanced basal conductance in chronic AF (cAF).
Methods and Results— Whole-cell and single-channel currents were measured with standard voltage-clamp techniques in atrial myocytes from patients with sinus rhythm (SR) and cAF. The selective IK,ACh blocker tertiapin was used for inhibition of IK,ACh. Whole-cell basal current was larger in cAF than in SR, whereas carbachol (CCh)-activated IK,ACh was lower in cAF than in SR. Tertiapin (0.1 to 100 nmol/L) reduced IK,ACh in a concentration-dependent manner with greater potency in cAF than in SR (−logIC50: 9.1 versus 8.2; P<0.05). Basal current contained a tertiapin-sensitive component that was larger in cAF than in SR (tertiapin [10 nmol/L]-sensitive current at −100 mV: cAF, −6.7±1.2 pA/pF, n=16/5 [myocytes/patients] versus SR, −1.7±0.5 pA/pF, n=24/8), suggesting contribution of constitutively active IK,ACh to basal current. In single-channel recordings, constitutively active IK,ACh was prominent in cAF but not in SR (channel open probability: cAF, 5.4±0.7%, n=19/9 versus SR, 0.1±0.05%, n=16/9; P<0.05). Moreover, IK1 channel open probability was higher in cAF than in SR (13.4±0.4%, n=19/9 versus 11.4±0.7%, n=16/9; P<0.05) without changes in other channel characteristics.
Conclusions— Our results demonstrate that larger basal inward rectifier K+ current in cAF consists of increased IK1 activity and constitutively active IK,ACh. Blockade of IK,ACh may represent a new therapeutic target in AF
Magneto Seebeck effect in REFeAsO (RE=rare earth) compounds: probing the magnon drag scenario
We investigate Seebeck effect in REFeAsO (RE=rare earth)compounds as a
function of temperature and magnetic field up to 30T. The Seebeck curves are
characterized by a broad negative bump around 50K, which is sample dependent
and strongly enhanced by the application of a magnetic field. A model for the
temperature and field dependence of the magnon drag contribution to the Seebeck
effect by antiferromagnetic (AFM) spin fluctuation is developed. It accounts
for the magnitude and scaling properties of such bump feature in our
experimental data. This analysis allows to extract precious information on the
coupling between electrons and AFM spin fluctuations in these parent compound
systems, with implications on the pairing mechanism of the related
superconducting compounds
Thermochromatographic Investigation of 13N Labelled Nitrous Gases and of Fission Noble Gases at Low Temperatures
Depinning transition and thermal fluctuations in the random-field Ising model
We analyze the depinning transition of a driven interface in the 3d
random-field Ising model (RFIM) with quenched disorder by means of Monte Carlo
simulations. The interface initially built into the system is perpendicular to
the [111]-direction of a simple cubic lattice. We introduce an algorithm which
is capable of simulating such an interface independent of the considered
dimension and time scale. This algorithm is applied to the 3d-RFIM to study
both the depinning transition and the influence of thermal fluctuations on this
transition. It turns out that in the RFIM characteristics of the depinning
transition depend crucially on the existence of overhangs. Our analysis yields
critical exponents of the interface velocity, the correlation length, and the
thermal rounding of the transition. We find numerical evidence for a scaling
relation for these exponents and the dimension d of the system.Comment: 6 pages, including 9 figures, submitted for publicatio
Tracing uptake and assimilation of NO2 in spruce needles with 13N
For the first time, spruce shoots (Picea abies [L.] Karst.) were fumigated in vivo with 13N-labelled NO2 with the aim of elucidating the mechanism of NO2− trapping in the apoplast of the substomatal cavity. Uptake by the needles could be monitored on-line, and a quantitative analysis of the activity records delivered a deposition velocity in agreement with the common dry deposition estimates and ruled out rapid export processes. A fast extraction procedure was applied which revealed that NO2 did not produce any detectable traces of nitrite. In needles in which the enzymes of nitrate reduction were not induced by prior fumigation with NO2, incorporation of NO2 was partially inhibited as compared to the fully induced shoots which took up and assimilated NO2 as expected from a constant influx. The only labelled inorganic species found in the extracts was nitrate (60%), whereas the rest of the label (40%) was assimilated organic nitrogen.A quantitative analysis of the data shows that the reaction of NO2 in the apoplast yields at least three times more nitrate than nitrite, so that the existing models about the apoplastic trapping reaction, disproportionation or antioxidant scavenging, which both postulate substantial production of nitrite, have to be reconsidere
PCT, spin and statistics, and analytic wave front set
A new, more general derivation of the spin-statistics and PCT theorems is
presented. It uses the notion of the analytic wave front set of
(ultra)distributions and, in contrast to the usual approach, covers nonlocal
quantum fields. The fields are defined as generalized functions with test
functions of compact support in momentum space. The vacuum expectation values
are thereby admitted to be arbitrarily singular in their space-time dependence.
The local commutativity condition is replaced by an asymptotic commutativity
condition, which develops generalizations of the microcausality axiom
previously proposed.Comment: LaTeX, 23 pages, no figures. This version is identical to the
original published paper, but with corrected typos and slight improvements in
the exposition. The proof of Theorem 5 stated in the paper has been published
in J. Math. Phys. 45 (2004) 1944-195
Correlation functions of scattering matrix elements in microwave cavities with strong absorption
The scattering matrix was measured for microwave cavities with two antennas.
It was analyzed in the regime of overlapping resonances. The theoretical
description in terms of a statistical scattering matrix and the rescaled
Breit-Wigner approximation has been applied to this regime. The experimental
results for the auto-correlation function show that the absorption in the
cavity walls yields an exponential decay. This behavior can only be modeled
using a large number of weakly coupled channels. In comparison to the
auto-correlation functions, the cross-correlation functions of the diagonal
S-matrix elements display a more pronounced difference between regular and
chaotic systems
First Physics Results at the Physical Pion Mass from Wilson Twisted Mass Fermions at Maximal Twist
We present physics results from simulations of QCD using dynamical
Wilson twisted mass fermions at the physical value of the pion mass. These
simulations were enabled by the addition of the clover term to the twisted mass
quark action. We show evidence that compared to previous simulations without
this term, the pion mass splitting due to isospin breaking is almost completely
eliminated. Using this new action, we compute the masses and decay constants of
pseudoscalar mesons involving the dynamical up and down as well as valence
strange and charm quarks at one value of the lattice spacing,
fm. Further, we determine renormalized quark masses as well as their
scale-independent ratios, in excellent agreement with other lattice
determinations in the continuum limit. In the baryon sector, we show that the
nucleon mass is compatible with its physical value and that the masses of the
baryons do not show any sign of isospin breaking. Finally, we compute
the electron, muon and tau lepton anomalous magnetic moments and show the
results to be consistent with extrapolations of older ETMC data to the
continuum and physical pion mass limits. We mostly find remarkably good
agreement with phenomenology, even though we cannot take the continuum and
thermodynamic limits.Comment: 45 pages, 15 figure
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