Bazarov’s Nihilism in Turgenev’s Fathers & Sons

The character of Bazarov in Turgenev¹s Fathers and Sons has a complicated relationship with Russia\u27s Nihilist movement. I present a history of the movement and compare three scholarly understandings of Bazarov\u27s peculiar nihilism. I claim that despite Bazarov¹s monumental importance for the Nihilist movement he fails to be a perfect Nihilist in many ways, and furthermore that it is precisely these imperfections that make Bazarov such an attractive and sympathetic character

Resonators coupled to voltage-biased Josephson junctions: From linear response to strongly driven nonlinear oscillations

Motivated by recent experiments, where a voltage biased Josephson junction is placed in series with a resonator, the classical dynamics of the circuit is studied in various domains of parameter space. This problem can be mapped onto the dissipative motion of a single degree of freedom in a nonlinear time-dependent potential, where in contrast to conventional settings the nonlinearity appears in the driving while the static potential is purely harmonic. For long times the system approaches steady states which are analyzed in the underdamped regime over the full range of driving parameters including the fundamental resonance as well as higher and sub-harmonics. Observables such as the dc-Josephson current and the radiated microwave power give direct information about the underlying dynamics covering phenomena as bifurcations, irregular motion, up- and down conversion. Due to their tunability, present and future set-ups provide versatile platforms to explore the changeover from linear response to strongly nonlinear behavior in driven dissipative systems under well defined conditions.Comment: 12 pages, 11 figure

Tunneling resonances in quantum dots: Coulomb interaction modifies the width

Single-electron tunneling through a zero-dimensional state in an asymmetric double-barrier resonant-tunneling structure is studied. The broadening of steps in the $I$--$V$ characteristics is found to strongly depend on the polarity of the applied bias voltage. Based on a qualitative picture for the finite-life-time broadening of the quantum dot states and a quantitative comparison of the experimental data with a non-equilibrium transport theory, we identify this polarity dependence as a clear signature of Coulomb interaction.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

Accelerated Calvarial Healing in Mice Lacking Toll-Like Receptor 4

The bone and immune systems are closely interconnected. The immediate inflammatory response after fracture is known to trigger a healing cascade which plays an important role in bone repair. Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) is a member of a highly conserved receptor family and is a critical activator of the innate immune response after tissue injury. TLR4 signaling has been shown to regulate the systemic inflammatory response induced by exposed bone components during long-bone fracture. Here we tested the hypothesis that TLR4 activation affects the healing of calvarial defects. A 1.8 mm diameter calvarial defect was created in wild-type (WT) and TLR4 knockout (TLR4-/-) mice. Bone healing was tested using radiographic, histologic and gene expression analyses. Radiographic and histomorphometric analyses revealed that calvarial healing was accelerated in TLR4-/- mice. More bone was observed in TLR4-/- mice compared to WT mice at postoperative days 7 and 14, although comparable healing was achieved in both groups by day 21. Bone remodeling was detected in both groups on postoperative day 28. In TLR4-/- mice compared to WT mice, gene expression analysis revealed that higher expression levels of IL-1β, IL-6, TNF-α,TGF-β1, TGF-β3, PDGF and RANKL and lower expression level of RANK were detected at earlier time points (≤ postoperative 4 days); while higher expression levels of IL-1β and lower expression levels of VEGF, RANK, RANKL and OPG were detected at late time points (> postoperative 4 days). This study provides evidence of accelerated bone healing in TLR4-/- mice with earlier and higher expression of inflammatory cytokines and with increased osteoclastic activity. Further work is required to determine if this is due to inflammation driven by TLR4 activation. © 2012 Wang et al

Prevention and extinguishment of fires involving hypergolic propellants Final report

Halon 1301 system effectiveness in prevention and extinguishment of hypergolic propellant fire

Interference through quantum dots

We discuss the effect of quantum interference on transport through a quantum dot system. We introduce an indirect coherent coupling parameter alpha, which provides constructive/destructive interference in the transport current depending on its phase and the magnetic flux. We estimate the current through the quantum dot system using the non-equilibrium Green's function method as well as the master equation method in the sequential tunneling regime. The visibility of the Aharonov-Bohm oscillation is evaluated. For a large inter-dot Coulomb interaction, the current is strongly suppressed by the quantum interference effect, while the current is restored by applying an oscillating resonance field with the frequency of twice the inter-dot tunneling energy.Comment: 10 pages, 3 figure

Aharonov-Bohm interferometry with quantum dots: scattering approach versus tunneling picture

We address the question of how to model electron transport through closed Aharonov-Bohm interferometers which contain quantum dots. By explicitly studying interferometers with one and two quantum dots, we establish the connection between a tunneling-Hamiltonian formulation on the one hand and a scattering-matrix approach on the other hand. We prove that, under certain circumstances, both approaches are equivalent, i.e., both types of models can describe the same experimental setups. Furthermore, we analyze how the interplay of the Aharonov-Bohm phase and the orbital phase associated with the lengths of the interferometers' arms affect transport properties.Comment: 8 pages, 8 figures, published versio

Transport in metallic multi-island Coulomb blockade systems: A systematic perturbative expansion in the junction transparency

We study electronic transport through metallic multi-island Coulomb-blockade systems. Based on a diagrammatic real-time approach, we develop a computer algorithm that generates and calculates all transport contributions up to second order in the tunnel-coupling strengths for arbitrary multi-island systems. This comprises sequential and cotunneling, as well as terms corresponding to a renormalization of charging energies and tunneling conductances. Multi-island cotunneling processes with energy transfer between different island are taken into account. To illustrate our approach we analyze the current through an island in Coulomb blockade, that is electrostatically coupled to a second island through which a large current is flowing. In this regime both cotunneling processes involving one island only as well as multi-island processes are important. The latter can be understood as photon-assisted sequential tunneling in the blockaded island, where the photons are provided by potential fluctuations due to sequential tunneling in the second island. We compare results of our approach to a P(E)-theory for photon-assisted tunneling in the weak coupling limit.Comment: 14 pages, 7 figures, published version; minor changes in Sec. IV

Josephson photonics with a two-mode superconducting circuit

We analyze the quantum dynamics of two electromagnetic oscillators coupled in series to a voltage-biased Josephson junction. When the applied voltage leads to a Josephson frequency across the junction which matches the sum of the two mode frequencies, tunneling Cooper pairs excite photons in both modes simultaneously leading to far-from-equilibrium states. These states display highly nonclassical features including strong antibunching, violation of Cauchy-Schwartz inequalities, and number squeezing. We obtain approximate analytic results for both the regimes of low and high photon occupancies which are supported by a full numerical treatment. The impact of asymmetries between the two modes is explored, revealing a pronounced enhancement of number squeezing when the modes are damped at different rates