8,128 research outputs found
Enhanced graphene nonlinear response through geometrical plasmon focusing
We propose a simple approach to couple light into graphene plasmons and focus these excitations at
focal spots of a size determined by the plasmon wavelength, thus producing high optical field
enhancement that boosts the nonlinear response of the material. More precisely, we consider a
graphene structure in which incident light is coupled to its plasmons at the carbon edges and
subsequently focused on a spot of size comparable to the plasmon wavelength. We observe large
confinement of graphene plasmons, materializing in small, intense focal spots, in which the
extraordinary nonlinear response of this material leads to relatively intense harmonic generation.
This result shows the potential of plasmon focusing in suitably edged graphene structures to produce
large field confinement and nonlinear response without involving elaborated nanostructuring.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version
Quantum process reconstruction based on mutually unbiased basis
We study a quantum process reconstruction based on the use of mutually
unbiased projectors (MUB-projectors) as input states for a D-dimensional
quantum system, with D being a power of a prime number. This approach connects
the results of quantum-state tomography using mutually unbiased bases (MUB)
with the coefficients of a quantum process, expanded in terms of
MUB-projectors. We also study the performance of the reconstruction scheme
against random errors when measuring probabilities at the MUB-projectors.Comment: 6 pages, 1 figur
Measure of the size of CP violation in extended models
In this letter we introduce a possible measure of the size of CP violation in
the Standard Model and its extensions, based on quantities invariant under the
change of weak quark basis. We also introduce a measure of the ``average size''
of CP violation in a model, which can be used to compare the size of CP
violation in models involving extra sequential or vector-like quarks, or
left-right symmetry.Comment: LaTeX, 7 pages, no figure
Two minor determinants of myelin basic protein induce experimental allergic encephalomyelitis in SJL/J mice
Experimental allergic encephalomyelitis (EAE)' is an autoimmune inflammatory demyelinating disease in the central nervous system (CNS) of animals immunized
with myelin basic protein (MBP). The disease is directly mediated by Thelper cells that recognize MBP in the context ofclass II antigens of the MHC (1-3). In nude
mice, a single clone of adoptively transferred MBP-reactive T helper cells can cause EAE (4), suggesting that these are the only T cells required for disease induction.
As a prototypic model of T helper cell-mediated autoimmune disease, observations in EAE could likely be applicable to other T helper cell-mediated diseases such as
murine lupus (5), thyroiditis (6), collagen arthritis (7), and adjuvant arthritis (8), as well as human autoimmune diseases. The MBP epitope is determined in part by the MHC. Using proteolytic peptide fragments of MBP, SJL/J (H-2s) and BIO.T(6R) (H-2q) mice were found to develop
EAE to the COOH-terminal peptide of MBP, whereas PL/J (H-2u) and A/J (H-2k) mice developed EAE to the NH2-terminal peptide of MBP (9). Recently, by
using synthetic peptides that overcome the difficulties of obtaining pure uncontaminated proteolytic peptides, a single T cell encephalitogenic epitope for PL/J mice
has been identified . This epitope consists of the first nine NH2-terminal amino acid residues of MBP which must be acetylated at the a amino group to induce disease
(10). Similar fine mapping of the encephalitogenic T cell epitope(s) for SJL/J mice has not been done, in part because of the large size of the COOH-terminal peptic
fragment of MBP (residues 89-169 of rat MBP, reference 9).
MouseMBP consists offour major forms due to differential RNA splicing of exons II and VI (11), resulting in molecular masses of 21, 18.5, 17.5, and 14 kD, in the
relative amounts of 1 :10:3.5:35 . Since EAE can also be induced with the small form of rat MBP (14 kD), which has exons II and VI of the MBP gene deleted (12), the
COOH-terminal encephalitogenic determinant for SJL/J mice must be present within a segment ofonly 42 amino acid residues . Consistent withthis notion is the observation that this peptide sequence is identical among the MBPs of several mammalian species, including mouse, rat, bovine, guinea pig, and porcine, all of which can induce
EAE in SJL/mice (13, 14). To identify the SJL/J encephalitogenic T cell epitope(s), overlapping peptides to
the COOH-terminal region ofthe small form of mouse MBP were synthesized. Two overlapping peptides encompassing an 18-amino acid region were found to elicit EAE in SJL/J mice. The finding of a single peptide region of MBP that is responsible for encephalitogenic T cell epitopes in SJL/J mice is analogous to that of the PL/J mice and has implications for the development of specific therapy for T cell-mediated autoimmune diseases
Interference and complementarity for two-photon hybrid entangled states
In this work we generate two-photon hybrid entangled states (HES), where the
polarization of one photon is entangled with the transverse spatial degree of
freedom of the second photon. The photon pair is created by parametric
down-conversion in a polarization-entangled state. A birefringent double-slit
couples the polarization and spatial degrees of freedom of these photons and
finally, suitable spatial and polarization projections generate the HES. We
investigate some interesting aspects of the two-photon hybrid interference, and
present this study in the context of the complementarity relation that exists
between the visibilities of the one- and two-photon interference patterns.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figures. Accepted in Physical Review
CP violation and the 4th generation
Within the Standard model with the 4th generation quarks b' and t' we have
analyzed CP-violating flavor changing neutral current processes t -> cX; b'->
sX, b'-> bX,t'-> cX, and t'-> tX, with X=Z,H,gamma,g, by constructing and
employing global, unique fit for the 4th generation mass mixing matrix CKM4 at
300 < m_t' < 700 GeV. All quantities appearing in the CKM4 were subject to our
fitting procedure. We have found that our fit produces the following CP partial
rate asymmetry dominance: a_CP(b'-> s(Z,H,gamma,g))= (90,73,52,30)%, at m_t' ~
300,300,380,400 GeV, respectively. From the experimental point of view the best
decay mode, out of the above four, is certainly b'-> s gamma, because of the
presence of a clean high energy single final state photon. We have also
obtained relatively large a_CP(t -> c g) ~ 15 (10)% for t' running in the loops
with the mass m_t'= 650(500) GeV. There are fair chances that the 4th
generation quarks will be discovered at Tevatron or LHC and that some of their
decay rates shall be measured. If b' and t' exist at energies we assumed, with
well executed tagging, large a_CP could be found too.Comment: 19 pages, 12 figures, some of them new, references added, minor
corrections in the text, version to appear in PR
Ferromagnetic transition of a two-component Fermi gas of Hard Spheres
We use microscopic many-body theory to analyze the problem of itinerant
ferromagnetism in a repulsive atomic Fermi gas of Hard Spheres. Using simple
arguments, we show that the available theoretical predictions for the onset of
the ferromagnetic transition predict a transition point at a density () that is too large to be compatible with the universal low-density
expansion of the energy. We present new variational calculations for the
hard-sphere Fermi gas, in the framework of Fermi hypperneted chain theory, that
shift the transition to higher densities (). Backflow
correlations, which are mainly active in the unpolarized system, are essential
for this shift
- …