Electronic structure and chemical bonding of nc-TiC/a-C nanocomposites

The electronic structure of nanocrystalline (nc-) TiC/amorphous C nanocomposites has been investigated by soft x-ray absorption and emission spectroscopy. The measured spectra at the Ti 2p and C 1s thresholds of the nanocomposites are compared to those of Ti metal and amorphous C. The corresponding intensities of the electronic states for the valence and conduction bands in the nanocomposites are shown to strongly depend on the TiC carbide grain size. An increased charge-transfer between the Ti 3d-eg states and the C 2p states has been identified as the grain size decreases, causing an increased ionicity of the TiC nanocrystallites. It is suggested that the charge-transfer occurs at the interface between the nanocrystalline TiC and the amorphous C matrix and represents an interface bonding which may be essential for the understanding of the properties of nc-TiC/amorphous C and similar nanocomposites.Comment: 13 pages, 6 figures, 1 table; http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevB.80.23510

Next-to-leading Log Resummation of Scalar and Pseudoscalar Higgs Boson Differential Cross-Sections at the LHC and Tevatron

The region of small transverse momentum in q qbar- and gg-initiated processes must be studied in the framework of resummation to account for the large, logarithmically-enhanced contributions to physical observables. In this paper, we will calculate the fixed order next-to-leading order (NLO) perturbative total and differential cross-sections for both a Standard Model (SM) scalar Higgs boson and the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model's (MSSM) pseudoscalar Higgs boson in the Heavy Quark Effective Theory (HQET) where the mass of the top quark is taken to be infinite. Resummation coefficients B^2_g, C^2_gg for the total cross-section resummation for the pseudoscalar case are given, as well as C^1_gg for the differential cross-section.Comment: 18 pages, REVTeX4, 5 eps figures. v2: Typos corrected, references added, a discussion of uncertainties was adde

Network growth models and genetic regulatory networks

We study a class of growth algorithms for directed graphs that are candidate models for the evolution of genetic regulatory networks. The algorithms involve partial duplication of nodes and their links, together with innovation of new links, allowing for the possibility that input and output links from a newly created node may have different probabilities of survival. We find some counterintuitive trends as parameters are varied, including the broadening of indegree distribution when the probability for retaining input links is decreased. We also find that both the scaling of transcription factors with genome size and the measured degree distributions for genes in yeast can be reproduced by the growth algorithm if and only if a special seed is used to initiate the process.Comment: 8 pages with 7 eps figures; uses revtex4. Added references, cleaner figure

Which way up? Recognition of homologous DNA segments in parallel and antiparallel alignment

Homologous gene shuffling between DNA promotes genetic diversity and is an important pathway for DNA repair. For this to occur, homologous genes need to find and recognize each other. However, despite its central role in homologous recombination, the mechanism of homology recognition is still an unsolved puzzle. While specific proteins are known to play a role at later stages of recombination, an initial coarse grained recognition step has been proposed. This relies on the sequence dependence of the DNA structural parameters, such as twist and rise, mediated by intermolecular interactions, in particular electrostatic ones. In this proposed mechanism, sequences having the same base pair text, or are homologous, have lower interaction energy than those sequences with uncorrelated base pair texts; the difference termed the recognition energy. Here, we probe how the recognition energy changes when one DNA fragment slides past another, and consider, for the first time, homologous sequences in antiparallel alignment. This dependence on sliding was termed the recognition well. We find that there is recognition well for anti-parallel, homologous DNA tracts, but only a very shallow one, so that their interaction will differ little from the interaction between two nonhomologous tracts. This fact may be utilized in single molecule experiments specially targeted to test the theory. As well as this, we test previous theoretical approximations in calculating the recognition well for parallel molecules against MC simulations, and consider more rigorously the optimization of the orientations of the fragments about their long axes. The more rigorous treatment affects the recognition energy a little, when the molecules are considered rigid. However when torsional flexibility of the DNA molecules is introduced, we find excellent agreement between analytical approximation and simulation.Comment: Paper with supplemental material attached. 41 pages in all, 4 figures in main text, 3 figures in supplmental. To be submitted to Journa

XMM-Newton Spectroscopy of the Accretion-Driven Millisecond X-ray Pulsar XTE J1751-305 in Outburst

We present an analysis of the first high-resolution spectra measured from an accretion-driven millisecond X-ray pulsar in outburst. We observed XTE J1751-305 with XMM-Newton on 2002 April 7 for approximately 35 ksec. Using a simple absorbed blackbody plus power-law model, we measure an unabsorbed flux of (6.6 +/- 0.1) * 10^(-10) erg/cm^2/s (0.5--10.0 keV). A hard power-law component (Gamma = 1.44 +/- 0.01) contributes 83% of the unabsorbed flux in the 0.5-10.0 keV band, but a blackbody component (kT = 1.05 +/- 0.01 keV) is required. We find no clear evidence for narrow or broad emission or absorption lines in the time-averaged spectra, and the sensitivity of this observation has allowed us to set constraining upper-limits on the strength of important features. The lack of line features is at odds with spectra measured from some other X-ray binaries which share some similarities with XTE J1751-305. We discuss the implications of these findings on the accretion flow geometry in XTE J1751-305.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures (2 color). ApJ Letters, accepted. Uses emulateapj.st

Defect free global minima in Thomson's problem of charges on a sphere

Given $N$ unit points charges on the surface of a unit conducting sphere, what configuration of charges minimizes the Coulombic energy $\sum_{i>j=1}^N 1/r_{ij}$? Due to an exponential rise in good local minima, finding global minima for this problem, or even approaches to do so has proven extremely difficult. For \hbox{$N = 10(h^2+hk+k^2)+ 2$} recent theoretical work based on elasticity theory, and subsequent numerical work has shown, that for $N \sim >500$--1000 adding dislocation defects to a symmetric icosadeltahedral lattice lowers the energy. Here we show that in fact this approach holds for all $N$, and we give a complete or near complete catalogue of defect free global minima.Comment: Revisions in Tables and Reference

Making it real: exploring the potential of Augmented Reality for teaching primary school science

The use of Augmented Reality (AR) in formal education could prove a key component in future learning environments that are richly populated with a blend of hardware and software applications. However, relatively little is known about the potential of this technology to support teaching and learning with groups of young children in the classroom. Analysis of teacher-child dialogue in a comparative study between use of an AR virtual mirror interface and more traditional science teaching methods for 10-year-old children, revealed that the children using AR were less engaged than those using traditional resources. We suggest four design requirements that need to be considered if AR is to be successfully adopted into classroom practice. These requirements are: flexible content that teachers can adapt to the needs of their children, guided exploration so learning opportunities can be maximised, in a limited time, and attention to the needs of institutional and curricular requirements

Universal behaviour of ideal and interacting quantum gases in two dimensions

I discuss ideal and interacting quantum gases obeying general fractional exclusion statistics. For systems with constant density of single-particle states, described in the mean field approximation, the entropy depends neither on the microscopic exclusion statistics, nor on the interaction. Such systems are called {\em thermodynamically equivalent} and I show that the microscopic reason for this equivalence is a one-to-one correspondence between the excited states of these systems. This provides a method, different from the bosonisation technique, to transform between systems of different exclusion statistics. In the last section the macroscopic aspects of this method are discussed. In Appendix A I calculate the fluctuation of the ground state population of a condensed Bose gas in grandcanonical ensemble and mean field approximation, while in Appendix B I show a situation where although the system exhibits fractional exclusion properties on microscopic energy intervals, a rigorous calculation of the population of single particle states reveals a condensation phenomenon. This also implies a malfunction of the usual and simplified calculation technique of the most probable statistical distributions.Comment: About 14 journal pages, with 1 figure. Changes: Body of paper: same content, with slight rephrasing. Apendices are new. In the original submission I just mentioned the condensation, which is now detailed in Appendix B. They were intended for a separate paper. Reason for changes: rejection from Phys. Rev. Lett., resubmission to J. Phys. A: Math. Ge

Diffuse Gamma-ray Emission from the Galactic Center - A Multiple Energy Injection Model

We suggest that the energy source of the observed diffuse gamma-ray emission from the direction of the Galactic center is the Galactic black hole Sgr A*, which becomes active when a star is captured at a rate of $\sim 10^{-5}$ yr^{-1}. Subsequently the star is tidally disrupted and its matter is accreted into the black hole. During the active phase relativistic protons with a characteristic energy $\sim 6\times 10^{52}$ erg per capture are ejected. Over 90% of these relativistic protons disappear due to proton-proton collisions on a timescale $\tau_{pp} \sim 10^4$ years in the small central bulge region with radius $\sim 50$ pc within Sgr A*, where the density is $\ge 10^3$ cm^{-3}. The gamma-ray intensity, which results from the decay of neutral pions produced by proton-proton collisions, decreases according to $e^{-t/\tau_{pp}}$, where t is the time after last stellar capture. Less than 5% of relativistic protons escaped from the central bulge region can survive and maintain their energy for >10^7 years due to much lower gas density outside, where the gas density can drop to $\sim 1$ cm$^{-3}$. They can diffuse to a $\sim 500$ pc region before disappearing due to proton-proton collisions. The observed diffuse GeV gamma-rays resulting from the decay of neutral pions produced via collision between these escaped protons and the gas in this region is expected to be insensitive to time in the multi-injection model with the characteristic injection rate of 10^{-5} yr^{-1}. Our model calculated GeV and 511 keV gamma-ray intensities are consistent with the observed results of EGRET and INTEGRAL, however, our calculated inflight annihilation rate cannot produce sufficient intensity to explain the COMPTEL data.Comment: 8 pages, 3 figures, accepted by A&

ROSAT HRI observations of the globular clusters M13 and M92

We report on 40 kiloseconds of ROSAT HRI observations of the globular cluster M92 (NGC 6341) and 20 kiloseconds of observations of the globular cluster M13 (NGC 6205). We find that the low-luminosity (10^{32.5} erg/sec at 7.5 kpc) source previously observed near the core of M92 with the ROSAT PSPC remains unresolved at HRI resolution; we can identify it with M92 with 99 per cent confidence. In M13 we find that the source seen with the ROSAT PSPC lies within the core and is possibly associated with the cluster (96 per cent confidence). We find probabilities of 99.8 per cent (M92) and 98 per cent (M13) for the presence of additional unresolved emission within these globular clusters. We interpret these results in light of current theories regarding the low-luminosity sources