Trade Fair for developing countries

It is six years now that the first Import Trade Fair called “Partners of Progress” has been staged in Berlin. Its original form was that of a pure aid to information, but following actual needs, it gradually changed into a commercial trade fair of the developing countries. The number of exhibitors taking part in these fairs, and the growing interest shown by more and more expert visitors, have both made it clear that this kind of trade show has gained a firm position among German trade fairs and specialised exhibitions. We have asked Dr M. Busche, authorised signatory of the Berlin Exhibition Service (Ausstallungs-Dienst Berlin: ADB), about his experiences with the import show, “Partners of Progress”, which is designed exclusively for the promotion of imports from African, Asian, and Latin American developing countries

How does a quadratic term in the energy dispersion modify the single-particle Green's function of the Tomonaga-Luttinger model?

We calculate the effect of a quadratic term in the energy dispersion on the low-energy behavior of the Green's function of the spinless Tomonaga-Luttinger model (TLM). Assuming that for small wave-vectors q = k - k_F the fermionic excitation energy relative to the Fermi energy is v_F q + q^2 / (2m), we explicitly calculate the single-particle Green's function for finite but small values of lambda = q_c /(2k_F). Here k_F is the Fermi wave-vector, q_c is the maximal momentum transfered by the interaction, and v_F = k_F / m is the Fermi velocity. Assuming equal forward scattering couplings g_2 = g_4, we find that the dominant effect of the quadratic term in the energy dispersion is a renormalization of the anomalous dimension. In particular, at weak coupling the anomalous dimension is tilde{gamma} = gamma (1 - 2 lambda^2 gamma), where gamma is the anomalous dimension of the TLM. We also show how to treat the change of the chemical potential due to the interactions within the functional bosonization approach in arbitrary dimensions.Comment: 17 pages, 1 figur

The effect of Fermi surface curvature on low-energy properties of fermions with singular interactions

We discuss the effect of Fermi surface curvature on long-distance/time asymptotic behaviors of two-dimensional fermions interacting via a gapless mode described by an effective gauge field-like propagator. By comparing the predictions based on the idea of multi-dimensional bosonization with those of the strong- coupling Eliashberg approach, we demonstrate that an agreement between the two requires a further extension of the former technique.Comment: Latex, 4+ pages. Phys. Rev. Lett., to appea

Dynamic scaling in the vicinity of the Luttinger liquid fixed point

We calculate the single-particle spectral function A (k, omega) of a one-dimensional Luttinger liquid by means of a functional renormalization group (RG) approach. Given an infrared energy cutoff Lambda = Lambda_0 e^{- l}, our approach yields the spectral function in the scaling form, A_{\Lambda} (k_F + p, omega) = tau Z_l tilde{A}_l (p xi, omega tau), where k_F is the Fermi momentum, Z_l is the wave-function renormalization factor, tau = 1 / \Lambda is the time scale and xi = v_F / \Lambda is the length scale associated with Lambda. At the Luttinger liquid fixed point (l rightarrow infty) our RG result for A (k, omega) exhibits the correct anomalous scaling properties, and for k = \pm k_F agrees exactly with the well-known bosonization result at weak coupling. Our calculation demonstrates that the field rescaling is essential for obtaining the crossover from Fermi liquid behavior to Luttinger liquid behavior from a truncation of the hierarchy of exact RG flow equations as the infrared cutoff is reduced.Comment: 15 pages, 5 figure

An experimental approach for investigating many-body phenomena in Rydberg-interacting quantum systems

Recent developments in the study of ultracold Rydberg gases demand an advanced level of experimental sophistication, in which high atomic and optical densities must be combined with excellent control of external fields and sensitive Rydberg atom detection. We describe a tailored experimental system used to produce and study Rydberg-interacting atoms excited from dense ultracold atomic gases. The experiment has been optimized for fast duty cycles using a high flux cold atom source and a three beam optical dipole trap. The latter enables tuning of the atomic density and temperature over several orders of magnitude, all the way to the Bose-Einstein condensation transition. An electrode structure surrounding the atoms allows for precise control over electric fields and single-particle sensitive field ionization detection of Rydberg atoms. We review two experiments which highlight the influence of strong Rydberg--Rydberg interactions on different many-body systems. First, the Rydberg blockade effect is used to pre-structure an atomic gas prior to its spontaneous evolution into an ultracold plasma. Second, hybrid states of photons and atoms called dark-state polaritons are studied. By looking at the statistical distribution of Rydberg excited atoms we reveal correlations between dark-state polaritons. These experiments will ultimately provide a deeper understanding of many-body phenomena in strongly-interacting regimes, including the study of strongly-coupled plasmas and interfaces between atoms and light at the quantum level.Comment: 14 pages, 11 figures; submitted to a special issue of 'Frontiers of Physics' dedicated to 'Quantum Foundation and Technology: Frontiers and Future

A radiological assessment of nuclear power and propulsion operations near Space Station Freedom

Scenarios were identified which involve the use of nuclear power systems in the vicinity of Space Station Freedom (SSF) and their radiological impact on the SSF crew was quantified. Several of the developed scenarios relate to the use of SSF as an evolutionary transportation node for lunar and Mars missions. In particular, radiation doses delivered to SSF crew were calculated for both the launch and subsequent return of a Nuclear Electric Propulsion (NEP) cargo vehicle and a Nuclear Thermal Rocket (NTR) personnel vehicle to low earth orbit. The use of nuclear power on co-orbiting platforms and the storage and handling issues associated with radioisotope power systems were also explored as they relate to SSF. A central philosophy in these analyses was the utilization of a radiation dose budget, defined as the difference between recommended dose limits from all radiation sources and estimated doses received by crew members from natural space radiations. Consequently, for each scenario examined, the dose budget concept was used to identify and quantify constraints on operational parameters such as launch separation distances, returned vehicle parking distances, and reactor shutdown times prior to vehicle approach. The results indicate that realistic scenarios do not exist which would preclude the use of nuclear power sources in the vicinity of SSF. The radiation dose to the SSF crew can be maintained at safe levels solely by implementing proper and reasonable operating procedures

Radiative Transfer in Obliquely Illuminated Accretion Disks

The illumination of an accretion disk around a black hole or neutron star by the central compact object or the disk itself often determines its spectrum, stability, and dynamics. The transport of radiation within the disk is in general a multi-dimensional, non-axisymmetric problem, which is challenging to solve. Here, I present a method of decomposing the radiative transfer equation that describes absorption, emission, and Compton scattering in an obliquely illuminated disk into a set of four one-dimensional transfer equations. I show that the exact calculation of the ionization balance and radiation heating of the accretion disk requires the solution of only one of the one-dimensional equations, which can be solved using existing numerical methods. I present a variant of the Feautrier method for solving the full set of equations, which accounts for the fact that the scattering kernels in the individual transfer equations are not forward-backward symmetric. I then apply this method in calculating the albedo of a cold, geometrically thin accretion disk.Comment: 16 pages, 3 figures; to appear in The Astrophysical Journa

COMPETITION AMONG HOSPITALS AND ITS MEASUREMENT: THEORY AND A CASE STUDY

Our paper provides several insights on the characteristics of the concept of “Poles d’Excellence Rurale” (PER) through bilateral comparisons with that of Competitive Pole (CP) and cluster. The concept of PER is a French government’ initiative designed for the development of rural areas similar to that of the Competitive Pole. We emphasize important particularities of these concepts by analyzing some of their similarities and major differences.Pole d’Excellence Rurale, Competitive Pole, cluster, rural development

Functional renormalization group in the broken symmetry phase: momentum dependence and two-parameter scaling of the self-energy

We include spontaneous symmetry breaking into the functional renormalization group (RG) equations for the irreducible vertices of Ginzburg-Landau theories by augmenting these equations by a flow equation for the order parameter, which is determined from the requirement that at each RG step the vertex with one external leg vanishes identically. Using this strategy, we propose a simple truncation of the coupled RG flow equations for the vertices in the broken symmetry phase of the Ising universality class in D dimensions. Our truncation yields the full momentum dependence of the self-energy Sigma (k) and interpolates between lowest order perturbation theory at large momenta k and the critical scaling regime for small k. Close to the critical point, our method yields the self-energy in the scaling form Sigma (k) = k_c^2 sigma^{-} (k | xi, k / k_c), where xi is the order parameter correlation length, k_c is the Ginzburg scale, and sigma^{-} (x, y) is a dimensionless two-parameter scaling function for the broken symmetry phase which we explicitly calculate within our truncation.Comment: 9 pages, 4 figures, puplished versio

Monitoring global protein thiol-oxidation and protein S-mycothiolation in Mycobacterium smegmatis under hypochlorite stress.

Hillion M, Bernhardt J, Busche T, et al. Monitoring global protein thiol-oxidation and protein S-mycothiolation in Mycobacterium smegmatis under hypochlorite stress. Sci Rep. 2017;7(1): 1195.Mycothiol (MSH) is the major low molecular weight (LMW) thiol in Actinomycetes. Here, we used shotgun proteomics, OxICAT and RNA-seq transcriptomics to analyse protein S-mycothiolation, reversible thiol-oxidations and their impact on gene expression in Mycobacterium smegmatis under hypochlorite stress. In total, 58 S-mycothiolated proteins were identified under NaOCl stress that are involved in energy metabolism, fatty acid and mycolic acid biosynthesis, protein translation, redox regulation and detoxification. Protein S-mycothiolation was accompanied by MSH depletion in the thiol-metabolome. Quantification of the redox state of 1098 Cys residues using OxICAT revealed that 381 Cys residues (33.6%) showed >10% increased oxidations under NaOCl stress, which overlapped with 40 S-mycothiolated Cys-peptides. The absence of MSH resulted in a higher basal oxidation level of 338 Cys residues (41.1%). The RseA and RshA anti-sigma factors and the Zur and NrdR repressors were identified as NaOCl-sensitive proteins and their oxidation resulted in an up-regulation of the SigH, SigE, Zur and NrdR regulons in the RNA-seq transcriptome. In conclusion, we show here that NaOCl stress causes widespread thiol-oxidation including protein S-mycothiolation resulting in induction of antioxidant defense mechanisms in M. smegmatis. Our results further reveal that MSH is important to maintain the reduced state of protein thiols