On The Weak-Coupling Limit for Bosons and Fermions

In this paper we consider a large system of Bosons or Fermions. We start with an initial datum which is compatible with the Bose-Einstein, respectively Fermi-Dirac, statistics. We let the system of interacting particles evolve in a weak-coupling regime. We show that, in the limit, and up to the second order in the potential, the perturbative expansion expressing the value of the one-particle Wigner function at time $t$, agrees with the analogous expansion for the solution to the Uehling-Uhlenbeck equation. This paper follows in spirit the companion work [\rcite{BCEP}], where the authors investigated the weak-coupling limit for particles obeying the Maxwell-Boltzmann statistics: here, they proved a (much stronger) convergence result towards the solution of the Boltzmann equation

Covariation between colony social structure and immune defences of workers in the ant Formica selysi

Several ant species vary in the number of queens per colony, yet the causes and consequences of this variation remain poorly understood. In previous experiments, we found that Formica selysi workers originating from multiple-queen (=polygyne) colonies had a lower resistance to a fungal pathogen than workers originating from single-queen (=monogyne) colonies. In contrast, group diversity improved disease resistance in experimental colonies. This discrepancy between field and experimental colonies suggested that variation in social structure in the field had antagonistic effects on worker resistance, possibly through a down-regulation of the immune system balancing the positive effect of genetic diversity. Here, we examined if workers originating from field colonies with alternative social structure differed in three major components of their immune system. We found that workers from polygyne colonies had a lower bacterial growth inhibitory activity than workers from monogyne colonies. In contrast, workers from the two types of colonies did not differ significantly in bacterial cell wall lytic activity and prophenoloxidase activity. Overall, the presence of multiple queens in a colony correlated with a slight reduction in one inducible component of the immune system of individual workers. This reduced level of immune defence might explain the lower resistance of workers originating from polygyne colonies despite the positive effect of genetic diversity. More generally, these results indicate that social changes at the group level can modulate individual immune defence

Reference based contrast functions in a semi-blind context

International audienceWe deal with blind signal extraction in the framework of a convolutive mixture of independent sources. Considering so-called reference signals, we generalize former identifiability conditions. Based on this result, we propose to incorporate some a priori information in the references. We show the validity of reference based contrast functions in two semi-blind situations. The results are confirmed by computer simulation

From Bloch model to the rate equations II: the case of almost degenerate energy levels

Bloch equations give a quantum description of the coupling between an atom and a driving electric force. In this article, we address the asymptotics of these equations for high frequency electric fields, in a weakly coupled regime. We prove the convergence towards rate equations (i.e. linear Boltzmann equations, describing the transitions between energy levels of the atom). We give an explicit form for the transition rates. This has already been performed in [BFCD03] in the case when the energy levels are fixed, and for different classes of electric fields: quasi or almost periodic, KBM, or with continuous spectrum. Here, we extend the study to the case when energy levels are possibly almost degenerate. However, we need to restrict to quasiperiodic forcings. The techniques used stem from manipulations on the density matrix and the averaging theory for ordinary differential equations. Possibly perturbed small divisor estimates play a key role in the analysis. In the case of a finite number of energy levels, we also precisely analyze the initial time-layer in the rate aquation, as well as the long-time convergence towards equilibrium. We give hints and counterexamples in the infinite dimensional case

Experimentally increased group diversity improves disease resistance in an ant species.

A leading hypothesis linking parasites to social evolution is that more genetically diverse social groups better resist parasites. Moreover, group diversity can encompass factors other than genetic variation that may also influence disease resistance. Here, we tested whether group diversity improved disease resistance in an ant species with natural variation in colony queen number. We formed experimental groups of workers and challenged them with the fungal parasite Metarhizium anisopliae. Workers originating from monogynous colonies (headed by a single queen and with low genetic diversity) had higher survival than workers originating from polygynous ones, both in uninfected groups and in groups challenged with M. anisopliae. However, an experimental increase of group diversity by mixing workers originating from monogynous colonies strongly increased the survival of workers challenged with M. anisopliae, whereas it tended to decrease their survival in absence of infection. This experiment suggests that group diversity, be it genetic or environmental, improves the mean resistance of group members to the fungal infection, probably through the sharing of physiological or behavioural defences

Finite temperature Drude weight of the one dimensional spin 1/2 Heisenberg model}

Using the Bethe ansatz method, the zero frequency contribution (Drude weight) to the spin current correlations is analyzed for the easy plane antiferromagnetic Heisenberg model. The Drude weight is a monotonically decreasing function of temperature for all 0<Delta< 1, it approaches the zero temperature value with a power law and it appears to vanish for all finite temperatures at the isotropic Delta=1 point.Comment: 5 pages, 2 Postscript figure

Transport and conservation laws

We study the lowest order conservation laws in one-dimensional (1D) integrable quantum many-body models (IQM) as the Heisenberg spin 1/2 chain, the Hubbard and t-J model. We show that the energy current is closely related to the first conservation law in these models and therefore the thermal transport coefficients are anomalous. Using an inequality on the time decay of current correlations we show how the existence of conserved quantities implies a finite charge stiffness (weight of the zero frequency component of the conductivity) and so ideal conductivity at finite temperatures.Comment: 6 pages, Late

Electron spin resonance in high-field critical phase of gapped spin chains

Motivated by recent experiments on Ni(C_{2}H_{8}N_{2})_{2}Ni(CN)_{4} (commonly known as NENC), we study the electron spin resonance in the critical high-field phase of the antiferromagnetic S=1 chain with strong planar anisotropy and show that the ESR spectra exhibit several peculiarities in the critical phase. Possible relevance of those results for other gapped spin systems is discussed.Comment: 8 revtex pages, 1 eps figure include

Derivation of an observer model adapted to irregular signals based on convolution channels.

Anthropomorphic model observers are mathe- matical algorithms which are applied to images with the ultimate goal of predicting human signal detection and classification accuracy across varieties of backgrounds, image acquisitions and display conditions. A limitation of current channelized model observers is their inability to handle irregularly-shaped signals, which are common in clinical images, without a high number of directional channels. Here, we derive a new linear model observer based on convolution channels which we refer to as the "Filtered Channel observer" (FCO), as an extension of the channelized Hotelling observer (CHO) and the nonprewhitening with an eye filter (NPWE) observer. In analogy to the CHO, this linear model observer can take the form of a single template with an external noise term. To compare with human observers, we tested signals with irregular and asymmetrical shapes spanning the size of lesions down to those of microcalfications in 4-AFC breast tomosynthesis detection tasks, with three different contrasts for each case. Whereas humans uniformly outperformed conventional CHOs, the FCO observer outperformed humans for every signal with only one exception. Additive internal noise in the models allowed us to degrade model performance and match human performance. We could not match all the human performances with a model with a single internal noise component for all signal shape, size and contrast conditions. This suggests that either the internal noise might vary across signals or that the model cannot entirely capture the human detection strategy. However, the FCO model offers an efficient way to apprehend human observer performance for a non-symmetric signal

Quantum Transport in a Nanosize Silicon-on-Insulator Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor

An approach is developed for the determination of the current flowing through a nanosize silicon-on-insulator (SOI) metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistors (MOSFET). The quantum mechanical features of the electron transport are extracted from the numerical solution of the quantum Liouville equation in the Wigner function representation. Accounting for electron scattering due to ionized impurities, acoustic phonons and surface roughness at the Si/SiO2 interface, device characteristics are obtained as a function of a channel length. From the Wigner function distributions, the coexistence of the diffusive and the ballistic transport naturally emerges. It is shown that the scattering mechanisms tend to reduce the ballistic component of the transport. The ballistic component increases with decreasing the channel length.Comment: 21 pages, 8 figures, E-mail addresses: [email protected]