10,512 research outputs found
Relativistic Landau Levels in the Rotating Cosmic String Spacetime
In the spacetime induced by a rotating cosmic string we compute the energy
levels of a massive spinless particle coupled covariantly to a homogeneous
magnetic field parallel to the string. Afterwards, we consider the addition of
a scalar potential with a Coulomb-type and a linear confining term and
completely solve the Klein-Gordon equations for each configuration. Finally,
assuming rigid-wall boundary conditions, we find the Landau levels when the
linear defect is itself magnetized. Remarkably, our analysis reveals that the
Landau quantization occurs even in the absence of gauge fields provided the
string is endowed with spin.Comment: Writing and grammar revised. References added. 14 pages, no figures.
To appear in European Phys. J.
Chemically engineering ligand selectivity at the free fatty acid receptor 2 based on pharmacological variation between species orthologs
When it is difficult to develop selective ligands within a family of related G-protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs), chemically engineered receptors activated solely by synthetic ligands (RASSLs) are useful alternatives for probing receptor function. In the present work, we explored whether a RASSL of the free fatty acid receptor 2 (FFA2) could be developed on the basis of pharmacological variation between species orthologs. For this, bovine FFA2 was characterized, revealing distinct ligand selectivity compared with human FFA2. Homology modeling and mutational analysis demonstrated a single mutation in human FFA2 of C4.57G resulted in a human FFA2 receptor with ligand selectivity similar to the bovine receptor. This was exploited to generate human FFA2-RASSL by the addition of a second mutation at a known orthosteric ligand interaction site, H6.55Q. The resulting FFA2-RASSL displayed a >100-fold loss of activity to endogenous ligands, while responding to the distinct ligand sorbic acid with pEC(50) values for inhibition of cAMP, 5.83 ± 0.11; Ca(2+) mobilization, 4.63 ± 0.05; ERK phosphorylation, 5.61 ± 0.06; and dynamic mass redistribution, 5.35 ± 0.06. This FFA2-RASSL will be useful in future studies on this receptor and demonstrates that exploitation of pharmacological variation between species orthologs is a powerful method to generate novel chemically engineered GPCRs
The first high-amplitude delta Scuti star in an eclipsing binary system
We report the discovery of the first high-amplitude delta Scuti star in an
eclipsing binary, which we have designated UNSW-V-500. The system is an
Algol-type semi-detached eclipsing binary of maximum brightness V = 12.52 mag.
A best-fitting solution to the binary light curve and two radial velocity
curves is derived using the Wilson-Devinney code. We identify a late A spectral
type primary component of mass 1.49+/-0.02 M_sun and a late K spectral type
secondary of mass 0.33+/-0.02 M_sun, with an inclination of 86.5+/-1.0 degrees,
and a period of 5.3504751+/-0.0000006 d. A Fourier analysis of the residuals
from this solution is performed using PERIOD04 to investigate the delta Scuti
pulsations. We detect a single pulsation frequency of f_1 = 13.621+/-0.015 c/d,
and it appears this is the first overtone radial mode frequency. This system
provides the first opportunity to measure the dynamical mass for a star of this
variable type; previously, masses have been derived from stellar evolution and
pulsation models.Comment: 7 pages, 6 figures, 2 tables, for submission to MNRAS, v2: paper size
change, small typographical changes to abstrac
Nonlinear ac conductivity of one-dimensional Mott insulators
We discuss a semiclassical calculation of low energy charge transport in
one-dimensional (1d) insulators with a focus on Mott insulators, whose charge
degrees of freedom are gapped due to the combination of short range
interactions and a periodic lattice potential. Combining RG and instanton
methods, we calculate the nonlinear ac conductivity and interpret the result in
terms of multi-photon absorption. We compare the result of the semiclassical
calculation for interacting systems to a perturbative, fully quantum mechanical
calculation of multi-photon absorption in a 1d band insulator and find good
agreement when the number of simultaneously absorbed photons is large.Comment: Dedicated to Thomas Nattermann on the occasion of his 60th birthday.
To appear in JSTAT. 5 pages, 2 figure
Surface Tension at Finite Tempearture in the MIT Bag Model
At the surface tension in the MIT bag model for a
single hadron is known to be negligible as compared to the bag pressure . We show that at finite temperature it has a substantial value of 50 -
70 MeV which also differ from hadron to hadron. We also find that the dynamics
of the Quark-Gluon Plasma is such that the creation of hybrids
with massive quarks will predominate over the creation of
mesons.Comment: Substantial changes in the revised version and a new author included,
13 pages in Latex and one figur
Linear response functions for a vibrational configuration interaction state
Linear response functions are implemented for a vibrational configuration interaction state allowing accurate analytical calculations of pure vibrational contributions to dynamical polarizabilities. Sample calculations are presented for the pure vibrational contributions to the polarizabilities of water and formaldehyde. We discuss the convergence of the results with respect to various details of the vibrational wave function description as well as the potential and property surfaces. We also analyze the frequency dependence of the linear response function and the effect of accounting phenomenologically for the finite lifetime of the excited vibrational states. Finally, we compare the analytical response approach to a sum-over-states approac
Self-dual vortices in a Maxwell-Chern-Simons model with non-minimal coupling
We find self-dual vortex solutions in a Maxwell-Chern-Simons model with
anomalous magnetic moment. From a recently developed N=2-supersymmetric
extension, we obtain the proper Bogomol'nyi equations together with a Higgs
potential allowing both topological and non-topological phases in the theory.Comment: 12 pages, 9 figures, 2 tables; some typos corrected, one reference
updated. To be published in the Int. J. Mod. Phys. A (1999
The UNSW Extrasolar Planet Search: Methods and First Results from a Field Centred on NGC 6633
We report on the current status of the University of New South Wales
Extrasolar Planet Search project, giving details of the methods we use to
obtain millimagnitude precision photometry using the 0.5m Automated Patrol
Telescope. We use a novel observing technique to optimally broaden the PSF and
thus largely eliminate photometric noise due to intra-pixel sensitivity
variations on the CCD. We have observed 8 crowded Galactic fields using this
technique during 2003 and 2004. Our analysis of the first of these fields
(centred on the open cluster NGC 6633) has yielded 49 variable stars and 4
shallow transit candidates. Follow-up observations of these candidates have
identified them as eclipsing binary systems. We use a detailed simulation of
our observations to estimate our sensitivity to short-period planets, and to
select a new observing strategy to maximise the number of planets detected.Comment: 16 pages, 9 figures, version published in MNRAS Updated figures,
references, and additional discussion in section
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