Laser-Induced Fano Resonance in Condensed Matter Physics

Recent development of laser technology toward the realization of high-power laser has opened up a new research area exploring various fascinating phenomena governed by strongly photoexcited electronic states in diverse fields of science. In this chapter, we review the laser-induced Fano resonance (FR) in condensed matter systems, which is one of the representative resonance effects successfully exposed by strong laser field. The FR of concern sharply differs from FR effects commonly observed in conventional quantum systems where FR is caused by a weak external perturbation in a stationary system in the following two aspects. One is that the present FR is a transient phenomenon caused by nonequilibrium photoexcited states. The other is that this is induced by an optically nonlinear process. Here, we introduce two physical processes causing such transient and optically nonlinear FR in condensed matter, followed by highlighting anomalous effects inherent in it. The first is a Floquet exciton realized in semiconductor superlattices driven by a strong continuous-wave laser, and the second is the coherent phonon induced by an ultrashort pulse laser in bulk crystals

Rotation in the NGC 1333 IRAS 4C Outflow

We report molecular line observations of the NGC 1333 IRAS 4C outflow in the Perseus Molecular Cloud with the Atacama Large Millimeter/Submillimeter Array. The CCH and CS emission reveal an outflow cavity structure with clear signatures of rotation with respect to the outflow axis. The rotation is detected from about 120 au up to about 1400 au above the envelope/disk mid-plane. As the distance to the central source increases, the rotation velocity of the outflow decreases while the outflow radius increases, which gives a flat specific angular momentum distribution along the outflow. The mean specific angular momentum of the outflow is about 100 au km/s. Based on reasonable assumptions on the outward velocity of the outflow and the protostar mass, we estimate the range of outflow launching radii to be 5-15 au. Such a launching radius rules out that this outflow is launched as an X-wind, but rather, it is more consistent to be a slow disk wind launched from relatively large radii on the disk. The radius of the centrifugal barrier is roughly estimated, and the role of the centrifugal barrier in the outflow launching is discussed.Comment: Accepted to ApJ. 29 pages, 8 figure

Chemical survey toward young stellar objects in the Perseus molecular cloud complex

Chemical diversity of the gas in low-mass protostellar cores is widely recognized. In order to explore its origin, a survey of chemical composition toward 36 Class 0/I protostars in the Perseus molecular cloud complex, which are selected in an unbiased way under certain physical conditions, has been conducted with IRAM 30 m and NRO 45 m telescope. Multiple lines of C2H, c-C3H2 and CH3OH have been observed to characterize the chemical composition averaged over a 1000 au scale around the protostar. The derived beam-averaged column densities show significant chemical diversity among the sources, where the column density ratios of C2H/CH3OH are spread out by 2 orders of magnitude. From previous studies, the hot corino sources have abundant CH3OH but deficient C2H, their C2H/CH3OH column density ratios being relatively low. In contrast, the warm-carbon-chain chemistry (WCCC) sources are found to reveal the high C2H/CH3OH column density ratios. We find that the majority of the sources have intermediate characters between these two distinct chemistry types. A possible trend is seen between the C2H/CH3OH ratio and the distance of the source from the edge of a molecular cloud. The sources located near cloud edges or in isolated clouds tend to have a high C2H/CH3OH ratio. On the other hand, the sources having a low C2H/CH3OH ratio tend to be located in inner regions of the molecular cloud complex. This result gives an important clue to an understanding of the origin of the chemical diversity of protostellar cores in terms of environmental effects.Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJ

Rotation in the NGC 1333 IRAS 4C Outflow

We report molecular line observations of the NGC 1333 IRAS 4C outflow in the Perseus Molecular Cloud with the Atacama Large Millimeter/Submillimeter Array. The CCH and CS emission reveal an outflow cavity structure with clear signatures of rotation with respect to the outflow axis. The rotation is detected from about 120 au up to about 1400 au above the envelope/disk midplane. As the distance to the central source increases, the rotation velocity of the outflow decreases while the outflow radius increases, which gives a flat specific angular momentum distribution along the outflow. The mean specific angular momentum of the outflow is about 100 $\mathrm{au}\,\mathrm{km}\,{{\rm{s}}}^{-1}$. On the basis of reasonable assumptions on the outward velocity of the outflow and the protostar mass, we estimate the range of outflow-launching radii to be 5–15 au. Such a launching radius rules out that this outflow is launched as an X-wind, but rather, it is more consistent to be a slow disk wind launched from relatively large radii on the disk. The radius of the centrifugal barrier is roughly estimated, and the role of the centrifugal barrier in the outflow launching is discussed

Chemical Survey toward Young Stellar Objects in the Perseus Molecular Cloud Complex

The chemical diversity of gas in low-mass protostellar cores is widely recognized. In order to explore the origin of this diversity, a survey of chemical composition toward 36 Class 0/I protostars in the Perseus molecular cloud complex, which are selected in an unbiased way under certain physical conditions, has been conducted with IRAM 30 m and NRO 45 m telescope. Multiple lines of C2H, c-C3H2, and CH3OH have been observed to characterize the chemical composition averaged over a 1000 au scale around the protostar. The derived beam-averaged column densities show significant chemical diversity among the sources, where the column density ratios of C2H/CH3OH are spread out by two orders of magnitude. From previous studies, the hot corino sources have abundant CH3OH but deficient C2H, their C2H/CH3OH column density ratios being relatively low. In contrast, the warm-carbon-chain chemistry (WCCC) sources are found to reveal the high C2H/CH3OH column density ratios. We find that the majority of the sources have intermediate characters between these two distinct chemistry types. A possible trend is seen between the C2H/CH3OH ratio and the distance of the source from the edge of a molecular cloud. The sources located near cloud edges or in isolated clouds tend to have a high C2H/CH3OH ratio. On the other hand, the sources having a low C2H/CH3OH ratio tend to be located in the inner regions of the molecular cloud complex. This result gives an important clue toward understanding the origin of the chemical diversity of protostellar cores in terms of environmental effects

Irregular oscillatory patterns in the early-time region of coherent phonon generation in silicon

Coherent phonon (CP) generation in an undoped Si crystal is theoretically investigated to shed light on unexplored quantum-mechanical effects in the early-time region immediately after the irradiation of ultrashort laser pulses. We examine time signals attributed to an induced charge density of an ionic core, placing the focus on the effects of the Rabi frequency Ω0cv on the signals; this frequency corresponds to the peak electric-field of the pulse. It is found that at specific Ω0cv\u27s, where the energy of plasmon caused by photoexcited carriers coincides with the longitudinal-optical phonon energy, the energetically resonant interaction between these two modes leads to striking anticrossings, revealing irregular oscillations with anomalously enhanced amplitudes in the observed time signals. Also, the oscillatory pattern is subject to the Rabi flopping of the excited carrier density that is controlled by Ω0cv. These findings show that the early-time region is enriched with quantum-mechanical effects inherent in the CP generation, though experimental signals are more or less masked by the so-called coherent artifact due to nonlinear optical effects

Role of Non-catalytic Ligands in Macromolecule Function

Human hexokinase Type-I (HKI) binds to the outer mitochondrial membrane, and in so doing protects the mitochondrion, controls adenine nucleotide flux through the membrane and blocks mitochondrion-linked apoptosis. Adenosine 5’-triphosphate (ATP) releases HKI from the outer mitochondrial membrane, but the mechanism of ATP release is unclear. ATP-release is not due to the generation of glucose 6-phosphate (G6P) from ATP and glucose or by the binding of ATP to HKI at its catalytic or regulatory domains. Instead, the voltage dependent anion channel (VDAC) has a high affinity binding site for ATP as revealed by titrations using ATP and fluorescent analogs of ATP. Single lysine-to-methionine mutations of 15 residues within the pore of VDAC link ATP binding to the NZ atom of Lys256. Giant unilamellar vesicles (GUVs) bind the N-terminal half of HKI only if VDAC is embedded in the vesicle bilayer, demonstrating VDAC alone is sufficient (and necessary) to localize HKI to a membrane. ATP releases the N-terminal half of HKI from VDAC-embedded GUVs, demonstrating ATP-release is due to the binding of ATP to VDAC. b-Ketoacyl–(acyl-carrier-protein) synthase III (FabH) catalyzes the first condensation reaction of fatty acid biosynthesis. Highly purified FabH from Escherichia coli is unstable at elevated concentrations and precipitates irreversibly from solution. FabH achieves high levels of stability as the acetyl adduct of Cys112, paired with chloride. The resting state in vivo for FabH may be as the chloride-stabilized acetyl adduct of Cys112.</p