First-principles accurate total-energy surfaces for polar structural distortions of BaTiO3, PbTiO3, and SrTiO3: consequences to structural transition temperatures

Specific forms of the exchange correlation energy functionals in first-principles density functional theory-based calculations, such as the local density approximation (LDA) and generalized-gradient approximations (GGA), give rise to structural lattice parameters with typical errors of -2% and 2%. Due to a strong coupling between structure and polarization, the order parameter of ferroelectric transitions, they result in large errors in estimation of temperature dependent ferroelectric structural transition properties. Here, we employ a recently developed GGA functional of Wu and Cohen [Phys. Rev. B 73, 235116 (2006)] and determine total-energy surfaces for zone-center distortions of BaTiO3, PbTiO3, and SrTiO3, and compare them with the ones obtained with calculations based on standard LDA and GGA. Confirming that the Wu and Cohen functional allows better estimation of structural properties at 0 K, we determine a new set of parameters defining the effective Hamiltonian for ferroelectric transition in BaTiO3. Using the new set of parameters, we perform molecular-dynamics (MD) simulations under effective pressures p=0.0 GPa, p=-2.0 GPa, and p=-0.005T GPa. The simulations under p=-0.005T GPa, which is for simulating thermal expansion, show a clear improvement in the cubic to tetragonal transition temperature and c/a parameter of its ferroelectric tetragonal phase, while the description of transitions at lower temperatures to orthorhombic and rhombohedral phases is marginally improved. Our findings augur well for use of Wu-Cohen functional in studies of ferroelectrics at nano-scale, particularly in the form of epitaxial films where the properties depend crucially on the lattice mismatch.Comment: 10 pages, 7 figures, 3 tables, resubmitted to PR

New Inequalities in Extended Black Hole Thermodynamics

We propose novel thermodynamic inequalities that apply to stationary asymptotically Anti-de Sitter (AdS) black holes. These inequalities incorporate the thermodynamic volume and refine the reverse isoperimetric inequality. To assess the validity of our conjectures, we apply them to a wide range of analytical black hole solutions, observing compelling evidence in their favour. Intriguingly, our findings indicate that these inequalities may also apply for black holes of non-spherical horizon topology, as we show their validity as well for thin black rings in AdS.Comment: 15 pages, 1 figur

Surface Acoustic Wave Single-Electron Interferometry

We propose an experiment to observe interference of a single electron as it is transported along two parallel quasi-one-dimensional channels trapped in a single minimum of a travelling periodic electric field. The experimental device is a modification of the surface acoustic wave (SAW) based quantum processor. Interference is achieved by creating a superposition of spatial wavefunctions between the two channels and inducing a relative phase shift via either a transverse electric field or a magnetic field. The interference can be used to estimate the decoherence time of an electron in this type of solid-state device

Chiral Zeromodes on Vortex-type Intersecting Heterotic Five-branes

We solve the gaugino Dirac equation on a smeared intersecting five-brane solution in E_8\times E_8 heterotic string theory to search for localized chiral zeromodes on the intersection. The background is chosen to depend on the full two-dimensional overall transverse coordinates to the branes. Under some appropriate boundary conditions, we compute the complete spectrum of zeromodes to find that, among infinite towers of Fourier modes, there exist only three localized normalizable zeromodes, one of which has opposite chirality to the other two. This agrees with the result previously obtained in the domain-wall type solution, supporting the claim that there exists one net chiral zeromode localized on the heterotic five-brane system.Comment: 10 pages, 2 figure

Diabetic Cardiovascular Disease Induced by Oxidative Stress.

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of morbidity and mortality among patients with diabetes mellitus (DM). DM can lead to multiple cardiovascular complications, including coronary artery disease (CAD), cardiac hypertrophy, and heart failure (HF). HF represents one of the most common causes of death in patients with DM and results from DM-induced CAD and diabetic cardiomyopathy. Oxidative stress is closely associated with the pathogenesis of DM and results from overproduction of reactive oxygen species (ROS). ROS overproduction is associated with hyperglycemia and metabolic disorders, such as impaired antioxidant function in conjunction with impaired antioxidant activity. Long-term exposure to oxidative stress in DM induces chronic inflammation and fibrosis in a range of tissues, leading to formation and progression of disease states in these tissues. Indeed, markers for oxidative stress are overexpressed in patients with DM, suggesting that increased ROS may be primarily responsible for the development of diabetic complications. Therefore, an understanding of the pathophysiological mechanisms mediated by oxidative stress is crucial to the prevention and treatment of diabetes-induced CVD. The current review focuses on the relationship between diabetes-induced CVD and oxidative stress, while highlighting the latest insights into this relationship from findings on diabetic heart and vascular disease

Terahertz Artificial Dielectric Lens

We have designed, fabricated, and experimentally characterized a lens for the THz regime based on artificial dielectrics. These are man-made media that mimic properties of naturally occurring dielectric media, or even manifest properties that cannot generally occur in nature. For example, the well-known dielectric property, the refractive index, which usually has a value greater than unity, can have a value less than unity in an artificial dielectric. For our lens, the artificial-dielectric medium is made up of a parallel stack of 100 μm thick metal plates that form an array of parallel-plate waveguides. The convergent lens has a plano-concave geometry, in contrast to conventional dielectric lenses. Our results demonstrate that this lens is capable of focusing a 2 cm diameter beam to a spot size of 4 mm, at the design frequency of 0.17 THz. The results further demonstrate that the overall power transmission of the lens can be better than certain conventional dielectric lenses commonly used in the THz regime. Intriguingly, we also observe that under certain conditions, the lens boundary demarcated by the discontinuous plate edges actually resembles a smooth continuous surface. These results highlight the importance of this artificial-dielectric technology for the development of future THz-wave devices