534 research outputs found
Nonmonotonic inelastic tunneling spectra due to surface spin excitations in ferromagnetic junctions
The paper addresses inelastic spin-flip tunneling accompanied by surface spin
excitations (magnons) in ferromagnetic junctions. The inelastic tunneling
current is proportional to the magnon density of states which is
energy-independent for the surface waves and, for this reason, cannot account
for the bias-voltage dependence of the observed inelastic tunneling spectra.
This paper shows that the bias-voltage dependence of the tunneling spectra can
arise from the tunneling matrix elements of the electron-magnon interaction.
These matrix elements are derived from the Coulomb exchange interaction using
the itinerant-electron model of magnon-assisted tunneling. The results for the
inelastic tunneling spectra, based on the nonequilibrium Green's function
calculations, are presented for both parallel and antiparallel magnetizations
in the ferromagnetic leads.Comment: 9 pages, 4 figures, version as publishe
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A low frequency persistent reservoir of a genomic island in a pathogen population ensures island survival and improves pathogen fitness in a susceptible host
The co-evolution of bacterial plant pathogens and their hosts is a complex and dynamic process. Host resistance imposes stress on invading pathogens that can lead to changes in the bacterial genome enabling the pathogen to escape host resistance. We have observed this phenomenon with the plant pathogen Pseudomonas syringae pv. phaseolicola where isolates that have lost the genomic island PPHGI-1 carrying the effector gene avrPphB from its chromosome are infective against previously resistant plant hosts. However, we have never observed island extinction from the pathogen population within a host suggesting the island is maintained. Here we present a mathematical model which predicts different possible fates for the island in the population; one outcome indicated that PPHGI-1 would be maintained at low frequency in the population long term if it confers a fitness benefit. We empirically tested this prediction and determined that PPHGI-1 frequency in the bacterial population drops to a low but consistently detectable level during host resistance. Once PPHGI-1-carrying cells encounter a susceptible host, they rapidly increase in the population in a negative frequency dependent manner. Importantly, our data show that mobile genetic elements can persist within the bacterial population and increase in frequency under favourable conditions
Klein tunneling in graphene: optics with massless electrons
This article provides a pedagogical review on Klein tunneling in graphene,
i.e. the peculiar tunneling properties of two-dimensional massless Dirac
electrons. We consider two simple situations in detail: a massless Dirac
electron incident either on a potential step or on a potential barrier and use
elementary quantum wave mechanics to obtain the transmission probability. We
emphasize the connection to related phenomena in optics, such as the
Snell-Descartes law of refraction, total internal reflection, Fabry-P\'erot
resonances, negative refraction index materials (the so called meta-materials),
etc. We also stress that Klein tunneling is not a genuine quantum tunneling
effect as it does not necessarily involve passing through a classically
forbidden region via evanescent waves. A crucial role in Klein tunneling is
played by the conservation of (sublattice) pseudo-spin, which is discussed in
detail. A major consequence is the absence of backscattering at normal
incidence, of which we give a new shorten proof. The current experimental
status is also thoroughly reviewed. The appendix contains the discussion of a
one-dimensional toy model that clearly illustrates the difference in Klein
tunneling between mono- and bi-layer graphene.Comment: short review article, 18 pages, 14 figures; v3: references added,
several figures slightly modifie
Ultrarelativistic electron-hole pairing in graphene bilayer
We consider ground state of electron-hole graphene bilayer composed of two
independently doped graphene layers when a condensate of spatially separated
electron-hole pairs is formed. In the weak coupling regime the pairing affects
only conduction band of electron-doped layer and valence band of hole-doped
layer, thus the ground state is similar to ordinary BCS condensate. At strong
coupling, an ultrarelativistic character of electron dynamics reveals and the
bands which are remote from Fermi surfaces (valence band of electron-doped
layer and conduction band of hole-doped layer) are also affected by the
pairing. The analysis of instability of unpaired state shows that s-wave
pairing with band-diagonal condensate structure, described by two gaps, is
preferable. A relative phase of the gaps is fixed, however at weak coupling
this fixation diminishes allowing gapped and soliton-like excitations. The
coupled self-consistent gap equations for these two gaps are solved at zero
temperature in the constant-gap approximation and in the approximation of
separable potential. It is shown that, if characteristic width of the pairing
region is of the order of magnitude of chemical potential, then the value of
the gap in the spectrum is not much different from the BCS estimation. However,
if the pairing region is wider, then the gap value can be much larger and
depends exponentially on its energy width.Comment: 13 pages with 8 figures; accepted to Eur. Phys. J.
Dragon-kings: mechanisms, statistical methods and empirical evidence
This introductory article presents the special Discussion and Debate volume
"From black swans to dragon-kings, is there life beyond power laws?" published
in Eur. Phys. J. Special Topics in May 2012. We summarize and put in
perspective the contributions into three main themes: (i) mechanisms for
dragon-kings, (ii) detection of dragon-kings and statistical tests and (iii)
empirical evidence in a large variety of natural and social systems. Overall,
we are pleased to witness significant advances both in the introduction and
clarification of underlying mechanisms and in the development of novel
efficient tests that demonstrate clear evidence for the presence of
dragon-kings in many systems. However, this positive view should be balanced by
the fact that this remains a very delicate and difficult field, if only due to
the scarcity of data as well as the extraordinary important implications with
respect to hazard assessment, risk control and predictability.Comment: 20 page
Can forest management based on natural disturbances maintain ecological resilience?
Given the increasingly global stresses on forests, many ecologists argue that managers must maintain ecological resilience: the capacity of ecosystems to absorb disturbances without undergoing fundamental change. In this review we ask: Can the emerging paradigm of natural-disturbance-based management (NDBM) maintain ecological resilience in managed forests? Applying resilience theory requires careful articulation of the ecosystem state under consideration, the disturbances and stresses that affect the persistence of possible alternative states, and the spatial and temporal scales of management relevance. Implementing NDBM while maintaining resilience means recognizing that (i) biodiversity is important for long-term ecosystem persistence, (ii) natural disturbances play a critical role as a generator of structural and compositional heterogeneity at multiple scales, and (iii) traditional management tends to produce forests more homogeneous than those disturbed naturally and increases the likelihood of unexpected catastrophic change by constraining variation of key environmental processes. NDBM may maintain resilience if silvicultural strategies retain the structures and processes that perpetuate desired states while reducing those that enhance resilience of undesirable states. Such strategies require an understanding of harvesting impacts on slow ecosystem processes, such as seed-bank or nutrient dynamics, which in the long term can lead to ecological surprises by altering the forest's capacity to reorganize after disturbance
Study of the production of and hadrons in collisions and first measurement of the branching fraction
The product of the () differential production
cross-section and the branching fraction of the decay () is
measured as a function of the beauty hadron transverse momentum, ,
and rapidity, . The kinematic region of the measurements is and . The measurements use a data sample
corresponding to an integrated luminosity of collected by the
LHCb detector in collisions at centre-of-mass energies in 2011 and in 2012. Based on previous LHCb
results of the fragmentation fraction ratio, , the
branching fraction of the decay is
measured to be \begin{equation*} \mathcal{B}(\Lambda_b^0\rightarrow J/\psi
pK^-)= (3.17\pm0.04\pm0.07\pm0.34^{+0.45}_{-0.28})\times10^{-4},
\end{equation*} where the first uncertainty is statistical, the second is
systematic, the third is due to the uncertainty on the branching fraction of
the decay , and the
fourth is due to the knowledge of . The sum of the
asymmetries in the production and decay between and
is also measured as a function of and .
The previously published branching fraction of , relative to that of , is updated.
The branching fractions of are determined.Comment: 29 pages, 19figures. All figures and tables, along with any
supplementary material and additional information, are available at
https://lhcbproject.web.cern.ch/lhcbproject/Publications/LHCbProjectPublic/LHCb-PAPER-2015-032.htm
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