20,633 research outputs found
SIMMUNE, a tool for simulating and analyzing immune system behavior
We present a new approach to the simulation and analysis of immune system
behavior. The simulations that can be done with our software package called
SIMMUNE are based on immunological data that describe the behavior of immune
system agents (cells, molecules) on a microscopial (i.e. agent-agent
interaction) scale by defining cellular stimulus-response mechanisms. Since the
behavior of the agents in SIMMUNE can be very flexibly configured, its
application is not limited to immune system simulations. We outline the
principles of SIMMUNE's multiscale analysis of emergent structure within the
simulated immune system that allow the identification of immunological contexts
using minimal a priori assumptions about the higher level organization of the
immune system.Comment: 23 pages, 10 figure
Supersaturated dispersions of rod-like viruses with added attraction
The kinetics of isotropic-nematic (I-N) and nematic-isotropic (N-I) phase
transitions in dispersions of rod-like {\it fd}-viruses are studied.
Concentration quenches were applied using pressure jumps in combination with
polarization microscopy, birefringence and turbidity measurements. The full
biphasic region could be accessed, resulting in the construction of a first
experimental analogue of the bifurcation diagram. The N-I spinodal points for
dispersions of rods with varying concentrations of depletion agents (dextran)
were obtained from orientation quenches, using cessation of shear flow in
combination with small angle light scattering. We found that the location of
the N-I spinodal point is independent of the attraction, which was confirmed by
theoretical calculations. Surprisingly, the experiments showed that also the
absolute induction time, the critical nucleus and the growth rate are
insensitive of the attraction, when the concentration is scaled to the distance
to the phase boundaries.Comment: 13 pages, 14 figures. accepted in Phsical Review
Forward-backward asymmetry of photoemission in C excited by few-cycle laser pulses
We theoretically analyze angle-resolved photo-electron spectra (ARPES)
generated by the interaction of C with intense, short laser pulses. In
particular, we focus on the impact of the carrier-envelope phase (CEP) onto the
angular distribution. The electronic dynamics is described by time-dependent
density functional theory, and the ionic background of \csixty is
approximated by a particularly designed jellium model. Our results show a clear
dependence of the angular distributions onto the CEP for very short pulses
covering only very few laser cycles, which disappears for longer pulses. For
the specific laser parameters used in a recent experiments, a very good
agreement is obtained. Furthermore, the asymmetry is found to depend on the
energy of the emitted photoelectrons. The strong influence of the angular
asymmetry of electron emission onto the CEP and pulse duration suggests to use
this sensitivity as a means to analyze the structure of few-cycle laser pulses.Comment: 8 pages, 6 figure
Longitudinal spin Seebeck coefficient: heat flux vs. temperature difference method
The determination of the longitudinal spin Seebeck effect (LSSE) coefficient
is currently plagued by a large uncertainty due to the poor reproducibility of
the experimental conditions used in its measurement. In this work we present a
detailed analysis of two different methods used for the determination of the
LSSE coefficient. We have performed LSSE experiments in different laboratories,
by using different setups and employing both the temperature difference method
and the heat flux method. We found that the lack of reproducibility can be
mainly attributed to the thermal contact resistance between the sample and the
thermal baths which generate the temperature gradient. Due to the variation of
the thermal resistance, we found that the scaling of the LSSE voltage to the
heat flux through the sample rather than to the temperature difference across
the sample greatly reduces the uncertainty. The characteristics of a single
YIG/Pt LSSE device obtained with two different setups was Vm/W and Vm/W with the heat flux method
and V/K and V/K
with the temperature difference method. This shows that systematic errors can
be considerably reduced with the heat flux method.Comment: PDFLaTeX, 10 pages, 6 figure
Pauli blockade of the electron spin flip in bulk GaAs
By means of time-resolved optical orientation under strong optical pumping,
the k-dependence of the electron spin-flip time (t_sf) in undoped GaAs is
experimentally determined. t_sf monotonically decreases by more than one order
of magnitude when the electron kinetic energy varies from 2 to 30 meV. At the
high excitation densities and low temperatures of the reported experiments the
main spin-flip mechanism of the conduction band electrons is the
Bir-Aronov-Pikus. By means of Monte-Carlo simulations we evidence that
phase-space filling effects result in the blocking of the spin flip, yielding
an increase of t_sf with excitation density. These effects obtain values of
t_sf up to 30 ns at k=0, the longest reported spin-relaxation time in undoped
GaAs in the absence of a magnetic field.Comment: new author added, major changes in section IV (phenomenological
model), minor changes throughout the entire manuscrip
Hole spin relaxation in intrinsic and -type bulk GaAs
We investigate hole spin relaxation in intrinsic and -type bulk GaAs from
a fully microscopic kinetic spin Bloch equation approach. In contrast to the
previous study on hole spin dynamics, we explicitly include the intraband
coherence and the nonpolar hole-optical-phonon interaction, both of which are
demonstrated to be of great importance to the hole spin relaxation. The
relative contributions of the D'yakonov-Perel' and Elliott-Yafet mechanisms on
hole spin relaxation are also analyzed. In our calculation, the screening
constant, playing an important role in the hole spin relaxation, is treated
with the random phase approximation. In intrinsic GaAs, our result shows good
agreement with the experiment data at room temperature, where the hole spin
relaxation is demonstrated to be dominated by the Elliott-Yafet mechanism. We
also find that the hole spin relaxation strongly depends on the temperature and
predict a valley in the density dependence of the hole spin relaxation time at
low temperature due to the hole-electron scattering. In -type GaAs, we
predict a peak in the spin relaxation time against the hole density at low
temperature, which originates from the distinct behaviors of the screening in
the degenerate and nondegenerate regimes. The competition between the screening
and the momentum exchange during scattering events can also lead to a valley in
the density dependence of the hole spin relaxation time in the low density
regime. At high temperature, the effect of the screening is suppressed due to
the small screening constant. Moreover, we predict a nonmonotonic dependence of
the hole spin relaxation time on temperature associated with the screening
together with the hole-phonon scattering. Finally, we find that the
D'yakonov-Perel' mechanism can markedly contribute to the .... (omitted due to
the limit of space)Comment: 11 pages, 7 figures, Phys. Rev. B, in pres
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