337 research outputs found
New conserved structural fields for supercooled liquids
By considering Voronoi tessellations of the configurations of a fluid, we
propose two new conserved fields, which provide structural information not
fully accounted for by the usual 2-point density field fluctuations (structure
factor). One of these fields is scalar and associated to the Voronoi cell
volumes, whereas the other one, termed the "geometrical polarisation", is
vectorial, related to the very local anisotropy of the configurations. We study
the static and dynamical properties of these fields in the supercooled regime
of a model glass-forming liquid. We show in particular that the geometrical
polarisation is both statically correlated to the force field and contrary to
it develops a plateau regime when the temperature is lowered. We attribute this
behaviour to the microsopic disorder of the underlying inherent structures (IS)
which dictate the dynamics on time scales larger than the true microscopic
time, in the strong supercooled regime. In this respect, this work raises the
issue of to what extent the inter IS dynamics, intrinsically anisotropic and
collective (cf. T.B. Schr{\o}der et al. {\it J. of Chem. Phys.}, {\bf 112},
9834 (2000)), could be related to their polarisation field.Comment: submitted to EPJE the 09/30/201
Magnetic Fluctuations and Correlations in MnSi - Evidence for a Skyrmion Spin Liquid Phase
We present a comprehensive analysis of high resolution neutron scattering
data involving Neutron Spin Echo spectroscopy and Spherical Polarimetry which
confirm the first order nature of the helical transition and reveal the
existence of a new spin liquid skyrmion phase. Similar to the blue phases of
liquid crystals this phase appears in a very narrow temperature range between
the low temperature helical and the high temperature paramagnetic phases.Comment: 11 pages, 16 figure
High inclination orbits in the secular quadrupolar three-body problem
The Lidov-Kozai mechanism allows a body to periodically exchange its
eccentricity with inclination. It was first discussed in the framework of the
quadrupolar secular restricted three-body problem, where the massless particle
is the inner body, and later extended to the quadrupolar secular nonrestricted
three body problem. In this paper, we propose a different point of view on the
problem by looking first at the restricted problem where the massless particle
is the outer body. In this situation, equilibria at high mutual inclination
appear, which correspond to the population of stable particles that Verrier &
Evans (2008,2009) find in stable, high inclination circumbinary orbits around
one of the components of the quadruple star HD 98800. We provide a simple
analytical framework using a vectorial formalism for these situations. We also
look at the evolution of these high inclination equilibria in the non
restricted case.Comment: 11 pages, 6 figures. Accepted by MNRAS 2009 September 1
Pseudo-boundaries in discontinuous 2-dimensional maps
It is known that Kolmogorov-Arnold-Moser boundaries appear in sufficiently
smooth 2-dimensional area-preserving maps. When such boundaries are destroyed,
they become pseudo-boundaries. We show that pseudo-boundaries can also be found
in discontinuous maps. The origin of these pseudo-boundaries are groups of
chains of islands which separate parts of the phase space and need to be
crossed in order to move between the different sub-spaces. Trajectories,
however, do not easily cross these chains, but tend to propagate along them.
This type of behavior is demonstrated using a ``generalized'' Fermi map.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, Revtex, epsf, submitted to Physical Review E (as
a brief report
Interesting dynamics at high mutual inclination in the framework of the Kozai problem with an eccentric perturber
We study the dynamics of the 3-D three-body problem of a small body moving
under the attractions of a star and a giant planet which orbits the star on a
much wider and elliptic orbit. In particular, we focus on the influence of an
eccentric orbit of the outer perturber on the dynamics of a small highly
inclined inner body. Our analytical study of the secular perturbations relies
on the classical octupole hamiltonian expansion (third-order theory in the
ratio of the semi-major axes), as third-order terms are needed to consider the
secular variations of the outer perturber and potential secular resonances
between the arguments of the pericenter and/or longitudes of the node of both
bodies. Short-period averaging and node reduction (Laplace plane) reduce the
problem to two degrees of freedom. The four-dimensional dynamics is analyzed
through representative planes which identify the main equilibria of the
problem. As in the circular problem (i.e. perturber on a circular orbit), the
"Kozai-bifurcated" equilibria play a major role in the dynamics of an inner
body on quasi-circular orbit: its eccentricity variations are very limited for
mutual inclination between the orbital planes smaller than ~40^{\deg}, while
they become large and chaotic for higher mutual inclination. Particular
attention is also given to a region around 35^{\deg} of mutual inclination,
detected numerically by Funk et al. (2011) and consisting of long-time stable
and particularly low eccentric orbits of the small body. Using a 12th-order
Hamiltonian expansion in eccentricities and inclinations, in particular its
action-angle formulation obtained by Lie transforms in Libert & Henrard (2008),
we show that this region presents an equality of two fundamental frequencies
and can be regarded as a secular resonance. Our results also apply to binary
star systems where a planet is revolving around one of the two stars.Comment: 12 pages, 9 figures, accepted for publication in MNRA
Molecular observation of contour-length fluctuations limiting topological confinement in polymer melts
In order to study the mechanisms limiting the topological chain confinement in polymer melts, we have performed neutron-spin-echo investigations of the single-chain dynamic-structure factor from polyethylene melts over a large range of chain lengths. While at high molecular weight the reptation model is corroborated, a systematic loosening of the confinement with decreasing chain length is found. The dynamic-structure factors are quantitatively described by the effect of contour-length fluctuations on the confining tube, establishing this mechanism on a molecular level in space and time
Third-Line Nivolumab Monotherapy in Recurrent Small Cell Lung Cancer : CheckMate 032
Introduction: For patients with recurrent SCLC, topotecan remains the only approved second-line treatment, and the outcomes are poor. CheckMate 032 is a phase 1/2, multicenter, open-label study of nivolumab or nivolumab plus ipilimumab in SCLC or other advanced/metastatic solid tumors previously treated with one or more platinum-based chemotherapies. We report results of third- or later-line nivolumab monotherapy treatment in SCLC. Methods: In this analysis, patients with limited-stage or extensive-stage SCLC and disease progression after two or more chemotherapy regimens received nivolumab monotherapy, 3 mg/kg every 2 weeks, until disease progression or unacceptable toxicity. The primary end point was objective response rate. Secondary end points included duration of response, progression-free survival, overall survival, and safety. Results: Between December 4, 2013, and November 30, 2016, 109 patients began receiving third- or later-line nivolumab monotherapy. At a median follow-up of 28.3 months (from first dose to database lock), the objective response rate was 11.9% (95% confidence interval: 6.5\u201319.5) with a median duration of response of 17.9 months (range 3.0\u201342.1). At 6 months, 17.2% of patients were progression-free. The 12-month and 18-month overall survival rates were 28.3% and 20.0%, respectively. Grade 3 to 4 treatment-related adverse events occurred in 11.9% of patients. Three patients (2.8%) discontinued because of treatment-related adverse events. Conclusions: Nivolumab monotherapy provided durable responses and was well tolerated as a third- or later-line treatment for recurrent SCLC. These results suggest that nivolumab monotherapy is an effective third- or later-line treatment for this patient population
Three-dimensional-printed gas dynamic virtual nozzles for x-ray laser sample delivery
Reliable sample delivery is essential to biological imaging using X-ray Free Electron Lasers (XFELs). Continuous injection using the Gas Dynamic Virtual Nozzle (GDVN) has proven valuable, particularly for time-resolved studies. However, many important aspects of GDVN functionality have yet to be thoroughly understood and/or refined due to fabrication limitations. We report the application of 2-photon polymerization as a form of high-resolution 3D printing to fabricate high-fidelity GDVNs with submicron resolution. This technique allows rapid prototyping of a wide range of different types of nozzles from standard CAD drawings and optimization of crucial dimensions for optimal performance. Three nozzles were tested with pure water to determine general nozzle performance and reproducibility, with nearly reproducible off-axis jetting being the result. X-ray tomography and index matching were successfully used to evaluate the interior nozzle structures and identify the cause of off-axis jetting. Subsequent refinements to fabrication resulted in straight jetting. A performance test of printed nozzles at an XFEL provided high quality femtosecond diffraction patterns. (C) 2016 Optical Society of Americ
Persistence in a Stationary Time-series
We study the persistence in a class of continuous stochastic processes that
are stationary only under integer shifts of time. We show that under certain
conditions, the persistence of such a continuous process reduces to the
persistence of a corresponding discrete sequence obtained from the measurement
of the process only at integer times. We then construct a specific sequence for
which the persistence can be computed even though the sequence is
non-Markovian. We show that this may be considered as a limiting case of
persistence in the diffusion process on a hierarchical lattice.Comment: 8 pages revte
- …