Towards a sensitive search for variation of the fine structure constant using radio-frequency E1 transitions in atomic dysprosium

It has been proposed that the radio-frequency electric-dipole (E1) transition between two nearly degenerate opposite-parity states in atomic dysprosium should be highly sensitive to possible temporal variation of the fine structure constant ($\alpha$) [V. A. Dzuba, V. V. Flambaum, and J. K. Webb, Phys. Rev. A {\bf 59}, 230 (1999)]. We analyze here an experimental realization of the proposed search in progress in our laboratory, which involves monitoring the E1 transition frequency over a period of time using direct frequency counting techniques. We estimate that a statistical sensitivity of |\adota| \sim 10^{-18}/yr may be achieved and discuss possible systematic effects that may limit such a measurement.Comment: 8 pages, 7 figure

GENNOVATE: enabling gender equality in agricultural and environmental innovation

This report synthesizes results from two case studies carried out among the Thai in Northwest Vietnam as part of the global comparative study ‘Gennovate: Enabling gender equality in agricultural and environmental innovation’. Gennovate addresses the question of how gender norms and agency influence men and women of different generational and socio-economic groups to adopt and adapt innovations in agriculture and natural resource management. These two case studies were funded by the CGIAR through the Agriculture for Nutrition and Health (A4NH) and contribute to the gender work package of the Nutrition Cluster of Activities of the Humidtropics Research Programmes which attempts to better understand the role of biodiversity at different scales from individuals, households (and their farms), villages and the wider landscapes. The Gennovate global study is carried out collaboratively among various CGIAR Research Programs (https://gender.cgiar.org/collaborative-research/gennovate/)

On network flow problems with convex cost

Minimum cost flow (MCF) problem is a typical example of network flow problems, for which an additional constraint of cost is added to each flow. Conventional MCF problems consider the cost constraints as linear functions of flow. In this paper, we extend the MCF problem to cover cost functions as strictly convex and differentiable, and refer to the problem as convex cost flow problem. To address this problem, we derive the optimality conditions for minimising convex and differentiable cost functions, and devise an algorithm based on the primal-dual algorithm commonly used in linear programming. The proposed algorithm minimises the total cost of flow by incrementing the network flow along augmenting paths of minimum cost. Simulation results are provided to demonstrate the efficacy of the proposed algorithm

Magnetic properties of Co film in Pt/Co/Cr₂O₃/Pt structure

Magnetic properties of Co film in Pt/Co/α-Cr₂O₃/Pt/α-Al₂O₃ structure were investigated. Co layer thickness tCo dependence of perpendicular magnetic anisotropy energy density K reveals that the bulk magnetic anisotropy plays an important role in the system in addition to the interfacial anisotropy. Damping constant α monotonically increases with the decrease of tCo but not proportionally to 1/tCo. Both K and α increase with the increase of Pt layer thickness tPt from 3 nm to 5 nm and keeps almost constant in the tPt range between 5 nm to 20 nm. These results are of importance to understand the magnetization switching behavior driven by the magneto-electric (ME) effect as well as to design the spintronics device using the ME effect.T. V. A. Nguyen, Y. Shiratsuchi, H. Sato, S. Ikeda, T. Endoh, and Y. Endo, AIP Advances 10, 015152 (2020); https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5130439

The Persistence Length of a Strongly Charged, Rod-like, Polyelectrolyte in the Presence of Salt

The persistence length of a single, intrinsically rigid polyelectrolyte chain, above the Manning condensation threshold is investigated theoretically in presence of added salt. Using a loop expansion method, the partition function is consistently calculated, taking into account corrections to mean-field theory. Within a mean-field approximation, the well-known results of Odijk, Skolnick and Fixman are reproduced. Beyond mean-field, it is found that density correlations between counterions and thermal fluctuations reduce the stiffness of the chain, indicating an effective attraction between monomers for highly charged chains and multivalent counterions. This attraction results in a possible mechanical instability (collapse), alluding to the phenomenon of DNA condensation. In addition, we find that more counterions condense on slightly bent conformations of the chain than predicted by the Manning model for the case of an infinite cylinder. Finally, our results are compared with previous models and experiments.Comment: 13 pages, 2 ps figure

Electrochemical Determination of Some Triphenylmethane Dyes by Means of Voltammetry

AbstractThis paper provides the investigation of electrochemical properties of triphenylmethane dyes using a voltammetric method with constant-current potential sweep. Malachite green (MG) and basic fuchsin (BF) have been chosen as representatives of the triphenylmethane dyes. The electrochemical behavior of MG and BF on the surface of a mercury-film electrode depending on рН, the nature of background electrolyte and scan rate of potential sweep have been investigated. The conditions of registration have been determined for MG and BF detecting in the solution. It is demonstrated that the reduction peak currents of MG and BF increase linearly with their concentration in the range of 9.0·10-5- 7.0·10-3 mol/dm3 for MG, 6.0·10-5 – 8.0 10-3 mol/dm3 for BF with correlation coefficients of 0.9987 and 0.9961, respectively. The detection limit of MG is 5.0·10-5 mol/dm3 and for BF - 2.0·10-5 mol/dm3

Counterion Condensation and Fluctuation-Induced Attraction

We consider an overall neutral system consisting of two similarly charged plates and their oppositely charged counterions and analyze the electrostatic interaction between the two surfaces beyond the mean-field Poisson-Boltzmann approximation. Our physical picture is based on the fluctuation-driven counterion condensation model, in which a fraction of the counterions is allowed to ``condense'' onto the charged plates. In addition, an expression for the pressure is derived, which includes fluctuation contributions of the whole system. We find that for sufficiently high surface charges, the distance at which the attraction, arising from charge fluctuations, starts to dominate can be large compared to the Gouy-Chapmann length. We also demonstrate that depending on the valency, the system may exhibit a novel first-order binding transition at short distances.Comment: 15 pages, 8 figures, to appear in PR

Partially Annealed Disorder and Collapse of Like-Charged Macroions

Charged systems with partially annealed charge disorder are investigated using field-theoretic and replica methods. Charge disorder is assumed to be confined to macroion surfaces surrounded by a cloud of mobile neutralizing counterions in an aqueous solvent. A general formalism is developed by assuming that the disorder is partially annealed (with purely annealed and purely quenched disorder included as special cases), i.e., we assume in general that the disorder undergoes a slow dynamics relative to fast-relaxing counterions making it possible thus to study the stationary-state properties of the system using methods similar to those available in equilibrium statistical mechanics. By focusing on the specific case of two planar surfaces of equal mean surface charge and disorder variance, it is shown that partial annealing of the quenched disorder leads to renormalization of the mean surface charge density and thus a reduction of the inter-plate repulsion on the mean-field or weak-coupling level. In the strong-coupling limit, charge disorder induces a long-range attraction resulting in a continuous disorder-driven collapse transition for the two surfaces as the disorder variance exceeds a threshold value. Disorder annealing further enhances the attraction and, in the limit of low screening, leads to a global attractive instability in the system.Comment: 21 pages, 2 figure

Adsorption of mono- and multivalent cat- and anions on DNA molecules

Adsorption of monovalent and multivalent cat- and anions on a deoxyribose nucleic acid (DNA) molecule from a salt solution is investigated by computer simulation. The ions are modelled as charged hard spheres, the DNA molecule as a point charge pattern following the double-helical phosphate strands. The geometrical shape of the DNA molecules is modelled on different levels ranging from a simple cylindrical shape to structured models which include the major and minor grooves between the phosphate strands. The densities of the ions adsorbed on the phosphate strands, in the major and in the minor grooves are calculated. First, we find that the adsorption pattern on the DNA surface depends strongly on its geometrical shape: counterions adsorb preferentially along the phosphate strands for a cylindrical model shape, but in the minor groove for a geometrically structured model. Second, we find that an addition of monovalent salt ions results in an increase of the charge density in the minor groove while the total charge density of ions adsorbed in the major groove stays unchanged. The adsorbed ion densities are highly structured along the minor groove while they are almost smeared along the major groove. Furthermore, for a fixed amount of added salt, the major groove cationic charge is independent on the counterion valency. For increasing salt concentration the major groove is neutralized while the total charge adsorbed in the minor groove is constant. DNA overcharging is detected for multivalent salt. Simulations for a larger ion radii, which mimic the effect of the ion hydration, indicate an increased adsorbtion of cations in the major groove.Comment: 34 pages with 14 figure