Thermal Bogoliubov transformation in nuclear structure theory

Thermal Bogoliubov transformation is an essential ingredient of the thermo field dynamics -- the real time formalism in quantum field and many-body theories at finite temperatures developed by H. Umezawa and coworkers. The approach to study properties of hot nuclei which is based on the extension of the well-known Quasiparticle-Phonon Model to finite temperatures employing the TFD formalism is presented. A distinctive feature of the QPM-TFD combination is a possibility to go beyond the standard approximations like the thermal Hartree-Fock or the thermal RPA ones.Comment: 8 pages, Proceedings of the International Bogolyubov Conference "Problems of Theoretical and Mathematical Physics", August 23 -- 27, 2009, Dubna, Russi

A note on the Landauer principle in quantum statistical mechanics

The Landauer principle asserts that the energy cost of erasure of one bit of information by the action of a thermal reservoir in equilibrium at temperature T is never less than $kTlog 2$. We discuss Landauer's principle for quantum statistical models describing a finite level quantum system S coupled to an infinitely extended thermal reservoir R. Using Araki's perturbation theory of KMS states and the Avron-Elgart adiabatic theorem we prove, under a natural ergodicity assumption on the joint system S+R, that Landauer's bound saturates for adiabatically switched interactions. The recent work of Reeb and Wolf on the subject is discussed and compared

Human Milk Oligosaccharide Utilization in Intestinal Bifidobacteria Is Governed by Global Transcriptional Regulator NagR

Bifidobacterium longum subsp. infantis is a prevalent beneficial bacterium that colonizes the human neonatal gut and is uniquely adapted to efficiently use human milk oligosaccharides (HMOs) as a carbon and energy source. Multiple studies have focused on characterizing the elements of HMO utilization machinery in B. longum subsp. infantis; however, the regulatory mechanisms governing the expression of these catabolic pathways remain poorly understood. A bioinformatic regulon reconstruction approach used in this study implicated NagR, a transcription factor from the ROK family, as a negative global regulator of gene clusters encoding lacto-N-biose/galacto-N-biose (LNB/GNB), lacto-N-tetraose (LNT), and lacto-N-neotetraose (LNnT) utilization pathways in B. longum subsp. infantis. This conjecture was corroborated by transcriptome profiling upon nagR genetic inactivation and experimental assessment of binding of recombinant NagR to predicted DNA operators. The latter approach also implicated N-acetylglucosamine (GlcNAc), a universal intermediate of LNT and LNnT catabolism, and its phosphorylated derivatives as plausible NagR transcriptional effectors. Reconstruction of NagR regulons in various Bifidobacterium lineages revealed multiple potential regulon expansion events, suggesting evolution from a local regulator of GlcNAc catabolism in ancestral bifidobacteria to a global regulator controlling the utilization of mixtures of GlcNAc-containing host glycans in B. longum subsp. infantis and Bifidobacterium bifidum

On fermionic tilde conjugation rules and thermal bosonization. Hot and cold thermofields

A generalization of Ojima tilde conjugation rules is suggested, which reveals the coherent state properties of thermal vacuum state and is useful for the thermofield bosonization. The notion of hot and cold thermofields is introduced to distinguish different thermofield representations giving the correct normal form of thermofield solution for finite temperature Thirring model with correct renormalization and anticommutation properties.Comment: 13 page

μ-Oxalato-bis­[(2,2′-bipyridyl)­copper(II)] bis(perchlorate) dimethyl­formamide disolvate monohydrate

The title compound, [Cu2(C2O4)(C10H8N2)4](ClO4)2·2C3H7NO·H2O, contains doubly charged centrosymmetric dinuclear oxalato-bridged copper(II) complex cations, perchlorate anions, and DMF and water solvate mol­ecules. In the complex cation, the oxalate ligand is coordinated in a bis-bidentate bridging mode to the Cu atoms. Each Cu atom has a distorted tetra­gonal-bipyramidal environment, being coordinated by two N atoms of the two chelating bipy ligands and two O atoms of the doubly deprotonated oxalate anion. Pairs of perchlorate anions and water mol­ecules are linked into recta­ngles by O—H⋯O bonds in which the perchlorate O atoms act as acceptors and the water mol­ecules as donors. Methyl groups of the DMF solvent molecule are disordered over two sites with occupancies of 0.453 (7):0.547 (7), and the water molecule is half-occupied

A simple method that enhances minority species detection in the microbiota: 16S metagenome-DRIP (Deeper Resolution using an Inhibitory Primer)

Aim: 16S rRNA gene-based microbiota analyses (16S metagenomes) using next-generation sequencing (NGS) technologies are widely used to examine the microbial community composition in environmental samples. However, the sequencing capacity of NGS is sometimes insufficient to cover the whole microbial community, especially when analyzing soil and fecal microbiotas. This limitation may have hampered the detection of minority species that potentially affect microbiota formation and structure. Methods: We developed a simple method, termed 16S metagenome-DRIP (Deeper Resolution using an Inhibitory Primer), that not only enhances minority species detection but also increases the accuracy of their abundance estimation. The method relies on the inhibition of normal amplicon formation of the 16S rRNA gene of a target major (abundant) species during the first PCR step. The addition of a biotinylated primer that is complementary to the variable sequence of the V3-V4 region of the target species inhibits a normal amplification process to form an aberrant short amplicon. The fragment is then captured by streptavidin beads for removal from the reaction mixture, and the resulting mixture is utilized for the second PCR with barcode-tag primers. Thus, this method only requires two additional experimental procedures to the conventional 16S metagenome analysis. A proof-of-concept experiment was first conducted using a mock sample consisting of the genomes of 14 bacterial species. Then, the method was applied to infant fecal samples using a Bifidobacterium-specific inhibitory primer (n = 11). Results: As a result, the reads assigned to the family Bifidobacteriaceae decreased on average from 16, 657 to 1718 per sample without affecting the total read counts (36, 073 and 34, 778 per sample for the conventional and DRIP methods, respectively). Furthermore, the minority species detection rate increased with neither affecting Bray-Curtis dissimilarity calculated by omitting the target Bifidobacterium species (median: 0.049) nor changing the relative abundances of the non-target species. While 115 amplicon sequence variants (ASVs) were unique to the conventional method, 208 ASVs were uniquely detected for the DRIP method. Moreover, the abundance estimation for minority species became more accurate, as revealed thorough comparison with the results of quantitative PCR analysis. Conclusion: The 16S metagenome-DRIP method serves as a useful technique to grasp a deeper and more accurate microbiota composition when combined with conventional 16S metagenome analysis methods

QED symmetries in real-time thermal field theory

We study the discrete and gauge symmetries of Quantum Electrodynamics at finite temperature within the real-time formalism. The gauge invariance of the complete generating functional leads to the finite temperature Ward identities. These Ward identities relate the eight vertex functions to the elements of the self-energy matrix. Combining the relations obtained from the $Z_2$ and the gauge symmetries of the theory we find that only one out of eight longitudinal vertex functions is independent. As a consequence of the Ward identities it is shown that some elements of the vertex function are singular when the photon momentum goes to zero.Comment: New version as it will appear in Phys RevD 19 pages, RevTex, 1figur

Thermodynamic properties of spontaneous magnetization in Chern-Simons QED_3

The spontaneous magnetization in Chern-Simons QED_3 is discussed in a finite temperature system. The thermodynamical potential is analyzed within the weak field approximation and in the fermion massless limit. We find that there is a linear term with respect to the magnetic field with a negative coefficient at any finite temperature. This implies that the spontaneous magnetic field does not vanish even at high temperature. In addition, we examine the photon spectrum in the system. We find that the bare Chern-Simons coefficient is cancelled by the radiative effects. The photons then become topologically massless according to the magnetization, though they are massive by finite temperature effects. Thus the magnetic field is a long-range force without the screening even at high temperature.Comment: 32 pages, Latex, 4 eps figure

The Northern Eurasia Earth Science Partnership: An Example of Science Applied to Societal Needs

Northern Eurasia, the largest landmass in the northern extratropics, accounts for ~20% of the global land area. However, little is known about how the biogeochemical cycles, energy and water cycles, and human activities specific to this carbon-rich, cold region interact with global climate. A major concern is that changes in the distribution of land-based life, as well as its interactions with the environment, may lead to a self-reinforcing cycle of accelerated regional and global warming. With this as its motivation, the Northern Eurasian Earth Science Partnership Initiative (NEESPI) was formed in 2004 to better understand and quantify feedbacks between northern Eurasian and global climates. The first group of NEESPI projects has mostly focused on assembling regional databases, organizing improved environmental monitoring of the region, and studying individual environmental processes. That was a starting point to addressing emerging challenges in the region related to rapidly and simultaneously changing climate, environmental, and societal systems. More recently, the NEESPI research focus has been moving toward integrative studies, including the development of modeling capabilities to project the future state of climate, environment, and societies in the NEESPI domain. This effort will require a high level of integration of observation programs, process studies, and modeling across disciplines