Space based microlensing planet searches

The discovery of extra-solar planets is arguably the most exciting development in astrophysics during the past 15 years, rivalled only by the detection of dark energy. Two projects unite the communities of exoplanet scientists and cosmologists: the proposed ESA M class mission EUCLID and the large space mission WFIRST, top ranked by the Astronomy 2010 Decadal Survey report. The later states that: "Space-based microlensing is the optimal approach to providing a true statistical census of planetary systems in the Galaxy, over a range of likely semi-major axes". They also add: "This census, combined with that made by the Kepler mission, will determine how common Earth-like planets are over a wide range of orbital parameters". We will present a status report of the results obtained by microlensing on exoplanets and the new objectives of the next generation of ground based wide field imager networks. We will finally discuss the fantastic prospect offered by space based microlensing at the horizon 2020-2025.Comment: 8 pages, Proceedings to the ROPACS meeting "Hot Planets and Cool Stars" (Nov. 2012, Garching), invited contributio

Field Induced Supersolid Phase in Spin-One Heisenberg Models

We use quantum Monte Carlo methods to demonstrate that the quantum phase diagram of the S=1 Heisenberg model with uniaxial anisotropy contains an extended supersolid phase. We also show that this Hamiltonian is a particular case of a more general and ubiquitous model that describes the low energy spectrum of a class of {\it isotropic} and {\it frustrated} spin systems. This crucial result provides the required guidance for finding experimental realizations of a spin supersolid state.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

Energy transduction by respiratory complex I

Dissertation presented to obtain a PhD degree in Biochemistry at the Instituto de Tecnologia Química e Biológica, Universidade Nova de LisboaThe aim of the work presented in this dissertation was to provide a contribution to the understanding of the energy transducing mechanism of respiratory complex I. This enzyme is present in most bacteria and in all mitochondrial systems and it is characterized by its large number of subunits, its prosthetic groups (flavin and iron-sulfur centers), and its NADH:quinone oxidoreductase activity sensitive to specific inhibitors and coupled with charge translocation across the membrane.(...

Spin Supersolid in Anisotropic Spin-One Heisenberg Chain

We consider an S=1 Heisenberg chain with strong exchange (Delta) and single--ion uniaxial anisotropy (D) in a magnetic field (B) along the symmetry axis. The low energy spectrum is described by an effective S=1/2 XXZ model that acts on two different low energy sectors for a given window of fields. The vacuum of each sector exhibits Ising-like antiferromagnetic ordering that coexists with the finite spin stiffness obtained from the exact solution of the effective XXZ model. In this way, we demonstrate the existence of a spin supersolid phase. We also compute the full Delta-B quantum phase diagram by means of a quantum Monte Carlo simulation.Comment: 4+ pages, 2 fig

Quantum Topology Change in (2 + 1)d

The topology of orientable (2 + 1)d spacetimes can be captured by certain lumps of non-trivial topology called topological geons. They are the topological analogues of conventional solitons. We give a description of topological geons where the degrees of freedom related to topology are separated from the complete theory that contains metric (dynamical) degrees of freedom. The formalism also allows us to investigate processes of quantum topology change. They correspond to creation and annihilation of quantum geons. Selection rules for such processes are derived.Comment: LaTeX file, 33 pages, 10 postscript figures, some typos corrected, references updated, and other minor change