Silent reading of direct versus indirect speech activates voice-selective areas in the auditory cortex

In human communication, direct speech (e.g., Mary said: “I'm hungry”) is perceived to be more vivid than indirect speech (e.g., Mary said [that] she was hungry). However, for silent reading, the representational consequences of this distinction are still unclear. Although many of us share the intuition of an “inner voice,” particularly during silent reading of direct speech statements in text, there has been little direct empirical confirmation of this experience so far. Combining fMRI with eye tracking in human volunteers, we show that silent reading of direct versus indirect speech engenders differential brain activation in voice-selective areas of the auditory cortex. This suggests that readers are indeed more likely to engage in perceptual simulations (or spontaneous imagery) of the reported speaker's voice when reading direct speech as opposed to meaning-equivalent indirect speech statements as part of a more vivid representation of the former. Our results may be interpreted in line with embodied cognition and form a starting point for more sophisticated interdisciplinary research on the nature of auditory mental simulation during reading

Small-Time Behavior of Unsteady Cavity Flows

A perturbation theory is applied to investigate the small-time behavior of unsteady cavity flows in which the time-dependent part of the flow may be taken as a small-time expansion superimposed on an established steady cavity flow of an ideal fluid. One purpose of this paper is to study the effect of the initial cavity size on the resulting flow due to a given disturbance. Various existing steady cavity-flow models have been employed for this purpose to evaluate the initial reaction of a cavitated body in an unsteady motion. Furthermore, a physical model is proposed here to give a proper representation of the mechanism by which the cavity volume may be changed with time; the initial hydrodynamic force resulting from such change is calculated based on this model

Does a proton "bubble" structure exist in the low-lying states of 34Si?

The possible existence of a "bubble" structure in the proton density of $^{34}$Si has recently attracted a lot of research interest. To examine the existence of the "bubble" structure in low-lying states, we establish a relativistic version of configuration mixing of both particle number and angular momentum projected quadrupole deformed mean-field states and apply this state-of-the-art beyond relativistic mean-field method to study the density distribution of the low-lying states in $^{34}$Si. An excellent agreement with the data of low-spin spectrum and electric multipole transition strengths is achieved without introducing any parameters. We find that the central depression in the proton density is quenched by dynamic quadrupole shape fluctuation, but not as significantly as what has been found in a beyond non-relativistic mean-field study. Our results suggest that the existence of proton "bubble" structure in the low-lying excited $0^+_2$ and $2^+_1$ states is very unlikely.Comment: 6 pages, 8 figures and 1 table, accepted for publication in Physics Letters

Exact solution of the two-axis countertwisting Hamiltonian

It is shown that the two-axis countertwisting Hamiltonian is exactly solvable when the quantum number of the total angular momentum of the system is an integer after the Jordan-Schwinger (differential) boson realization of the SU(2) algebra. Algebraic Bethe ansatz is used to get the exact solution with the help of the SU(1,1) algebraic structure, from which a set of Bethe ansatz equations of the problem is derived. It is shown that solutions of the Bethe ansatz equations can be obtained as zeros of the Heine-Stieltjes polynomials. The total number of the four sets of the zeros equals exactly to $2J+1$ for a given integer angular momentum quantum number $J$, which proves the completeness of the solutions. It is also shown that double degeneracy in level energies may also occur in the $J\rightarrow\infty$ limit for integer $J$ case except a unique non-degenerate level with zero excitation energy.Comment: LaTex 10 pages. Version to appear in Annals of Physic

New parametrization for the nuclear covariant energy density functional with point-coupling interaction

A new parametrization PC-PK1 for the nuclear covariant energy density functional with nonlinear point-coupling interaction is proposed by fitting to observables for 60 selected spherical nuclei, including the binding energies, charge radii and empirical pairing gaps. The success of PC-PK1 is illustrated in its description for infinite nuclear matter and finite nuclei including the ground-state and low-lying excited states. Particularly, PC-PK1 improves the description for isospin dependence of binding energy along either the isotopic or the isotonic chains, which makes it more reliable for application in exotic nuclei. The predictive power of PC-PK1 is also illustrated for the nuclear low-lying excitation states in a five-dimensional collective Hamiltonian in which the parameters are determined by constrained calculations for triaxial shapes.Comment: 32 pages, 12 figures, 4 tables, accepted by Phys. Rev.

Controlled cavity-QED using a photonic crystal waveguide-cavity system

We introduce a photonic crystal waveguide-cavity system for controlling single photon cavity-QED processes. Exploiting Bloch mode analysis, and medium-dependent Green function techniques, we demonstrate that the propagation of single photons can be accurately described analytically, for integrated periodic waveguides with little more than four unit cells, including an output coupler. We verify our analytical approach by comparing to rigorous numerical calculations for a range of photonic crystal waveguide lengths. This allows one to nano-engineer various regimes of cavity-QED with unprecedented control. We demonstrate Purcell factors of greater than 1000 and on-chip single photon beta factors of about 80% efficiency. Both weak and strong coupling regimes are investigated, and the important role of waveguide length on the output emission spectra is shown, for vertically emitted emission and output waveguide emission