3,872 research outputs found
Relativistic general-order coupled-cluster method for high-precision calculations: Application to Al+ atomic clock
We report the implementation of a general-order relativistic coupled-cluster
method for performing high-precision calculations of atomic and molecular
properties. As a first application, the static dipole polarizabilities of the
ground and first excited states of Al+ have been determined to precisely
estimate the uncertainty associated with the BBR shift of its clock frequency
measurement. The obtained relative BBR shift is -3.66+-0.44 for the 3s^2
^1S_0^0 --> 3s3p ^3P_0^0 transition in Al+ in contrast to the value obtained in
the latest clock frequency measurement, -9+-3 [Phys. Rev. Lett. 104, 070802
(2010)]. The method developed in the present work can be employed to study a
variety of subtle effects such as fundamental symmetry violations in atoms.Comment: 4 pages, 3 tables, submitte
Importance of B4 medium in determining organomineralization potential of bacterial environmental isolates
B4 precipitation medium has been used as the preferred medium for studying mineral precipitation using bacterial strains in vitro since pioneer studies were performed by Boquet and coworkers in 1973. Using this medium, several authors have demonstrated that some environmental isolates were able to precipitate minerals, yet others did not. The main goal of the current study is to understand whether pH and buffer conditions would have a significant effect on mineral precipitation results for environmental isolates grown on B4. For this study, a total of 49 strains isolated from natural environments from Puerto Rico were grown on B4 plates, and their CaCO3 precipitation potential was investigated. Our findings revealed a strong correlation between a lack of CaCO3 precipitation and the acidification of the B4 plates by the colonies. The ability to precipitate CaCO3 could be restored by buffering the B4 medium to a pH of 8.2. Buffering capacity of the medium was proposed to be involved in CaCO3 precipitation: acid-base titrations conducted on the individual ingredients of B4 showed that yeast extract has a poor buffering capacity between pH 6.5?7.5. This pH range corresponds to the pH of B4 plates 6.87 (ĂïżœĂ±0.05)] prior to the inoculation. This might explain why B4 is such a good precipitation medium: a small variation in the H+/OH? balance during microbial growth and precipitation produces rapid changes in the pH of the medium. Finally, an amorphous matrix was distributed within 90% of the examined crystals generated on B4 medium by the environmental strains. Supplemental materials are available for this article. Go to the publisher's online edition of Geomicrobiology Journal to view the free supplemental file.; B4 precipitation medium has been used as the preferred medium for studying mineral precipitation using bacterial strains in vitro since pioneer studies were performed by Boquet and coworkers in 1973. Using this medium, several authors have demonstrated that some environmental isolates were able to precipitate minerals, yet others did not. The main goal of the current study is to understand whether pH and buffer conditions would have a significant effect on mineral precipitation results for environmental isolates grown on B4. For this study, a total of 49 strains isolated from natural environments from Puerto Rico were grown on B4 plates, and their CaCO3 precipitation potential was investigated. Our findings revealed a strong correlation between a lack of CaCO3 precipitation and the acidification of the B4 plates by the colonies. The ability to precipitate CaCO3 could be restored by buffering the B4 medium to a pH of 8.2. Buffering capacity of the medium was proposed to be involved in CaCO3 precipitation: acid-base titrations conducted on the individual ingredients of B4 showed that yeast extract has a poor buffering capacity between pH 6.5?7.5. This pH range corresponds to the pH of B4 plates 6.87 (ĂïżœĂ±0.05)] prior to the inoculation. This might explain why B4 is such a good precipitation medium: a small variation in the H+/OH? balance during microbial growth and precipitation produces rapid changes in the pH of the medium. Finally, an amorphous matrix was distributed within 90% of the examined crystals generated on B4 medium by the environmental strains. Supplemental materials are available for this article. Go to the publisher's online edition of Geomicrobiology Journal to view the free supplemental file
Spin-dependent electrical transport in ion-beam sputter deposited Fe-Cr multilayers
The temperature dependence of the electrical resistivity and
magnetoresistance of Xe-ion beam sputtered Fe-Cr multilayers has been
investigated. The electrical resistivity between 5 and 300 K in the fully
ferromagnetic state, obtained by applying a field beyond the saturation field
(H_sat) necessary for the antiferromagnetic(AF)-ferromagnetic(FM) field-induced
transition, shows evidence of spin-disorder resistivity as in crystalline Fe
and an s-d scattering contribution (as in 3d metals and alloys). The sublattice
magnetization m(T) in these multilayers has been calculated in terms of the
planar and interlayer exchange energies. The additional spin-dependent
scattering \Delta \rho (T) = \rho(T,H=0)_AF - \rho(T,H=H_sat)_FM in the AF
state over a wide range of temperature is found to be proportional to the
sublattice magnetization, both \Delta \rho(T) and m(T) reducing along with the
antiferromagnetic fraction. At intermediate fields, the spin-dependent part of
the electrical resistivity (\rho_s (T)) fits well to the power law \rho_s (T) =
b - cT^\alpha where c is a constant and b and \alpha are functions of H. At low
fields \alpha \approx 2 and the intercept b decreases with H much the same way
as the decrease of \Delta \rho (T) with T. A phase diagram (T vs. H_sat) is
obtained for the field- induced AF to FM transition. Comparisons are made
between the present investigation and similar studies using dc magnetron
sputtered and molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) grown Fe-Cr multilayers.Comment: 8 pages, 10 figures, to appear in Phys. Rev.
Local host response following an intramammary challenge with Staphylococcus fleurettii and different strains of Staphylococcus chromogenes in dairy heifers
Coagulase-negative staphylococci (CNS) are a common cause of subclinical mastitis in dairy cattle. The CNS inhabit various ecological habitats, ranging between the environment and the host. In order to obtain a better insight into the host response, an experimental infection was carried out in eight healthy heifers in mid-lactation with three different CNS strains: a Staphylococcus fleurettii strain originating from sawdust bedding, an intramammary Staphylococcus chromogenes strain originating from a persistent intramammary infection (S. chromogenes IM) and a S. chromogenes strain isolated from a heifer's teat apex (S. chromogenes TA). Each heifer was inoculated in the mammary gland with 1.0 x 10(6) colony forming units of each bacterial strain (one strain per udder quarter), whereas the remaining quarter was infused with phosphate-buffered saline. Overall, the CNS evoked a mild local host response. The somatic cell count increased in all S. fleurettii-inoculated quarters, although the strain was eliminated within 12 h. The two S. chromogenes strains were shed in larger numbers for a longer period. Bacterial and somatic cell counts, as well as neutrophil responses, were higher after inoculation with S. chromogenes IM than with S. chromogenes TA. In conclusion, these results suggest that S. chromogenes might be better adapted to the mammary gland than S. fleurettii. Furthermore, not all S. chromogenes strains induce the same local host response
Screening and interlayer coupling in multilayer graphene field-effect transistors
With the motivation of improving the performance and reliability of
aggressively scaled nano-patterned graphene field-effect transistors, we
present the first systematic experimental study on charge and current
distribution in multilayer graphene field-effect transistors. We find a very
particular thickness dependence for Ion, Ioff, and the Ion/Ioff ratio, and
propose a resistor network model including screening and interlayer coupling to
explain the experimental findings. In particular, our model does not invoke
modification of the linear energy-band structure of graphene for the multilayer
case. Noise reduction in nano-scale few-layer graphene transistors is
experimentally demonstrated and can be understood within this model as well.Comment: 13 pages, 4 figures, 20 reference
On the derivation of the t-J model: electron spectrum and exchange interactions in narrow energy bands
A derivation of the t-J model of a highly-correlated solid is given starting
from the general many-electron Hamiltonian with account of the
non-orthogonality of atomic wave functions. Asymmetry of the Hubbard subbands
(i.e. of ``electron'' and ``hole''cases) for a nearly half-filled bare band is
demonstrated. The non-orthogonality corrections are shown to lead to occurrence
of indirect antiferromagnetic exchange interaction even in the limit of the
infinite on-site Coulomb repulsion. Consequences of this treatment for the
magnetism formation in narrow energy bands are discussed. Peculiarities of the
case of ``frustrated'' lattices, which contain triangles of nearest neighbors,
are considered.Comment: 4 pages, RevTe
Atmospheric Circulation of a Nine-Hot-Jupiter Sample: Probing Circulation and Chemistry over a Wide Phase Space
We present results from an atmospheric circulation study of nine hot Jupiters that comprise a large transmission spectral survey using the Hubble and Spitzer Space Telescopes. These observations ex-hibit a range of spectral behavior over optical and infrared wavelengths which suggest diverse cloud and haze properties in their atmospheres. By utilizing the speciïŹc system parameters for each planet, we naturally probe a wide phase space in planet radius, gravity, orbital period, and equilibrium tem-perature. First, we show that our model âgridâ recovers trends shown in traditional parametric studies of hot Jupiters, particularly equatorial superrotation and increased day-night temperature contrast with increasing equilibrium temperature. We show how spatial temperature variations, particularly between the dayside and nightside and west and east terminators, can vary by hundreds of K, which could imply large variations in Na, K, CO and CH4 abundances in those regions. These chemical vari-ations can be large enough to be observed in transmission with high-resolution spectrographs, such as ESPRESSO on VLT, METIS on the E-ELT, or with MIRI and NIRSpec aboard JWST. We also compare theoretical emission spectra generated from our models to available Spitzer eclipse depths for each planet, and ïŹnd that the outputs from our solar-metallicity, cloud-free models generally provide a good match to many of the datasets, even without additional model tuning. Although these models are cloud-free, we can use their results to understand the chemistry and dynamics that drive cloud formation in their atmospheres
Current measurement by real-time counting of single electrons
The fact that electrical current is carried by individual charges has been
known for over 100 years, yet this discreteness has not been directly observed
so far. Almost all current measurements involve measuring the voltage drop
across a resistor, using Ohm's law, in which the discrete nature of charge does
not come into play. However, by sending a direct current through a
microelectronic circuit with a chain of islands connected by small tunnel
junctions, the individual electrons can be observed one by one. The quantum
mechanical tunnelling of single charges in this one-dimensional array is time
correlated, and consequently the detected signal has the average frequency
f=I/e, where I is the current and e is the electron charge. Here we report a
direct observation of these time-correlated single-electron tunnelling
oscillations, and show electron counting in the range 5 fA-1 pA. This
represents a fundamentally new way to measure extremely small currents, without
offset or drift. Moreover, our current measurement, which is based on electron
counting, is self-calibrated, as the measured frequency is related to the
current only by a natural constant.Comment: 9 pages, 4 figures; v2: minor revisions, 2 refs added, words added to
title, typos correcte
Diffusion and Current of Brownian Particles in Tilted Piecewise Linear Potentials: Amplification and Coherence
Overdamped motion of Brownian particles in tilted piecewise linear periodic
potentials is considered. Explicit algebraic expressions for the diffusion
coefficient, current, and coherence level of Brownian transport are derived.
Their dependencies on temperature, tilting force, and the shape of the
potential are analyzed. The necessary and sufficient conditions for the
non-monotonic behavior of the diffusion coefficient as a function of
temperature are determined. The diffusion coefficient and coherence level are
found to be extremely sensitive to the asymmetry of the potential. It is
established that at the values of the external force, for which the enhancement
of diffusion is most rapid, the level of coherence has a wide plateau at low
temperatures with the value of the Peclet factor 2. An interpretation of the
amplification of diffusion in comparison with free thermal diffusion in terms
of probability distribution is proposed.Comment: To appear in PR
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