2,334 research outputs found
Two-electron atoms, ions and molecules
The quantum mechanics of two-electron systems is reviewed, starting with the
ground state of the helium atom and helium-like ions, with central charge . For Z=1, demonstrating the stability of the negative hydrogen ion, H,
cannot be achieved using a mere product of individual electron wave functions,
and requires instead an explicit account for the anticorrelation among the two
electrons. The wave function proposed by Chandrasekhar is revisited, where the
permutation symmetry is first broken and then restored by a counter-term. More
delicate problems can be studied using the same strategy: the stability of
hydrogen-like ions for any value of the proton-to-electron mass
ratio ; the energy of the lowest spin-triplet state of helium and
helium-like ions; the stability of the doubly-excited hydrogen ion with
unnatural parity. The positronium molecule , which has been
predicted years ago and discovered recently, can also be shown to be stable
against spontaneous dissociation, though the calculation is a little more
involved. Emphasis is put on symmetry breaking which can either spoil or
improve the stability of systems.Comment: 16 pages, 2 figure
Curvature of the Universe and Observed Gravitational Lens Image Separations Versus Redshift
In a flat, k=0 cosmology with galaxies that approximate singular isothermal
spheres, gravitational lens image separations should be uncorrelated with
source redshift. But in an open k=-1 cosmology such gravitational lens image
separations become smaller with increasing source redshift. The observed
separations do become smaller with increasing source redshift but the effect is
even stronger than that expected in an Omega=0 cosmology. The observations are
thus not compatible with the "standard" gravitational lensing statistics model
in a flat universe. We try various open and flat cosmologies, galaxy mass
profiles, galaxy merging and evolution models, and lensing aided by clusters to
explain the correlation. We find the data is not compatible with any of these
possibilities within the 95% confidence limit, leaving us with a puzzle. If we
regard the observed result as a statistical fluke, it is worth noting that we
are about twice as likely to observe it in an open universe (with 0<Omega<0.4)
as we are to observe it in a flat one. Finally, the existence of an observed
multiple image lens system with a source at z=4.5 places a lower limit on the
deceleration parameter: q_0 > -2.0.Comment: 21 pages, 4 figures, AASTeX
Optimization of strength and ductility in nanotwinned ultra-fine grained Ag: Twin density and grain orientations
Nanotwinned ultrafine grained Ag thick films with different twin densities and orientations have been synthesized by magnetron sputtering with a wide-range of deposition rates. The twin boundary (TB) spacings and orientations as well as the grain size for the different deposition conditions have been characterized by both synchrotron X-ray scattering and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Structural characterization combined with uniaxial tensile tests of the free-standing films reveals a large increase in the yield strength for films deposited at high deposition rates without any accompanying change in the TB spacing – a behavior that is not reported in the literature. We find that films deposited at lower deposition rates exhibit more randomly oriented grains with a lower overall twin density (averaged over all the grains) than the more heavily twinned grains with strong 〈1 1 1〉 fiber texture in the films deposited at higher deposition rates. The TB spacing in the twinned grains, however, does not show any significant dependence on the deposition rate. The dependence of the strength and ductility on the twin density and orientations can be described by two different soft deformation modes: (1) untwinned grains and (2) nanowinned grains that are not oriented with 〈1 1 1〉 along the growth direction. The untwinned grains provide relatively low resistance to slip, and thus decreased strength, while the nanotwinned grains that are not oriented with 〈1 1 1〉 along the growth direction are softer than nanotwinned grains that are oriented with 〈1 1 1〉 along the growth direction. We have revealed that an ultrafine-grained (150–200 nm) structure consisting of a mixture of nanotwinned (∼8–12 nm spacing) and untwined grains yields the best combination of high strength and uniform tensile ductility
Magnetism and Charge Dynamics in Iron Pnictides
In a wide variety of materials, such as copper oxides, heavy fermions,
organic salts, and the recently discovered iron pnictides, superconductivity is
found in close proximity to a magnetically ordered state. The character of the
proximate magnetic phase is thus believed to be crucial for understanding the
differences between the various families of unconventional superconductors and
the mechanism of superconductivity. Unlike the AFM order in cuprates, the
nature of the magnetism and of the underlying electronic state in the iron
pnictide superconductors is not well understood. Neither density functional
theory nor models based on atomic physics and superexchange, account for the
small size of the magnetic moment. Many low energy probes such as transport,
STM and ARPES measured strong anisotropy of the electronic states akin to the
nematic order in a liquid crystal, but there is no consensus on its physical
origin, and a three dimensional picture of electronic states and its relations
to the optical conductivity in the magnetic state is lacking. Using a first
principles approach, we obtained the experimentally observed magnetic moment,
optical conductivity, and the anisotropy of the electronic states. The theory
connects ARPES, which measures one particle electronic states, optical
spectroscopy, probing the particle hole excitations of the solid and neutron
scattering which measures the magnetic moment. We predict a manifestation of
the anisotropy in the optical conductivity, and we show that the magnetic phase
arises from the paramagnetic phase by a large gain of the Hund's rule coupling
energy and a smaller loss of kinetic energy, indicating that iron pnictides
represent a new class of compounds where the nature of magnetism is
intermediate between the spin density wave of almost independent particles, and
the antiferromagnetic state of local moments.Comment: 4+ pages with additional one-page supplementary materia
Comprehensive analysis of the chromatin landscape in Drosophila melanogaster.
Chromatin is composed of DNA and a variety of modified histones and non-histone proteins, which have an impact on cell differentiation, gene regulation and other key cellular processes. Here we present a genome-wide chromatin landscape for Drosophila melanogaster based on eighteen histone modifications, summarized by nine prevalent combinatorial patterns. Integrative analysis with other data (non-histone chromatin proteins, DNase I hypersensitivity, GRO-Seq reads produced by engaged polymerase, short/long RNA products) reveals discrete characteristics of chromosomes, genes, regulatory elements and other functional domains. We find that active genes display distinct chromatin signatures that are correlated with disparate gene lengths, exon patterns, regulatory functions and genomic contexts. We also demonstrate a diversity of signatures among Polycomb targets that include a subset with paused polymerase. This systematic profiling and integrative analysis of chromatin signatures provides insights into how genomic elements are regulated, and will serve as a resource for future experimental investigations of genome structure and function
Conditional knockout of focal adhesion kinase in endothelial cells reveals its role in angiogenesis and vascular development in late embryogenesis
Focal adhesion kinase (FAK) is a critical mediator of signal transduction by integrins and growth factor receptors in a variety of cells including endothelial cells (ECs). Here, we describe EC-specific knockout of FAK using a Cre-loxP approach. In contrast to the total FAK knockout, deletion of FAK specifically in ECs did not affect early embryonic development including normal vasculogenesis. However, in late embryogenesis, FAK deletion in the ECs led to defective angiogenesis in the embryos, yolk sac, and placenta, impaired vasculature and associated hemorrhage, edema, and developmental delay, and late embryonic lethal phenotype. Histologically, ECs and blood vessels in the mutant embryos present a disorganized, detached, and apoptotic appearance. Consistent with these phenotypes, deletion of FAK in ECs isolated from the floxed FAK mice led to reduced tubulogenesis, cell survival, proliferation, and migration in vitro. Together, these results strongly suggest a role of FAK in angiogenesis and vascular development due to its essential function in the regulation of multiple EC activities
Spectral and morphological analysis of the remnant of Supernova 1987A with ALMA & ATCA
We present a comprehensive spectral and morphological analysis of the remnant
of Supernova (SN) 1987A with the Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA) and
the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA). The non-thermal and
thermal components of the radio emission are investigated in images from 94 to
672 GHz ( 3.2 mm to 450 m), with the assistance of a
high-resolution 44 GHz synchrotron template from the ATCA, and a dust template
from ALMA observations at 672 GHz. An analysis of the emission distribution
over the equatorial ring in images from 44 to 345 GHz highlights a gradual
decrease of the east-to-west asymmetry ratio with frequency. We attribute this
to the shorter synchrotron lifetime at high frequencies. Across the transition
from radio to far infrared, both the synchrotron/dust-subtracted images and the
spectral energy distribution (SED) suggest additional emission beside the main
synchrotron component () and the thermal component
originating from dust grains at K. This excess could be due to
free-free flux or emission from grains of colder dust. However, a second
flat-spectrum synchrotron component appears to better fit the SED, implying
that the emission could be attributed to a pulsar wind nebula (PWN). The
residual emission is mainly localised west of the SN site, as the spectral
analysis yields across the western regions,
with around the central region. If there is a PWN in the remnant
interior, these data suggest that the pulsar may be offset westward from the SN
position.Comment: ApJ accepted. 21 pages, emulateapj. References update
Synthesis of Mesoporous Silica@Co–Al Layered Double Hydroxide Spheres: Layer-by-Layer Method and Their Effects on the Flame Retardancy of Epoxy Resins
Hierarchical mesoporous silica@Co–Al layered double hydroxide (m-SiO2@Co–Al LDH) spheres were prepared through a layer-by-layer assembly process, in order to integrate their excellent physical and chemical functionalities. TEM results depicted that, due to the electrostatic potential difference between m-SiO2 and Co–Al LDH, the synthetic m-SiO2@Co–Al LDH hybrids exhibited that m-SiO2 spheres were packaged by the Co–Al LDH nanosheets. Subsequently, the m-SiO2@Co–Al LDH spheres were incorporated into epoxy resin (EP) to prepare specimens for investigation of their flame-retardant performance. Cone results indicated that m-SiO2@Co–Al LDH incorporated obviously improved fire retardant of EP. A plausible mechanism of fire retardant was hypothesized based on the analyses of thermal conductivity, char residues, and pyrolysis fragments. Labyrinth effect of m-SiO2 and formation of graphitized carbon char catalyzed by Co–Al LDH play pivotal roles in the flame retardance enhancement
Density of states, Potts zeros, and Fisher zeros of the Q-state Potts model for continuous Q
The Q-state Potts model can be extended to noninteger and even complex Q in
the FK representation. In the FK representation the partition function,Z(Q,a),
is a polynomial in Q and v=a-1(a=e^-T) and the coefficients of this
polynomial,Phi(b,c), are the number of graphs on the lattice consisting of b
bonds and c connected clusters. We introduce the random-cluster transfer matrix
to compute Phi exactly on finite square lattices. Given the FK representation
of the partition function we begin by studying the critical Potts model
Z_{CP}=Z(Q,a_c), where a_c=1+sqrt{Q}. We find a set of zeros in the complex
w=sqrt{Q} plane that map to the Beraha numbers for real positive Q. We also
identify tilde{Q}_c(L), the value of Q for a lattice of width L above which the
locus of zeros in the complex p=v/sqrt{Q} plane lies on the unit circle. We
find that 1/tilde{Q}_c->0 as 1/L->0. We then study zeros of the AF Potts model
in the complex Q plane and determine Q_c(a), the largest value of Q for a fixed
value of a below which there is AF order. We find excellent agreement with
Q_c=(1-a)(a+3). We also investigate the locus of zeros of the FM Potts model in
the complex Q plane and confirm that Q_c=(a-1)^2. We show that the edge
singularity in the complex Q plane approaches Q_c as Q_c(L)~Q_c+AL^-y_q, and
determine the scaling exponent y_q. Finally, by finite size scaling of the
Fisher zeros near the AF critical point we determine the thermal exponent y_t
as a function of Q in the range 2<Q<3. We find that y_t is a smooth function of
Q and is well fit by y_t=(1+Au+Bu^2)/(C+Du) where u=u(Q). For Q=3 we find
y_t~0.6; however if we include lattices up to L=12 we find y_t~0.50.Comment: to appear in Physical Review
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