1,914 research outputs found
Neutron resonance capture applied to some prehistoric bronze axes
The elemental analysis of materials and objects on the basis of neutron resonance capture by nuclei as a function of neutron energy is briefly explained. The feasibility of neutron resonance capture analysis (NRCA) is demonstrated with five prehistoric “bronze” axes of different kinds and complex elemental compositions. Attention is paid to the occurrence of indium as a trace element in these artefacts
Correlated tunneling in intramolecular carbon nanotube quantum dots
We investigate correlated electronic transport in single-walled carbon
nanotubes with two intramolecular tunneling barriers. We suggest that below a
characteristic temperature the long range nature of the Coulomb interaction
becomes crucial to determine the temperature dependence of the maximum G_max of
the conductance peak. Correlated sequential tunneling dominates transport
yielding the power-law G_max ~ T^{\alpha_{end-end}-1}, typical for tunneling
between the ends of two Luttinger liquids. Our predictions are in agreement
with recent measurements
Ballistic Phonon Thermal Transport in Multi-Walled Carbon Nanotubes
We report electrical transport experiments using the phenomenon of electrical
breakdown to perform thermometry that probe the thermal properties of
individual multi-walled nanotubes. Our results show that nanotubes can readily
conduct heat by ballistic phonon propagation, reaching a quantum-mechanical
limit to thermal conductance. We determine the thermal conductance quantum, the
ultimate limit to thermal conductance for a single phonon channel, and find
good agreement with theoretical calculations. Moreover, our results suggest a
breakdown mechanism of thermally activated C-C bond breaking coupled with the
electrical stress of carrying ~10^12 A/m^2. We also demonstrate a
current-driven self-heating technique to improve the conductance of nanotube
devices dramatically
Electron-hole symmetry in a semiconducting carbon nanotube quantum dot
Optical and electronic phenomena in solids arise from the behaviour of
electrons and holes (unoccupied states in a filled electron sea). Electron-hole
symmetry can often be invoked as a simplifying description, which states that
electrons with energy above the Fermi sea behave the same as holes below the
Fermi energy. In semiconductors, however, electron-hole symmetry is generally
absent since the energy band structure of the conduction band differs from the
valence band. Here we report on measurements of the discrete, quantized-energy
spectrum of electrons and holes in a semiconducting carbon nanotube. Through a
gate, an individual nanotube is filled controllably with a precise number of
either electrons or holes, starting from one. The discrete excitation spectrum
for a nanotube with N holes is strikingly similar to the corresponding spectrum
for N electrons. This observation of near perfect electron-hole symmetry
demonstrates for the first time that a semiconducting nanotube can be free of
charged impurities, even in the limit of few-electrons or holes. We furthermore
find an anomalously small Zeeman spin splitting and an excitation spectrum
indicating strong electron-electron interactions.Comment: 12 pages, 4 figure
Molecular dynamics with coupling to an external bath
In molecular dynamics (MD) simulations the need often arises to maintain such parameters as temperature or pressure rather than energy and volume, or to impose gradients for studying transport properties in nonequilibrium MD. A method is described to realize coupling to an external bath with constant temperature or pressure with adjustable time constants for the coupling. The method is easily extendable to other variables and to gradients, and can be applied also to polyatomic molecules involving internal constraints. The influence of coupling time constants on dynamical variables is evaluated. A leap‐frog algorithm is presented for the general case involving constraints with coupling to both a constant temperature and a constant pressure bath
The cross section minima in elastic Nd scattering: a ``smoking gun'' for three nucleon force effects
Neutron-deuteron elastic scattering cross sections are calculated at
different energies using modern nucleon-nucleon interactions and the
Tucson-Melbourne three-nucleon force adjusted to the triton binding energy.
Predictions based on NN forces only underestimate nucleon-deuteron data in the
minima at higher energies starting around 60 MeV. Adding the three-nucleon
forces fills up those minima and reduces the discrepancies significantly.Comment: 11 pages, 6 figure
A peptide mimic of the chemotaxis inhibitory protein of Staphylococcus aureus: towards the development of novel anti-inflammatory compounds
Complement factor C5a is one of the most powerful pro-inflammatory agents involved in recruitment of leukocytes, activation of phagocytes and other inflammatory responses. C5a triggers inflammatory responses by binding to its G-protein-coupled C5a-receptor (C5aR). Excessive or erroneous activation of the C5aR has been implicated in numerous inflammatory diseases. The C5aR is therefore a key target in the development of specific anti-inflammatory compounds. A very potent natural inhibitor of the C5aR is the 121-residue chemotaxis inhibitory protein of Staphylococcus aureus (CHIPS). Although CHIPS effectively blocks C5aR activation by binding tightly to its extra-cellular N terminus, it is not suitable as a potential anti-inflammatory drug due to its immunogenic properties. As a first step in the development of an improved CHIPS mimic, we designed and synthesized a substantially shorter 50-residue adapted peptide, designated CHOPS. This peptide included all residues important for receptor binding as based on the recent structure of CHIPS in complex with the C5aR N terminus. Using isothermal titration calorimetry we demonstrate that CHOPS has micromolar affinity for a model peptide comprising residues 7–28 of the C5aR N terminus including two O-sulfated tyrosine residues at positions 11 and 14. CD and NMR spectroscopy showed that CHOPS is unstructured free in solution. Upon addition of the doubly sulfated model peptide, however, the NMR and CD spectra reveal the formation of structural elements in CHOPS reminiscent of native CHIPS
Spin-orbit coupling and ESR theory for carbon nanotubes
A theoretical description of ESR in 1D interacting metals is given, with
primary emphasis on carbon nanotubes. The spin-orbit coupling is derived, and
the resulting ESR spectrum is analyzed by field theory and exact
diagonalization. Drastic differences in the ESR spectra of single-wall and
multi-wall nanotubes are found. For single-wall tubes, the predicted double
peak spectrum could reveal spin-charge separation.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figure, final version to appear in PR
Shot noise of a quantum dot with non-Fermi liquid correlations
The shot noise of a one-dimensional wire interrupted by two barriers shows
interesting features related to the interplay between Coulomb blockade effects,
Luttinger correlations and discrete excitations. At small bias the Fano factor
reaches the lowest attainable value, 1/2, irrespective of the ratio of the two
junction resistances. At larger voltages this asymmetry is power-law
renormalized by the interaction strength. We discuss how the measurement of
current and these features of the noise allow to extract the Luttinger liquid
parameter.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures,to be published in Phys. Rev. B. For high
resolution image of Fig.1 see http://server1.fisica.unige.it/~braggio/doc.ht
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