Real-time evolution method and its application to 3α\alpha cluster system

A new theoretical method is proposed to describe the ground and excited cluster states of atomic nuclei. The method utilizes the equation-of-motion of the Gaussian wave packets to generate the basis wave functions having various cluster configurations. The generated basis wave functions are superposed to diagonalize the Hamiltonian. In other words, this method uses the real time as the generator coordinate. The application to the $3\alpha$ system as a benchmark shows that the new method works efficiently and yields the result consistent with or better than the other cluster models. Brief discussion on the structure of the excited $0^+$ and $1^-$ states is also made

Superconductivity in Pseudo-Binary Silicide SrNixSi2-x with AlB2-Type Structure

We demonstrate the emergence of superconductivity in pseudo-binary silicide SrNixSi2-x. The compound exhibits a structural phase transition from the cubic SrSi2-type structure (P4132) to the hexagonal AlB2-type structure (P6/mmm) upon substituting Ni for Si at approximately x = 0.1. The hexagonal structure is stabilized in the range of 0.1 < x < 0.7. The superconducting phase appears in the vicinity of the structural phase boundary. Ni acts as a nonmagnetic dopant, as confirmed by the Pauli paramagnetic behavior.Comment: 12 pages, 5 figure

Heisenberg's uncertainty principle for simultaneous measurement of positive-operator-valued measures

A limitation on simultaneous measurement of two arbitrary positive operator valued measures is discussed. In general, simultaneous measurement of two noncommutative observables is only approximately possible. Following Werner's formulation, we introduce a distance between observables to quantify an accuracy of measurement. We derive an inequality that relates the achievable accuracy with noncommutativity between two observables. As a byproduct a necessary condition for two positive operator valued measures to be simultaneously measurable is obtained.Comment: 7 pages, 1 figure. To appear in Phys. Rev.

Conditional sampling for barrier option pricing under the LT method

We develop a conditional sampling scheme for pricing knock-out barrier options under the Linear Transformations (LT) algorithm from Imai and Tan (2006). We compare our new method to an existing conditional Monte Carlo scheme from Glasserman and Staum (2001), and show that a substantial variance reduction is achieved. We extend the method to allow pricing knock-in barrier options and introduce a root-finding method to obtain a further variance reduction. The effectiveness of the new method is supported by numerical results

Distance of W3(OH) by VLBI annual parallax measurement

The most powerful tool for measuring distances within our Galaxy is the annual parallax. We carried out phase-referencing VLBI observations of H$_{2}$O masers in the star forming region W3(OH) with respect to the extragalactic continuum source ICRF 0244+624 to measure their absolute proper motions. The measured annual parallax is 0.484 $\pm$ 0.004 milli-arcseconds which corresponds to a distance of 2.07^{+0.01}_{-0.02}$ kpc from the sun. This distance is consistent with photometric and kinematic distances from previous observations.Comment: Proceedings of the 7th European VLBI Network Symposium (October 12-15 2004, Toledo, Spain), eds. Bachiller, R., Colomer, F., Desmurs, J. F., & de Vicente, P., 4 pages, 4 figures, needs evn2004.cl

Hall effect in superconducting Fe(Se0.5Te0.5) thin films

The Hall effect is investigated for eight superconducting Fe(Se_0.5_Te_0.5_) thin films grown on MgO and LaSrAlO_4_ substrates with different transition temperatures (T_c_). The normal Hall coefficients (R_H_) have positive values with magnitude of 1 - 1.5 x 10^-3^ cm^3^/C at room temperature for the all samples. With decreasing temperature, we find two characteristic types of behavior in R_H_(T) depending on T_c_. For thin films with lower T_c_ (typically T_c_ < 5 K), R_H_ start decreasing approximately below T = 250 K toward a negative side, some of which shows sign reversal at T = 50 - 60 K, but turns positive toward T = 0 K. On the other hand for the films with higher T_c_ (typically T_c_ > 9 K), R_ H_ leaves almost unchanged down to T = 100 K, and then starts decreasing toward a negative side. Around the temperatures when R_H_ changes its sign from positive to negative, obvious nonlinearity is observed in the field-dependence of Hall resistance as to keep the low-field R_H_ positive while the high-field R_H_ negative. Thus the electronic state just above T_c_ is characterized by n_e_ (electron density) > n_h_ (hole density) with keeping \mu_e_ < \mu_h_. These results suggest the dominance of electron density to the hole density is an essential factor for the occurence of superconductivity in Fe-chalcogenide superconductors.Comment: 11 pages, 4 figures, revised version for Physical Review B. accepted for publication in Physical Review

NMR measurements of intrinsic spin susceptibility in LaFeAsO(0.9)F(0.1)

We will probe the intrinsic behavior of spin susceptibility chi_(spin) in the LaFeAsO(1-x)F(x) superconductor (x ~ 0.1, Tc ~ 27K) using 19-F and 75-As NMR techniques. Our new results firmly establish the pseudo-gap behavior with Delta_(PG)/kB ~ 140K. The estimated magnitude of chi_(spin) at 290K, ~1.8x10^(-4) [emu/mol-Fe], is approximately twice larger than that in high Tc cuprates. We also show that chi_(spin) levels off below ~50K down to Tc.Comment: Invited paper to the Proceedings of the International Symposium on Iron-oxypnictide Superconductors (June 28-29, 2008, Tokyo). J. Phys. Soc. Jpn. Suppl. (in press

Confocal micro-PIV/PTV measurements of the blood flow in micro-channels

The development of optical experimental techniques has contributed to obtain explanations on the blood flow behaviour through micro-channels. Although the past results have been valuable, detailed studies on the flow properties of in vitro blood in micro-channels have been limited by several technical factors such as poor spatial resolution and difficulty to obtain quantitative detailed meas-urements at such small scales. In recent years, due to advances in computers, op-tics, and digital image processing techniques, it became possible to combine both particle image velocimetry (PIV) and particle tracking velocimetry (PTV) methods with confocal microscopes. As a result, this combination has greatly increased the resolution of the conventional micro-PIV/PTV systems and consequently pro-vided additional detailed description on the blood cells motion not obtainable by traditional methods. In this chapter the most relevant theoretical and technical is-sues related to both conventional and confocal micro-PIV/PTV methods are dis-cussed. In addition, a comparison between them is presented. Furthermore, the most relevant results of in vitro blood flowing in both glass and polydime-thylsiloxane (PDMS) micro-channels are shown

Confocal micro-flow visualization of blood cells

Progress in the development of confocal microscopy and the advantages of this technique over conventional microscopy have led to a new technique known as confocal micro-PTV. This technique combines a manual tracking method with a spinning disk confocal microscope. By combining its spatial filtering technique with a multipoint illumination system, this technique has the ability to obtain in-focus images with optical thickness less than 5 mm. The present study shows the ability of our confocal micro-PTV system to obtain detailed qualitative and quantitative information on the blood flow behavior in both glass capillaries and polydimethylsiloxane(PDMS) microchannels. By labeling the blood cells with a lipophilic carbocyanime derivative it was possible to measure both translational and rotational motion occurring during flow. Our results demonstrate the ability of our confocal micro-PTV system to obtain both translational and rotational motion of individual RBCs flowing in concentrated suspensions. Owing to its optical sectioning ability and consequent improvement of the image contrast and definition, the proposed confocal system can provide additional detailed description on the blood cells motion not obtainable by other conventional methods.This study was supported in part by the following grants: Grant-in-Aid for Science and Technology (PTDC/SAU-BEB/108728/2008 and PTDC/SAU-BEB/105650/2008) from the Science and Technology Foundation (FCT) and COMPETE, Portugal and Grant-in- Aid for Scientific Research (S) from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS; No.19100008). We also acknowledge the support from the 2007 Global COE Program “Global Nano-Biomedical Engineering Education and Research Network”