Ultralow mode-volume photonic crystal nanobeam cavities for high efficiency coupling to individual carbon nanotube emitters

We report on high efficency coupling of individual air-suspended carbon nanotubes to silicon photonic crystal nanobeam cavities. Photoluminescence images of dielectric- and air-mode cavities reflect their distinctly different mode profiles and show that fields in the air are important for coupling. We find that the air-mode cavities couple more efficiently, and estimated spontaneous emission coupling factors reach a value as high as 0.85. Our results demonstrate advantages of ultralow mode-volumes in air-mode cavities for coupling to low-dimensional nanoscale emitters.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

Mindfulness Meditation Activates Altruism.

Clinical evidence suggests that mindfulness meditation reduces anxiety, depression, and stress, and improves emotion regulation due to modulation of activity in neural substrates linked to the regulation of emotions and social preferences. However, less was known about whether mindfulness meditation might alter pro-social behavior. Here we examined whether mindfulness meditation activates human altruism, a component of social cooperation. Using a simple donation game, which is a real-world version of the Dictator's Game, we randomly assigned 326 subjects to a mindfulness meditation online session or control and measured their willingness to donate a portion of their payment for participation as a charitable donation. Subjects who underwent the meditation treatment donated at a 2.61 times higher rate than the control (p = 0.005), after controlling for socio-demographics. We also found a larger treatment effect of meditation among those who did not go to college (p < 0.001) and those who were under 25 years of age (p < 0.001), with both subject groups contributing virtually nothing in the control condition. Our results imply high context modularity of human altruism and the development of intervention approaches including mindfulness meditation to increase social cooperation, especially among subjects with low baseline willingness to contribute

Cooling of a Compact Star with a LOFF Matter Core

Specific heat and neutrino emissivity due to direct URCA processes for quark matter in the color superconductive Larkin-Ovchinnikov-Fulde-Ferrell (LOFF) phase of Quantum-Chromodynamics have been evaluated. The cooling rate of simplified models of compact stars with a LOFF matter core is estimated.Comment: 3 pages, 1 figure, to appear in the proceedings of the Helmoltz International Summer School of Theoretical Physics on Dense Matter in Heavy Ion Collisions and Astrophysics, JINR, Dubna, Russia, 21 Aug - 1 Sep 200