598 research outputs found
Ensemble inequivalence in systems with long-range interactions
Ensemble inequivalence has been observed in several systems. In particular it
has been recently shown that negative specific heat can arise in the
microcanonical ensemble in the thermodynamic limit for systems with long-range
interactions. We display a connection between such behaviour and a mean-field
like structure of the partition function. Since short-range models cannot
display this kind of behaviour, this strongly suggests that such systems are
necessarily non-mean field in the sense indicated here. We illustrate our
results showing an application to the Blume-Emery-Griffiths model. We further
show that a broad class of systems with non-integrable interactions are indeed
of mean-field type in the sense specified, so that they are expected to display
ensemble inequivalence as well as the peculiar behaviour described above in the
microcanonical ensemble.Comment: 12 pages, no figure
Breaking of ergodicity and long relaxation times in systems with long-range interactions
The thermodynamic and dynamical properties of an Ising model with both short
range and long range, mean field like, interactions are studied within the
microcanonical ensemble. It is found that the relaxation time of
thermodynamically unstable states diverges logarithmically with system size.
This is in contrast with the case of short range interactions where this time
is finite. Moreover, at sufficiently low energies, gaps in the magnetization
interval may develop to which no microscopic configuration corresponds. As a
result, in local microcanonical dynamics the system cannot move across the gap,
leading to breaking of ergodicity even in finite systems. These are general
features of systems with long range interactions and are expected to be valid
even when the interaction is slowly decaying with distance.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figure
Supersonic Discrete Kink-Solitons and Sinusoidal Patterns with "Magic" wavenumber in Anharmonic Lattices
The sharp pulse method is applied to Fermi-Pasta-Ulam (FPU) and Lennard-Jones
(LJ) anharmonic lattices. Numerical simulations reveal the presence of high
energy strongly localized ``discrete'' kink-solitons (DK), which move with
supersonic velocities that are proportional to kink amplitudes. For small
amplitudes, the DK's of the FPU lattice reduce to the well-known ``continuous''
kink-soliton solutions of the modified Korteweg-de Vries equation. For high
amplitudes, we obtain a consistent description of these DK's in terms of
approximate solutions of the lattice equations that are obtained by restricting
to a bounded support in space exact solutions with sinusoidal pattern
characterized by the ``magic'' wavenumber . Relative displacement
patterns, velocity versus amplitude, dispersion relation and exponential tails
found in numerical simulations are shown to agree very well with analytical
predictions, for both FPU and LJ lattices.Comment: Europhysics Letters (in print
Driven Macroscopic Quantum Tunneling of Ultracold Atoms in Engineered Optical Lattices
Coherent macroscopic tunneling of a Bose-Einstein condensate between two
parts of an optical lattice separated by an energy barrier is theoretically
investigated. We show that by a pulsewise change of the barrier height, it is
possible to switch between tunneling regime and a self-trapped state of the
condensate. This property of the system is explained by effectively reducing
the dynamics to the nonlinear problem of a particle moving in a double square
well potential. The analysis is made for both attractive and repulsive
interatomic forces, and it highlights the experimental relevance of our
findings
Kinetic theory for non-equilibrium stationary states in long-range interacting systems
We study long-range interacting systems perturbed by external stochastic
forces. Unlike the case of short-range systems, where stochastic forces usually
act locally on each particle, here we consider perturbations by external
stochastic fields. The system reaches stationary states where external forces
balance dissipation on average. These states do not respect detailed balance
and support non-vanishing fluxes of conserved quantities. We generalize the
kinetic theory of isolated long-range systems to describe the dynamics of this
non-equilibrium problem. The kinetic equation that we obtain applies to
plasmas, self-gravitating systems, and to a broad class of other systems. Our
theoretical results hold for homogeneous states, but may also be generalized to
apply to inhomogeneous states. We obtain an excellent agreement between our
theoretical predictions and numerical simulations. We discuss possible
applications to describe non-equilibrium phase transitions.Comment: 11 pages, 2 figures; v2: small changes, close to the published
versio
Ruthenium(III) complexes entrapped in liposomes with enhanced cytotoxic and anti-metastatic properties
Metal-based anticancer drugs are pivotal in the fight against cancer pathologies. Since 1978 cis-platin was licensed for medical treatment of a wide number of tumor pathologies(1). However its chemiotherapic use is strongly limited by many and severe side effects and acquired tumor resistance. Since these limitations could be overcome by other metal complexes, in the last thirty years ruthenium compounds have been tested showing a remarkable antitumoral and antimetastatic activity associated with a lower toxicity. A hexacoordinate Ru(III) complex (NAMI-A) is currently undergoing advanced clinical evaluation (2).
All data indicate that NAMI-A acts as a pro-drug, but the integrity of ruthenium complexes is essential to store the cytotoxic activity. In this scenario the condition of administration of ruthenium drugs are crucial to exploit their anticancer activity (3). In the last years innovative strategies have been produced to vehicle ruthenium ions in tumor cells like aggregates. This study aims to incorporate the ruthenium complexes in the inner aqueous compartment of liposomes and to test biological properties of two NAMI-A like pyridine derivatives. Specifically, we have investigated the pyridine derivatives of the sodium-compensated analogue of NAMI-A, Na[trans-RuCl4(pyridine)(DMSO)] (NAMI-Pyr) and Na[trans-RuCl4(Pytri)(DMSO)] (NAMI-Pytri).
In thelatter complex the pyridine ligand is functionalized with a sugar moiety so as to increase biocompatibility and the ability to cross the cell membrane. The stability of the complexes was studied and compared in solution at different pH following UV-VIS spectra. Lipid formulations based on Egg PC were prepared adding Cholesterol, DSPE-PEG2000 joining molar ratio 57/38 /5% w/w respectively in MeOH/CHCl3 (50/50 v/v) mixture and hydrated with 0.9% w/w of NaCl.
This composition was selected to reproduce analog supramolecular aggregates in clinical use to vehicle doxorubicin (Doxil). Ruthenium complexes were loaded into liposomes using the passive equilibration loading method. Full drug containing liposomes were structurally characterized by dynamic light scattering (DLS) measurements. Data indicate the formation of stable aggregates with size and shape in the right range for in vivo applications. The amount of encapsulated ruthenium complexes was quantified by means of ICP-AES. Stability and drug release properties of ruthenium containing liposomes were confirmed in buffer. The growth inhibitory effects of both liposomal and free complexes drug were tested on prostate cancer cells (PC3).
Preliminary results show high cytotoxic effect of ruthenium complexes delivered by supramolecular aggregates with respect to free complexes drug
Thermodynamics of the self-gravitating ring model
We present the phase diagram, in both the microcanonical and the canonical
ensemble, of the Self-Gravitating-Ring (SGR) model, which describes the motion
of equal point masses constrained on a ring and subject to 3D gravitational
attraction. If the interaction is regularized at short distances by the
introduction of a softening parameter, a global entropy maximum always exists,
and thermodynamics is well defined in the mean-field limit. However, ensembles
are not equivalent and a phase of negative specific heat in the microcanonical
ensemble appears in a wide intermediate energy region, if the softening
parameter is small enough. The phase transition changes from second to first
order at a tricritical point, whose location is not the same in the two
ensembles. All these features make of the SGR model the best prototype of a
self-gravitating system in one dimension. In order to obtain the stable
stationary mass distribution, we apply a new iterative method, inspired by a
previous one used in 2D turbulence, which ensures entropy increase and, hence,
convergence towards an equilibrium state
Fingerprinting white marbles of archaeometric interest by means of combined SANS and USANS
We have performed a series of USANS and SANS measurements on
a selected group of marble samples characterized by similar chemical composition but wide range of known metamorphic conditions. With these samples we start the building up of a data base in an attempt to correlate metamorphism and mesoscopic structure of white marbles. Experimental data have been analysed in terms of a hierarchical model. The present data highlight the importance of the structure at
meso scale in identifying the provenance of the marble samples. A remarkable simple relation between the model parameters and the metamorphic degree has been found. This curve might represent a master curve to allow fingerprinting of white marbles. Also, two coloured marbles from Villa Adriana (Tivoli, Italy) have been investigated
by means of the same techniques. Results obtained follow the general trend found for the white marbles
Models with short and long-range interactions: phase diagram and reentrant phase
We study the phase diagram of two different Hamiltonians with competiting
local, nearest-neighbour, and mean-field couplings. The first example
corresponds to the HMF Hamiltonian with an additional short-range interaction.
The second example is a reduced Hamiltonian for dipolar layered spin
structures, with a new feature with respect to the first example, the presence
of anisotropies. The two examples are solved in both the canonical and the
microcanonical ensemble using a combination of the min-max method with the
transfer operator method. The phase diagrams present typical features of
systems with long-range interactions: ensemble inequivalence, negative specific
heat and temperature jumps. Moreover, in a given range of parameters, we report
the signature of phase reentrance. This can also be interpreted as the presence
of azeotropy with the creation of two first order phase transitions with
ensemble inequivalence, as one parameter is varied continuously
Neutron tomography in modern archaeology
The search for non invasive and non destructive techniques is fundamental when dealing with samples of great historical, cultural and artistic value as well as with samples strongly degraded. Among different techniques, Neutron Tomography NT allows a close analysis of samples of Archaeological interest without damaging them. In what follows, a few cases in which the Neutron Tomography instrument of the BENSC at HMI Berlin has been successfully applied will be show
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