Kinetic stabilization of Fe film on (4 by 2)-GaAs(100)

We grow Fe film on (4 by 2)-GaAs(100) at low temperature, (~ 130 K) and study their chemical structure by photoelectron spectroscopy using synchrotron radiation. We observe the effective suppression of As segregation and remarkable reduction of alloy formation near the interface between Fe and substrate. Hence, this should be a way to grow virtually pristine Fe film on GaAs(100). Further, the Fe film is found stable against As segregation even after warmed up to room temperature. There only forms very thin, ~ 8 angstrom thick interface alloy. It is speculated that the interface alloy forms via surface diffusion mediated by interface defects formed during the low temperature growth of the Fe film. Further out-diffusion of both Ga and As are suppressed because it should then proceed via inefficient bulk diffusion.Comment: 4 figure

Entanglement between qubits induced by a common environment with a gap

We study a system of two qubits interacting with a common environment, described by a two-spin boson model. We demonstrate two competing roles of the environment: inducing entanglement between the two qubits and making them decoherent. For the environment of a single harmonic oscillator, if its frequency is commensurate with the induced two-qubit coupling strength, the two qubits could be maximally entangled and the environment could be separable. In the case of the environment of a bosonic bath, the gap of its spectral density function is essential to generate entanglement between two qubits at equilibrium and for it to be used as a quantum data bus.Comment: accepted for publication in Physical Review

Entanglement and Quantum Phase Transitions via Adiabatic Quantum Computation

For a finite XY chain and a finite two-dimensional Ising lattice, it is shown that the paramagnetic ground state is adiabatically transformed to the GHZ state in the ferromagnetic phase by slowly turning on the magnetic field. The fidelity between the GHZ state and an adiabatically evolved state shows a feature of the quantum phase transition.Comment: Revise

Larotrectinib efficacy and safety in TRK fusion cancer: An expanded clinical dataset showing consistency in an age and tumor agnostic approach

Background: TRK fusion cancer results from gene fusions involving NTRK1, NTRK2 or NTRK3. Larotrectinib, the first selective TRK inhibitor, has demonstrated an overall response rate (ORR) of 75% with a favorable safety profile in the first 55 consecutively enrolled adult and pediatric patients with TRK fusion cancer (Drilon et al.,NEJM2018). Here, we report the clinical activity of larotrectinib in an additional 35 TRK fusion cancer patients and provide updated follow-up of the primary analysis set (PAS) of 55 patients as of 19thFeb 2018. Methods: Patients with TRK fusion cancer detected by molecular profiling from 3 larotrectinib clinical trials (NCT02122913, NCT02637687, and NCT02576431) were eligible.Larotrectinib was administered until disease progression, withdrawal, or unacceptable toxicity. Disease status was assessed using RECIST version 1.1. Results: As of Feb 2018, by independent review, 6 PRs in the PAS deepened to CRs. The median duration of response (DoR) and progression-free survival in the PAS had still not been reached, with 12.9 months median follow-up. At 1 year, 69% of responses were ongoing, 58% of patients remained progression-free and 90% of patients were alive. An additional 19 children and 25 adults (age range, 0.1-78 years) with TRK fusion cancer were enrolled after the PAS, and included cancers of the salivary gland, thyroid, lung, colon, melanoma, sarcoma, GIST and congenital mesoblastic nephroma. In 35 evaluable patients, the ORR by investigator assessment was 74% (5 CR, 21 PR, 6 SD, 2 PD, 1 not determined). In these patients, with median follow-up of 5.5 months, median DoR had not yet been reached, and 88% of responses were ongoing at 6 months, consistent with the PAS. Adverse events (AEs) were predominantly grade 1, with dizziness, increased AST/ALT, fatigue, nausea and constipation the most common AEs reported in ≥ 10% of patients. No AE of grade 3 or 4 related to larotrectinib occurred in more than 5% of patients. Conclusions: TRK fusions are detected in a broad range of tumor types. Larotrectinib is an effective age- and tumor-agnostic treatment for TRK fusion cancer with a positive safety profile. Screening patients for NTRK gene fusions in solid- and brain tumors should be actively considered

Spontaneous Violation of the CP Symmetry in the Higgs Sector of the Next-to-Minimal Supersymmetric Model

The spontaneous violation of the CP symmetry in the next-to-minimal supersymmetric standard Model (NMSSM) is investigated. It is found that the spontaneous violation of the CP symmetry can occur in the Higgs sector of the NMSSM for a wide region of the parameter space of the model, at the 1-loop level where the radiative corrections due to the top quark and scalar-top quark loops are found to generate the scalar-pseudoscalar mixings between the two Higgs doublets of the NMSSM. In our model, we assume that the masses of the left-handed and the right-handed scalar-top quarks are not degenerate. And we investigate our model anaytically: We derive analytical formulae of the 1-loop mass matrix for the neutral Higgs bosons. We calculate the upper bound on the lightest neutral Higgs boson mass under the assumption. It is found to be about 140 GeV for our choice of parameter values in the presence of the spontaneous violation of the CP symmetry in the NMSSM. Thus, the possibility of the spontaneous violation of the CP symmetry is not completely ruled out in the Higgs sector of the NMSSM if the masses of the left-handed and the right-handed scalar-top quarks are not degenerate. Further, the phenomenology of the $K$-${\bar K}$ mixing within the context of our model is studied. The lower bound on CP violating phase in the $K$-${\bar K}$ mixing is found to increase if either $\tan\beta$ decreases or $A_t$ increases.Comment: 21 pages, 5 figures, To appear in Phys. Rev.

Possibility of spontaneous CP violation in the nonminimal supersymmetric standard model with two neutral Higgs singlets

A supersymmetric standard model with two Higgs doublets and two Higgs singlets is investigated if it can accommodate the possibility of spontaneous CP violation. Assuming the degeneracy of the scalar quark masses of the third generation, we find that spontaneous CP violation in the Higgs sector is viable in our model. In the case of spontaneous CP violation, the masses of the lightest two neutral Higgs bosons are estimated to be 80 and 125 GeV for some parameter values in our model, which, are consistent with LEP2 data.Comment: 18 pages, 3figure

Effects of guanidine on synaptic transmission in the spinal cord of the frog

The effects of guanidine on motoneurons of the isolated frog spinal cord were studied by adding the drug to the solution bathing the cord during intracellular recording. Guanidine (5·10–4 M) did not alter the membrane potential of motoneurons. The main effect was a marked increase of the amplitudes and frequencies of small spontaneously occurring inhibitory postsynaptic potentials. The hyperpolarizing component of postsynaptic potentials evoked by stimulation of dorsal roots was also enhanced by guanidine. Higher concentrations of guanidine (5·10–3 M) resulted in a very large and irreversible increase of the small spontaneously occurring inhibitory potentials, which now appeared in a regular, rhythmic pattern. The effects of guanidine could easily be blocked by increasing the magnesium ions (15 mM) in the bath solution. These results indicate that guanidine facilitates the release of an inhibitory transmitter in afferent terminals of the frog spinal cord either by a direct action on these terminals or indirectly by an action on nerve endings impinging on inhibitory interneurons

Landau diamagnetism and magnetization of interacting diffusive conductors

We show how the orbital magnetization of an interacting disordered diffusive electron gas can be simply related to the magnetization of the non-interacting system having the same geometry. This result is applied to the persistent current of a mesoscopic ring and to the relation between Landau diamagnetism and the interaction correction to the magnetization of diffusive systems. The field dependence of this interaction contribution can be deduced directly from the de Haas-van Alphen oscillations of the free electron gas. Known results for the free orbital magnetism of finite systems can be used to derive the interaction contribution in the diffusive regime in various geometries.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figure

Charged Higgs boson in the next-to-minimal supersymmetric standard model with explicit CP violation

The phenomenology of the explicit CP violation in the Higgs sector of the next-to-minimal supersymmetric standard model (NMSSM) is investigated, with emphasis on the charged Higgs boson. The radiative corrections due to both quarks and scalar-quarks of the third generation are taken into account, and the negative result of the search for the Higgs bosons at CERN LEP2, with the discovery limit of 0.1 pb, is imposed as a constraint. It is found that there are parameter regions of the NMSSM where the lightest neutral Higgs boson may even be massless, without being detected at LEP2. This implies that the LEP2 data do not contradict the existence of a massless neutral Higgs boson in the NMSSM. For the charged Higgs boson, the radiative corrections to its mass may be negative in some parameter regions of the NMSSM. The phenomenological lower bound on the radiatively corrected mass of the charged Higgs boson is increased as the CP violation becomes maximal, i.e., as the CP violating phase becomes $\pi/2$. At the maximal CP violation, its lower bound is about 110 GeV for 5 $\leqslant \tan \beta \leqslant$ 40. The vacuum expectation value (VEV) of the neutral Higgs singlet is shown to be no smaller than 16 GeV for any parameter values of the NMSSM with explicit CP violation. This value of the lower limit is found to increase up to about 45 GeV as the ratio ($\tan \beta$) of the VEVs of the two Higgs doublets decreases to smaller values ($\sim$ 2). The discovery limit of the Higgs boson search at LEP2 is found to cover about a half of the kinematically allowed part of the whole parameter space of the NMSSM, and the portion is roughly stable against the CP violating phase.Comment: Latex, 24 pages, 6 figure

Energy Spectrum of Bloch Electrons Under Checkerboard Field Modulations

Two-dimensional Bloch electrons in a uniform magnetic field exhibit complex energy spectrum. When static electric and magnetic modulations with a checkerboard pattern are superimposed on the uniform magnetic field, more structures and symmetries of the spectra are found, due to the additional adjustable parameters from the modulations. We give a comprehensive report on these new symmetries. We have also found an electric-modulation induced energy gap, whose magnitude is independent of the strength of either the uniform or the modulated magnetic field. This study is applicable to experimentally accessible systems and is related to the investigations on frustrated antiferromagnetism.Comment: 8 pages, 6 figures (reduced in sizes), submitted to Phys. Rev.