Dynamics of few-body states in a medium

Strongly interacting matter such as nuclear or quark matter leads to few-body bound states and correlations of the constituents. As a consequence quantum chromodynamics has a rich phase structure with spontaneous symmetry breaking, superconductivity, condensates of different kinds. All this appears in many astrophysical scenarios. Among them is the formation of hadrns during the early stage of the Universe, the structure of a neutron star, the formation of nuclei during a supernova explosion. Some of these extreme conditions can be simulated in heavy ion colliders. To treat such a hot and dense system we use the Green function formalism of many-body theory. It turns out that a systematic Dyson expansion of the Green functions leads to modified few-body equations that are capable to describe phase transitions, condensates, cluster formation and more. These equations include self energy corrections and Pauli blocking. We apply this method to nonrelativistic and relativistic matter. The latter one is treated on the light front. Because of the medium and the inevitable truncation of space, the few-body dynamics and states depend on the thermodynamic parameters of the medium.Comment: 3 pages, 2 figures, talk presented at the 19th European Conference on Few-Body System

Boson-Fermion pairing in a Boson-Fermion environment

Propagation of a Boson-Fermion (B-F) pair in a B-F environment is considered. The possibility of formation of stable strongly correlated B-F pairs, embedded in the continuum, is pointed out. The new Fermi gas of correlated B-F pairs shows a strongly modified Fermi surface. The interaction between like particles is neglected in this exploratory study. Various physical situations where our new pairing mechanism could be of importance are invoked.Comment: 8 pages, 8 figers, to be published in Phys. Rev.

ESCRT machinery mediates selective microautophagy of endoplasmic reticulum in yeast

ER-phagy, the selective autophagy of endoplasmic reticulum (ER), safeguards organelle homeostasis by eliminating misfolded proteins and regulating ER size. ER-phagy can occur by macroautophagic and microautophagic mechanisms. While dedicated machinery for macro-ER-phagy has been discovered, the molecules and mechanisms mediating micro-ER-phagy remain unknown. Here, we first show that micro-ER-phagy in yeast involves the conversion of stacked cisternal ER into multilamellar ER whorls during microautophagic uptake into lysosomes. Second, we identify the conserved Nem1-Spo7 phosphatase complex and the ESCRT machinery as key components for micro-ER-phagy. Third, we demonstrate that macro- and micro-ER-phagy are parallel pathways with distinct molecular requirements. Finally, we provide evidence that the ESCRT machinery directly functions in scission of the lysosomal membrane to complete the microautophagic uptake of ER. These findings establish a framework for a mechanistic understanding of micro-ER-phagy and, thus, a comprehensive appreciation of the role of autophagy in ER homeostasis

Few-Body States in Fermi-Systems and Condensation Phenomena

Residual interactions in many particle systems lead to strong correlations. A multitude of spectacular phenomenae in many particle systems are connected to correlation effects in such systems, e.g. pairing, superconductivity, superfluidity, Bose-Einstein condensation etc. Here we focus on few-body bound states in a many-body surrounding.Comment: 10 pages, proceedings 1st Asian-Pacific Few-Body Conference, needs fbssuppl.sty of Few-Body System

Estimating Electric Fields from Vector Magnetogram Sequences

Determining the electric field (E-field) distribution on the Sun's photosphere is essential for quantitative studies of how energy flows from the Sun's photosphere, through the corona, and into the heliosphere. This E-field also provides valuable input for data-driven models of the solar atmosphere and the Sun-Earth system. We show how Faraday's Law can be used with observed vector magnetogram time series to estimate the photospheric E-field, an ill-posed inversion problem. Our method uses a "poloidal-toroidal decomposition" (PTD) of the time derivative of the vector magnetic field. The PTD solutions are not unique; the gradient of a scalar potential can be added to the PTD E-field without affecting consistency with Faraday's Law. We present an iterative technique to determine a potential function consistent with ideal MHD evolution; but this E-field is also not a unique solution to Faraday's Law. Finally, we explore a variational approach that minimizes an energy functional to determine a unique E-field, similar to Longcope's "Minimum Energy Fit". The PTD technique, the iterative technique, and the variational technique are used to estimate E-fields from a pair of synthetic vector magnetograms taken from an MHD simulation; and these E-fields are compared with the simulation's known electric fields. These three techniques are then applied to a pair of vector magnetograms of solar active region NOAA AR8210, to demonstrate the methods with real data.Comment: 41 pages, 10 figure

Action-Specific Effects Underwater

Action-specific effects on perception are apparent in terrestrial environments. For example, targets that require more effort to walk, jump, or throw to look farther away than when the targets require less effort. Here, we examined whether action-specific effects would generalize to an underwater environment. Instead, perception might be geometrically precise, rather than action-specific, in an environment that is novel from an evolutionary perspective. We manipulated ease to swim by giving participants swimming flippers or taking them away. Those who estimated distance while wearing the flippers judged underwater targets to be closer than did participants who had taken them off. In addition, participants with better swimming ability judged the targets to be closer than did those with worse swimming ability. These results suggest perceived distance underwater is a function of the perceiver’s ability to swim to the targets

Chemical Raman Enhancement of Organic Adsorbates on Metal Surfaces

Using a combination of first-principles theory and experiments, we provide a quantitative explanation for chemical contributions to surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy for a well-studied organic molecule, benzene thiol, chemisorbed on planar Au(111) surfaces. With density functional theory calculations of the static Raman tensor, we demonstrate and quantify a strong mode-dependent modification of benzene thiol Raman spectra by Au substrates. Raman active modes with the largest enhancements result from stronger contributions from Au to their electron-vibron coupling, as quantified through a deformation potential, a well-defined property of each vibrational mode. A straightforward and general analysis is introduced that allows extraction of chemical enhancement from experiments for specific vibrational modes; measured values are in excellent agreement with our calculations.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures and Supplementary material included as ancillary fil

Cooper pair sizes in 11Li and in superfluid nuclei: a puzzle?

We point out a strong influence of the pairing force on the size of the two neutron Cooper pair in $^{11}$Li, and to a lesser extent also in $^6$He. It seems that these are quite unique situations, since Cooper pair sizes of stable superfluid nuclei are very little influenced by the intensity of pairing, as recently reported. We explore the difference between $^{11}$Li and heavier superfulid nuclei, and discuss reasons for the exceptional situation in $^{11}$Li.Comment: 9 pages. To be published in J. of Phys. G special issue on Open Problems in Nuclear Structure (OPeNST

Absorption spectrum of a weakly n-doped semiconductor quantum well

We calculate, as a function of temperature and conduction band electron density, the optical absorption of a weakly n-doped, idealized semiconductor quantum well. In particular, we focus on the absorption band due to the formation of a charged exciton. We conceptualize the charged exciton as an itinerant excitation intimately linked to the dynamical response of itinerant conduction band electrons to the appearance of the photo-generated valence band hole. Numerical results for the absorption in the vicinity of the exciton line are presented and the spectral weights associated with, respectively, the charged exciton band and the exciton line are analyzed in detail. We find, in qualitative agreement with experimental data, that the spectral weight of the charged exciton grows with increasing conduction band electron density and/or decreasing temperature at the expense of the exciton.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure

The stable isotopic composition of molecular hydrogen in the tropopause region probed by the CARIBIC aircraft

More than 450 air samples that were collected in the upper troposphere – lower stratosphere (UTLS) region by the CARIBIC aircraft (Civil Aircraft for the Regular Investigation of the atmosphere Based on an Instrument Container) have been analyzed for molecular hydrogen (H2) mixing ratios (χ¬(H2)) and H2 isotopic composition (deuterium content, δD). More than 120 of the analyzed samples contained air from the lowermost stratosphere (LMS). These show that ¬ χ(H2) does not vary appreciably with O3-derived height above the thermal tropopause (TP), whereas δD does increase with height. The isotope enrichment is caused by H2 production and destruction processes that enrich the stratospheric H2 reservoir in deuterium (D); the exact shapes of the profiles are mainly determined by mixing of stratospheric with tropospheric air. Tight negative correlations are found between δD and the mixing ratios of methane (¬ χ(CH4)) and nitrous oxide (χ-(N2O)), as a result of the relatively long lifetimes of these three species. The correlations are described by δD[‰] = −0.35 · ¬χ(CH4)[ppb]+768 and δD[‰] = −1.90 · χ(N2O)[ppb]+745. These correlations are similar to previously published results and likely hold globally for the LMS. Samples that were collected from the Indian subcontinentup to 40° N before, during and after the summer monsoon season show no significant seasonal change in χ¬(H2), but δD is up to 12.3‰ lower in the July, August and September monsoon samples. This δD decrease is correlated with the χ¬(CH4) increase in these samples. The significant correlation with χ¬(CH4) and the absence of a perceptible χ-(H2) increase that accompanies the δD decrease indicates that microbial production of very D-depleted H2 in the wet season may contribute to this phenomenon. Some of the samples have very high χ¬(H2) and very low δD values, which indicates a pollution effect. Aircraft engine exhaust plumes are a suspected cause, since the effect mostly occurs in samples collected close to airports, but no similar signals are found in other chemical tracers to support this. The isotopic source signature of the H2 pollution seems to be on the low end of the signature for fossil fuel burning