334 research outputs found
Coefficient of normal restitution of viscous particles and cooling rate of granular gases
We investigate the cooling rate of a gas of inelastically interacting
particles. When we assume velocity dependent coefficients of restitution the
material cools down slower than with constant restitution. This behavior might
have large influence to clustering and structure formation processes.Comment: 3 figures, Phys. Rev. E (in press
Simulation for the oblique impact of a lattice system
The oblique collision between an elastic disk and an elastic wall is
numerically studied.
We investigate the dependency of the tangential coefficient of restitution on
the incident angle of impact.
From the results of simulation, our model reproduces experimental results and
can be explained by a phenomenological theory of the oblique impact.Comment: 30 pages, 9 figures, submitted to J. Phys. Soc. Japa
Self-diffusion in granular gases
The coefficient of self-diffusion for a homogeneously cooling granular gas
changes significantly if the impact-velocity dependence of the restitution
coefficient is taken into account. For the case of a constant
the particles spread logarithmically slow with time, whereas the
velocity dependent coefficient yields a power law time-dependence. The impact
of the difference in these time dependences on the properties of a freely
cooling granular gas is discussed.Comment: 6 pages, no figure
Onset of fluidization in vertically shaken granular material
When granular material is shaken vertically one observes convection, surface
fluidization, spontaneous heap formation and other effects. There is a
controversial discussion in literature whether there exists a threshold for the
Froude number below which these effects cannot be
observed anymore. By means of theoretical analysis and computer simulation we
find that there is no such single threshold. Instead we propose a modified
criterion which coincides with critical Froude number for small
driving frequency .Comment: 7 pages, 5 figure
Studies of the dose-effect relation
Dose-effect relations and, specifically, cell survival curves are surveyed with emphasis on the interplay of the random factors â biological variability, stochastic reaction of the cell, and the statistics of energy deposition âthat co-determine their shape. The global parameters mean inactivation dose, , and coefficient of variance, V, represent this interplay better than conventional parameters. Mechanisms such as lesion interaction, misrepair, repair overload, or repair depletion have been invoked to explain sigmoid dose dependencies, but these notions are partly synonymous and are largely undistinguishable on the basis of observed dose dependencies. All dose dependencies reflect, to varying degree, the microdosimetric fluctuations of energy deposition, and these have certain implications, e.g. the linearity of the dose dependence at small doses, that apply regardless of unresolved molecular mechanisms of cellular radiation action
Swapping and entangling hyperfine coupled nuclear spin baths
We numerically study the hyperfine induced nuclear spin dynamics in a system
of two coupled quantum dots in zero magnetic field. Each of the electron spins
is considered to interact with an individual bath of nuclear spins via
homogeneous coupling constants (all coupling coefficients being equal). In
order to lower the dimension of the problem, the two baths are approximated by
two single long spins. We demonstrate that the hyperfine interaction enables to
utilize the nuclear baths for quantum information purposes. In particular, we
show that it is possible to swap the nuclear ensembles on time scales of
seconds and indicate that it might even be possible to fully entangle them. As
a key result, it turns out that the larger the baths are, the more useful they
become as a resource of quantum information. Interestingly, the nuclear spin
dynamics strongly benefits from combining two quantum dots of different
geometry to a double dot set up.Comment: 6 pages, 7 figure
Increased chromosomal radiosensitivity in asymptomatic carriers of a heterozygous BRCA1 mutation
Background: Breast cancer risk increases drastically in individuals carrying a germline BRCA1 mutation. The exposure to ionizing radiation for diagnostic or therapeutic purposes of BRCA1 mutation carriers is counterintuitive, since BRCA1 is active in the DNA damage response pathway. The aim of this study was to investigate whether healthy BRCA1 mutations carriers demonstrate an increased radiosensitivity compared with healthy individuals.
Methods: We defined a novel radiosensitivity indicator (RIND) based on two endpoints measured by the G2 micronucleus assay, reflecting defects in DNA repair and G2 arrest capacity after exposure to doses of 2 or 4 Gy. We investigated if a correlation between the RIND score and nonsense-mediated decay (NMD) could be established.
Results: We found significantly increased radiosensitivity in the cohort of healthy BRCA1 mutation carriers compared with healthy controls. In addition, our analysis showed a significantly different distribution over the RIND scores (p = 0.034, Fisherâs exact test) for healthy BRCA1 mutation carriers compared with non-carriers: 72 % of mutation carriers showed a radiosensitive phenotype (RIND score 1â4), whereas 72 % of the healthy volunteers showed no radiosensitivity (RIND score 0). Furthermore, 28 % of BRCA1 mutation carriers had a RIND score of 3 or 4 (not observed in control subjects). The radiosensitive phenotype was similar for relatives within several families, but not for unrelated individuals carrying the same mutation. The median RIND score was higher in patients with a mutation leading to a premature termination codon (PTC) located in the central part of the gene than in patients with a germline mutation in the 5âČ end of the gene.
Conclusions: We show that BRCA1 mutations are associated with a radiosensitive phenotype related to a compromised DNA repair and G2 arrest capacity after exposure to either 2 or 4 Gy. Our study confirms that haploinsufficiency is the mechanism involved in radiosensitivity in patients with a PTC allele, but it suggests that further research is needed to evaluate alternative mechanisms for mutations not subjected to NMD
Measurement of the spin temperature of optically cooled nuclei and GaAs hyperfine constants in GaAs/AlGaAs quantum dots
Deep cooling of electron and nuclear spins is equivalent to achieving polarization degrees close to 100% and is a key requirement in solid state quantum information technologies. While polarization of individual nuclear spins in diamond and SiC reaches 99% and beyond, it has been limited to 60-65% for the nuclei in quantum dots. Theoretical models have attributed this limit to formation of coherent "dark" nuclear spin states but experimental verification is lacking, especially due to the poor accuracy of polarization degree measurements. Here we measure the nuclear polarization in GaAs/AlGaAs quantum dots with high accuracy using a new approach enabled by manipulation of the nuclear spin states with radiofrequency pulses. Polarizations up to 80% are observed - the highest reported so far for optical cooling in quantum dots. This value is still not limited by nuclear coherence effects. Instead we find that optically cooled nuclei are well described within a classical spin temperature framework. Our findings unlock a route for further progress towards quantum dot electron spin qubits where deep cooling of the mesoscopic nuclear spin ensemble is used to achieve long qubit coherence. Moreover, GaAs hyperfine material constants are measured here experimentally for the first time
X-ray free electron laser heating of water and gold at high static pressure
The study of water at high pressure and temperature is essential for understanding planetary interiors but is hampered by the high reactivity of water at extreme conditions. Here, indirect X-ray laser heating of water in a diamond anvil cell is realized via a gold absorber, showing no evidence of reactivity
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