5,856 research outputs found
The energy partitioning of non-thermal particles in a plasma: or the Coulomb logarithm revisited
The charged particle stopping power in a highly ionized and weakly to
moderately coupled plasma has been calculated to leading and next-to-leading
order by Brown, Preston, and Singleton (BPS). After reviewing the main ideas
behind this calculation, we use a Fokker-Planck equation derived by BPS to
compute the electron-ion energy partitioning of a charged particle traversing a
plasma. The motivation for this application is ignition for inertial
confinement fusion -- more energy delivered to the ions means a better chance
of ignition, and conversely. It is therefore important to calculate the
fractional energy loss to electrons and ions as accurately as possible, as this
could have implications for the Laser Megajoule (LMJ) facility in France and
the National Ignition Facility (NIF) in the United States. The traditional
method by which one calculates the electron-ion energy splitting of a charged
particle traversing a plasma involves integrating the stopping power dE/dx.
However, as the charged particle slows down and becomes thermalized into the
background plasma, this method of calculating the electron-ion energy splitting
breaks down. As a result, the method suffers a systematic error of order T/E0,
where T is the plasma temperature and E0 is the initial energy of the charged
particle. In the case of DT fusion, for example, this can lead to uncertainties
as high as 10% or so. The formalism presented here is designed to account for
the thermalization process, and in contrast, it provides results that are
near-exact.Comment: 10 pages, 3 figures, invited talk at the 35th European Physical
Society meeting on plasma physic
Opening of DNA double strands by helicases. Active versus passive opening
Helicase opening of double-stranded nucleic acids may be "active" (the
helicase directly destabilizes the dsNA to promote opening) or "passive" (the
helicase binds ssNA available due to a thermal fluctuation which opens part of
the dsNA). We describe helicase opening of dsNA, based on helicases which bind
single NA strands and move towards the double-stranded region, using a discrete
``hopping'' model. The interaction between the helicase and the junction where
the double strand opens is characterized by an interaction potential. The form
of the potential determines whether the opening is active or passive. We
calculate the rate of passive opening for the helicase PcrA, and show that the
rate increases when the opening is active. Finally, we examine how to choose
the interaction potential to optimize the rate of strand separation. One
important result is our finding that active opening can increase the unwinding
rate by 7 fold compared to passive opening.Comment: 13 pages, 3 figure
Persistence to high temperatures of interlayer coherence in an organic superconductor
The interlayer magnetoresistance of the organic metal \cuscn is
studied in fields of up to 45 T and at temperatures from 0.5 K to 30 K. The
peak in seen in in-plane fields, a definitive signature of
interlayer coherence, remains to s exceeding the Anderson criterion for
incoherent transport by a factor . Angle-dependent magnetoresistance
oscillations are modeled using an approach based on field-induced quasiparticle
paths on a 3D Fermi surface, to yield the dependence of the scattering rate
. The results suggest that does not vary strongly over
the Fermi surface, and that it has a dependence due to electron-electron
scattering
Comparison of the Fermi-surface topologies of kappa-(BEDT-TTF)_2 Cu(NCS)_2 and its deuterated analogue
We have measured details of the quasi one-dimensional Fermi-surface sections
in the organic superconductor kappa-(BEDT-TTF)_2 Cu(NCS)_2 and its deuterated
analogue using angle-dependent millimetre-wave techniques. There are
significant differences in the corrugations of the Fermi surfaces in the
deuterated and undeuterated salts. We suggest that this is important in
understanding the inverse isotope effect, where the superconducting transition
temperature rises on deuteration. The data support models for superconductivity
which invoke electron-electron interactions depending on the topological
properties of the Fermi surface
Crisis management during anaesthesia: vascular access problems
© 2005 BMJ Publishing Group Ltd.Background: In confronting an evolving crisis, the anaesthetist should consider the vascular catheter as a potential cause, abandoning assumptions that the device has been satisfactorily placed and is functioning correctly. Objectives: To examine the role of a previously described core algorithm "COVER ABCD–A SWIFT CHECK", supplemented by a specific sub-algorithm for vascular access problems, in the management of crises occurring in association with anaesthesia. Methods: The potential performance of a structured approach was evaluated for each of the relevant incidents among the first 4000 reported to the Australian Incident Monitoring Study (AIMS). Results: There were 128 incidents involving problems related to vascular access. The structured approach begins distally, checking the infusion device or fluid (12 incidents), moving proximally by way of the fluid giving line (10), the line deadspace (8), then the catheter/skin interface (65), and on to the peripheral vascular tree (3) and central venous space (23), and finally, the interface of the vascular access system and the attending staff (7). The approach was able to accommodate all the vascular access problems among the first 4000 incidents reported to AIMS. Conclusion: The approach has potential as an easily remembered and applied clinical tool to lead to early resolution of vascular access problems occurring during anaesthesia
Crisis management during anaesthesia: water intoxication
© 2005 BMJ Publishing Group Ltd.Background: Irrigation of closed body spaces may lead to substantial perioperative fluid and electrolyte shifts. A syndrome occurring during transurethral resection of prostate (TURP), and a similar syndrome described in women undergoing transcervical endometrial ablation (TCEA) are both characterised by a spectrum of symptoms which may range from asymptomatic hyponatraemia to convulsions, coma, and death. Such potentially serious consequences require prompt recognition and appropriate management of this "water intoxication" syndrome. Objectives: To examine the role of a previously described core algorithm "COVER ABCD–A SWIFT CHECK", supplemented by a specific sub-algorithm for water intoxication, in the management of this syndrome occurring in association with anaesthesia. Methods: The potential performance of this structured approach for each of the relevant incidents among the first 4000 reported to the Australian Incident Monitoring Study (AIMS) was compared with the actual management as reported by the anaesthetists involved. Results: From the first 4000 incidents reported to AIMS, 10 reports of water intoxication were identified, two from endometrial ablations under general anaesthesia and eight from male urological procedures under spinal anaesthesia. The "core" crisis management algorithm detected a problem in seven cases; however, it was deficient in dealing with neurological presentations. Diagnosis of the cause of the incident would have required a specific water intoxication sub-algorithm in eight cases and a hypotension algorithm in a further two cases. Corrective strategies also required a specific sub-algorithm in eight cases, while the hypotension and cardiac arrest sub-algorithms were required in conjunction with the water intoxication sub-algorithm in the remaining two.M T Kluger, S M Szekely, R J Singleton, S C Help
Periodic Instantons in SU(2) Yang-Mills-Higgs Theory
The properties of periodic instanton solutions of the classical SU(2) gauge
theory with a Higgs doublet field are described analytically at low energies,
and found numerically for all energies up to and beyond the sphaleron energy.
Interesting new classes of bifurcating complex periodic instanton solutions to
the Yang-Mills-Higgs equations are described.Comment: 11 pages, 3 figures (in 5 included eps files), ReVTeX (minor typos
corrected and reference added
The monoclinic crystal structure of -RuCl and the zigzag antiferromagnetic ground state
The layered honeycomb magnet alpha-RuCl3 has been proposed as a candidate to
realize a Kitaev spin model with strongly frustrated, bond-dependent,
anisotropic interactions between spin-orbit entangled jeff=1/2 Ru4+ magnetic
moments. Here we report a detailed study of the three-dimensional crystal
structure using x-ray diffraction on untwinned crystals combined with
structural relaxation calculations. We consider several models for the stacking
of honeycomb layers and find evidence for a crystal structure with a monoclinic
unit cell corresponding to a stacking of layers with a unidirectional in-plane
offset, with occasional in-plane sliding stacking faults, in contrast with the
currently-assumed trigonal 3-layer stacking periodicity. We report electronic
band structure calculations for the monoclinic structure, which find support
for the applicability of the jeff=1/2 picture once spin orbit coupling and
electron correlations are included. We propose that differences in the
magnitude of anisotropic exchange along symmetry inequivalent bonds in the
monoclinic cell could provide a natural mechanism to explain the spin gap
observed in powder inelastic neutron scattering, in contrast to spin models
based on the three-fold symmetric trigonal structure, which predict a gapless
spectrum within linear spin wave theory. Our susceptibility measurements on
both powders and stacked crystals, as well as neutron powder diffraction show a
single magnetic transition at TN ~ 13K. The analysis of the neutron data
provides evidence for zigzag magnetic order in the honeycomb layers with an
antiferromagnetic stacking between layers. Magnetization measurements on
stacked single crystals in pulsed field up to 60T show a single transition
around 8T for in-plane fields followed by a gradual, asymptotic approach to
magnetization saturation, as characteristic of strongly anisotropic exchange
interactions.Comment: 13 pages, 9 figures, published in Physical Review
Exact Schwarzschild-Like Solution for Yang-Mills Theories
Drawing on the parallel between general relativity and Yang-Mills theory we
obtain an exact Schwarzschild-like solution for SU(2) gauge fields coupled to a
massless scalar field. Pushing the analogy further we speculate that this
classical solution to the Yang-Mills equations shows confinement in the same
way that particles become confined once they pass the event horizon of the
Schwarzschild solution. Two special cases of the solution are considered.Comment: 11 pages LaTe
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