68,297 research outputs found
The influence of compact and ordered carbon coating on solid-state behaviors of silicon during electrochemical processes
To address the issues of large volume change and low conductivity of silicon (Si) materials, carbon coatings have been widely employed as surface protection agent and conductive medium to encapsulate the Si materials, which can improve the electrochemical performance of Si-based electrodes. There has been a strong demand to gain a deeper understanding of the impact of efficient carbon coating over the lithiation and delithiation process of Si materials. Here, we report the first observation of the extended two-phase transformation of carbon-coated Si nanoparticles (Si/C) during electrochemical processes. The Si/C nanoparticles were prepared by sintering Si nanoparticles with polyvinylidene chloride precursor. The Si/C electrode underwent a two-phase transition during the first 20 cycles at 0.2 C, but started to engage in solid solution reaction when the ordered compact carbon coating began to crack. Under higher current density conditions, the electrode was also found to be involved in solid solution reaction, which, however, was due to the overwhelming demand of kinetic property rather than the breaking of the carbon coating. In comparison, the Si/C composites prepared with sucrose possessed more disordered and porous carbon structures, and presented solid solution reaction throughout the entire cycling process
Distortion of genealogical properties when the sample is very large
Study sample sizes in human genetics are growing rapidly, and in due course
it will become routine to analyze samples with hundreds of thousands if not
millions of individuals. In addition to posing computational challenges, such
large sample sizes call for carefully re-examining the theoretical foundation
underlying commonly-used analytical tools. Here, we study the accuracy of the
coalescent, a central model for studying the ancestry of a sample of
individuals. The coalescent arises as a limit of a large class of random mating
models and it is an accurate approximation to the original model provided that
the population size is sufficiently larger than the sample size. We develop a
method for performing exact computation in the discrete-time Wright-Fisher
(DTWF) model and compare several key genealogical quantities of interest with
the coalescent predictions. For realistic demographic scenarios, we find that
there are a significant number of multiple- and simultaneous-merger events
under the DTWF model, which are absent in the coalescent by construction.
Furthermore, for large sample sizes, there are noticeable differences in the
expected number of rare variants between the coalescent and the DTWF model. To
balance the tradeoff between accuracy and computational efficiency, we propose
a hybrid algorithm that utilizes the DTWF model for the recent past and the
coalescent for the more distant past. Our results demonstrate that the hybrid
method with only a handful of generations of the DTWF model leads to a
frequency spectrum that is quite close to the prediction of the full DTWF
model.Comment: 27 pages, 2 tables, 14 figure
Massive star evolution in close binaries:conditions for homogeneous chemical evolution
We investigate the impact of tidal interactions, before any mass transfer, on
various properties of the stellar models. We study the conditions for obtaining
homogeneous evolution triggered by tidal interactions, and for avoiding any
Roche lobe overflow during the Main-Sequence phase. We consider the case of
rotating stars computed with a strong coupling mediated by an interior magnetic
field. In models without any tidal interaction (single stars and wide
binaries), homogeneous evolution in solid body rotating models is obtained when
two conditions are realized: the initial rotation must be high enough, the loss
of angular momentum by stellar winds should be modest. This last point favors
metal-poor fast rotating stars. In models with tidal interactions, homogeneous
evolution is obtained when rotation imposed by synchronization is high enough
(typically a time-averaged surface velocities during the Main-Sequence phase
above 250 km s), whatever the mass losses. In close binaries, mixing is
stronger at higher than at lower metallicities. Homogeneous evolution is thus
favored at higher metallicities. Roche lobe overflow avoidance is favored at
lower metallicities due to the fact that stars with less metals remain more
compact. We study also the impact of different processes for the angular
momentum transport on the surface abundances and velocities in single and close
binaries. In models where strong internal coupling is assumed, strong surface
enrichments are always associated to high surface velocities in binary or
single star models. In contrast, models computed with mild coupling may produce
strong surface enrichments associated to low surface velocities. Close binary
models may be of interest for explaining homogeneous massive stars, fast
rotating Wolf-Rayet stars, and progenitors of long soft gamma ray bursts, even
at high metallicities.Comment: 21 pages, 13 figures, 3 tables, accepted for publication in Astronomy
and Astrophysic
Partitioning technique for a discrete quantum system
We develop the partitioning technique for quantum discrete systems. The graph
consists of several subgraphs: a central graph and several branch graphs, with
each branch graph being rooted by an individual node on the central one. We
show that the effective Hamiltonian on the central graph can be constructed by
adding additional potentials on the branch-root nodes, which generates the same
result as does the the original Hamiltonian on the entire graph. Exactly
solvable models are presented to demonstrate the main points of this paper.Comment: 7 pages, 2 figure
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