54 research outputs found
Ground state non-universality in the random field Ising model
Two attractive and often used ideas, namely universality and the concept of a
zero temperature fixed point, are violated in the infinite-range random-field
Ising model. In the ground state we show that the exponents can depend
continuously on the disorder and so are non-universal. However, we also show
that at finite temperature the thermal order parameter exponent one half is
restored so that temperature is a relevant variable. The broader implications
of these results are discussed.Comment: 4 pages 2 figures, corrected prefactors caused by a missing factor of
two in Eq. 2., added a paragraph in conclusions for clarit
Properties of Interfaces in the two and three dimensional Ising Model
To investigate order-order interfaces, we perform multimagnetical Monte Carlo
simulations of the and Ising model. Following Binder we extract the
interfacial free energy from the infinite volume limit of the magnetic
probability density. Stringent tests of the numerical methods are performed by
reproducing with high precision exact results. In the physically more
interesting case we estimate the amplitude of the critical
interfacial tension to be . This
result is in good agreement with a previous MC calculation by Mon, as well as
with experimental results for related amplitude ratios. In addition, we study
in some details the shape of the magnetic probability density for temperatures
below the Curie point.Comment: 25 pages; sorry no figures include
Nac-mediated repression of the serA promoter of Escherichia coli
Escherichia coli and related bacteria contain two paralogous PII-like proteins involved in nitrogen regulation, the glnB product, PII, and the glnK product, GlnK. Previous studies have shown that cells lacking both PII and GlnK have a severe growth defect on minimal media, resulting from elevated expression of the Ntr regulon. Here, we show that this growth defect is caused by activity of the nac product, Nac, a LysR-type transcription factor that is part of the Ntr regulon. Cells with elevated Ntr expression that also contain a null mutation in nac displayed growth rates on minimal medium similar to the wild type. When expressed from high-copy plasmids, Nac imparts a growth defect to wild-type cells in an expression level-dependent manner. Neither expression of Nac nor lack thereof significantly affected Ntr gene expression, suggesting that the activity of Nac at one or more promoters outside the Ntr regulon was responsible for its effects. The growth defect of cells lacking both PII and GlnK was also eliminated upon supplementation of minimal medium with serine or glycine for solid medium or with serine or glycine and glutamine for liquid medium. These observations suggest that high Nac expression results in a reduction in serine biosynthesis. β -Galactosidase activity expressed from a Mu d1 insertion in serA was reduced approximately 10-fold in cells with high Nac expression. We hypothesize that one role of Nac is to limit serine biosynthesis as part of a cellular mechanism to reduce metabolism in a co-ordinated manner when cells become starved for nitrogen.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/72401/1/j.1365-2958.2002.02994.x.pd
Metastable States in Spin Glasses and Disordered Ferromagnets
We study analytically M-spin-flip stable states in disordered short-ranged
Ising models (spin glasses and ferromagnets) in all dimensions and for all M.
Our approach is primarily dynamical and is based on the convergence of a
zero-temperature dynamical process with flips of lattice animals up to size M
and starting from a deep quench, to a metastable limit. The results (rigorous
and nonrigorous, in infinite and finite volumes) concern many aspects of
metastable states: their numbers, basins of attraction, energy densities,
overlaps, remanent magnetizations and relations to thermodynamic states. For
example, we show that their overlap distribution is a delta-function at zero.
We also define a dynamics for M=infinity, which provides a potential tool for
investigating ground state structure.Comment: 34 pages (LaTeX); to appear in Physical Review
Accretion, Outflows, and Winds of Magnetized Stars
Many types of stars have strong magnetic fields that can dynamically
influence the flow of circumstellar matter. In stars with accretion disks, the
stellar magnetic field can truncate the inner disk and determine the paths that
matter can take to flow onto the star. These paths are different in stars with
different magnetospheres and periods of rotation. External field lines of the
magnetosphere may inflate and produce favorable conditions for outflows from
the disk-magnetosphere boundary. Outflows can be particularly strong in the
propeller regime, wherein a star rotates more rapidly than the inner disk.
Outflows may also form at the disk-magnetosphere boundary of slowly rotating
stars, if the magnetosphere is compressed by the accreting matter. In isolated,
strongly magnetized stars, the magnetic field can influence formation and/or
propagation of stellar wind outflows. Winds from low-mass, solar-type stars may
be either thermally or magnetically driven, while winds from massive, luminous
O and B type stars are radiatively driven. In all of these cases, the magnetic
field influences matter flow from the stars and determines many observational
properties. In this chapter we review recent studies of accretion, outflows,
and winds of magnetized stars with a focus on three main topics: (1) accretion
onto magnetized stars; (2) outflows from the disk-magnetosphere boundary; and
(3) winds from isolated massive magnetized stars. We show results obtained from
global magnetohydrodynamic simulations and, in a number of cases compare global
simulations with observations.Comment: 60 pages, 44 figure
RCW 49 at mid-infrared wavelengths: A glimpse from the Spitzer Space Telescope
The luminous, massive star formation region RCW 49, located in the southern Galactic plane, was imaged with the Infrared Array Camera (IRAC) on the Spitzer Space Telescope as part of the Galactic Legacy Infrared Mid-Plane Survey Extraordinaire (GLIMPSE) program. The IRAC bands contain polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) features at 3.3, 6.2, 7.7, and 8.6 μm, as well as the Brα line. These features are the major contributors to the diffuse emission from RCW 49 in the IRAC bands. The Spitzer IRAC images show that the dust in RCW 49 is distributed in a network of fine filaments, pillars, knots, sharply defined boundaries, bubbles, and bow shocks. The regions immediately surrounding the ionizing star cluster and W-R stars are evacuated of dust by stellar winds and radiation. The IRAC images of RCW 49 suggest that the dust in RCW 49 has been sculpted by the winds and radiation from the embedded luminous stars in the inner 5′ (inner ∼6 pc) of the nebula. At projected angular radii φ > 5′ from the central ionizing cluster, the azimuthally averaged infrared intensity falls off as ∼φ-3. Both high-resolution radio and mid-IR images suggest that the nebula is density bounded along its western boundary. The filamentary structure of the dust in RCW 49 suggests that the nebula has a small dust filling factor and, as a consequence, the entire nebula may be slightly density bounded to H-ionizing photons
Identification of main-sequence stars with mid-infrared excesses using glimpse: β pictoris analogs?
Spitzer IRAC 3.6-8 μm photometry obtained as part of the GLIMPSE survey has revealed mid-infrared excesses for 33 field stars with known spectral types in a 1.2 deg2 field centered on the southern Galactic H II region RCW 49. These stars comprise a subset of 184 stars with known spectral classification, most of which were preselected to have unusually red IR colors. We propose that the mid-IR excesses are caused by circumstellar dust disks that are either very late remnants of stellar formation or debris disks generated by planet formation. Of these 33 stars, 29 appear to be main-sequence stars on the basis of optical spectral classifications. Five of the 29 main-sequence stars are O or B stars with excesses that can be plausibly explained by thermal bremsstrahlung emission, and four are post-main-sequence stars. The lone O star is an O4 V((f)) at a spectrophotometric distance of 3233-535 +540 pc and may be the earliest member of the Westerlund 2 cluster. Of the remaining 24 main-sequence stars, 18 have spectral energy distributions that are consistent with hot dusty debris disks, a possible signature of planet formation. Modeling the excesses as blackbodies demonstrates that the blackbody components have fractional bolometric disk-to-star luminosity ratios, L IR/L*, ranging from 10-3 to 10-2 with temperatures ranging from 220 to 820 K. The inferred temperatures are more consistent with asteroid belts than with the cooler temperatures expected for Kuiper belts. Mid-IR excesses are found in all spectral types from late B to early K
Formation, evolution and multiplicity of brown dwarfs and giant exoplanets
This proceeding summarises the talk of the awardee of the Spanish
Astronomical Society award to the the best Spanish thesis in Astronomy and
Astrophysics in the two-year period 2006-2007. The thesis required a tremendous
observational effort and covered many different topics related to brown dwarfs
and exoplanets, such as the study of the mass function in the substellar domain
of the young sigma Orionis cluster down to a few Jupiter masses, the relation
between the cluster stellar and substellar populations, the accretion discs in
cluster brown dwarfs, the frequency of very low-mass companions to nearby young
stars at intermediate and wide separations, or the detectability of Earth-like
planets in habitable zones around ultracool (L- and T-type) dwarfs in the solar
neighbourhood.Comment: "Highlights of Spanish Astrophysics V", Proceedings of the VIII
Scientific Meeting of the Spanish Astronomical Society (SEA) held in
Santander, 7-11 July, 2008. Edited by J. Gorgas, L. J. Goicoechea, J. I.
Gonzalez-Serrano, J. M. Diego. Invited oral contribution to plenary sessio
Advancing biological understanding and therapeutics discovery with small-molecule probes
Small-molecule probes can illuminate biological processes and aid in the assessment of emerging therapeutic targets by perturbing biological systems in a manner distinct from other experimental approaches. Despite the tremendous promise of chemical tools for investigating biology and disease, small-molecule probes were unavailable for most targets and pathways as recently as a decade ago. In 2005, the NIH launched the decade-long Molecular Libraries Program with the intent of innovating in and broadening access to small-molecule science. This Perspective describes how novel small-molecule probes identified through the program are enabling the exploration of biological pathways and therapeutic hypotheses not otherwise testable. These experiences illustrate how small-molecule probes can help bridge the chasm between biological research and the development of medicines but also highlight the need to innovate the science of therapeutic discovery
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