Magnetic properties of a spin-3 Chromium condensate

We study the ground state properties of a spin-3 Cr condensate subject to an external magnetic field by numerically solving the Gross-Piteavskii equations. We show that the widely adopted single-mode approximation is invalid under a finite magnetic field. In particular, a phase separation like behavior may be induced by the magnetic field. We also point out the possible origin of the phase separation phenomenon.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figure

Local Density of States and Angle-Resolved Photoemission Spectral Function of an Inhomogeneous D-wave Superconductor

Nanoscale inhomogeneity seems to be a central feature of the d-wave superconductivity in the cuprates. Such a feature can strongly affect the local density of states (LDOS) and the spectral weight functions. Within the Bogoliubov-de Gennes formalism we examine various inhomogeneous configurations of the superconducting order parameter to see which ones better agree with the experimental data. Nanoscale large amplitude oscillations in the order parameter seem to fit the LDOS data for the underdoped cuprates. The one-particle spectral function for a general inhomogeneous configuration exhibits a coherent peak in the nodal direction. In contrast, the spectral function in the antinodal region is easily rendered incoherent by the inhomogeneity. This throws new light on the dichotomy between the nodal and antinodal quasiparticles in the underdoped cuprates.Comment: 5 pages, 9 pictures. Phys. Rev. B (in press

Transport Properties in the "Strange Metal Phase" of High Tc Cuprates: Spin-Charge Gauge Theory Versus Experiments

The SU(2)xU(1) Chern-Simons spin-charge gauge approach developed earlier to describe the transport properties of the cuprate superconductors in the ``pseudogap'' regime, in particular, the metal-insulator crossover of the in-plane resistivity, is generalized to the ``strange metal'' phase at higher temperature/doping. The short-range antiferromagnetic order and the gauge field fluctuations, which were the key ingredients in the theory for the pseudogap phase, also play an important role in the present case. The main difference between these two phases is caused by the existence of an underlying statistical $\pi$-flux lattice for charge carriers in the former case, whereas the background flux is absent in the latter case. The Fermi surface then changes from small ``arcs'' in the pseudogap to a rather large closed line in the strange metal phase. As a consequence the celebrated linear in T dependence of the in-plane and out-of-plane resistivity is shown explicitly to recover. The doping concentration and temperature dependence of theoretically calculated in-plane and out-of-plane resistivity, spin-relaxation rate and AC conductivity are compared with experimental data, showing good agreement.Comment: 14 pages, 5 .eps figures, submitted to Phys. Rev. B, revised version submitted on 24 Oc

Charmonium spectral functions in pˉA\bar p A collision

We study the in-medium propagation of low-lying charmonium states: $J/\Psi$, $\Psi$(3686), and $\Psi$(3770) in a $\bar p$ Au $10$ GeV collision. This energy regime will be available for the PANDA experiment. The time evolution of the spectral functions of the charmonium states is studied with a BUU type transport model. We observe a substantial effect of the medium in the dilepton spectrum.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures, Presented at Excited QCD 2017, Sintra, Portuga

Bayesian analysis of the linear reaction norm model with unknown covariate

The reaction norm model is becoming a popular approach for the analysis of G x E interactions. In a classical reaction norm model, the expression of a genotype in different environments is described as a linear function (a reaction norm) of an environmental gradient or value. A common environmental value is defined as the mean performance of all genotypes in the environment, which is typically unknown. One approximation is to estimate the mean phenotypic performance in each environment, and then treat these estimates as known covariates in the model. However, a more satisfactory alternative is to infer environmental values simultaneously with the other parameters of the model. This study describes a method and its Bayesian MCMC implementation that makes this possible. Frequentist properties of the proposed method are tested in a simulation study. Estimates of parameters of interest agree well with the true values. Further, inferences about genetic parameters from the proposed method are similar to those derived from a reaction norm model using true environmental values. On the other hand, using phenotypic means as proxies for environmental values results in poor inferences

Determination of the strong coupling gB∗Bπg_{B^* B\pi} from semi-leptonic B→πℓνB\to \pi \ell \nu decay

According to heavy-meson chiral perturbation theory, the vector form factor $f_+(q^2)$ of exclusive semi-leptonic decay $B\to \pi \ell \nu$ is closely related, at least in the soft-pion region (i.e., $q^{2} \sim (m_B-m_{\pi})^2$), to the strong coupling $g_{B^* B\pi}$ or the normalized coupling $\hat g$. Combining the precisely measured $q^2$ spectrum of $B\to \pi \ell \nu$ decay by the BaBar and Belle collaborations with several parametrizations of the form factor $f_+(q^2)$, we can extract these couplings from the residue of the form factor at the $B^*$ pole, which relies on an extrapolation of the form factor from the semi-leptonic region to the unphysical point $q^2=m_{B^*}^2$. Comparing the extracted values with the other experimental and theoretical estimates, we can test these various form-factor parametrizations, which differ from each other by the amount of physical information embedded in. It is found that the extracted values based on the BK, BZ and BCL parametrizations are consistent with each other and roughly in agreement with the other theoretical and lattice estimates, while the BGL ansatz, featured by a spurious, unwanted pole at the threshold of the cut, gives a neatly larger value.Comment: 19 pages, no figure. Revise

The Kagome Antiferromagnet: A Schwinger-Boson Mean-Field Theory Study

The Heisenberg antiferromagnet on the Kagom\'{e} lattice is studied in the framework of Schwinger-boson mean-field theory. Two solutions with different symmetries are presented. One solution gives a conventional quantum state with $\mathbf{q}=0$ order for all spin values. Another gives a gapped spin liquid state for spin $S=1/2$ and a mixed state with both $\mathbf{q}=0$ and $\sqrt{3}\times \sqrt{3}$ orders for spin $S>1/2$. We emphasize that the mixed state exhibits two sets of peaks in the static spin structure factor. And for the case of spin $S=1/2$, the gap value we obtained is consistent with the previous numerical calculations by other means. We also discuss the thermodynamic quantities such as the specific heat and magnetic susceptibility at low temperatures and show that our result is in a good agreement with the Mermin-Wagner theorem.Comment: 9 pages, 5 figure

NMR analysis of the dynamic exchange of the NS2B cofactor between open and closed conformations of the West Nile Virus NS2B-NS3 protease

BACKGROUND The two-component NS2B-NS3 proteases of West Nile and dengue viruses are essential for viral replication and established targets for drug development. In all crystal structures of the proteases to date, the NS2B cofactor is located far from the substrate binding site (open conformation) in the absence of inhibitor and lining the substrate binding site (closed conformation) in the presence of an inhibitor. METHODS In this work, nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy of isotope and spin-labeled samples of the West Nile virus protease was used to investigate the occurrence of equilibria between open and closed conformations in solution. FINDINGS In solution, the closed form of the West Nile virus protease is the predominant conformation irrespective of the presence or absence of inhibitors. Nonetheless, dissociation of the C-terminal part of the NS2B cofactor from the NS3 protease (open conformation) occurs in both the presence and the absence of inhibitors. Low-molecular-weight inhibitors can shift the conformational exchange equilibria so that over 90% of the West Nile virus protease molecules assume the closed conformation. The West Nile virus protease differs from the dengue virus protease, where the open conformation is the predominant form in the absence of inhibitors. CONCLUSION Partial dissociation of NS2B from NS3 has implications for the way in which the NS3 protease can be positioned with respect to the host cell membrane when NS2B is membrane associated via N- and C-terminal segments present in the polyprotein. In the case of the West Nile virus protease, discovery of low-molecular-weight inhibitors that act by breaking the association of the NS2B cofactor with the NS3 protease is impeded by the natural affinity of the cofactor to the NS3 protease. The same strategy can be more successful in the case of the dengue virus NS2B-NS3 protease.The project was funded by the Australian Research Council (http://www.arc.gov.au), grant DP0877540