Photon-Photon Collisions with SuperChic

The SuperChic Monte Carlo generator provides a common platform for QCD-mediated, photoproduction and photon-induced Central Exclusive Production (CEP), with a fully differential treatment of soft survival effects. In these proceedings we summarise the processes generated, before discussing in more detail those due to photon-photon collisions, paying special attention to the correct treatment of the survival factor. We briefly consider the light-by-light scattering process as an example, before discussing planned extensions and refinements for the generator.Comment: 6 pages, 2 figures. Submitted to proceedings of the PHOTON 2017 conferenc

Effect of phospholipids and bile acids on cholesterol nucleation time and vesicular/micellar cholesterol in gallbladder bile of patients with cholesterol stones

Supersaturation and rapid nucleation of cholesterol in bile are of key importance in the pathogenesis of cholesterol gallstones. While the effects of bile acids and phospholipids on cholesterol saturation of bile have been extensively studied, their influence on the cholesterol nucleation time has not been compared. We, therefore, investigated whether increases of bile acid or phospholipid concentrations in bile by in vitro supplementation affect the cholesterol nucleation time. Bile samples were obtained at surgery from patients with cholesterol gallstones. Prior to the nucleation assay the bile samples were divided into 0.5-ml aliquots and supplemented with 1.25, 2.5, 5.0, and 10.0 mumol/ml of different phosphatidylcholines (PC-dimyristoyl, PC- dipalmitoyl, PC-distearoyl, and extracted biliary PCs) or with 5.0, 10.0, and 20.0 mumol/ml of bile acids (glycine or taurine conjugates of cholic acid, deoxycholic acid, or chenodeoxycholic acid). The increase of phosphatidylcholine or bile acid concentration decreased the mean cholesterol saturation index to a similar extent (PC: 0.1-0.3; BA: 0.1- 0.2). Supplementations of bile with increasing amounts of synthetic or biliary PCs caused a marked prolongation of the nucleation time in bile from 1.5 +/- 0.2 up to > or = 21 days or 2.5 +/- 0.7 up to > or = 21 days. Concurrently, biliary cholesterol was shifted from vesicles to mixed micelles and the cholesterol/phospholipid ratio of the remaining vesicles was progressively lowered. In contrast, the addition of bile acids to gallbladder bile did not affect the cholesterol nucleation time (2.2 +/- 0.3 days), the percentage of vesicular cholesterol, or the cholesterol/phospholipid ratio of vesicles and micelles

Energy-gap dynamics of superconducting NbN thin films studied by time-resolved terahertz spectroscopy

Using time-domain Terahertz spectroscopy we performed direct studies of the photoinduced suppression and recovery of the superconducting gap in a conventional BCS superconductor NbN. Both processes are found to be strongly temperature and excitation density dependent. The analysis of the data with the established phenomenological Rothwarf-Taylor model enabled us to determine the bare quasiparticle recombination rate, the Cooper pair-breaking rate and the electron-phonon coupling constant, \lambda = 1.1 +/- 0.1, which is in excellent agreement with theoretical estimates.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures; final version, accepted for publication in Phys. Rev. Let

Transmission of a Symmetric Light Pulse through a Wide QW

The reflection, transmission and absorption of a symmetric electromagnetic pulse, which carrying frequency is close to the frequency of an interband transition in a QW (QW), are obtained. The energy levels of a QW are assumed discrete, one exited level is taken into account. The case of a wide QW is considered when a length of the pulse wave, appropriate to the carrying frequency, is comparable to the QW's width. In figures the time dependencies of the dimensionless reflection, absorption are transmission are represented. It is shown, that the spatial dispersion and a distinction in refraction indexes influence stronger reflection.Comment: 8 pages,8 figures with caption