27 research outputs found
Macroscopic Quantum Tunneling in Small Antiferromagnetic Particles: Effects of a Strong Magnetic Field
We consider an effect of a strong magnetic field on the ground state and
macroscopic coherent tunneling in small antiferromagnetic particles with
uniaxial and biaxial single-ion anisotropy. We find several tunneling regimes
that depend on the direction of the magnetic field with respect to the
anisotropy axes. For the case of a purely uniaxial symmetry and the field
directed along the easy axis, an exact instanton solution with two different
scales in imaginary time is constructed. For a rhombic anisotropy the effect of
the field strongly depends on its orientation: with the field increasing, the
tunneling rate increases or decreases for the field parallel to the easy or
medium axis, respectively. The analytical results are complemented by numerical
simulations.Comment: 11 pages, 6 figure
Probing the dynamics of quasicrystal growth using synchrotron live imaging
The dynamics of quasicrystal growth remains an unsolved problem in condensed
matter. By means of synchrotron live imaging, facetted growth proceeding by the
tangential motion of ledges at the solid-melt interface is clearly evidenced
all along the solidification of icosahedral AlPdMn quasicrystals. The effect of
interface kinetics is significant so that nucleation and free growth of new
facetted grains occur in the melt when the solidification rate is increased.
The evolution of these grains is explained in details, which reveals the
crucial role of aluminum rejection, both in the poisoning of grain growth and
driving fluid flow
Mirror duality and noncommutative tori
In this paper, we study a mirror duality on a generalized complex torus and a
noncommutative complex torus. First, we derive a symplectic version of Riemann
condition using mirror duality on ordinary complex tori. Based on this we will
find a mirror correspondence on generalized complex tori and generalize the
mirror duality on complex tori to the case of noncommutative complex tori.Comment: 22pages, no figure
Macroscopic quantum coherence in mesoscopic ferromagnetic systems
In this paper we study the Macroscopic Quantum Oscillation (MQO) effect in
ferromagnetic single domain magnets with a magnetic field applied along the
hard anistropy axis. The level splitting for the ground state, derived with the
conventional instanton method, oscillates with the external field and is
quenched at some field values. A formula for quantum tunneling at excited
levels is also obtained. The existence of topological phase accounts for this
kind of oscillation and the corresponding thermodynamical quantities exhibit
similar interference effects which resembles to some extent the electron
quantum phase interference induced by gauge potential in the Aharonov-Bohm
effect and the -vacuum in Yang-Mills field theory..Comment: 12 pages, 4 figures, to appear in Phys. Rev.
Fine Structure of Plasmodesmata-Associated Membrane Bodies Formed by Viral Movement Protein
Cell-to-cell transport of plant viruses through plasmodesmata (PD) requires viral movement proteins (MPs) often associated with cell membranes. The genome of the Hibiscus green spot virus encodes two MPs, BMB1 and BMB2, which enable virus cell-to-cell transport. BMB2 is known to localize to PD-associated membrane bodies (PAMBs), which are derived from the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) structures, and to direct BMB1 to PAMBs. This paper reports the fine structure of PAMBs. Immunogold labeling confirms the previously observed localization of BMB1 and BMB2 to PAMBs. EM tomography data show that the ER-derived structures in PAMBs are mostly cisterns interconnected by numerous intermembrane contacts that likely stabilize PAMBs. These contacts predominantly involve the rims of the cisterns rather than their flat surfaces. Using FRET-FLIM (Förster resonance energy transfer between fluorophores detected by fluorescence-lifetime imaging microscopy) and chemical cross-linking, BMB2 is shown to self-interact and form high-molecular-weight complexes. As BMB2 has been shown to have an affinity for highly curved membranes at cisternal rims, the interaction of BMB2 molecules located at rims of adjacent cisterns is suggested to be involved in the formation of intermembrane contacts in PAMBs