Spinon confinement in a quasi one dimensional anisotropic Heisenberg magnet

Confinement is a process by which particles with fractional quantum numbers bind together to form quasiparticles with integer quantum numbers. The constituent particles are confined by an attractive interaction whose strength increases with increasing particle separation and as a consequence, individual particles are not found in isolation. This phenomenon is well known in particle physics where quarks are confined in baryons and mesons. An analogous phenomenon occurs in certain magnetic insulators; weakly coupled chains of spins S=1/2. The collective excitations in these systems is spinons (S=1/2). At low temperatures weak coupling between chains can induce an attractive interaction between pairs of spinons that increases with their separation and thus leads to confinement. In this paper, we employ inelastic neutron scattering to investigate the spinon confinement in the quasi-1D S=1/2 XXZ antiferromagnet SrCo2V2O8. Spinon excitations are observed above TN in quantitative agreement with established theory. Below TN the pairs of spinons are confined and two sequences of meson-like bound states with longitudinal and transverse polarizations are observed. Several theoretical approaches are used to explain the data. A new theoretical technique based on Tangent-space Matrix Product States gives a very complete description of the data and provides good agreement not only with the energies of the bound modes but also with their intensities. We also successfully explained the effect of temperature on the excitations including the experimentally observed thermally induced resonance between longitudinal modes below TN ,and the transitions between thermally excited spinon states above TN. In summary, our work establishes SrCo2V2O8 as a beautiful paradigm for spinon confinement in a quasi-1D quantum magnet and provides a comprehensive picture of this process.Comment: 17 pages, 18 figures, submitted to PR

Nef interferes with development of thymic T cell precursors: differential mechanisms in HIV and SIV

BioMed Central Open acces

Interaction distance in the extended XXZ model

We employ the interaction distance to characterize the physics of a one-dimensional extended XXZ spin model, whose phase diagram consists of both integrable and nonintegrable regimes, with various types of ordering, e.g., a gapless Luttinger liquid and gapped crystalline phases. We numerically demonstrate that the interaction distance successfully reveals the known behavior of the model in its integrable regime. As an additional diagnostic tool, we introduce the notion of “integrability distance” and particularize it to the XXZ model to quantity how far the ground state of the extended XXZ model is from being integrable. This distance provides insight into the properties of the gapless Luttinger liquid phase in the presence of next-nearest-neighbor spin interactions which break integrability

Introducing the Complexity of Educational Diversification

Peer reviewe

Computed tomographic analysis of the quality of trunk muscles in asymptomatic and symptomatic lumbar discectomy patients

Background: No consensus exists on how rehabilitation programs for lumbar discectomy patients with persistent complaints after surgery should be composed. A better understanding of normal and abnormal postoperative trunk muscle condition might help direct the treatment goals. Methods: A three-dimensional CT scan of the lumbar spine was obtained in 18 symptomatic and 18 asymptomatic patients who had undergone a lumbar discectomy 42 months to 83 months (median 63 months) previously. The psoas muscle (PS), the paraspinal muscle mass (PA) and the multifidus muscle (MF) were outlined at the L3, L4 and L5 level. Of these muscles, fat free Cross Sectional Area (CSA) and fat CSA were determined. CSA of the lumbar erector spinae (LES = longissimus thoracis + iliocostalis lumborum) was calculated by subtracting MF CSA from PA CSA. Mean muscle CSA of the left and right sides was calculated at each level. To normalize the data for interpersonal comparison, the mean CSA was divided by the CSA of the L3 vertebral body (mCSA = normalized fat-free muscle CSA; fCSA = normalized fat CSA). Differences in CSA between the pain group and the pain free group were examined using a General Linear Model (GLM). Three levels were examined to investigate the possible role of the level of operation. Results: In lumbar discectomy patients with pain, the mCSA of the MF was significantly smaller than in pain-free subjects (p = 0.009) independently of the level. The mCSA of the LES was significantly smaller in pain patients, but only on the L3 slice (p = 0.018). No significant difference in mCSA of the PS was found between pain patients and pain-free patients (p = 0.462). The fCSA of the MF (p = 0.186) and of the LES (p = 0.256) were not significantly different between both populations. However, the fCSA of the PS was significantly larger in pain patients than in pain-free patients. (p = 0.012). The level of operation was never a significant factor. Conclusions: CT comparison of MF, LES and PS muscle condition between lumbar discectomy patients without pain and patients with protracted postoperative pain showed a smaller fat-free muscle CSA of the MF at all levels examined, a smaller fat-free muscle CSA of the LES at the L3 level, and more fat in the PS in patients with pain. The level of operation was not found to be of importance. The present results suggest a general lumbar muscle dysfunction in the pain group, in particular of the deep stabilizing muscle system

Primate lentiviral Nef proteins deregulate T-cell development by multiple mechanisms

Peer reviewe

Overexpression of DNA Polymerase Zeta Reduces the Mitochondrial Mutability Caused by Pathological Mutations in DNA Polymerase Gamma in Yeast

In yeast, DNA polymerase zeta (Rev3 and Rev7) and Rev1, involved in the error-prone translesion synthesis during replication of nuclear DNA, localize also in mitochondria. We show that overexpression of Rev3 reduced the mtDNA extended mutability caused by a subclass of pathological mutations in Mip1, the yeast mitochondrial DNA polymerase orthologous to human Pol gamma. This beneficial effect was synergistic with the effect achieved by increasing the dNTPs pools. Since overexpression of Rev3 is detrimental for nuclear DNA mutability, we constructed a mutant Rev3 isoform unable to migrate into the nucleus: its overexpression reduced mtDNA mutability without increasing the nuclear one