Structure and stability of quasi-two-dimensional boson-fermion mixtures with vortex-antivortex superposed states

We investigate the equilibrium properties of a quasi-two-dimensional degenerate boson-fermion mixture (DBFM) with a bosonic vortex-antivortex superposed state (VAVSS) using a quantum-hydrodynamic model. We show that, depending on the choice of parameters, the DBFM with a VAVSS can exhibit rich phase structures. For repulsive boson-fermion (BF) interaction, the Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) may constitute a petal-shaped "core" inside the honeycomb-like fermionic component, or a ring-shaped joint "shell" around the onion-like fermionic cloud, or multiple segregated "islands" embedded in the disc-shaped Fermi gas. For attractive BF interaction just below the threshold for collapse, an almost complete mixing between the bosonic and fermionic components is formed, where the fermionic component tends to mimic a bosonic VAVSS. The influence of an anharmonic trap on the density distributions of the DBFM with a bosonic VAVSS is discussed. In addition, a stability region for different cases of DBFM (without vortex, with a bosonic vortex, and with a bosonic VAVSS) with specific parameters is given.Comment: 8 pages,5 figure

Electronic Structure of KFe2_2Se2_2 from First Principles Calculations

Electronic structure and magnetic properties for iron-selenide KFe$_2$Se$_2$ are studied by first-principles calculations. The ground state is stripe-like antiferromagnetic with calculated 2.26 $\mu_B$ magnetic moment on Fe atoms; and the $J_1$, $J_2$ coupling strengths are calculated to be 0.038 eV and 0.029 eV. The states around $E_F$ are dominated by the Fe-3d orbitals which hybridize noticeably to the Se-4p orbitals. While the band structure of KFe$_2$Se$_2$ is similar to a heavily electron-doped BaFe$_2$As$_2$ or FeSe system, the Fermi surface of KFe$_2$Se$_2$ is much closer to \fs11 system since the electron sheets around $M$ is symmetric with respect to $x$-$y$ exchange. These features, as well as the absence of Fermi surface nesting, suggest that the parental KFe$_2$Se$_2$ could be regarded as an electron over-doped 11 system with possible local moment magnetism.Comment: accepted by Chinese Physics Letter, to appear as Chinese Physics Letter, Vol 28, page 057402 (2011

Effect of gauge boson mass on the phase structure of QED3_{3}

Dynamical chiral symmetry breaking (DCSB) in QED$_{3}$ with finite gauge boson mass is studied in the framework of the rainbow approximation of Dyson-Schwinger equations. By adopting a simple gauge boson propagator ansatz at finite temperature, we first numerically solve the Dyson-Schwinger equation for the fermion self-energy to determine the chiral phase diagram of QED$_3$ with finite gauge boson mass at finite chemical potential and finite temperature, then we study the effect of the finite gauge mass on the phase diagram of QED$_3$. It is found that the gauge boson mass $m_{a}$ suppresses the occurrence of DCSB. The area of the region in the chiral phase diagram corresponding to DCSB phase decreases as the gauge boson mass $m_{a}$ increases. In particular, chiral symmetry gets restored when $m_{a}$ is above a certain critical value. In this paper, we use DCSB to describe the antiferromagnetic order and use the gauge boson mass to describe the superconducting order. Our results give qualitatively a physical picture on the competition and coexistence between antiferromagnetic order and superconducting orders in high temperature cuprate superconductors.Comment: 10 pages, 2 figure

Non-Markovian finite-temperature two-time correlation functions of system operators of a pure-dephasing model

We evaluate the non-Markovian finite-temperature two-time correlation functions (CF's) of system operators of a pure-dephasing spin-boson model in two different ways, one by the direct exact operator technique and the other by the recently derived evolution equations, valid to second order in the system-environment interaction Hamiltonian. This pure-dephasing spin-boson model that is exactly solvable has been extensively studied as a simple decoherence model. However, its exact non-Markovian finite-temperature two-time system operator CF's, to our knowledge, have not been presented in the literature. This may be mainly due to the fact, illustrated in this article, that in contrast to the Markovian case, the time evolution of the reduced density matrix of the system (or the reduced quantum master equation) alone is not sufficient to calculate the two-time system operator CF's of non-Markovian open systems. The two-time CF's obtained using the recently derived evolution equations in the weak system-environment coupling case for this non-Markovian pure-dephasing model happen to be the same as those obtained from the exact evaluation. However, these results significantly differ from the non-Markovian two-time CF's obtained by wrongly directly applying the quantum regression theorem (QRT), a useful procedure to calculate the two-time CF's for weak-coupling Markovian open systems. This demonstrates clearly that the recently derived evolution equations generalize correctly the QRT to non-Markovian finite-temperature cases. It is believed that these evolution equations will have applications in many different branches of physics.Comment: To appear in Phys. Rev.

An invisibility cloak using silver nanowires

In this paper, we use the parameter retrieval method together with an analytical effective medium approach to design a well-performed invisible cloak, which is based on an empirical revised version of the reduced cloak. The designed cloak can be implemented by silver nanowires with elliptical cross-sections embedded in a polymethyl methacrylate host. This cloak is numerically proved to be robust for both the inner hidden object as well as incoming detecting waves, and is much simpler thus easier to manufacture when compared with the earlier proposed one [Nat. Photon. 1, 224 (2007)].Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures, 2 table

Insights into the Ecological Roles and Evolution of Methyl-Coenzyme M Reductase-Containing Hot Spring Archaea

Several recent studies have shown the presence of genes for the key enzyme associated with archaeal methane/alkane metabolism, methyl-coenzyme M reductase (Mcr), in metagenome-assembled genomes (MAGs) divergent to existing archaeal lineages. Here, we study the mcr-containing archaeal MAGs from several hot springs, which reveal further expansion in the diversity of archaeal organisms performing methane/alkane metabolism. Significantly, an MAG basal to organisms from the phylum Thaumarchaeota that contains mcr genes, but not those for ammonia oxidation or aerobic metabolism, is identified. Together, our phylogenetic analyses and ancestral state reconstructions suggest a mostly vertical evolution of mcrABG genes among methanogens and methanotrophs, along with frequent horizontal gene transfer of mcr genes between alkanotrophs. Analysis of all mcr-containing archaeal MAGs/genomes suggests a hydrothermal origin for these microorganisms based on optimal growth temperature predictions. These results also suggest methane/alkane oxidation or methanogenesis at high temperature likely existed in a common archaeal ancestor

Coordinated regulation of core and accessory genes in the multipartite genome of Sinorhizobium fredii

Prokaryotes benefit from having accessory genes, but it is unclear how accessory genes can be linked with the core regulatory network when developing adaptations to new niches. Here we determined hierarchical core/accessory subsets in the multipartite pangenome (composed of genes from the chromosome, chromid and plasmids) of the soybean microsymbiont Sinorhizobium fredii by comparing twelve Sinorhizobium genomes. Transcriptomes of two S. fredii strains at mid-log and stationary growth phases and in symbiotic conditions were obtained. The average level of gene expression, variation of expression between different conditions, and gene connectivity within the co-expression network were positively correlated with the gene conservation level from strain-specific accessory genes to genus core. Condition-dependent transcriptomes exhibited adaptive transcriptional changes in pangenome subsets shared by the two strains, while strain-dependent transcriptomes were enriched with accessory genes on the chromid. Proportionally more chromid genes than plasmid genes were co-expressed with chromosomal genes, while plasmid genes had a higher within-replicon connectivity in expression than chromid ones. However, key nitrogen fixation genes on the symbiosis plasmid were characterized by high connectivity in both within- and between-replicon analyses. Among those genes with host-specific upregulation patterns, chromosomal znu and mdt operons, encoding a conserved high-affinity zinc transporter and an accessory multi-drug efflux system, respectively, were experimentally demonstrated to be involved in host-specific symbiotic adaptation. These findings highlight the importance of integrative regulation of hierarchical core/accessory components in the multipartite genome of bacteria during niche adaptation and in shaping the prokaryotic pangenome in the long run

Spontaneous symmetry breaking and bifurcations in ground state fidelity for quantum lattice systems

Spontaneous symmetry breaking occurs in a system when its Hamiltonian possesses a certain symmetry, whereas the ground state wave functions do not preserve it. This provides such a scenario that a bifurcation, which breaks the symmetry, occurs when some control parameter crosses its critical value. It is unveiled that the ground state fidelity per lattice site exhibits such a bifurcation for quantum lattice systems undergoing quantum phase transitions. The significance of this result lies in the fact that the ground state fidelity per lattice site is \textit{universal}, in the sense that it is model-independent, in contrast to (model-dependent) order parameters. This fundamental quantity may be computed by exploiting the newly-developed tensor network algorithms on infinite-size lattices. We illustrate the scheme in terms of the quantum Ising model in a transverse magnetic field and the spin 1/2 XYX model in an external magnetic field on an infinite-size lattice in one spatial dimension.Comment: 4+pages, 3 figure