Quantum probe and design for a chemical compass with magnetic nanostructures

Magnetic fields as weak as Earth's may affect the outcome of certain photochemical reactions that go through a radical pair intermediate. When the reaction environment is anisotropic, this phenomenon can form the basis of a chemical compass and has been proposed as a mechanism for animal magnetoreception. Here, we demonstrate how to optimize the design of a chemical compass with a much better directional sensitivity simply by a gradient field, e.g. from a magnetic nanostructure. We propose an experimental test of these predictions, and suggest design principles for a hybrid metallic-organic chemical compass. In addition to the practical interest in designing a biomimetic weak magnetic field sensor, our result shows that gradient fields can server as powerful tools to probe spin correlations in radical pair reactions.Comment: 8 pages, 6 figures, comments are welcom

Surface counterterms and boundary stress-energy tensors for asymptotically non-anti-de Sitter spaces

For spaces which are not asymptotically anti-de Sitter where the asymptotic behavior is deformed by replacing the cosmological constant by a dilaton scalar potential, we show that it is possible to have well-defined boundary stress-energy tensors and finite Euclidean actions by adding appropriate surface counterterms. We illustrate the method by the examples of domain-wall black holes in gauged supergravities, three-dimensional dilaton black holes and topological dilaton black holes in four dimensions. We calculate the boundary stress-energy tensor and Euclidean action of these black configurations and discuss their thermodynamics. We find new features of topological black hole thermodynamics.Comment: 27 pages, Late

Isospin effect in the statistical sequential decay

Isospin effect of the statistical emission fragments from the equilibrated source is investigated in the frame of statistical binary decay implemented into GEMINI code, isoscaling behavior is observed and the dependences of isoscaling parameters $\alpha$ and $\beta$ on emission fragment size, source size, source isospin asymmetry and excitation energies are studied. Results show that $\alpha$ and $\beta$ neither depends on light fragment size nor on source size. A good linear dependence of $\alpha$ and $\beta$ on the inverse of temperature $T$ is manifested and the relationship of $\alpha=4C_{sym}[(Z_{s}/A_{s})_{1}^{2}-(Z_{s}/A_{s})_{2}^{2}]/T$ and $\beta=4C_{sym}[(N_{s}/A_{s})_{1}^{2}-(N_{s}/A_{s})_{2}^{2}]/T$ from different isospin asymmetry sources are satisfied. The symmetry energy coefficient $C_{sym}$ extracted from simulation results is $\sim$ 23 MeV which includes both the volume and surface term contributions, of which the surface effect seems to play a significant role in the symmetry energy.Comment: 8 pages, 8 figures; A new substantially modified version which has been accepted by the Physical Review

Late acceleration and w=−1w=-1 crossing in induced gravity

We study the cosmological evolution on a brane with induced gravity within a bulk with arbitrary matter content. We consider a Friedmann-Robertson-Walker brane, invariantly characterized by a six-dimensional group of isometries. We derive the effective Friedmann and Raychaudhuri equations. We show that the Hubble expansion rate on the brane depends on the covariantly defined integrated mass in the bulk, which determines the energy density of the generalized dark radiation. The Friedmann equation has two branches, distinguished by the two possible values of the parameter \ex=\pm 1. The branch with \ex=1 is characterized by an effective cosmological constant and accelerated expansion for low energy densities. Another remarkable feature is that the contribution from the generalized dark radiation appears with a negative sign. As a result, the presence of the bulk corresponds to an effective negative energy density on the brane, without violation of the weak energy condition. The transition from a period of domination of the matter energy density by non-relativistic brane matter to domination by the generalized dark radiation corresponds to a crossing of the phantom divide $w=-1$.Comment: 7 pages, no figures, RevTex 4.0; (v2) new references are added, minor corrections and expanded discussion; (v3) additional comments at the end of section III, minor corrections and several new references are added, to match published version in Phys. Rev.

Gap opening in the zeroth Landau level in gapped graphene: Pseudo-Zeeman splitting in an angular magnetic field

We present a theoretical study of gap opening in the zeroth Landau level in gapped graphene as a result of pseudo-Zeeman interaction. The applied magnetic field couples with the valley pseudospin degree of freedom of the charge carriers leading to the pseudo-Zeeman interaction. To investigate its role in transport at the Charge Neutrality Point (CNP), we study the integer quantum Hall effect (QHE) in gapped graphene in an angular magnetic field in the presence of pseudo-Zeeman interaction. Analytical expressions are derived for the Hall conductivity using Kubo-Greenwood formula. We also determine the longitudinal conductivity for elastic impurity scattering in the first Born approximation. We show that pseudo-Zeeman splitting leads to a minimum in the collisional conductivity at high magnetic fields and a zero plateau in the Hall conductivity. Evidence for activated transport at CNP is found from the temperature dependence of the collisional conductivity.Comment: 20 pages, 4 figures, Accepted in J. Phys. Condensed matte

Duality invariance and cosmological dynamics

A duality transformation that interrelates expanding and contracting cosmological models is shown to single out a duality invariant, interacting two-component description of any irrotational, geodesic and shearfree cosmic medium with vanishing three curvature scalar. We apply this feature to a system of matter and radiation, to a mixture of dark matter and dark energy, to minimal and conformal scalar fields, and to an enlarged Chaplygin gas model of the cosmic substratum. We extend the concept of duality transformations to cosmological perturbations and demonstrate the invariance of adiabatic pressure perturbations under these transformations.Comment: 14 pages, Discussion enlarged, accepted for publication in IJMP