6,250 research outputs found
Massive Dirac fermions and spin physics in an ultrathin film of topological insulator
We study transport and optical properties of the surface states which lie in
the bulk energy gap of a thin-film topological insulator. When the film
thickness is comparable with the surface state decay length into the bulk, the
tunneling between the top and bottom surfaces opens an energy gap and form two
degenerate massive Dirac hyperbolas. Spin dependent physics emerges in the
surface bands which are vastly different from the bulk behavior. These include
the surface spin Hall effects, spin dependent orbital magnetic moment, and spin
dependent optical transition selection rule which allows optical spin
injection. We show a topological quantum phase transition where the Chern
number of the surface bands changes when varying the thickness of the thin
film.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figure
Tailoring excitonic states of van der Waals bilayers through stacking configuration, band alignment and valley-spin
Excitons in monolayer semiconductors have large optical transition dipole for
strong coupling with light field. Interlayer excitons in heterobilayers, with
layer separation of electron and hole components, feature large electric dipole
that enables strong coupling with electric field and exciton-exciton
interaction, at the cost that the optical dipole is substantially quenched (by
several orders of magnitude). In this letter, we demonstrate the ability to
create a new class of excitons in transition metal dichalcogenide (TMD) hetero-
and homo-bilayers that combines the advantages of monolayer- and
interlayer-excitons, i.e. featuring both large optical dipole and large
electric dipole. These excitons consist of an electron that is well confined in
an individual layer, and a hole that is well extended in both layers, realized
here through the carrier-species specific layer-hybridization controlled
through the interplay of rotational, translational, band offset, and
valley-spin degrees of freedom. We observe different species of such
layer-hybridized valley excitons in different heterobilayer and homobilayer
systems, which can be utilized for realizing strongly interacting
excitonic/polaritonic gases, as well as optical quantum coherent controls of
bidirectional interlayer carrier transfer either with upper conversion or down
conversion in energy
Is exponential gravity a viable description for the whole cosmological history?
Here we analysed a particular type of gravity, the so-called
exponential gravity which includes an exponential function of the Ricci scalar
in the action. Such term represents a correction to the usual Hilbert-Einstein
action. By using Supernovae Ia, Barionic Acoustic Oscillations, Cosmic
Microwave Background and data, the free parameters of the model are well
constrained. The results show that such corrections to General Relativity
become important at cosmological scales and at late-times, providing an
alternative to the dark energy problem. In addition, the fits do not determine
any significant difference statistically with respect to the CDM
model. Finally, such model is extended to include the inflationary epoch in the
same gravitational Lagrangian. As shown in the paper, the additional terms can
reproduce the inflationary epoch and satisfy the constraints from Planck data.Comment: 20 pages, 6 figures, analysis extended, version published in EPJ
Fastcloning: A Highly Simplified Purification-Free Sequence- And Ligation-Independent Pcr Cloning Method
Background: Although a variety of methods and expensive kits are available, molecular cloning can be a timeconsuming and frustrating process. Results: Here we report a highly simplified, reliable, and efficient PCR-based cloning technique to insert any DNA fragment into a plasmid vector or into a gene (cDNA) in a vector at any desired position. With this method, the vector and insert are PCR amplified separately, with only 18 cycles, using a high fidelity DNA polymerase. The amplified insert has the ends with ~16-base overlapping with the ends of the amplified vector. After DpnI digestion of the mixture of the amplified vector and insert to eliminate the DNA templates used in PCR reactions, the mixture is directly transformed into competent E. coli cells to obtain the desired clones. This technique has many advantages over other cloning methods. First, it does not need gel purification of the PCR product or linearized vector. Second, there is no need of any cloning kit or specialized enzyme for cloning. Furthermore, with reduced number of PCR cycles, it also decreases the chance of random mutations. In addition, this method is highly effective and reproducible. Finally, since this cloning method is also sequence independent, we demonstrated that it can be used for chimera construction, insertion, and multiple mutations spanning a stretch of DNA up to 120 bp. Conclusion: Our FastCloning technique provides a very simple, effective, reliable, and versatile tool for molecular cloning, chimera construction, insertion of any DNA sequences of interest and also for multiple mutations in a short stretch of a cDNA
T-W relation and free energy of the antiperiodic XXZ chain with {\eta}=i{\pi}/3 at a finite temperature
We study the thermodynamics of the antiperiodic XXZ chain with anisotropy
parameter {\eta}=i{\pi}/3 by means of the t-W method. We parameterize the
eigenvalues of both the transfer matrix and the corresponding fused transfer
matrix by their zero points instead of Bethe roots. Based on the patterns of
the zero points distribution and the reconstructed entropy, we obtain the
nonlinear integral equations (NLIEs) describing the thermodynamics of the model
and compute its free energy at a finite temperature
The significance of seizures and other predictive factors during the acute illness for the long-term outcome after bacterial meningitis
SummaryBackgroundSeizures are important neurological complications of bacterial meningitis, but no information about its epidemiology and the outcomes of seizures after community-acquired bacterial meningitis (CABM) in an adult population have been reported.AimsTo determine the frequency, clinical relevance, subtypes of seizures during the acute phase of bacterial meningitis, and the long-term outcomes of seizure complicating adult CABM.MethodsIn this 12-year retrospective study, 117 adult patients were identified with culture-proven CABM. A comparison was made between the clinical data of the patients with and without seizures during hospitalization.ResultsThirty-one patients had seizures during CABM, accounting for 27% (31/117) of the episodes. The time interval between the onset of bacterial meningitis and the seizures was 1–21 days (mean, 4 days). Furthermore, 80% (25/31) of the episodes occurred within 24h of presentation. Ten patients who had seizures progressed to status epilepticus. At follow-up after completing treatment, 10 patients completely recovered and were seizure-free, 19 died of meningitis during the acute stage and the other two progressed to chronic epilepsy.ConclusionA log-rank test demonstrated that the long-term outcome of adult CABM with acute seizures produced worse outcomes than for those who had no seizures, though no difference was noted between focal and generalized seizures. None of our patients without seizures in the acute phase of bacterial meningitis developed late seizures during the follow-up periods. Poor outcome in this study may attribute to neurological complications such as seizure, hydrocephalus, infection itself, or a combination of complications
Fitting Green’s Function FFT Acceleration Applied to Anisotropic Dielectric Scattering Problems
A volume integral equation based fast algorithm using the Fast Fourier Transform of fitting Green’s function (FG-FFT) is proposed in this paper for analysis of electromagnetic scattering from 3D anisotropic dielectric objects. For the anisotropic VIE model, geometric discretization is still implemented by tetrahedron cells and the Schaubert-Wilton-Glisson (SWG) basis functions are also used to represent the electric flux density vectors. Compared with other Fast Fourier Transform based fast methods, using fitting Green’s function technique has higher accuracy and can be applied to a relatively coarse grid, so the Fast Fourier Transform of fitting Green’s function is selected to accelerate anisotropic dielectric model of volume integral equation for solving electromagnetic scattering problems. Besides, the near-field matrix elements in this method are used to construct preconditioner, which has been proved to be effective. At last, several representative numerical experiments proved the validity and efficiency of the proposed method
- …