Landau and dynamical instabilities of Bose-Einstein condensates with superfluid flow in a Kronig-Penney potential

We study the elementary excitations of Bose-Einstein condensates in a one-dimensional periodic potential and discuss the stability of superfluid flow based on the Kronig-Penney model. We analytically solve the Bogoliubov equations and calculate the excitation spectrum. The Landau and dynamical instabilities occur in the first condensate band when the superfluid velocity exceeds certain critical values, which agrees with the result of condensates in a sinusoidal potential. It is found that the onset of the Landau instability coincides with the point where the perfect transmission of low-energy excitations is forbidden, while the dynamical instability occurs when the effective mass is negative. It is well known that the condensate band has a peculiar structure called swallowtail when the periodic potential is shallow compared to the mean field energy. We find that the upper side of the swallowtail is dynamically unstable although the excitations have the linear dispersion reflecting the positive effective mass.Comment: 6 pages, 2 figures, Proceedings of the International Symposium on Quantum Fluids and Solids (QFS2006

Long-term measurements of particle number size distributions and the relationships with air mass history and source apportionment in the summer of Beijing

A series of long-term and temporary measurements were conducted to study the improvement of air quality in Beijing during the Olympic Games period (8–24 August 2008). To evaluate actions taken to improve the air quality, comparisons of particle number and volume size distributions of August 2008 and 2004–2007 were performed. The total particle number and volume concentrations were 14 000 cm−3 and 37 μm−3 cm−3 in August of 2008, respectively. These were reductions of 41% and 35% compared with mean values of August 2004–2007. A cluster analysis on air mass history and source apportionment were performed, exploring reasons for the reduction of particle concentrations. Back trajectories were classified into five major clusters. Air masses from the south direction are always associated with pollution events during the summertime in Beijing. In August 2008, the frequency of air mass arriving from the south was 1.3 times higher compared to the average of the previous years, which however did not result in elevated particle volume concentrations in Beijing. Therefore, the reduced particle number and volume concentrations during the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games cannot be only explained by meteorological conditions. Four factors were found influencing particle concentrations using a positive matrix factorization (PMF) model. They were identified as local and remote traffic emissions, combustion sources as well as secondary transformation. The reductions of the four sources were calculated to 47%, 44%, 43% and 30%, respectively. The significant reductions of particle number and volume concentrations may attribute to actions taken, focusing on primary emissions, especially related to the traffic and combustion sources

SUSY Ward identities for multi-gluon helicity amplitudes with massive quarks

We use supersymmetric Ward identities to relate multi-gluon helicity amplitudes involving a pair of massive quarks to amplitudes with massive scalars. This allows to use the recent results for scalar amplitudes with an arbitrary number of gluons obtained by on-shell recursion relations to obtain scattering amplitudes involving top quarks.Comment: 22 pages, references adde

Relativistic theory of elastic deformable astronomical bodies: perturbation equations in rotating spherical coordinates and junction conditions

In this paper, the dynamical equations and junction conditions at the interface between adjacent layers of different elastic properties for an elastic deformable astronomical body in the first post-Newtonian approximation of Einstein theory of gravity are discussed in both rotating Cartesian coordinates and rotating spherical coordinates. The unperturbed rotating body (the ground state) is described as uniformly rotating, stationary and axisymmetric configuration in an asymptotically flat space-time manifold. Deviations from the equilibrium configuration are described by means of a displacement field. In terms of the formalism of relativistic celestial mechanics developed by Damour, Soffel and Xu, and the framework established by Carter and Quintana the post Newtonian equations of the displacement field and the symmetric trace-free shear tensor are obtained. Corresponding post-Newtonian junction conditions at interfaces also the outer surface boundary conditions are presented. The PN junction condition is an extension of Wahr's one which is a Newtonian junction conditions without rotating.Comment: Revtex4, 14 page

One- and two-proton transfer reactions with vibrational Nuclei

We extend a semiclassical model of transfer reactions to the case in which one of the collision partners is a vibrational nucleus. The model is applied to one- and two-proton stripping reactions in the 37Cl + 98Mo system, for which a rapid transition from normal to anomalous slope in the two proton transfer reaction at energies around the Coulomb barrier is experimentally observed. This behavior is satisfactorily reproduced by the present extension of the model.Comment: LaTeX, 10 pages, 1 figure (PostScript

Development of a multiplex event-specific PCR assay for detection of genetically modified rice

Global rice supplies have been found contaminated with unapproved varieties of genetically modified (GM) rice in recent years, which has led to product recalls in several of countries. Faster and more effective detection of GM contamination can prevent adulterated food, feed and seed from being consumed and grown, minimize the potential environmental, health or economic damage. In this study, a simple, reliable and cost-effective multiplex polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assay for identifying genetic modifications of TT51-1, Kemingdao1 (KMD1) and Kefeng6 (KF6) rice was developed by using the event-specific fragment. The limit of detection (LOD) for each event in the multiplex PCR is approximately 0.1%. Developed multiplex PCR assays can provide a rapid and simultaneous detection of GM rice

A new method for the estimation of variance matrix with prescribed zeros in nonlinear mixed effects models

We propose a new method for the Maximum Likelihood Estimator (MLE) of nonlinear mixed effects models when the variance matrix of Gaussian random effects has a prescribed pattern of zeros (PPZ). The method consists in coupling the recently developed Iterative Conditional Fitting (ICF) algorithm with the Expectation Maximization (EM) algorithm. It provides positive definite estimates for any sample size, and does not rely on any structural assumption on the PPZ. It can be easily adapted to many versions of EM.Comment: Accepted for publication in Statistics and Computin

The roles of sulfuric acid in new particle formation and growth in the mega-city of Beijing

Simultaneous measurements of gaseous sulfuric acid and particle number size distributions were performed to investigate aerosol nucleation and growth during CAREBeijing-2008. The analysis of the measured aerosols and sulfuric acid with an aerosol dynamic model shows the dominant role of sulfuric acid in new particle formation (NPF) process but also in the subsequent growth in Beijing. Based on the data of twelve NPF events, the average formation rates (2–13 cm−3 s−1) show a linear correlation with the sulfuric acid concentrations (R2=0.85). Coagulation seems to play a significant role in reducing the number concentration of nucleation mode particles with the ratio of the coagulation loss to formation rate being 0.41±0.16. The apparent growth rates vary from 3 to 11 nm h−1. Condensation of sulfuric acid and its subsequent neutralization by ammonia and coagulation contribute to the apparent particle growth on average 45±18% and 34±17%, respectively. The 30% higher concentration of sulfate than organic compounds in particles during the seven sulfur-rich NPF events but 20% lower concentration of sulfate during the five sulfur-poor type suggest that organic compounds are an important contributor to the growth of the freshly nucleated particles, especially during the sulfur-poor cases

Characteristics of regional new particle formation in urban and regional background environments in the North China Plain

Long-term measurements of particle number size distributions were carried out both at an urban background site (Peking University, PKU) and a regional Global Atmospheric Watch station (Shangdianzi, SDZ) from March to November in 2008. In total, 52 new particle formation (NPF) events were observed simultaneously at both sites, indicating that this is a regional phenomenon in the North China Plain. On average, the mean condensation sink value before the nucleation events started was 0.025 s−1 in the urban environment, which was 1.6 times higher than that at regional site. However, higher particle formation and growth rates were observed at PKU (10.8 cm−3 s−1 and 5.2 nm h−1) compared with those at SDZ (4.9 cm−3 s−1 and 4.0 nm h−1). These results implied that precursors were much more abundant in the polluted urban environment. Different from the observations in cleaner environments, the background conditions of the observed particle homogeneous nucleation events in the North China Plain could be characterized as the co-existing of a stronger source of precursor gases and a higher condensational sink of pre-existing aerosol particles. Secondary aerosol formation following nucleation events results in an increase of particle mass concentration, particle light scattering coefficient, and cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) number concentration, with consequences on visibility, radiative effects, and air quality. Typical regional NPF events with significant particle nucleation rates and subsequent particle growth over a sufficiently long time period at both sites were chosen to investigate the influence of NPF on the number concentration of "potential" CCN. As a result, the NPF and the subsequent condensable growth increased the CCN number concentration in the North China Plain by factors in the range from 5.6 to 8.7. Moreover, the potential contribution of anthropogenic emissions to the CCN number concentration was more than 50%, to which more attention should be drawn in regional and global climate modeling, especially in the polluted urban areas