Thermoelectric DC conductivities with momentum dissipation from higher derivative gravity

We present a mechanism of momentum relaxation in higher derivative gravity by adding linear scalar fields to the Gauss-Bonnet theory. We analytically computed all of the DC thermoelectric conductivities in this theory by adopting the method given by Donos and Gauntlett in [arXiv:1406.4742]. The results show that the DC electric conductivity is not a monotonic function of the effective impurity parameter $\beta$: in the small $\beta$ limit, the DC conductivity is dominated by the coherent phase, while for larger $\beta$, pair creation contribution to the conductivity becomes dominant, signaling an incoherent phase. In addition, the DC heat conductivity is found independent of the Gauss-Bonnet coupling constant.Comment: 1+19 pages, 2 figures,typos in Eq.(40) correcte

Astrocytic expression of Parkinson's disease-related A53T α-synuclein causes neurodegeneration in mice

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Parkinson's disease (PD) is the most common movement disorder. While neuronal deposition of α-synuclein serves as a pathological hallmark of PD and Dementia with Lewy Bodies, α-synuclein-positive protein aggregates are also present in astrocytes. The pathological consequence of astrocytic accumulation of α-synuclein, however, is unclear.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Here we show that PD-related A53T mutant α-synuclein, when selectively expressed in astrocytes, induced rapidly progressed paralysis in mice. Increasing accumulation of α-synuclein aggregates was found in presymptomatic and symptomatic mouse brains and correlated with the expansion of reactive astrogliosis. The normal function of astrocytes was compromised as evidenced by cerebral microhemorrhage and down-regulation of astrocytic glutamate transporters, which also led to increased inflammatory responses and microglial activation. Interestingly, the activation of microglia was mainly detected in the midbrain, brainstem and spinal cord, where a significant loss of dopaminergic and motor neurons was observed. Consistent with the activation of microglia, the expression level of cyclooxygenase 1 (COX-1) was significantly up-regulated in the brain of symptomatic mice and in cultured microglia treated with conditioned medium derived from astrocytes over-expressing A53T α-synuclein. Consequently, the suppression of COX-1 activities extended the survival of mutant mice, suggesting that excess inflammatory responses elicited by reactive astrocytes may contribute to the degeneration of neurons.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Our findings demonstrate a critical involvement of astrocytic α-synuclein in initiating the non-cell autonomous killing of neurons, suggesting the viability of reactive astrocytes and microglia as potential therapeutic targets for PD and other neurodegenerative diseases.</p

Tidal Love numbers of Axion stars

We investigate the tidal deformability of spherically symmetric axion stars on the stable branches, including the Newtonian and relativistic branches. The results suggest that on the stable branch, the electric Love numbers of axion star are positive, while the magnetic Love numbers are negative. On the Newtonian stable branch, the electric tidal Love numbers are much larger than the magnetic ones, while on the relativistic stable branch, they are slightly larger. Furthermore, the relativistic stable branch has much smaller tidal Love numbers than the Newtonian stable branch, indicating weaker deformability of axion stars on the relativistic stable branch. This could be attributed to the fact that on the relativistic branch, axion stars are more compact, resulting hardly distorted by tidal forces.Comment: 22 pages, 5 figure

Excited Dirac stars with higher azimuthal harmonic index

In this paper, we investigate the properties of the first excited state Dirac stars (DSs) with higher azimuthal harmonic index (specifically, the azimuthal harmonic indexes $m_D$ = $3/2$, $5/2$, $7/2$), as well as the relationship between the ADM mass and angular momentum of Dirac stars with respect to frequency. Moreover, We find that the ergospheres of DSs appear at lower spinor field frequencies, and both the ergospheres and the distribution of the spinor field functions are asymmetric about the equatorial plane. Furthermore, we introduce the ground state scalar field and examine its impact on this system, which is known as the multi-state Dirac-boson stars (DBSs) model. We show various types of solution families for DBSs under both synchronized frequency $\omega$ and nonsynchronized frequencies and find that similar to DSs, the spinor field and the ergospheres of DBSs are also asymmetric about the equatorial plane, but the ergospheres appear at higher spinor field frequencies.Comment: 22 pages, 8 figure

Quantum Andreev effect in 2D HgTe/CdTe quantum well-superconductor systems

The Andreev reflection (AR) in 2D HgTe/CdTe quantum well-superconductor hybrid systems is studied. A quantized AR with AR coefficient equal to one is predicted, which is due to the multi-Andreev reflection near the interface of the hybrid system. Importantly, this quantized AR is not only universal, i.e., independent of any system parameters and quality of the coupling of the hybrid system, it is also robust against disorder as well. As a result of this quantum Andreev effect, the conductance exhibits a quantized plateau when the external bias is less the superconductor gap.Comment: submit to Phys. Rev. Lett. on Jul. 16, 201

Symmetries and Lie algebra of the differential-difference Kadomstev-Petviashvili hierarchy

By introducing suitable non-isospectral flows we construct two sets of symmetries for the isospectral differential-difference Kadomstev-Petviashvili hierarchy. The symmetries form an infinite dimensional Lie algebra.Comment: 9 page

Emergency of black holes from wormholes

In this paper, we study the spherically symmetric Dirac star model in the presence of a phantom field, obtaining a traversable wormhole solution in non-trivial topological spacetime. This solution exhibits asymmetry in both the field configuration and the metric and possesses a finite ADM mass $M$ and Noether charge $Q$. Furthermore, we find that due to the presence of a wormhole at the center, this solution exhibits many differences from the Dirac star under trivial spacetime. Notably, when the wormhole throat size is small, our numerical calculations indicate the emergence of an extremely approximate black hole solution on one side of the wormhole spacetime, a phenomenon unexplored. At this time, the Kretschmann scalar near the throat tends to infinity, indicating the wormhole becomes untraversable.Comment: 32 pages, 23 figure

Nuclear structure of 178Hf related to the spin-16, 31-year isomer

The projected shell model is used to study the multi-quasiparticle and collective excitations of 178Hf. With an axially symmetric basis, the spin-16 isomer at 2.4 MeV appears to be well separated in energy/spin space from other configurations. However, projected energy surface calculations suggest that 178Hf has significant softness to axially asymmetric shapes, which can strongly modify the level distribution. The implications for photodeexitation of the isomer are discussed.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figure