Pairing collectivity in medium-mass neutron-rich nuclei near drip-line

We look for collective excitations originating from the strong surface pairing in unstable nuclei near the neutron drip-line. The soft dipole excitation is such a pairing mode as it exhibits a character of core-vs-dineutron motion. Possibility of the hydrodynamic phonon mode (the Anderson-Bogoliubov mode) is also discussed.Comment: 9 pages, a talk presented at Collective Motion in Nuclei under Extreme Conditions (COMEX2), June 20-23, 2006, St. Goar, German

Di-neutron correlation and soft dipole excitation in medium mass neutron-rich nuclei near drip-line

The neutron pairing correlation and the soft dipole excitation in medium-mass nuclei near drip-line are investigated from a viewpoint of the di-neutron correlation. Numerical analyses by means of the coordinate-space HFB and the continuum QRPA methods are performed for even-even $^{18-24}$O, $^{50-58}$Ca and $^{80-86}$Ni. A clear signature of the di-neutron correlation is found in the HFB ground state; two neutrons are correlated at short relative distances \lesim 2 fm with large probability $\sim 50$. The soft dipole excitation is influenced strongly by the neutron pairing correlation, and it accompanies a large transition density for pair motion of neutrons. This behavior originates from a coherent superposition of two-quasiparticle configurations $[l\times (l+1)]_{L=1}$ consisting of continuum states with high orbital angular momenta $l$ reaching an order of $l\sim 10$. It raises a picture that the soft dipole excitation under the influence of neutron pairing is characterized by motion of di-neutron in the nuclear exterior against the remaining $A-2$ subsystem. Sensitivity to the density dependence of effective pair force is discussed.Comment: 35 pages, 22 figure

Selection of silk-binding peptides by phage display

Peptides that bind to silkworm-derived silk fibroin fiber were selected from a phage-displayed random peptide library. The selected silk-binding peptides contained a consensus sequence QSWS which is important for silk-binding as confirmed by binding assays using phage and synthetic peptides. With further optimization, we anticipate that the silk-binding peptides will be useful for functionalization of silk for biomaterial applications

Characterizing Vickrey allocation rule by anonymity

We consider the problem of allocating finitely many units of an indivisible good among a group of agents when each agent receives at most one unit of the good and pays a non-negative price. For example, imagine that a government allocates a fixed number of licenses to private firms, or that it distributes equally divided lands to households. Anonymity in welfare is a condition of impartiality in the sense that it requires allocation rules to treat agents equally in welfare terms from the viewpoint of agents who are ignorant of their own valuations or identities. We show that the Vickrey allocation rule is the unique allocation rule satisfying strategy-proofness, anonymity in welfare, and individual rationality

Extensive Gains and Losses of Olfactory Receptor Genes in Mammalian Evolution

Odor perception in mammals is mediated by a large multigene family of olfactory receptor (OR) genes. The number of OR genes varies extensively among different species of mammals, and most species have a substantial number of pseudogenes. To gain some insight into the evolutionary dynamics of mammalian OR genes, we identified the entire set of OR genes in platypuses, opossums, cows, dogs, rats, and macaques and studied the evolutionary change of the genes together with those of humans and mice. We found that platypuses and primates have <400 functional OR genes while the other species have 800–1,200 functional OR genes. We then estimated the numbers of gains and losses of OR genes for each branch of the phylogenetic tree of mammals. This analysis showed that (i) gene expansion occurred in the placental lineage each time after it diverged from monotremes and from marsupials and (ii) hundreds of gains and losses of OR genes have occurred in an order-specific manner, making the gene repertoires highly variable among different orders. It appears that the number of OR genes is determined primarily by the functional requirement for each species, but once the number reaches the required level, it fluctuates by random duplication and deletion of genes. This fluctuation seems to have been aided by the stochastic nature of OR gene expression