31,442 research outputs found
Landau-Zener-St\"uckelberg Spectroscopy of a Superconducting Flux Qubit
We proposed a new method to measure the energy spectrum of a superconducting
flux qubit. Different from the conventional frequency spectroscopy, a short
triangle pulse is used to drive the qubit through the anticrossing and
generates Landau-Zener-St\"uckelberg interference patterns, from which the
information of the energy spectrum can be extracted. Without installing
microwave lines one can simplify the experimental setup and reduce the unwanted
effects of noise. Moreover, the method can be applied to other quantum systems,
opening the possibility of calibrating and manipulating qubits with linear
pulses.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figure
A pathway of signals regulating effector and initiator caspases in the developing Drosophila eye
Regulated cell death and survival play important roles in neural development. Extracellular signals are presumed to regulate seven apparent caspases to determine the final structure of the nervous system. In the eye, the EGF receptor, Notch, and intact primary pigment and cone cells have been implicated in survival or death signals. An antibody raised against a peptide from human caspase 3 was used to investigate how extracellular signals controlled spatial patterning of cell death. The antibody crossreacted specifically with dying Drosophila cells and labelled the activated effector caspase Drice. It was found that the initiator caspase Dronc and the proapoptotic gene head involution defective were important for activation in vivo. Dronc may play roles in dying cells in addition to activating downstream effector caspases. Epistasis experiments ordered EGF receptor, Notch, and primary pigment and cone cells into a single pathway that affected caspase activity in pupal retina through hid and Inhibitor of Apoptosis Proteins. None of these extracellular signals appeared to act by initiating caspase activation independently of hid. Taken together, these findings indicate that in eye development spatial regulation of cell death and survival is integrated through a single intracellular pathway
Refining the M_BH-V_c scaling relation with HI rotation curves of water megamaser galaxies
Black hole - galaxy scaling relations provide information about the
coevolution of supermassive black holes and their host galaxies. We compare the
black hole mass - circular velocity (MBH - Vc) relation with the black hole
mass - bulge stellar velocity dispersion (MBH - sigma) relation, to see whether
the scaling relations can passively emerge from a large number of mergers, or
require a physical mechanism, such as feedback from an active nucleus. We
present VLA H I observations of five galaxies, including three water megamaser
galaxies, to measure the circular velocity. Using twenty-two galaxies with
dynamical MBH measurements and Vc measurements extending to large radius, our
best-fit MBH - Vc relation, log MBH = alpha + beta log(Vc /200 km s^-1), yields
alpha = 7.43+/-0.13, beta = 3.68+1.23/-1.20, and intrinsic scatter epsilon_int
= 0.51+0.11/-0.09. The intrinsic scatter may well be higher than 0.51, as we
take great care to ascribe conservatively large observational errors. We find
comparable scatter in the MBH - sigma relations, epsilon_int = 0.48+0.10/-0.08,
while pure merging scenarios would likely result in a tighter scaling with the
dark halo (as traced by Vc) than baryonic (sigma) properties. Instead, feedback
from the active nucleus may act on bulge scales to tighten the MBH - sigma
relation with respect to the MBH - Vc relation, as observed.Comment: 27 pages, 15 figures, ApJ accepte
Quantum decoherence of excitons in a leaky cavity with quasimode
For the excitons in the quantum well placed within a leaky cavity, the
quantum decoherence of a mesoscopically superposed states is investigated based
on the factorization theory for quantum dissipation. It is found that the
coherence of the exciton superposition states will decrease in an oscillating
form when the cavity field interacting with the exciton is of the form of
quasimode. The effect of the thermal cavity fields on the quantum decoherence
of the superposition states of the exciton is studied and it is observed that
the higher the temperature of the environment is, the shorter the decoherence
characteristic time is.Comment: 1 figure, 7 page
Quantum oscillations in adsorption energetics of atomic oxygen on Pb(111) ultrathin films: A density-functional theory study
Using first-principles calculations, we have systematically studied the
quantum size effects of ultrathin Pb(111) films on the adsorption energies and
diffusion energy barriers of oxygen atoms. For the on-surface adsorption of
oxygen atoms at different coverages, all the adsorption energies are found to
show bilayer oscillation behaviors. It is also found that the work function of
Pb(111) films still keeps the bilayer-oscillation behavior after the adsorption
of oxygen atoms, with the values being enlarged by 2.10 to 2.62 eV. For the
diffusion and penetration of the adsorbed oxygen atoms, it is found that the
most energetically favored paths are the same on different Pb(111) films. And
because of the modulation of quantum size effects, the corresponding energy
barriers are all oscillating with a bilayer period on different Pb(111) films.
Our studies indicate that the quantum size effect in ultrathin metal films can
modulate a lot of processes during surface oxidation
- ā¦