Sound speed of a Bose-Einstein condensate in an optical lattice

The speed of sound of a Bose-Einstein condensate in an optical lattice is studied both analytically and numerically in all three dimensions. Our investigation shows that the sound speed depends strongly on the strength of the lattice. In the one-dimensional case, the speed of sound falls monotonically with increasing lattice strength. The dependence on lattice strength becomes much richer in two and three dimensions. In the two-dimensional case, when the interaction is weak, the sound speed first increases then decreases as the lattice strength increases. For the three dimensional lattice, the sound speed can even oscillate with the lattice strength. These rich behaviors can be understood in terms of compressibility and effective mass. Our analytical results at the limit of weak lattices also offer an interesting perspective to the understanding: they show the lattice component perpendicular to the sound propagation increases the sound speed while the lattice components parallel to the propagation decreases the sound speed. The various dependence of the sound speed on the lattice strength is the result of this competition.Comment: 15pages 6 figure

Coexistence of multi-photon processes and longitudinal couplings in superconducting flux qubits

In contrast to natural atoms, the potential energies for superconducting flux qubit (SFQ) circuits can be artificially controlled. When the inversion symmetry of the potential energy is broken, we find that the multi-photon processes can coexist in the multi-level SFQ circuits. Moreover, there are not only transverse but also longitudinal couplings between the external magnetic fields and the SFQs when the inversion symmetry of potential energy is broken. The longitudinal coupling would induce some new phenomena in the SFQs. Here we will show how the longitudinal coupling can result in the coexistence of multi-photon processes in a two-level system formed by a SFQ circuit. We also show that the SFQs can become transparent to the transverse coupling fields when the longitudinal coupling fields satisfy the certain conditions. We further show that the quantum Zeno effect can also be induced by the longitudinal coupling in the SFQs. Finally we clarify why the longitudinal coupling can induce coexistence and disappearance of single- and two-photon processes for a driven SFQ, which is coupled to a single-mode quantized field.Comment: 11 pages, 6 figure

Hole Doping Dependence of the Coherence Length in La2−xSrxCuO4La_{2-x}Sr_xCuO_4 Thin Films

By measuring the field and temperature dependence of magnetization on systematically doped $La_{2-x}Sr_xCuO_4$ thin films, the critical current density $j_c(0)$ and the collective pinning energy $U_p(0)$ are determined in single vortex creep regime. Together with the published data of superfluid density, condensation energy and anisotropy, for the first time we derive the doping dependence of the coherence length or vortex core size in wide doping regime directly from the low temperature data. It is found that the coherence length drops in the underdoped region and increases in the overdoped side with the increase of hole concentration. The result in underdoped region clearly deviates from what expected by the pre-formed pairing model if one simply associates the pseudogap with the upper-critical field.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

Object Picture of Quasinormal Modes for Stringy Black Holes

We study the quasinormal modes (QNMs) for stringy black holes. By using numerical calculation, the relations between the QNMs and the parameters of black holes are minutely shown. For (1+1)-dimensional stringy black hole, the real part of the quasinormal frequency increases and the imaginary part of the quasinormal frequency decreases as the mass of the black hole increases. Furthermore, the dependence of the QNMs on the charge of the black hole and the flatness parameter is also illustrated. For (1+3)-dimensional stringy black hole, increasing either the event horizon or the multipole index, the real part of the quasinormal frequency decreases. The imaginary part of the quasinormal frequency increases no matter whether the event horizon is increased or the multipole index is decreased.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figure

Anomalies of upper critical field in the spinel superconductor LiTi2_2O4−δ_{4-\delta}

High-field electrical transport and point-contact tunneling spectroscopy were used to investigate superconducting properties of the unique spinel oxide, LiTi$_2$O$_{4-\delta}$ films with various oxygen content. We find that the upper critical field $B_\mathrm{c2}$ gradually increases as more oxygen impurities are brought into the samples by carefully tuning the deposition atmosphere. It is striking that although the superconducting transition temperature and energy gap are almost unchanged, an astonishing isotropic $B_\mathrm{c2}$ up to $\sim$ 26 Tesla is observed in oxygen-rich sample, which is doubled compared to the anoxic sample and breaks the Pauli limit. Such anomalies of $B_\mathrm{c2}$ were rarely reported in other three dimensional superconductors. Combined with all the anomalies, three dimensional spin-orbit interaction induced by tiny oxygen impurities is naturally proposed to account for the remarkable enhancement of $B_\mathrm{c2}$ in oxygen-rich LiTi$_2$O$_{4-\delta}$ films. Such mechanism could be general and therefore provides ideas for optimizing practical superconductors with higher $B_\mathrm{c2}$

CCD Astrometric Observations of Phoebe in 2005-2008

International audienceAstrometric observations of Phoebe, the ninth faint satellite of Saturn with vi-sual magnitude of 16.5, were performed during the four successive 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008 oppositions. A very important amount of 1173 new observed positions of Phoebe, representing more than 50 percent of the observational data available now, were obtained during 30 nights of observation involving six missions, by using three different telescopes. The comparison of our observed positions with the JPL Phoebe ephemeris shows the high quality of our observations, as they appear to be consistent with this ephemeris within only about 50 mas

Enhanced Orbital Degeneracy in Momentum Space for LaOFeAs

The Fermi surfaces (FS) of LaOFeAs (in $k_z$=0 plane) consist of two hole-type circles around $\Gamma$ point, which do not touch each other, and two electron-type co-centered ellipses around M point, which are degenerate along the M-X line. By first-principles calculations, here we show that additional degeneracy exists for the two electron-type FS, and the crucial role of F-doping and pressure is to enhance this orbital degeneracy. It is suggested that the inter-orbital fluctuation is the key point to understand the unconventional superconductivity in these materials.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figure

Disaccharide combinations and the expression of enolase3 and plasma membrane Ca2+ ATPase isoform in sturgeon sperm cryopreservation

ContentsAcipenser sinensis and Acipenser dabryanus are critically endangered species, so germplasm conservation via cryopreservation of sperm is necessary. Disaccharides can act as membrane-impermeable cryoprotectants, and enolase3 (ENO3) and plasma membrane Ca2+ ATPase isoform (PMCA2) are proteins associated with sperm quality. We considered seven characteristics of sperm quality in cultured brood stock from A.sinensis and A.dabryanus. We tested use of sucrose or trehalose alone and in combination at different concentrations for cryopreservation of A.dabryanus sperm. A low concentration of sucrose plus trehalose (S15T15) was optimal. Mixing of the extender with sucrose, lactose, or trehalose alone or with pairwise mixtures revealed that a mixture of lactose and trehalose (L15T15) gave the best results for both A.sinensis and A.dabryanus. Enolase3 and PMCA2 expression levels were measured in cryopreserved A.sinensis sperm via Western blotting. Relative ENO3 and PMCA2 expression levels were examined, and the relationship between disaccharide composition, sperm quality and protein expression was explored in A.sinensis. The results showed that relative ENO3 and PMCA2 expression levels were the highest at L15T15 in cryopreserved A.sinensis sperm. There were significant positive correlations between ENO3 expression and percentage membrane integrity, and between PMCA2 expression and sperm motility parameters (percentage of motile sperm, curvilinear velocity, straight-line velocity and average path velocity; p&lt;.05) in cryopreserved A.sinensis sperm. Our results indicate the optimal disaccharide combination and concentrations for cryopreservation of A.sinensis and A.dabryanus sperm and suggest that ENO3 and PMCA2 expression levels could serve as a valuable indicator of sperm quality in A.sinensis.</p

LDA+Gutzwiller Method for Correlated Electron Systems

Combining the density functional theory (DFT) and the Gutzwiller variational approach, a LDA+Gutzwiller method is developed to treat the correlated electron systems from {\it ab-initio}. All variational parameters are self-consistently determined from total energy minimization. The method is computationally cheaper, yet the quasi-particle spectrum is well described through kinetic energy renormalization. It can be applied equally to the systems from weakly correlated metals to strongly correlated insulators. The calculated results for SrVO$_3$, Fe, Ni and NiO, show dramatic improvement over LDA and LDA+U.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, 1 tabl