11,961 research outputs found
Low work function of the (1000) Ca2N surface
Polymer diodes require cathodes that do not corrode the polymer but do have
low work function to minimize the electron injection barrier. First-principles
calculations demonstrate that the work function of the (1000) surface of the
compound Ca2N is half an eV lower than that of the elemental metal Ca (2.35 vs.
2.87 eV). Moreover its reactivity is expected to be smaller. This makes Ca2N an
interesting candidate to replace calcium as cathode material for polymer light
emitting diode devices.Comment: 3 pages, 4 figures, accepted by J. Appl. Phy
Dust absorption and scattering in the silicon K-edge
The composition and properties of interstellar silicate dust are not well
understood. In X-rays, interstellar dust can be studied in detail by making use
of the fine structure features in the Si K-edge. The features in the Si K-edge
offer a range of possibilities to study silicon-bearing dust, such as
investigating the crystallinity, abundance, and the chemical composition along
a given line of sight. We present newly acquired laboratory measurements of the
silicon K-edge of several silicate-compounds that complement our measurements
from our earlier pilot study. The resulting dust extinction profiles serve as
templates for the interstellar extinction that we observe. The extinction
profiles were used to model the interstellar dust in the dense environments of
the Galaxy. The laboratory measurements, taken at the Soleil synchrotron
facility in Paris, were adapted for astrophysical data analysis and implemented
in the SPEX spectral fitting program. The models were used to fit the spectra
of nine low-mass X-ray binaries located in the Galactic center neighborhood in
order to determine the dust properties along those lines of sight. Most lines
of sight can be fit well by amorphous olivine. We also established upper limits
on the amount of crystalline material that the modeling allows. We obtained
values of the total silicon abundance, silicon dust abundance, and depletion
along each of the sightlines. We find a possible gradient of
dex/kpc for the total silicon abundance versus the Galactocentric distance. We
do not find a relation between the depletion and the extinction along the line
of sight.Comment: 18 pages, 16 figures. Accepted for publication in Astronomy and
Astrophysic
Polarity patterns of stress fibers
Stress fibers are contractile actomyosin bundles commonly observed in the
cytoskeleton of metazoan cells. The spatial profile of the polarity of actin
filaments inside contractile actomyosin bundles is either monotonic (graded) or
periodic (alternating). In the framework of linear irreversible thermodynamics,
we write the constitutive equations for a polar, active, elastic
one-dimensional medium. An analysis of the resulting equations for the dynamics
of polarity shows that the transition from graded to alternating polarity
patterns is a nonequilibrium Lifshitz point. Active contractility is a
necessary condition for the emergence of sarcomeric, alternating polarity
patterns.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figure
Fluctuation theorem for stochastic dynamics
The fluctuation theorem of Gallavotti and Cohen holds for finite systems
undergoing Langevin dynamics. In such a context all non-trivial ergodic theory
issues are by-passed, and the theorem takes a particularly simple form.
As a particular case, we obtain a nonlinear fluctuation-dissipation theorem
valid for equilibrium systems perturbed by arbitrarily strong fields.Comment: 15 pages, a section rewritte
Partial-measurement back-action and non-classical weak values in a superconducting circuit
We realize indirect partial measurement of a transmon qubit in circuit
quantum electrodynamics by interaction with an ancilla qubit and projective
ancilla measurement with a dedicated readout resonator. Accurate control of the
interaction and ancilla measurement basis allows tailoring the measurement
strength and operator. The tradeoff between measurement strength and qubit
back-action is characterized through the distortion of a qubit Rabi oscillation
imposed by ancilla measurement in different bases. Combining partial and
projective qubit measurements, we provide the solid-state demonstration of the
correspondence between a non-classical weak value and the violation of a
Leggett-Garg inequality.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, and Supplementary Information (8 figures
Metal-catalyst-free growth of carbon nanotubes and their application in field-effect transistors
The metal-catalyst-free growth of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) using chemical vapor deposition and the application in field-effect transistors (FETs) is demonstrated. The CNT growth process used a 3-nm-thick Ge layer on SiO2 that was subsequently annealed to produce Ge nanoparticles. Raman measurements show the presence of radial breathing mode peaks and the absence of the disorder induced D-band, indicating single walled CNTs with a low defect density. The synthesized CNTs are used to fabricate CNTFETs and the best device has a state-of-the-art on/off current ratio of 3×108 and a steep sub-threshold slope of 110 mV/dec
Momentum of an electromagnetic wave in dielectric media
Almost a hundred years ago, two different expressions were proposed for the
energy--momentum tensor of an electromagnetic wave in a dielectric. Minkowski's
tensor predicted an increase in the linear momentum of the wave on entering a
dielectric medium, whereas Abraham's tensor predicted its decrease. Theoretical
arguments were advanced in favour of both sides, and experiments proved
incapable of distinguishing between the two. Yet more forms were proposed, each
with their advocates who considered the form that they were proposing to be the
one true tensor. This paper reviews the debate and its eventual conclusion:
that no electromagnetic wave energy--momentum tensor is complete on its own.
When the appropriate accompanying energy--momentum tensor for the material
medium is also considered, experimental predictions of all the various proposed
tensors will always be the same, and the preferred form is therefore
effectively a matter of personal choice.Comment: 23 pages, 3 figures, RevTeX 4. Removed erroneous factor of mu/mu_0
from Eq.(44
Transport in a highly asymmetric binary fluid mixture
We present molecular dynamics calculations of the thermal conductivity and
viscosities of a model colloidal suspension with colloidal particles roughly
one order of magnitude larger than the suspending liquid molecules. The results
are compared with estimates based on the Enskog transport theory and effective
medium theories (EMT) for thermal and viscous transport. We find, in
particular, that EMT remains well applicable for predicting both the shear
viscosity and thermal conductivity of such suspensions when the colloidal
particles have a ``typical'' mass, i.e. much larger than the liquid molecules.
Very light colloidal particles on the other hand yield higher thermal
conductivities, in disagreement with EMT. We also discuss the consequences of
these results to some proposed mechanisms for thermal conduction in
nanocolloidal suspensions.Comment: 13 pages, 6 figures, to appear in Physical Review E (2007
Assessing Human Error Against a Benchmark of Perfection
An increasing number of domains are providing us with detailed trace data on
human decisions in settings where we can evaluate the quality of these
decisions via an algorithm. Motivated by this development, an emerging line of
work has begun to consider whether we can characterize and predict the kinds of
decisions where people are likely to make errors.
To investigate what a general framework for human error prediction might look
like, we focus on a model system with a rich history in the behavioral
sciences: the decisions made by chess players as they select moves in a game.
We carry out our analysis at a large scale, employing datasets with several
million recorded games, and using chess tablebases to acquire a form of ground
truth for a subset of chess positions that have been completely solved by
computers but remain challenging even for the best players in the world.
We organize our analysis around three categories of features that we argue
are present in most settings where the analysis of human error is applicable:
the skill of the decision-maker, the time available to make the decision, and
the inherent difficulty of the decision. We identify rich structure in all
three of these categories of features, and find strong evidence that in our
domain, features describing the inherent difficulty of an instance are
significantly more powerful than features based on skill or time.Comment: KDD 2016; 10 page
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