11,733 research outputs found
Long-lived quantum memory with nuclear atomic spins
We propose to store non-classical states of light into the macroscopic
collective nuclear spin ( atoms) of a He vapor, using
metastability exchange collisions. These collisions, commonly used to transfer
orientation from the metastable state to the ground state state of
He, can also transfer quantum correlations. This gives a possible
experimental scheme to map a squeezed vacuum field state onto a nuclear spin
state with very long storage times (hours).Comment: 4 page
Soil Phase Photodegradation of Toxic Organics at Contaminated Disposal Sites for Soil Renovation and Groundwater Quality Protection
Accurate assessment of the potential for contaminated soil remediation requires detailed knowledge of the fate of waste constituents within the soil environment. For many non-biodegradable organics compounds, photochemical degradation may provide a potential pathway for the removal of such compounds from soil surfaces. A study was conducted to evaluate the rate of photodegradation of ten hazardous organic compounds from three soils, silica gel, and four soil minerals (kaolinite, montmorillonite, illite, and calcite) under conditions of controlled irradiation. In addition, the effect of siz amendment treatments (methylene blue, riboflavin, hydrogen peroxide, diethylamine, peat moss, and silica gel) on the rates of compound loss was also investigated. Soil and mineral samples were spiked with various combinations of m-cresol, quinoline, biphenyl, dibenzo[a]furan, fluorene, pentachlorophenol, phenanthrene, anthracene, 9H-carbazole and pyrene at either 500 or 1000 mg/kg initial soil concentration of each chemical. Amendments were applied to the soils and minerals and duplicate samples were irradiated in petri dishes under ultraviolet or visible light while spike controls were inclubated in the dark. Linear regression of soil/mineral contaminant concentration data showed that first order kinetic modeling best described the degradation process. Significant loss of anthracene occurred on all surfaces tested althrough the rate of loss varied with surface type and, for some surfaces, with the spiking solution concentration and chemical mixtures. Anthracene loss from silica gel was the msot rapid of all reactions observed. Skumpah soil, a light colored alkaline soil, yielded the greatest reduction in contaminant concentrations found in the soil studies. Calcium kaolinite displaed the most rapid kinetics of the mineral surfaces tested. Loss of the other test compounds was observed from only some of the surfaces investigated. Anthraquinone and fluorenone were identified as the major degradation products of the photoreaction of anthracene and fluorene. Under the conditions of this study, soild and mineral type, as well as surface renewal via mixing, were found to have more effect on degradation rates than any of the amendments that were tested
Fcc-bcc transition for Yukawa interactions determined by applied strain deformation
Calculations of the work required to transform between bcc and fcc phases
yield a high-precision bcc-fcc transition line for monodisperse point Yukawa
(screened-Couloumb) systems. Our results agree qualitatively but not
quantitatively with previously published simulations and phenomenological
criteria for the bcc-fcc transition. In particular, the bcc-fcc-fluid triple
point lies at a higher inverse screening length than previously reported.Comment: RevTex4, 9 pages, 6 figures. Discussion of phase coexistence
extended, a few other minor clarifications added, referencing improved.
Accepted for publication by Physical Review
TCR V α- and V ß-Gene Segment Use in T-Cell Subcultures Derived from a Type-III Bare Lymphocyte Syndrome Patient Deficient in MHC Class-II Expression
Previously, we and others have shown that MHC class-II deficient humans have greatly
reduced numbers of CD4+CD8– peripheral T cells. These type-III Bare Lymphocyte
Syndrome patients lack MHC class-II and have an impaired MHC class-I antigen
expression. In this study, we analyzed the impact of the MHC class-II deficient
environment on the TCR V-gene segment usage in this reduced CD4+CD8– T-cell
subset. For these studies, we employed TcR V-region-specific monoclonal antibodies
(mAbs) and a semiquantitative PCR technique with V α and V ß amplimers, specific for
each of the most known V α- and V ß;-gene region families. The results of our studies
demonstrate that some of the V α-gene segments are used less frequent in the
CD4+CD8– T-cell subset of the patient, whereas the majority of the TCR V α- and
V Ăź-gene segments investigated were used with similar frequencies in both subsets in the
type-III Bare Lymphocyte Syndrome patient compared to healthy control family
members. Interestingly, the frequency of TcR V α12 transcripts was greatly diminished
in the patient, both in the CD4+CD8– as well as in the CD4–CD8+ compartment,
whereas this gene segment could easily be detected in the healthy family controls. On
the basis of the results obtained in this study, it is concluded that within the reduced
CD4+CD8– T-cell subset of this patient, most of the TCR V-gene segments tested for are
employed. However, a skewing in the usage frequency of some of the V α-gene segments
toward the CD4–CD8+ T-cell subset was noticeable in the MHC class-II deficient patient
that differed from those observed in the healthy family controls
First experimental results of very high accuracy centroiding measurements for the neat astrometric mission
NEAT is an astrometric mission proposed to ESA with the objectives of
detecting Earth-like exoplanets in the habitable zone of nearby solar-type
stars. NEAT requires the capability to measure stellar centroids at the
precision of 5e-6 pixel. Current state-of-the-art methods for centroid
estimation have reached a precision of about 2e-5 pixel at two times Nyquist
sampling, this was shown at the JPL by the VESTA experiment. A metrology system
was used to calibrate intra and inter pixel quantum efficiency variations in
order to correct pixelation errors. The European part of the NEAT consortium is
building a testbed in vacuum in order to achieve 5e-6 pixel precision for the
centroid estimation. The goal is to provide a proof of concept for the
precision requirement of the NEAT spacecraft. In this paper we present the
metrology and the pseudo stellar sources sub-systems, we present a performance
model and an error budget of the experiment and we report the present status of
the demonstration. Finally we also present our first results: the experiment
had its first light in July 2013 and a first set of data was taken in air. The
analysis of this first set of data showed that we can already measure the pixel
positions with an accuracy of about 1e-4 pixel.Comment: SPIE conference proceeding
Superpotentials for M-theory on a G_2 holonomy manifold and Triality symmetry
For -theory on the holonomy manifold given by the cone on {\bf
S^3}\x {\bf S^3} we consider the superpotential generated by membrane
instantons and study its transformations properties, especially under monodromy
transformations and triality symmetry. We find that the latter symmetry is,
essentially, even a symmetry of the superpotential. As in Seiberg/Witten
theory, where a flat bundle given by the periods of an universal elliptic curve
over the -plane occurs, here a flat bundle related to the Heisenberg group
appears and the relevant universal object over the moduli space is related to
hyperbolic geometry.Comment: 58 pages, latex; references adde
Obstruction theory on 8-manifolds
This note gives a uniform, self-contained, and fairly direct approach to a
variety of obstruction-theoretic problems on 8-manifolds. We give necessary and
sufficient cohomological critera for the existence of almost complex and almost
quaternionic structures on the tangent bundle and for the reduction of the
structure group to U(3) by the homomorphism U(3) --> O(8) given by the Lie
algebra representation of PU(3).Comment: 19 page
Coherent Control of Photocurrents in Graphene and Carbon Nanotubes
Coherent one photon () and two photon () electronic
excitations are studied for graphene sheets and for carbon nanotubes using a
long wavelength theory for the low energy electronic states. For graphene
sheets we find that coherent superposition of these excitations produces a
polar asymmetry in the momentum space distribution of the excited carriers with
an angular dependence which depends on the relative polarization and phases of
the incident fields. For semiconducting nanotubes we find a similar effect
which depends on the square of the semiconducting gap, and we calculate its
frequency dependence.
We find that the third order nonlinearity which controls the direction of the
photocurrent is robust for semiconducting t ubes and vanishes in the continuum
theory for conducting tubes. We calculate corrections to these results arising
from higher order crystal field effects on the band structure and briefly
discuss some applications of the theory.Comment: 12 pages in RevTex, 6 epsf figure
Charge transfer electrostatic model of compositional order in perovskite alloys
We introduce an electrostatic model including charge transfer, which is shown
to account for the observed B-site ordering in Pb-based perovskite alloys. The
model allows charge transfer between A-sites and is a generalization of
Bellaiche and Vanderbilt's purely electrostatic model. The large covalency of
Pb^{2+} compared to Ba^{2+} is modeled by an environment dependent effective
A-site charge. Monte Carlo simulations of this model successfully reproduce the
long range compositional order of both Pb-based and Ba-based complex
A(BB^{'}B^{''})O_3 perovskite alloys. The models are also extended to study
systems with A-site and B-site doping, such as
(Na_{1/2}La_{1/2})(Mg_{1/3}Nb_{2/3})O_3,
(Ba_{1-x}La_{x})(Mg_{(1+x)/3}Nb_{(2-x)/3})O_3 and
(Pb_{1-x}La_{x})(Mg_{(1+x)/3}Ta_{(2-x)/3})O_3. General trends are reproduced by
purely electrostatic interactions, and charge transfer effects indicate that
local structural relaxations can tip the balance between different B-site
orderings in Pb based materials.Comment: 15 pages, 6 figure
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