452 research outputs found
Conditional phase shift from a quantum dot in a pillar microcavity
Large conditional phase shifts from coupled atom-cavity systems are a key
requirement for building a spin photon interface. This in turn would allow the
realisation of hybrid quantum information schemes using spin and photonic
qubits. Here we perform high resolution reflection spectroscopy of a quantum
dot resonantly coupled to a pillar microcavity. We show both the change in
reflectivity as the quantum dot is tuned through the cavity resonance, and
measure the conditional phase shift induced by the quantum dot using an ultra
stable interferometer. These techniques could be extended to the study of
charged quantum dots, where it would be possible to realise a spin photon
interface
Time-dependent electron transport through a strongly correlated quantum dot: multiple-probe open boundary conditions approach
We present a time-dependent study of electron transport through a strongly
correlated quantum dot. The time-dependent current is obtained with the
multiple-probe battery method, while adiabatic lattice density functional
theory in the Bethe ansatz local-density approximation to the Hubbard model
describes the dot electronic structure. We show that for a certain range of
voltages the quantum dot can be driven into a dynamical state characterized by
regular current oscillations. This is a manifestation of a recently proposed
dynamical picture of Coulomb blockade. Furthermore, we investigate how the
various approximations to the electron-electron interaction affect the
line-shapes of the Coulomb peaks and the I-V characteristics. We show that the
presence of the derivative discontinuity in the approximate
exchange-correlation potential leads to significantly different results
compared to those obtained at the simpler Hartree level of description. In
particular, a negative differential conductance (NDC) in the I-V
characteristics is observed at large bias voltages and large Coulomb
interaction strengths. We demonstrate that such NDC originates from the
combined effect of electron-electron interaction in the dot and the finite
bandwidth of the electrodes.Comment: 10 pages, 7 figure
Vibrational Excitations in Weakly Coupled Single-Molecule Junctions: A Computational Analysis
In bulk systems, molecules are routinely identified by their vibrational
spectrum using Raman or infrared spectroscopy. In recent years, vibrational
excitation lines have been observed in low-temperature conductance measurements
on single molecule junctions and they can provide a similar means of
identification. We present a method to efficiently calculate these excitation
lines in weakly coupled, gateable single-molecule junctions, using a
combination of ab initio density functional theory and rate equations. Our
method takes transitions from excited to excited vibrational state into account
by evaluating the Franck-Condon factors for an arbitrary number of vibrational
quanta, and is therefore able to predict qualitatively different behaviour from
calculations limited to transitions from ground state to excited vibrational
state. We find that the vibrational spectrum is sensitive to the molecular
contact geometry and the charge state, and that it is generally necessary to
take more than one vibrational quantum into account. Quantitative comparison to
previously reported measurements on pi-conjugated molecules reveals that our
method is able to characterize the vibrational excitations and can be used to
identify single molecules in a junction. The method is computationally feasible
on commodity hardware.Comment: 9 pages, 7 figure
Towards Better Integrators for Dissipative Particle Dynamics Simulations
Coarse-grained models that preserve hydrodynamics provide a natural approach
to study collective properties of soft-matter systems. Here, we demonstrate
that commonly used integration schemes in dissipative particle dynamics give
rise to pronounced artifacts in physical quantities such as the compressibility
and the diffusion coefficient. We assess the quality of these integration
schemes, including variants based on a recently suggested self-consistent
approach, and examine their relative performance. Implications of
integrator-induced effects are discussed.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, 2 tables, accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.
E (Rapid Communication), tentative publication issue: 01 Dec 200
Roughening Induced Deconstruction in (100) Facets of CsCl Type Crystals
The staggered 6-vertex model describes the competition between surface
roughening and reconstruction in (100) facets of CsCl type crystals. Its phase
diagram does not have the expected generic structure, due to the presence of a
fully-packed loop-gas line. We prove that the reconstruction and roughening
transitions cannot cross nor merge with this loop-gas line if these degrees of
freedom interact weakly. However, our numerical finite size scaling analysis
shows that the two critical lines merge along the loop-gas line, with strong
coupling scaling properties. The central charge is much larger than 1.5 and
roughening takes place at a surface roughness much larger than the conventional
universal value. It seems that additional fluctuations become critical
simultaneously.Comment: 31 pages, 9 figure
Interfacing a quantum dot spin with a photonic circuit
A scalable optical quantum information processor is likely to be a waveguide
circuit with integrated sources, detectors, and either deterministic
quantum-logic or quantum memory elements. With microsecond coherence times,
ultrafast coherent control, and lifetime-limited transitions, semiconductor
quantum-dot spins are a natural choice for the static qubits. However their
integration with flying photonic qubits requires an on-chip spin-photon
interface, which presents a fundamental problem: the spin-state is measured and
controlled via circularly-polarised photons, but waveguides support only linear
polarisation. We demonstrate here a solution based on two orthogonal photonic
nanowires, in which the spin-state is mapped to a path-encoded photon, thus
providing a blue-print for a scalable spin-photon network. Furthermore, for
some devices we observe that the circular polarisation state is directly mapped
to orthogonal nanowires. This result, which is physically surprising for a
non-chiral structure, is shown to be related to the nano-positioning of the
quantum-dot with respect to the photonic circuit
Sprint interval and sprint continuous training increases circulating CD34+ cells and cardio-respiratory fitness in young healthy women
The improvement of vascular health in the exercising limb can be attained by sprint interval training (SIT).
However, the effects on systemic vascular function and on circulating angiogenic cells (CACs) which may contribute to endothelial repair have not been investigated. Additionally, a comparison between SIT and sprint continuous training (SCT) which is less time committing has not been made
Critical Exponents of the Fully Frustrated 2-D Xy Model
We present a detailed study of the critical properties of the 2-D XY model
with maximal frustration in a square lattice. We use extensive Monte Carlo
simulations to study the thermodynamics of the spin and chiral degrees of
freedom, concentrating on their correlation functions. The gauge invariant
spin-spin correlation functions are calculated close to the critical point for
lattice sizes up to ; the chiral correlation functions are
studied on lattices up to . We find that the critical exponents of
the spin phase transition are , and , which are to be
compared with the unfrustrated XY model exponents and . We
also find that the critical exponents of the chiral transition are
, , , and
, which are different from the expected 2-D Ising
critical exponents. The spin-phase transition occurs at which
is about 7\% above the estimated chiral critical temperature . However, because of the size of the statistical errors, it is
difficult to decide with certainty whether the transitions occur at the same or
at slightly different temperatures. Finally, the jump in the helicity modulus
in the fully frustrated system is found to be about 23\% below the unfrustrated
universal value. The most important consequence of these results is that the
fully frustrated XY model appears to be in a novel universality class. Recent
successful comparisons of some of these results with experimental data are also
briefly discussed. (TO APPEAR IN PRB)Comment: 47 pages (PHYZZX
Impact of lifelong exercise training on endothelial ischemia-reperfusion and ischemic preconditioning in humans.
Reperfusion is essential for ischemic tissue survival, but causes additional damage to the endothelium (i.e. ischemia-reperfusion [IR] injury). Ischemic preconditioning (IPC) refers to short repetitive episodes of ischemia that can protect against IR. However, IPC efficacy attenuates with older age. Whether physical inactivity contributes to the attenuated efficacy of IPC to protect against IR injury in older humans is unclear. We tested the hypotheses that lifelong exercise training relates to 1) attenuated endothelial IR and 2) maintained IPC efficacy that protects veteran athletes against endothelial IR. In 18 sedentary male individuals (SED, 20 years, 63±7 years) and 20 veteran male athletes (ATH, >5 exercise hours/week for >20 years, 63±6 years), we measured brachial artery endothelial function with flow-mediated dilation (FMD) before and after IR. We induced IR by 20-minutes of ischemia followed by 20-minutes of reperfusion. Randomized over 2 days, participants underwent either 35-minute rest or IPC (3 cycles of 5-minutes cuff inflation to 220 mmHg with 5-minutes of rest) before IR. In SED, FMD decreased after IR (median [interquartile range]): (3.0% [2.0-4.7] to 2.1% [1.5-3.9], P=0.046) and IPC did not prevent this decline (4.1% [2.6-5.2] to 2.8% [2.2-3.6],P=0.012). In ATH, FMD was preserved after IR (3.0% [1.7-5.4] to 3.0% [1.9-4.1], P=0.82) and when IPC preceded IR (3.2% [1.9-4.2] to 2.8% [1.4-4.6],P=0.18). These findings indicate that lifelong exercise training is associated with increased tolerance against endothelial IR. These protective, preconditioning effects of lifelong exercise against endothelial ischemia-reperfusion may contribute to the cardio-protective effects of exercise training
<i>C-elegans</i> model identifies genetic modifiers of alpha-synuclein inclusion formation during aging
Inclusions in the brain containing alpha-synuclein are the pathological hallmark of Parkinson's disease, but how these inclusions are formed and how this links to disease is poorly understood. We have developed a <i>C-elegans</i> model that makes it possible to monitor, in living animals, the formation of alpha-synuclein inclusions. In worms of old age, inclusions contain aggregated alpha-synuclein, resembling a critical pathological feature. We used genome-wide RNA interference to identify processes involved in inclusion formation, and identified 80 genes that, when knocked down, resulted in a premature increase in the number of inclusions. Quality control and vesicle-trafficking genes expressed in the ER/Golgi complex and vesicular compartments were overrepresented, indicating a specific role for these processes in alpha-synuclein inclusion formation. Suppressors include aging-associated genes, such as sir-2.1/SIRT1 and lagr-1/LASS2. Altogether, our data suggest a link between alpha-synuclein inclusion formation and cellular aging, likely through an endomembrane-related mechanism. The processes and genes identified here present a framework for further study of the disease mechanism and provide candidate susceptibility genes and drug targets for Parkinson's disease and other alpha-synuclein related disorders
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