A porous prolate-spheroidal model for ciliated micro-organisms

A fluid-mechanical model is developed for representing the mechanism of propulsion of a finite ciliated micro-organism having a prolate-spheroidal shape. The basic concept is the representation of the micro-organism by a prolate-spheroidal control surface upon which certain boundary conditions on the tangential and normal fluid velocities are prescribed. Expressions are obtained for the velocity of propulsion, the rate of energy dissipation in the fluid exterior to the cilia layer, and the stream function of the motion. The effect of the shape of the organism upon its locomotion is explored. Experimental streak photographs of the flow around both freely swimming and inert sedimenting Paramecia are presented and good agreement with the theoretical prediction of the streamlines is found

Quantum Cluster Variables via Serre Polynomials

For skew-symmetric acyclic quantum cluster algebras, we express the quantum $F$-polynomials and the quantum cluster monomials in terms of Serre polynomials of quiver Grassmannians of rigid modules. As byproducts, we obtain the existence of counting polynomials for these varieties and the positivity conjecture with respect to acyclic seeds. These results complete previous work by Caldero and Reineke and confirm a recent conjecture by Rupel.Comment: minor corrections, reference added, example 4.3 added, 38 page

What drives the dust activity of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko?

We use the gravitational instability formation scenario of cometesimals to derive the aggregate size that can be released by the gas pressure from the nucleus of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko for different heliocentric distances and different volatile ices. To derive the ejected aggregate sizes, we developed a model based on the assumption that the entire heat absorbed by the surface is consumed by the sublimation process of one volatile species. The calculations were performed for the three most prominent volatile materials in comets, namely, H_20 ice, CO_2 ice, and CO ice. We find that the size range of the dust aggregates able to escape from the nucleus into space widens when the comet approaches the Sun and narrows with increasing heliocentric distance, because the tensile strength of the aggregates decreases with increasing aggregate size. The activity of CO ice in comparison to H_20 ice is capable to detach aggregates smaller by approximately one order of magnitude from the surface. As a result of the higher sublimation rate of CO ice, larger aggregates are additionally able to escape from the gravity field of the nucleus. Our model can explain the large grains (ranging from 2 cm to 1 m in radius) in the inner coma of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko that have been observed by the OSIRIS camera at heliocentric distances between 3.4 AU and 3.7 AU. Furthermore, the model predicts the release of decimeter-sized aggregates (trail particles) close to the heliocentric distance at which the gas-driven dust activity vanishes. However, the gas-driven dust activity cannot explain the presence of particles smaller than ~1 mm in the coma because the high tensile strength required to detach these particles from the surface cannot be provided by evaporation of volatile ices. These smaller particles can be produced for instance by spin-up and centrifugal mass loss of ejected larger aggregates

Parasitic small-moment-antiferromagnetism and non-linear coupling of hidden order and antiferromagnetism in URu2Si2 observed by Larmor diffraction

We report simultaneous measurements of the distribution of lattice constants and the antiferromagnetic moment in high-purity URu2Si2, using both Larmor and conventional neutron diffraction, as a function of temperature and pressure up to 18 kbar. We establish that the tiny moment in the hidden order (HO) state is purely parasitic and quantitatively originates from the distribution of lattice constants. Moreover, the HO and large-moment antiferromagnetism (LMAF) at high pressure are separated by a line of first-order phase transitions, which ends in a bicritical point. Thus the HO and LMAF are coupled non-linearly and must have different symmetry, as expected of the HO being, e.g., incommensurate orbital currents, helicity order, or multipolar order.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

Collinear order in a frustrated three-dimensional spin-12\frac12 antiferromagnet Li2_2CuW2_2O8_8

Magnetic frustration in three dimensions (3D) manifests itself in the spin-$\frac12$ insulator Li$_2$CuW$_2$O$_8$. Density-functional band-structure calculations reveal a peculiar spin lattice built of triangular planes with frustrated interplane couplings. The saturation field of 29 T contrasts with the susceptibility maximum at 8.5 K and a relatively low N\'eel temperature $T_N\simeq 3.9$ K. Magnetic order below $T_N$ is collinear with the propagation vector $(0,\frac12,0)$ and an ordered moment of 0.65(4) $\mu_B$ according to neutron diffraction data. This reduced ordered moment together with the low maximum of the magnetic specific heat ($C^{\max}/R\simeq 0.35$) pinpoint strong magnetic frustration in 3D. Collinear magnetic order suggests that quantum fluctuations play crucial role in this system, where a non-collinear spiral state would be stabilized classically.Comment: published version with supplemental material merged into the tex

On the susceptibility function of piecewise expanding interval maps

We study the susceptibility function Psi(z) associated to the perturbation f_t=f+tX of a piecewise expanding interval map f. The analysis is based on a spectral description of transfer operators. It gives in particular sufficient conditions which guarantee that Psi(z) is holomorphic in a disc of larger than one. Although Psi(1) is the formal derivative of the SRB measure of f_t with respect to t, we present examples satisfying our conditions so that the SRB measure is not Lipschitz.*We propose a new version of Ruelle's conjectures.* In v2, we corrected a few minor mistakes and added Conjectures A-B and Remark 4.5. In v3, we corrected the perturbation (X(f(x)) instead of X(x)), in particular in the examples from Section 6. As a consequence, Psi(z) has a pole at z=1 for these examples.Comment: To appear Comm. Math. Phy

Iron isotope effect on the superconducting transition temperature and the crystal structure of FeSe_1-x

The Fe isotope effect (Fe-IE) on the transition temperature T_c and the crystal structure was studied in the Fe chalcogenide superconductor FeSe_1-x by means of magnetization and neutron powder diffraction (NPD). The substitution of natural Fe (containing \simeq 92% of ^{56}Fe) by its lighter ^{54}Fe isotope leads to a shift of T_c of 0.22(5)K corresponding to an Fe-IE exponent of \alpha_Fe=0.81(15). Simultaneously, a small structural change with isotope substitution is observed by NDP which may contribute to the total Fe isotope shift of T_c.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure

Behavioral genomics: A, bee, C, G, T

Honeybees, termites and ants occupy the 'pinnacle of social evolution' with societies of a complexity that rivals our own. The sequencing of the honeybee genome will provide a strong foundation for studying the genetic basis of complex social behavior

Laser induced electron diffraction: a tool for molecular orbital imaging

We explore the laser-induced ionization dynamics of N2 and CO2 molecules subjected to a few-cycle, linearly polarized, 800\,nm laser pulse using effective two-dimensional single active electron time-dependent quantum simulations. We show that the electron recollision process taking place after an initial tunnel ionization stage results in quantum interference patterns in the energy resolved photo-electron signals. If the molecule is initially aligned perpendicular to the field polarization, the position and relative heights of the associated fringes can be related to the molecular geometrical and orbital structure, using a simple inversion algorithm which takes into account the symmetry of the initial molecular orbital from which the ionized electron is produced. We show that it is possible to extract inter-atomic distances in the molecule from an averaged photon-electron signal with an accuracy of a few percents